I have been interested in roleplaying games since primary school days. It is always fun to take on an alter-ego, especially one engaged in much more interesting activities than mundane schoolwork. One of the most extensive and well developed RPG series is the D&D (forgotten realms) fantasy world. This game system has been around since the 1970s and even today, best-selling computer games like Neverwinter Nights and the classic Baldur's Gate series are D&D spinoffs.
The great attraction of D&D is that it offers an entire alternative civilization and world based not on science but on magic. Its magical system is quite simple: basically 'magic' is an energy (governed by a goddess called Mystra) that builds and upholds the universe. Clerics, mages and sorcerers draw on this 'weave' of energy in different ways (either through the gods, their own arcane training or natural gifts), and shape this energy using their wills to accomplish spectacular feats. Given the nature of the game, most of these feats are of a very lethal and damaging nature. Many of them would probably fall in the category of 'black magic'.
D&D of course does not offer a very sophisticated (or convincing) metaphysical system. What is much more interesting is not what D&D views magic to be, but the consideration of the socio-political and economic implications of a world where thousands of people wield magic. It is a very interesting attempt at the construction of an entire complex civilization based on magical and not physical technology.
Adding to its richness is its many nations with different cultures, proficiency in magic, races, wealth and morality/religion. To just give a quick overview: there are a few nations in Faerun (a kind of magical alternative Europe where most of the action take place) with vast knowledge of magic. These are the elven nations (underground drow cities and Evermeet) and the magocracies (rule by mages) of Halruaa, Thay and Shade.
Both Halruaa and Shade are descendants of an ancient magical empire called Netheril, which was destroyed--Atlantean fashion--by its own hubris. However Halruaa has a generally orderly and beneficent culture and despite its potential power, it is really no nuisance to its neighbors. However it is also quite isolationist, and its philosopher-mages (who rule benevolently over a peasant population) are much more interested in research than commerce or conquest. Shade on the other hand is an extremely ruthless and aggressive city state with armies of mages wielding shadow magic (never mind what it is). Much unlike Halruaa, it is bent on extermination and world domination. Being a cousin state to Halruaa, it is also seeking to corrupt the ruling class of Halruaa by luring them with the powers of shadow magic.
Thay, neighbor to Shade, is a vast evil empire ruled by a council of mages. Its nominal head (since the council is forever fighting for power) is one of Faerun's most powerful wizard and necromancer (Szass Tam) with legions of undead at his command. Thay is forever at war with its neighbors, but because of its internal divisions and very powerful neighbors (Aglarond and Rashemen) it has never managed to overrun Faerun. Instead it has embarked on a commercial program to sell magical artifacts. Something like a Thayvian 'to get rich is glorious' policy change...
Evermeet is one of the last surface Elven powers. It is located on the extreme west of Faerun, run by beneficent and magically powerful elves who insist on being left alone. Its main direct enemies are not humans, but the drows (the dark elves) who live underground. If united, these drows are probably much more numerous and powerful than the surface elves, but fortunately for Faerun, they are like the Thayvians and forever fight among themselves. Their cities too are concentrations of magical power and lore.
The other nations of Faerun (e.g. the Venice-like metropolis of Waterdeep, the more mundane nations of Sembia and Cormyr) all have mages and clerics, but none of them have a concentration of them comparable to the magocracies or the elven nations. It is therefore notable that D&D postulated such a variety of political and cultural adaptations in different magical nations to deal with the problems and gifts of magical ability. After all, if magic were to exist on our earth, its regulation and control would perhaps be the chief political and social issue.
Yet despite the variety, it is even more interesting that magic users dominate the political orders of almost all the human nations. There is strikingly no democracies or republics in Faerun. The most liberal regime will be an oligarchy, and that is usually dominated by magic users. Waterdeep for instance is no magocracy, but it is run by a secret council of Lords with some of the most powerful mages in Faerun. The same pattern holds for almost all nations. Rashemen for instance is a warrior and even barbarous power, but it too is run by its witches.
