The goal of this short talk is to use several examples to highlight the differences in mentality and behavior of people living in a fantasy world (a world of sparse population, clan-based society, myths, and legends) compared to today’s postmodern society.
When I watch American “historical” films, or when I happen to be present at an RPG session situated in a non-specific past, my soul—well-acquainted with the customs of ancient peoples—sometimes groans at the behavior of certain characters. I firmly believe that to play a faithful game set in the past, one doesn’t need to be a professional historian; however, one should be aware of at least certain (often very interesting) customs and attitudes of the past that contrast sharply with today’s stances.
It often happens that a film doesn’t feature Romans or Celts, but rather Americans dressed in historical costumes. They might look archaic and barbaric, wearing effectively grimy furs, but their approach to life, their dialogues, and their entire existence is that of a 21st-century Euro-American.
The moment a hero in a movie (currently captured and demoted to a slave) starts shouting at his master—the moment he even begins to speak before his master allows it—he is committing a grave offense against morality that should be followed by immediate punishment.
Few today realize just how DIFFERENT the past was (and still is in some parts of the world). People truly suffered from hunger; in winter, they were genuinely cold; and at night, torches only faintly flickered. We, accustomed to turning a valve for heat when it’s cold, we who have plenty of food whenever we wish, we who are judged for our transgressions not by our grandfather—the village elder—but by an anonymous office, we who do not believe in a terrifying goddess of Retribution… we simply live a different life. Both internally and externally.
Many universal human themes remain more or less the same, just wearing a different coat. But here and there, a great theme towers that is foreign to us today, and many small details of daily life that we no longer even think about have changed completely. And that is precisely what determines the character of the time period in which we place our characters. It is not the costume style, but what shaped it: the spirit of different times.
It is practically impossible to provide a grandiose summary of the differences in customs and understanding between the past and the present—and I couldn’t squeeze it into such a short essay anyway—but I can at least point to a few cases that struck me regarding the dimensions in which changes occurred. This entire text is, quite obviously, an incredible simplification that wouldn’t stand a chance before a professional committee, but let’s not forget that the goal of an RPG is not to pass a committee, but to evoke the atmosphere of something Other. Old times. Different times. It is clear that there was no single “old time”; there were as many variants as there are cultures. Furthermore, morality and customs differed even within cultures based on social groups, castes, and strata.
Quite consciously, under the guise of correcting “American movie nonsense,” I am committing a deception of a different kind: the construction of somewhat idealized “old times” that are intentionally polar opposites to today’s society. The creation of “noble savages,” “wise druids,” and the like. Yes, I admit that this stylization occurs in the points below, but it is intentional because it helps evoke a sense of difference from postmodern everyday life. Every Game Master (Narrator) can then dampen or mix these elements to their liking.
Where did I get these insights?
I know two paths:
Literature and Documents: Reading specialized literature and documents about the customs of the past—books like Life of the Ancient Romans and the like. Direct documents are even better: works by people from antiquity or the Middle Ages—law codes, chronicles, sagas. The advantage of original (un-retold) works is that they preserve, even in their specific verbal formulations, the way of thinking and the cultural atmosphere of ancient nations, which otherwise gets lost in summaries and textbooks. Modern Remnants: Searching for remains of these customs today. In many places even in today’s world—in remote Himalayan valleys, African settlements, Amazonian jungles, Indian mountain tribes, and wherever Euro-American civilization hasn’t fully penetrated—we find reflections of those same “old times.” But one doesn’t necessarily need to disturb surviving tribes; a small measure of “old times” can be found in almost any remote community, even on the European subcontinent. A Romanian mountain village or a Faroese fishing settlement, with its multi-day wedding and funeral rituals and wealth of customs and folktales, still carries a bit of the “old times” within it.
Community and Its Boundaries
The sharp boundaries of individual communities meant a far sharper distinction between Us and Them. Many attitudes today would seem like “racism” or “xenophobia,” but it wasn’t racism in the 19th-century sense; it was simply clearly defined boundaries between “us” and “them” and less hesitation in using stereotypical images of oneself and others.
Nations, clans, and families were more tightly knit and formed something almost like “organisms.” Any foreigner from another clan or race acted like a particle in a foreign body and was perceived as such. People treated them according to agreed-upon rules of hospitality, but with distance, and they generally couldn’t penetrate deeply into that society (unless joined by marriage, adoption, or another ritual process). By facial features or accent, one immediately knew where a person came from. People recognized “half-breeds” well, and they sometimes had a significantly lower status in society. There was no doctrine that all people are equal, and nobody thought so. People were born unequal—by their nation, clan, gender, and social stratum—and it was perceived as part of their essence, not just a result of random circumstances.
Genealogy
People knew far more about their ancestors. Their knowledge didn’t end with grandfathers or great-grandfathers; a man from a decent family knew a long lineage of his ancestors back to some legendary forefather. This was due to the fact that people didn’t watch TV in the evening; they listened to grandfathers telling stories about the old times and their ancestors. The stories were sometimes monotonously repetitive, but they were firmly etched into the memory and passed down to descendants in old age.
Clannish feuds and conflicts were preserved in memory as well, which had an appropriate effect on historical development. As an example from the history of Ancient Rome: a certain Junius Brutus played a significant role in the expulsion of the last king from Rome. Nearly five centuries later, his distant descendant of the same name (of the famous “Et tu, Brute!”) participated in the murder of Julius Caesar, a man who inclined toward becoming a king. Hatred of totalitarian royal power and respect for the Republic were passed down through the Junius Brutus line for generations and finally bore fruit.
