This is a compilation of the original post of the melodrama reality of

Blightwood Vales, and the follow-up comments. Normally I would have either taken
the time to make suggested modifications before uploading a final version to the
archives, or simply leave all this information in the monthly archives of the Black
Marble Wombat, with a reference to it from the Catalogue for casual perusal. In
this case neither of these options were possible, the first due to time, the latter
due to a regrettable hole in the monthly archives.

Saxon Brenton November 1994

----------

Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 12:30:34 +1000 (EST)

From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Blightwood Vales

As threatened, the melodrama cosm of Blightwood Vales...

The melodrama reality of Blightwood Vales is controlled by the High Lord

Bartholomew J. Dark, and his Darkness Device Rignit. Dark, like Dr. Mobius, is both
an expatriot from the cosm of Terra and a maniacal madman.
Dark was born on Terra as a member of the British land-owning gentry at the
end of the 17th century, but went into industry. He was a bounder and a cad, and
delighted in ruining peoples' livelihoods and means of income. When Dark was
accepted as Rignit's High Lord he exported his pulp reality to other worlds rather
than attempt to take over his own (a tactic that, for unfathomable reasons, _all_
the High Lords produced by Terra adopt, and of which Mobius and Dark aren't the
only examples). Dark retains his ancestral estates on Terra, called Blightwood
Vales and after which his reality is named, which he holds by pretending to be a
succession of his own fictitious and reclusive descendants. His current identity on
Terra is that of Matthew Dark.
Dark's formative years were spent in Terra's early 18th century, when the
Social and Tech axioms were different to those currently experienced on that world.
Even though he still has occasional contact with the rest of Terra and its more
advanced axioms he has retained, if not quite his original axiom levels, then
something that's highly reminiscent of them. What changes he's made have been more
in the way of refinements on an existing theme rather than departures into new
areas.
Dark continued to raise his Social and Tech axioms to keep pace with the
Industrial Revolution, and then stopped. As far as world laws are concerned the
reality of Blightwood Vales has been tailored by its High Lord over time to be less
and less like its parent world, and more like Victorian melodrama. Specifically,
like one of the "dramas of oppression" in which inhuman injustices are inflicted
upon a hapless population. This transformation is an ongoing process that Dark
hasn't yet completed; moreover, there are several reasons why he may never achieve
his exact desires without modification of his strategy. Nevertheless, his
achievements to date have been impressive. The removal of both the Law of Action
and Weird Science, and the metamorphosis of the Law of Drama into the Law of
Melodrama have shifted his reality away from being a pulp adventure setting towards
a more Dickensian form. He has also added the Law of Rhetoric, but this is mainly a
stylistic conceit.
However, enough of the original Law of Drama remains that heroes continue
to have adventures, giving Blightwood Vales an element reminiscent of 19th century
Boys Adventures literature, such as _Treasure Island_ or _Kidnapped_. Similarly,
the Law of Morality makes it relatively easy for evil to be identified, and
possibly excised. The problem is that Dark, like Dr. Mobius, is an overenthusiast
of a villain who delights in the sheer manic energy of being Evil. Dark's delight
in being a melodrama villain, in making extravagant pronouncements of doom and
cackling fiendishly, makes him prepared to run the risks of the dangers inherent in
the world laws his reality currently operates under. As long as he indulges himself
in these theatrics he is unlikely to make the necessary changes to his reality.
Other factors also contribute to this situation compromising his reality.
Dark has a personal dislike of magical and spiritual matters, and so has lowered
both the Magic and Spirit axioms to suit his personal taste. Dark would actually
prefer to have a flat 0 axiom for both, but while he may one day succeed in
reducing the Magic axiom to nothing, he is unlikely to do so with the Spirit axiom.
This is because when involved in a possibility raid Dark relies too heavily on the
lure of patriotism and jingoism - of calls to support "King and Country" that
motivate people to move out and expand the size of his realm - to be able to lower
the Spirit axiom too far. Nationalism and the allegiance that goes with it requires
an axiom of Social 10 to support it organisationally and as an intellectual
concept, but also needs a level of Spirit 5 to maintain the emotional commitment to
it. He is therefore unlikely to ever be able to fully remove the threat he feels
religion is to him.
There is another factor in the motivation of arrogant patriotism Dark uses
to expand his realm that may cause problems for him. In order to get people to move
out into new stelae areas they need to honestly believe that it is good of the
savages in the wilderness to be brought into the embrace of civilisation (There is
therefore no hint of the concept of the "noble savage" in Blightwood Vales). It
would have been simpler if Dark had altered the Law of Morality so that everybody,
and society as a whole, was fundamentally evil in nature, but what would be the fun
of being a villain without the virtuous to persecute? Therefore the population
needs to believe that what is being done is for the best, and that ultimately
everything will work out because of their altruism and sacrifices.
To this end Dark has embedding into his reality the idea of "Virtue
Triumphant" (just like in the plays of the 19th century). However, in a way which
Rignit will not elaborate on, but which Dark nevertheless has a sneaking suspicion
about, this has apparently had a cascading effect on the Law of Morality, so that
everybody (ord and p-rated) may use Inclination Detection and Inclination
Seduction, and the belief in Virtue Triumphant has imposed a form of the Price of
Evil on ord villains as well. At first Dark thought Virtue Triumphant would be a
useful tool - a leash of hope for the future that would make it easier for him to
lead the sheep under his control. Now he's not so sure. It seems to have taken on a
power of its own, enabling Virtue Triumphant to exist in fact as well as belief.
Dark has reined in its power as much as he can without spending too much
possibility energy on it, but it is still a useful tool which he does not want to
give up on.
Why then does Rignit tolerate Dark if he has a psychological trait that
prompts him to keep a reality with such vulnerabilities? Simple. Rignit both does
and doesn't tolerate it. Dark has ambition, as well as a love of destruction, that
makes him prime High Lord material, much too valuable to throw away. Just as much
as Dr. Mobius, Dark delights in the sheer thrill of doing evil to others and
ruining their lives. But unlike Mobius, Dark is not obsessed with personal glory at
the expense of destruction. Dark's modus operandi calls for him to manipulate the
politics of Blightwood Vales through the Bloodwood Club from his power base behind
the scenes. Dark's only weakness is his love of being a melodrama villain, and
hence has the need to take an occasional hands-on approach in some of his ventures.
Rignit is not entirely satisfied with the situation. It has kept an eye out
for other potential High Lords, but none have emerged to its satisfaction. Instead,
it has advised Dark on changes to make and courses of action to take, and on
occasion has made ultimatums. The most duplicitous step it has taken, however, has
been to allow Virtue Triumphant to infect the Law of Morality. (Dark has some
inkling of this. After all, realities under a Darkness Device's control are
stagnant things, and cannot change without the Device's complicity. This intrigue
has only served to widen the gap between the two of them, as Dark has bloody-
mindedly sworn to have things _his_ way.) Rignit plans to let things get a bit out
of Dark's control in order to try to convince him that a reality of industrial
oppression cannot afford to allow melodramatic stylistic trappings. In the meantime
the clash between the Evil majority oppressing the Good minority, who in turn bring
down the Evil majority with Virtue Triumphant, is causing lots of destruction in
society - which is all a Darkness Device could ask for. Overall, Rignit has kept on
top of the potential problems, and with vigilance and methodical changes in the
future it is confident about Blightwood Vales' long-term viability.
Stylistically Blightwood Vales is intended to be a reality of Victorian
industrial oppression. In practice the above-mentioned preferences of Dark,
combined with the legacy of its parent reality of Terra, means that industrial
oppression is not the be-all and end-all of Blightwood Vales' reality. It is, after
all, a melodrama reality, and is every bit as hyperbolic as the pulp realities,
with its mistaken identities, schemes of dispossession, kidnapped heirs, strawberry
birthmarks, ruthless but romantic masked highwaymen, Gilbert and Sullivan plot
complications, mysterious parentages, slow acting poisons, overt villainy, long-
lost children, falsely accused innocence, dungeons, and decaying gothic mansions,
etc.

THE COSM
For its first six possibility raids Blightwood Vales moved from world to
world, before Dark finally took a liking to the world of Erntov. Erntov is a
flattened dome roughly 60,000 kilometres in diameter and 10,000 kilometres thick at
its apex. Its geography is nothing like that of Terra and other Earth-like worlds.
The main resemblances to Terra it possessed was that its dominant sentient species
is human, and that one of its cultures (the Rhidan Mall Kingdoms) had reached the
point of an industrial revolution at a Tech level of 16. Dark has manipulated the
social and political situation somewhat to make Rhidan Mall even more like that of
Terra's 19th century Britain. Blightwood Vales has been based there for the past
110 years, during which time it has raided six other worlds. Rhidan, by the way, is
pronounced "huh RI dun", as though you had caught the most chronic parody of an
upper class English accent and can't stop dropping haitches into parts of words
where no haitch was meant to be. The three Rhidan Mall Kingdoms are Ornlin (the
foremost of the three), Englia, and Aristide, all of which are in the temperate
zone of the world near the rim. The capital city of Ornlin is Malrise; which is a
seaport on the northern coast.
The underside of Erntov is a flat, airless plain. Since the edge of the
world has arctic conditions, it is not possible to sail off the edge of the world
because of the perpetual ice sheet. On the other hand, walking, off the edge is
perfectly possible, and since the atmosphere of the domed side does not extent more
than a few hundred meters from the underside of the edge, it is also highly fatal.
As one approaches the edge of Erntov, gravity pulls toward the centre of the dome,
creating the effect of climbing an increasingly steep mountain. This is part of the
reason why the seas don't flow off the edge of the world; the only water at the
edge is in the form of ice, pushed there by the glacial weight of the icesheet
behind it. It also means that it is increasingly hard work to travel to the edge,
and similarly almost impossible to cross back over if one is unlucky enough to fall
over onto the barren, almost smooth, flat side.
Erntov has two moons, both of which are domes like Erntov itself. As they
orbit their flat sides are always facing towards each other. This is the basis of
the Erntovian proverb "Like faces like". It was once speculated that the moons were
two halves of a sundered celestial body, but this does not conform with the
difference in relative sizes and composition between them. The larger, outer moon
is called Dirsha, while the smaller one is known as Iro. They have months of 23 and
27 days, respectively. The moons have a polar orbit around Erntov.

