[Circle of Hands] Page 16, second column, in absence of purity....

Started by Moreno R., October 06, 2015, 01:58:42 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Moreno R.

Hi Ron!

Page 16, second column,  after "in absence of purity, what are those", the text continue with a description of the characters travelling in the fictional setting. Is that text misplaced, or is that abrupt transition intended? If it is misplaced,  there was something else after "what are those" or it was the end of the sub-chapter?

I am quoting here the relevant part of the book:

------------------------------
DISCOVERY

Why bother with Veils if you can wall it all off with pre-play Lines? Why would I have put any of that – torture, rape, wretchedness – in the backdrop at all? I have an end in mind, and I think it's a good one.
Reality and real people in it are messy, uneasy, desperate, passionate, reflective, and confused. They exult, they feel relief, they suffer in agonies of the body and mind, they cry out. All of us feel so much the same, think in so many of the same ways, and are born, live, and die – those the same, most of all. And yet always alone, his or her own person, no other in that place and at that time.
Whereas Rbaja and Amboriyon are so abstract, extreme, and inhuman: more than simple color, but rather the blackest void and the most flawless white.
Our paltry colors are mere reflections of the visible light spectrum, but Rbaja and Amboriyon do not absorb or reflect – they are. There is no individuality of experience. The whole magical war loves the clarity of this Black and this White. Wizards seek its purity.
The Circle defies both, even daring to use them opportunistically while refusing to submit. In defying opposed poles of purity, they seem like relativists, but they're actually struggling into a different, richer framework for moral action.
It's all embedded in the gross, mixed-up mess of reality and humanity. The knights themselves are people in stress, shaken loose from their moorings of culture and defying a terrifying ideology imposed by force. They're not sure where they're going or what it's for. There are no guarantees, no imprimateur of being played by a favorite actor, no unswerving moral code. These people are nothing but what you make of them.
So let's not start with good and evil; Amboriyon and Rbaja respectively claim they're good and evil, but the Circle knows that's mistaken and leads only to horror.
They – and you – are on a journey to discover the lesser, messier, impure possibility of the human good and bad.
In the absence of cosmic purity, what are those?
The scout points out the scree-covered slope to traverse down into the hills, indistinguishable from any other, then leaves to return to his mountain village.
Throughout the day, local people join you, replacing those who've reached the limits of their local knowledge or time away from home, trading out as they've done throughout the journey, word traveling ahead.
When you arrive at the villages dotting the convergence of several creeks to swell the river, the chief knows of you. You'll move in for a while, as any travelers would, in the age-old exchange of hospitality for civility, underscored by threat of outlawry and execution. Gebhard joins with the men clearing the rocks from their recent tumble into the northern village's stream, soon to sit quietly as a guest at the freemen's council. Krimhilde, whom they call Baron Falk from her emblem, shares word of chieftains' battles, marriages, and deaths at the longhouse with the others of her station. Old Rudi already disappeared among the peasant people, sleeping in their piles of brush and eating who knows what, now invisible. You arrange your seating blankets and pipe at the glade with its shrines, ready to speak of what you know to be true.
Your spears, axes, shields, mail, and Krimhilde's sword stay in their wagon. Everyone knows they're there. The time for their use may come.

Ron Edwards

It's intended. The section begins with a little story-esque narration (not something I do very often), and it ends with a little more. I think the nonfiction talk in between makes sense within these narrations, and its content explains a little bit of what you "see" in game terms. I don't know whether you agree or like it, but the way it's written is the way I'd like it to be read.

Moreno R.

Thanks! It makes sense. The thing that I found jarring is that there is nothing to signal that we are returning to the initial narration (a line, a graphical element, or italics), but it make sense to end the chapter returning to that narration.