> This doesn't gel with my view of Malkion as an exiled Brithini (ergo,
> by definition, not a "Good Brithini"). The Prophet's *unaging*
> survival throughout the Great Darkness is a good thing for Malkioni
> believers to twit the stubborn Brithini with
Well, obviously not a Good Brithini from the (other) Brithini point of view, but this doesn't necessarily argue that Malkion's followers were aging, either. Yet more things to twit the Brithini with, one might argue. And if they weren't, there'd little need for Solace to be an afterlife.
> > Either [Solace] was Manifest in some way, so you know who went there,
> > after the fact, or one could use Logic to determine who got lucky.
> If Solace were a Logically-provable thing, IMHO, the Brithini would
> have known about (i.e. not needed to "believe in") Solace.
This assumes that Logic is itself an immutable quality, and not dependent on who's doing the Logicking, and their system of belief on which it's based.
> I'd incline to say that both
> Malkion's and Hrestol's ascension to Solace were Manifest
In the sense that there (allegedly) was some miraculous happening that convinced onlookers that this was what had happened, doubtless. But whether the afterlives themselves are/were in some degree Manifest, in the sense that the standard-issue pagan ones are, is a different matter. The idea of Solace "mystery cults" sounds more likely to be post-Hrestol, I should think.
> I believe Alex's suggestion that Hrestol's version of Solace is more
> accessible and comprehensible than Malkion's is correct. Later sects
> of Malkionism may borrow even more of the trappings of pagan belief:
> the Rokari in particular, with their threats of Hellfire and
> Damnation to those who lapse from the Laws.
I was thinking mainly of the _Loskalmi_, myself: God Learner, cryptohenotheist hagiophiles, the lot of 'em. Pseudo-theistic worship of saints could give rise to a pseudo-theistic version of Solace. Not that both aren't plausible; the Hrestoli in a Heaven of their own making, and the Rokari inventing hell and/or purgatory.
While I think I concur this is the most plausible of my three suggestions, the other two could correspond to the beliefs of certain "heretical" beliefs. The Sedalpists may believe in unaging followers of Malkion, at least, and may also, accordingly, think of Solace as immortality, while treating the Joy they heard about at fifth hand as an afterlife.
I can't think of any Old Malkioni would would believe the remaining possibility, or indeed of anyone who would believe that _of_ the Old Malkioni. Maybe one or two minor Rokari sects, who get a trifle too carried away with this Back to Pre-Hrestoli, Logical Basics (not BASICs) schtick.
Speculatively,
Alex.
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