Stories told

I wrote a bit about stories last year, and there proposed an idea about calling people over, to tell stories. I had a significance for such tales in mind when I wrote the post, but could not write it down in a way that would be satisfactory at the time. I'm going to try again today, maybe with more luck this time around.

Stories are, by and large, written down nowadays. Most of the stories I tell are not told, as such: I write them down, give them form and status. Writing gives stories a form that cannot be achieved without such labeling of the pieces. When one writes a story down, it includes making it fit a certain mold, certain kinds of expectations. Stories, when written down, gain status but lose freedom.

"Writer" is a profession. Have you ever heard anyone tell they're a professional storyteller? If you have, have you asked them if they were a writer? It doesn't really matter if you did, since they probably were. Storytelling is not something that happens anymore, not on a professional level. It's something that's done to pass time, or entertain children.

I don't mean to look down on writing: it's a profession much worth all the lauding it can get these days. Of course one could argue there's good literature and bad literature, but from today's point of view that's irrelevant: what we want, what we are looking for are good and bad stories.

A good book can be a bad story, and vice versa. Of course it is probable that more good books are good stories than the other way around, but for that I'd need to go to such amounts of research as I'm not prepared to today. In books, this separation is needed, whereas in stories, it is not relevant anymore.

The way the story is told is as important as the story itself, but when telling a story, there is no mold the story must fit. Told stories give free reign to the imagination in amounts that are impossible when stories need to be written down. Stories told might jumble, they might be confusing but they cannot be rigid. A story being told on the spot must flow, it needs to be like a living thing lest it wither and die.

There's a reason I've brought this up again. I've finally gone and started the storytelling evenings I talked about, a year and a half ago. The idea is even older, but now I have finally started. It's a feeble thing, still, but I've begun, and I have no meaning of stopping. Even if it is just me, telling stories to myself, I've found something worth doing, and trying to do it well.

What do we say to the god of death?

I woke up this morning to the title line, one given by Syrio Forel, swordmaster at King's Landing and the teacher of Arya in Song of Fire and Ice's first book. For those of you who don't read, just substitute the end part with "from the tv-series Game of Thrones". Anyway, it gave me a topic: epics, epica and epicness, especially in fiction.

I believe that in the bland, cubicle-bound world of today, the heart yearns for something greater. When I wrote about machismo the first time, I spoke briefly about meaning given to man by the black-and-white causes of fiction, especially in our world of grey uncertainties, but I felt I should return to the subject with a bit more detail for (hopefully) one last time.

There are endless possibilities to experience things unavailable to man otherwise through fiction. In the words of a skilled writer or the songs of a talented musician one can find a way to enter a place that is essentially different from our own. In that world, one can live the adventures of anyone and -thing, if the suspension of disbelief holds.

For me, the aforementioned suspension is paramount: the scenes and characters need to be believable. I'm a fantasy veteran, so they need not be believable in our reality, but they need to be so in their own. Often, this relates somewhat to real world sensibilities, but that makes only sense: we cannot perceive that for which we do not have any reference frame at all. There is no way for us to understand a world in more than three dimensions, for example, because we have nothing to relate it to.

If we can be immersed in the fictive reality, we can be, see and follow people and things that are beyond us in our own, subjective reality. This gives us an opening into experiences that are, on a scope that is not possible in a world where there are no ultimate rights or wrongs, epic. This is one of the most important things about fiction, the gateway that is given for us to experience something vehemently different.

As for the answer to the question given by Silvio Forres: "What do we say to the god of death?" For those of you that do not know, it is a simple one:

Not today.

Kalenteripukeutujat

Viikonlopun vaihteessa oli, kuten moni varmasti huomasi, melkoisen lämmin. Sunnuntaina keli oli suorastaan kesäinen, eikä maanantaikaan ollut missään määrin kylmä. Sunnuntaina kävin itse lenkillä, verkkarit ja ohut pitkähihainen päällä. Lähikauppaan lähdin illemmalla shortseissa ja t-paidassa, kun en jaksanut etsiä lämpimämpää päälle - ei tarvinnut. Maanantaina lähdin yliopistolle kauluspaidassa, hihat käärittyinä, farkut jalassa.

Kertaakaan minulla ei ollut kylmä, enkä kokenut olevani alipukeutunut: jos ulkona on 18 astetta lämmin, ei sinne mielestäni todellakaan tarvitse äskeisiä mainittuja enempää vaatteita. Toki ymmärrän, että viihdyn itse viileässä, ja näin pukeudun selvästi kanssaihmisiäni kevyemmin lähes aina. Sitä en kuitenkaan ymmärrä, että vastaani tuli pipoon, kaulaliinaan, kevyttoppatakkiin ja tumppuihin sonnustautuneita vilutaistelijoita kymmenittäin.

