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Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 8197257" data-attributes="member: 63"><p>Your characters' parallels to Kasvarina's origin are fascinating. I am excited to see how this adventure goes. Also, my praise to Tizbiz for making Asrabey a sympathetically conflicted character.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>I'm a bit conflicted with how we presented the Akela Sathi in the original adventure, because it was a brief few paragraphs about something that would have been incredibly complicated and fraught. I assumed the full history would have involved a horrific amount of f***ed up tragedy, and I imagined many groups would be uncomfortable with that, so I decided not to insert a long digression about that full history. If a group wanted to delve into it, that would be their choice.</p><p></p><p>But I suppose I should explain why I thought things would end up the way I wrote them.</p><p></p><p>I imagined the first few decades after the Great Malice would have seen a lot of atrocities, and while the short version of the history says that ...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>... that process would have taken a while and certainly wouldn't have been smooth and safe. </p><p></p><p>There would have been a number of warlords who wanted to secure territory and resources so they could rule the empire's ashes. And some of them might even have <em>felt </em>like they aligned with the Vekeshi idea of 'surviving,' but they saw control of women as being necessary for that survival. I'm imagining something like Gilead from <em>A Handmaid's Tale</em> crossed with society collapsing like something from <em>The Walking Dead</em>.</p><p></p><p>Only the enclaves would have taken the approach of 'maintaining civil rights' rather than 'martial law.' They might have had the moral high ground, but they'd have been outnumbered. Yes, eventually Elfaivaran society would be dominated by the commitment to selflessly defending their communities (and the women in particular), but I imagine most people who allied with the enclaves early on needed time to adjust their thinking.</p><p></p><p>The enclaves would have been prime targets for warlords who wanted to just kidnap women and treat them like breeding cattle, and those warlords would have pushed a lot of f***ed up sexist propaganda from those warlord groups. </p><p></p><p>Comparing it to 'incels' is kind of on the mark, because the way I understand that trend is that various bad actors are pushing grievances over sex to stoke resentment and drive a wedge that will make otherwise decent people become hostile to mainstream society and its values. </p><p></p><p>I'm sure a lot of Elfaivarans who weren't in the enclaves were convinced that the right thing to do was to tear those places apart. (And honestly, there's still probably a lot of that sentiment surviving even centuries later in the remote parts of the subcontinent.)</p><p></p><p>There would be decades of fighting before the warlords would finish picking each other apart and the Clergy invasions would wipe them out. Before then, the enclaves needed allies -- allies who maybe were sympathetic to high-minded ideals, but didn't want to feel like they were taking all the risk without getting anything in return.</p><p></p><p>I envision early Sentosa having various small militias defending it, some of which agreed with the moral goal of protecting women and rebuilding society, but a few that just wanted strength in numbers or maybe had some old grudge against whichever warlord was the biggest threat to the enclave, and were allies of convenience. Then at some point one of militia member raped a woman. The core population of the enclave would have called to execute the rapist, and the militia threatened to retaliate - violence that the enclave didn't want to risk.</p><p></p><p>And so as part of a compromise, Athrylla and the other women agreed to a concession where a handful of the women became the first ananta paudha - offering something the men wanted, but with strict requirements of behavior and duty. The safety of women would be formalized to a sacred duty, and so the original rapist would still be executed, and the ananta paudha would hold a position of highest prestige.</p><p></p><p>Like I said, it's f***ed up, but when your survival is at stake, people find ways to justify things they would previously have found reprehensible.</p><p></p><p>The women would have the right to refuse to anyone, and a core element of the 'behavior and duty' requirement would be to take lessons, to instill new customs and values, elevate empathy, and train some men to serve as teachers and group-parents of the children who would be born. It was a nexus to let the women exert control over men and make them into loyal servants. Over time, the Akela Sathi would become something close to an aristocratic court crossed with a school.</p><p></p><p>I certainly could have been clearer that, like, the intent wasn't that anyone who shows up can demand they get to sleep with someone.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 8197257, member: 63"] Your characters' parallels to Kasvarina's origin are fascinating. I am excited to see how this adventure goes. Also, my praise to Tizbiz for making Asrabey a sympathetically conflicted character. --- I'm a bit conflicted with how we presented the Akela Sathi in the original adventure, because it was a brief few paragraphs about something that would have been incredibly complicated and fraught. I assumed the full history would have involved a horrific amount of f***ed up tragedy, and I imagined many groups would be uncomfortable with that, so I decided not to insert a long digression about that full history. If a group wanted to delve into it, that would be their choice. But I suppose I should explain why I thought things would end up the way I wrote them. I imagined the first few decades after the Great Malice would have seen a lot of atrocities, and while the short version of the history says that ... ... that process would have taken a while and certainly wouldn't have been smooth and safe. There would have been a number of warlords who wanted to secure territory and resources so they could rule the empire's ashes. And some of them might even have [I]felt [/I]like they aligned with the Vekeshi idea of 'surviving,' but they saw control of women as being necessary for that survival. I'm imagining something like Gilead from [I]A Handmaid's Tale[/I] crossed with society collapsing like something from [I]The Walking Dead[/I]. Only the enclaves would have taken the approach of 'maintaining civil rights' rather than 'martial law.' They might have had the moral high ground, but they'd have been outnumbered. Yes, eventually Elfaivaran society would be dominated by the commitment to selflessly defending their communities (and the women in particular), but I imagine most people who allied with the enclaves early on needed time to adjust their thinking. The enclaves would have been prime targets for warlords who wanted to just kidnap women and treat them like breeding cattle, and those warlords would have pushed a lot of f***ed up sexist propaganda from those warlord groups. Comparing it to 'incels' is kind of on the mark, because the way I understand that trend is that various bad actors are pushing grievances over sex to stoke resentment and drive a wedge that will make otherwise decent people become hostile to mainstream society and its values. I'm sure a lot of Elfaivarans who weren't in the enclaves were convinced that the right thing to do was to tear those places apart. (And honestly, there's still probably a lot of that sentiment surviving even centuries later in the remote parts of the subcontinent.) There would be decades of fighting before the warlords would finish picking each other apart and the Clergy invasions would wipe them out. Before then, the enclaves needed allies -- allies who maybe were sympathetic to high-minded ideals, but didn't want to feel like they were taking all the risk without getting anything in return. I envision early Sentosa having various small militias defending it, some of which agreed with the moral goal of protecting women and rebuilding society, but a few that just wanted strength in numbers or maybe had some old grudge against whichever warlord was the biggest threat to the enclave, and were allies of convenience. Then at some point one of militia member raped a woman. The core population of the enclave would have called to execute the rapist, and the militia threatened to retaliate - violence that the enclave didn't want to risk. And so as part of a compromise, Athrylla and the other women agreed to a concession where a handful of the women became the first ananta paudha - offering something the men wanted, but with strict requirements of behavior and duty. The safety of women would be formalized to a sacred duty, and so the original rapist would still be executed, and the ananta paudha would hold a position of highest prestige. Like I said, it's f***ed up, but when your survival is at stake, people find ways to justify things they would previously have found reprehensible. The women would have the right to refuse to anyone, and a core element of the 'behavior and duty' requirement would be to take lessons, to instill new customs and values, elevate empathy, and train some men to serve as teachers and group-parents of the children who would be born. It was a nexus to let the women exert control over men and make them into loyal servants. Over time, the Akela Sathi would become something close to an aristocratic court crossed with a school. I certainly could have been clearer that, like, the intent wasn't that anyone who shows up can demand they get to sleep with someone. [/QUOTE]
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