Re: Some questions about rokari castes

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 04:21:27 +0000

antalvarez2001 writes:

>>That's conceivable. If there are peasant monks, that is, which I'm 
>>not convinced of.

>
> I was thinking in some of the people with natural piety (as in HW p.
> 197), for example.

I think those people are more likely to be hermits (the withdrawal from the world) than to serve the worldly church. The parallel between Malkionism and Christianity isn't exact and the monastic institutions may have a different purpose than the example of Saint Anthony in the Desert.

> If the castes are hereditary, we have to do
> something with the vocations ;-) They spend 60% of their time in
> oration and the rest working as peasants �in the Abbey!

I think farmers working at a monastery are ordinary farmers. Becaue of the closeness of the monks, they might be saddled with some religious burden (condemned to wear sackcloth) for some past sin (oggling the neighbour's daughter) and so seen by outsiders to be "more religious" than other farmers.

> And in nuns also, because I think women can't be
> Wizards in rokari Church as a general rule.

Women have their own caste in canons of the Rokari Church. To speak about a women being a knight, wizard or lord is meaningless

• the issue is whether they can wield a sword, cast a spell or command others. Scriptural precedents exist for all three and so the Rokari concede that women are capable of doing such thing. But because of their innate suspicion of independent females, they are far more likely to keep female magical orders under close watch and away from the general public, than to ban them altogether.

> I like the idea of cloistered nuns and the very-holy Father General ;-
> ) But i prefer that it did't be the only method to produce Wizards.

Other possibilities include:

• an orphan left at the church. What caste should he be brought up considering the parents are unknown?
• excess nobility (and political prisoners) being forced into the church. Possibly involves a renunciation of family ties and so being treated as an orphan.
• farmers given up their firstborn for spiritual favour. Probably based on an allegorical interpretation of some scripture that apparently condones human sacrifice.
• well-to-do folks might send their kids to a sorcerous university (bastion of atheism and debuchery). At the completion of their study, the students are forced to have a crisis of faith, convert and take on holy orders.

 --Peter Metcalfe