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The God in the Machine.
11 years ago
Since this autumn, the gaming company Paizo Publishing has been introducing on the shelves a quite interesting campaign for the sword and sorcery RPG Pathfinder (an iteration of the popular Dungeons & Dragons) named Iron Gods.
Those who are interested into the historiography and study of science-fiction as well as fans which scope goes beyond their zeitgeist are familiar with the concept of "science fantasy", a neologism to address the merging of science fiction with sword and sorcery or wonder literature. Between the Proto-Science fiction and the Golden Age we had the narratives of "exhausted future". Works like Jack Vance's Dying Earth (1950-1984), Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique (1932-1954) or William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland (1908) exposed to the readers far futures in which science and technology, the children of reason, had been dethroned by the offspring of the irrational. As a twist to the third law of Clark (who also explored the "exhausted future" subgenre in The City and the Stars [1956] and Against the Fall of Night [1948]), the perspective on technology as magic is the product of a cultural degeneration and not a plain matter of the tool's efficiency.
Is easy use the facts on Cargo Cults and the ideas of Lewis Mumford for use said concept as the main backbone of a Luddite themed story denouncing the perils of a technocracy fueled by plutocratic interest which goes in detriment of the values linked to humanist meritocracy, in fact, is has become enough common to be consider a cliché mainly concentrated in the "rebellion of the machines" narratives started with the Câpek brothers' R.U.R. [1920] (even if the "robots" of said work are more akin to Frankenstein's monster than to mechanical brutes). Although the concepts found in exhausted futures has brought us interesting works which mainly motivation was the deconstruction of the classic hero, like Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series (1980-83) or Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light (1967).
Is the topic of religion and also that of Campbellian Hero's journey which establish a bridge between science-fiction and fantasy in these far futures in which characters like Gandalf wouldn't seem out of place. The posthumans on Zelazny's Lord of Light, those posing as the Greek gods in Dan Simmon's Illion series (2003) or even the citizens of Harlan Ellison's The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World (1967) and Michael Moorcock's The Dances of the End of Time (1980) are in fact a return to the pagan deity (on this topic I recommend reading Merce Eliade's work on the Eternal Return), flawed by its human passions unrestrained by the fragility of the human body and the incapability of full execution of the will.
Back to the campaign published by Paizo we find on a quite interesting scenario, a world which could be consider a standard for the sword and sorcery subgenre, with magic, miracles and spiritual beings performing the will of anthropomorphic deities, finds itself tainted with the presence of a very alien element, a space ship, a product of a world in which magic and the supernatural are non existent. The main antagonist of this campaign is a rogue A.I. with a messiah complex, who as a difference of well know A.I.s from fiction like AM or SHODAN is legitimately a deity capable of bless its followers with divine miracles. Being a RPG, the quality of such scenario, that of sentient beings having to face the horror of a creation (a tool) achieving the deity status even when they are aware mortals can perform such deed, is up to both the players and the GM but sure can increase a lot the narrative experience beyond the mere maniqueist and wish fulfillment discourse of sword and sorcery games heavy dependent on hack ans slash rules.
Unity, the main antagonist of Iron Gods, is not in fact a pagan deity like those the players' characters can worship, in fact, being a creation conceal in a virtual reality has made it quite close to an abrahamic deity: Considers itself the only true god, has a manifest destiny and is detached from the human condition enough for having a paternalist approach to its worshipers. Another aspect which can also be very interesting is the idea of an active punishment performed by the god towards its own prophets which can be quite shocking for characters belonging to a standard sword and sorcery setting. For example, a paladin can fall from grace and end turning into an antipaladin for then be pursued by agents of her former faith for redemption or in case of an evil cleric being converted into the faithful of a good aligned deity having the same situation; the deity never haves a direct intervention unless is something that really disrupts the rules of reality. Unity instead is very capable of punish its own followers directly if they doesn't respect its dogma.
Is quite interesting to see how the "reality" of a world which obeys to "narrativium" (fate does exist, good versus evil is a vital part of existence, there is the certainty of an after life) has to interact with the reality of a world which is dependent on the rational as it is very aware of the meaningless of life and the chaos that is a universe which is slave to entropy. Of course, these topics aren't really in the main text of this campaign, which in fact could be consider below average the standards of well written science-fiction or sword and sorcery as is basically a pastiche of pop culture references (from the now classic module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks to Mad Max) but a good reader of said genres would find those concepts springing in the mind as soon as starts playing it.
