>> The Jrusteli [...] determined that the remote Creator and their transcendent >> Invisible God were one and the same; that Malkion's prophetic revelations >> had been from the Invisible God; that the other, lesser gods were demonic >> beings to be enslaved or controlled through the superior power of Divine Law.
> I think I pretty much buy Nick's theory here. I'd say (and would
> anticipate Nick intends) that The Invisible God wasn't made up from
> whole (invisible) cloth, but was the culmination of a number of
> (possibly quite divergent) cults of the Creator, Malkion, and others,
> which were already exhibiting tendencies towards monotheism and
> transcendentalism. At any rate, the term "Invisible God" is certainly
> hokey enough to be of GLish origin...
The history of the Councils mentions the Invisible God already for the Third Council (of 453 S.T.), which predates even the earliest God Learners. They said that hs truth was supreme, and thereby possibly tried to counter the residual illumination spread by Gbaji 75 years earlier and still not totally eradicated.
> Co-opting the old Hebraic
> concept, it may be that the True Name was deemed too holy to utter --
> which would be convenient while merging several different sects, each
> with their own, different, True Names.
To me, the name "Invisible God" smacks of the attempt to give a rational explantation for a mystical experience. Osentalka had spread his mysticism into their lands, and the (as the Malkioni claim) inherent Logic of their creed had to cope with that. Possibly the later God Learners were little more than the logical consequence of this way of rationalizing, driven on to excess.
> I suppose it could be argued that Nick is putting forward this view since
> it rather facilitates (what I gather is) his picture of the Carmanians
> as a group of "Malkioni" who were polytheists of very long standing.
Hmm. It also facilitates Jonat's somewhat polytheistic believes, and the facts of the Serpent Kings in Seshnela.
> (Rather than say, getting to Peloria, and their religion springing up
> as a sort of Invisble Sun cult, merging Malkioni and Pelorian beliefs,
> as I have (periodically, at least) suspected.) Or maybe this is just
> another reason why it makes sense... What about the Stygians? Does their
> form of worship _predate_ "orthodox" Malkionism?"
They certainly say so, and accuse the "Return to Rightness" Crusaders to have forced a false colonial belief upon the majority of Malkionism.
The ecumenical councils _sometimes_ did change the way of the church, mainly when cementing battlefield proven truths. Especially the Third and Fifth Councils did this.
The Third Council (held shortly after the destruction of Dorastor) settled at the Invisible God as holder of the highest truth. This still allowed other truths, only that they would be lesser - which most modern Stygians happily agree to. Apparently the united Stygian religion of Arkat's Dark Empire claimed that there were other truths beyond Creation. Some modern Arkat worshippers still seem to think so.
However, IMO one of the most serious problems the Seshnegi had with Arkat was that he started to worship _foreign_ gods, not their own (Humath, later Zorak Zoran, instead of the native deities of war).
The Fifth Council was held in triumph after the Dark Empire had been destroyed, and its faith shattered into fragments unable to reunite to their former wholeness. The Emperor prescribed one creed (his own? plus a few minor compromises?) as the one orthodox Malkionism. This would have been similar to the Return to Rightness crusaders' creed, and might resemble the Castle Coast Hrestolism to some extent. (At least they alone of the Western, non-Henotheist sects have a somewhat valid claim that their creed didn't change from that before both Bailifes' force-converting to newly spawned Rokarism and the Syndics Ban isolation of Loskalm. Their "as Hrestol taught us" actually means "as Emperor Miglos decreed".)
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