Understanding the Law on Lore
This is a topic that seems to crop up every few months, and that at some point or another every new player hears: “Ancient Lore is Forbidden!”
And it’s true – Ancient Lore is forbidden. But the way people react, and the speed that people will jump to saying that phrase doesn’t help – in fact, it is damaging in exactly the same way as Ancient Lore became, as well as sadly a few new ways. There are a few things that need to be understood better – namely, what Ancient Lore is, what is not Ancient Lore, and why it is forbidden in the first place.
Thankfully, since this topic does come up so often, this information is pretty freely available. In fact, answers to the first and third questions have already been posted by Mur on this very website (specifically this article for what Ancient Lore is, and this article for why it is forbidden).
We have all learned that we should not get too involved in Ancient Lore, but sadly it looks like we might have learned it a little too well. Now it’s common to see people talking about how it is forbidden, even though what is being discussed isn’t, in fact, Ancient Lore at all. And there are a lot of things that come very close to being Ancient Lore without actually being the same thing. The most important tool to understanding what is and is not forbidden is understanding why it is forbidden in the first place. Sadly, when we are told that “Ancient Lore is Forbidden” most of us just accept it, and forget to ask why that might be…
I think there’s a misunderstanding here, story mode is not part of “ancient lore”, unlike you imply in the article.
It is the stories that came out explaining characters from story mode, expanding their background, adding on further characters based on location names (or were the locations named after them indeed, interesting question), like Wind, Willow, Raven – that are part of ancient lore.
Whether it is or isnt is actually a point for debate. Stay tuned for Jubarius’s reply to this post!
I never caught any of that, but I have to say it’s a bit weird to read poems and scene names that talk about Willow, Wind etc and then, when asking what that’s all about, you get the ‘yeah, ancient lore, banned’.
Why have those names and poems if so?
There’s a scene in MDA that has the following info: “Marind was once the Queen of the land now named Marinds Bell. This remote place is oftenly used […]” I haven’t been there in a long time, but I assume the text is still there. Now, what do I make of this? Can I put it in my research files?
If not, why not remove it altogether, since it only spreads confusion?