Spire RPG and Babel: The Monstrosity of Empire, The Necessity of Violence

This is an essay about "Spire: The City Must Fall," written by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor, and published by Rowan, Rook, and Deckard. It is available on itch.io- rowanrookandde...
It is being compared to "Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution," by RF Kuang. It is available in bookstores, and online at: www.harpercoll...
Categories: revolution, grimdark, Resistance System
Players: 3 to 5
Supplies: Set of RPG dice, 3 ten-sided dice
Time to Play: 1 to 3 hours per session
Disclosures: n/a
Content Warnings: Fantasy racism, historical racism, slavery, imperialism, colonialism, blood, discussion of corpses, violence, spiders, cannibalism, drugs, police brutality
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[@benk7112]

I’m about 3/4 of the way through Babel and literally just picked up Spire at LGS today. Couldn’t be more pleased this video showed up recommended to me

[@The-Ampersand]

What an absolutely amazing essay! I love hearing you in this longer format! Spire painted an amazing world with horrible implications and an incredibly oppressive feel which I found immensely compelling (even though I'd say the rulebook is ordered in a inconvenient way). Now I will absolutely read Babel which you made sound just as interesting and grim! Your perspective on the intrinsic extractivism of imperialism is excellent, as well! I am definitely overusing my exclamation marks, but I just loved this video. Thank you so much!

[@aavoigt]

I’m so glad you liked it, thanks Ampersand! I agree that Spire’s order is a bit strange, especially with how important the worldbuilding is to the game lol. But yeah, I highly recommend Babel, even after these spoilers!

[@benplatt3039]

Really appreciate the thorough look at the way empire functions in these two texts! I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts if you ever get the chance to read Sin, the latest sourcebook for Spire; I feel like the game's perspective on colonialism and imperialism has matured and become more explicit with every release, and alot of the conclusions you draw from your analyses of the core book are made explicit there, as it focuses on the domains of Order, Crime, and Religion. So nice work! I adore Spire and what it's doing thematically through its mechanics and its world, so I'm excited to see all the work you've put in here in analyzing it's setting

[@aavoigt]

I’m so glad you liked it! I’d definitely like to dig into the source books, glad to hear they expand on the themes in the core text

[@truefunghi9351]

I second this. This video helped me personally gaining some confidence with the setting of Spire. I would love to hear your thoughts on Sin (and really any other add on). A 5 mins follow up kind of video would already be quite dope. Also love the comparison to babel. Great work, keep it up!

[@kevincarr1213]

I really enjoyed hearing your analysis in a longer form. Thanks for sharing such interesting insights about to great works! One could probably do a whole KZbin channel just on the topic of colonialism, resistance, and questions of futility in opposing systems of oppression. Thanks for your contribution to the ongoing dialogue!

[@aavoigt]

I’m very glad you liked it! One channel that comes to mind that does often tackle those subjects is “Renegade Cut!”

[@Ryan-io4ec]

Amazing! I'd love to see more ttrpg and novel cross examinations!

[@stevenc4982]

this is an amazing analysis, really clear and well-structured! your explanation of why resistance is so vital is beautifully written and delivered. i've never read babel, but works by the same author have been recommended to me and i think i'll have to give this one a read even knowing what happens. as for your analysis of spire, as someone who's fascinated by its worldbuilding, i especially enjoyed parts like your inclusion of how malak was criminalised as a way to force drow into continued servitude. they're small details, but i think they're incredibly important to the way spire presents systematic oppression and it made me really happy to see that someone else considered that important enough to mention in an essay.

[@aavoigt]

Thanks very much for watching! I broadly consider this to be my best essay so far, so I'm glad it resonated with you. As for RF Kuang, I highly recommend all her work, but especially the Poppy War trilogy.

[@ogreboy8843]

This is a lovely piece. I'm inspired (see what I did there?) by your throw-away critique of Spire's conceit that the Aelfir are incapable of empathy. At a purely intuitive level, I feel like the easy solution is for it to be voluntary: The Aelfir choose to undergo a process that prevents the development of empathy. Maybe they choose it for their children before they can understand or consent. Maybe they chose it as a culture long ago and now it's innate. Maybe even ONE Aelfir chose to inflict it on all the others. Even one subjective choice somewhere along the way somehow makes a huge difference to how I read it. But at a more analytic level, I'm wondering about what this conceit, along with some others - the lack of an Aelfir middle and working class; the fact that the Durance is a weird amalgam of chattel slavery, debt slavery, penal labour and wage slavery; the fact that in Spire the capital sits directly on top of the colony - allows for. In Babel, it seems clear from your description that the conceit of magic silver allows for a narrative of revolutionary action that can be undertaken by an individual rather than requiring a mass movement. In Spire, I think you're right that the fantasy conceits make it easier for the players to not feel guilty about killing the Aelfir, but I would put a finer point on it: It rules out ideological struggle in advance. The reason non-violent resistance doesn't work in Spire is that there is no one inside the cupola of racialized colonial privilege whose conscience it might stir. There is no tradition of European Enlightenment universalism, no nascent liberalism and white guilt that a Dark Elf Gandhi might appeal to or that the elites might have to appease. Moreover, in real-world colonial situations where European elites lived alongside their indigenous and imported slaves, they had to rely on middle and working-class whites to do the work of exercising violence for them. There is of course a very clear and open colonial strategy of creating an in-between class of privileged half-castes and freed slaves to help rule the others, but even in these examples such people were not relied on exclusively to wield the baton unless the white settlers had already departed. And there was always the looming threat of the far-away colonial capital to call on in times of need. Like, look what happened in Haiti in 1791 even though the police forces were primarily white, and then AGAIN in 1984 (and that's not even mentioning 2001) after the Mulatto elite had been appointed as Empire's representative in absentia. What if London was literally on top of Haiti and all there was of it was the wealthiest families and neighbourhoods? ...and also all the rank-and-file soldiers and police officers were Black? ...and also Napoleon wasn't coming to (fail to) bail you out? ...and also Haiti's economy didn't rely on export, so you couldn't kill it with a blockade and also there wasn't really a France to send such a blockade anyway? Is there anything that could STOP a successful violent revolution in that situation? Magic I guess?