Respect for the Venerable
A nuisance one encounters constantly in RPGs: a lack of respect for those who deserve it. Today’s postmodern, cynical era is losing its grasp on this concept. It is a sign of good character to show respect; those who do not, invite the wrath of the gods. Today, it’s considered “funny” or “cool” to behave as rudely as possible toward one’s surroundings, without respect or patience.
In the past, a student might have walked silently behind their master for three years before the master spoke to them for the first time. In times past, there were no books, and when there were, illiterate people couldn’t read them anyway—therefore, people, not books, were the carriers of knowledge and information. Elders, priests, sages. Knowledge was not understood as an abstract sum of information, but as inextricably linked with life wisdom. Thus, a twenty-year-old youth could hardly be an object of respect, no matter how much of a “nerd” he was. Conversely, an old man was always revered. The mere white color of his hair evoked instinctive displays of respect and politeness. After all, in times when the average age was 40, someone who lived to see a “silver” old age deserved good treatment and attention.
Honor
A absolutely key word for the past. A completely empty word today. People living in communities had their honor. One who sinned against their honor not only suffered great psychological distress but was also rejected by their society. In earlier times, the world created by people was everything. This is why the worst punishment in Ancient Greece was banishment from the community. Such a wretch never became a “complete” person again. They were never truly at home anywhere—always just a foreigner looked down upon. They had no say in anything, which was terrible for the (particularly talkative) Greeks.
What did “honor” consist of? Primarily, it was reliability and responsibility. A man’s word was his bond; there was no need for oaths. One who fails to keep their word becomes a lower being in the eyes of others—someone who prefers profit over their own honor. Such a person has no place in society. Honor also included obligations to ancestors, father, mother, clan, nation, and ruler. These obligations were fulfilled without discussion. Everything personal came after them. One who does not do so is not a man, but a reptile. A man without honor is an outlaw whom nobody listens to, nobody takes seriously, and who is just an expendable rat to others. Generally, honor fulfilled the function of money today. For many, it was the meaning of life. One famous for their honor was respected and known. Honor was close to glory and was one of the paths to immortality.
Hospitality
Almost unbelievable today, but a living reality back then. Sayings like “A guest in the house, God in the house” should not be taken as exaggeration; that is truly how it worked. Ancient Indian law codes state: “The householder welcomes the guest, washes his feet, offers food and drink, and entertains him with conversation.” Since there were no hotels, travelers stayed with householders who saw it as their “civic” duty. Of course, hospitality had its limits, and a guest didn’t stay much longer than overnight. That was his duty in return. This system functioned for a very long time and still functions today in regions where Western civilization hasn’t penetrated as deeply. Since there were no newspapers, staying travelers were the source of information for the householder and the entire village.
Information Paths
Today, it works completely differently than it used to. A modern person knows that someone was shot in Uruguay but doesn’t know that the neighbor upstairs lost a son. In the past, it was exactly the opposite. Information spread smoothly in all directions, and those closer knew more. There was rarely a direct connection—people usually learned things “tenth-hand” and already significantly distorted. This is how many legends and myths arose.
The human soul, which needs to hear Myth, “colored” the story toward an archetypal pattern with each subsequent transfer of information. Information from afar was thus far more inaccurate. Distant lands often seemed very legendary and magical; the closer things were, the more normal and ordinary they became. Local news was much more accurate (though even that could bloom into delightful stories through repetition). Houses, villages, and even small towns functioned like organisms in which news traveled at lightning speed. Everyone knew everyone else; they addressed each other on the street and talked. Except for feuding clans and other exceptions, today’s ignorance and metropolitan seclusion did not exist. It is an illusion to think that something could be kept secret in such a society. There wasn’t as much anonymous crime, but forest paths and remote corners were far more dangerous places than they are today—not just because of robbers, but also because of wild animals and untamed nature.
Memory versus Writing
Before the invention of writing, people had to rely solely on their memory. Imagine the situation—anything that is not orally passed to someone (and confirmed that they remembered it) is lost forever. Information cannot be stored in external objects, only in human memory. And human memory has immense potential.
With proper training, a person can memorize epics, hymns, treatises, and sutras that would cover hundreds of pages. Ancient cultures knew how to handle human memory much better. Most works were in verse not primarily for aesthetic reasons, but for the sake of mnemonics. People remembered messages literally. If you wanted to please someone with a song or a poem, you had to write it into your memory. Going to study with druids or brahmins meant, above all, stuffing entire libraries of texts into oneself, including the teacher’s commentaries. Even in later ages, when writing had been invented, the majority of the population remained illiterate for thousands of years. They still had to remember things. Only a chosen layer of scribes, priests, rune-carvers, and officials had access to the mysterious magic of writing and could read words from spots on parchment or lines on papyrus.
A number of the points above may seem highly idealized. That is both true and not true. For the most part, I am speaking of the space in which the old times seemed perhaps “better.” Of course, if I were to speak of technical sophistication, the level of general education, and many other achievements of modern society, I would have to state a condition of great backwardness. Wars weren’t “World Wars,” but they were often more frequent. People died during hunts, in skirmishes, and women and children died during childbirth.
Overall, it seems we have merely traded one thing for another: Technical progress results in overpopulation, isolation, and dehumanization; General education formats people into “building blocks.”; Physical safety produces weaklings and the infirm; External “much-learning” shouts down slower and more unique wisdom; Marketed simple illusions push authenticity and the nature that requires care and consideration out the door.
Perhaps that is why some of us escape into the worlds of the past and search there for what we lack today. I hope that for those for whom this return is not just a game of sword-waving, this short talk will help make the world of the past more real. Some of the traits I have discussed struck me so deeply that I began to think they are not just historical facts, but that I have them hidden somewhere deep within me, and they are only sleeping. They are part of human nature.
© 2004 Jan Kozák Jr.
