(Note: "Goblin" and "goblinoid" are the standard terms of reference for a particular, largely-nocturnal race of /Homo sapiens/ in the Black Steel world. Like humans and elves, they could probably be divided into various geographically and culturally distinct "subraces," but almost no one ever attempts to define such categories for goblinoids, since differences of culture and even physical appearance tend to vary widely even within a small geographic area among goblinkind; the extent of the differences between "subraces" are so insignificant in comparison with those that are often found between local tribes that such divisions are typically ignored completely by students of goblin lore -- which, as with "subraces" of humans, likewise confined to superficial differences such as in skin color, is about as much attention as they deserve. Of course, the human desire to categorize things typically leads to other divisions of goblinkind into "subraces" of other varieties, typically associated with size or ferocity, but these don't represent even true subraces at all; they refer to common developmental or cultural factors that may occur in similar ways in widely-separated places and have nothing to do with heredity.)
Humans use any number of different words to refer to beings, real or imagined, who are at once like and unlike them enough to cause revulsion. From goblin to bugaboo to bogey, with countless variations like "hobgoblin" and "bogeyman," arguably extending to the likes of "barbarian" and "brute," most of these words have come at one time or another to be used for goblin peoples. While some insist that certain words specify certain "types" of goblins, this usage is utterly inconsistant from one human land to another; one nation's "bugbear" is another one's "gob."
Physically, goblins resemble humans with somewhat over-sized ears, noses, and eyes, relatively long arms, and a large quantity of body hair. Their skin is typically grey, but their hair is almost always black among goblins in their prime, tending toward grey or white like human hair if they manage to survive to old age. Their eyes may be red, brown, grey, or black, though red is believed to be the most common. Goblin noses usually appear as though the nostrils were permanently flared, and their canine teeth tend to be longer than the average for those of humans or elves. There are number of subtler differences in their facial structure as well, which make goblins immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with them -- and, by the standards of most human observers, contribute to their hideous ugliness. For what it's worth, goblins appear to be of divided opinion about human appearances, running the full spectrum from copious praise for human beauty to revulsion at human ugliness. Even if all concerned were really telling the truth as they saw it however, it must be remembered that all were goblins who (more-or-less-)willing decided to interact with humans, so it is unlikely to be a truly representative sample.
Primarily a nocturnal race, typically living in dense forests and the shallow parts of caves, goblins do appear to have some anatomical and physiological advantages that help them to see better in the dark, and to rely more heavily on their other senses than do humans, but it is important to bear in mind that these differences are small in comparison with those between different species; goblins can't see in total darkness, and in truth, most of their ability to function better than most humans at night comes down to practice and training, honed over the course of many generations as night-bound creatures.
Most humans regard goblins as intrinsically and entirely evil creatures -- some due to prevailing mythologies, some due to assumptions that anything ugly must be evil, and some due to bitter experience. While the notion that "evilness" is a natural, hereditary trait of goblinkind is clearly ludicrous -- Black Steel personnel are well aware that goblins can be as peaceful, empathetic, trustworthy, and virtuous as any human being, as inhabitants of Gorlog's village have amply demonstrated on many occasions -- the hatred that has grown up between humans and goblinkind is indisputable, and its most violent atrocities rather one-sided. Where most humans would just as soon avoid goblin caves and never interact with the creatures, goblin culture almost universally extolls murder, pillage, rape, and destruction of humans and their property. In this case, the rare exception -- such as Gorlog's village, where unmistakably goblinoid people, growing up in a culture of tolerance for their human neighbors, are almost universally friendly to those neighbors, happily trading, teaching, learning, and sharing labor and protection with them -- really does seem to prove the rule. Whatever the cause, most goblin cultures seem to extoll violence and larceny toward human beings, in spite of their manifest native capacity to form more peaceful societies. It has been argued by a few -- nearly always by those who do not themselves dwell near hostile goblin tribes -- that greater tolerance of and friendship toward goblinkind on the part of human beings would lead to peaceful relations between the two peoples, but it is not only said but amply demonstrated throughout history that goblin tribes willing simply to refrain from attacking and stealing from their human neighbors are almost always left in peace, and yet it is rare for goblin tribes to take this step, no matter how peaceful or tolerant their human neighbors may be. Such research as Black Steel has been privvy to suggests that most goblin tribes would have to abandon most of their cultural heritage in order to long interact peacefully with human beings. Of course, individual goblins are as capable as humans of rejecting the mores of their native societies, and the most tolerant of human cities are likely to include small populations of "renegade" goblins -- to say nothing of Night Harbor, where not only all human races, but any number of sentient species mingle and conduct their various trades, in an atmosphere of extreme latent danger, but mostly peaceably.
The extent of magical aptitude among goblinkind is hard to guess, though it certainly is not as widespread as among elven peoples. Given the typical size of their tribes, their most common cultural mores -- typically intolerant of learning -- and the rarity of communication from tribe to tribe, it would be unsurprising to find no wizards among goblinkind even if a much greater proportion of their population were natively capable of wielding magic than is true of humanity. In fact, Black Steel personnel have never encountered a goblin wizard -- unrealized potential is harder to assess -- and though goblin shamans are sometimes claimed to possess miraculous powers, there has been no opportunity for Black Steel to confirm any of these as more than stories.
