Remember one of the dangers of Nysalor/Gbaji - Gbaji/Nysalor is the 'safe', 'good' Chaos. Nysalor teaches people not to fear Chaos, and this is one of the reasons why Orlanthi people hate and fear his teachings, because acceptance of Chaos makes the entire struggle of the Lightbringers and the sacrifices of Orlanth and Ernalda meaningless. Nysalor, and his successor, Rufelza, represent a threat to the Orlanthi way of life that any gibbering Broo never could - the insidious, deceptive (un) logic of Illumination calls into question the importance of family, tradition, one's ancestors and all the thing which drives the typical traditionalist Orlanthi's world. The Orlanthi of Harmast's era recognized this, and strove against Gbaji/Nysalor, and their descendants in 1620's Dragon Pass see it as happening all over again, but even worse.
The essential Orlanthi arguement against Lunar and Nysalor doctrine (close, but not always the same) seems to be, "Where is the line drawn? When does something become 'bad'? When the Emperor says it does? We don't think so! We make the laws and the standards, not you!" For most other cultures that have been absorbed by the Lunars, most don't even question the whole Chaos issue, but because the Orlanthi have so much experience with Chaos in all of it's various forms, they see (correctly or incorrectly) the Lunar Empire a train wreck, waiting to happen, that will destroy the world.
ORLANTH LIVES!
-- Chris Bell argrath_at_... coridan_at_...
Powered by hypermail