Ok, here we are on May 32, and I'm right on time to contribute to the month's Blog Carnival. This time hosted by Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet and themed, "Oaths." So let me share a small introduction to a historic religious community, as well as a player class (OSE and Shadowdark) inspired by them:
The beguines (and their male counterparts, the beghards) were religious lay-communities most active during the 13th - 16th centuries. While not formally monastic in nature, the members typically took vows, most commonly chastity, as well as of charity and religious devotion. Members were also able to quit the role, and return to secular life.
The communities were typically self-supporting, with their members taking part in cottage industries. These beguinages could be as small as a shared house up to a walled compound. Larger examples contained shops, hospitals, breweries, and cloth mills.
Because many of the beguines came from middle- or upper-class backgrounds, many were literate and wrote treatises and poetry reflecting their faith and the visions that they experienced during contemplation and prayer. This mysticism was a common theme among the communities, as well as the idea of sharing these "visions" through religious or secular texts. Because these publications were outside the orthodoxy and independent of Church doctrine, they were often criticized or suppressed, with the most egregious example being the burning at the stake of Marguerite Porete as a relapsed heretic by the Inquisition.
After all, there is nothing more frightening than a financially independent, literate woman interpreting religious dogma.
I first read Dune the summer of 7th
grade, I believe. Checked out the big 1st edition hardback
from the library. I'm certain that part of the read was in the wheat
truck, waiting to unload the combine harvester. (I'm sure that my
treatment of said book was detrimental to its collector's value. But
if anyone out there has a used library copy with a bit of wheat chaff
in the pages, you know where it's from...)
Since then, I've re-read the book a
good handful of times, every few years or so. Because of the multiple
themes lined out in the book, I tend to pick up something new each
time, or at least read with a different emphasis or context.
I've also read into the series, but it
took me multiple tries to surmount “God Emperor.” I finally
pushed through the entire series in the late autumn of 2001 while on
a road trip.
Talk about context.
Anyway... It's been a number of years
since I've creased the cover, and I had a week away from home out
visiting family on the Plains (site of the first read), and I decided
to bring along a few books that were due for a re-read, Dune among
them.
Although I haven't seen the current
film iteration, I'm sure that my reading was colored by discussions
of the film, as well as some recent commentaries on the book (esp.
Matt Colville).
What did I pick up this time?
Well, it's a fast read for me. Partly
due to familiarity, partly Herbert's writing style. The chapter
length is good, and the flow of writing and plot tends to get me into
that “one more chapter” mode, especially since I was reading this
with the anticipation of particular upcoming plot moments.
I few other observations on this
run-through...
Leto and his advisers are aware and
angling to contact and enlist the Fremen almost immediately. They
suspect the capabilities of the Fremen, especially with respect to
their potential martial prowess. And although the team makes good
in-roads, both Leto, and separately Jessica via manipulation of the
Missionaria Protectiva framework planted within the religious
consciousness of the people, they simply run out of time as the
Emperor/Harkonnen collaboration intervenes.
A recollection of Paul's ongoing fears
and resistance to becoming the Lisan Al-Gaib. He repeatedly uses the
premonitions granted through his genetics and Spice addiction, seeing
the majority of futures resulting in jihad, and fearing that – it
seems he only attempts the Water of Life as an attempt to find a way
to avoid this outcome. Either way, it seems that the prophecy is
self-fulfilling, no matter Paul's machinations.
Paul's observation that Count Fenrig is
one of the failed Kwisatz Haderach bred by the BG, and that Lady
Fenrig intended to become impregnated by Feyd-Rautha as a fallback or
means to salvage the breeding program interrupted by Jessica.
Speaking of Fenrig, I always recalled
him speaking with a lot of Hmmms and Ahhhhs. But I noticed that
Herbert wrote the interjections into many peoples' speech patterns as
they hesitate or think before speaking. This probably stands out,
also, due to my multiple reads of the “Doon” parody.
Leto's strength of leadership through
empathy and personal connection. Late in the book, Gurney Halleck
repeatedly points out to Paul that he has lost that empathy in
comparison to his father, indicating the loss of humanity as Paul
succumbs to the KH myth.
Seems like this whole messiah thing may
not be all its cracked up to be. Perhaps time to revisit more of the
series...
A second brief meditation on this month's Blog Carnival - Gates and Portals - hosted by Phil over at Tales of a GM...
While many folks have been envisioning a myriad of gates and guards and devices for opening and closing of portals, both magical and mundane, let's take a quick look at wards...
And, for a bit of inspiration, how about a story perhaps familiar to many of us. The Passover.
(Disclaimer: I'm not Jewish or any sort of Biblical scholar. I know the Passover via the book of Exodus (and that movie with the former head of the NRA), so if I get anything incorrect, please feel free to correct me. Additionally, I don't think that the stories and mythologies of the Bible get a lot of Appendix N love...)
Most familiarly, the Passover is associated with the 10th Plague brought upon the Egyptians during Moses' petitions to free the Israelites. To recall, any home not properly warded would be visited by the Angel of Death, who would take the life of firstborn children. Any warded home would be 'passed over' and left unmolested.
Here is the evocative scene from 'The Prince of Egypt'...
The ritual and 'material components' of the warding are very specific: "3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. 11 Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste-- it is the LORD'S Passover.…"
According to my half-vast research of wikipedia and other such hallowed sources, the Passover actually predates the Exodus as a springtime warding or protection rite, and the prescription includes using a hyssop bough for painting the blood onto the lintel.
Not having read this since teen Bible study, something interesting that I hadn't noted before is that the blood is both spread on the lintel, and consumed (along with the meat of the sacrificial lamb), thus extending or fortifying the protection from the portal to the inhabitant as well, as sort of redundancy (or perhaps an early form of 2-step authentication).
Now, this isn't a unique traditional warding by any stretch of the imagination - many cultures have wards of one sort or another.
A quick summary - a sacrificial animal meeting particular criteria, its blood both spread on the door lintel and consumed, and its meat cooked in a specific way and consumed with accompanying foodstuffs, all while wearing your travelling clothes. Oh yeah, and don't go outside...
So to create some veracity in a game/story environment, perhaps add the necessity of collecting rare components or knowledge as prerequisites for the ward itself... Building tension and time-pressure before the approach of a physical, magical, or spiritual threat could create some excellent game moments or opportunities. Likewise, it can add to the living nature of the cultures or systems in place in the game world.
"Ok, Dingwall, here's what you need to do to protect your castle from the Wight-bear. Take the bark from the foo-tree collected under the gibbous moon, mash it into a poultice with some tapioca using a rubber-tipped arrow. Wipe it on the portcullis with a Backscratcher +1, and dab the rest under your armpits, as well as those of everyone in your household. Eat of the Sacred Chicken Pot Pie of Swänsön. Oh yeah, all while wearing a thneed."
