> The impression that I got of Malkioni [is] that they are a bunch
> of, for want of a better analogy, Nazis.
As Peter points out, there are sources which make this improbable: regular trade and other interactions between Western societies and Elder Races wouldn't be too plausible if they did have out-and-out genocidal attitudes towards the Krjalki.
Arlaten's own attitudes are given when he is offered a potential inhuman *employee*: "bestial at best, monsters at worst". That, by itself, doesn't translate into pogroms -- he's obviously boned up on recent Digests and knows there's nothing but grief in store if you take on a weird inhuman as a member of your household or PC party... how many Orlanthi lords or Lunar nobles would agree? :-)
My view is that the Westerners *know* that humanity is the greatest of all species, created by God in a fashion more perfect than the Elder Races (early, botched imitations of the Divine Plan). "Nicer" Malkioni would feel sorry for these poor remnants -- incapable, by mere reason of their species, of obtaining God's Ineffable Solace; forced, by their nature, to live demeaning and inhuman lives, outside the Law of Malkion; enslaved to inferior demonic spirits (the likes of Aldrya, Mostal, Kyger Litor) and unable to free themselves from this unwelcome servitude. "Nastier" Malkioni, of course, could have a whole range of unpleasant attitudes...
I deliberately "primed" my Loskalmi write-up with Nazi imagery, not (I hasten to add) because I'm a closet Nazi and delight in spreading this stuff around, but rather so that it's obvious what *dangers* lie in wait for a society that believes itself to be the best and most perfect in the world, composed of the truest and noblest form of humanity, led by idealistic Men of Vision, and about to embark on a cleansing Holy War against unspeakable foes. But again, the writeup (in Tales #13) speaks of the Elder Races more in sorrow than in anger -- "Non-humans have no hope of attaining Solace: their time of glory in this world is past, and Man is the master race now." That's arrogant, dismissive, patronisingly pitying -- but it doesn't in and of itself create the basis for a systematic policy of racial extermination. (Though, when the Reforestation begins, how else are the Upright Men of Loskalm to combat it?).
The Rokari *know* that Trolls are evil black sorcerers, hateful to mankind. This springs from their Jrusteli (anti-Dark Empire) history of hostility to Stygian Ralios, and also from their location near the Troll realm of Guhan.
> The Sedalpists sure seem that way, but how widespread are they, or
> their attitude in this respect?
Sedalpism is native to parts of Umathela, and has no known followers elsewhere around the Lozenge.
The Sedalpists IMO represent a taking-to-extremes of a commonly held Malkioni position. All Malkioni (except perhaps the Stygians) would agree that mankind stands in a special position vis a vis God; they know that the Law of Malkion was given to humans, and that (for the reasons aired here recently) members of the Elder Races *cannot* be expected to live in accordance with the Revealed Divine Laws. This, unavoidably, puts races other than humanity somewhere lower on the "pecking order". *Perhaps* they serve as Horrible Warnings, or even Edifying Examples:
Old "In the days of Malkion the Prophet, all men instinctively
and naturally comported themselves in accordance with the
Wiz- Divine Laws -- as unthinkingly as the benighted krjalki of
ard the forest, each knowing its place in the scheme of things,
none thinking to stray outside its caste's rightful task;
Mar- or as the bees in the hive, serving their King with not a
let, thought for selfish gain or sinful pleasure. But now, in
these sad times, men are not as they once were: we waste
he our God-given energies in gluttony and dissipation, with no
more thought for our souls than the krjalki of the night,
sez: stuffing our mortal bodies and imperilling our hopes of
immortal Solace. And yet unthinking obedience to the Law
is not sufficient -- think now on the dull mechanicals of
Mostal, plodding through their assigned tasks without a
moment's thought for the Creator's Saving Grace, possessed
of a semblance of reason but lacking utterly in that Faith
in Salvation which is God's greatest gift to Mankind. Nay,
a sadder and more perilous example springs now unbidden to
my mind: consider the stubborn, perfidious, sorcerous race
of the Brithini, inhuman in their humanity, amoral in their
abuse of God's Holy Law, murderers of the Divine Messenger
Hrestol..."
Malkioni are sensible to invade other human lands, because they can rule over them and force their inhabitants to adopt Malkionism (or, in the more common case, "proper" Malkionism and not their former stinking heretical abomination of true worship). You can't do that by making war in the mountains, forests and wastelands, against vilely inhuman Krjalki, soulless parodies of the human form...
For a mythical account of the infection of Mostali with the vile principle of Growth, see "User and the Seeds of Life", a story on my homepage: <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke/> =
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Nick
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