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Shadow Of Sanctuary tw-3

Page 26

by Robert Lynn Asprin


  Take the Bazaar, for example. I've spent a fair amount of time in that bazaar and I don't know exactly how it's put together. Part of it is a farmers' market (though I haven't the faintest idea where the farmers are when they aren't at the Bazaar). Other parts are like the cloth-fairs of medieval France, where merchants sell their wares wholesale. Still other parts resemble the permanent bazaars of the Middle East. Rather than trouble myself with philosophical questions, like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, someday I've got to figure out how many S'danzo can live full-time in the Bazaar.

  Moving from angels to gods for a moment - it seems probable that anyone living in Sanctuary would have a personal relationship to the gods - nothing like worship or faith, mind you. The people seem homeric in their religion: the last thing an ordinary citizen wants is dealing with the gods; worship is designed to keep the deities at bay. We have at least two major pantheons represented in the temples and the gods know how many priesthoods trying to control them. They tell me there's a fellow out in California who has made a coherent mythology for the religions of Sanctuary. He's putting his theology into Chaosium's Thieves' World game, but nobody's saying where they're putting the intrepid mythmaster.

  Then there's currency - or why we call it Thieves' World. Since no one knows how the currency works, the townsfolk have no choice but to steal from each other. We sort of agree that there are copper coins, silver coins and gold coins - but we don't know their names or their conversion rates. We say: a few copper coins; or we get very specific and say: nine Rankan soldats -just in case someone else is writing about soldats that weren't minted in Ranke. But how many soldats make a shaboozh - or does it work the other way around? It probably does.

  Someday I'll create a money-lender for the town; making change in Sanctuary has got to be an art form. It won't do any good, though. Citizens and authors alike will find reasons not to visit my money-lender. They'll set up their own rates of exchange. The Prince will debase the currency. Vashanka will start spitting Indianhead nickels in his temple. I won't let that stop me. If the editor won't tell me how these things are to be done, I'll just have to start telling him.

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