Goblins and human beings breed true -- it is not clear whether the same is true of elves and goblins -- and the children of such pairings are typically strong and healthy, blending the racial characteristics of their parents. Berlokh, Thaqz's assistant, is the example best known to Black Steel personnel of these. Among human societies, anyone with both goblin and human ancestry in their family's recent history is said to have "goblin blood," especially when physical characteristics -- from red eyes to subtle differences in the shape of the face -- give them away. The term "goblin blood" is usually considered an insult among humans, and used as such, and some human nations have been known to ban people with known goblin heritage from citizenship, or even to exile or imprison them upon discovery, but it has been said that these receptions are preferable to those normally received at the hands of goblin tribes into whose clutches humans with or without goblin blood have fallen. At all events, Black Steel does not make goblin blood a bar to citizenship, whether or not there is any human blood at all mixed in, and the use of the term "goblin blood" as an insult among humans is rare in the extreme in a nation where using it in that fashion would insult not only the target of the words, but a number of Black Steel's allies and military personnel who truly have goblin blood, or are goblins entirely.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Elvenkind
(Note: The name "Elf," with the plural "elves" borrowed from Tolkien basically just because "elfs" doesn't have a very good ring to it, is used as a convenience to refer to the race (of /Homo sapiens/) in the Black Steel world that most closely resembles creatures of that name from typical medieval fantasy. Assumptions made about elves on the basis of fantasy stories however, especially in regard to specific sub-races to which parallels are attempted to be drawn, are as likely to be mistaken as correct however; the elves of the Black Steel world are a far cry from the near-demigods of the Silmarillion or -- in spite of their genetic heritage -- the funny-eared-humans of modern fantasy. The impacts of multi-century lifespans and native sorcerous power are difficult to overstate.)
Apart from a few superficial differences common to most elven people, the elves known to Black Steel fall well within the range of human appearance; most of the elves Black Steel personnel have met could pass for humans simply by adapting fashions that conceal their few clearly distinguishing features (exceptions are usually because of eye colors that fall outside the normal human range). Their appearance can be deceiving however; unlike humans, all known members of the elven race are bound up with sorcerous forces from birth, one impact of which is in an aging process that is typically very different from humankind's and at all events slowed enormously. Elves (or at least people with elven blood, like Nimlo) raised in human society seem for years to behave more or less as might be expected of other human beings with manifest sorcerous potential, if anything can really be said to be expected behavior for such rare and unpredictable individuals, but as humans age around them and their appearance and health remain similar to that of human teens, such elves inevitably begin to diverge from their human neighbors socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Elves actually raised in the society of their blood relatives, surrounded by family and friends who have lived for centuries and expect to live for centuries more, wilding sorcerous power as naturally as they use their hands and feet, can appear almost alien in their sensibilities to human beings.
Elven people appear to interact with sorcerous forces much more naturally than human beings; even elven children seem capable of harnessing such forces to some degree, whereas even humans with enormous sorcerous potential normally require a great deal of training before they can work even the simplest magical feats. Given this, and the enormous lifespans to which elves can devote the study of sorcery, it might be expected that elven wizards would achieve skill and power beyond the scope of any member of humanity. It is possible that this has proven true on rare occasion, but in fact most elves encountered by Black Steel personnel have proven far less skilled in sorcerous arts than a typical trained human wizard; the cause appears to be essentially cultural: Most elven societies seem to take their sorcerous power for granted. With the capacity for its use so prevalent -- indeed universal -- it is apparently extremely rare for elves to concentrate their efforts on the art of sorcery as human wizards do (indeed, thanks to the relatively small population of elves in the world, it might be more fair to say such elves are not just extremely rare but nearly -- or in fact -- nonexistant). It is rumored that this does not always hold true in shadow elven societies, and so that shadow elves exist who are capable of mind-boggling feats of sorcery, but rumors of power or terror regarding the shadow elves, often contradictory, are numerous and improbable in the extreme.
Like humans, elvenkind is divided by some into a handful of "subraces" defined by superficial differences such as skin color, and usually separated geographically and culturally; also like humans, most people appear to ascribe more importance to these differences than they deserve. Certain myths about the distinctions between the elven peoples are almost universally believed among humankind -- especially among those who have actually met few or no elves in their lifetimes -- for instance that dark-skinned shadow elves are universally evil and monstrously powerful, and that the rarely-seen starlight and moonlight elves are universally noble, wise, and good, but it has been the experience of Black Steel personnel that such myths are so much stuff and nonsense. The shadow elves they have encountered, for instance, from Thualah in Shalaton to the enclaves in Night Harbor, appear to run the full range from altruistic and selfless to self-serving and merciless to frankly insane. While there are no doubt cultural considerations that affect shadow elves' relationships with humankind, every indication Black Steel has witnessed suggests that there exists wide variation among individual shadow elves and their various cultural groups. Likewise, though Black Steel personnel have encountered too few starlight elves as yet to form any special opinion of them, the moonlight elf they know better than any other elf at all sets rather a poor standard for honest, wise, or altruistic nobility. Woodland elves, in the meantime -- the race best known to Black Steel and to most human beings -- have regional reputations no less diverse than those of human nations.
Elves and humans are known to breed true, and people in human societies with recent elven ancestry are said to have "elven blood." While such people are typically longer-lived than other humans (sometimes much longer-lived) and are much more likely to be born with sorcerous potential (indeed, this accounts for the only real possibility of inheritable sorcerous potential among human beings) they are often also physically frail (more so than most elves or humans) and all of these distinctions, along with any other elven characteristics they may inherit, tend to peter out over the course of a few generations of "dilution" with human bloodlines. Nevertheless, some human families claim elven blood as a point of distinction and pride even after centuries of "dilution" (to say nothing of opportunities for infidelity to break the chain of inheritance ... or the chance that such bloodlines are complete fabrications) and children with elven blood -- by adoption or conception -- are much sought after in certain circles of human society.