AXIOMS AND WORLD LAWS

Magic 2 Social 19 Spirit 5 Tech 19

Magic 2. Dark has deliberately reduced the Magic axiom to suit his personal taste.
At this level the "weirdness effect" encountered in Nippon Tech manifests itself.
As a result, Blightwood Vales is a brooding world of inexplicable coincidences and
happenings, and where certain groups wield power beyond most people's credence.
Nippon's low Magic fog effect is also found here, and around industrial centres
(Wendyne, Tellio, Shimbleshanks, Dytton, etc.) it combines with the pollution
endemic to those areas to create sinister and oppressive "pea souper" fogs far
thicker and persistent than those encountered during the Victorian era on Core
Earth.
At this axiom level magic use is near ineffectual. It is only possible
through the use of rituals, takes years to learn how to use it at all, and even
then none of the magic skills are reliable.

Social 19. The Social axiom of Blightwood Vales is remarkably similar superficially
to that of the Victorians of Gaea. The social structure is near identical in that
the poor are in their place, and kept there with no opportunities to better
themselves, while the upper classes gain more wealth from the sweat of the workers.
There is a dedication to Malthusian principles of population control among the
upper classes: starvation is considered the best way to prevent overpopulation
among the poor, and one shouldn't attempt to actually help the poor because that
only encourages them to not help themselves.
Blightwood Vales is in a state perpetually resembling the social chaos that
results when industrialisation begins and lots of displaced rural workers move into
overcrowded urban industrial areas. Unions, of course, are actively and often
ruthlessly discouraged. Institutionalised slavery is common. It is economic in
nature, since anyone who fails to pay "significant" debts goes into slavery (either
into private ownership, or into the government run poorhouses, depending on the
nature of the debt and to who it was owed). In theory it is possible to buy one's
way out of slavery, but in practice people are worked so hard and paid so little
that this is rarely possible.
The main difference between society in Blightwood Vales and Orrorsh is that
the Victorian Sacellum's near absolute hold on society is not mirrored here. There
is (no longer) a state church in Blightwood Vales (and in at least one sense never
was), and although what religion exists may be followed to a greater or lesser
extent, and for differing reasons, it holds almost no political power.
Entertainment is nowhere near so strictly controlled as on Gaea. The lower
classes enthuse after plays, particularly melodramas and romances. If literacy were
more common among the lower classes there would be a similar freedom in reading
materials, but with no equivalent to the Protestant Evangelical Revival in Britain
to push for improved conditions and education there has been no rise in literacy.
Consequently the "penny dreadful" novels that were so popular in Core Earth's
Victorian era are unknown. Reading matter is usually the province of the upper
classes, and tends to be staid and proper.
Dark departed Terra in the early part of its Industrial Revolution, at
which time the Social axiom was 18. He has since then raised it slightly to
increase the efficiency of the bureaucracies of the imperial organisation, but has
kept it below Social 20, at which point multiple interests would be capable of
taking part in government decision making. Dark prefers for there to be just one
dominant faction in charge of Blightwood Vales, the industrialists, with himself
controlling the industrialists from behind the scenes .
A note on Virtue Triumphant: The concept of Virtue Triumphant is relatively
important to the social mechanics of Blightwood Vales, but in many ways is also a
complex (even paradoxical) one and needs explaining.
At its most basic level, Virtue Triumphant is the comforting belief held by
the population at large that things will work out all right in the end. As noted,
Dark prefers to keep a substantial part of the population Good for stylistic, not
practical, reasons - its more fun to persecute people that way. This, however, runs
the risk of people trying to institute reforms to improve things. Thus, Dark has
fostered the belief in Virtue Triumphant, since it keeps the population quiescent
for the most part. People have little motivation for widespread reforms if they
honestly believe that nature favours Good, and that ultimately everything will have
a Happy Ending (although a problem for Dark is that this belief seems to have taken
on some reality).
 There are a number of knock-on social effects of this. For instance, virtue
is associated with poverty and simplicity, while vice is linked with rank and
culture. Another is that people often pay more attention to the moral principle of
being Good, while ignoring immediate suffering.
The paradox of the belief in Virtue Triumph is that Dark also uses it as a
driving force behind expansion of his realm. The population of Blightwood Vales
honestly believe that for the good of others (most especially the savages in the
wilderness) that they intervene to introduce the industrial lifestyle of Blightwood
Vales, yet at the same time are so self-centred as to think that their own house
doesn't need being put in order. This is a contradiction, but one that is not
without historical precedent. At times during Britain's Industrial Revolution
reformers became quite concerned about the emancipation of black slaves overseas
while almost totally ignoring the problems, such as child labour, right under their
noses at home.

Spirit 5. Dark has a dislike, even fear, for the effects of religious fervour. He
was still on Terra when the Evangelical Revival began in the 1700s. Even after he
left, Dark still had some stake on Terra, particularly through the Terran slave
trade, and was able to continue to witness its effects first hand. Having seen the
charity that can result from religious fervour Dark wants no part of it, and has
worked hard to repress it - unsuccessfully on Terra (as his "son" and "grandson"
Peter and Joshua Dark), but very successfully in the reality under his direct
control.
Dark has deliberately lowered Blightwood Vales' Spirit axiom to suit his
personal tastes. He does not want any of his subjects gaining any form of comfort
from religion, preferring instead to create a bleak and spiritually dead world
where the population must slave, mindlessly, hopelessly, and despairingly, in
sweatshops. There is to be no solace for the homeless and the destitute. Dark has
worked hard to eradicate all traces of piously inspired charity that could motivate
the well-to-do to extend a helping hand to the lower classes rather than grind them
into the ground. Rather, he has heightened belief in the principle of the
"undeserving poor". Hard work, thrift, and self improvement are the order of the
day, and those who can't rise above their sad state obviously choose not to, and
are seen as content to drift along in their habits of gambling and drunkenness. The
idea that they can't rise above their deprivation, and that their drunkenness and
gambling are the only ways to make life tolerable, are ignored. And, of course, the
principle of hard work, etc. (what on other worlds would be known as the Protestant
Work Ethic) gives the added bonus of supplying a acquiescent work force for the
factories.
At this axiom level invocation of divine power is just barely possible, but
difficult and unlikely.

Tech 19. The technology of Blightwood Vales is essentially identical to that of the
Victorians of Gaea. The most important thing to note is in the distribution
throughout society. Dark doesn't want life to be comfortable for the bulk of the
working hoi poli, and so things like plumbing and gas lighting are limited to the
aristocracy and mercantile middle classes.

Reconnection Numbers
Character from BV Character in BV
is in reality of: is from reality of:
Atlantis 11 Atlantis 11
Avalon 10 Avalon 16
Aysle 8 Aysle 17
Aztec Empire 6 Aztec Empire 15
Core Earth 3 Core Earth 10
Cyberpapacy 4 Cyberpapacy 12
Kantovia 16 Kantovia 15
Land Below * 13 Land Below * 14
Lereholm 16 Lereholm 12
Living Land 15 Living Land 19
Magna Verita 8 Magna Verita 12
Nile Empire 3 Nile Empire 15
Nippon Tech 3 Nippon Tech 9
Orrorsh 3 Orrorsh 16
Pulse's cosm 8 Pulse's cosm 15
Star Sphere 3 Star Sphere 15
Terra 3 Terra 11
Tharkold 3 Tharkold 16
Tz'Ravok 10 Tz'Ravok 14
* also Arachnidia and Gehenna.

Law of Morality
This world law is identical in almost all respects to the Law of Morality
of Terra from which it originated, and the use of those aspects that are the same
as on Terra and the Nile Empire does not cause a contradiction.
Like Dr. Mobius, Dark has changed the ratio of people with Good and Evil
Inclination from the 90% - 10% that Terra enjoys to a 40% - 60% balance that makes
his depredations easier.
The most significant change to this law are additions which were not
implemented by Dark, and seem to be a result of Virtue Triumphant running rampant
(secretly abetted by Rignit). As a result of everybody (both ords and possibility-
rated), habitually voicing their moral convictions it has become possible for ords
to use the Inclination Abilities of Inclination Detection and Inclination
Seduction. These may be used by each ord a limited number of times per adventure,
equivalent to the value of the person's Perception attribute, and should be used
when most dramatically appropriate for the storyline. The total number of times
they may be used includes both Inclination Detection and Inclination Seduction, in
any combination of times. The Price of Evil applies to Evil ords as well, in the
form of a -3 penalty to one action once per adventure, again when it is most
dramatically appropriate to the storyline.
The Law of Morality is an active world law.

