RPGnet Columns
10-18-2005, 10:09 AM
Post originally by Kester Pelagius at 2005-10-18 09:09:31
Converted from Phorums BB System
Howdy,
I mean, sure, it's an interesting article. (It movied me to post. So that means you really hit on something here. Kudos!) However, if you're going to retain the name of Baron Samedi intact why change Baba Yaga to Mama Yaga? And there's all kinds of historical holes and missteps.
When we think of the Inquisition we too often fail to realize that there were REGIONAL Inquisitions. The most notorious of which was the Spanish arm of the Inquisition. However did the Inquisition really have anything to do with the affair of the Templars or Cathars?
Not really.
These events occurred prior to the time period of the era of the so-called "Inquisition". The Cathars episode was- to over simplify- a fight over doctrine whereas the Templars episode was one King misusing the Church to get rid of a group that he owed a large amount of money too.
Which brings us to a sad fact of these events. Most of them were actually about the *acquisition* of wealth- read land, properties, et al- by force. At least that's the Inquisition that is most commononly known and portrayed in cinema. (Mark of the Devil, The Witchfinder General, &tc)
More than that by the time of the Witch trials the "Inquisition" was literally at ropes end, grasping at straws, as that was pretty much the last of the heresies it had to look into. In other words the Inquisition was the death throws of several centuries long power structure. They'd already weeded out most of the so-called "real heresies" and thus had only Witchcraft to justify their existance.
A cynical view would be: It's sort of like declaring war on "drugs" or "terrorism". Both are ephemeral, like "witchcraft", and can be used to justify a wide range of policies. Whereas the Cathars was the equivalent of a political dispute.
That said I'd of liked to have seen mention of the myriad number of other heresies- which included vampirism, why else do you think the Church charged and convicted Countess Bathory of that?- which fanned the flames of the Medieval Church's power struggles and paranoia.
Speaking of which where are the vampires and lycanthropes?
Weren't one of the many accusations leveled against witches, aside the ever popular consorting with familiars, that witches could transform themselves into other critters?
Also the Malleus Maleficarum was NEVER for the consumption of the "common folk", most of whom were likely illiterate and probably couldn't have written their name, much less read a book in the first place.
"The Malleus was used as a judicial case-book for the detection and persecution of witches, specifying rules of evidence and the canonical procedures by which suspected witches were tortured and put to death."
Excerpted from: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/
The "Haunter of the Gale" was interesting. But while reading that I couldn't help but wonder why you didn't also include some undead Templars. They'd fit in perfectly with this setting.
Links to Info on the Blind Dead
http://members.aol.com/eurosin/risen.htm
http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/t/tombsofblinddead.html
http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/reviews/T/blinddead.html
http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/realmofhorror/blinddead1.htm
More Links of Interest
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/witches1.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1s.html
http://www.paralumun.com/inquisition.htm
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Projects/Margin/heresy.htm
http://www.biblefacts.org/history/g2chart.html
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/d/demonology.html
http://www.djmcadam.com/demons.htm
http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/vampires.html
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/werewolf.html
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articles/articleview.asp?ID=20
And a review of potential interest: http://www.rpgtimes.net/rpgtimes/article.php?article_id=572&origin=archive
End of ramble.
As always any mistakes, glaring errors, or misrepresentation of the facts is purely the fault of the gremlins living in my computer. And remember when you catch a snark release it back into the wild, snark is an endagnered species. ;-)
Kind Regards,
Kester Pelagius
P.S. I really did enjoy the article, BTW. Looking forward to the next installment.
Converted from Phorums BB System
Howdy,
I mean, sure, it's an interesting article. (It movied me to post. So that means you really hit on something here. Kudos!) However, if you're going to retain the name of Baron Samedi intact why change Baba Yaga to Mama Yaga? And there's all kinds of historical holes and missteps.
When we think of the Inquisition we too often fail to realize that there were REGIONAL Inquisitions. The most notorious of which was the Spanish arm of the Inquisition. However did the Inquisition really have anything to do with the affair of the Templars or Cathars?
Not really.
These events occurred prior to the time period of the era of the so-called "Inquisition". The Cathars episode was- to over simplify- a fight over doctrine whereas the Templars episode was one King misusing the Church to get rid of a group that he owed a large amount of money too.
Which brings us to a sad fact of these events. Most of them were actually about the *acquisition* of wealth- read land, properties, et al- by force. At least that's the Inquisition that is most commononly known and portrayed in cinema. (Mark of the Devil, The Witchfinder General, &tc)
More than that by the time of the Witch trials the "Inquisition" was literally at ropes end, grasping at straws, as that was pretty much the last of the heresies it had to look into. In other words the Inquisition was the death throws of several centuries long power structure. They'd already weeded out most of the so-called "real heresies" and thus had only Witchcraft to justify their existance.
A cynical view would be: It's sort of like declaring war on "drugs" or "terrorism". Both are ephemeral, like "witchcraft", and can be used to justify a wide range of policies. Whereas the Cathars was the equivalent of a political dispute.
That said I'd of liked to have seen mention of the myriad number of other heresies- which included vampirism, why else do you think the Church charged and convicted Countess Bathory of that?- which fanned the flames of the Medieval Church's power struggles and paranoia.
Speaking of which where are the vampires and lycanthropes?
Weren't one of the many accusations leveled against witches, aside the ever popular consorting with familiars, that witches could transform themselves into other critters?
Also the Malleus Maleficarum was NEVER for the consumption of the "common folk", most of whom were likely illiterate and probably couldn't have written their name, much less read a book in the first place.
"The Malleus was used as a judicial case-book for the detection and persecution of witches, specifying rules of evidence and the canonical procedures by which suspected witches were tortured and put to death."
Excerpted from: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/
The "Haunter of the Gale" was interesting. But while reading that I couldn't help but wonder why you didn't also include some undead Templars. They'd fit in perfectly with this setting.
Links to Info on the Blind Dead
http://members.aol.com/eurosin/risen.htm
http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/t/tombsofblinddead.html
http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/reviews/T/blinddead.html
http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/realmofhorror/blinddead1.htm
More Links of Interest
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/witches1.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1s.html
http://www.paralumun.com/inquisition.htm
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Projects/Margin/heresy.htm
http://www.biblefacts.org/history/g2chart.html
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/d/demonology.html
http://www.djmcadam.com/demons.htm
http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/vampires.html
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/werewolf.html
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articles/articleview.asp?ID=20
And a review of potential interest: http://www.rpgtimes.net/rpgtimes/article.php?article_id=572&origin=archive
End of ramble.
As always any mistakes, glaring errors, or misrepresentation of the facts is purely the fault of the gremlins living in my computer. And remember when you catch a snark release it back into the wild, snark is an endagnered species. ;-)
Kind Regards,
Kester Pelagius
P.S. I really did enjoy the article, BTW. Looking forward to the next installment.