M0rtens og Troels’ D&D Sword and Sorcery scenarie Legenden om… II ligger ud med en rigtig fin tekst om hvad Sword and Sorcery er. Jeg fået lov til at bringe den her. Så nok snak, her kommer Mortens og Troels’ definition af Sword and Sorery.
“In one of these dens merriment thundered to the low smoke-stained roof, where rascals gathered in every stage of rags and tatters–furtive cut-purses, leering kidnappers, quick-fingered thieves, swaggering bravoes with their wenches, strident-voiced women clad in tawdry finery. Native rogues were the dominant element–dark-skinned, dark-eyed Zamorians, with daggers at their girdles and guile in their hearts. But there were wolves of half a dozen outland nations there as well. There was a giant Hyperborean renegade, taciturn, dangerous, with a broadsword strapped to his great gaunt frame–for men wore steel openly in the Maul. There was a Shemitish counterfeiter, with his hook nose and curled blue-black beard. There was a bold-eyed Brythunian wench, sitting on the knee of a tawny-haired Gunderman–a wandering mercenary soldier, a deserter from some defeated army. And the fat gross rogue whose bawdy jests were causing all the shouts of mirth was a professional kidnapper come up from distant Koth to teach woman-stealing to Zamorians who were born with more knowledge of the art than he could ever attain.”
Uddrag fra The Tower of the Elephant (1933) af Robert E. Howard.
Dette scenarie henter sin inspiration fra den litterære side af Sword & Sorcery-genren, subgenre under fantasy-genren, som den udvikledes i den første halvdel af det 20. århundrede. Det er en genre, som i film og tegneserier er blevet forvansket til ukendelighed gennem diverse barbar-film med muskuløse mænd i lændeklæde eller bjørneskindsunderbukser.
Sword & Sorcery ligger langt fra high fantasy-genren, som vi kender så godt fra Ringenes herre, eller fra de fleste Forgotten Realms-supplementer. Det er ikke den episke kamp mellem godt og ondt, som kaster imperier i ruiner, og lader nye riger rejse sig, men derimod er det den umiddelbare kamp for overlevelse her og nu, det gælder. Den er en genre, hvor trolddom og overtro hersker i en ellers rationel verden, og hvor trolddom er baseret på skumle kunstner og mørke pagter med væsner, hvis ælde knapt kan begribes.
Robert E. Howards Conan-historier er arketypiske inden for denne genre, men det gælder om at holde sig til de oprindelige forfattere, og ikke til andres genfortællinger i film og tegneserier, eller til andres videredigtninger af sammen da ånden i de historier meget let går tabt. Andre relevante historier er Michael Moorcocks Elric-historier og Fritz Leiberts Fafhrd and Grey Mouser-historier.
Til scenariet er der en række temaer, som vi gerne vil have frem:
Akronologisk
Conan-historierne er ikke skrevet kronologisk, og de skal heller ikke læses kronologisk. Som læsere ved vi, at Conan begynder sit liv som barbar, og at han i sin levetid både er røver, pirat og lejesoldat, indtil han ender sin karriere som konge. På samme måde er både rækkefølgen og kronologien fri mellem de fire legender i scenariet, da de alle sammen udspiller sig et sted mellem den indledende og den afsluttende historie.
Nærhistorisk fortid
Den hyboreanske tidsalder er en fjern tidsalder, men det er historier, som på et plan skal forestille, at udspille sig i vores verdens fortid, og ikke i en parallelverden eller i en fantasyverden. Det er en tid, hvor Atlantis er sunket i havet, og det udspiller sig antageligvis for mere end 10.000 år siden . og derfor er så mange stednavne genkendelige, de har en direkte parallel til vores historiske fortid. Denne verden har et åndsfællesskab med flere andre forfattere, herunder Lovecraft, og de kosmiske rædsler, der findes i Cthulhu-mythossen, er også at finde i den hyboreanske tidsalder.
Det følgende uddrag er for at give en fornemmelse af, hvilken forhistorie der går forud for vores historiske tid. Den hyboreanske tidsalder slutter omtrent der, hvor de ældste oldtidskulturer bliver kendt i moderne historieskrivning, nemlig ved summererne, hvis tidsalder omtrent er perioden fra 7000 til 4000 år siden.
Uddrag fra Robert E. Howards Hyborean Age-essay (1930’erne):
“Of that epoch known by the Nemedian chroniclers as the Pre-Cataclysmic Age, little is known except the latter part, and that is veiled in the mists of legendry. Known history begins with the waning of the Pre-Cataclysmic civilization, dominated by the kingdoms of Kamelia, Valusia, Verulia, Grondar, Thule and Commoria. These peoples spoke a similar language, arguing a common origin. There were other kingdoms, equally civilized, but inhabited by different, and apparently older races.
[…]
The Thurian civilization was crumbling; their armies were composed largely of barbarian mercenaries. Picts, Atlanteans and Lemurians were their generals, their statesmen, often their kings. Of the bickerings of the kingdoms, and the wars between Valusia and Commoria, as well as the conquests by which the Atlanteans founded a kingdom on the mainland, there were more legends than accurate history.
Then the Cataclysm rocked the world. Atlantis and Lemuria sank, and the Pictish Islands were heaved up to form the mountain peaks of a new continent. Sections of the Thurian Continent vanished under the waves, or sinking, formed great inland lakes and seas. Volcanoes broke forth and terrific earthquakes shook down the shining cities of the empires. Whole nations were blotted out.
