Discussing the Marauder Faction/Cult - IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Lacuna

@ Salazar and Daomei, I still argue that Mara are a nation. We will not be able to agree on this as we have different undertsandings of what this means. (...)

The mara are a people. The are not a mob. I think both of you do not really know much about tribal peoples or the history of ethnography of them. Your toons can see them as a ravening mob out to kill all hominkind. A view that mirrors the european curtural myths of the Other that we can trace back to Tacitus and Herodotus, indeed this is good rp. But this discussion is not about what toons think but what the mara actually are. We may not agree that they are a nation, but they are a people. And as cultrual entity that endure over time it is not unreasonable that as members of this culture that mara toons can show solidarity and earn faction points.

The term to describe Peoples usually their common language rather than their way of life - in many cases they were rather fighting each other than anything else. That was very much the case with the Germanic tribes, and it sort of went on into the 19th Century - there was no German nation until Bismarck forced it into being. The Arabic peoples are another example. The Atys countries are highly artificial in their unity, and the various cities given to the different language servers were just an effort to soothe the pain, to minimize the more or less natural problems. So I have high respect for those who choose to be Marauders and be forced in a community similar to Babel and the building of its tower, for few can (like Daomei) talk and write in several tongues, for the self-developed Marauder language is - like the language of the Atys nations - more of an abstract idea than of factual use.

But I do see a quite large gap between the Marauder players and the NPC Marauders who tried to take over the New Lands by force, are ruled by Old Lands' Melkiar, count blood-thirsty bandits and murderers and psychopaths like Aen and Dante and Marung amongst their representatives and deal in murder, drug trade and slavery. There's probably need to sort that out, as that very much infuences the dealings with the Marauders.

@Binarabi: As for slavery - don't forget that the last nation which introduced slaves were the Zorai under mad Fung-Tun. They are no writings telling us that Mabreka dropped it when he diposed of Fung-Tun. Probably it was continued until the ratification of the Homin Rights Act. ;)