holy country

From: Peter Metcalfe <phm30_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 20:07:08 +1200


Joerg Baumgartner:

Me>> Belintar revolts against the King of Heortland as the Evil Emperor
>> and kills him. The land falls into anarchy. Belintar repents of his
>> rash actions and brings him back to life and acknowleges his right to
>> rule. The King then recognizes Belintar as the High King of Heortland.

>What usual local event did he disrupt, though?

>This might tie in with the weapons contest stuff based on Andrew's
>suggestion, above...

Wouldn't that be the Three Challenges you mention below?

>> This does imply that Belintar has to do the Full Lightbringers Quest

>Not really. He might have to do the Three Challenges...

I meant in order to resurrect the King, the theory implies that he has to do the Full LBQ.

ES>>Why do the Trader Princes think of the place as "holy", BTW?

>I think there is sufficient evidence that they do, though very few clues why.
>I mean, it takes some extraordinary chuzpah to call a kingdom erected by
>Westerners "Malkonwal" and using the religious and crusading connotations
>without there being a somewhat serious belief that there is some truth to
>this.

>I have a couple of conflicting and co-existing theories, though.

>The "Plato's Atlantis found in Troy" theory:
>The Aeolian theory:
>The Hidden Castle theory:
>The Fake Artifacts theory:

I think you've left out one person who could have had the motive and the chutzpah: Belintar. Considering that he has presented himself as the Year King to the Esrolians, the High King to the Heortlanders, the Grand Talar to the People Whom God Forgot and more, it does not seem a large step for him to claim that he is the Living Saint-King who liberated the land from the Krjalki.

So why do the Malkioni call his lands the Holy Country? Because Belintar is a Prester John personna ruling a Holy Country in a region that otherwise succumbed to pagans and krjalki. I'm sure the Seshnegi sent embassies to him for aid against Ralios. Naturally in this day and age, the spiritual poverty of the world is such that there is only one holy country and it becomes a short step from _a_ holy country to _the_ Holy Country.

There *is* the unfortunate matter of Belintar's pagan subjects but I'm positive that he can pass off his acolytes in the Cult of the Living God as wizards benignly ruling over a pagan land in hopes of converting the pagans to true Malkionism. One only has to look at the lands of the Trader Princes or the God Learners in their early (good) days for similar social structures to see that this is orthodox malkioni practice. Besides Belintar took control of the Holy Country in 1318 compared to Jonat who did it in circa 1020. Anyone who has eyes in their heads will all agree that the Holy Country is less pagan than barbarous Jonatela.

This has the effect of making Richard's conquest of Heortland less presumptious. He may have simply thought that he was continuing the Good Deeds of Erstwhile Belintar. Perhaps 'Malkonwal' is the adjective that the westerners use to denote a land as being especially holy? Namely in the God Learner days, the piety of some of the lands was such that one could catch a vision of the Holy City of Malkonwal or even enter there from the city streets at certain times (ie the Hidden Castle theory reworked). Thus the Kingdom of Malkonwal is a barbarian misunderstanding of Richard's claim to be King of the Malkonwal (ie Holy) Country.

ES>>I can see the Rightarm Islanders would gain respect for anyone who
>>could raise an island, but... What's the special significance of Loon
>>Island?

>Evidently some old prophecy placed there just to be fulfilled by Belintar,
>just as the Genertela Book is full of old prophecies just to be fulfilled by
>the mighty characters of the Hero Wars. Loon is found as a significant
>figure in the Ralian Old Beast Society as Help From the North. If Loon
>Island is the place which later was the site of the City of Wonders, this
>could be true for the Islands as well, though it beats my why they should
>have this "Hsunchen" myth. (I tend to believe, though, that sea-birds,
>including the loon, are sacred to Brastalos, who in turn is of some
>importance to the Islanders.)

The Rightarm Islanders appear to have a special reverence for seabirds because as well as the loon, there are the giant cranes. I don't think Loon Island is the site of the City of Wonders but that Belintar returned a sacred nesting site of one of the birds that had been eaten by the Only Old One.

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