>
>What do you mean "two masters sect"? I said that "Some Masters will
>group themselves into a larger order to control a city or somesuch".
>How does that get transformed into "all Arkari sects have only two
>masters at the most"?
You said (and although I dislike quotes, here they are in full)
"Considering the Arkati have been at each others throats for several centuries now, they can't have a very elaborate cultic structure like the masons."
"IMO their basic structure is several/many students learning from a Master or Archon or something like that. Some Masters will group themselves into a larger order to control a city or somesuch. I don't have much hope for the long-term viability of such orders."
Ok, you said a "one master sect" and I was generalizing.
Considering the long lasting Secret Societies in Europe (the only ones I know something about), and the ease with which they sprout, and survive internal conflicts and external pressure, my opinion differs with yours, as my essay showed.
>It is? I seriously doubt that the majority of Safelstrans are members
>of a secret society. I strongly dislike the idea that a Safelstran
>can entertain the notion of joining two or more secret societies.
A difference of opinnion. I know many people who belonged to several secret societies (under Franco's dictatorship), as any association or political party worked as such. So perhaps I am more favourably inclined to see secret signs, initiation tests, internal doubt, and plenty of betrayal. That I see that as MGF is also just my point of view.
Just an example. A friend's father was a member of the illegal people's socialist party, who despite the similitudes did not get along with the Spanish Worker's Socialist Party and many other small groups. He was also active in UGT, an (of course) illegal worker's Union. But he was also in the Young Catholics, a group opposed to the regime on moral grounds, despite its support of the Catholic Church, a mason (just for friendship), and had many contacts in the high levels of the Opus Dei, ultraconservative catholic organization, thanks to his family. He was arrested twice, but well placed contacts managed his release. Some weeks he had five different meetings, all liable to be raided, by the police (unlikely), right wing activists or left wing activists unhappy with some ideological point.
I set up the arkati different for the other societies for two reasons. First they are tangled in a vicious war to bring Arkat back, and to stomp Gbaji. This conflict, as Arkat himself, trascends religious boundaries and political borders. That is why Arkati societies are smaller, and mostly opposed to each other. A religious society knows what is true (as the Borists), the arkati are still searching. And they are going to get more Arkat's than they expected.
Jose
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