| From: | arcady@***.net arcady@***.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Spirit of the land and it's people |
| Date: | Thu, 15 Jul 99 13:55:27 +700 |
>> >than that -- 202 years ago, around 5 pm on 22 February this year :)
>>
>> |1797? Only thing I can find around then is the battle of St. Vincent on
14
>> |February, when Jervis scattered the Spanish fleet on its way to reinforce
a
>> |French invasion force in Brest. The invasion was cancelled as a result (and
>> |a young Commodore Nelson earned his knighthood for his actions)
>>
>> I must say, I'm intrigued as well....Gurth?
>
>Four ships carried some 1,400 poorly-disciplined French troops (chained
>below-decks...) under a American colonel William Tate in 1797 sailed to
>Fishguard, in western Wales, and landed there on the date mentioned above.
>These troops did leave Brest, on the 16th of February, with the intention
>of attacking Bristol. En route, the plans were changed to attack Swansea
>instead, but for a variety of reasons they ended up in Fishguard instead.
In relation to the spirit of the land topic and who the land claims as it own...
This is very different from an invasion of a region by people wholey not from
that region and with no historical connection to it. This is still Europeans
warring internally. So the land is not having it's kind displaced in the same
way that could be said of the British invasion of Australia.
No matter how many differences there may be between different European tribes;
they are still closer to each other in physical, cultural, and spiritual makeup
than they are to say, an Apache, Aboriginee, or Vietnamese.
This is why I say that places like Australia and the USA would have a lot of
magical energy affoot in them. The land is disturbed there. It's native people
have been removed. It's children are gone. What's replaced them is in no way
similar to what it knows. It is angry.
The Carribean would have some of this as well. A little less anger though. The
blacks who replaced the europeans who had replaced the natives are close in
spirit to the natives and are not themselves the agressors responsibile. There
would be energy there in the land seeking it's lost children, but not in anger
at those who have come.
I don't think Shadowrun makes any statements about the land itself being alive
in this mannor, but it can add a lot of spice to a game to give the land itself
a soul. It certainly sits some of the underlying elements of Shadowrun's magic
(if only because the sources many of them are taken from are themselves mythos
that hold to the belief in a living land).
Of course Shadowrun may have a theme like this in some section of it's publications
that I have yet to read.
I would see the Ghost Dance as the people of the land calling upon her to rise
up in retirbution on a mass scale. And once the land has woken I don't expect
her to just quietly fade back to sleep. :)
