[Torg] Living Land (was: Conversions)

[Jones Jasyn]

On Feb 5, 2010, at 2:37 AM, Phil Dack wrote:

>> From: Jones Jasyn <jasynj at gmail.com>
>> 
>> My Social axiom, Social 27: "Social structures become highly flexible. Decision 
>> making functions are decentralized. Social organizations become a matter of ad 
>> hoc interaction between citizens. Such organizations spontaneously form to deal 
>> with a given situation or challenge and last as long as necessary. Leadership is 
>> delegated on a temporary basis, with the most capable individual becoming the ad 
>> hoc leader.
>> 
>> So, what if the Tribes of the Living Land aren't primitive low Social groups, 
>> but high Social groups? 
> 
> It's a fascinating idea. It reflects quite a nice symmetry in the social axiom. At low social axioms you can only have individuals or small groups, because the social tools aren't there to allow for more complex and efficient structures. At high social axioms, psychic resonance / group subconcious / societal intellect or whatever it is (as a mid social axiom society, we can only speculate!) means that smaller structures become the most efficient. A key difference might be that at lower axioms the smaller structures are often relatively fixed, whereas the implication is at high axioms that they are ad hoc.

I'm positing that, in some situations, large structures *are* more effective, so that's how the "as-needed" society organizes. On a high Tech world, larger structures might be the norm, because they're more effective at dealing with industrial and economic challenges.

But, given the challenges of living on Takta Ker, small structures (150 individuals or less) are most efficient, most of the time. So, most of the time eidenos live in tribes.

In instances of war or large scale natural disasters, larger organizations form. This requires a high degree of social trust, a deep willingness to be lead and to give up leadership when it's no longer necessary.

Why does Kaah invade so successfully? Because an invasion isn't "military, kill, kill" but (from the point of view of Jakatts), they enter a new world, find the primitives who can't survive in the Living Land and then care for them, teaching them the Way of Life.

Kaah is exploiting their benevolence, love of Life, and ad-hoc structures. The common eidenos don't know about stelae, possibility energy, or cosms, they only know that Lanala opens up new worlds for them, so they can experience new sensations and spread her message of joie de vivre.

The Living Land seems like an unsubtle invasion, like an obvious imposition of an alien reality. It is, compared to 3327's economic and political infiltration, but this misses the point. Its subtlety doesn't lie in perpetrating an invisible invasion, but in limiting how the natives can respond to the invasion.

Kaah's world moves in and devastates existing societies by removing the underpinnings of their culture: technology, magic, or religions that aren't Lanala. They can try to operate as an organized group, but their tools to garner resources and utilize them are absent. This throws them on the mercy of the Jakatts—just to stay alive, they have to turn to the eidenos for food and shelter. 

(And, if they do organize to fight a conventional war, the eidenos become more organized in response, and show a greater degree of tactical and strategic flexibility. It's a no-win scenario.)

Having dissolved their society, having forced them to integrate into eidenos society to survive, winning the war is just a matter of waiting till the ords transform, defending his stelae, and watching out for Storm Knights.

3327 can be fought: economically, politically, technologically. Baruk Kaah can't be fought, because in his reality the only tools available are those that, if used, guarantee his victory. Truly frightening, for those who can appreciate the threat. Which, because he looks like an ignorant primitive, most don't.

In Baruk Kaah's case, the only tools of war available are Storm Knight Glories, tales, and uprooting stelae. Everything else is doomed to failure.

Jasyn Jones
jasynj (at) gmail (dot) com

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Check out my Torg webpage, Storm Knights:
darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/