Apart from a few superficial differences common to most elven people, the elves known to Black Steel fall well within the range of human appearance; most of the elves Black Steel personnel have met could pass for humans simply by adapting fashions that conceal their few clearly distinguishing features (exceptions are usually because of eye colors that fall outside the normal human range). Their appearance can be deceiving however; unlike humans, all known members of the elven race are bound up with sorcerous forces from birth, one impact of which is in an aging process that is typically very different from humankind's and at all events slowed enormously. Elves (or at least people with elven blood, like Nimlo) raised in human society seem for years to behave more or less as might be expected of other human beings with manifest sorcerous potential, if anything can really be said to be expected behavior for such rare and unpredictable individuals, but as humans age around them and their appearance and health remain similar to that of human teens, such elves inevitably begin to diverge from their human neighbors socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Elves actually raised in the society of their blood relatives, surrounded by family and friends who have lived for centuries and expect to live for centuries more, wilding sorcerous power as naturally as they use their hands and feet, can appear almost alien in their sensibilities to human beings.
Elven people appear to interact with sorcerous forces much more naturally than human beings; even elven children seem capable of harnessing such forces to some degree, whereas even humans with enormous sorcerous potential normally require a great deal of training before they can work even the simplest magical feats. Given this, and the enormous lifespans to which elves can devote the study of sorcery, it might be expected that elven wizards would achieve skill and power beyond the scope of any member of humanity. It is possible that this has proven true on rare occasion, but in fact most elves encountered by Black Steel personnel have proven far less skilled in sorcerous arts than a typical trained human wizard; the cause appears to be essentially cultural: Most elven societies seem to take their sorcerous power for granted. With the capacity for its use so prevalent -- indeed universal -- it is apparently extremely rare for elves to concentrate their efforts on the art of sorcery as human wizards do (indeed, thanks to the relatively small population of elves in the world, it might be more fair to say such elves are not just extremely rare but nearly -- or in fact -- nonexistant). It is rumored that this does not always hold true in shadow elven societies, and so that shadow elves exist who are capable of mind-boggling feats of sorcery, but rumors of power or terror regarding the shadow elves, often contradictory, are numerous and improbable in the extreme.
Like humans, elvenkind is divided by some into a handful of "subraces" defined by superficial differences such as skin color, and usually separated geographically and culturally; also like humans, most people appear to ascribe more importance to these differences than they deserve. Certain myths about the distinctions between the elven peoples are almost universally believed among humankind -- especially among those who have actually met few or no elves in their lifetimes -- for instance that dark-skinned shadow elves are universally evil and monstrously powerful, and that the rarely-seen starlight and moonlight elves are universally noble, wise, and good, but it has been the experience of Black Steel personnel that such myths are so much stuff and nonsense. The shadow elves they have encountered, for instance, from Thualah in Shalaton to the enclaves in Night Harbor, appear to run the full range from altruistic and selfless to self-serving and merciless to frankly insane. While there are no doubt cultural considerations that affect shadow elves' relationships with humankind, every indication Black Steel has witnessed suggests that there exists wide variation among individual shadow elves and their various cultural groups. Likewise, though Black Steel personnel have encountered too few starlight elves as yet to form any special opinion of them, the moonlight elf they know better than any other elf at all sets rather a poor standard for honest, wise, or altruistic nobility. Woodland elves, in the meantime -- the race best known to Black Steel and to most human beings -- have regional reputations no less diverse than those of human nations.
Elves and humans are known to breed true, and people in human societies with recent elven ancestry are said to have "elven blood." While such people are typically longer-lived than other humans (sometimes much longer-lived) and are much more likely to be born with sorcerous potential (indeed, this accounts for the only real possibility of inheritable sorcerous potential among human beings) they are often also physically frail (more so than most elves or humans) and all of these distinctions, along with any other elven characteristics they may inherit, tend to peter out over the course of a few generations of "dilution" with human bloodlines. Nevertheless, some human families claim elven blood as a point of distinction and pride even after centuries of "dilution" (to say nothing of opportunities for infidelity to break the chain of inheritance ... or the chance that such bloodlines are complete fabrications) and children with elven blood -- by adoption or conception -- are much sought after in certain circles of human society.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Humankind
(Note: This discussion will cover the race generally known to Black Steel personnel as humans; other races of the same species -- i.e. who can bear fertile children with humans -- will be described in more detail in another post.)
Perhaps the most adaptible and versatile creatures in the world, humans are more adept than any other known sentient race -- with the possible exception of shadow elves -- at forming large and coherent societies with highly specialized individual roles. Though some insect colonies demonstrate an even greater level of specialization, humankind's exceptional intelligence allows individuals to change roles effectively to fulfill important and unexpected needs, and allows the society at large to develop advanced tools that permit a single human to perform a wide range of specialized tasks more effectively than the most naturally-specialized animal or insect. Some races and species may have developed tools of magical or physical nature more advanced and specialized than humans', but none appear to do so with such a wide range of purposes, and in such a wide range of habitats. Extreme enviornments such as underground caves, steep mountains, dense forests, and frozen tundra may harbor races or species better adapted to their singular needs, but none can adapt as well as humans to them all -- and even without overspecialization, humankind rules undisputed over the world's most fertile hills and plains. Dragons can challenge any race and species in any single battle, anywhere in the world, but they are few in number, and have not been tested in true war against the bulk of humanity.
