Equal rights

[Desiderea]

Well, I see a difference between "medieval" and "medieval fantasy." Honestly, living in the dark ages would suck. And I wouldn't be too keen on rping that. Thus, we dress it up with the "fantasy" aspect. The gallant knight in shining armor, elves, magic, etc.

Personally, I don't see anything in Geas that shows discrimination based on gender. We've got female queens, female judges, female clergy, female scribes, etc. Equality for all is more of a subject for debate. Obviously in Geas, there's a lot of religious fervor. The "good" gods are in control of much of the important areas of play, so that does limit freedom of speech in that one must be careful what they say, lest they be outcast for speaking evil. I really see the forces of good as being the ruling class (and I suppose the forces of evil in Asador). The more neutral and evil people do not have as much power, hence they have less freedom to express what they really feel, to do things that would be looked down upon by the good people in charge.

I do agree that maybe it would be nice to have some sort of consensus as to just what is the norm in Geas's society, so that we don't have people arguing that one or the other's rp is "wrong" because they don't hold the same worldview. In the little over a year that I've played I think I've gathered enough about the world just by seeing how others rp and have been able to form my characters' niches based on that. But maybe there are still differences in opinion over what the world "should" be. Personally, I don't think that we should try to adhere strictly to historical medieval society. There are obvious differences in the world of Geas--like some have said, literacy, magic, women leaders, etc.--which I think allows for some deviance from what we would consider historically medieval.

[arxthas]

I agree that it is not a good idea to try and aim for a strict historical medieval europe. It is not what I meant or want. There are gonna be lots of differencces like you already mentioned, like a public library. That is entirely OK with me. I expect this will be the case. I'll admit some of them I was not aware of that people thinks is not part of the game, but ok.. that seems to be the general problem. People are not synced on the setting. I also agree that not everything needs to be fleshed out, the important thing is that the basics is there.

But how does medieval map to Geas? Rather than bringing up stuff that does NOT map, what does? Is there anything of that actually matters in the sense that it sense norms amongst the broad population and drives conflicts? In concrete terms?

Just to examplify what I'm looking for. Let's say we have a setting in a world where there is a constant struggle between landowners and peasants. Not going into any thick detail, but just a coarse example here. The underlying problem is that peasants have slowly grown more powerful in numbers and landowners are about to be superseeded. A classical economical power struggle, in other words. However, the landowners are still in official power, so the peasants would have no legal right to object to anything. In that world, most likely everything would be stem or be seriously affect by that single conflict, whether it's a love story (think Dr.Tjivago), armed, economical, social or political story. First thing you would be classed as owner or user of land which would create new conflicts. As an example of a norm, you would not make jokes about who owns a piece of land since it would be a deadly provocation. If you are a peasant in an area which is weaker, you would do the landowners bidding without question, naturally. But alongside with that you would have a bunch of other implications, such as not arguing about minor things. If the landowner or one of his good friends, cousins tells you to get some coffee (bad example, I know) you will. You would naturally also have the possibility to revolt if you play a peasant in a strong area, which can be a nice story created from conflict.

So in Geas, if you say gender inequality, unfree speech, etc, is not a medieval concept that affects the world, what is? What is/are the medieval concept(s) that we derive from?

[fernao]

I personally see the tag "medieval" primarily as a "base of technology". It doesn't have to be restricted to Europe... If you like coffee, just take the islamic empires of that time, they definately had coffee, along with the some of the most advanced science in that age. Take China and you even have gun powder.

[Desiderea]

Well, I do see religion as a large part of the conflict. In Elvandar especially--it's a city of Taniel, so if you don't like Taniel, you better keep your mouth shut (or else don't say anything around any clerics or Crusaders ). There's a large conflict in going against the grain of the established society. Now, Desi hasn't seen too much trouble as a follower of Gwen in a city of Asral; I guess cause if you push around loving, peaceful Gwennies, you look like a jerk.

I also see "medieval" largely in terms of technology. We fight with swords and lances, we ride horses, we wear chainmail, etc. There's taverns and various crafting guilds. I would not say we're a feudal society, or at least I would not see player characters as the commoners; pcs mostly consist of fighters or scholars or clerics, not farmers and peasants. Town officials, guild leaders, and clerics seem to have the most power though. I would not say that one should obey clerics without question, especially if you follow a different god, but having a healthy amount of respect for them and for the laws of the land would seem prudent (at least when there are other people around ) .

[arxthas]

Is anyone actually reading what I am writing? This is so fucking pointless... I give up.

[Delia]

I haven't replied anything because I was actually quite interested regarding to what direction this discussion was heading. Still having said this I have had difficulties(Having been on an extended vacations between intensive periods of work haven't helped either) in composing a good definite reply as this is something that I feel is quite important where the atmosphere of this MUD is concerned and writing something half-assed is not something I want to do in this regard.

Still, I cannot help but to notice that a solid concensus is sorely needed. If player A thinks X, player B thinks Z and player C thinks Y things are going to get overtly complicated and conflicted in an unnecessary, unneeded way. I hope people can atleast agree to that.

Perhaps what would be preferrable is to start a completely new thread about "What is Geas" or something, about how people see the game world down to the finest minute detail.

[lanyara]

Is anyone actually reading what I am writing?

They are! And disputing about it!

The question is what specific aspect of a medieval society you'd like to emphasize and how it translates to the game world.