Re: 1st age malkioni settlers : brithini or mortals ?

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_Dyy6bjAWBStyN7UlqTqBVSh_xgyrGPHigb08_93rnwdwlTnkRCU4-kMNE01aWRMRAS->
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:34:29 +1300

On 10/29/2010 12:23 AM, hcarteau_at_-tNM2SZ5Aw6J1byIjYOjYz7rv8dKGVhaoUEzWQ0ZbEg_q56aoPd_hmqMUGrBsp3NHxP8zHOoIA.yahoo.invalid wrote:
> Selon Peter Metcalfe<metcalph_at_V0hDftG4BPPdZx0WdJ0gS5jy5Loi9ch5brLsO_Uryjkb5x79LygbsYHYhMj3RFgrAN9AQmcuRSFoblsS3UNmzuEJsPONLw.yahoo.invalid>:
>
> As for the Seshnegi being henotheist before Hrestol's revelation, the issue is
> open as far as I can see.
>
> /// Yes. To me the settlers led by Froalar who settled in Seshnela were brithini
> "who had never experienced Joy". Perhaps they left Brithos because there wasn't
> enough to eat, or some practical reason like that. They had to adapt to new
> rules, and they did. After which they did become half-henotheists, before this
> practise got purged a few centuries later.

The reason why I said it was open was that originally I would have said yes but now I'm not so sure.

Part of the problem is that the Malkioni history is more complex than originally thought. In the good old days (as far back as the Golden Age), the western coast of Genertela was inhabited by a Malkioni people called the Kachasti. So at the Dawn, the Seshnegi (and Loskalmi) easily have several dozen centuries worth of history in the region.

The native faith of the Kachasti and Seshnegi is a mixture of obedience to Zzabur's Laws, a touching faith in Malkion and corrupt practices cuased by centuries of commerce with the natives of Genertela (not just the Pendali who appear to be fairly recent arrivals). Orthodoxy is frequently strengthened by periodic influxes of exiles from Zerendel and later Brithos. Although the exiles were expelled for many sin, when they arrive in Genertela they are practically ultraconservatives. Eventually as time goes by, the exiles become native and are soon replaced by a fresh wave of replacements.

Secondly Froalar and family were recent arrivals, leaving to avoid causing a civil war in Brithos. They easily became leaders of the local Malkioni primarily because they were fresh from Brithos. Now if they were fresh from Brithos, they wouldn't be henotheists, would they?

So what I think is the case is that at the Dawn, Hrestol while still appearing for all intents and purposes a dogmatic Brithini has long been having intense spiritual doubts and the Pendali War crystalized those doubts into the Revelation of Joy.

> Now Jeff seems to imply (in his devious way ;-) that these guys were already
> followers of Malkion the Prophet and knew about Solace ; probably they were
> mortals already.

When Malkion was expelled from Zerendel, he moved to southern Genertela so the Seshnegi would have been familiar with his teachings of Solace. Immortality was available to them through the Revelations of Now but it was a strict practice and the equivalent of being on a strict diet. Malkion had repudiated the Revelations of Now, which is why he was known as Old Malkion before his sacrifice. So whether a particular Malkioni is mortals or not depends on how they felt about Malkion and how much they wanted to curry favour with their Brithini rulers.

--Peter Metcalfe