"In particular, his magnum opus, a trilogy whose title can be loosely translated as Slave, was viewed as a key catalyst in several major slave rebellions in the Huut Empire."
Alright, I guess I was mistaken. Then my criticism is aimed at everyone within that world who viewed it as "a key catalyst".
The update may lie to you. As can the map, and sometimes even the stats. I don't intend to give players the verbatim truth. Even in OOC discussions.
The language barrier can be a big deal, but it's just a part of the problem. A play performed in a theatre in a city of free men in one country is going to have trouble making much of an impact amongst slaves in another, agrarian country even if they speak the same language. It is true that the Arsacids loved themselves some classical Greek tragedy, but the fact that it was performed solely at the royal court, in Greek, with Greek actors (I think?) and never influenced much of anyone in the countryside only speaks for my argument.
It's not just "a play", it's one of the greatest works of literature in this world, written by an ever-quotable playwright.
Moreover, I don't even suggest slaves are the primary recipients of the work; it is instead minor nobility and such, educated people, who become sympathetic to slave's plights. If you're going to argue THOSE people don't read, then I'll have to disagree with you.
I mean, do the Hu'ut even have a theatre?
Yes, they do. See below.
Anyway, it is a serious barrier, though less so as contacts and mutual cultural interests increase. Naturally, far from impassable.
Exactly, especially as the Farou and Hu'ut have been next to each other for over a millennium.
It seems to be getting increasingly close to the dreaded Classical Period, or local equivalent thereof.
Depending on what your definition of the Classical Period is, it may already be in it.
... Also people should remember that the Hu'ut do not have interest at all in viewing Farou plays. They are our arch enemy. Even to the general people.
Sadly, I don't buy the "player as a spiritual leader of the people." Which means players in N3S III do not control every person in their nation, and which means that some
will read foreign literature, especially if said foreign literature comes from a nation with such a dominant culture as the Farou. I don't care if you're hated enemies; so were the French Revolutionaries and British Conservatives -- they still read each other's literature.
I mean, why the heck would anyone show a play about freeing slaves to his or her slave?
I don't know why they'd do that, but I do know why they'd see it themselves.
In defense of this, you've purposefully cultivated and mistreated a massive underclass for several hundred years, maybe even MORE than a millenia. Do you honestly think that your slaves are happy? Of course not. They're worked to death on monuments and slaughtered in war or at the whim of their masters.
You can't assume that the slaves are going to have Happy Fun Loyalty Time when SOMEONE is actively trying to free them. Someone with massive culture to boot. This is simple logic. Your slaves HATE you, they hate your guts, and you're lucky that the most they're doing is having a little Farou recitation session while their masters aren't watching.
And let me put in a disclaimer that IC, I am in favor of slavery, and use it.
This.
See, slaves don't even need to be able to speak Farou to be able to recite a few lines. Farou is one of the most inherently quotable languages in the world; it lends itself easily to rhyme, and it sounds so utterly alien to pure Hu'ut that the mere act of speaking it can take on a near-mystical aura. They probably speak the words to each other, only barely knowing what it means, utterly ignored by an overseer who thinks they're humming.
And that's about all that needs be said, really. At most the play could've been an inspiration to some Faroun who saw it and were subsequently enslaved and spread the word of it to the rest of the slaves; not sure if there was any other way it could possibly influence the events in question, things being the way they are.
Ridiculously exaggerated, and also, what exactly do you think "the ways things are" is? If you think there's an impermeable cultural barrier between Hu'ut and Farou, then you are simply wrong. Both sides have gotten influenced (and thankfully Iggy's taking that waaaaay better than lj).
Thlayli - there is no problem whatsoever with slaves rebelling. None whatsoever. The problem is with some silly play somehow playing a part in it.
Some silly play? Did you even
read the update? I
thought I made it clear that it was the preeminent work of literature in the
world thus far, but evidently I was wrong.
There are many better catalysts around, like growing pressures of construction works and/or wartime.
Since when has any one catalyst started something?
Well, the admittedly low literacy of slaves does bring the accuracy of the claim into question, but what do WE know anyways? It could be an oral recitation, similar to those of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt.
Yes.
I think we can chalk the slave revolts up to the influence of Farou's massive culture, by whatever means it disseminates.
Also true.
An oral recitation of some lines from a play? Are the slaves really
that desperate for something to rise up for?
Because spoken words never influence people or inspire them. Oh no, they never have.
Culture is never the reason behind slave revolts (although ideology can be a catalyst).
False. This really smacks of a Marxist-Leninist way of thinking about the world (which, coincidentally, is an outmoded way). People do not merely take action out of "class consciousness". Culture defines how a person grows up, it defines what triggers them, how they see the world. If you don't think that might make a person more or less likely to do something, then that's really odd.
If you want a wargame where culture plays no role, I'd not suggest my NES. It won't appeal to everyone. Some things outside of the political and socioeconomic world WILL play a part, and that includes culture.
a much more plausible scenario is that the legend of the land of Farou where none are slaves might have inspired the rebel leaders to rise up with the intentions of fleeing to Farou
What do you think
Slave was about?
It involves slaves who try to make their way to Farou, in the most simplistic summary. So I'd say that helps a
lot with the scenario you're trying.
(thankfully for Iggy, they failed, or he would've had to deal with the nastiest kind of protoproletariat there is, in large quantities and armed, not to mention with an acquired taste for blood and an urgent need to survive. The thing about freeman-based agriculture is that you don't have much land to share with new arrivals even if you want to, not without infringing on the property rights of your empowered citizens).
Was going to comment on this, but I'm keeping information on agricultural productivity classified.
Even if the broader, underlying socioeconomic factors were what caused the revolts (and on that we agree,) reading banned Faroun literature would certainly be a possible expression of anti-Hu'ut sentiment.
Yeah. Not that it's even banned, given that no Hu'ut government has ordered Farou literature to be censored.
Because Hu'ut slaves are literate and can read literary Faroun without any difficulties.
Some of the nobility are. And some of the slaves overhear them, or are directly told it by sympathetic people. Word spreads.
Also, how would it get there? Even with a concentrated effort to smuggle in banned literature, there is no printing press.
Pshaw. The printing press is the only semi-reasonable objection here. Smuggling in banned literature to a nation has proven to be just about the easiest thing throughout history.
It's all good, though. I kinda lent a significant segment of my immediately available library to my old high school quiz bowl team for study purposes, so don't expect me to be able to converse about any and everything in a terribly erudite fashion.
