From: D. Pearton (pearton@u.washington.edu)
Date: Fri 13 Jun 1997 - 22:01:34 EEST
Ah well, I just couldn't keep out of it - I was manfully tring to resist
the urge to get involved until I saw the D'nDisms <shudder>.
Vast Slave farms in the Lunar empire? Where??????? The Lunar empire is,
as has been well thrashed out on the digest, not a slave-type economy.
Slavery exists, undoubtedly, but the only major difference between lunar
slavery and Orlanthi thralldom is that the children of slaves are not
automatically free. The majority of the farming in the Pelorian basin is
done by the Lodrili who are most definitely not slaves - the spirit of
rebellion sees to that.
I can only suggest to Chris Bell (aka remster) that he get hold of TFS,
GRAY and the etekosiad to get at least some idea of the complexity of the
pelorian/lunar region and cultures and how little they are actually
defined by their interactions with an obscure barbarian god to the south.
I would also urge him to play in one of the SFC orlanthi LARPS and see if
he still thinks that the Orlanthi are "chaotic good" <urg>.
The Remster also says:
> Oh, BTW, Deities can't fiddle with the universe, directly, anymore.
> It's forbidden by the Compromise!
Then I notice that he recognises that other cultures don't believe in the
This in a nutshell is a large part of the debate. The "compromise" is a
compromise - but they're just wrong.
cultural belief of some Orlanthi to explain the fact that thier gods don't
exhibit free will. The other cultures have other ways of explaining it
that have nothing to do with the compromise, yet he insits that only the
Orlanthi view is correct. Thus all other cultures, such as the Kraloreli,
who have records dating to before the orlanthi "dawn" really don't know
what is going on - the interactions with the divine in thier culture are
determined by the beliefs of an obscure barbarian culture with no written
records and whose culture and worship structure (and indeed myths) have
changed hugely in the course of the last thousand years.
If you don't believe me tell me how the Theyelan culture of the EWF (and
the cult of Orlanth Dragonfriend, etc) can be reconciled with 1600's
Sartarite beliefs. The whole cult of Orlanth Rex was invented by Harmast
frex.
As to your belief that the majority of the digest are lunar symps I
suggest you look at the various numbers who post from a pro-orlanthi
stance vs those who are willing to credit the lunars as anything other
than the evil empire and you'll find that the orlanthi viewpoint
predominates.
All for now,
Yak
- --
Dave Pearton
pearton@u.washington.edu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Down he sank in a chair-ran his hands through his hair- +
And chanted in mimsiest tones +
Words whose utter inanity proved his insanity, +
While he rattled a couple of bones. +
+
"The Hunting of the Snark" Lewis Carroll +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #498
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