Re: Not so Chaotic Fonrit

From: hcarteau_at_...
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2012 10:20:27 +0200 (CEST)


/// Beautiful presentation, well-argumented, which still makes the fonritans, or rather their overlords and upper class, pure plain evil. Doesn't matter why they behave with cruelty, sadism and dishonor - what matters is they do. To my foreigner PCs at least. Is it possible to "purge" them of vadeli influences? Everything's possible. Now that would be some Quest.

The Vadeli insights aren't a matter of choice in the sense of "I believe X, therefore I'm evil". They are like gunpowder or hard drugs, they exist whether you like them or not. The Malkioni, Lunars and Kralori are aware of these insights but their Gods prevents them from exploiting them. Other societies simply lack the critical mass in population and literacy to maintain common awareness of these truths. But the poor Fonritans lack any defences against these truths and so are forced to cope with their malign influences.

The rulers of Fonrit are oppressive not because they want to be but because they are terrified of the unrestrained use of Vadeli insights. Their history and mythology is littered with examples of horrible things that have happened in the past - the demon city of Kalabar, the Yranian Leapers to name a few. All these things happened because they believe because somebody wanted to be loved rather than feared.

The rulers of Fonrit are in a prisoner's dilemma against themselves. There is an endemic lack of trust among the rulers that worsens with social and physical distance. They are aware that the Vadeli truths encourage acting in bad faith and are sick with worry about what their rivals might be up to. Not even their gods can unite them because the insights have destroyed whatever faith they may have in their moral nature.

The rulers of Fonrit are fighting a losing battle. The days of adjuring any use of the Vadeli insights are long gone. Those who followed that pious path met with grisly ends at the hands of those who did not. Some usage and toleration of the insights is essential for survival against their rivals. But they lack any consensus about what might be acceptable. Differences in practice have fueled accusations of bad faith to the extent that the rulers err in plotting against each other than curbing the use of Vadeli insights as much as they could.

--Peter Metcalfe            

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