Re: The opposite of Chaos? An excerpt from a conversation with
Pasammeth Polyformus, Pocharngo philosopher.
"An opposite of chaos? Now, now (waves upper left tentacle), that is
almost an illuminating question, since everything is Chaos. You are
Chaos. I am Chaos. The world around us is Chaos. Chaos is void and
enthropy and instability, but it also endless possibility, and that
possibility wouldn't be endless unless it included being and
structure and stability. What is, is a form of Chaos. What isn't, is
a form of Chaos. What could be, is a form of Chaos. That which
couldn't be would not be Chaos, since Chaos includes everything
possible, but since everything is possible within Chaos there is
nothing which couldn't be, and thus there is nothing but Chaos.
(pause)
Which shows everytime you have to see any clerk in this our beloved
Empire, by the way. (takes a swallow from his glass of Broo urine)
Next question?"
Re: The social structure of the Rokari societies.
>From the letters of Yngarth of Rheum, monk of the Order of St Carpon.
"For every Caste there is an endless Quest of Life, and to succeed in
that quest and avoiding being trapped in the base worlds of Matter and
Spirit one must strongly adhere to the virtues of one's Caste, as
well as all the common virtues of the Faithful.
As a Farmer, one must show Perseverance in the Face of
Mundane Hardship.
As a Knight, one must show Valor in the Face of Bodily Danger.
As a Wizard, one must show Wisdom in the Face of Illogical Puzzlement.
And as Pious Malkioni, we must all show Loyalty in Face of Temptation
of Disobedience to the Laws of God, Man and Nature.
But a Lord, woe to his soul! He must not only show Perseverance,
Valor AND Wisdom, but also Authority in the Face of the Failures of
his Subjects. Four times higher is his chance of failure in the
Reaching Quest of Life than that of any of the "lesser" Castes. Thus
it is clear that there are far fewer Lords in Solace (comment in the
margin of the tome, attributed to the copyist Greger of Lerum: "It
might also have something to do with the fact that there are bloody
fewer Lords in Body as well"), and a everlasting reason for righteous
joy that so many of them have reached the Blessed state of
Sainthood."
Re: The appearance of the Spirit Plane.
>From a basic lecture in Introsocial Structure for Young Workers at
the 6th level of the Gold Department of Information Retrieval. The
introducing speaker is Balrgh Square, Gold Teacher of grade 43W in
the Organization of Knowledge.
"... and thus the understanding of the basic manamanipulating
procedures is needed to be able to increase the efficiency of
intracaste cooperation. I now leave the duty of speaking to my
esteemed colleague, Radymon Sparkles Brightly, Silver Operator of
grade 27G of the Information and Communication magicks of the 6th
level of the Gold Department of Information retrieval.
(no applause - Mostali don't - and a small, scrawny dwarf with thick
glasses and unkempt hair enters the podium)
- -OK, as you all should know now or you would be fit for recycling,
OK, the World Machine can be seen as consisting of two basic systems,
OK, and them systems are the System of Static Matter and the System
of Fluid Energy, OK.
(two broad nondescript dwarves roll in a large thingamajig consisting
of large amounts of silver thread criss-crossing a frame made of
copper tubes, here and there sits gems of varios colors attached to
the thread. Radymon starts to fiddle with a gem-encrusted box
attached to the thingamajig by a golden chain, but it takes a while
before he gets it going. Most of the students fall asleep, which is
perfectly OK with Mostali, since they nothing better can be done at
the moment.)
- -OK, now this is an Introspective Transdimensional Photoconverter,
OK, and now its working I can give you all a glimpse of what the
System of Fluid Energy looks like, OK.
(The whole thingamajig lights up in all colours of the rainbow
streaming hither and dither.)
- -OK, this thing converts trace elements of all the various types of
energy into Sunstuff, OK, as you can see everywhere there is an
action of some kind,OK, fire burning, steel being shaped, Mostali
thinking, tree growing (shudder in the audience), Diamond making
descisions, there is a flow of mana, and that flow can be seen by
various processes as streams of colour, OK, and by the intensity,
exact colour and direction of the colour, OK, you can analyze the
process, OK.
- -OK, among these streams can sometimes be seen shimmering geometrical
figures, OK, these are sub-programs more or less sentient, OK, and
some are still doing there jobs, OK, like most elementals, OK, but
many are running wild, OK, and these can be recognized by the trained
programmer, OK, and it's the job of the Tins to construct proper
equipment for this deprogramming, the job of us Silvers to construct
the programs, OK, and the job of youse Golds to scrupulously record
this process and perform success evaluation research, OK."
Erik Sieurin
Powered by hypermail