Wednesday, September 21, 2011

More Evidence that D&D is Post-Apocalyptic

It has been hypothesized that D&D is by nature a post-apocalyptic game. The basic premise — adventurers exploring ruins for treasure — screams lost civilization. What is not as clear is that the basic assumed setting — a fantasy emulation of medieval Europe — is also post-apocalyptic.

Although I haven't posted much recently about either, I am still quietly working on both my version of the Chateau des Fausesflammes and Holmes & Cook. It largely amounts to research about something that I am not as fluent in as I would like to be — southern France circa A.D. 1200. What is striking is how important the Roman Empire is to medieval Europe — it is THE lost civilization. Charlemagne was called the Holy Roman Emperor, for example.

I found a profoundly beautiful example of this loss while trying to find musical inspiration for the Chateau. While searching around for examples of early medieval music, I ran across this beautiful example of Ambrosian Chant from the 7th century:


When I played this for my wife (who has a doctorate in music) without revealing what it really was, she rattled off such regions of origin as Greece, Albania, Georgia and the Middle East. This is because it bears a striking resemblance to the music from those regions. Take for example this 7th century hymn from Constantinople (still sung today in the Orthodox Church):


This is a poignant reminder that despite the distances, the different languages and the different local customs we used to have one Church.

Let me finish with one other interesting way medieval Europe tried to hold on to the past. Originally, clergy wore the same clothes as everybody else; however, as fashion changed in the laity, the clergy continued to wear the style of clothing worn by generations before them. Thus, the robes worn by priests in the middle ages (and in some places even today) were normal, everyday clothes in the fashion of 4th century Rome.

4 comments:

Uncle Shecky said...

"... Originally, clergy wore the same clothes as everybody else; however, as fashion changed in the laity, the clergy continued to wear the style of clothing worn by generations before them. Thus, the robes worn by priests in the middle ages (and in some places even today) were normal, everyday clothes in the fashion of 4th century Rome."

You just blew my mind. It's so great when a question I never even thought to ask has such an interesting answer.

Anthony said...

Beautiful music, and you're right about Rome being an archetypical "lost civilization." I've used that theme of the present age being a lesser descendent of a lost "golden age" many times in my games. It adds so much to a setting.

Russ said...

When I was a kid, a history teacher made the comment (probably like many people who thought they were being clever) that "the Holy Roman Empire was neither Roman nor holy." At the time it made perfect sense.

As I began to become more educated, I realized that the title was an indication of their aspirations, to recover the great Christian commonwealth of Rome. Of course, whatever Charlemagne called himself, the Emperor in Constantinople only acknowledged him as King of the Franks, I believe.

I wonder if the Great Schism would have gone differently if the Greek Romanoi would have gotten off their high horses and deigned to recognize Charlemagne (and following rulers) as a peer? But instead we got the Fourth Crusade.

FrDave said...

@Russ
I wonder if the Great Schism would have gone differently if the Greek Romanoi would have gotten off their high horses
Those high horses were on both sides, I am afraid. There are plenty of examples of the Franks being just (and in some cases more) arrogant than those Greek Romanoi. One that hits very close to home for Orthodox Christians is their insistence that there were only three holy languages (Greek, Latin and Hebrew). Sts. Cyril and Methodius (after whom the Cyrillic alphabet was named), of course, disagreed...