So, the current state of Ignorant society, as a human society with a trollkin slave caste, was arrived at long after the dawn. Quite likely it was very different when the trolls were still in the picture, even as late as the mid-Second Age.
> >> We know the natives are pretty much ignorant on
>>> everything.
>> Well, according to the Kralori (and the FDR, and other
>> non-Ignorants) anyway.
>I don't think their ignorance is slander - they truly are ignorant.
>
> They shun literacy, numeracy, abstract thought, money and hygiene.
> They are ruled by their emotions to such an extent they know nothing
> about the value of treating people nicely. Their technology is
> crude, poorly made and utterly archaic - they refuse to use the
> mill, the plow or even metal tools. Most ignorants wear untanned
> furs or skins. etc
>
> Glorantha: Intro p 197.
Add the sentence immediately before that quote ("The people of Chern Durel are proverbial among the Kralori for their stupidity."), thus putting it back into the original context, and it looks far more like a description of Kralori prejudice, rather than truth.
Which is the stance taken through out that chapter. It is written from the Kralori point of view. eg. "The Four Vices run wild outside Kralorela. Humans living in those places are so corrupted that they are actually devils but do not know it."
So I treat the assertion on pg 197-8 that the people of Chern Durel are so ignorant they don't know that sex causes babies about as seriously as I treat the assertion on pg 186 that all non-Kralori Gloranthan humans are actually devils in human form.
>Making the Ignorants a traditional folk misunderstood by the snotty
>Kralori cheapens the land as a special hell feared by Kralori
>screw-ups. They are not intended to be a normal human society like the
>Shan Shan people - their ignorance is a spiritual darkness that turns
>their society into a grotesque caricature of human backwardness just
>like the Vadeli are totally depraved and evil or the Broos are vile
>chaotics.
We know nothing about WHY they are that way, and largely take the word of their rulers who repress them. One dimensional societies are no fun.
Take broos as an example - we know the broos are vile chaotics, and no one wants to make them good guys. But we also know quite a bit about why they are the way they are, quite a bit about their internal culture (despite it barely existing). This knowledge unquestionably enriches peoples gaming experience - knowing about Mallia, Thed, Primal Choas, gives us useful details in order to more fully present them as vile chaotics, with a range of interesting vile chaotic behaviour for players to suffer at the hands of and try to defeat, as the vast majority of people who has played in Glorantha probably have at some point.
I want to know more about Vadeli too. I don't want to make them not depraved. I want to know more about why they are depraved, and know more about their range of depraved behaviour, in order to confront my players with it.
>As it is, the Kralori have plenty of other neighbours to be
>snotty to.
Sure. Everyone else ever, as far as I can tell. But their relationship with the Ignorants is special.
> > Still very little compared to other Dawn cultures.
>
>What more did you need to know?
Plenty. More about their poorly documented (even less in recent sources) weird but interesting religion, for a start. Which seems to be largely tied up with their pre-Dawn culture.
Cheers
David
Powered by hypermail