Speculations on The Abiding Book

From: Charles Corrigan <charles_at_indigost.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 20:26:38 +0100


A section in Greg's Myth of the Month a few months ago regarding The Abiding Book got me thinking about the rise and fall of the God=20 Learners (GLs) and their subsequent effects on the Malkioni religion. His document appears to be a brief introductory commentary on the Book written from the point of view of a Justreli or later Malkioni. Here's my view on the story of the Book and its consequences.

Some time in the early 600s there arose a group of idealistic young people from a particularly conservative/fundamentalist background who were prepared to think radically about how to spread their version of Malkionism. They distilled out the "best" ideas from existing Malkioni writings (i.e. threw out anything they disagreed with), integrated ideas from the Arkati, simplified the complex and, where there were gaps, wrote entirely new doctrine. The result was a book simple enough for most Malkioni to understand and believe in but all-encompassing enough to successfully explain the world and how to control it. I am sure that they explored the mythical planes using Arkat's techniques to "prove" that they were correct. And they were not above inserting some particularly self-serving sections about the Secret Keepers and Paternal Keepers to justify their own positions in the new order that they were attempting to build.

Finally they developed a magical ritual to "announce" their revelation. The heroquest probably was designed (again, using Arkat's methods) to attract those people that were already in agreement with the general outlines of the Book and to exclude those inimical to its ideas. Also, the Witnesses included all of those that participated in the writing of the drafts. So, at a carefully stage-managed event (possibly an existing religious ceremony) on Kaltan's day 646, the hand appeared and wrote the final version of The Abiding Book.

The results probably exceeded the greatest hopes of the perpetrators. Within just a few decades they controlled Justrela to the extent that they could send off crusades to convert the rest of the world.

Their emphasis on extracting simplicity from an apparently complex world and on practical proofs (*1) led to the experimentation of the GLs. The GLs answered many questions and provided many material benefits to the general population. In fact, I think that the Justreli civilisation at the core of the Middle Sea Empire (MSE) was the most materially and spiritually contented of all human civilisations at any point in history or myth (*2) for the majority of its existence.

But. The cynicism at the core of the new Malkionism infected the GLs. This, of course, was a necessary mythical consequence of the scheming - even if the GLs did not (initially) know that the Book was a human invention. And this cynicism encouraged the world destroying mythical manipulation that led to the downfall of the GLs and the MSE.

At first, the GLs were the more intellectual and inquisitive adherents of the new Malkioni religion but later, I imagine, they were thought of as heretics, but too powerful to challenge. The mainstream Malkioni did not consider their plundering of the myths and treasures of the other cultures as an issue because the Malkioni worldview held that the other "gods" were just jumped up spirits, ex-mortals and immortals oppressing their worshippers. The problem was that the GLs took some of the religions of these cultures, modified them for their own purposes (*3) and then worshipped these "gods" as and when required. This was a step back to the ways of before the Book.

The political/temporal rulers of the MSE were not necessarily GLs themselves but would have continued to support and encourage the GLs for the material and military benefits they provided. So, from an outsider's point of view, the MSE and GLs were almost synonymous, as the MSE plundered their material wealth and the GLs plundered their spiritual wealth. So eventually the whole world rose up against the combination. The GLs in particular were searched out and destroyed, the MSE dismembered, most of Justrela and much of Seshnela sunk and the oceans were Closed.

After this disaster the remaining Malkioni, who were mostly cut off from all but their closest neighbours, were forced to think carefully about their religion. The disasters were blamed either on the Brithini, the GLs or a combination of both. All knowledge that the Book was a human construct had been erased with the destruction of both the GLs and the Malkioni hierarchy in Justrela and Seshnela (and therefore the cynicism had been mythically paid for). So the Book was interpreted in its strictest sense and all God Learner and pre Book deviations were considered anathema. It is a proof of the coherence of The Abiding Book that, when the Closing was lifted, the various major Malkioni sects that emerged were so similar.

(*1) I suspect that the Tests of Faith included absence of ageing as a
proof of better religious ability as it showed that the ageless person was closer to the conditions of the Kingdom of Logic.
(*2) With the possible exception of the mythical Feldichi in Dorastor.
(*3) For instance, many of the Lhankor Mhy and Issaries spells and
abilities have no obvious mythical explanation (Spell Trading, Trade Talk, the analysis spells, etc.). Also, Caladra and Aurelion. An interesting speculation is what these religions looked like before they became tools of the GLs.

regards,
Charles


Powered by hypermail