Caveat: Bear in mind IMO what the Borists were like has little to do with their practices today.
>To me [the Borists] they seem like an adaption of Theyalan Councilic
>chaos-fighting monomyth grafted on the Malkioni or even Brithini lore
>flooding Ralios with the "liberation" from Gbaji.
My copy of La Toile D'Arachne Solara Issue 1 mentions that the Borist Heresy was propogated in 428 ST. This is at least five years after Arkat cleansed all Ralios of the Lies of the Deciever. Since Arkat was a fanatic, I assume that Safelster had become Malkionized when Ralios was cleansed of the deciever.
After Arkat left, the history becomes very murky. Ralios or Safelster (at least) seems to have unified and sent an army against Seshnela. A Dara Happan Army led by Emperor Anirestyu then issued forth from Kartolin and ravaged much of Ralios (there is a Ralian frieze of him besieging Kasda which is near modern-day Delela). Thereupon Ralios collapsed into numerous splintered states, each complaining about betrayal of the cause by [insert name of neighbouring city states here] and trying to hold of the Dara Happans and perhaps the Seshnegi at the same time.
The Borist faith seems to me to have be born as a reaction against this turn of events. People are betraying and fighting all over the place. Then Quantan van deen Borin preaches that everybody has been tainted by Chaos and this is causing all the woe. The Good News is that he can shrive them. To prove it, he can even show them the resulting gorp! Imagine the evangelical appeal! I think in those days, the chaos created was truely used as a scapegoat (with farmers stoning it, knights hacking at it etc). This new faith manages to form a powerful state, pious in the Malkioni Faith.
When Arkat returns to set up the Dark Empire, he sees the Borists as little more than 'Consorters with Chaos'. So he stomps on it hard and the Borists have been an underground faith ever since.
>Borin lies in the border area between the Korioni and the Vustri tribal
>regions. The Korioni were members of the Dari Alliance, the Vustri
>traditional enemies. Since Borin is somewhat lowland, but among the
>hill, I suppose that Dorastan settlers had taken hold there, too. This
>mixture of cultures had been stable during Nysalor's reign, and IMO
>were typical for the cult of Orlanth introduced by Lokamayadon.
Borin is part of the Korioni people IMO. The land labelled Vustria in the G:LotHW is so wild and sparse that hardly anybody lives there. Vustria also encompasses the eastern wilds and I presume that the river valleys there were the ones settled by the Dorastan immigrants. However most of Ralios is ruled by the Dari Kingdom during Khorzanelm's reign which does suggest that the influence of the Dorastan Settlers was not great.
I don't think the Safelstrans were as theistic as the Kerofini Orlanthi. The LoT 'Who was Arkat' from the Lunar PoV gives Lokaymadon far too great an influence in Ralios (to insert a Lunar Slant that the Orlanthi are unreliable). The other polemics in LoT (not even the Orlanthi!) never even mention him. I'm not even sure that Orlanth was worshipped by the Dari Kingdom. Of course, I'd know better if the writers of the Broken Council could release their writeups of what the various countries were like...
The Fortunate Succession does state that (p78) Nysalor taught 'the Ralians that thought was not the only reality; that their Laws were not Eternal Truths; and that instinct was neither good or evil'. I suspect the Dari Kingdom revered the Gods but was 'less close' to them than the Kerofini, believing them to be expressions of the One God [Insert Ralian Remote Sky God Name here]. In fact pretty much like the Henotheist Church today.
>Was Tapping an issue to the 1st Age Hrestoli?
The True Hrestroli Way of 200 ST are said to 'outlaws all Tapping'. So I guess this makes the Castle Coast Flunkies who Tap peasants degenerates and God Learners to boot. ;-)
To Tap or not to Tap may have been a thorny theological question before the Sunstop. When the Riddlers came, such questions must have paled into significance.
During the actual war, I suppose the Seshnegi deplored it at first then were forced to adopt it and then praticed it with wild enthusiasm. Much like the Allies attitude to carpet-bombing during World War II. 'The Vampire Kings practiced many abominations upon us. Surely we can't Tap them?'
Aussies:
We want more full writeups about what happened at the CON.
MOB:
I liked the take on the Guild of Chaos Monks! I imagine they kidnap people and shrive them of Chaos. That done, they kill the unfortunate victim to stop him from backsliding and ensures that he reaches Solace. Isn't it *nice* to know that such people have your spiritual welfare at heart!
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