Mor's End - City of..? [Brainstorm]

[Tonguez]

Maybe I'm asking it in the wrong place but on the subject of theme, I wondered if the name of the city was intentional. "Mor" is a word/suffix meaning "fool" (resulting in the creation of the word "moron."

Is Mor's End the City of Fools? If not, what is foolish about it. The holy fool is an underutilized hero archetype that could be strongly represented in our conception of Mor's End. In addition to the Von Eschenbach's Parzifal/Dostoyevsky's The Idiot hero archetype, there's also the Russian Orthodox church's monastic order of the Holy Fools.

Anyway, thoughts on fools, foolishness? Remember, the Fool is the first card of the Major Arcana in the Tarot.

This actually opens up a lot of possibilities

- Mors End is seen by others in the Empre/Kingdom/Republic/etc as a Foolish Dream to establish civilisation in a wild untamed frontier

- Tom Bombadil was Tolkiens acknowledgemnent of the 'Fool' as keeper of lost secrets - so what secrets does Mors End protect behind or beneath its urban facade? (see my writeup for Old Whistling Tom the Beggar in the NPC thread for another possibility of the Fool archetype)

 

[Lalato]

Fusangite... Mor actually comes from Morrus... but I like the idea of City of Fools...

Tonguez... What does the Fool represent in Tarot?

As for the holy fool archetype... it might work here in conjunction with The Thing that Lurks Below the City... I'm not sure how, but I'm know someone will work it out...

--sam

 

[fusangite]

Now that I've raised this issue/question, I'm really not sure how to proceed. I'm happy to provide additional input on various ways of addressing the potential fool theme, including my take on the fool in tarot. But I'd obviously I'm coming into this discussion late in the day and don't want to mess up people's various conceptions of the city.

In the meantime, I'd like to suggest a few contemporary films which may get people in the mood: The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, Death to Smoochie and Being There. Unfortunately, in all of these films, the comic aspect of the fool is overemphasized; or rather, modern stories are unwilling to depict the fool as a more profound figure and only show the narrowest range of fool heroes. Only in The Big Lebowski is the wisdom of the fool explored at all. Unfortunately, there is no modern Parzifall; even Tom Bombadil is so at variance with our postmodern worldview that he was excised by Peter Jackson. Nonetheless, they may inspire to some extent.

 

[Lalato]

I haven't thought of Being There in quite some time. Great movie... Same goes for the others... but I haven't seen Death To Smoochie

--sam

 

[Tonguez]

Tonguez... What does the Fool represent in Tarot?

eek - I'm no expert but from what I understand the Fool represents the Faith, Trust and Confidence to take Risks, to go against the flow and to act on intuition (Wisdom) rather than intellect. The Fool is a Young man setting out alone on a journey on a bright sunny day and just about to step of a cliff. Its the confidence of youth, their joy in life and their willingness to make a leap of faith unrestrained from the fear and cynicism of age. The Fool isw charmed and can do anything he sets his mind to regardless of what others know or think.

Alternately the Fool is the reckless and stupid wretch who is a victim of his world without the wisdom to improve his lot. He makes himself isolated from others and ignores the dangers. Remember the old Dnd distinction between Wisdom and Int "Int allows the character to know it is raining whereas Wis tells them to get out of the rain" - the Fool is the one who stays there and gets soaked to the bone, ends up sick and dies alone on the street!

The Fools Number is 0 'Zero' - it is Nothing but it has potential to become Anything

 

[Lalato]

All this talk of fools... I wonder if Lady Kelvin has her own fool... as in a jester...

One might say the classic American spirit could be characterized as Foolish (note the capital "F")... The potential in America is great... Americans have done many great things with their positive attitudes... but it has just as often been squandered on reckless and sometimes heartless behavior. Hmmm... This might be a similar struggle within Mor's End...

"we can do anything we set our minds to... despite the dangers..." which is a good attitude to have... but it might also have the darkside of "we will stop at nothing... destroying whatever obstacles lie in our path"

Interesting dichotomy...
--sam

 

[jdavis]

Well building a city out in the middle of nowhere, next to a hostile swamp could fit into either definition. The people who established Cairo Illinois laughed at the people who established Chicago and look how that turned out. Maybe the surrounding countries scoff at the "swamp town" out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[fusangite]

Let me just distinguish between foolishness and stupidity:

Foolishness is choosing to act without thinking. The choice to do so may arise out of ignorance, stupidity or wisdom. The wise fool is seeking to experience other kinds of knowing than that produced by the purely rational mind.

 

[Conaill]

Not so keen on the whole "City of Fools" theme myself...

 

[fusangite]

Not so keen on the whole "City of Fools" theme myself...

Fair enough. But I'd recommend reconsidering the city's name so as to avoid confusion.