Law of Melodrama
The Law of Melodrama is a permutation of the Terran Law of Drama, which
Dark has changed slightly to suit his purposes. The original "core" of this world
law, corresponding to the Law of Drama, continues to function as it does in both
Terra and the Nile Empire, and hence this part does not cause a contradiction. As a
result of this effect, possibility-rated characters continue to have adventures
that are fast and hectic and filled with obstacles.
The second part of the Law of Melodrama is a result of Dark's attempt to
create an oppressive reality where the population labour in despair as the problems
of life grind them into the dirt. To this end he took the principle of obstacle
piling, twisted it, and applied it to everybody. All people are subject to this
altered form of obstacle piling, which inflicts an almost continuous series of
problems on them, many of them occurring simultaneously. These obstacles are not
the heroic type that can be resolved in a fight, but instead are the persistent
domestic type that linger and are worried over, such as overdue rent, mortgage
foreclosures, sick relatives, job loss through redundancy, harassment by
officialdom, and heavy taxes.
The Law of Melodrama is a passive world law.

Law of Rhetoric
The Law of Rhetoric is a creation that Dark implemented after he left
Terra, and is therefore unique to Blightwood Vales. This law causes people to
unselfconsciously voice their opinions and moral stance about life. Of course, Evil
individuals will usually try to project an image of Goodness (up until it is,
apparently, too late to stop their nefarious schemes, at which point they will
maniacally cackle their plans), but in neither case will it actually shut them up.
In order to facilitate the habit of people making passionate speeches at
whim that air their moral perspectives and judgements, any Presence-related cards
may be used as Monolog cards and such uses will gain an award of one possibility
(maximum) for each scene they are used in.
Another effect of this world law is that of the Dramatic Sting. Whenever a
character makes a suitably dramatic exclamation (GM's decision) he may make a roll
with his Charisma to beat a difficulty of 12. If successful, a Dramatic Sting will
ring out from an unidentifiable point in mid-air somewhere around the character.
The Law of Rhetoric is an active world law.

High Lord - Bartholomew J Dark

Dexterity 18
Dodge 22; Fire combat 23; Lock picking 20; Manoeuvre 22; Melee weapons 19;
Prestidigitation 22; Stealth 23; Unarmed combat 19
Strength 11
Toughness 18
Perception 20
Disguise 22; Evidence analysis 22; Find 22; Forgery 22; Land vehicles 21;
Language 22; Scholar (master criminal) 29; Scholar (realm lore) 25; Trick 22; Test
of wills 28; Willpower 24;
Mind 24
Business 36; Hypnotism 26; Science (knot tying) 26, Test of wills 32, Weird
science 29 (a leftover from Dark's study of WS, which has science has been deleted
from his reality making this skill redundant);
Willpower 29
Charisma 24
Charm 33; Persuasion 33; Taunt 33
Spirit 12
Intimidation 27; Reality (Blightwood Vales) 27;
Inclination: Evil
Possibilities: 45 (more if he has recently tapped Rignit)
Equipment: Black cape, black top hat, moustache wax, cane (Tech 7, dam STR+2/17),
Colt Peacemaker (Tech 19, dam 15, 3-5/15/40)
Dark was an only child, whose mother died in childbirth with his younger
brother. He was brought up by his arrogant and aristocratic father to have no
concern for the welfare of his tenants. He murdered his father to gain control of
the family estates when he was 22, and gained a lot of land and wealth through the
Land Enclosure Acts of the 18th century Britain. Although a member of the land
owning gentry, he moved into the textiles industry to increase his wealth. At the
time this was possible, but not socially acceptable for the gentry, but Dark didn't
care. He was also involved in the Terran slave trade, even after he had left to
become a possibility raider. He was enraged at the abolition of the slave trade in
the early 1830s, and other social reforms as a result of pressure from the
evangelical movement.
As High Lord Dark usually acts from behind the scenes, directing the
politics of the realm through the Bloodwood Club. However, Dark's love of being a
melodrama villain means that he often indulges himself and takes a direct hand in
some activities; this creates less actual destruction overall, but is more fun. He
just has this _thing_ about tying women to railway tracks, y'know. Whenever he
personally involves himself, he will always be accompanied (at least) by his
enforcers, Doug and Dinsdale.
Appearance: Medium height, and a little dumpy in build. He nevertheless manages to
disguise this appearance and look tall, dark, and saturnine by dressing properly in
black.
Quote: "Bwahahahahaha! Now, my pretty! Tell me where the deeds are hidden, or I'll
turn on the bandsaw!" <twirls moustache>

Darkness Device - Rignit

Dexterity 0
Strength 0
Toughness 205
Perception 28
Evidence analysis 29, Find 33, Language 34, Scholar (realm lore) 32, Trick 32
Mind 28
Test of will 35, Willpower 35
Charisma 35
Charm 36, Persuasion 40, Taunt 39
Spirit 40
Faith (Nameless One) 41, Intimidation 47, Reality (Blightwood Vales) 54
Possibilities: Untold thousands
Powers: All those listed on page 88 of the Torg rulebook.
Rignit takes the form of a massive black pipe organ (roughly 10 tonnes in
weight). It resides in the Great Hall of Dark's manor house.

TEMPLATES
Aradian Priest
Dexterity 9
Dodge, Fire combat, Stealth
Strength 8
Toughness 9
Perception 10
Disguise, Find, First aid, Scholar (realm lore), Scholar (Aradian mythos)
Mind 9
Test of will, Willpower
Charisma 11
Charm, Persuasion
Spirit 11
Faith (Aradianism), Intimidation, Reality (Blightwood Vales)
Tag skill: Focus
Equipment: Olap (ovoid holy symbol); holy book; first aid kit; BP 1856 (Tech 18,
dam 15, 3-5/15/40)
History: In the course of your ministry you have run afoul of the powerful vested
interests that run your world. You strongly suspect that their claims of working
for the advancement of society are usually just lies, and have been working to
expose their true agenda.
Personality: You are pious and resolute in the face of adversity. The miserable
conditions of the underclasses that you so often see merely strengthens your
resolve to do something about it. The fact that this is against possibility raiders
makes no difference.
Quote: "The fact that God directs us to persevere in the face of adverse conditions
should not be used as an excuse for not trying to improve them."

Bold Sailor Lad

Dexterity 11
Beast riding, Dodge, Fire combat, Lock picking, Manoeuvre, Melee weapons
Strength 10
Lifting
Toughness 10
Perception 9
Language, Scholar (sea lore), Tracking, Trick, Water vehicles
Mind 8
Test of wills, Willpower
Charisma 9
Charm, Persuasion, Taunt
Spirit 9
Intimidation, Reality (Blightwood Vales)
Tag skill: Unarmed combat
Equipment: Uniform, hardtack, club (Tech 6, dam STR+3/18), Sharp 1855 musket (Tech
19, dam 18, 3-40/250/600)
History: You joined the merchant navy at a young age, partly to see the world but
mostly to escape a life of poverty on the streets. You travelled far and wide and
saw many interesting places. Your preference for life in the open, however, has
been increasingly disturbed with the encroachment of "civilisation". Your distrust
of such "philanthropists" prompted you to keep and eye on them, and led you into
opposition to them when they started trying to take over by hook or by crook.
Personality: Bold and plucky, and cheerfully ready to face any problem, usually
with your fists.
Quote: "He's an evil-looking devil; the type you make walk the plank to scare away
the sharks."

Consulting Detective
Dexterity 9
Dodge, Fire combat, Lock picking, Melee weapons, Stealth, Swimming
Strength 8
Toughness 8
Perception 12
Camouflage, Disguise, Find, First aid, Forgery, Land vehicles, Language, Scholar
(history), Scholar (realm lore), Tracking, Trick
Mind 12
Science (chemistry), Test of will, Willpower
Charisma 9
Charm, Persuasion, Taunt
Spirit 8
Intimidation, Reality (Blightwood Vales)
Tag skill: Evidence analysis
Equipment: Notepad, pencil, pipe, walking cane (Tech 7, dam STR+2/17), Colt
Peacemaker (Tech 19, dam 15, 3-5/15/40)
History: You have faced many challenges over the years, picking and choosing the
most intriguing cases to stretch your abilities. Over time you have become aware of
irregularities in the power structure of the world, and traced it back to a man who
claims to extravagant title of High Lord. His origins and methods seem fantastic -
but after the removal of the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth. You
have set about to stop him.
Personality: You have a keen, analytical, and above all logical mind. Your calm and
methodical manner contrasts strongly with the emotionalism of so many of your
clients, but that is why they overlook the obvious and the rational, while you do
not. Some have accused you of pride, but you prefer to think of it as mere
competence.
Quote: "The game's afoot."

Renegade Bureaucrat
Dexterity 10
Dodge, Fire Combat, Manoeuvre, Stealth
Strength 8
Toughness 8
Perception 11
Evidence analysis, Find, Forgery, Scholar (Realm lore), Trick
Mind 11
Business, Test of wills, Willpower
Charisma 8
Persuasion, Taunt
Spirit 9
Intimidation, Reality (Blightwood Vales)
Tag skill: Science (administration)
Equipment: Fountain pen, business suit, Colt Peacemaker (Tech 19, dam 15, 3-
5/15/40)
History: Day in and day out you toiled to help bring the benefits of
industrialisation to the world and spread its bounty of hope of a better tomorrow
for all people. Then one day you came across a memo from one "Bartholomew J. Dark"
to your superiors in the public service. You were horrified by what it said and
implied. Now you fight an underground war from within the administration to reclaim
the Modern age from the agents of destruction.
Personality: Fastidious and neat. You are also passionately committed to the
principles of efficient administration Possibly too much so for practical purposes,
since it has made you enemies among those who wish to use bureaucracy as an
obfuscator to an efficient society rather than an enhancer of it.
Quote: "There are parts of his claims that do not add up."

