> I agree that some of Nick's more Zealous Excesses, like wanting to
> nail people to things, should be Firmly Curbed...
Oh, THAT old chestnut! No, the solitary published mention of crucifixion in the "Lonely Lozenge Guide to Sog City" is a Lunar mistranslation. The unscholarly authors read a Western text that said "Saint Hrestol was put to death at Sogolotha," and put a Lunar interpretation on this innocuous phrase. The Lunars are, after all, a crucifying culture (cf. Pavis pack): they thought it meant "put him onto a Death"!
(Martin knew this when publicly doubting that God Himself could change my mind: perhaps it slipped from his in the heat of the moment).
I'm now of the opinion that Hrestol was horribly punished by the Brithini before his death: probably they used powers or symbols of the four castes he had abused to hurt and degrade him. Crown of Thorns, anyone? <ducks> This is based on a suggestion by Joerg Baumgartner, a cruel and sadistic man (as Alex knows to his cost).
Incidentally, the "World of Losers" flagellant movement of Seshnela and Safelster are unique in believing that this was done out of *kindness* on the part of the Brithini: by punishing Hrestol so severely they beat all the Sin out of him, and only thus was he able to enter Solace in Glory.
Like Alex, I'm unsure if Mike and Martin have any specific objections to our model of Malkionism. My postings over the last fortnight or so were from my side of an offline "discussion" with them where I was attempting to resolve this, but the Codex folks made almost no new points, briefly restating their well-rehearsed and already-Gregged (Cultural Exchange, at Convulsion '94) fear of Christian models, while carefully avoiding making any proposals of their own. In general, both seemed to prefer legalism to morality as the basis of the religion. While I can see their point (based on a literal reading of the shortform material that's available), I can't see how you could enjoyably role-play Western characters using it. That's why I defined Hrestol's "new and liberating philosophy" as something that could liberate player characters from the tedium of strict, by-the-book Malkionism.
> What about the relations to Irippi Ontor in these areas? What are IO
> Sages' ideas about the matter? I know that there is no "classification
> system" for LM libraries; what about IO libraries?
I have assumed that Irrippi Ontor libraries have a common, Empire-wide classification system, but that they have access to fewer books than Lhankor Mhy libraries. It is easier to find what you want in an Irrippi Ontor library -- *if* they have it at all!
They can probably arrange inter-library loans, too (anyone doubting this for the ancient paradigm is wrong: see me after class). In this way they become like most Lunar cults: better than the "old" cults within their speciality, but lacking some of their breadth of scope. Within the Empire it's easy to find the "Standard Works", but more difficult to get hold of anything obscure.
Powered by hypermail