Mysticism in general will bear similarities with RL Buddhism, Nysalor Illumination is a very non-standard form of mysticism which will therefore bear fewer similarities.
> It is a liberation from entrenched predjudices and attitudes (good
> vs. evil, woman vs. man, black vs. white). IMO Illumination is
> Nysalor's secret.
I am with you on this.
>In this it is much more like a Great Secret like
> Become Air.
I do not think so - illumination is an incomplete form of enlightenment. At best it could be seen as a stepping stone on the path to enlightenment. In game mechanics terms it is more akin to a "normal" secret - learning the Great Secret would still lie ahead of the illuminate.
The problem with illumination is that - unlike more 'normal' forms of mysticism - the path from the secret of illumination to the great secret (Liberation perhaps) is unclear and there are few to guide the illuminate on their way. It was probably easier while Nysalor was alive.
>Achieving it requires time and effort (those 1W2
> masteries in his other affinities).
I have done a little thinking about mysticism[1] whilst toying with the idea of writing up some material for Teshnos. My current thinking is that to achieve the Great Secret you would need to learn an 'ordinary' mystic secret as a stepping stone and then raise that to over 1w2 before the great secret could be learned[2]. So an illuminate who managed to raise their Illumination ability to 2w2 would be capable of achieving transcendent understanding (and passing out of play).
I suspect much of what we term
> illlumination abilities from RQ are more properly feats of seekers
> on the path.
Or perhaps the secret of Illumination functions as an affinity some of the known feats of which are; Neither Lawful Nor Chaotic, Avoid Divine Retribution and Pose Nysalor Riddle.
>The real achievement of the secret would create a
> decision: to retire from the world, or to remain.
This would be at the point of learning the Great Secret - in terms of play either outcome would retire the character from play.
My current thinking is that the Taraltaran Great Secret would be the same as the Nysalor Great Secret but that the secrets they learn as stepping stones (or perhaps signposts of the path) are different and possibly even vary between Taraltaran schools.
[1] The old HW rules on mysticism got fairly short shrift in this
process.
[2] Except I do not think mysticism feels right if it is so cut and
dried. I might instead have it as a contest vs 10W3 whenever the
relevant conditions are met - any victory resulting in learning of
the Great Secret.
-- Nic
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