Street Urchin
Dexterity 12
Dodge, Lock picking, Manoeuvre, Melee weapons, Prestidigitation, Running,
Stealth, Unarmed combat
Strength 8
Climbing
Toughness 8
Perception 12
Find, Trick
Mind 8
Scholar (street lore), Test of wills, Willpower
Charisma 9
Charm, Persuasion, Taunt
Spirit 9
Reality (Blightwood Vales)
Tag skill: Streetwise
Equipment: Knife (Tech 7, dam STR+3/17)
History: You grew up an orphan on the streets of an industrial centre, stealing to
survive. Then, one day your daring took you into the den of the grasping factory
owners, where your eavesdropping revealed that their plans were everything you
suspected. They don't just want the money, they want to make everyone else
miserable in the process as well. Now you regularly make yourself a surreptitious
opponent of them, sneaking in to commit small acts of vandalism to upset their
plans.
Personality: Hard and calculating, but more than perfectly capable of coming across
as the endearing waif.
Quote: "She'll be right Guv'. I knicked the keys while they weren't watching."

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS...
The Bloodwood Club
The Bloodwood Club is the most pre-eminent and powerful of the male-only
gentlemen's clubs that are the real power behind the government of the Rhidan Mall
Kingdoms and Erntov. Here the old boys gather to wheel and deal the fate of the
world over drinks. Both old and new money are welcome in the Club, as long as the
possessor has lots of it and, more importantly, the right attitude towards going
about getting more of it. It takes its name from the speech of one of its founders,
that the club's members would make and use their fortunes as they saw fit, and if
gainsaid would destroy their opponents with "blood and thunder". From this rather
hysterical pronouncement the club has traditionally been panelled in the red
coloured timber of the bloodwood tree.
The Bloodwood Club has its main address in the Ornlin capital of Malrise,
but also retains smaller residences in other major cities.

Royal Family
The current king of the Rhidan Mall Kingdoms is Alexander III of the House
of Enthorp. His immediate family consists of his wife (Queen Guinevere, "Gwen"),
five children (Princess Catherine; Prince Egbert, the heir apparent; Prince David;
Princess Alsistrea, and Prince John), and mother (Mary, widow of Stefan VI). Their
usual residence is the Summer Palace in Malrise.
Alexander III is empowered as the constitutional head of state; as king he
is the head of government and is the source from which the power and authority of
the government derives. But although government is carried out in his name he is
circumscribed by tradition as being unable to wield any of the power himself. The
reason for this situation has been a long term diminution of the real power of the
throne, which came to a climax some 160 years ago, 50 years prior to the arrival of
Dark.
At that time the House of Enthorp of Ornlin gained paramountcy over the
other Rhidan Mall Kingdoms, Englia and Aristide, but at the cost of giving up much
of its power for the support of the landed aristocracy that made the victory
possible. Alexander III's great great grandfather Stefan V was embroiled in war
with his paternal cousin Warwick II of Englia and the then ruler of Aristide, Peter
II (the alleged usurper of Stefan's maternal second cousin's throne). The squabble
over the thrones were complex issues of succession, and were not helped by the fact
that Peter II was claiming Aristide's throne under the system of "thrimark" (eldest
son claims the throne, thereafter claimed by eldest first cousin - the result of
ancient kin-fostering traditions from Peter II's native Biddleonia), while both
Ornlin and Englia were using primogeniture.

Government
The King is constitutional head of the government, but holds no real power.
The government itself consists of two houses. The first is the Domain of Nobles,
with 230 hereditary seats reserved for titled aristocracy. The other is the Domain
of the Free (sarcastically referring to both the fact that as elected
representatives they are not "burdened" with the "responsibility" of the hereditary
seats in the Domain of Nobles, and also that they are usually pawns of powerful
land and industry owners), which has 189 seats for representatives elected by
citizens who own more than 15 Snelks (approximately $10) worth of land. These
representatives are usually controlled by powerful interests both because the
voting isn't secret, and because of the use of gerrymandering and malproportionment
of the electoral boundaries to fix the outcome. (Respectively, gerrymandering
refers to fiddling the shape of the electoral boundary, while malproportionment is
fiddling with the relative number of voters within and between electorates).
Both malproportionment and gerrymandering are used to keep out
undesirables.

Aradian church.
The church resembles Christianity primarily in that it is monotheistic. The
basic tenets of Aradianism were formed some 2,500 years ago when the prophet
Zephrim, titled The Enlightened, began preaching against the oppression of the
imperialist Glarn Empire. Zephrim's message of tolerance, peace, and charity was
forced underground over the following three years. The turning point came when one
of Zephrim's followers, Cody the Martyr, was tried for blasphemy by priests of the
Great God Hobabi and killed with the Rite of Reconciliation. This was a symbolic
act whereby all sinners had their sins "burnt away" by the "searing and penetrating
gaze" of the Hobabi clergy, who are credited in parable as being all-seeing. Then,
once the sins were burnt away, the former sinners were brought back into the fold.
In practice this symobolgy was carried out by roasting the convicted heretic alive
and consuming parts of his body by ritual cannibalism.
After Aradianism became the state religion, it replaced the practice of
ritual cannibalism with a more symbolic ceremony, involving meat for the body of
the martyr and wine for the blood. To those who are ignorant of the true meaning of
the Celebration, it strongly resembles the Christian Holy Communion.
Aradianism has always had female priests. This results from one time when
Zephrim preached against the practices of the Izabinites with the question "Whyfore
do you weaken yourselves spurning your other halves?". The Izabinites where noted
not just for their practice of segregating their wives, but also for their habit of
burning them on a pyre should they prove barren.
The evil adversary of Aradianism is represented by Ipit, originally the
highest of the Khafatim (roughly, angels) of a neighbouring tribe at the time of
Zephrim's childhood. Although by the time Zephrim began preaching at age 26 this
tribe (the Melzarms) had been wiped out by the 21st Emperor of Glarn in genocidal
retribution for an imagined wrong, Zephrim remembered the name Ipit from his
childhood, when it had been used as a bogeyman. In Aradian mythology Ipit is
traditionally depicted as a hideously ugly being. Once beautiful, his inner evil
twisted his features, and now he shows his face to no-one, instead always
manifesting himself as a man cloaked in darkness, or occasionally as an area of
shadow. Ipit has four lieutenants who guard the four cardinal edges of the world,
and who represent the four classical elements. Rah holds the West, and has power
over the earth; Teley resides in the North and holds sway over fire; Belzamdar is
in the east and his element is water; while Sho is in the south with control over
frigid air. This cosmology reflects the geographical knowledge of Zephrim's time,
since his region of the world was thought to be the centre of a flat disc - with
the land to the west, sea to the east, frigid areas to the southern side and
burning hot areas on the northern side. In fact the dome shape of Erntov means that
northward leads to the equatorial region at the top (the north pole) of the world,
while the entire rim of the dome has a cold climate.
As an aside, up until the time Dark brought his reality to Erntov,
Aradianism was the state religion of the Rhidan Mall Kingdoms, as well as several
other countries as well. The retroactive changes the High Lord of Blightwood Vales
has imposed on Erntov means that the former history of the Aradian church is no
longer valid. The onion-domed cathedrals of the church still exist, but have been
retconned to have different origins and purposes. In the new history Aradianism
directs most of its efforts towards ministering the poor and destitute. Its
attempts to make inroads with the aristocracy and nouveau rich are openly spurned.
This is an inversion of the superseded state of affairs, when the High Church
activities of Aradianism caused it to be part of the establishment and preoccupied
with the upper classes, virtually ignoring the lower classes.
The dating system of Erntov was originally based on the birth of Zephrim,
by which it is currently 2435. In the retconned history the dating system of the
Rhidan Mall Kingdoms (and hence the rest of Erntov) is based from an important
battle between the Glarn Empire and the Tykons.