A physical description of human beings is on the whole so well known to Black Steel personnel that any description would be superfluous; over ninety percent of Black Steel's membership, and over ninety percent of the population of The Scabbard and The Edge, after all, is strictly human. Moreover, Black Steel is among the most welcoming of essentially-human nations to other sentient populations, and in most countries with which Black Steel has dealings, the human population comprises well over ninety-nine percent of all legal citizens. Notable exceptions include the nation of Korv and the city of Kolmarch; Tornbring Vale has almost no human population, and is the only sizable non-human nation of which Black Steel leadership is definitely aware. Indeed, the only nation known to Black Steel personnel to incorporate so many different races as Black Steel itself, in nearly such great numbers relative to the dominant population, is the city of Illenia in the far northwest. This might be due in part to the quiet influence of Night Harbor, Illenia's sister-city or nemesis (depending on who you ask) across its bay, whose population is so diverse and mixed as to defy any attempt to name a dominant species.
Human populations do vary considerably in appearance from region to region, but in spite of ill-informed stories to the contrary, such hereditary differences appear to be virtually confined to superficial appearance. The stories in question, when based on anything more than sheer invention and prejudice, find their kernels of truth in cultural and environmental differences between the humans of different regions. It was long claimed, for instance, that the dark-skinned people of Grat'ha were physically stronger and hardier, but less intelligent and less capable of wielding magic, than the lighter-skinned people who live further north, and even that the people who live in the Grat'han interior were more physically powerful than the Grat'hans of the coastal plains. Increased exploration of Grat'ha however, and especially commerce with the tribes of that region, has exploded these myths. The "superhuman strength" of Grat'han natives, for instance, is in fact an invention of storytellers to explain those peoples' ability to survive in the dangerous and hostile jungles without discovering -- or perhaps without admitting -- the skill, experience, traditions, and training that give Grat'han humans their real advantages in their native environment. The rarity of sorcerous power among humans in Grat'ha is almost certainly attributable to their relatively isolated, tribal existence, as the rarity and non-hereditary nature of sorcerous potential among human beings, together with the necessity of extensive education to bring such potential to reality, renders it virtually impossible for a sorcerous tradition to develop without extensive, tolerant, and thorough means of communication across a large human population.
By the nearest estimates Black Steel personnel have been able to discover, roughly one percent of humans are born with the potential to consciously interact with the sorcerous world, and thus to weave sorcery. Of these, perhaps one in ten in the civilized world will eventually learn to control and use this ability in a meaningful way, as most lack the extraordinary mental discipline and capacity for learning and intuition required to weave magic effectively, and it is not unusual for a potential wizard to go undiscovered, or simply to refrain from the intensive course of study necessary to apply sorcerous gifts. It is interesting to note that the potential for a human being to become a wizard does not appear to be influenced by any yet-discovered environmental factors, nor does it follow lines of heredity, apart from the rare cases of humans with recent elven ancestry. Indeed, very rare cases have been reported of humans who lacked the potential to weave sorcery developing that potential later in life, under circumstances difficult to characterize due to the uncertainty of the records and their extreme rarity. For now, whether at birth or otherwise, the cause of sorcerous potential among humans remains a mystery.
In spite -- or perhaps because -- of their rarity, human wizards often grow more skilled in their art than those of races or species more naturally steeped in the world of sorcery. While it may be that great wizards among elven peoples do exist, merely avoiding interaction with the outside world (or never interacting to this point with Black Steel personnel at least) this appears to be another case of humanity's predilection for opportunistic specialization giving them a foothold and even a position of strength in a realm to which others are better adapted naturally.
Perhaps the most adaptible and versatile creatures in the world, humans are more adept than any other known sentient race -- with the possible exception of shadow elves -- at forming large and coherent societies with highly specialized individual roles. Though some insect colonies demonstrate an even greater level of specialization, humankind's exceptional intelligence allows individuals to change roles effectively to fulfill important and unexpected needs, and allows the society at large to develop advanced tools that permit a single human to perform a wide range of specialized tasks more effectively than the most naturally-specialized animal or insect. Some races and species may have developed tools of magical or physical nature more advanced and specialized than humans', but none appear to do so with such a wide range of purposes, and in such a wide range of habitats. Extreme enviornments such as underground caves, steep mountains, dense forests, and frozen tundra may harbor races or species better adapted to their singular needs, but none can adapt as well as humans to them all -- and even without overspecialization, humankind rules undisputed over the world's most fertile hills and plains. Dragons can challenge any race and species in any single battle, anywhere in the world, but they are few in number, and have not been tested in true war against the bulk of humanity.
A physical description of human beings is on the whole so well known to Black Steel personnel that any description would be superfluous; over ninety percent of Black Steel's membership, and over ninety percent of the population of The Scabbard and The Edge, after all, is strictly human. Moreover, Black Steel is among the most welcoming of essentially-human nations to other sentient populations, and in most countries with which Black Steel has dealings, the human population comprises well over ninety-nine percent of all legal citizens. Notable exceptions include the nation of Korv and the city of Kolmarch; Tornbring Vale has almost no human population, and is the only sizable non-human nation of which Black Steel leadership is definitely aware. Indeed, the only nation known to Black Steel personnel to incorporate so many different races as Black Steel itself, in nearly such great numbers relative to the dominant population, is the city of Illenia in the far northwest. This might be due in part to the quiet influence of Night Harbor, Illenia's sister-city or nemesis (depending on who you ask) across its bay, whose population is so diverse and mixed as to defy any attempt to name a dominant species.