Kalenterin yläreunassa komeilee syyskuu, ja puolet päivistä on jo ehditty ruksia yli, joten suomalainen siirtyy kylmän sään varustukseen, huolimatta siitä miltä ikkunasta näyttää tai mitä lämpömittari sanoo. Sama ilmiö näkyy heinä- ja elokuussa: nyt on kesä, joten ei voi olla kylmä. Vaikka ulkona olisi kahdeksan astetta, sinne mennään shortseissa ja t-paidassa, koska Suomi-Finland-Perkele.

Kalenteripukeutumisessa itsessään ei ole mitään vikaa: jokainen saa laittaa päälleen mitä tahtoo, kiinnittäen huomiotaan vain arbitraariseen ajanmittausjärjestelmään. Mutta jos näin tekee, minua ei saa katsoa pahasti siksi, että olen omasta mielestäni sään mukaan pukeutunut, eikä minulle saa tulla valittamaan siitä, että ulkona on liian kuuma/kylmä/nihkeä. Tai siis saa, mutta sympatia voi olla kiven alla.

Pukeutukaa miten tahdotte, mutta älkää nillittäkö minulle siitä, miten minä pukeudun. Olkaa ennemmin onnellisia siitä, että minulla on vielä vaatteet päällä.

How things went B.A.D.D. (mostly by Pulling)

To most people today (and most people reading this), the acronym B.A.D.D. means nothing, and even on Google the first search result actually relating to what I'm about today is halfway down the page. The B.A.D.D. I'm talking about is Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons, and how it still affects our modern culture, almost 30 years later.

Now, B.A.D.D. was started in 1984, in response to two suicides that the media, in their infinite stupidity, attributed to the up-and-rising Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying system. None of this was studied, credited or any of the sort in any way: it just seemed like a nice touch. Now, the mother of one of the suicidees, one Patricia Pulling, tied her conservative knickers in a bunch faster than you can say "one-dee-twelve-damage". With the help of an Illinois psychiatrist, Thomas Radecki, they started up Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons, a bunch of conservatist puritans and fundamentalist crazies that were, well, bothered about Dungeons & Dragons.

Mme. Pulling made a list, dubbed by right about everybody as the Pulling List, that underlined that practically every suicide, murder and act of violence in the US after the publication of D&D was due to D&D. If you had ever seen an RPG rulebook, it had caused every disfunction from thereon in. Satanistic ritual abuse equaled heavy metal music equaled roleplaying games. Some of you might remember this hypothesis from it's effect on popular culture in the nineties, especially in heavier music and any and/or all roleplaying and fantasy related. As a few examples, Black Sabbath would be the biggest on the music front and all those "larpers/rpgers are crazy cultists" rolled into a huge ball on the rpg front.

Here's an excerpt from B.A.D.D.'s manifesto on roleplaying (courtesy of Pulling). I'll let it speak for itself.

A fantasy role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings.  There have been a number of deaths nationwide where games like Dungeons and Dragons were either the decisive factor in adolescent suicide and murder, or played a major factor in the violent behaviour of such tragedies.  Since role-playing is typically used for behaviour modification, it has become apparent nationwide (with the increased homicide and suicide rates in adolescents) that there is a great need to investigate every aspect of a youngster’s environment, [sic] including their method of entertainment, in reaching a responsible conclusion for their violent actions.

Now, this should be a familiar argument, one that the "morally concerned" like to throw about that has very little backing: the hobbies of a person decide how the person turns out. I'm not even going to go into how morbid a point of view that is, it's also wrong. With music, it's been pretty fully debunked that "hard" music has pretty much any adverse effects or is in any way related to satanism or whatnot, but for some reason the feeling, when associated with roleplaying, stuck.

B.A.D.D., and especially Pulling, kept on their misguided crusade as long as it was possible. I'm unsure if they're still at it, but it is possible. When the first big trading card game, Magic: the Gathering hit the shelves, guess who was the first to cry foul about it being linked to satanism? And, as media goes, it seemed like it might sell, so it spread like wildfire. I heard a query about this very subject the last time I think two years ago. Our friends weren't allowed to play with us, because it would lead to devil worship (this, we debunked quickly, thank the lords).

Most of the misconceptions about roleplaying originate from the aforementioned group of nutjobs, and for some reason the media picked up on this every time the kid cried wolf. On to this day, roleplayers are viewed as a bit off, maybe a bit crazy, and from time to time you get the off-handed comment about satanism or whatnot when you tell people you're a roleplayer. Most people don't remember that specific argument, and most of those who do don't care about it, but the stigma remains.  

Somewhere in the back of people's minds, roleplaying remains something that creepy kids do in dark cellars, a way for the crazy nerds to be even crazier. As modern society takes hold, as more and more information becomes available, the odd, biased opinions are disappearing and people are seeing for themselves instead of just believing what they're told. But we still have some ways to go.