...AND STUFF
Notes on the Invasion of Ispsplae
Dark's fourth possibility raid was to the cosm of Ispsplae. It failed,
ostensibly because of a mysterious form of technology that Ispsplae was proficient
at, and which functioned without contradiction in the melodrama reality. This
technology was, of course, Weird Science (although the Ispsplaee refer to it as the
Law of Kirbian Technology).
When Dark left Terra to begin his career as a possibility raider, the world
law of Weird Science had yet to be codified by the conflicting efforts of Dr.
Mobius and Dr. Alexus Frest in the early 20th century. Nevertheless, the world law
existed in potentia at that time on Terra, and so was carried, unknowingly, by Dark
as well. Thus, Dark was not prepared for it, and for him its discovery still
represents a galling defeat.
After he had calmed down, Dark became intrigued by the fact that this
strange form of technology had functioned under his reality without contradiction.
In the years that followed this setback Dark turned his attention to identifying
this hitherto unknown factor and then mastering it so that it could be used as a
weapon. However, when it became clear what Weird Science was and how it worked
Rignit demanded that it be removed, and Dark agreed with only a little reluctance.
They recognised that the presence of Weird Science would be a factor preventing the
total dehumanising the population.
Weird Science is superficially similar to technology, but as noted in the
Terra sourcebook (p. 19), the more often it is used and reproduced the less
reliable it becomes. It is therefore unlike conventional technology in that it is
not suitable for creating oppressive working conditions and sweatshops across the
world. It represents the wondrous unknown - the inexplicable and exciting and
adventurous side of technology. Both the Darkness Device and High Lord agreed that
it is not appropriate for the feel of Blightwood Vales (which may seem strange
considering the melodramatic trappings Dark tolerates in the other world laws, but
presumably he has to draw the line somewhere).
Before Dark and Rignit decided to remove Weird Science from Blightwood
Vales, Dark had plans to use huge and horrible steam-driven death machines in his
invasions, although he had not yet come up with the idea of reality bombs. A few
prototypes were made before the project was terminated, and most were melted down
for scrap, but some examples may still survive, somewhere. Should examples of
Blightwood Vales' weird tech turn up, then they will be differentiated from Terran
and Nile Empire weird tech not by function, but by appearance. Whereas the other
two use 1930s style widgets with vacuum tubes and capacitors, Blightwood Vales
tended to create steam-driven contraptions made of heavy cast iron with cogs,
gears, boilers, turbines and belt drives. Their Tech level will be a maximum of 31
(same as Terra; Dark did not have the time to raise it to 33, as Dr. Mobius has
done).
Unknown to Dark, there is another reason why the invasion of Ispsplae
failed. That reason was the attack on Rignit by another Darkness Device - the
renegade Darkness Device and self-proclaimed Lightness Device Igglepleck (which has
subsequently taken to calling itself Heironymous). Igglepleck warned the astounded
Rignit that Ispsplae was under Igglepleck's protection, and that if Rignit tried to
conquer its world Igglepleck would destroy its sibling. When Rignit collected
itself after its moment of shock, it condescendingly ridiculed Igglepleck. The
Lightness Device then proceeded to beat the crap out of Rignit, using abilities and
levels of power that were as far beyond anything a standard Darkness Device
possesses the powers of stormers are beyond ords. Rignit barely escaped, and fled,
honestly fearing for its existence. Igglepleck did not follow, but instead used a
hitherto unknown means to respark the population to spare them from the effects of
double transformation, then pulled up Blightwood Vales' stelae all at once.
After Dark's withdrawal Rignit tried to sneak a peek at Ispsplae again, but
couldn't find it. Igglepleck has, apparently, hidden its reality from outside
detection. Rignit has since told the other Darkness Devices of these events, and
most have made a search for Ispsplae and Igglepleck to some degree or another; only
the completely insane The Other Nameless One of the Ideals reality hasn't made any
attempt. However, all investigations have proven fruitless, and the Darkness
Devices can only wonder what their errant kin is up to.

-----
Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 15:06:10 -0600

From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

Saxon writes:

> As threatened, the melodrama cosm of Blightwood Vales...

>
> The melodrama reality of Blightwoodd Vales is controlled by the High
> Lord Bartholomew J. Dark, and his Darkness Device Rignit. Dark, like
> Dr. Mobius, is both an expatriot from the cosm of Terra and a maniacal
> madman.
> Dark was born on Terra as a member of the British land-owning gentry
> at the end of the 17th century, but went into industry. He was a bounder
> and a cad, and delighted in ruining peoples' livelihoods and means of
> income. When Dark was accepted as Rignit's High Lord he exported his
> pulp reality to other worlds rather than attempt to take over his own (a
> tactic that, for unfathomable reasons, _all_ the High Lords produced by
> Terra adopt, and of which Mobius and Dark aren't the only examples).

Ehhhhh...I don't like Dark being from Terra. Is there some greater need
for it, some cosmic meaning behind it? Why would there be more than one
Darkness Device in Terra? And if Terran HLs always run off and go after
other cosms, why would DD even travel to/stay on Terra? Someone who
can't even conquer his native reality wouldn't exactly inspire me to go
there looking for a new HL or to stick around waiting for someone to come
along and prove worthwhile. There's an infinite number of cosms out there
but apparently a finite number of DDs (otherwise every cosm would have one)
so why would they be doubling up anywhere?

> However, enough of the original Law of Drama remains that heroes
> continue to have adventures, giving Blightwood Vales an element
> reminiscent of 19th century Boys Adventures literature, such as

But is that style of action the same as what the Law of Drama gives us
in Nile/Terra? Do we really need a 19th century pulp action cosm? What's
wrong with the "lesser" style of action you get in every other cosm out
there? (Maybe I've just read the wrong fiction from that era but "fast"
and "action-packed" isn't how I would describe it.)

[...]

> To this end Dark has embedding into his reality the idea of "Virtue
> Triumphant" (just like in the plays of the 19th century). However, in a
> way which Rignit will not elaborate on, but which Dark nevertheless
> has a sneaking suspicion about, this has apparently had a cascading
> effect on the Law of Morality, so that everybody (ord and p-rated) may
> use Inclination Detection and Inclination Seduction, and the belief in

Is Inclination Seduction limited to just P-rateds? I don't remember

off the top of my head.

[...]

> Law Morality

How about calling it the Law of Virtue? It would avoid confusion with
the Nille/Terra LoM which would be good since there are differences in
what they do.

> Law of Melodrama

> The Law of Melodrama is a permutation of the Terran Law of Drama,
> which Dark has changed slightly to suit his purposes. The original
> "core" of this world law, corresponding to the Law of Drama, continues
> to function as it does in both Terra and the Nile Empire, and hence this
> part does not cause a contradiction. As a result of this effect,
> possibility-rated characters continue to have adventures that are fast and
> hectic and filled with obstacles.

As I said above, I must not have read the same Victorian literature...

And the WL should affect Ords too (the setting, not the people, is what
the WL affects.)

> The second part of the Law of Melodrama is a result of Dark's attempt
> to create an oppressive reality where the population labour in despair
> as the problems of life grind them into the dirt. To this end he took the
> principle of obstacle piling, twisted it, and applied it to everybody. All
> people are subject to this altered form of obstacle piling, which inflicts
> an almost continuous series of problems on them, many of them
> occurring simultaneously. These obstacles are not the heroic type that
> can be resolved in a fight, but instead are the persistent domestic type
> that linger and are worried over, such as overdue rent, mortgage
> foreclosures, sick relatives, job loss through redundancy, harassment by
> officialdom, and heavy taxes.

I wouldn't exactly call that "melodramatic" though, so I wonder if it

might not be better as a seperate WL (though I like the development from
the LoD, but since I disagree with the need for the LoD here it's not
necessary.)

> Law of Rhetoric

> In order to facilitate the habit of people making passionate speeches at

> whim that air their moral perspectives and judgements, any Presence-
> related cards may be used as Monolog cards and such uses will gain an
> award of one possibility (maximum) for each scene they are used in.

Assuming of course it is used to make a speech about morality and not just
some way of keeping the NPCs from using that "Villain Up" condition (sorry,
minor aside not actually directed at the writeup but at my players who seem
unable to actually come up with a monologue of any kind when they use the
card, they just throw it and say something trite like "Your plan will never
succeed because we're going to kick your butt".)

> Another effect of this world law is that of the Dramatic Sting.
> Whenever a character makes a suitably dramatic exclamation (GM's
> decision) he may make a roll with his Charisma to beat a difficulty of
> 12. If successful, a Dramatic Sting will ring out from an unidentifiable
> point in mid-air somewhere around the character.

Huh? What exactly is a "Dramatic Sting"?

> High Lord - Bartholomew J Dark

> Dexterity 18
> Dodge 22; Fire combat 23; Lock picking 20; Manoeuvre 22;
> Melee weapons 19; Prestidigitation 22; Stealth 23;
> Unarmed combat 19
> Strength 11
> Toughness 18

Obviously not of the Mobius/3327 school of master villain thinking...

> Mind 24
> Business 36; Hypnotism 26; Science (knot tying) 26, Test of wills 32,
> Weird science 29 (a leftover from Dark's study of WS, which has
> science has been deleted from his reality making this skill redundant);

Redundant? Must be a use of that word I'm not familiar with...

[...]
> Street Urchin
> Dexterity 12
> Dodge, Lock picking, Manoeuvre, Melee weapons, Prestidigitation,
> Running, Stealth, Unarmed combat
> Strength 8
> Climbing
> Toughness 8

Damn big urchin!

> Mind 8
> Scholar (street lore), Test of wills, Willpower

Er, Scholar is a Perception skill.

> ...AND STUFF

> Notes on the Invasion of Ispsplae
> Dark's fourth possibility raid was to the cosm of Ispsplae. It failed,
> ostensibly because of a mysterious form of technology that Ispsplae was
> proficient at, and which functioned without contradiction in the
> melodrama reality. This technology was, of course, Weird Science
> (although the Ispsplaee refer to it as the Law of Kirbian Technology).

I don't know if I'd say that non-Terran Weird Science would work in
Terra or a Terran offshoot reality. Weird Science isn't like cyberware
or magic where it's purely an axiomatic effect and exportable to any
cosm with the right axiom; it's due to a WL or WL-like effect and unless
it's a case of one WL (Nile) being an offshoot of another (Terra) I
don't think they'd "synch" up properly. Just MO of course, YMMV.

> appearance. Whereas the other two use 1930s style widgets with
> vacuum tubes and capacitors, Blightwood Vales tended to create steam-
> driven contraptions made of heavy cast iron with cogs, gears, boilers,
> turbines and belt drives. Their Tech level will be a maximum of 31
> (same as Terra; Dark did not have the time to raise it to 33, as Dr.
> Mobius has done).

I know we've probably gone over this before but does it actually say
Tech 33 in the Nile SB? My recollection is that it doesn't, because
otherwise Mobius could build time-machines and any number of other
gonzo devices beyond the dreams of most pulp stories.

