King Arthur and Gaming
Feb. 8th, 2006 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleribCut for geekery and pedantry both.
For the record: the same types show up again and again in the King Arthur legends. Uther Pendragon is enchanted to look like Goloris so Igraine will sleep with him. Elaine is enchanted to look like Guenevere so Lancelot will do the same. Arthur, Mordred and Galahad are all illegitimate children, born from adultery, incest, and fornication, respectively. There's the Arthur-Guenevere-Lancelot triangle and the Mark-Isolde-Tristam triangle. Relationships and sins are reflected back and forth in different instances to different effects.
So, in your Arthur-inspired RPG, when you have a child born of wedlock who was concieved because one parent was enchanted to look like someone else, is that kid Arthur or Galahad? And if the kid ends up being eeeevil, does he lose those aspects and become all Mordred, or do they hang around in the background and send out interesting resonances?
Slippery.
In 7th Sea, King Arthur is a woman. Her name's Elaine, and rather than pull a sword from a stone, she brings an enchanted Grail back from the fairylands.
Can you believe it's taken me literally years to pick up on the fact that the Grail Maiden's name was Elaine?
Anyway. She has a daughter who was taken from her in the fairylands and who has been raised to hate her and want to overthrow her. That's your Mordred, right?
Except that the kid's father is the Lancelot figure, and he was disguised as Elaine's fiancee when the kid was conceived. Much like Grail Maiden Elaine disguised herself as Guenevere to seduce Lancelot and conceive Galahad.
Anyway. She's got a geas that spells disaster if she ever loves anyone more than her nation. So Lancelot is keeping his feelings for her under wraps, and she tries to forget that she ever had a daughter. It's different from Arthur, and it's not clear exactly who will betray whom and how, but that's really kind of spiffy.
And eventually, what we know must happen, happens. The daughter shows up, Elaine takes a sword in the gut from her Lancelot, and he flees. Elaine is apparently pulling double duty for Sir Gareth here; cool. So next, the realm is split with internal struggles as the closest thing we have to Sir Gawain pursues Lancelot back to Joyeuse Guard, and since nobody's watching, Mordred takes over, right?
Nnnno, that's not what's happening. Wait, how's Arthur/Elaine going to fight Mordred if she's already... oh, she's in a coma? But isn't that supposed to happen after the final battle, when she's on her way to the Isle of Apples with the Three Queens...?
Wait, you're doing the Grail Quest now? Because, according to the line manager, in the Arthur myth, after Lancelot and Guenevere are caught in adultery, Arthur gets some mysterious malaise and must be healed by the Grail?
No. No no no no. That was Excalibur. It was not even a very good movie.
OK, look. You want to make Arthur and the Fisher King the same guy, or rip off Excalibur, or whatever, you go do that. It's your RPG. People have been taking apart the Arthur myth and putting it back together for a long time; the aforementioned slipperiness of it all lends itself to that, as you invert expectations and distort the standard reflections. Cool, fine.
Do not justify this to me by invoking the Arthur myth. While there may not be One True Canonical Arthur Legend, in everything written up to and including Malory - and that's a lot - the Grail Quest comes first, before the adultery is revealed, and has about as much to do with the End Days of Camelot as, say, Tristan and Isolde. It's either Galahad or Percival's story. Lancelot, in fact, repents and vows to be celibate for the rest of his life in many versions. Of course, he doesn't manage to keep that vow, but that's The Rest of the Story.
The Grail Quest scatters the knights and gets many of them killed, but it isn't motivated by any need of Arthur's. The knights go out seeking glory and reputation (which is why so many fail). When they come back, that's when the Lancelot/Guenevere romance resumes, and they get caught, and everything goes to hell.
I would point all this out on the forum boards except that I have this suspicion that I am the only person in the world who would actually care. Ergo, it is more suited to the LJ. :)
For the record: the same types show up again and again in the King Arthur legends. Uther Pendragon is enchanted to look like Goloris so Igraine will sleep with him. Elaine is enchanted to look like Guenevere so Lancelot will do the same. Arthur, Mordred and Galahad are all illegitimate children, born from adultery, incest, and fornication, respectively. There's the Arthur-Guenevere-Lancelot triangle and the Mark-Isolde-Tristam triangle. Relationships and sins are reflected back and forth in different instances to different effects.
So, in your Arthur-inspired RPG, when you have a child born of wedlock who was concieved because one parent was enchanted to look like someone else, is that kid Arthur or Galahad? And if the kid ends up being eeeevil, does he lose those aspects and become all Mordred, or do they hang around in the background and send out interesting resonances?
Slippery.
In 7th Sea, King Arthur is a woman. Her name's Elaine, and rather than pull a sword from a stone, she brings an enchanted Grail back from the fairylands.
Can you believe it's taken me literally years to pick up on the fact that the Grail Maiden's name was Elaine?
Anyway. She has a daughter who was taken from her in the fairylands and who has been raised to hate her and want to overthrow her. That's your Mordred, right?
Except that the kid's father is the Lancelot figure, and he was disguised as Elaine's fiancee when the kid was conceived. Much like Grail Maiden Elaine disguised herself as Guenevere to seduce Lancelot and conceive Galahad.
Anyway. She's got a geas that spells disaster if she ever loves anyone more than her nation. So Lancelot is keeping his feelings for her under wraps, and she tries to forget that she ever had a daughter. It's different from Arthur, and it's not clear exactly who will betray whom and how, but that's really kind of spiffy.
And eventually, what we know must happen, happens. The daughter shows up, Elaine takes a sword in the gut from her Lancelot, and he flees. Elaine is apparently pulling double duty for Sir Gareth here; cool. So next, the realm is split with internal struggles as the closest thing we have to Sir Gawain pursues Lancelot back to Joyeuse Guard, and since nobody's watching, Mordred takes over, right?
Nnnno, that's not what's happening. Wait, how's Arthur/Elaine going to fight Mordred if she's already... oh, she's in a coma? But isn't that supposed to happen after the final battle, when she's on her way to the Isle of Apples with the Three Queens...?
Wait, you're doing the Grail Quest now? Because, according to the line manager, in the Arthur myth, after Lancelot and Guenevere are caught in adultery, Arthur gets some mysterious malaise and must be healed by the Grail?
No. No no no no. That was Excalibur. It was not even a very good movie.
OK, look. You want to make Arthur and the Fisher King the same guy, or rip off Excalibur, or whatever, you go do that. It's your RPG. People have been taking apart the Arthur myth and putting it back together for a long time; the aforementioned slipperiness of it all lends itself to that, as you invert expectations and distort the standard reflections. Cool, fine.
Do not justify this to me by invoking the Arthur myth. While there may not be One True Canonical Arthur Legend, in everything written up to and including Malory - and that's a lot - the Grail Quest comes first, before the adultery is revealed, and has about as much to do with the End Days of Camelot as, say, Tristan and Isolde. It's either Galahad or Percival's story. Lancelot, in fact, repents and vows to be celibate for the rest of his life in many versions. Of course, he doesn't manage to keep that vow, but that's The Rest of the Story.
The Grail Quest scatters the knights and gets many of them killed, but it isn't motivated by any need of Arthur's. The knights go out seeking glory and reputation (which is why so many fail). When they come back, that's when the Lancelot/Guenevere romance resumes, and they get caught, and everything goes to hell.
I would point all this out on the forum boards except that I have this suspicion that I am the only person in the world who would actually care. Ergo, it is more suited to the LJ. :)
