Given the earlier conversation we had (
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=6791.msg29835,
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=6728.msg29909) on the topic of religious diversity in the Dark Ages and in AW:DA 0.1, I thought y'all might be interested in seeing what I did with the stuff Vincent came up with for 0.2, in the PBP game I jumped in on with Ich, Borogrove & co over on GotExp.com.
I love the way that, between the 0.1 and 0.2 playtests, peoplehood and religion have morphed from a couple of preset elements into an entire people-and-religion-generating kit. I also like how well the Court Wizard can be made to correspond to the "not from around here, and know things you don't that will be useful to you" archetype we talked about in those earlier threads.
For context, this campaign is set in an area where the Algonquian-speaking Lowa are cheek-by-jowl with the formerly dominant Greek-speaking Aristidites; after the fall of the Empire of Eagles, the former revolted and asserted dominance over the latter. There are slaves, and a large Freedman population who are forbidden to own land or bear arms; mechanically, this is my character Meir's People (though I'm wondering if I should create his sect, the Dorshei HaOr, as a People even though there are only two of them present in the campaign setting and they aren't really known for anything there -- to themselves they're Dorshei HaOr, but to the people around them they're Freedmen).
I'm hoping there will be an interesting tension between the very tribal/Dark Ages mentality that the other characters and Peoples represent, and Meir's fundamentally cosmopolitan/ideological/survival-of-late-antiquity Gnostic-sect worldview.
I am also coming to the conclusion that the current instantiation of AW:DA doesn't really want to be historical fantasy, nor does it want to be fantasy, nor does it want to be fantastical history -- it wants to be fantastical alternate history. In other words, the game doesn't so much encourage you to make up historically-inluenced fantastical cultures out of whole cloth, nor to recreate real historical episodes, as much as it encourages you to mix-and-match elements from real history in a "it might have been" mode.That's the effect of having Greeks and Algonquians as the two major groups duking it out in the wake of the "Empire of Eagles"''s withdrawl; the Romans *could* have settled Greeks in, say, Iceland, and the Algonquians *could* have reached it be canoe? Or maybe not that precise, but at least "what if these two groups had met?" So, on a smaller scale, that's what I went for with the Dorshei HaOr, remixing elements of real late-antiquity Gnosticism...
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Meir ben Rachel HaDoresh, the Court Wizard, an untypical man of the Freedmen people, originally of the Dorshei HaOr.
Bold: 0
Good: +1
Strong: -1
Wary: +1
Weird: +2
Meir is a member of a Gnostic Hellenistic-Hebraic sect, the Dorshei HaOr (seekers of light), which lives in the decaying war-torn cities of the more populous and ancient regions to the Southwest. He had a family and livelihood as a scholar there, but, in his thirties, his city was destroyed by invaders and he and his family were sold as slaves; he has not seen them again.
The Dorshei HaOr believe that the world we live in was created by Samael, an evil Demiurge who betrayed the true God, and that Samael controls everything that happens in it. The world is a prison, built to contain and diminish human souls, which are flecks of light that were broken off of the true God in the primordial battle. The true God is not merely powerless in this world, but unutterably remote: Meir has no right to call upon HIm, nor any other God, nor would it do him any good if he did. But Sophia, the daughter of the true God, sacrificed herself, allowing herself to be imprisoned in this world's prison-hell in order to aid and comfort the imprisoned souls. She, too, cannot act against Samael; but she appears in this world in the form of human wisdom and inquiry, which offers the possibility of allowing the soul-flecks of light buried within our corrupt bodies to escape, at death, beyond the world-prison and merge with the Godhead. (When consulting the other world, Meir meditates on the subtle traces the imprisoned Sophia has left in the observable universe). The purpose of this life is to endure the torments of this world while steadfastly pursuing wisdom and the good. Everything Meir has experienced to date has strengthened his convictions about this belief system. When his rights are denied, the True God is never outraged, because the entire world is an expression of the great betrayal of Samael.
