Re: It's hard to be malkioni

From: donald_at__oM8awDfunLA8Sca4YunQPoCGoLZTE8pcTG1EUG75J7W4wUuQvKGhBWCA0G6JqgS0DcCt
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:25:05 -0000


> But if you're a malkioni... all you have is FAITH. In RW, Religious Faith is "a
> firm trust in things that one hopes, a demonstration of things one cannot see"
> (Hebrews 11-1). I do think that contemporary, western intellectuals like us
> don't have any idea what FAITH is. When I read what we say about faith, it
> strikes me as blind men discussing colors. We cannot imagine what it means to
> live by, to feel FAITH. We are afraid of people who experience it, we flee them
> as they feel so odd, "weird" to us.

As someone who has never had faith I'm not afraid of the few I've known who really have it. Faith can best be described as a complete certainty in your vision of the world. It is often reinforced by experience or revelation. The people who are scary are those who proclaim their faith but do not live it. I'm sure Glorantha has its share of those.  

> Back to Glorantha : in malkioni lands, Faith comes from KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge
> repeated to you by your readers, week after week. Knowledge that comes from
> looking at the pictures on churches' stained glass windows, at the statues of
> Saints. Knowledge that God made the Universe Perfect and that devolution made it
> what it is today. Knowledge that you will live Perfection again after you die.
> But also knowledge that comes from watching the World, the cycle of Seasons, the
> laugther of children, the beauty of Nature. It's all you have as a malkioni :
> your Faith.

If you have faith it is all you need.

> Imagine what a conscripted dronar in the seshnegi army feels when he sees pagan
> farmers near Hrelar Amali use gods-given strength to draw one hundred furrows in
> one day. Imagine how he reacts when he sees the first ears of wheat blooming in
> a few minutes under the Earth Priestess' rich green light. He thinks about what
> the Reader says week after week about the necessity of hard labor, about
> unknowable solace. When the local pagan peasants call out to him, if his
> sargeant is busy elsewhere and there is no Reader around, how long do you think
> he will hesitate before joining the pagan festival ? It's all a matter of his
> Faith...

I would expect the Malkioni priests to warn against of the lures of pagan religions and how their followers will never reach Solace. If the dronar has Faith he will resist the lure, if not then he falls......  

> Of course, not Knowing Faith doesn't stop us from building a wonderful fantasy
> world with plenty of interesting stories to play and read, of course. But I
> suspect that, paradoxically, we will never emulate malkioni life as well as we
> do the pagans'. Because we do not know Faith.

Faith is essential to the theistic religions as well - faith in the Gods. That Orlanth will help you fight for freedom, that Ernalda will welcome you home and feed you. Lose that faith and you will not be able to draw on the magic you need to survive.

I'm less sure about the animists but there seems to be an element of faith in the rituals that individual spirits need performed.

-- 
Donald Oddy


           

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