Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad

--- Jörg Rhiemeyer skrzypszy:

> Padraic manages to create the impression that Dunein is essentially stuck
> in the 19th century, that lynch justice is the order of the day and that
> civil rights don't exist there. When reading his description of Dunein, I
> get the impression that it is almost as barbaric as Afghanistan.
To be honest, I never got such impression. Dunein is very *traditional*
indeed, but not stuck in some distant past.

> I bailed out because I didn't want the Elves to appear in that bad light
Well, you might consider joining with Germanech instead; in that case you
would have relatively little to do with Kemr.

> BTW: Andrew is worried about this, too, as he told me in private
> mail.  Apparently he considers intervening.

> I can live with a bit less tech.  This means that there is no Internet
> yet, and no cellphones.  But overall something we would recognize as
> "modern".
As someone already mentioned, both the Internet and mobilophones existed
*here* in the 1980s and earlier. They exist in IB too, but are far from
democratised.
Regarding technology, many things are different in IB, but not necessarily
more old-fashioned. The fact that zeppelins and other kinds of airships
flourish certainly does not mean that these are the same things that we had
*here* in the 1930s.

> I think this shows that the "left-right" scheme is an
> oversimplification.  Ill Bethisad seems to be more conservative in
> some respects, and more progressive in others.  It is neither better
> nor worse than our world, just *different*.
Indeed. More traditionalist, I would say, but not conservative.

> > Anything known about the world outside Kemr?
>
> Only that Detmold, a small German city, has a university that doesn't
> exist *here*, and that there is an Elvish nation, provisionally
> called Macaronesia, occupying the Canary, Madeira and Azores islands.
> Their language is different from the Elvish spoken in eastern Kemr,
> but closely related.  Otherwise, assume that the world is the same as
> *here*, with a few minor differences.
One perhaps stupid question (I have been away for a while, so forgive me):
I understood these Elves are entirely human; so what makes them "Elvish"?

Cheers,
Jan

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