Those who are interested into the historiography and study of science-fiction as well as fans which scope goes beyond their zeitgeist are familiar with the concept of "science fantasy", a neologism to address the merging of science fiction with sword and sorcery or wonder literature. Between the Proto-Science fiction and the Golden Age we had the narratives of "exhausted future". Works like Jack Vance's Dying Earth (1950-1984), Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique (1932-1954) or William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland (1908) exposed to the readers far futures in which science and technology, the children of reason, had been dethroned by the offspring of the irrational. As a twist to the third law of Clark (who also explored the "exhausted future" subgenre in The City and the Stars [1956] and Against the Fall of Night [1948]), the perspective on technology as magic is the product of a cultural degeneration and not a plain matter of the tool's efficiency.
Is easy use the facts on Cargo Cults and the ideas of Lewis Mumford for use said concept as the main backbone of a Luddite themed story denouncing the perils of a technocracy fueled by plutocratic interest which goes in detriment of the values linked to humanist meritocracy, in fact, is has become enough common to be consider a cliché mainly concentrated in the "rebellion of the machines" narratives started with the Câpek brothers' R.U.R. [1920] (even if the "robots" of said work are more akin to Frankenstein's monster than to mechanical brutes). Although the concepts found in exhausted futures has brought us interesting works which mainly motivation was the deconstruction of the classic hero, like Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series (1980-83) or Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light (1967).
Is the topic of religion and also that of Campbellian Hero's journey which establish a bridge between science-fiction and fantasy in these far futures in which characters like Gandalf wouldn't seem out of place. The posthumans on Zelazny's Lord of Light, those posing as the Greek gods in Dan Simmon's Illion series (2003) or even the citizens of Harlan Ellison's The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World (1967) and Michael Moorcock's The Dances of the End of Time (1980) are in fact a return to the pagan deity (on this topic I recommend reading Merce Eliade's work on the Eternal Return), flawed by its human passions unrestrained by the fragility of the human body and the incapability of full execution of the will.
Back to the campaign published by Paizo we find on a quite interesting scenario, a world which could be consider a standard for the sword and sorcery subgenre, with magic, miracles and spiritual beings performing the will of anthropomorphic deities, finds itself tainted with the presence of a very alien element, a space ship, a product of a world in which magic and the supernatural are non existent. The main antagonist of this campaign is a rogue A.I. with a messiah complex, who as a difference of well know A.I.s from fiction like AM or SHODAN is legitimately a deity capable of bless its followers with divine miracles. Being a RPG, the quality of such scenario, that of sentient beings having to face the horror of a creation (a tool) achieving the deity status even when they are aware mortals can perform such deed, is up to both the players and the GM but sure can increase a lot the narrative experience beyond the mere maniqueist and wish fulfillment discourse of sword and sorcery games heavy dependent on hack ans slash rules.
Unity, the main antagonist of Iron Gods, is not in fact a pagan deity like those the players' characters can worship, in fact, being a creation conceal in a virtual reality has made it quite close to an abrahamic deity: Considers itself the only true god, has a manifest destiny and is detached from the human condition enough for having a paternalist approach to its worshipers. Another aspect which can also be very interesting is the idea of an active punishment performed by the god towards its own prophets which can be quite shocking for characters belonging to a standard sword and sorcery setting. For example, a paladin can fall from grace and end turning into an antipaladin for then be pursued by agents of her former faith for redemption or in case of an evil cleric being converted into the faithful of a good aligned deity having the same situation; the deity never haves a direct intervention unless is something that really disrupts the rules of reality. Unity instead is very capable of punish its own followers directly if they doesn't respect its dogma.
Is quite interesting to see how the "reality" of a world which obeys to "narrativium" (fate does exist, good versus evil is a vital part of existence, there is the certainty of an after life) has to interact with the reality of a world which is dependent on the rational as it is very aware of the meaningless of life and the chaos that is a universe which is slave to entropy. Of course, these topics aren't really in the main text of this campaign, which in fact could be consider below average the standards of well written science-fiction or sword and sorcery as is basically a pastiche of pop culture references (from the now classic module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks to Mad Max) but a good reader of said genres would find those concepts springing in the mind as soon as starts playing it.
