138 followers that is; you haveno idea how long I've been waiting to post this video. Now I can go back to not carring about the numbers.
Anyways, it struck me today that one of the grievances against gaming in Tekumel is that "it would be a confusing exercise in anthropology-porn" or some nonesense.
Now I love Tekumel; I love reading about Tekumel; but I don't care one bit about understanding the whole of Tekumel and expressing it properly.
To me Tekumel is a Jack Vance novel. Everyone looks like a character from Apocalypto or the Bhadava Ghita but meanwhile there's a whole lot of polite verbal swordplay a la PG Woodehouse and The Importance of Being Ernest going on. Hereby comes the integral conflict of Tekumel: it's a bunch of painted dudes with feathers stuck through their noses (who are totally into the impalements, human sacrifices, bloodsports and ritualized warfare) that are immersed in a seething Comedy of Manners.
In my imagination every human on Tekumel speaks with a sterotypical, olde tyme "British Upper Class Twit" accent. Ahhogya have some sort of "Uhg! Guvnehr!" labourer accent, etc. Conversations are as follow:
"Pardon me for this unseemly interruption my good sir. I must apolgize but we are woefully unfamiliar with your delighful city and were wondring if you could be kind enough to provide directions?"
"Gentlemen, your termerity is appalling! Surely you must be aware that accosting a personage of my station is considered a grave assault upon decency. You mustl hold me blamless whilst you are writhing upon on the impalement stakes as society itself demands such consequences."
"There must be some misunderstanding? We are only seeking direct... Sir! Please unhand me sir! Gentle lord, could you please order your employees to unhand us? I believe there has been some misund... AAARRGHHHHUGHHHHH!!!! THE PAIN OF IMPALMENT!!!! MY BOWELS!!!!"
Saturday, June 11, 2011
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I'd play that.
ReplyDeleteThat may indeed do the trick.
ReplyDelete"Pardon me fellows I do believe I detect a most subtle and musty olfactory hint of Cinnamon wafting about ever so ephemerally."
Man you somehow managed to put it all together for me about Tekumel in a way I could never articulate. Dying Earth was a big influence on the professor and it shows in the elaborate and sometimes absurd preoccupations with bizarre social interactions.
ReplyDeleteOr... just play Paranoia instead. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Emperor is your Friend!
ReplyDeleteMY BOWELS!!!!
ReplyDeleteAh me thank you.
Brilliant post, good sir.
ReplyDeleteJeeves and Montezuma? That's just crazy enough to work.
ReplyDelete"Crumbs Jeeves! Aunt Aguathacetl (may her foes know only pain) has threatened to have me flayed and torn by horses if I don't marry a girl of suitable caste, family and auspice before the Festival of Tetzcatlipoca. But I also have to find a suitable sacrifice for the Drones' Club meeting next full moon. And to cap it all Binqi Smith-Smythe-Smithocotl is trying to get out of being forcibly inducted into the cult of Tlaloc, a hereditary thing by all acounts. A rum do, what?"
Complex etiquette and societal violence seem to go hand-in-hand: the former keeps the latter in check.