>Do you suppose Sheng's "Shadowmoon Empire" directed worship to the Red
>Moon in her Dark Phase, emphasising the "downside" of the Lunar Way for
>the profit of the rulers, while simultaneously wounding Yara Aranis,
>anathema to horse nomads (and associated with the Full Moon Phase via
>the Glowline)?
What a scary idea!
I had long thought about there being Lunar Cults which gain power from the Dark Side of the Moon (ie the Lunar Cyclical Magic is at least reversed). They are probably a remant of the Spolite Darkness Worshipping Cults. The Image of the Shadowmoon Empire with the Moon always Dark within the Twilight Zone is chilling.
One wonders what motive Sheng had for supporting such cults? Was it to make the Day shine much brighter?
BTW I did (in moments of idle contemplation) try to extend this to crescent moon cults but it doesn't work...
Ingo Tscinke:
>[Borist Knightly Order]
This is all well and good. While there can be such an order within the Borist Church, most Borists have no reason to acknowlege the _authority_ of such a order IMO. On the other hand, if a Knight were to approach a Borist Wizard and ask for help in assasinating a hated Noble who engages in persecution, the Wizard may gleefully assist.
The Borist Church is fragmented and unified only by the Rites of St. Boris and the comradeship that one shares with a fellow Borist. There is no hierarchy of Hidden Masters of the Church of Borin like that of the Bavarian Illuminanti. There are hidden Temples based in or near every major city which command the loyalty of surrounding Borists but there is no set organization beyond that. Thus the Head of the Tiskos Borists have no authority over the Sentanos Borists. There can be a few pan-Ralios Borist Organizations, the Guild of Chaos Monks are possibly one and Knights are another but they carry no special authority among the rank-and-file Borists IMO.
>Furthermore I think the Boristi will have only some people which will live
>as Rokari and Galvosti in the "real world". Most peasant will not have more
>than one faith they believe in.
In the country, I suppose the Borist peasants are much more open as to their worship. The Parish Priest is usually a closet Borist and gains his magic by masquersading as a pious priest of the appropiate cult to the proper authorities (ie if he pretends to be Rokari then he goes to a Rokari Monastory to learn some sorcery).
When Strangers or the Inquisition visit the area, the farmers just merely say that they are Rokari. Questioning on the Dogma of their faith is near-useless as a Farmer can't be expected to know such things. Furthermore only the Chaos-purication rite is important and that's only performed once a year for most Borists. For details of how to worship the Invisible God and what happens after Death, I suppose most Borists merely adopt the rites and beliefs of the dominant church (ie Galvosti-Borists follow the Galvosti Rites and may believe in reincarnation). Apart from their Chaos Nests, Borists are damn difficult to detect...
Powered by hypermail