Human populations do vary considerably in appearance from region to region, but in spite of ill-informed stories to the contrary, such hereditary differences appear to be virtually confined to superficial appearance. The stories in question, when based on anything more than sheer invention and prejudice, find their kernels of truth in cultural and environmental differences between the humans of different regions. It was long claimed, for instance, that the dark-skinned people of Grat'ha were physically stronger and hardier, but less intelligent and less capable of wielding magic, than the lighter-skinned people who live further north, and even that the people who live in the Grat'han interior were more physically powerful than the Grat'hans of the coastal plains. Increased exploration of Grat'ha however, and especially commerce with the tribes of that region, has exploded these myths. The "superhuman strength" of Grat'han natives, for instance, is in fact an invention of storytellers to explain those peoples' ability to survive in the dangerous and hostile jungles without discovering -- or perhaps without admitting -- the skill, experience, traditions, and training that give Grat'han humans their real advantages in their native environment. The rarity of sorcerous power among humans in Grat'ha is almost certainly attributable to their relatively isolated, tribal existence, as the rarity and non-hereditary nature of sorcerous potential among human beings, together with the necessity of extensive education to bring such potential to reality, renders it virtually impossible for a sorcerous tradition to develop without extensive, tolerant, and thorough means of communication across a large human population.
By the nearest estimates Black Steel personnel have been able to discover, roughly one percent of humans are born with the potential to consciously interact with the sorcerous world, and thus to weave sorcery. Of these, perhaps one in ten in the civilized world will eventually learn to control and use this ability in a meaningful way, as most lack the extraordinary mental discipline and capacity for learning and intuition required to weave magic effectively, and it is not unusual for a potential wizard to go undiscovered, or simply to refrain from the intensive course of study necessary to apply sorcerous gifts. It is interesting to note that the potential for a human being to become a wizard does not appear to be influenced by any yet-discovered environmental factors, nor does it follow lines of heredity, apart from the rare cases of humans with recent elven ancestry. Indeed, very rare cases have been reported of humans who lacked the potential to weave sorcery developing that potential later in life, under circumstances difficult to characterize due to the uncertainty of the records and their extreme rarity. For now, whether at birth or otherwise, the cause of sorcerous potential among humans remains a mystery.
In spite -- or perhaps because -- of their rarity, human wizards often grow more skilled in their art than those of races or species more naturally steeped in the world of sorcery. While it may be that great wizards among elven peoples do exist, merely avoiding interaction with the outside world (or never interacting to this point with Black Steel personnel at least) this appears to be another case of humanity's predilection for opportunistic specialization giving them a foothold and even a position of strength in a realm to which others are better adapted naturally.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Science and Technology
Scientific development in the Black Steel world is complicated by the interactions of the natural and magical worlds. Since direct observation of the magical world is not possible for most people, discovering the nature of physical law can be exceedingly difficult for humans. It is fortunate for would-be scientists that magical effects rarely have a direct impact on most humans' lives, as this admits of the possibility of discovering "normal" laws with the understanding that sorcerous power can create exceptions, but long-term scientific development nonetheless suffers, as exceptions that should be recognized as proofs of an imperfect theory may be written off as magical interference -- or a theory that is perfectly accurate in the natural world might be discarded or re-fashioned in response to actual but unrecognized sorcerous effects. Eventually, with sufficient observation, effort, and care, it should be possible to accurately describe the laws of the natural world, including those that in fact result from interaction with the magical world ... but unless and until better tools are designed for the purpose, the process is likely to be a slow one. It may be that some inhuman creatures have an advantage in this respect, as it has been said that elves and dragons, for instance, may be natively capable of directly observing the sorcerous world. If they have progressed beyond human scientific and technological discoveries however, it is likely to be in ways that human beings would not anticipate, as -- being more closely connected with the sorcerous world in the first place -- it is unlikely that they would confine themselves to studies of events in the natural world only, using their knowledge of the magical world only to ensure that their experiments function within a truly closed system; on the contrary, such discoveries as they make are likely to involve the laws of both worlds and the interaction between them more than anything else.
In spite of these obstacles, discoveries have progressed, however slowly and in whatever strange directions. For most purposes, the nations with which Black Steel is familiar are operating at technological levels reminiscent of a late middle ages or early renaissance society -- within the natural world, at least. The rarity of human wizards is such that these societies' "magical technology" is highly variable, difficult to define, and at all events too limited in scale or power to meaningfully replace or very significantly supplement natural technologies.
It is important to note that, to the extent they are not themselves driven by physical science and technology, the social sciences and sociological development of human nations in the Black Steel world suffer fewer limitations than their natural analogs; on the contrary, though the rarity and presence of sorcerors does exert a certain amount of pressure toward certain highly primitive social structures for magic-dependent or magic-awed societies, the fact that the capacity for sorcerous power among human beings does not appear to be hereditary, together with the structures of learning necessary for sorcerous knowledge to survive through the centuries, have probably aided the progress of the world's larger nations and societies. To take a single important example, the fact that women are as likely as men to have sorcerous potential has helped to break down barriers to female rule or importance in many cultures. Historically, there have been cultural groups that oppressed women to the extent possible, and cut off women's access to sources of magical knowledge at every turn, but such societies inevitably collapsed, sometimes at the hands of women within them who despite the best efforts of the ruling citizens managed to develop their sorcerous gifts, but more often at the hands of rival cultures that accepted and celebrated sorceresses and so could raise twice as many wizards per capita as those who kept would-be sorceresses away from the tools of learning.
In spite of these obstacles, discoveries have progressed, however slowly and in whatever strange directions. For most purposes, the nations with which Black Steel is familiar are operating at technological levels reminiscent of a late middle ages or early renaissance society -- within the natural world, at least. The rarity of human wizards is such that these societies' "magical technology" is highly variable, difficult to define, and at all events too limited in scale or power to meaningfully replace or very significantly supplement natural technologies.