No quarter given, no mercy this day

We will be revisiting the subjects of machismo, fist-waving and the relations of these two today. This will be done through fictional storyworlds, mainly the one that is nowadays known as either the Tribes Universe or Tribes Canon. The Tribes have been brought back to the public view by Tribes: Ascend which is spreading through the online community like wildfire. I'll try to go through the backstory and lore a bit here, since this post might be a bit confusing otherwise, but the fine print will not be necessary for today's point.

The Tribes Universe originates from the game series Earthsiege, which later spun off into Starsiege, which became the Tribes series. Both Earthsieges and Starsiege are mecha vehicle simulation combat games with somewhat confusing bunches of lore. (On a completely unrelated note, Earthsiege is probably the reason I like mechas as much as I do.) With Starsiege came two books explaining most of the backstory, which I'll try to shortly recap here.

The series is set in the future of our universe, with the Earth united into an Empire that is rather Terrasentric. With most of our galaxy (and later further into space yet) settled, there's some dispute between Earth and the colonies that eventually (in Starsiege) spins into a full-blown civil war. At the turning point from mechas to humans and cybrids - cyber hybrids, humans that aren't humans, basically - the Empire at Terra is forced to send more and more troops further into the galaxy to quell the rebellion. Eventually, these forces fighting each other evolve from their militaristic (or not-so-militaristic) origins into tribal forces, usually referred to simply as Tribes or Tribals, that end up warring over the edges of space called the Wilderzone. All of this spins into a huge ball of fighting and blood feuds, ending in a huge tribal war at around year 4000.

At this point came out the first Tribes game, Starsiege: Tribes (later followed by Tribes 2, Tribes: Vengeance and then Tribes: Ascend), marking the beginning of the most fast-paced first person shooter game series out there. Tribes also further popularized CTF (Capture The Flag) as a game mode in shooters, a fad that was started by Quake two years prior and is now basically a hallmark in all multiplayer shooters. Anyway, Tribes: Vengeance is chronologically the first game in the series (and the only one with a single player plot), and lines out the beginning of the Tribal Wars, which are played out in the rest of the games. It's unclear how all the Tribal factions came to be, but the four largest "Tribal Nations" are Starwolf, Children of the Phoenix (the "original" Tribals), Diamond Sword and Blood Eagle (the two last ones being old forces of the Empire - Blood Eagles definitely and the Diamond Swords most probably).

Now, as I said, the plot is a bit confusing and difficult to follow, but as the Tribes games are all focused on the multiplayer aspect, backstory has never been a high priority. If this rabbling sparked some curiosity, the Tribes wiki has more on both the story and the different Tribes, although much of what's there could be called speculation. All of this brings me back to the start, however, and the subject of machismo.

It's often argued that war is inherently male, with all the flag waving, boasting and such that comes with it. I do not necessarily fully agree with this, but testosterone seems to have a lot to do with punching people in the face. That said, I find some small part of me inherently answering to the call of duty, honor and blood. I would not wish to take arms for a cause in person because there are few, if none, causes worthy enough, but the fictional possibility to do so caters to me on some level. (And no, nationalism isn't a good reason, it's a fake ideal and the faster we transcend it the better.)

The title of this post is a quote from the newest Tribes game, Tribes: Ascend. Specifically, it's one of the game opening quotes of Blood Eagles. The game has only two of the four large Tribes (the previous two titles having had all four), the Blood Eagles and Diamond Swords. There's a very real difference between the two factions, with Blood Eagles being more the out-for-war, scorched earth faction and Diamond Swords being more the "war philosophers". Both seem to follow a rigorous code of honor, but ones that differ from each other sufficiently to make the teams feel different.

Blood Eagles are more about just pushing it to the limit with full-blown conflict, all out from the start. "No quarter given, no mercy this day." "We'll push those sand-rakers off our world." "We'll make the Sworders pay for their treachery." The Butchers are more savage and more outright and clearly cater more with the machismo. If you don't take my word for it, just take a look at their nickname.

The Diamond Swords are more mystical and aloof, with a more thinking approach to the subject of war. "Invincibility lies in the defense, the possibility of victory in the attack." The Sworders are a tactical tribe, made out to be some sort of space samurai.

Now, the whole game is about these two trashing it out 200mph. The whole point has been to create a sort of juvenile fantasy setting where war is the thing, because it just is. It's kind of goofy if you ever stop to think about it, but on some level, it works. Giving it to the other guy just because he's the other guy - sprinkled with a million underlying reasons and history - works as fiction: it's a perfect steam valve. When I get the urge to cave in some heads, it's not real heads. Gaming doesn't make me more violent, just the opposite: the machismo and stupidly over-done attitude is an outlet. You won't find me caving in heads at the grill because I need to vent my frustrations.

No quarter given, no mercy this day.