Consideration of Influences

[pyat]

I think the most successful RPG campaign I've ever run, by several metrics, was The Voyage of the Riddock's Dawn for Ironclaw. This game, if you didn't know, features animal people living in a fictonal world with society and technology vaugely akin to 15/16th century, with magic. And... yes, animal people.

Listening to some music just now got me thinking about the campaign, and future Ironclaw adventures, and the media that inspired elements of how I run the game.

First, Umberto Eco's novel, The Island of the Day Before. This was, undeniably, the largest influence on the game. Several bits were taken directly from the novel, such as the diving bell, the race to find a means to determine latitude, and little throwaway bits about homeopathic magic. It's a very dense book, but well worth reading. The last several chapters grow more and more insane as the narrator succumbs to hunger and thirst, and contain wonderful speculation about the theological implications of the international date line.

The Mission. A 1986 film. Everyone knows the soundtrack, which has been lifted for numerous TV shows, movies, and weddings. It's a beautiful film. A little plodding here and there, but full of incredible vignettes and dramatic pieces. It's one of the few pieces of modern media that actually recognizes the fact that slave trade was always controversial, particularly in the eyes of the church. The game featured the uneasy conflict between the realpolitik concerns of the nobility and more venal clerics with the The interaction between velvetpage's priest and wggthegnoll and redstorm's more earthly characters coincidentally resembled the scenes between Jeremy Irons' Jesuit and De Niro's ex-mercenary on more than one occasion. And, of course, the images of uniformed men slipping through jungles, fighting each other and Native tribes.

Not as clearly sourced in the game, but certainly inspiring some of my writing for the sourcebooks was Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon, a perplexingly earnest, beautiful, silly, boring, twee and charming movie about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. It highlights the conflict with the established temporal and spiritual power, and the actual words of Christ. Interesting clip, by the way, with Alec Guiness as the Pope, willfully returning to his earthly trappings of wealth and power as St. Francis leaves.

Comments

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

Isn't St Francis one of those aesthetics who thought we should hasten armageddon by no one having children?
Religion (and consideration of influences) is too much fun.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I don't think he did, but I don't know enough hagiography to be sure. He believed men were sinful, but also that they were the image of God. G.K. Chesteron wrote of him, "...we talk about a man who cannot see the wood for the trees. St. Francis was a man who did not want to see the wood for the trees. He wanted to see each tree as a separate and almost a sacred thing, being a child of God and therefore a brother or sister of man. It is even more true that (St. Francis) deliberately did not see the mob for the men. … He only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous."

There's also a story attributed to him, in which St. Francis was asked what he would do if he knew Christ was returning tomorrow. His reply was only the lines of, "I'd plant a tree," or in other words, do what what he did every day.

Though, neither of those traits are entirely incompatible with the view that mankind should extinguish itself through celibacy.

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

I don't think that he did either. While I too, could be wrong, I've always thought of Francis as one of those hippie, dippy, all inclusive types, who's all for anything that brings you closer to God.

I've always seen the tendency towards voluntary human extinction as a phenomenon of the early church rather than the medieval, what with the self castrating Origen, and Ambrose whose celibacy disquieted Augustine, and Tertullian with his charming De Cultu Feminarum.

"Do you not know that you [women] are Eve? The judgment of God upon this sex lives on in this age; therefore, necessarily the guilt should live on also. You are the gateway of the devil ... who unseal[ed] the curse of that tree, ... first one to turn your back on the divine law..." etc. I bet he was a real hit at parties.

But yeah, while I might be wrong, I would be very surprised if Francis preached terminal celibacy.

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

The irony is that Origen was censured for straying from orthodoxy, and Tertullian became a schismatic in his later years.

St. Francis wasn't what folks today would think of as an all-inclusive type. He didn't believe that just anything would bring you closer to God. He believed that Christ brought you closer to God. Read an account of his participation in the 5th Crusade where he went unarmed before the Sultan and tried to convert him to Christianity. It's fascinating history!

Dominus tecum

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

And that my assessment of Ambrose vis Augustine is based on a single line in book VI of Confessions, and probably wasn't fair at all!

I've always rather liked St. Francis which is why I chimed in on the matter, though I know almost nothing about him (he wrote some hymns, loved nature, received the stigmata, and that he preached to the fishes, and that's about it). My whole basis for my esteem springs from my esteem for his order of Friars Minor.

I've always kind of equated him with John Bunyan, (of whom I also know far too little. Alas!) for their earnestness, their devotion to what they believed, and their concern for their fellowman, and those are all things that I respect. :)

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I cracked Confessions, and I mostly remember St. Augustine remarking on the strange way St. Ambrose would read, in total silence! In those days, everyone read books aloud.

I don't know too much about John Bunyan either. And apart from what I said earlier, I don't know that much more about St. Francis. But I've never heard anything about him that was deeply spiritual and inspirational. He's one of a handful of Saints that just about everyone has heard of and has a good feeling for.

Dominus tecum

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I've always seen the tendency towards voluntary human extinction as a phenomenon of the early church rather than the medieval, what with the self castrating Origen, and Ambrose whose celibacy disquieted Augustine, and Tertullian with his charming De Cultu Feminarum.

I believe you are correct! As Matthias says in the other comment, by this time the church was really cracking down on people who believed that, in the form of the Albigensian Heresy.

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

No, St. Francis of Assisi was never one of those hasten armageddon types.

St. Francis did call for his followers to be celibate, though, as they were ordained, monks, this was nothing new. Nor did celibacy of the ordained imply that they were interested in nobody having children.

There were groups that did believe those things. The Albigensians were one such group, and the Church condemned them and destroyed them. Various Gnostic sects over the years have also embraced such beliefs, and the Church has condemned them too.

St. Francis is a very interesting figure. And there are lots of good books about him (and lots of bad ones that try to co-opt him for the author's political agenda). A year ago I read one that focused on St. Francis's participation in the 5th Crusade against the Sultan in Egypt. St. Francis along with a brother monk crossed the enemy lines and actually tried to convince the Sultan to become a Christian. And some stories indicate that the Sultan did convert at the end of his life, although there is no certain proof of that.

St. Francis loved life, and that included all human life too. The Chesterton quote Pyat produced is very fitting for him. Then again, I think anything Chesterton says is on the mark, and I heartily recommend his works!

Dominus tecum

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input, Matthias!

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of help. :-)

Dominus tecum

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I once carpooled with a pagan who insisted that the Albigensians were a fertility goddess cult.

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

Uh, the Albigensians practised two things that I know of, complete denunciation of all sexual acts, and voluntary/forced suicide, usually by starvation.

Really not sure how your pagan friend came to believe what they believed.

Dominus tecum

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

The Mission was an excellent movie. I read a book on the life of Father Peter de Smet, who tried to replicate the reductions in Paraguay amongst the Native Americans in the Rocky Mountains in the 19th century. He was known as the 'White Man whose tongue does not lie'.

I'm not familiar with Brother Sun, Sister Moon, but didn't Innocent III have a vision of St. Francis holding the entire Church on his shoulders? I believe that was the reason he approved the Rule of St. Francis so quickly.

Dominus tecum

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if you'd chime in. ;)

I don't know of the vision, but in the previous clip of the movie, Innocent dismissed St. Francis out of hand, only to be stricken by the realization that what he'd done was wrong, and he (Innocent) calls him (St. Francis) back.

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wonder how much truth there is to that, or if that was a cinematic invention to make St. Francis more sympathetic. It's possible the vision Innocent III had came only after an initial dismissal. I honestly don't know.

Time to go crack some history books to learn more!

Dominus tecum