It is important to note that, to the extent they are not themselves driven by physical science and technology, the social sciences and sociological development of human nations in the Black Steel world suffer fewer limitations than their natural analogs; on the contrary, though the rarity and presence of sorcerors does exert a certain amount of pressure toward certain highly primitive social structures for magic-dependent or magic-awed societies, the fact that the capacity for sorcerous power among human beings does not appear to be hereditary, together with the structures of learning necessary for sorcerous knowledge to survive through the centuries, have probably aided the progress of the world's larger nations and societies. To take a single important example, the fact that women are as likely as men to have sorcerous potential has helped to break down barriers to female rule or importance in many cultures. Historically, there have been cultural groups that oppressed women to the extent possible, and cut off women's access to sources of magical knowledge at every turn, but such societies inevitably collapsed, sometimes at the hands of women within them who despite the best efforts of the ruling citizens managed to develop their sorcerous gifts, but more often at the hands of rival cultures that accepted and celebrated sorceresses and so could raise twice as many wizards per capita as those who kept would-be sorceresses away from the tools of learning.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Religions and Faith
Most religions known to Black Steel personnel revolve around the worship and propitiation of members of an ancient pantheon. Mythologies differ from one church to another, but most assert a kinship between the various powers of the pantheon, and that the sentient beings of the world are descended from certain of its members (usually Thesmos and Woen in the role of mother and father). There are significant exceptions to all of this however; Black Steel personnel know of no myths that deal with the creation of dragons or of dwarves, and there exist known religions with their own theologies, mythologies, or both, that have little or nothing to do with the world's dominant pantheon.
The very existence of a "dominant pantheon" is a matter of some debate, and based mainly on the similarities between certain world faiths. For instance, the worship of Great Mother on the Grat'han coastal plains is so similar to that of Thesmos (so named the Eastport trade language is dominant) that some Grat'han tribes have come to call their Great Spirits by pantheonic names. Nevertheless, the overlap in mythology and ceremony from place to place is by no means complete. Many of the rituals used to call upon "miraculous" sorcerous intervention bear striking similarities to one another between worshipers of pantheon members with similar realms of influence but different names, but these similarities might be the result of the method by which the sorcerous effects in question propogate between the sorcerous and natural worlds rather than because the entities being worshiped are the same; some believe that, far from being the same set of entities worshiped differently across numerous cultures, the members of the pantheon do not exist at all, but are rather inventions of the human imagination to make as-yet little-understood forces in the sorcerous world seem comprehensible and familiar to the human mind. This theory, and a numbr of others that assume a separate object of worship exists for each of the many seeming-similar religions across the world, may be supported by the many mythological differences between similar religions in different regions, the varying names of the members of the pantheon, and their differing roles; for instance, many Grat'han religions feature aspects of animism or ancestor worship not normally associated with the pantheonic religions, and one of the major figures in the most common Grat'han pantheon is War Spirit, a figure who appears to combine aspects of the roles of Darzien, Matorath, Vamakhel, Varekh, and perhaps Sylthos, none of whom have a separate analog in these Grat'han spirit faiths.
Responses among those who believe in a literal, extant pantheon vary; some believe that members of the pantheon accept worship under any name, so long as it is done properly and with true heart, and therefore that (for instance) Darzien might accept prayers offered to War Spirit so long as they are of a kind appropriate to him. Others argue that the battle within the pantheon for ever-greater realms is being played out among their worshipers, such that (for instance) Matorath, under the name of War Spirit, might through some of his Grat'han worshipers be seeking to extend his realm deeper into what is presently Darzien's. Still other scholars are of the opinon that the members of the pantheon, though real, are not able to attend to every mortal prayer or even every congregation of mortal worshipers, and as such have worked upon the landsape of the sorcerous world so as to cause it to create "spells" in response to proper mental and ritual action closely associated with their worship. At all events, whether because of the similarities between their rituals and codes of behavior, because they are in fact worshiping the same literal being, or for some other reason entirely, most worshipers of the pantheon best known along the Fire Coast accept other, similar figures from the Broken Sea region, Grat'ha, and elsewhere, including goblinoid and elven pantheons, essentially as different aspects of or approaches to their own, a feeling that appears to be reciprocated, though it rarely does much to ease strife between the worshipers of the various "aspects" when it exists; disagreements over the "right way" to worship can grow as heated and as dangerous as those over who or what most deserves worship in the first place.
It is important to note that the mythology of the pantheon is ongoing; hatred or alliance between two powers (naturally reflected in their churches -- or resulting from changes in their churches' relationships, depending on what you believe about the pantheon as a whole) changes in the course of their present and continuing struggle for importance and strength, and myths of the acts of various members of the pantheon continue to be made in the present day, often with wide-reaching consequences (or causes, as the case may be). The most recent major example is the Fall of Isiyes, when Isiyes, through her church, demanded the worship of all the wizards of the world, and was virtually destroyed in consequence (as reflected in the collapse of her church hierarchy, the dispersal of her followers, and the deaths or broken faiths of her most influential priests). The battle waged over the fate of sorcery in the world, little known to most humans, changed the landscape of the sorcerous world drastically, with effects that are still propogating through that world, only now calming and settling, with significant consequences for both wizardry and ritual magic. Whether the Fall of Isiyes was a battle between immortal beings aided by mortals on every side (Aveyn and Athoth are said to have thwarted Isiyes according to some myths, with Athoth finally accepting the service of Isiyes in exchange for preserving her existence) or whether it was in effect a power play by an entirely mortal church that overestimated its own capabilities and collapsed in consequence, it was a battle involving enormous sorcerous power, and in spite of its recent occurence, it is already growing difficult to separate its literal history from the tricks and deceptions of the various sides and its growing halo of myth.
Other Religions
Apart from primitive animism, ancestor worship, and personality cults, any of which can sometimes associate themselves with pantheonic worship in any case, few religions are known to Black Steel personnel that do not fit in one fashion or another into the pantheon with which most of them grew up, but this may be a reflection on the amorphous nature of that pantheon and its apparent willingness to accept "variations" on its own faiths rather than any lack of religious diversity. Moreover, there are important exceptions to the general rule.
