and several good questions I to would like an answer to snipped
>3. If people convert *to* the ways of Vadel, then it must be possible
>to convert *from* Vadelism. Anybody know of any ex-Vadeli? Any
>ex-Blue Vadeli?
Not neccessarily so. I suspect that the process of converting to the ways of Vadel (if such a thing is indeed possible) involves rites aimed at the destruction of, or at least the permanant maiming of, the postulant/victim's soul. Once this destruction is carried out, it is not only impossible to return, it is impossible to concieve of a need to return. This is somewhat akin to the Calvinist take on predestination; those destined to damnation have no use for repentence, thus they are blind to their sin. Only the elect, those for whom salvation is possible, can feel the pain of guilt and thus be turned to repentence.
Of course _I've_ always thought that the lack of a sense of election was, given the Calvinist assumptions, a perfectly good excuse to run riot in decadence and evil (not IMHO, at all the same thing) since, if you're damnned irespective of anything you do and cannot be saved by faith or works (only by gratuitous Grace), there's no point in not having a jolly good time on the road to Hell, now is there?
Of course, it may be that the Vadeli are just Malkoni who Malkon damned. An entire culture of beings that _know_ what good is, that heaven is the reward of the just, hell that of the evildoer and, because of some horendous sin of their forebarers, that _they_ are condemned to the pit anyway. Might make for some folks aweful eager to maintain life on this physical plane, with a real popensity for doing exactly what _they_ consider evil for evil sake and as a revenge angainst a god and a world that condemns them irrespective of their merits (sort of a hanged as a ram kind of thing).
Just some random thoughts from someone whose up to late at night.
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>
>whoah!
>+++++++++++++++++++++++23
>Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu>
>Computer Guy <http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren>
>
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>End of Glorantha Digest V3 #138
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