From: Nick Brooke (Nick_Brooke@csi.com)
Date: Wed 06 Jan 1999 - 11:13:05 EET
_____
Keith writes:
> Only extremely isolationist cultures would be free from any other
> ancestry apart from Grandfather Mortal.
Or Wild Man, or Old Man, or First Man...
The God Learners tried to tie it all together neatly. But "extremely
isolationist cultures" are the ones they couldn't wangle, generally
speaking.
>> Renaissance-level society as the highest level of culture they have
>> any familiarity with (Lunar Empire, Ralios)
> Personally speaking I think renaissance level society is too advanced
> - we're in the Bronze Age.
Not really. You can't keep on ignoring the abundant evidence of advanced
material culture in favour of a one-liner from the first-edition of
RuneQuest (which didn't even mean what it said it did back then!).
Glorantha is an ancient-through-mediaeval world where "bronze" is the main
metal in everyday use and "iron" is the magical supermetal available only to
heroic figures (and some special cultures). That's not the same as a "Bronze
Age World".
Mind you, the great thinkers of the Renaissance thought they had brought
about the "rebirth" of Classical civilisation (dat's wot it meenz), so there
were plenty of folk in RW "renaissance society" who'd be delighted to learn
they were living in a sophisticated version of the ancient world. This is
how I try to treat the West (to spare my failing brain) when I think about
it from a central-Genertelan viewpoint.
______
Thomas replied to me:
>> Worshipping someone *else's* ancestors is rather silly
> It may not be so silly to worship someone elses ancestors.
Excuse me. I misspoke. Worshipping someone else's ancestors *as if they were
yours* is rather silly. Worshipping powerful beings that will protect you,
isn't.
> If it was the case that a spirit would take all loyal worshippers,
> and would offer decent protection wouldn't it be worshipped.
Yes, but Ancestor Worship generally describes the situation where a spirit
> To say no encourages increased "nationalism" which is good for role-
Why do you want this "flexibility"? Does your Praxian character have no
will only accept worship from and grant protection to its descendents.
Saying that "Not all citizens of Pavis are descendents of Pavis, so that
can't be true!" doesn't really prove anything, except that few people would
cite the Pavis cult as an example of Ancestor Worship.
> playing differences; to say yes allows greater flexibility but reduces
> the unchangeable bits between peoples.
access to weird special tribal spirit-cult magics of his own (which the
Sartarite PCs might want to gain access to)? I am kinda unhappy that
"adoption by Sartarites" is seen as desirable by the Praxian character's
player. Being Praxian can be great fun. Being a second-rate adopted
Sartarite; dunno.
___________
Robin Mitra writes:
> Imagine a LM-sage sitting beneath an apple-tree ;-) or better
> a bookshelf when suddenly a book falls on his head. And he wonders
> why.
"Bloody apprentices!"
:::: Email: <Nick_Brooke@csi.com>
Nick
:::: Web: <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke/>
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