The Dorshei HaOr use a matronymic naming system, which is why Meir's full name is "Meir, son of Rachel".
As a slave Meir was sold many times, eventually ending up, in his forties, sold to Lowa -- possibly via the Fortunate Gull -- when the slave trade was still active (or at least still tolerated behind the scenes?), before the new political dispensation. He worked in Lowa for a decade as a slave, beginning as a tutor for wealthy Aristidites families, eventually becoming a trusted personal advisor, prized for his literacy, numeracy, eloquence, and broad experience of different forms of the administration of estates; eventually, in recognition of his services, he was freed. Despite his comptence and reliability he is often sullen, withdrawn, and even bitter; however, during the political upheavals he involved himself in attempts to mediate between the factions. Although he failed in his efforts to forestall bloodshed, he was able to aid some of the children he tutored to escape, while impressing the new rulers enough with his skills and rhetoric to be incorporated into the new power structure. and this also meant that he was retained as an advisor under the new dispensation. In fact, his fortunes rose; with the dearth of men of learning after the uprising, he became a court advisor to the Stronghold. His position is precarious, and some resent him. As a Freedman, he has no right to bear arms, nor to possess land; he engages in some business dealings which have allowed him to accumulate some wealth, which he has mostly invested in his library, and in ransoming Levi (see below).
Meir is now in his fifites, an advanced age for this area. He speaks fluent Greek and Hebrew, and a smattering of Skraeling and Arabic; he is, of course, not permitted to actually speak Hebrew or Arabic in Lowa.
RIGHTS
- Meir is literate in Greek and in Hebrew (which latter he is, however, forbidden from speaking).He has the right to own and read books, including religious, legal, historical, and administrative texts, and to conduct writtencorrespondence beyond simple message-passing and note-leaving.
- Meir has the right to step out of his earthly life and journey in other places, as a result of his training in Gnostic meditation, which has slackened the tie between his soul and its corporeal prison (without, however, allowing him to escape the world of Samael). When he chooses to do so, he rolls his Weird. On 10+, Meir chooses his destination, and has both wits and strength therein. On 7–9, he chooses his destination, but the firrst time he misses a roll in that other world, he returns at once to earthly life. On a miss, the MC chooses his destination.
- When Meir encounters something unnatural, he has the right to roll his Wary. On 10+, he asks the MC 2 of the following. On 7–9, he asks 1.
- Is this a thing of old ways, new ways, or ways unknown to me?
- What manner of person made this thing, or is it its own?
- For what does this thing hunger, or by what has it sated itself?
- What would this thing make the world into, if it only could?
On a miss, he asks 1, but the thing may ask a question of him in return, from this list or of its own devising, which he must answer truthfully. - Meir has the right to rest and relief from all labor and strife, one day out of every seven.
HOUSEHOLD
Meir is the head of his household, such at it is: he occupies bare rooms within the Stronghold, which he shares with Levi ben Talia HaDoresh, a fellow member of his sect (though not anyone he knew personally) who he was able to locate, ransom, and free; thus Levi is also a Freedman. Levi is despondent, morose, and somewhat self-destructive; he occasionally works as a laborer, but, despite the fact that he is also literate, no one will have him as a tutor or accountant; he's too much of a pain in the ass. Mostly he sits around all day in Meir's apartments bemoaning his fate.
The household has:
A library -- roughly 50 codexes and scrolls in Greek and Hebrew (and an occasional document in Persian or Arabic which neither Meir nor Levi can read), very strong in eschatology and mystical speculation but also with some geography, history, linguistics, and medicine.
Mostly Meir and Levi eat bread, fruit, mushrooms, and boiled eggs, but once a week a Lowa girl, Nuna, comes to cook them a meal.
PERSONAL BELONGINGS
Clothing: A rough tunic and trousers
Drinking cup: A tin cup engraved with allegorical Gnostic figures (tree, dragon, broken clay vessels and light streaming from clouds), bought from a trader.
Knife: dull, cord-wrapped, barely fit to cut an apple.