Sunday, October 09, 2005

Tower Critique: The BladeWed

10/09/2005

I really wanted to like these guys. I still think they have potential… But things need to be fixed.

The BladeWed (’flach ri G’kna’a)…

Also known as the ‘f’’sf’df’d’’’f’’d’’fd’’’’df’df’’’

Please, in the name of all that is holy, give the apostrophes a rest. An apostrophe BEFORE the first letter? An apostrophe generally represents a glottal stop. A glottal stop before you even voice a sound is impossible.

...are a religious order of knights essentially devoted to the defense and maintenance of the Temple and its Priesthood.

Sounds good so far… Monastic order of warriors, much like the Knights Templar and Hospitallers…

They are also the leaders for most of the Dhe’nar warriors…

If they’re under the auspices of the Temple Caste, they would not be leaders for most of the Warrior Caste. That would make the Warrior caste subservient to the Temple caste, and again, this would mean there’s no point in having a separate Warrior Caste.

...and function as general officers for Tesachta’a and Dzevachta’a.

Gesundheit.

They are trainers, teachers, scholars and tacticians, and are the elite of the Dhe’nar Warrior Caste.

Even though they serve the Temple Caste.

From sixteen on, they are removed from the status of slave…

I think I addressed this issue under the Warrior Caste section already…

...and instead begin to go through the same rituals of training as do priests and priestesses until their mid-twenties.

So, they’re training as priest and priestesses, and serve the Temple Caste, but they lead the Warrior Caste… Umm, nope!

They are given intense religious and ceremonial training, and are expected to work as much with their heads and souls as with their swords. Whatever latent power abilities…

What, like in Dragonball Z?

...they possess are nurtured and encouraged for future use. From their late teens, these young warriors are also given instruction, lasting into their late twenties, in martial arts of all sorts: weapons, weaponless combat, tactics, strategy, ceremony and planning. They are encouraged to self-reliance and are often sent on long individual missions for the Temple and for training.

This is fine… for a set of elite warriors sponsored by the Temple Caste. But they would have to be separate from the Warrior Caste

BladeWed warriors do not ever participate in any binding ritual. They are discouraged from love, family, and anything which might detract from…

...or inspire them to perform…

...their duty and their calling.

Though encouraged in their relations with the opposite sex, they are beaten ritually and severely for any liaison which goes beyond a week. If this does not discourage them, they may be beaten to death. They are often resurrected

I hope so… low population and all.

...and sent into the Guardians, for their potential may be otherwise utilized by the Dhe’nar.

There are many offenses in Dhe’nar society which may merit death.

Primary among these offenses is “being born”.

The young BladeWed are often utilized as executioners.

Why? Does it take that much skill? Obviously not, so why are the BladeWed chosen?

An opportunity for a real bit of interesting cultural information completely squandered…

Any with feelings of squeamishness or shyness are weeded out early and sent into some other service. Major offenses amongst the BladeWed are handled by ritually maiming the candidate: no empath is allowed to remove the stigma, and the candidate must live with it to teach humility for several years. Blinding, deafening, amputation…

Live with an unhealed amputation for years? I challenge someone to live with an unhealed amputation for an hour…

...the punishment fits whatever transgress of the code of the BladeWed the candidate has made. Those so maimed are, of course, expected to perform in all other respects as well as the rest of their comrades.

Sure, because a blind guy or a guy with a missing limb is going to fight just as well as his buddies. Do they chop the legs off the guys on their Olympic Sprinting Team, too?

Having learnt pain, humility, religion and strategy, the young BladeWed are also taught to love their weapons.

Oh god… I won’t say a thing.

BladeWed are all swordsmen; no less noble weapon is permitted them as a mate.

I’m fine with them only using swords. I’m not fine on the distinction of nobility with weapons. What makes a sword more noble than another weapon? Are they 16th century samurai now? How about a little cultural background to explain this belief? Wait, sorry, I know I’m asking too much.

They are given almost religious…

Almost religious? They’re part of the Temple Caste, right?

...instruction in the forms, care, and tactics of sword combat, from their first days as a BladeWed. Unlike the Guardians, BladeWed are given their personal weapon very early on, and though not yet sanctified, they are taught to woo it as a lover.

Do you know what “woo” means? ‘Cause this is either wrong, or deranged.

The perfection of their relationship with the blade is to use it as best they may, to kill, defend, to delight in its form and function, to exalt in its proper use and artful deadly power. They eat, sleep, and endure all of their daily torments with their blades by their sides. After ten or twelve years of this, they would feel naked and alone without it.

Apparently they’re the only Dhe’nar who don’t have a naked fixation.

Soon after leaving the priesthood training, those warriors who have survived (and many, as reading the priesthood training above will show, do not)…

Again, a society with a dangerously low population WOULD NOT REGULARLY KILL THEIR OWN PEOPLE IN TRAINING.

You’d think that with all the years the Obsidian Tower has supposedly been around, somebody would have pointed out this massive inconsistency already.

...are taken deep into the mountain for their most sacred ritual: The BladeWedding.

I REALLY don’t want to know.

Some, of course, do not survive this ritual.

Naturally. Because not only do we like killing off a whole lot of our children in training, but we like killing off half of our elite warriors too! The Dhe’nar would NEVER survive as a people with this going on.

They are unfit. Those who do are wed to their blades for life, never to take another as a lifetime companion. Stories of those few who have tried abound with tales of warriors found hacked to pieces by their own hands, or their unlucky partners killed by that part of the BladeWed which is controlled by the Blade. Few are attracted to the BladeWed as longtime mates…

For obvious reasons.

...though empaths do sometimes choose them as companions for a few years.