>[After Hrestol,] The focus of the society changes from
>trying to determine whether every trivial act damns one from Solace
>_to_ what is the best form of Malkioni society so that the average
>believer is assured of Solace after death.
Actually, there remains quite a lot of emphasis on individual solace after Hrestol, and there was quite a lot of focus on the Just Society before him. He just shook this paradigm up, he didn't abolish an old one and invent a new one.
What happened was a recognition that the twin goals of Solace and a Just Society sometimes conflicted, and that the way to deal with the conflict was not to deny its existence (as the Old Malkioni did) but to deal with it creatively. This meant that some groups emphasized one way and others, other ways, and that some groups placed Solace first and society can lump it, whereas others viewed Society as more important (a sine qua non for individual Solace, after all).
As for getting less anal retentive, I suppose so, but First Age Western leaders still were much more legalistic in their thinking than any other mortal human in the universe. They argued over caste change, caste rules, inheritance, the definition of witchcraft, the punishment for witchcraft, the proper way to deal with conquered pagans and non-humans, and whether one ought to "interpret" the Law and what "interpret" means.
All IMHO; I could quote something, but it'd be something I wrote. :-|
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