Before I begin, two things.
In my last post, I criticized the organization of Coyote & Crow’s setting chapter, which is long and may appear scattered to the eyes of readers accustomed to tight chapter headings and discrete info dumps about a gameworld that are characteristic of most RPG products. There was nothing negative intended in my analysis, I was just acknowledging the difficulty some readers might have with this firehose style of exposition. On the other hand, it is a wonderful example of indigenous storytelling, with all things connected and jumping between viewpoints in a story. In that respect I consider it an innovative success.
Also, major props for the flight of fancy, and I don’t just mean the Adanadi superpowers. The C&C team’s imagining of an indigenous world outside of our current one is a feat of wonder. The great Ursula LeGuin once said the following.
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art..
Le Guin was right, and this failing of imagination is what keeps us trapped in an exploitative system based on inequality. In Cahokia there are no homeless or drug addicts, which is hard for me to imagine walking around Vancouver, a city undergoing decolonization, with land acknowledgments and arts programs galore, but no end to the miserable lying on sidewalks in sight.
For indigenous people in North America, we are living in the post apocalypse and slowly finding ourselves. In Cahokia, the apocalypse never happened, and the pre-colonization values of indigenous society have taken center stage.
What a wonderful fantasyworld! But playing in such a land as Makasing also is a first step towards making a better world a reality.
CAHOKIAN LAWYERS, GUNS, & MONEY
We finally get to economics, and find there is a free market in Cahokia, as well as a paper currency that has gone largely digital. This reminds me of Japan, where older generations are staunch cash users, walking around with hundreds of dollars on them just in case a party or emergency breaks out, while younger people are starting to use Icoca and other cards for most transactions. Once again, as a Sociologist I really dig the depiction of Cahokia \ Makasing as a society in evolution, not a static gameworld.
Finally there is a mention of the Gats, and we find that they are bio-fueled 3D printers. The text tells us it is an exciting time to be an inventor, but there is still no list of what they can print. On the other hand, I often criticize exhaustive lists in rpgs that limit rather than free creation, so I will not pass judgment. I do appreciate that artisans and farmers are still valued, something we could learn from in the face of the wave of AI slop we are now being fed.
Next is an interesting segue into the law, which is very different from ours. In Cahokia and all of Makasing, land possession is not a thing, so neither is trespassing. Murder and theft are still crimes, but violence can either be a crime or a culturally sanctioned way to solve disputes, and as such murder becomes acceptable in a duel. The idea of a seven day waiting period to let cool heads prevail is interesting, and once again reminds me of feudal Japan or premodern France with its Musketeers.
The legal system is also enticingly different from our own. City judges decide cases with 3 judgments, which can be in succession or spaced out. This gives offenders time to change their ways or reflect on their actions. Once again, the authors give a nice nod to those who oppose the status quo and distrust the judges as corrupted, which both reflects the assault on law of our modern day, and makes Makasing feel much more real. Judges can proclaim banishment in rare cases, but tribes chafe against this authority, a nice tension between the continental government and the local communities they oversee.
We come to details about the Suyata (superpowered marshalls), who can kill to save others, but must restrain those who attack them. This is a nice dramatic touch, and firmly sets them up as heroes. As for those they arrest, criminals lose citizenship and tribal rights, and have to work for atonement. The maximum sentence is 20 years. I am reminded of Norway, which invested in rehabilitation over punishment and is now closing down prisons.
Adventure Seed #1! Some have criticized that they did not know what kind of adventures to run in C&C, but here the authors give us a clear seed - recapturing an escaped convict, or an exile who has returned.
TEACH THE CHILDREN WELL - RELIGION & EDUCATION
Religion is introduced in a sidebar suggesting ways not to misrepresent it, another necessary reminder for indigenous and non-indigenous players alike. The main tenets of Cahokian belief are Dualism (belief in something more), as well as the Great Spirit and other gods / spirits.
I really dig the many festivals detailed here, and I think this goes a long way towards breathing life into the gameworld. As I noted before, having a loose calendar or none at all is a weakpoint of many games, and this is both immersive and decolonial. They are tied to seasons, and to times of life, and reflect the themes of the gameworld. Well done!
The depiction of organized mass education as relatively new shows Cahokia and Makasing as a society still evolving, which again I think is a wonderful touch for a dynamic gameworld. The rise of a cult of math and connection with sacred nature by a renowned mathematician is a nice historical flourish, and reflects how Galileo and Einstein among others have been essential to sea changes in public consciousness. Again, this level of detail is lacking in most gameworlds and is appreciated. The authors add a critique of the apprentice system and siloing of knowledge, which is very apt, given what I have seen in Japan where knowledge is often passed from older to younger in this fashion.
I had to laugh at the depiction of university as a natural development of opening up of classrooms, and university teaching as just a stage in life. It was for me, and just might be for Dalhousie University faculty, who have just been locked out of their classrooms. Cahokian government funding of university is a welcome change from our world’s transformation of university from a public good into a cashcow degree mill that devalues teachers and students.
MUSIC OF THE SPHERE
The next section is a kaleidoscopic ride through Science, Time, Culture, and Music of Cahokia.
Without capitalism driving technology, scientists are slow moving, individual inventors in an unregulated field. This is an interesting and charmingly steampunk notion of how the field operates. Governments are not driving science, but are instead conservative about discoveries. This is totally different from our world, where the military-industrial complex is a driver of technology. I love it.
In terms of time keeping, the importance that the number 12 gained as a unit of measurement after a long dark age with no record keeping is interesting, and hints that the Awis not only had supernatural effects, but sociological ones as well. So many rpgs and manga overlook this, and other media have supers plunked down in the real world, but with unchanged calendars and time keeping despite the massive upheavals their presence would entail. The cyclical belief of time of Cahokians is also very akin to Incan beliefs, a nice nod to realworld indigenous traditions.
Finally, the authors present art, especially music, as central in ways to Cahokia that have become lost in our world. On the individual level, art is a daily practice, personal, private, and sacred, and not separated from the commonfolk. Art for art’s sake has developed via intertribal trade, and art is everywhere, on dwellings, clothes, and echnology.
Music is a huge departure from our world’s stifling music industry. The authors explicitly state Cahokia has ‘music not owned by anyone.’ People need tribal or artist permission to transmit or copy music, and all performance is live otherwise. No one programs, pre-records, or lip syncs in Cahokia. The only way to listen to music is via Second Eyes, but these go unexplained.
Aside from travelling musicians there is no centralized music industry to speak of, and of course there is no copyright. This decentraliation of art with local diffusion is a staple of the setting, and is a great antidote to both our realworld exploitative music industry and platforms like Spotify, as well as a rebuke to the dystopic corporate scifi space made by Alien and Aliens.
Cahokian music is dominated by the drums, vocals, and wind instruments, while string instruments are still an oddity. This gives soundtracks for games of C&C a distinctive flavour. Musicians are also presented as healers, and while musical satire is big, transcendental music to connect to bigger feelings of the sublime is also a feature of Cahokian music.
CONCLUSION
From science to culture to daily life to art, Cahokia is both a fascinating gameworld and an exercise in decolonial thinking. What if we had the time to create art everyday, and what if the homeless and addicted of our world were instead cared for and supported enough to create art?
The mind boggles. This is a game I can get behind.
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