Me>> I think all Arkati cultists are 'illuminated' (bear in mind that
>> this is not Nysaloran Illumination). When they seek out Gbaji to
>> destroy him, they mostly encounter other Arkati Cults (who return
>> the favour). This is the major reason why the Cult of Arkat is
>> splintered in Ralios.
>I think much of what you have to say, above, is sound, but I don't think
>the first part is 100% kosher. Firstly, I think Greg has indeed said
>that several Arkat cults have a sort of 'inner core' of "illuminated"
>(caveat strongly agreed with) members, with a more 'normal' membership
>outside. More likely the outer group simply hasn't got 'in' yet, rather
>than being hapless dupes of the cabal, though.
Oops. It's a fair cop. I was wrong. You are right.
>Secondly, some Arkat cults seem to have nothing much to do with
>"illumination" at all -- the Black Arkat of Heortland, for example,
>and I suspect the most obviously theistic manifestations in general.
That's true. I should have restricted it to Arkati cults who partake of the 'illumination' tradition.
>It's tricky to say what is or isn't "Arkati illumination", since not
>only is it un(der)defined in rules terms, I think Gloranthans can't
>really pin it down with much more success. This may be partly to do
>with the "brokenness" of Arkatism generally -- after the Dark Empire
>falls, each remnant gets left with their own little piece, which doesn't
>necessarily much resemble anyone else's.
My feeling is that the 'illumination' in the context of the Arkati cults denotes an esoteric tradition. Not all Arkati cults pursue or even know of this esotericism (such as Black Arkat), but it is widely prevalent in Safelster IMO.
Given that Arkat's cult was said to have controlled 'all active excursions onto the heroplane', IMO their esoteric wisdom is related with this activity. But instead of Arkati being a bunch of Super-RQ players, what unites Esoteric Arkatism is their knowledge of the Arkat ritual.
Simply put, the Arkati ritual is a Heroquest in which the Arkati travels over to the other side and hunt down the Devil and does combat with him. Depending on their degree of success, they learn more about their foe and gain esoteric wisdom.
The Deceiver is in the details. Although each Arkati cult knows the ritual, they disagree on the particulars. Most say they replicate the epic of Arkat in slaying Gbaji. Some disagree: the Borists claim to hunt down Arkat, and the Nysaloran Sun Dome temple claims to be Nysalor hunting down Gbaji. A few chaotic Arkati claim to be Gbaji hunting down Arkat so they can destroy the world.
It gets worse. Many cults disagree on what is experienced on the Other Side, and what one Arkati may consider to be Gbaji may be considered by another to be a worthy role-model. In some cases, the acquired esoteric wisdom is so mind-bending that Arkati have been known to adopt practices they formerly considered Gbajite (much to the disgust of their former cult).
At some point or another, the Arkati has accumulated enough esoteric wisdom to the extent that he can perceive Gbaji in the Waking World. At this level, he is what a lunar would call illuminated*. He can use his esoteric wisdom to attempt to destroy a person whom he has detected as Gbaji. This usually results in a magical battleas the alleged Gbaji is attempting to do the same. The reverse side of this is that he becomes vunerable to being sense as Gbaji.
Who detects whom as Gbaji undoubtedly depends on certain metaphysical 'flags' (ie by knowing X, you are detected as Gbajite by the followers of Y) but I've only a vague idea what these flags entail. My best guess is that they denote what you believe is Gbajite but I can see some problems.
Hmm. a couple of points are in order.
By 'detecting', I don't necessarily mean that the Arkati casts a simple detect spell and Gbaji glows day and night for him. Many cults teach elaborate countermeasures to avoid recognition by enemy cultists. Detection still can be done but it usually involves an intense magical analysis of the target from afar. Success allows him to do magical battle with Gbaji, or reveals the person is not Gbaji.
By 'magical battle', I do not mean that the dueling duo duke it out with dynamite and death spells in the streets. An attack usually manifests itself as a strange sinster occurence. In subtlety, it may range from 'being felled by a tile thrown by an old woman from the rooftop' to 'being torn apart by an invisible demon in the presence of horrified witnesses' (cf the Abberant Prophet common event in Safelster).
The Arkati cannot use his esoteric wisdom to attack a person is not an Arkati or has no esoteric wisdom. Frex, if an Arkati is set upon by a non-Arkati Rokari Bishop who is protected by swords of Knights and the prayers of Wizards, then all his esoteric wisdom is useless for a magical attack. However the Arkati _knows_ that his tormentors are inspired by Gbaji so what can he do?
The Arkati usually sidestep the obstacle by assuming that Gbaji has successfully deceived himself to avoid destruction. The appropiate response then is to expend considerable effort to destroy Gbaji's lies and make him aware of his evil nature. This usually entails filling the victim's dreams with cryptic hints and sensous enigmas as to his nature (the Arkati ritual in reverse so to speak). When the victim resolves these riddles, he gains esoteric wisdom and is on the path to 'illumination' with consequent perdition. If he does not receives help to defend himself against Arkati magical attacks, his life is in danger.
However because the Arkati has filled his victim's mind with what the Arkati considers to be gbajite thoughts, the victim is usually led by occult portents to contact one of the enemy cults that are opposed to the attacking Arkati. Therefore the difficulty of destroying the victim has dropped from 'flat-out impossible' to 'difficult'. Since what goes around, comes around, the Arkati's own cult receives new members through this method.
*it seems intuitive that the Arkati and the Lunars should be able to sense each other's enlightened status at least some of the time as Arkat was able to sense Nysalorans. But I've yet to come up with a satisfactory rule of the thumb to determine if the lunars register as Gbajite by all Arkati or if they are susceptible to magical attacks.
Comments & criticisms are welcome...
>If you look at it like that, perhaps even the Arkat Kingtroll/Black
>Arkat mob have a piece of "Arkati illumination", but the only "power"
>they manifest is the one that enables them to perceive and manipulate
>sorcery is if it were divine magic.
I'm doubtful whether the Troll Arkati (or Arkati heavily influenced by trolls, like Naskorion) have the hypothesized esoteric wisdom as IMO they already have potent darkness magics that make the Arkati magical attacks superfluous.
There is also a Pelorian Arkati movement that attempted to resurrect Gbaji and was ruthlessly crushed by Emperor Celestinus. But I think that was a product of the Pelorian religion as Dorastor was not yet open to lunar traders.
Powered by hypermail