[…]
A thousand years after the lesser cataclysm, the western world is seen to be a wild country of jungles and lakes and torrential rivers. Among the forest-covered hills of the northwest exist wandering bands of ape-men, without human speech, or the knowledge of fire or the use of implements. They are the descendants of the Atlanteans, sunk back into the squalling chaos of jungle-bestiality from which ages ago their ancestors so laboriously crawled. To the southwest dwell scattered clans of degraded, cave-dwelling savages, whose speech is of the most primitive form, yet who still retain the name of Picts, which has come to mean merely a term designating men–themselves, to distinguish them from the true beasts with which they contend for life and food. It is their only link with their former stage. Neither the squalid Picts nor the apish Atlanteans have any contact with other tribes or peoples.
[…]
Five hundred years later the kingdoms of the world are clearly defined. The kingdoms of the Hyborians–Aquilonia, Nemedia, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Koth, Ophir, Argos, Corinthia, and one known as the Border Kingdom–dominate the western world. Zamora lies to the east, and Zingara to the southwest of these kingdoms–people alike in darkness of complexion and exotic habits, but otherwise unrelated. Far to the south sleeps Stygia, untouched by foreign invasion, but the peoples of Shem have exchanged the Stygian yoke for the less galling one of Koth.
[…]
Another five centuries and the Hybori peoples are the possessors of a civilization so virile that contact with it virtually snatched out of the wallow of savagery such tribes as it touched. The most powerful kingdom is Aquilonia, but others vie with it in strength and mixed race; the nearest to the ancient root-stock are the Gundermen of Gunderland, a northern province of Aquilonia. But this mixing has not weakened the race.
They are supreme in the western world, though the barbarians of the wastelands are growing in strength.
[…]
The ancient Sumerians had no connection with the western race. They were a mixed people, of Hyrkanian and Shemitish bloods, who were not taken with the conquerors in their retreat. Many tribes of Shem escaped that captivity, and from pure-blooded Shemites, or Shemites mixed with Hyborian or Nordic blood, were descended the Arabs, Israelites, and other straighter-featured Semites. The Canaanites, or Alpine Semites, traced their descent from Shemitish ancestors nuxed with the Kushites settled among them by their Hyrkanian masters; the Elamites were a typical race of this type. The short, thick-limbed Etruscans, base of the Roman race, were descendants of a people of mixed Stygian, Hyrkanian and Pictish strains, and originally lived in the ancient kingdom of Koth. The Hyrkanians, retreating to the eastern shores of the continent, evolved into the tribes later known as Tatars, Huns, Mongols and Turks.”
.
Ingen hjælp udefra
Vore helte må klare sig med det, de har. Der er ingen guder, der kommer folk til undsætning, og derfor heller ingen clerics blandt spilpersonerne, og ligeledes ingen gamle, magtfulde troldmænd eller venligsindet kavaleri, som står på spring for at undsætte en. Ingen stater eller love hjælper dem, de må selv påtvinge deres omgivelser orden, mening eller retfærdighed gennem deres egne handlinger.
“Helte”
Spilpersonerne er ikke rendyrkede helte, de er handlingens mænd og kvinder. De er ressourcefulde og målrettede, men de er ikke forkæmpere for det gode. De er ofte outsidere, fremmede i de samfund, hvor de har deres eventyr. De drives efter deres egen livslyst, og ikke af store idealer om retfærdighed, sandhed og det gode, og de er i den forstand “anti-helte”.
Det overnaturlige er mørkt og farligt
Fornuft og videnskab er erstattet af overtro og anvendelsen ar mørke kræfter. Trolddom består ofte af indviklede og skumle ritualer, pagter med rædsler fra en steder, som det fornuftige menneske skælver ved at forsøge at begribe. Det er en ældgammel verden, hvor troldmændene trækker på lærdom, der stammer fra forsvundne Lemuria og Mu. Trolddom er skummelt, farligt og noget, der skal omgås varsomt. Ligeledes er der ingen guddommelig kraft, der skæbnebestemmer vore helte til deres storhed.
Gudernes eksistens er irrelevant for heltenes handlinger.
“Murilo saw that the barbarian had locked his legs about the ape-man’s torso and was striving to maintain his position on the monster’s back while he butchered it with his poniard. Thak, on the other hand, was striving to dislodge his clinging foe, to drag him around within reach of the giant fangs that gaped for his flesh. In a whirlwind of blows and scarlet tatters they rolled along the corridor, revolving so swiftly that Murilo dared not use the chair he had caught up, lest he strike the Cimmerian. And he saw that in spite of the handicap of Conan’s first hold, and the voluminous robe that lashed and wrapped about the ape-man’s limbs and body, Thak’s giant strength was swiftly prevailing. Inexorably he was dragging the Cimmerian around in front of him. The ape-man had taken punishment enough to have killed a dozen men. Conan’s poniard had sunk again and again into his torso, shoulders, and bull-like neck; he was streaming blood from a score of wounds; but, unless the blade quickly reached some absolutely vital spot, Thak’s inhuman vitality would survive to finish the Cimmerian and, after him, Conan’s companions.
Conan was fighting like a wild beast himself, in silence except for his gasps of effort. The black talons of the monster and the awful grasp of those misshapen hands ripped and tore at him, the grinning jaws gaped for his throat. Then Murilo, seeing an opening, sprang and swung the chair with all his power, and with force enough to have brained a human being. The chair glanced from Thak’s slanted black skull; but the stunned monster momentarily relaxed his rending grasp, and in that instant Conan, gasping and streaming blood, plunged forward and sank his poniard to the hilt in the ape-man’s heart.”
Uddrag fra Rogues in the House (1934) af Robert E. Howard.
Ikke dit gennemsnitlige fantasy-scenarie
Du finder således ingen elvere, dværge eller hobbitter, der er ikke troldmænd i hjørnet, der sidder rede til at sende folk på en mission, og det onde truer ikke verdens orden igen. Ej heller er der en forræder i gruppen, eller intriger mellem spilpersonerne.