Thomas Hobbes, the political philosopher, has based the equality of men not on some abstract or spiritual concept, but on the equal ability of each man to kill. Clearly in a world where magic users can unleash unspeakable violence on hapless 'muggles', even that primitive concept of equality cannot be sustained. D&D is being politically insightful in eliminating any semblance of democracy or liberalism in Faerun.
One then think about the myth of Atlantis and its magic. How then did Atlantis survive as a magical civilization? One would think only a totalitarian state or at least one of the autocratic D&D regimes can support such a civilization. Perhaps. Or is it because Faerun is populated by humans too much like us? Violent, quarrelsome and greedy creatures. Perhaps the Atlanteans were quite different, at least at first.
In any case, with some of the technologies coming to birth in the 21st century, one wonders whether we will end up with the chaos of the D&D world. After all, no one WEAK should ever want to live in Faerun. It is a world of adventure, darkness, heroism and general war. The strong and magically potent thrive there, but the rest play second or third fiddles at best and typically end up as undead corpses. And this is in large part thanks to the abundance of magical talent. In our 21st century world where 'transhumanist' technologies might one day empower large groups of people to become virtual wizards, will we too end up with autocratic 'magocracies'?
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8 comments:
What game are you talking about?
Dungeons and Dragons. Board type RPG game. A classic.
Yup.
I like your link to Hobbes; although I suspect the predominance of autocracies, etc, is more due to unconscious monarchistic inclinations than to any rational working out of implications from a premise (posession of magical talent).
What's keeping these mages from destroying everything altogether? The dread of mutually assured destruction? Certainly, as you have said, there is no system of metaphysics keeping things sane - it seems that "evil" powers are kept at bay be equal and *incidentally* good powers.
I think we can do better than "incidental". I think "good" in D&D is presumed to be Euro- or US-centric ideals of freedom, individualism, and humanism. You might think, in that case, why aren't there any liberal democracies in Faerun? To the typical fantasy novel reader, what transpires in Congress, in Parliament, in the Assemblée Nationale, in both domestic and international politics, is not his most immediate concern. What concerns him is that "good" should triumph over "evil", Hollywood- or Disney-like, right there in his own neighbourhood. The political structure of a neighbourhood, I suspect, is more an autocracy of parents and school teachers, presiding over a downtrodden mass of teenagers, than a government with the consent of the governed. The notion of "good", therefore, is not only Euro-centric, but also simplified through the Pepsi-bottle-bottom of parochialism.
There are no metaphysics in Faerun; the metaphyics (a rudimentary one, albeit) is presumed to be brought to the text by the reader.
Whatever *might* have been metaphysics in D&D is intimately physical - the gods are very, very real - David Eddings-like, who holdsyour horses for you, conjures food and water for you: essentially your personal valets. Whatever the ideals that govern "good" or "bad" resides in the whim of these powerful beings.
However, with that, I think we return to the idea of "might makes right". These "gods" could simply be construed as extra-mighty mages, with greater magical talents. - They too must be subsumed under the necessity of presuming upon the "morality" of the reader.
I wasn't considering questions of morality in D&D actually; after all liberal democracy or any political system can be linked to ethics and even metaphysics (God given rights etc.), but it can also be merely utilitarian. I do not think the D&D's rigid and simplistic ethical system (as embodied in its alignment system) necessarily imply any particular political system.
Indeed, D&D is notable for having an artificial but much less ambiguous morality than the real world. Thus readers and players are forced to conform to the morality of the game and the Forgotten Realm world. They do not therefore bring in their own morality. Nor do I think the gods determine D&D morality. Instead their alignment determine their actions.
If we MUST find some supreme order and Tao in D&D, then surely it resides in the alignment system, the latest game rules and of course the random throw of the dice =)
That game is based on the Forgotten Realms series, it's quite nice really. Just thought you'd like to know.
Yes. Don't you think the brawls would leave rather impressive carnage if D&D were real?
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