Me>>I strongly dislike the idea that a Safelstran
>> can entertain the notion of joining two or more secret societies.
>Most Safelstran sects are similar to a secret society. And most
>Safelstran sectists belong to the state church or something similar
>to that as well as to their own secret society, guild, or similar.
State Churches and Guilds are not Secret Societies and do not forbid membership in other public organizations. Whereas I do believe that Secret Societies would be very upset to find out that members have joined other Secret Societies.
>> Is there any meaningful reason why we should keep these distinct? I
>> can't for the life of me figure out why a Religious Society must have
>> a strong leadership, or why a Political Society must be purely mundane
>> affairs seeking political power for its own sake, and why Arkati are
>> somehow special in this scheme?
>There are purely religious societies - my former sailor still paid service
>to Felstra even though his activities were almost solely fixated on firm
>ground, and various criminal groups tried to subvert or remove him.
Is Felstra a _secret_ religious society? If not, then the relevance of it to the topic is what?
>There are political or criminal groups without any magical clout, but
>still with sufficient influence to take you in.
But that does not explain why all secret political groups must be mundane affairs seeking political power. Many suppressed Malkioni groups (such as Galvosti and Borists) would dearly love to be dominant powers once again and by saying that political groups are mundane affairs deprives the Argan Argar Chain of religious impact, a notion I find absurd.
>Then there are the Arkati groups, who combine mundane and magical
>ambitions more fervently than most other combinations. And more
>aggressively...
I do not see why this must be so. A Borist Supremacy Part can be far more feverent in combing mundane and magical ambitions and an Arkati society can be devoted to spiritual development. For these reasons, I find the artificial distinction between political, religious and arkati societies irksome.
Philip Hibbs:
Me>>What "long lasting" Secret Societies are these? We are talking
>>about something that has survived almost 900 years ...
>>I do not know of a RW secret society that has lasted that long!
>There are some fairly compelling theories that the Freemasons descend
>directly from the Templars, then there is the Priory of Sion (who are
>popularly linked to the (probably fake) "Protocol of the Elders of Zion",
>that Hitler took such exception to), who seem to be as old, possibly
>descended from the Hospitaliers.
I'll respond to this in detail on the day sane people furnish credible proof for any of these allegedly compelling theories. And I must admit I'm startled by the use of the word "probably".
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