Re: Ruling the Empire

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 00:19:20 +0100 (BST)


NB:
> >A note on hero cults of the imperial cult -- we've speculated that the
> >ancestral shrines to Moonson Imperator maintained by various Sultans'
> >households are (of course) shrines to the particular Mask which was their
> >Ancestor, and perhaps this shapes the powers and outlooks of those Sultans
> >and Nobles. (E.g. descendents of Ignifer may get zippy war or command
> >magics, unavailable nowadays through worship of Argenteus). One for the mix?

ML:
> Yeah, I tried to sell this one to Greg after our discussion and was Gregged.

I don't understand from your later comments (or otherwise) in what fashion or in what respect this has been gregged: that the sultans have different Masks as forebears, that they worship same, or the 'benefits' they gain thereby? I can't immediately even see what's controversial about this (unlike all this Proxy stuff, which seems Very Eggy (not to be confused with 'very Egi') to me, and I will refrain from comment on until it starts looking like less of a moving target to we mortals).

> He has never been a human and is not an avatar (though he does contain
> parts of Yelm).

I must confess, I don't understand why this _doesn't_ make him an avatar of Yelm... Or at least, an (n/6)-avatar, where n is a number of your chosing particular to a given Dara Happan Emperor/Mask of Moonson.

> The Egi have no control over _where_ he manifests or how. Sometimes he is
> not believed but he is the Emperor and has the power to chase out those who
> would deny him. In many ways this has been a blessing for often traitors are
> exposed. One of the Emperors secrets is that he dies deliberately simply to
> see what crawls ouf ot the woodwork.

Or to translate in Nick's Cynic-Speak: the guy who wins any given broo-ha-ha about who is the real emperor, obviously is and was the real emperor; and if the emperor expires in a sudden, messy, and superficially embarrassing manner, it obviously serves some cosmic purpose, _really_.

Obviously another wheeze they swiped off of Kralorela: "Wasn't that the Great Dragon Sage, plummeting to his death off that parapet?" "He meant to do that, honestly."

Slán,
Alex.


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