On the other hand, think about the whole idea of Lawspeaking, as opposed to Law. The whole idea of lawspeaking emphasizes that this is a pre-literate society, in which the focus is on speaking the memorized law and bringing the parties involved into some sort of consensus, whereas more literate societies think in terms of law are a written text whose details can be wrangled over. Almost all the features of Sartarite society seem to speak more to a preliterate people than a semi-literate one, to me at least. Think of it this way: If Gods of Prax had not included the Lhankor Mhy write-up, and we were inventing the cult today based on the fuller picture of Sartarite culture we have now, would we assume that LM's followers were bookish scholars, or would we picture scholars who operate within a framework of oral knowledge, memorization, and recitation? Which feels more at home in Sartar?
Andrew E. Larsen
On Apr 18, 2012, at 2:59 PM, Mark wrote:
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> > > This has always been one of the things that struck me as feeling false about Sartarite culture. The notion that the Lhankor Mhytes were highly literate and act like modern scholars (rooting around in archives that are badly in need of the Dewey Decimal system) is a very early element of RQ, and by now deeply fixed in our understanding of Glorantha. But to me it always seemed very much at odds with the rest of Sartarite culture, and something that reflected the 'generic medieval Europe' of 1980's fantasy gaming. The Sartarites have always seemed to me a pre-literate culture, so that Lhankor Mhy magic should focus more on oral tradition, memorization, and so on, whereas Lunar and Dara Happan scholar magic should focus more on written documents. I realize this will never change (and certainly treating the Lhankor Mhytes as pedantic bookworms in search of the great hero to alphabetize their library provides a lot of fun), but it's always just felt off to me.
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> > Don't look at the Sartarites in isolation. The Lhankor Mhy sages are the priestly scribes of the Orlanthi people, who range from Esrolia to the borders of Loskalm. And the Orlanthi have had this literate group for a very long time. Their most important temple is in Nochet, and is probably the biggest library in Glorantha, now that the other Great Temple of LM (that of the City of Wonders) is no longer accessible.
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> > Jeff
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> Parallels with the Irish, perhaps?
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> Mark Mohrfield
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