> I think the 7 Mothers missionaries are far more simply arrogant about
> it - our cult combines life and death because our goddess is so great
> that she can combine all powers in one
Our German friends may disagree, but I don't think Seven Mothers missionaries are particularly arrogant folk. They are trying to win converts, not to overawe them with our might and splendour. As Octavian Suppositorius, I tried hard to be agreeable to almost everyone in the "Heroes of Wisdom" freeform, happily conceding points left, right and centre, in order to secure the Lunars' hold on Sartarite hearts and minds. Indeed, the only person I was consciously disagreeable to was the squeaky-clean Lunar general Glaugos, a man who failed to recognise that, since all power tends to corrupt, the only reasonable thing to do is to accept that everyone in government is bound to be festering in corruption, and learn to live with it. As Dominic Flandry said, there are advantages to living in a decadent age...
So we'd present it as a great mystery, perhaps, but one which we're willing to explain to anyone who wants to listen. Over a nice meal, red wine, agreeable companionship, etc. if that helps us get the message across to someone important. We don't need to be arrogant -- sure, our Goddess is great, but if you're ready to worship her she can be *your* Goddess, too. And you get to keep all your own gods, and *they* can learn the secrets of the Red Goddess as well, and fit into her New Moon Way when the world is reformed in the crimson light of the Lunar Reality.
The Seven Mothers cult is in many ways a charitable institution, staffed by reasonable, well-meaning do-gooders. OK, there's a few rotten apples in any barrel, but many of us really want to help the poor, misguided barbarians to find their place in civilised society. So chew on that, Sartarite scum, next time you hear of Humakti assassins and Bullies butchering our innocent priestesses and acolytes.
> I think a better parallel is 1950's USA. Egalitarian philosophy, merito-
> cracy, distinct difference between theory and practice. Much better than
> the Nazis as the analogue. Watchdog Council = McCarthyism.
Absolutely true! The hints of Isolationism and the "Loskalmi Dream" were meant to suggest this. Basically, any absurdly self-righteous militarily powerful state which doesn't spend over-much time considering its neighbours' point of view will do as a model. To some extent, the poor old Loskalmi have been shafted by their evolution under the Syndics Ban: it's only natural for them to ignore the outside world, and to set up institutions which don't need to take any account of other ways of doing things. This is why Loskalmi foreign policy, missionary policy etc. are slightly out of touch with the real world -- because that's the way the kingdom would like to have stayed!
One of the aims of the Watchdog Council is, of course, to root out the Nameless Man. Now, this is a perfect model for McCarthyite persecution: "Are you now, or have you ever been, possessed by unclean spirits?"
Well, some of the beans, anyway. His account fails to mention that the Sympathetic Homunculus is a Vadeli abomination and that the Comfy Chair itself is an illicit Tapping matrix, but this discretion may be merely politic since both of these godless sorceries were presented as qualifying Examination Pieces ("original works of wizardry") by Cardinals of the Hrestoli Idealist Church, and passed the vigilant scrutiny of the Watchdog Council examiners themselves without raising an eyebrow.
More details of this scandal can be made available, in exchange for a bundle of used fivers and your promise of protection from the Watchdogs' reprisals...
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