[@asherwinnie279]

I am really, really glad I watched this video. I only knew enough of SPIRE from having read HEART, and to see you use Babel to compare/contrast is genius. So many in the imperial core IRL bandy about with so many of the excuses you point out in through this art are just that, excuses. It's so refreshing to see art that have assumptions - the necessity of violence - as their DEFAULT. Thank you for making this!

[@aavoigt]

Thanks so much for watching! RF Kuang is such a brilliant author, if you liked this video, I’d love to recommend her Poppy War trilogy (if you haven’t already read it), another great examination of empire and resistance/assimilation

[@feruspriest]

Man this is such a niche Synthesis of two products, yet thr algorithm knew I was the right audience.

[@leylamam]

YOU DID IT KING im commenting for engagement but I can't wait to listen while I drive to Canada tmrw

[@aavoigt]

A true friend juices the algorithm (thanks so much bud, have fun in Canada!!)

[@vishrutwatcheswhat]

This is great! Please make longform videos more. I love it when folks take ttrpg books as text.

[@aavoigt]

It seems like a lot of people are enjoying the longer format, so I’ll definitely be open to longer stuff in the future. They take a lot of work, so output will be slower, but I’m glad folks have appreciated it!

[@catchyalata777]

Really interesting stuff! Thank you for writing & posting the video.

[@MiriamClairify]

I love thr conclusion, I am very much a player easily seduced by killing characters in a blaze of glory.

[@gentlemancorpse]

Brilliant! If you're looking to do more reading along these same lines, I'll recommend two books - "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed" and "In Defense of Looting". Both offered, to me, insightful perspectives on the necessity of violence. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[@aavoigt]

Thanks for these recommendations! Heard great things about “This Nonviolence Stuff will Kill You”

[@g.gibson6617]

just here to say: stumbling across this video made me go and read Babel, which i finished yesterday and can say: wow, what a great book! now i’m finally back to watch the rest of this!

[@aavoigt]

I'm so pleased to hear that this video inspired you to read Babel. RF Kuang is my favorite author, I highly recommend you check out the Poppy War trilogy as well. Thanks so much for taking my work seriously enough to engage with it on that deeper level, it means a great deal.

[@KindelingBoy]

Hell yeah.

[@cassimothwin]

Lots of good stuff here. I'll be thinking about this essay for a while.

[@aavoigt]

Thanks so much for watching, glad you liked it Cassi!

[@gasmonkey1000]

Well if nothing else youve got me interested, always good to have that underdog story. Not to mention the moral grey areas that comes from a resistance movement (ie "collaboration babies"). I do agree with ya that the aelfir being unable to feel empathy is a big disappointment. Its not just the idea that "oh that enemy soldier, hes not capable of love without drugs, go ahead and torture him, hes definitely not got a wife expecting their first child at home," removes a lot of tragedy.

[@PipeFoxDream]

Very excellent video essay! I love the new format.

[@aavoigt]

Thank you!! Glad the longer format worked!

[@giulianofebbrarino4651]

Fantastic! amazing and excellent work!

[@penflowerink]

Fascinating video and analysis!

[@metaphorical_trash7319]

HELL YEAH

[@quillfeather8947]

hell yeahh

[@mymoviesbetter8466]

Fantastic essay and video, I am preparing to run heart and I wanted a bit of a primer on the world of spire but now I have to read Babel hahaha

[@aavoigt]

Thanks! I have another essay on Heart if you'd like my thoughts on that, but I highly recommend Babel! RF Kuang is my favorite author, you can't go wrong with any of her books

[@mymoviesbetter8466]

@@aavoigt on my way to watch your video on Heart 🏇🏂🚣🕺

[@TriggerCrazedLunatic]

Damn this was a good video

[@aavoigt]

Thanks so much for saying so, I was very nervous about how people would respond!

[@TriggerCrazedLunatic]

​@@aavoigti love seeing books and games that decide not to leave any subtlety in their commentary, and I mean that genuinely! It's really refreshing when a piece of media just puts it all at the forefront.

[@TriggerCrazedLunatic]

​@@aavoigthonestly the only thing I'd push back against in spire is the idea of the resistance being as hierarchical as the government they're fighting. I think the idea of hierarchy as part of the violence of the state and something imposed upon people more than an Inherent thing. I feel like a lot of movements replicate the structures of power they seek to destroy and I feel like the book should have spent more time deconstructing that.

[@aavoigt]

That’s an interesting point, there is a lot in Spire about how there’s a regimented hierarchy of the Ministry, to the point where it’s speculated that it’s run by an alternate version of the High Elf Council, which is weird! I understand wanting a structure for your players to interact with, but it would be interesting to see if there was more conversation around the difficulty of decentralized resistance movements. They get into some of that with the Crimson Vigil, but it would have been nice to see more.

[@andreasbuehler1821]

​@@TriggerCrazedLunaticfor an almost entirely nonhierarchical rebellion, Spire also has the Vigilites. But then those are so insanely violent, they'd never achieve anything.