/// Very thoughtful comments, I like your take on the rokari.
> In addition to the arguments advanced below (as if from inside Rokarism),
/// Yep, I like to play the devil's advocate. But I went from hating the rokari
to a more nuanced opinion thanks to Jeff's fascinating work. Even though I think
he overkills on dechristianizing them.
why did it take the best part of four centuries to get its act together? Or is
there a prophetic, apocalyptic edge to Rokarism, which tries to keep everyone on
the straight and narrow lest there be another flood?
/// I had never thought about that, but why not ? Theoblanc and his staff are
the only ones who fully understand Rokar's message, straight from Makan. There
might be a few things so horrendous that they kept them secret. Until now.
> I know analogies between Malkionism and Christianity are out of favour,
/// they're OK with me. People are People. And "there is only one God..."
but maybe one answer is that, as with Christianity in the West, it took the
> conversion of a powerful temporal leader (Bailifes the Hammer(?) playing the
> role of the Emperor Constantine), for these ideas to really take off-- even
> though they were centuries old by now.
/// Beautiful ! But a little off. Rokar was martyred in 1349, after 20 or so
years of preaching. It means his Crusade/Jihad only began nearly three centuries
after the catastrophe. Before him, the seshnegi spent this time in a mess, as
the List of Kings states. Everybody was so afraid to trigger a new deluge there
was a dukedom of Tanisor at best.
> Indeed earlier versions of Rokarism suggested that Rokarism began as a
> 'grass roots' movement, it said that Rokar's teachings fell foul of the powers
that be and he was martyred.
/// He did, by accusing the rulers of this time - including the Church - to be
corrupt and caste-breaking, of bringing back the catastrophe because of their
vices. No ruler likes to hear that.
At the risk of drawing an analogy with the Western Church again,
/// Again, that's cool. It gives a valuable, easy to understand analogy to
people who haven't studied religions too much. And it does fit.
I suppose one could say the same of the Western Church before the papacy was
invented.
/// That's where the Constantin analogy comes in best IMO. Bailifes saw this
fringe sect, he liked what they said about Order and they agreed to make a deal
to support him. Or maybe he saw a Cross, sorry Triangle, in the skies before the
battle of Asgolan Fields. Who knows ?
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