Woo hoo!
If we have accomplished anything of merit in this thread, we have gotten Timothy to post! At length! (Hi Timothy! Always good to hear from you. 
)
But this post isn't about Timothy. It's about....
- Equality. The Declaration of Independence (and even if you're not American, there's only one /2) is a seminal document whose simple and stately statement about universal equality is fundamental to modern thought.
But if you want to play in Mythic Europe.... if you really want to play in the medieval Europe of myth and legend, it is patently obvious that all men are NOT created equal. Not. And it is even more obvious that women are not equal to men. Not the same. Different. Anyone who is anyone knows this, from the Greek philosophers to the Roman senators to the Church fathers to the Saracen infidels (what? aren't they also Divine? I'll get there....)
Government and society based on equality is therefore wrong, stupid and fundamentally unworkable, except in the rare cases where and to the limited extent to which people are equal.
Correspondingly, all perspectives and opinions and beliefs are NOT equally valid.
- Fascism. "Fascism" is a word, and like most words it has meaning. Wikipedia has a great article about the definition of fascism (and another about fascism itself.)
None of the suggested definitions other than Orwell's make any sense in a medieval context. Even Orwell's does not, because medieval people had buzzwords of their own for "bad" and "mean" and "nasty."
Now, fascism did have precursers. Fascists tend to mythologize a great past tradition and hold strength as a virtue, but they are not the only ones. Not by a long shot.
To describe anything medieval as 'fascist' is missing the point about what fascism is and is not.
Unfortunately... the Order of Hermes is not really medieval, despite the fine and exhaustive efforts of diverse people to make it so for this edition of the game. Its magic is not medieval, its politics not medieval... it's Jonathan and Mark tossing magic into medieval followed by a bunch of dedicated people working to make things fit. A lot of splendid work has been done. But I think a modern reader who reads about Tremere can be forgiven for drifting to the modern rather than the Greek, or who sees Guernicus in modern rather than medieval terms, the two houses combining to stomp out any dissident thought. And once you've brought Mercere into the picture, the lineaments of fascism do appear, with the military, judicial and mercantile branches of society all 'true lineages,' all effectively part of the government. Fascism. Complete with mind probes.
What of the counter-argument that medieval society can be viewed through a similar lens, in which the church and nobility support each other to crush dissident and heretical thought, with even the guilds increasingly in on things?
That's also a more modern perspective, plucking out the grand theme of church versus nobility from the grand sweep of medieval history. For a medieval feel, I think it is more productive to look at the trees and forgo the forest, emphasizing familial and tribal ties, and even personal goals. (I think that has advantages from a game perspective too, another topic.) There is no grand conflict between nobility and church vying for ultimate authority; there is just me and my younger brother, the bishop, versus the abbot and his knights over yonder, with all the connections we bring.
From a pre-modern perspective, blood ties are everything. We still have a lot of that going on: Tribal wars, tribal law, tribal customs. The OoH perspective on family, that the Order is now your real family to the extent that extensive involvement with your kin is "interference with mundanes" to my mind sits more easily in a modern totalitarianism than among medieval folk.
Am I calling the Tremere fascists? No. But I am calling the Order, as written, every bit as anachronistic as any other 20th century artifact found in the 13th century. Were my choice of characterization restricted to "fascist or feudal," I'd go with fascist.
- Monotheism. It's out of style these days. Divinity is either a superstition or it is found in everything, especially the Earth. If you don't believe one of these things, you're a fundamentalist
Tolerance is in. Except of fundamentalists.
Diedne are especially sympathetic from this modern perspective. They're sort of like Druids! And the Druids are all about nature! (The PHB says so; what other reference do you need?) The Druids practiced human sacrifice, but so what? Human sacrifice is common among ancient societies and it is a deeply spiritual practice. Joseph Campbell even said so. Besides, maybe it's just bad PR from the Romans who were much nastier.
And look at their enemies: Evil Christian (but I repeat myself) religious fanatics looking for heretics to burn at the stake to fuel their Inquisition and create a society founded upon superstition and ignorance, a stifling and oppressive patriarchy. The fascist Tremere are more of the same. And the Quaesitors are corrupt; the True Lineage book even says so.
Except....
In the medieval world, monotheism is In. There is a Prime Mover. Only a fool says in his heart that there is no god. The wise know that there is One, and being close to the One God is so important that it is worth fighting and dying for to get it right.
Diversity is not a good thing, when it's about evil adulterating the good. Tolerance is not a good thing when you are protecting evil.
From this perspective, wiping out the Diedne was a wonderful thing. Evil pagans--but I repeat myself. The Druids were so awful that even the Romans with their lions and crucifixions couldn't tolerate them.
But from this perspective, I also have a hard time with a largely pagan Order. In the 13th century, the more educated you are the more you know that the pagan gods are false, that only the ignorant and foolish believe things like that. Hedge wizards are pagan, not magi.
Anyway,
Ken
