What I was thinking about (away from my sources) was the Unknown God Church, which describes pretty much the people who IMO make up the bulk of the populace of God Forgot.
My main reason to have incredibly ancient, aging Ingareens around is that I always saw them as mostly failed Brithini, too set in their ways to consider anything else. Not that orthodox Brithini of the Genertelan mainland differ too much from that, they simply keep better. They are adherents to logical philosophies, and they may have selected followers from their Esvularing cohabitants.
IMO Leonardo is one of those non-Ingareen practitioners of a philosophical school of wizardry. Possibly one involved in the Machine God project, given the nature of his inventions. However, Leonardo must have succeeded in distancing himself from the Zistorites. Perhaps even by fighting them in the Iron Wars, although I would expect him to have been a bit younger.
The Esvulari may be descendants of thoroughly failed Ingareens (procreation being one of the things promoting decrepitude, if the rumors about the Brithini have any substance), or they may be more recent additions from failing Malkioni colonies carried there by the Waertagi in the Gray Age or Dawn Age.
They come to my attention with the arrival of Arkat and the revival of Malkionism directed to the Theyalan deities. (At least that's how someone from an alienated Western culture may have regarded Arkat's actions and magics.) Aeol proved the truth of that method, and so the strange adaptation of pagan religion into Malkioni ways was started. It grew stronger where there was contact with pagans, and remained pointless where the Ingareens gave a different example.
In my vision of urban Kethaela, the Esvulari following the Aeolian Church are a fairly accepted and adapted feature. Much rarer and much less accepted are the God Forgot types. They tend to not socializing much with those theist folk, sticking to their own obscure rites and rotes, using spells where few other people touch alchemy or sorcery even with a ten foot pole.
Powered by hypermail