Re: Hrestol's knighthood initiation

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_rK2PZDkAtJDD6LBc6PBrgnfy6iiI4UnZp7TYFW_dLvbfQ-dv6Hq7Th034uKGIbstqyT>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:05:21 +1300

On 10/26/2010 2:09 PM, Scott wrote:

> 1. What was the sequence of Malkion's revelations to Hrestol? He had
> a vision to pursue knighthood and then undertook the initiation, but
> where does Joy fit in? Did this occur during his knighthood
> initiation or was it separate? The former might make sense:
> successfully merging the castes helped purify Hrestol, enabling him
> to be the first mortal to reach Joy (analogous to Danmalastan during
> the pre-caste Second Action).

My opinion is that Joy is a supercritical state of grace that is received fleetingly during Church services (except the Rokari of course) and permanently by the Knights. Hrestol achieved joy by overdosing on divine presence, an act which the Wizards consider to be spiritually destructive and point to Hrestol as a prime example of what can go wrong.

And the less said about the unspeakable Arkat who used krjalki deities in his version of joy, the better...

As for the sequence of events, the sole statement (written before 1987) is that statement is that he "accidentally heroquested" and spoke with Malkion. There's more in early Stafford writing but of limited utility. What happened could have been

1. Hrestol combining the castes was not an intentional act of but a desperation move. Previously the Malkioni had known that Caste Crime could cause immense spiritual damage. So Hrestol joined all the castes and went off to fight the Pendali in the hope that an angry god would nuke Hrestol and take out the Pendali as collateral damage. But what Hrestol hoped to achieve turned out to be far different from what he actually achieved.
2. Hrestol decided to repeat the action of Malkion the sacrifice, ie perish in the action of saving the Cosmos. But he didn't do it quite right or he erred at a critical moment. Perhaps he misunderstood what he was supposed to do at the critical junction (visit the Lord's station and visited all the stations). When he returned, he was maddened with despair at ruining the only chance of saving his people. He made a suicidal attack on the Pendali and was astonished to find himself still alive.
3. Hrestol visited the Underworld to speak to the shade of Malkion the Sacrifice. From him he was blessed with Joy and returned.

> 2. Does Malkion (and possibly the saints) have more "free will" to
> interact with the inner world than the theistic gods?

I don't think so.

> As an example, was Malkion a passive entity responding to Hrestol's
> prayers for help against the Pendali threat, or was he able to
> intelligently react to (and possibly shape) events?

It depends on who you ask. A Malkioni would deny the idea that God was in anyway less than omnipotent and insist that he acted as he saw fit.

--Peter Metcalfe