The Serpent Cult of Grat'ha
Though little is presently known about it, Black Steel personnel have recently encountered a religion deep in Grat'ha that appears (or is claimed) to predate the worship of the Great Spirits, built around the worship of gods who visit or live within the natural world in corporeal form, usually as some variety of serpent or part-serpent-part-human entity. Different classes of serpent gods apparently have specialized roles within their unique pantheon and in the lives of their followers totally unlike the pantheon described above, and theirs appears to have a much more definite hierarchy, with all the gods answerable to the one "great god Kenalthryn.".
The Faith of Nahl
Though pantheonists attempt to incorporate this faith's existence into their own worldview, sometimes even going so far as to say that Nahl is a part of the pantheon itself, attempts to do so are misguided to the point of hopelessness. The faithful of Nahl in fact do not worship, and do not regard Nahl as an entity -- certainly not as a being within a world, and least of all as a member of a pantheon of like beings. To the faithful, Nahl is that which is beyond all knowing; it is from Nahl that all things arise, and to Nahl that all shall return in the end. The name Nahl itself is to them only a name for that which in truth can be neither named nor comprehended. Much of the ritual and ceremony associated with the faith is drawn from those who "Walk with the Night," a term for those who turn for inspiration and example to the Dark Lady of Night, who in some sense represents Nahl in the same fashion as does the name. The Dark Lady is not herself called Nahl, and does not have a separate name, as she and the rituals associated with her, like the name "Nahl" itself, serve primarily as reminders of Nahl, being neither Nahl themselves nor the objects of worship, service, or attainment. They are in some sense merely symbols through which the faithful may attempt to conceive of that which is beyond conception and beyond any knowable reality.
Atheism
Several of Black Steel's most prominent, powerful, and capable members are avowed atheists, following no religion and believing in no partiular god. They do not necessarily insist that the entities worshipped by the world's various religions do not exist -- the corporeal "serpent gods" of the jungles, for instance, manifestly do -- but believe that none of them are all-powerful, nor deserving of worship, either singularly or in the collective as a pantheon. Upon meeting an entity (such as one of the corporeal serpent gods) who claims divinity, atheists tend to behave as they would toward any other sentient being, albeit a potentially dangerous one -- dangerous because of their power, if only the power of influence over those who worship them, and dangerous because claiming to be a god means to the atheist that the entity in question is one or both of ruthless enough to manipulate other people's heartfelt beliefs, or dangerously insane.
Many religious people in the Black Steel world find it hard to believe that atheists can exist or especially thrive in the face of the miraculous benefits provided to the faithful by their gods. (The faith of Nahl is an exception, as Nahl is not imagined to interfere with the world in any way except to continue to permit its existence and to welcome that which leaves it again; those who "walk with the night" appear to gain advantages having to do with the Dark Lady, but do not regard such advantages as primary to their faith. A tolerant faith in general, the faith of Nahl on the whole is very tolerant of atheists.) In light of this, it is curious to note and perhaps difficult to explain that atheists known to Black Steel seem to thrive, and to have developed capabilities well beyond the usual range of their peers, in spite of lacking the miraculous aid lent to the holy. A religious person would say, "Imagine what Theril could have achieved were she only to have found faith!" but Theril herself might say, upon considering the evidence, that she then might well have achieved less than she has on her own.
The very existence of a "dominant pantheon" is a matter of some debate, and based mainly on the similarities between certain world faiths. For instance, the worship of Great Mother on the Grat'han coastal plains is so similar to that of Thesmos (so named the Eastport trade language is dominant) that some Grat'han tribes have come to call their Great Spirits by pantheonic names. Nevertheless, the overlap in mythology and ceremony from place to place is by no means complete. Many of the rituals used to call upon "miraculous" sorcerous intervention bear striking similarities to one another between worshipers of pantheon members with similar realms of influence but different names, but these similarities might be the result of the method by which the sorcerous effects in question propogate between the sorcerous and natural worlds rather than because the entities being worshiped are the same; some believe that, far from being the same set of entities worshiped differently across numerous cultures, the members of the pantheon do not exist at all, but are rather inventions of the human imagination to make as-yet little-understood forces in the sorcerous world seem comprehensible and familiar to the human mind. This theory, and a numbr of others that assume a separate object of worship exists for each of the many seeming-similar religions across the world, may be supported by the many mythological differences between similar religions in different regions, the varying names of the members of the pantheon, and their differing roles; for instance, many Grat'han religions feature aspects of animism or ancestor worship not normally associated with the pantheonic religions, and one of the major figures in the most common Grat'han pantheon is War Spirit, a figure who appears to combine aspects of the roles of Darzien, Matorath, Vamakhel, Varekh, and perhaps Sylthos, none of whom have a separate analog in these Grat'han spirit faiths.
Responses among those who believe in a literal, extant pantheon vary; some believe that members of the pantheon accept worship under any name, so long as it is done properly and with true heart, and therefore that (for instance) Darzien might accept prayers offered to War Spirit so long as they are of a kind appropriate to him. Others argue that the battle within the pantheon for ever-greater realms is being played out among their worshipers, such that (for instance) Matorath, under the name of War Spirit, might through some of his Grat'han worshipers be seeking to extend his realm deeper into what is presently Darzien's. Still other scholars are of the opinon that the members of the pantheon, though real, are not able to attend to every mortal prayer or even every congregation of mortal worshipers, and as such have worked upon the landsape of the sorcerous world so as to cause it to create "spells" in response to proper mental and ritual action closely associated with their worship. At all events, whether because of the similarities between their rituals and codes of behavior, because they are in fact worshiping the same literal being, or for some other reason entirely, most worshipers of the pantheon best known along the Fire Coast accept other, similar figures from the Broken Sea region, Grat'ha, and elsewhere, including goblinoid and elven pantheons, essentially as different aspects of or approaches to their own, a feeling that appears to be reciprocated, though it rarely does much to ease strife between the worshipers of the various "aspects" when it exists; disagreements over the "right way" to worship can grow as heated and as dangerous as those over who or what most deserves worship in the first place.