> Unknown to Dark, there is another reason why the invasion of Ispsplae
> failed. That reason was the attack on Rignit by another Darkness Device
> - the renegade Darkness Device and self-proclaimed Lightness Device
> Igglepleck (which has subsequently taken to calling itself
> Heironymous). Igglepleck warned the astounded Rignit that Ispsplae
> was under Igglepleck's protection, and that if Rignit tried to conquer its
> world Igglepleck would destroy its sibling. When Rignit collected itself
> after its moment of shock, it condescendingly ridiculed Igglepleck. The
> Lightness Device then proceeded to beat the crap out of Rignit, using
> abilities and levels of power that were as far beyond anything a
> standard Darkness Device possesses the powers of stormers are beyond
> ords. Rignit barely escaped, and fled, honestly fearing for its existence.

Ehhhh...I'll hold off on commenting until you post the Heironymous writeup
you mentioned elsewhere but I will say right now that I'm exceptionally
leery about the whole idea....
Overall I think the concept is good but I disagree with a lot of the
setup, primarily the connection to Terra. I don't necessarily see it
as being necessary and while TORG does work well at combining different
genres together (Nile Empire, Cyberpapacy) I don't think the combination
of "inhuman oppression" and "heroic adventure" works too well.

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 19:37:26 +1000 (EST)

From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

On Monday 10th October Ks. Jim wrote:

> Ehhhhh...I don't like Dark being from Terra. Is there some greater need
> for it, some cosmic meaning behind it? Why would there be more than one
> Darkness Device in Terra? And if Terran HLs always run off and go after
> other cosms, why would DD even travel to/stay on Terra? Someone who
> can't even conquer his native reality wouldn't exactly inspire me to go
> there looking for a new HL or to stick around waiting for someone to come
> along and prove worthwhile. There's an infinite number of cosms out there
> but apparently a finite number of DDs (otherwise every cosm would have one)
> so why would they be doubling up anywhere?
Okay, taking the questions more or less in order; no, there probably
isn't some *greater need* for it. I think I can justify it by claiming that
it highlights the action/adventure mindset of Terra (and pulp realities in
general) - I expect that weird coincidences like that are always
happening. Or to put it another way, in the archives in the superhero
cosm of Technopolis there was the idea that the Law of Luck is
"shielding" that cosm from DDs, and keeping them out; well, this is the
reverse, the LoDrama is causing weirdness to be sucked in. But as for
why its included, basically because the conception of a melodrama reality
that I had in my head was so close to the extant pulp realities that a) it
was possible, leading to b) it making a nice bit of history if I included
it. Of course, as you note later, your conception of melodrama is different
to mine. So basically it's just old overenthusiastic Saxon's imagination
running away with him again. :-) (Not that I see a reason to change it at
this point, mind you :-)
Next, it didn't say that Dark *couldn't* conquer Terra, simply that he
choose not to. Now, it'd be interesting to see if Dark actually could, but
as I've said before, the number crunching side of game mechanics isn't
my strong point. :-(
Now, on the issue of doubling up, for the immediate reason see above.
However, I got the impression that the Nameless One dispatched the DDs
willy nilly through the cosmverse, so a random double up could happen,
but it helps if the cosm itself is a weirdness magnet :-)

>> However, enough of the original Law of Drama remains that heroes
>> continue to have adventures, giving Blightwood Vales an element
>> reminiscent of 19th century Boys Adventures literature, such as
>
> But is that style of action the same as what the Law of Drama gives us
> in Nile/Terra? Do we really need a 19th century pulp action cosm? What's
> wrong with the "lesser" style of action you get in every other cosm out
> there? (Maybe I've just read the wrong fiction from that era but "fast"
> and "action-packed" isn't how I would describe it.)
Well, I *think* so. Admittedly one of the things I was trying to convey,
and didn't do properly, is that Dark and Rignit have been whittling away
at this effect, so that its now only a pale shadow of its Terran parent. But
I still see the stereotype adventures of people being tied up in pirate cave
(with all the obligatory skeletons) as the tide comes in, and plucky
British youth going off to the wilds of Africa and India and having
adventures and get chased by heathen natives before converting them to
Christianity, and moorland chases with smugglers, and all the sort of stuff
you get in Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" or even Joan Aiken's "Wolves of
Willoughby (sp?) Chase" (and the rest in that series, the name of which I
can't recall at the moment :-( Maybe not fast, but definitely filled with
hyped-up adventure, nothing subtle about it at all.
Even in melodrama proper, there are evicted mothers carrying
swaddled babes through the snow while being stalked by wolves, and
honourable naval officers forced into lives of piracy because of
obligations who get into sword fights on the poop deck, etc., etc. (I think
part of the problem in judging what genre melodrama is comes from its
history. According to my research it started in France, reached its high
point in England, accumulated several centuries of history, and covered a
number of different sub-styles, from romance to industrial grim-n-gritty
"drama of oppression" to supernatural thriller - though I doubt if any
ghosts of bleeding nuns will be wandering around ruined castle
battlements in BV, the Magic axiom's too low)

> Is Inclination Seduction limited to just P-rateds? I don't remember

> off the top of my head.
Yes. NE sb, p. 61: "Possibility-rated characters who are under the
influence of Terran/Empire axioms have abilities and penalties based
upon their Inclinations..." etc., reiterated Terra sb pp. 50-51.

> How about calling it the Law of Virtue? It would avoid confusion with
> the Nile/Terra LoM which would be good since there are differences in
> what they do.
Sounds reasonable. It's certainly what the population would call it.

[Law of Melodrama]
> And the WL should affect Ords too (the setting, not the people, is what
> the WL affects.)
True. I hadn't thought of that.

> I wouldn't exactly call that "melodramatic" though, so I wonder if it

> might not be better as a seperate WL (though I like the development from
> the LoD, but since I disagree with the need for the LoD here it's not
> necessary.)
For definitions of melodrama, see above. Obviously, its only part of
what Dark could have developed, but the "drama of oppression" bit was
the only bit he wanted.

[Law of Rhetoric]
> Assuming of course it is used to make a speech about morality and not just
> some way of keeping the NPCs from using that "Villain Up" condition (sorry,
> minor aside not actually directed at the writeup but at my players who seem
> unable to actually come up with a monologue of any kind when they use the
> card, they just throw it and say something trite like "Your plan will never
> succeed because we're going to kick your butt".)
Pesky players. You go to all the trouble of creating an interesting
world with a new genre and all they want to do is enjoy themselves. :-)

> Huh? What exactly is a "Dramatic Sting"?

It's where someone says something dramatic or important, and
everyone stands there in shock for a second or two, and there's a blare or
beat of dramatic sounding music or noise. The obvious Torg example is
the Law of Darkness Devices for the Cartoon Cosm (Dum-da-dum-dum).
>From memory the "Dragnet" show started its exposition voice-over with
a dramatic sting beat. In an old "Muppet Show", Gonzo the Great is about
to tell why everybody's turning into chickens, then leans forward to
whisper, "and I could use a dramatic sting here". I also recall "Hey Hey
Its Saturday" used to use several types (both beats and blares) all the
time (but the latter reference will probably confuse everyone except
Daiajo and any lurking Aussies :-)

> Er, Scholar is a Perception skill.

Arrgh! I sat down with the list of skills to make sure I avoided that
sort of mistake. Paint me green and call me an incompetent!

> I don't know if I'd say that non-Terran Weird Science would work in
> Terra or a Terran offshoot reality. Weird Science isn't like cyberware
> or magic where it's purely an axiomatic effect and exportable to any
> cosm with the right axiom; it's due to a WL or WL-like effect and unless
> it's a case of one WL (Nile) being an offshoot of another (Terra) I
> don't think they'd "synch" up properly. Just MO of course, YMMV.
If we were back pre-silly putty interpretation of Land Below I'd argue
that world laws are capable of evolving not just similarly (like the
Honour/Corruption abilities of Aysle and Avalon) but also into identical
world laws; in which case if they have the same name, treat 'em as
compatible. But now I'm not so sure. Actually though, the point is moot,
and for exactly the reason you suggest. <maniac giggling>

> I know we've probably gone over this before but does it actually say
> Tech 33 in the Nile SB? My recollection is that it doesn't, because
> otherwise Mobius could build time-machines and any number of other
> gonzo devices beyond the dreams of most pulp stories.
Yes. NE sb p. 83 WS =33; Terra sb p. 42 WS =31. Centre column in
both cases. And interestingly, in the NE section it does mention the
possible creation of time-travel gizmos. Guess it was decided that
things'd get a bit out of hand if that was possible, huh? (I wonder if
Brian realised that when he wrote the Terra sb and made the change
deliberately?)

> Ehhhh...I'll hold off on commenting until you post the Heironymous writeup
> you mentioned elsewhere but I will say right now that I'm exceptionally
> leery about the whole idea....
With good reason, I can assure you. I've been working on BV for most
of the year, but the idea of Heironymous occurred to me only in the past
month or so. Its still very sketchy, and the cosmic reality its creating to
go on a jihad against the other DDs is terminally munchkin. It's more an
idea I want to throw into the ring than something I would expect people
to actually use in play. Think of it as a bit of history rather than as rules
supplementation.

