There's a big difference between confronting the void of chaos (which is what Heort and Harmast were up against) and the true mystical void (one is a chaotic echo of the other). All Orlanthi go through the Heort initiation which includes a glimpse of the chaotic void. It doesn't make them fully enlightened or even mystics.
And Heort, FWIW, died before the Dawn. He lived a long time before the Dawn such that his son lived, ruled and died before the Dawn.
> Obduran the Flyer achieved full draconic enlightenment. I am fairly sure that most (all) of the long term residents of Old Temple have achieved enlightenment. And Arkat too likely achieved enlightenment. Many of these, having achieved enlightenment, have decided to embrace the world rather than joining the void/withdrawing from the world.
> This number, to my understanding, is close to and possibly more than the number in the East that have achieved enlightenment since the dawn.
Your number fails to include the number of Lunar immortals, who arguably are completely enlightened. Even if one reckons the Under the Red Moon is chaff-rich, there's still a great number. And the number in the east that have achieved enlightenment since the Dawn is unknown simply because Greg hasn't written much about the history of the Eastern Isles (as opposed to their mythology). It's a big stretch to argue that Heort and Harmast were fully enlightened yet the Eastern Isles hasn't produced a lot despite being obsessed with it.
> I think that the Nysalorean (and therefore Lunar) approach is a much more risky path to enlightenment. It seems to advocate early and repeated exposure to the Void, without the discipline built up through asceticism or other slower approaches.
The Lunar Way doesn't involve the Void (which is strictly speaking one of many names for the mystical Absolute). What the Nysaloran Way was is unknown because the cult was destroyed and what survived were obscure teachings.
We can argue about the dangerous nature of the Lunar Way compared to other paths but I think this approach is misguided. What we should be describing instead is the nature of the temptations that prevents enlightenment, what happens when mystics go off the rails* and the magic that the mystics work with (or against) to obtain enlightenment. For the Lunar Way, this is Occlusion and Chaos. What are the others like? I feel it would be more productive if we focussed on that rather than abstract mystical theory.
--Peter Metcalfe
*The answer should be something other than becoming all-conquering madmen like Sheng Seleris or Oorsu Sara. The risk is there but most mystical schools have learned to avoid the obvious pitfalls of those temptations. An example of what I'm looking for is the Tibetan _Doebdo_ who were fallen monks. They wore their hair long, ate meat and fought and drank among other vices. They were still attached to a monastery (although they lived on the outside) and acted as their muscle.
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