It is important to note that the mythology of the pantheon is ongoing; hatred or alliance between two powers (naturally reflected in their churches -- or resulting from changes in their churches' relationships, depending on what you believe about the pantheon as a whole) changes in the course of their present and continuing struggle for importance and strength, and myths of the acts of various members of the pantheon continue to be made in the present day, often with wide-reaching consequences (or causes, as the case may be). The most recent major example is the Fall of Isiyes, when Isiyes, through her church, demanded the worship of all the wizards of the world, and was virtually destroyed in consequence (as reflected in the collapse of her church hierarchy, the dispersal of her followers, and the deaths or broken faiths of her most influential priests). The battle waged over the fate of sorcery in the world, little known to most humans, changed the landscape of the sorcerous world drastically, with effects that are still propogating through that world, only now calming and settling, with significant consequences for both wizardry and ritual magic. Whether the Fall of Isiyes was a battle between immortal beings aided by mortals on every side (Aveyn and Athoth are said to have thwarted Isiyes according to some myths, with Athoth finally accepting the service of Isiyes in exchange for preserving her existence) or whether it was in effect a power play by an entirely mortal church that overestimated its own capabilities and collapsed in consequence, it was a battle involving enormous sorcerous power, and in spite of its recent occurence, it is already growing difficult to separate its literal history from the tricks and deceptions of the various sides and its growing halo of myth.
Other Religions
Apart from primitive animism, ancestor worship, and personality cults, any of which can sometimes associate themselves with pantheonic worship in any case, few religions are known to Black Steel personnel that do not fit in one fashion or another into the pantheon with which most of them grew up, but this may be a reflection on the amorphous nature of that pantheon and its apparent willingness to accept "variations" on its own faiths rather than any lack of religious diversity. Moreover, there are important exceptions to the general rule.
The Serpent Cult of Grat'ha
Though little is presently known about it, Black Steel personnel have recently encountered a religion deep in Grat'ha that appears (or is claimed) to predate the worship of the Great Spirits, built around the worship of gods who visit or live within the natural world in corporeal form, usually as some variety of serpent or part-serpent-part-human entity. Different classes of serpent gods apparently have specialized roles within their unique pantheon and in the lives of their followers totally unlike the pantheon described above, and theirs appears to have a much more definite hierarchy, with all the gods answerable to the one "great god Kenalthryn.".
The Faith of Nahl
Though pantheonists attempt to incorporate this faith's existence into their own worldview, sometimes even going so far as to say that Nahl is a part of the pantheon itself, attempts to do so are misguided to the point of hopelessness. The faithful of Nahl in fact do not worship, and do not regard Nahl as an entity -- certainly not as a being within a world, and least of all as a member of a pantheon of like beings. To the faithful, Nahl is that which is beyond all knowing; it is from Nahl that all things arise, and to Nahl that all shall return in the end. The name Nahl itself is to them only a name for that which in truth can be neither named nor comprehended. Much of the ritual and ceremony associated with the faith is drawn from those who "Walk with the Night," a term for those who turn for inspiration and example to the Dark Lady of Night, who in some sense represents Nahl in the same fashion as does the name. The Dark Lady is not herself called Nahl, and does not have a separate name, as she and the rituals associated with her, like the name "Nahl" itself, serve primarily as reminders of Nahl, being neither Nahl themselves nor the objects of worship, service, or attainment. They are in some sense merely symbols through which the faithful may attempt to conceive of that which is beyond conception and beyond any knowable reality.
Atheism
Several of Black Steel's most prominent, powerful, and capable members are avowed atheists, following no religion and believing in no partiular god. They do not necessarily insist that the entities worshipped by the world's various religions do not exist -- the corporeal "serpent gods" of the jungles, for instance, manifestly do -- but believe that none of them are all-powerful, nor deserving of worship, either singularly or in the collective as a pantheon. Upon meeting an entity (such as one of the corporeal serpent gods) who claims divinity, atheists tend to behave as they would toward any other sentient being, albeit a potentially dangerous one -- dangerous because of their power, if only the power of influence over those who worship them, and dangerous because claiming to be a god means to the atheist that the entity in question is one or both of ruthless enough to manipulate other people's heartfelt beliefs, or dangerously insane.
Many religious people in the Black Steel world find it hard to believe that atheists can exist or especially thrive in the face of the miraculous benefits provided to the faithful by their gods. (The faith of Nahl is an exception, as Nahl is not imagined to interfere with the world in any way except to continue to permit its existence and to welcome that which leaves it again; those who "walk with the night" appear to gain advantages having to do with the Dark Lady, but do not regard such advantages as primary to their faith. A tolerant faith in general, the faith of Nahl on the whole is very tolerant of atheists.) In light of this, it is curious to note and perhaps difficult to explain that atheists known to Black Steel seem to thrive, and to have developed capabilities well beyond the usual range of their peers, in spite of lacking the miraculous aid lent to the holy. A religious person would say, "Imagine what Theril could have achieved were she only to have found faith!" but Theril herself might say, upon considering the evidence, that she then might well have achieved less than she has on her own.