Zona does not lie.
She has never lied in her life, she does not know how. In the same way that murder, pedophilia and torture exist in our culture, lying certainly does exist in Erogenia. but it is as rare and as punishable as the above offenses are in ours. I created a human culture that is imperfect, but the fact is that honesty and honor in a culture like Erogenia where literacy and formal courts of law and litigation are virtually unknown is of supreme importance. If you think that Zona is lying here, then I would say no, she is just saying something akin to “In my culture we do not murder each other. it’s considered a terrible act, one of the worst you can commit. ” Does murder exist? Yes. Is it a sanctioned part of our culture? No. It is a problem? Yes. You don’t create a taboo against something that doesn’t ever happen.
If, in an Erogenian tribe, it becomes known that a member has lied to another Erogenian, that destroys the trust in that person, it marks their life. They are sent into exile alone in the wilderness and they cannot return for a time that’s measured in years. That’s for the first offense. The second offense is punished by permanent exile from the tribe. That’s how important it is, and that’s baked into their culture. If you lie to someone outside of the tribes, then you need to have an extremely compelling reason, and you have to answer for it to the entire tribe. Warfare naturally excuses this. Think of it as the difference between taking a sniper rifle and randomly killing civilians versus being a uniformed combatant in a declared action targeting enemy officers.
Yes, some Erogenians are seemingly hypocritical because they’re human. If I made a culture where all the members acted exactly alike and never deviated from their cultural norms and never committed a taboo act then I’d have a bunch of robotic Mary Sues and they’d be boring as hell.
2 thoughts on “Page 68”
Reservist
“Erogenians do NOT” lie.
*cranks up that sea shanty* “Thaat’s a lie, that’s a lie, that’s a lie, a lie, a liiiiie…”
jedraft
Zona does not lie.
She has never lied in her life, she does not know how. In the same way that murder, pedophilia and torture exist in our culture, lying certainly does exist in Erogenia. but it is as rare and as punishable as the above offenses are in ours. I created a human culture that is imperfect, but the fact is that honesty and honor in a culture like Erogenia where literacy and formal courts of law and litigation are virtually unknown is of supreme importance. If you think that Zona is lying here, then I would say no, she is just saying something akin to “In my culture we do not murder each other. it’s considered a terrible act, one of the worst you can commit. ” Does murder exist? Yes. Is it a sanctioned part of our culture? No. It is a problem? Yes. You don’t create a taboo against something that doesn’t ever happen.
If, in an Erogenian tribe, it becomes known that a member has lied to another Erogenian, that destroys the trust in that person, it marks their life. They are sent into exile alone in the wilderness and they cannot return for a time that’s measured in years. That’s for the first offense. The second offense is punished by permanent exile from the tribe. That’s how important it is, and that’s baked into their culture. If you lie to someone outside of the tribes, then you need to have an extremely compelling reason, and you have to answer for it to the entire tribe. Warfare naturally excuses this. Think of it as the difference between taking a sniper rifle and randomly killing civilians versus being a uniformed combatant in a declared action targeting enemy officers.
Yes, some Erogenians are seemingly hypocritical because they’re human. If I made a culture where all the members acted exactly alike and never deviated from their cultural norms and never committed a taboo act then I’d have a bunch of robotic Mary Sues and they’d be boring as hell.
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