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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Veltharis ap Rylix" data-source="post: 8828382" data-attributes="member: 66357">To elaborate a bit, now that I have some time to actually put my thoughts down in writing, the world of One Piece is essentially a giant power struggle between the 800-year-old global superpower known as the World Government (think the United Nations combined with NATO) and those people who refuse to submit to the WG's authority, mostly falling under the label of pirate.It is very much the question "Which is more important: Security or Freedom?" taken to the extremes. The World Government offers safety and order, but nations that join under the WG's banner pay a hefty annual tribute for the privilege and can find the government ready and willing to crack down hard (up to and including genocide) should they step out of line. By contrast, those who reject the World Government are nominally free to do as they please, with the caveat that they are outlaws that both the government and many other outlaws won't hesitate to crush if/when they get the chance, and so the only real way to thrive is to be strong enough to fight off any threats.Now the reason I bring this up in relation to Dragonlance is this... With the caveat that I am not an expert in the setting by any means and am mostly working via osmosis from what I've picked up from discussions here, Dragonlance seems to do something similar in relation to the gods and the Mages of High Sorcery, where it sets up a structure of authority and power for the players to interact with, but while it appears to give a lot of thought to one side of the proverbial equation, that being the side where the players join up, it seems to more or less neglect the opposing side.They create the Mages of High Sorcery, put a lot of thought and detail into how they function and the benefits of joining up, then seemingly list out nothing but penalties for choosing not to do so and leave it at that. Being a part of the Mages of High Sorcery means something, but being a Renegade just means not being part of the Mages of High Sorcery - they're not defined by anything except what they're not. I can point to various factions, good and evil, on either side of the Security/Freedom divide in One Piece and tell you at least something about what those factions believe in and stand for, but so far as I can tell Dragonlance only ever bothered to detail out one side of the High Sorcery/Renegade dynamic. They created High Sorcery for players to join, and so all the incentives are structured in a way to encourage them to join - Renegades seemingly only exist to show what happens to people who do not. There's nothing more to them.Same sort of thing with the return of the gods - they were arguably responsible for a horrible global extinction event only a few centuries ago, well within the lifetime of elves still alive today, and seemingly turned their backs on everyone who was left to suffer and struggle in its wake, but hey, they're back now, so isn't it great that we can start worshiping them again? That's a fine angle for a story about a character finding their faith, but want to explore the very plausible story thread of people who have a very deep, legitimate grudge toward the divine over that whole extinction event and centuries of silence thing, and all the setting is prepared to do is deny you access to healing magic.It feels half-baked.</blockquote>

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