> I don't necessarily see it

> as being necessary and while TORG does work well at combining different
> genres together (Nile Empire, Cyberpapacy) I don't think the combination
> of "inhuman oppression" and "heroic adventure" works too well.
You and Rignit both, which is why its been whittling it down. In play I
should think you'd need to emphasise the former over the latter. Heroic
adventure is something that's being continually downgraded in BV, and
really I included it to emphasise BV's lingering links with its parent
reality.
Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 08:54:35 -0400

From: parham@mismo.niehs.nih.gov (Fred Parham)
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

"Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au> said:

> ... Joan Aiken's "Wolves of

>Willoughby (sp?) Chase" (and the rest in that series, the name of which I
>can't recall at the moment :-(

In chronological order (fictional world time), _Wolves of Willoughby Chase_,

_Black Hearts in Battersea_, _Nightbirds on Nantucket_, _The Stolen Lake_,
_The Cuckoo Tree_, _Dido and Pa_. I highly recommend these. The magic axiom
in these would be about 11. The setting is a warped version of early 19th
century earth. Many of the plots deal with attempts by the evil supporters
of the Hanoverian pretender, Bonny Prince Georgie, to overthrow the rightful
Stuart kings of England. _The Stolen Lake_ has a character from English legend
who has moved to South America (I'm being vague here to avoid spoilers) and
would make a great High Lord.

Fred Parham

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 09:02:49 -0600

From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

Saxon writes:

[I wrote:]

> > But is that style of action the same as what the Law of Drama gives us
> > in Nile/Terra? Do we really need a 19th century pulp action cosm? What's
> > wrong with the "lesser" style of action you get in every other cosm out
> > there? (Maybe I've just read the wrong fiction from that era but "fast"
> > and "action-packed" isn't how I would describe it.)

> Well, I *think* so. Admittedly one of the things I was trying to convey,
> and didn't do properly, is that Dark and Rignit have been whittling away
> at this effect, so that its now only a pale shadow of its Terran parent. But
> I still see the stereotype adventures of people being tied up in pirate cave
> (with all the obligatory skeletons) as the tide comes in, and plucky
> British youth going off to the wilds of Africa and India and having
> adventures and get chased by heathen natives before converting them to
> Christianity, and moorland chases with smugglers, and all the sort of stuff

Well, I don't necessarily see needing a WL just to enforce adventure;

any cosm will have adventures, it's the Law of Drama in the Nile that
makes it's adventures "bigger than big". The type of stuff you
mention above isn't necessarily that kind of Drama though, at least
IMO - melodrama is sensationalistic and emotional while the drama in
the Nile is more sensationalistic and hyperactive.

> > Is Inclination Seduction limited to just P-rateds? I don't remember

> > off the top of my head.

> Yes. NE sb, p. 61: "Possibility-rated characters who are under the
> influence of Terran/Empire axioms have abilities and penalties based
> upon their Inclinations..." etc., reiterated Terra sb pp. 50-51.

Of course those penalties have to apply to Ords otherwise we've got

the situation of Ords being able to act contradictory to their reality
but P-rateds who can't! I think that's one of my main quibbles with
the Nile SB, the WLs were written purely from the POV of P-rateds and
ignored the Ords in the cosm. Perhaps a little bit of rewriting is in
order (nothing major, just generalize things a bit more so that Ords
are considered.)

[Saxon defines "dramatic sting"]

Okay, that's what I thought you meant but I'd never heard the term
before. Besides, I already use 'em whenever anyone says something
dramatically appropriate, I just figured it was one of the meta-WLs of
TORG in general. 8-)

> If we were back pre-silly putty interpretation of Land Below I'd argue
> that world laws are capable of evolving not just similarly (like the
> Honour/Corruption abilities of Aysle and Avalon) but also into identical
> world laws; in which case if they have the same name, treat 'em as
> compatible. But now I'm not so sure. Actually though, the point is moot,
> and for exactly the reason you suggest. <maniac giggling>

I'd forgotten about Aysle and Avalon having the same Honor WL, so I
guess if you want it you've got a precedent to work with. But I was
planning on redoing Avalon to fit my preconceptions anyway so.... 8-)

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 09:45:21 EDT

From: Daiajo Tibdixious MACS <wetibd@iwsd01.itwol.bhp.com.au>
Subject: Double DD's (was Re: Blightwood Vales)

Tue, 11 Oct 1994 19:37:26 "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)"

<u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
>On Monday 10th October Ks. Jim wrote:
>> along and prove worthwhile. There's an infinite number of cosms out there
>> but apparently a finite number of DDs (otherwise every cosm would have one)
>> so why would they be doubling up anywhere?
> Now, on the issue of doubling up, for the immediate reason see above.
>However, I got the impression that the Nameless One dispatched the DDs
>willy nilly through the cosmverse, so a random double up could happen,
>but it helps if the cosm itself is a weirdness magnet :-)

Ah, but the probability of that is 1/infinity * 1/infinity =

1/(infinity squared). [BTW this is not gibberish, read "On Numbers & Games"
or similar.]

Is the cosm 'suck' power up to this. :)

I was tossing up 'distribution' rules for DD's, and I would definitely put in

1) only 1 DD per cosm, unless a HL found it and moved it (eg. Earth).

2) for a random cosm, it has a DD if you roll over 110 (Torg style)
(that's more than 1/10^7 from the transform table)
--
wetibd@itwol.bhp.com.au Daiajo Diphenyl Tibdixious DEVAX1::WETIBD
V2.1 GCM/B/SS d++() H-- s-:++ g+ p1 au>++ a>- w+ v-?(+) C++++ N++ V++$ -po+ t+@
!5 R++ G++>+ tv++ b+++ B? e++* h--- f+ r-- n++ y+++*

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 09:28:19 -0600

From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

Saxon writes:

[I wrote:]

> > IMO - melodrama is sensationalistic and emotional while the drama
> > in the Nile is more sensationalistic and hyperactive.

> A valid distinction. Hm, maybe to simulate that sort of effect the
> melodramtic adventures have somehow tied itself into the
> emotionalism of the LoRhetoric (ie, LoMelodrama has had the LoDrama game
> mechanics completely excised, but the fading tendency of the ex-pulp
> reality towards adventure has latched onto an emotional rather than
> phsical support. Mind you, that's anthropomorphising the wl :-)

Hey, they've anthropomorphised The Nameless One already, what's a WL

compared to that? 8-/
>
> [Law of Morality for ords vs. p-rateds]
> > Of course those penalties have to apply to Ords otherwise we've got
> > the situation of Ords being able to act contradictory to their reality
> > but P-rateds who can't! I think that's one of my main quibbles with
> > the Nile SB, the WLs were written purely from the POV of P-rateds and
> > ignored the Ords in the cosm. Perhaps a little bit of rewriting is in
> > order (nothing major, just generalize things a bit more so that Ords
> > are considered.)

> Um, isn't it the case that ords *have* to follow their Inclination
> and p-rateds can cheat on it by spending poss? And I'm not advocating
> that it change (at least, I'm not advocating ords should be able to ignore
> their Inclination - p-rateds having their Inclination following tightened
> up a bit may be a different story). BVs version of the LoMorality simply
> opens up Inclination abilities for ord use, which in itself might be a
> useful starting point for a house rules modification of the LoM toward an
> ord POV.

The Nile WL does limit Ords to following their Inclination and allows P-rateds
to go against it at the cost of Possibilities, I didn't mean to imply other-
wise. What I was trying to get at is that the Nile WLs are very PC-centric,
with the exception of having an Inclination there's nothing in the WLs that
really affects Ords (arguably the Law of Drama does but it has no _direct_
effects on them.) Now I could see Mobius changing the Nile's WLs slightly
to get that effect (helping him since prior to Core Earth most P-rateds
would be on his side) but in Terra it's a bit more unusual. P-rateds are
the exception, not the rule, so the development of WLs that can really only
be used by P-rateds seems a bit out of place.
Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 18:18:33 +1000 (EST)

From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

On Tues 11th Oct Ks. Jim wrote:

[Law of Drama and BV adventures]
> Well, I don't necessarily see needing a WL just to enforce adventure;
> any cosm will have adventures, it's the Law of Drama in the Nile that
> makes it's adventures "bigger than big". The type of stuff you
> mention above isn't necessarily that kind of Drama though, at least
> IMO - melodrama is sensationalistic and emotional while the drama
> in the Nile is more sensationalistic and hyperactive.
A valid distinction. Hm, maybe to simulate that sort of effect the
melodramtic adventures have somehow tied itself into the
emotionalism of the LoRhetoric (ie, LoMelodrama has had the LoDrama game
mechanics completely excised, but the fading tendency of the ex-pulp
reality towards adventure has latched onto an emotional rather than
phsical support. Mind you, that's anthropomorphising the wl :-)

[Law of Morality for ords vs. p-rateds]

> Of course those penalties have to apply to Ords otherwise we've got
> the situation of Ords being able to act contradictory to their reality
> but P-rateds who can't! I think that's one of my main quibbles with
> the Nile SB, the WLs were written purely from the POV of P-rateds and
> ignored the Ords in the cosm. Perhaps a little bit of rewriting is in
> order (nothing major, just generalize things a bit more so that Ords
> are considered.)
Um, isn't it the case that ords *have* to follow their Inclination
and p-rateds can cheat on it by spending poss? And I'm not advocating
that it change (at least, I'm not advocating ords should be able to ignore
their Inclination - p-rateds having their Inclination following tightened
up a bit may be a different story). BVs version of the LoMorality simply
opens up Inclination abilities for ord use, which in itself might be a
useful starting point for a house rules modification of the LoM toward an
ord POV.

Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia

Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 02:00 CDT

From: loren@hops.wharton.upenn.edu (Loren Miller)
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

My main complaint about BV is the proportion of Evil people to Good

people. With a proportion of 60% to 40% Evil to Good, it's way worse
than Terra, which is already way worse than our real world. [Warning,
rambling ahead] If you want to make the cosm oppressive in comparison
to the real world, then think about it this way... in the real world
the proportion of born criminals is somewhere between 1% and 5%. If we
had to characterize born criminals with a moral name then Evil
wouldn't be a bad name to pick. Terra is already a *lot* more
oppressive than real life, with 10% of the populace being born to
commit crimes and screw people over just for the hell of it. In fact,
doesn't the Nile Worldbook say something about how Mobius has been
raising the percentage of Evil folks for ages and ages? So how did
Dark manage such a complete victory of Evil over Good, and with all
those Evil folks running amok why hasn't his cosm turned into an
abbatoir like a steam-age version of Los Angeles? You see, people who
inform on neighbors and so on aren't actually evil. They *think* that
what they are doing is *good* because they've been duped by someone in
a position of power. They're pawns, yes, but Evil, no. Evil people are
as nasty as Bloody Jack or Bluebeard. They aren't the nosy neighbors.

so... what does that mean for Blightwood Vales?

It means you can still have "You must pay the rent!" "I can't pay the
rent!" "Then I'll tie you to the railroad track until you cough up the
rent!" exchanges, but now instead of the innocent girl being
outnumbered by her murderous neighbors who all want to throw her on
the tracks and ravish her and steal her ancestral quilt patterns, her
neighbors all stand back in amazement at the sheer *gall* of that
Snidely Whiplash as he throws her over his shoulder in a fireman's
carry and takes her to the Blutburg & Ipswich Line and a strong hawser
made of hemp.

How to make it so that the neighbors don't all take action against
Snidely? How can you enforce inaction? Rather than a law of Melodrama
try a law of Melancholy. Make it so that people do depressing things
because they find them rewarding. Instead of taking care of a problem,
they ignore it in the hope that it will go away, and it gets worse,
and then late at night they agonize about it and get in the mood to
write florid poetry. It's kind of like clinical depression, or
attention deficit syndrome. As things pile up, they naturally get
melodramatic. And melancholia is a much more typical sign of 19th
century literature than melodrama. When your pregnancy ends in a
miscarriage, do you cry about it and try again? No, you go catatonic!
When your lovely wife goes crazy do you put her in an asylum or commit
her to a nunnery? No. You lock her in the attic! Is that the action of
someone who has no trouble making decisions? No way! It's guaranteed
to cause a lot more pain for everybody involved. And that's the kind
of thing that the law of melancholy should enforce. I don't know how
to write it though. What would be the reward?

But if you have a law that makes good people fail to take action
against Evil, then you have the oppression that you want, but without
the feeling of being vastly outnumbered as you would in your original
BV. Good people should outnumber Evil people, and be powerless to do
anything about it (because of their own weakness, weakness encouraged
by the law of melancholy).

--
Loren Miller <loren@hops.wharton.upenn.edu>
I can tell by your shoes that you are a lover of liberty

Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 08:48:53 +1000 (EST)

From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

On Tue Oct 11th Loren Miller wrote:

> My main complaint about BV is the proportion of Evil people to Good

> people. With a proportion of 60% to 40% Evil to Good, it's way worse
> than Terra, which is already way worse than our real world. [Warning
> rambling ahead] If you want to make the cosm oppressive in comparison
> to the real world, then think about it this way... in the real world
> the proportion of born criminals is somewhere between 1% and 5%.
[...]
> Terra is already a *lot* more
> oppressive than real life, with 10% of the populace being born to
> commit crimes and screw people over just for the hell of it. If fact
> doesn't the Nile Worldbook say something about how Mobius has been
> raising the percentage of Evil folks for ages and ages? So how did
> Dark manage such a complete victory of Evil over Good, and with all
> those Evil folks running amok why hasn't his cosm turned into an
> abbatoir like a steam-age version of Los Angeles?

Very interesting points. I hadn't considered that. For the balance of

E to G I simply copied the situation as given in the NE (yes, you're right,
it does say Mobius has been raising the percentage of E to G in the NE
from what it was in Terra. I presume Dark did it the same way Mobius
did (however that was, presumably just spending poss. on nudging the
wls around).
The observation society collapsing into virtual warfare with that high
a percentage of Evil people is *very* good (but at least they don't have
techno-demons :-) It may be something that Ks. Jim should consider if he
carries out his threat to have a look at the Terran (and particularly NE)
LoMorality.

[...]
> How to make it so the neighbors don't all take action against
> Snidely? How can you enforce inaction? Rather than a law of Melodrama
> try a law of Melancholy. Make it so that people do depressing things
> because they find them rewarding. Instead of taking care of a problem,
> they ignore it in the hope that it will go away, and it gets worse,
> and then late at night they agonize about it and get in the mood to
> write florid poetry. It's kind of like clinical depression, or
> attention deficit syndrome. As things pile up, they naturally get
> melodramatic. And melancholia is a much more typical sign of 19th
> century literature than melodrama. When your pregnancy ends in a
> miscarriage, do you cry about it and try again? No, you go catatonic!
> When your lovely wife goes crazy do you put her in an asylum or commit
> her to a nunnery? No. You lock her in the attic! Is that the action of
> someone who has no trouble making decisions? No way! It's guaranteed
> to cause a lot more pain for everybody involved. And that's the kind
> of thing that the law of melancholy should enforce. I don't know how
> to write it though. What would be the reward?
>
> But if you have a law that makes good people fail to take action
> against Evil, then you have the oppression that you want, but without
> the feeling of being vastly outnumbered as you would be in your original
> BV. Good people should outnumber Evil people, and be powerless to do
> anything about it

I like the idea. Subtle, but flavoursome. Works even better than
peoples' faith in Virtue Triumphant for keeping them passive in the face
of oppression. If I ever get around to doing a final rewrite I may well
include this (with attribution, of course), but I, also, would have to
think about how mechanics would work. A simple "this is the way society
as a whole react to things like this" would probably work fine for NPC
ords, but be ignored by PC SKs; a possibility reward for acting
melancholic would probably be abused and only used in non-fight scene
situations; and a penalty to rolls is acting a bit too late, what we're
looking for here is something to sap their initiative *beforehand* to
*prevent* them taking actions, not mute the ones they're already doing.
(Sorry if I'm sounding a bit bitter and vicious, but I've had trouble
with PCs trying to take all the benefits but avoid all the penalities.
I'm horribly tempted to stop trying to be subtle, and just use wls to
club them into submission, but that'll ruin my campaign <sigh>).
Thank you Loren.

Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia

Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 10:33:27 -0500 (CDT)

From: David J Oakes <oake0010@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

[loren points out that 60/40 evil could be bad]

well, as long as we stick with the nile definition of evil as self
centered, i dont think we are in much danger of making BV into a charnnel
house. even the most evil master villain in Terra would probably look at
bluebeard and cringe. and in the end, we only really have to worry about
the prateds.

KS Jim feels that there is a basic level of "adventure" in any TORG cosm,
and so BV doesnt need a LoDrama to be "captains courageous". I feel that
ords are inherently inactive, so we do not need a LoMelancholy to enforce
their non-interfering nature. Loren's example of snidely coming in and
stealing away nell and no one bothering to stop him is exactly what ords
are for. if someone tried to stop them, they would be the hero of the
picture, and consequently prated. there will be exceptional ords - the
kid that runs out to stop the villain, only to get his butt kicked to
provide proof that the villain is really villainous - and prateds that
dont want to get involved - have to write that art film cosm one of these
days - but they are the exceptiopn that proves the rule. unless
everybody is a hero, as in the nile, or everyone is a coward, extra wls
to enforce drama or melancholy are not needed.

dave "he has a speaking part - give him one poss" oakes

Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 09:15:47 -0600

From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re: Blightwood Vales

Loren writes:

> My main complaint about BV is the proportion of Evil people to Good

> people. With a proportion of 60% to 40% Evil to Good, it's way worse
> than Terra, which is already way worse than our real world. [Warning,
> rambling ahead] If you want to make the cosm oppressive in comparison
> to the real world, then think about it this way... in the real world
> the proportion of born criminals is somewhere between 1% and 5%. If we
> had to characterize born criminals with a moral name then Evil
> wouldn't be a bad name to pick. Terra is already a *lot* more
> oppressive than real life, with 10% of the populace being born to
> commit crimes and screw people over just for the hell of it. In fact,
That is overstating things a bit - not all Evil people in Terra/Nile
are murderers and hardened criminals. The Nile book uses an old man
who yells at the neighborhood kids just because he likes scaring them
as an example of an Evil person. If we include mean-spirited, self-
centered, spiteful and other similar negative emotions under the heading
of Evil then 10% of the population isn't such an outrageous number. (But
the number of actual criminals out of that section probably does amount
to only 1-5 percent of the entire population.)

[Melancholy vs. Melodrama]

> of thing that the law of melancholy should enforce. I don't know how
> to write it though. What would be the reward?
>
> But if you have a law that makes good people fail to take action
> against Evil, then you have the oppression that you want, but without
> the feeling of being vastly outnumbered as you would in your original
> BV. Good people should outnumber Evil people, and be powerless to do
> anything about it (because of their own weakness, weakness encouraged
> by the law of melancholy).

It comes down to figuring out if the law should reward inaction or

penalize action against Evil. The penalty would be an easier mechanic
to institute but might make things feel too oppressive.

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)