[X] In the Pugilist Neighborhoods of the Western Navel (P).
Fellow disciples, let us join them! We will discuss the monumental world-historical task that lies before us! We will engage in rigorous and spirited debates about Pugilist theology and practice!
...but mostly we will probably complain about other Pugilists
Fellow disciples, you may then question me; "is that last part not somewhat counterproductive?" and I will answer; not at all. Sects complaining about other sects of the same theology is one of the most important parts of being a disciple
Does this city have a large homeless population? Like, if we have Dark Satanic Mills do we also have poor houses and street gangs of orphan pickpockets?
I fear we have overreached, acting like the High Priests upon the Mount and the Exarchs themselves: Grasping greedily for an imagined bounty of the ready and willing.
Foolishness. Have we truly forgotten how the Grand Mouflon began his movement? It was groundswell. Slow, steady work, the alignment of mind, body, soul and spirit by deed and creed to elevate the movement at first.
I have a still-blooming black eye from a scuffle with an angry husband who took ill to my verbal castigation of his sneering domination of his wife, rendering her broken in soul and bent in posture, and we all know how much push-back there has been since Exarch Bemin's edict. Besides, Brother Akov's call to our Juror Brethren of the Scourge of God - a most admirable creed, I must say! - is certain to enrage the dust-blooded murderers of the Sword-Altar and the Mount who grind good folk to gristle on the mills and burn them in the furnaces of the City.
Dearest Sisters, in what I perceive as a looming threat from Tzinha Barracks, what we must turn to now is moderation and, perhaps, even subtlety. That Men think themselves mighty and condemn us to tasks administrative and managerial is to our advantage: Who thinks twice about the letter-writer? How often do they go through our mail, bit by bit, to control? Certainly, some do, but in their bid to domineer and turn from the teachings of Amalgast and the Ravs, the time they think gained from sidelining us is not something most would think to waste on.
"What then, Sister Shevah, are we to do?" I can hear the question from many of you. And I will tell you, my Sisters, my dearest, beloved Sisters, with whom I have stood and shared the rites as we have beheld them in the flame and the smoke of the rifle's retort and the bayonet-dance grown from the angelforms and the longarm and with whom I have sung our secret songs, how I see our near future; that we may debate this amongst ourselves and stand together, organized and firm in spirit, undivided and with bonds as strong as the flame imperishable.
We have tried to approach things in the way of the Menfolk of the Kingdom of God: Brash and arrogant and - we know how that went, and by the very song of my appeal, I should have known better. I will repay my mistake by service to all.
We must codify our creed in a small red book, the sacred colour of our movement - besides, it looks nice, and many books are bound in red. It will be inconspicuous. Carry a small powder box with us. Tabac is hardly unknown, and it helps the hard worker stay awake and alert, no? They will not suspect the tools of the Eucharist beneath, our sacred Gunpowder, which balms the souls and initiates disciples.
This is the weapon we need: The most sacred of all, that which is the word Truth, which liberates the spirit and elevates the soul and makes all mankind free, of which we shall try to encompass the fragment pertinent to the Gunpowder Eucharist of in our Red Book.
Thus armed we shall then turn to this righteous struggle in the way of the Women in the Kingdom of God: as the managers and mothers. Many of us are, or have been, one or both, and we are well versed in how to deal with this, are we not? Inveigle ourselves not with talk of steel and violence, but with the weapon of the letter and the reading-circle. With the currency of time freely given by labour to cover for others in time of need. It is a sad truth that many of our Sisters-that-could-be in the Kingdom of God do not even see the chains that fetter them in place and crush the life and hope from them for they lack the very language to express such thoughts in their heads. This too is part of the sacred work prescribed by Pasan Ghadi, that we bring Light to banish the Dark of Deceit.
Not for long. Not for long. The Rifle is our true son, our true liberator from the chains. But there must be an element of moderation, of right timing, elsewise it is our blood that flows in rivers and for naught. If nothing else, the Patriarchate has grown exceedingly efficient at grinding dissent down by force. Remember that a well-placed nighttime raid served us so well in Hasdaya, this action I propose is the same in the terms of conversion.
Also if you think about it we should ask Baba Tanda who is both old and wise how she got into guns; I have had thoughts that perhaps revolvers are a more feminine, urban weapon for training future converts of the Convent on.
All in all, my dearest Sisters, I look forward to meeting you all again so that we may put our heads together and find an united stance before the next full sect meeting.
Sister, where do you get those pamphlets from? I thought we are literally too poor to afford any printing work.
[X] In the Pugilist Neighborhoods of the Western Navel (P).
I am a very simple person, we are a Pugilist sect, so we go where Pugilist are. People who only know Pugilist as nothing more than marial art and know nothing of it's deeper meaning might prove to be a receptive audience for our work
Just.. Let's hope in case of theological disagreement with other people, we will come out closer to the truth through dialogue rather than endless infighing, but that's true for every place.
Does this city have a large homeless population? Like, if we have Dark Satanic Mills do we also have poor houses and street gangs of orphan pickpockets?
Given the fact that our core members spent years in exile in the ass end of nowhere, but managed to care for each other's health enough that they had children who were born and grew up in exile, and our mass rank of Jurors who are veterans of the Mare War, and the fact that we are ultimately a Martial Sect, would you say that we have some members that have medical skills?
Not necessarily doctors, but enough practical and folk knowledge that for the majority of the improvised urbanites and the Underworld, their services in hidden clinics would be highly sought out.
It is important to keep in mind that the actual tech level and social organization of the setting is mid to late nineteenth century. There are publicly funded hospital orders, germ theory in the midst of development and there are basic antiseptics in use. I really should probably add some hospitals on the map but the Mendicant Hessenine Order are a kingdom-wide order of nurses who perform sweeping inoculation campaigns against major diseases and support local public health efforts as well as hosting hospitals where the poor can receive healthcare.
But 1. these institutions are profoundly underfunded and reliant on a combination of alms and a small portion of the tithe which goes to this kind of front-facing welfare work, and 2. there are too many destitute and poor people in places like Nachivan for their coverage to be universal. You will surely have Hessenine nurses among the sect. Baba Tanda was a Maranine nun, meaning she was from the teacher's Order of Marina.
Does this city have a large homeless population? Like, if we have Dark Satanic Mills do we also have poor houses and street gangs of orphan pickpockets?
There are poorhouses where you can get awful accomodations for penny dirhams and absolutely there are orphan pickpockets. Vaspukaran had a strong urban welfare network run by orders but the decline of Patriarchal power and the rapid growth of cities has meant that this network has not been able to cope at all. Sects often offer host giant roundbread baking sessions in enormous open-air ovens and then give out portions to the poor. Hot meals are also a popular way to draw crowds.
Homelessness is more common among mobile vagrant populations who move desperately from place to place seeking work. It is usually possible to find somewhere to live if you're living there longer, it's just that the accommodations are likely to be miserable.
[X] In Gabanna on the east bank, at the intersection of chambers (G).
I feel like we'll need some space, and while the exarchates aren't safe, being closer to their oppressed population sounds like a boon for recruitment and radical organization.
I think the Maranines generally have like Tiffany Aching and Discworld witchcraft vibes as a female order of basically Jesuits. Thus, much like the OTL Jesuits getting run out of the Spanish Empire and the Catholic world by royal absolutists and Pratchett's witches always being on the edge of the community and under threat of witch hunters upsetting the careful balance of fear and respect a witch is supported by, a good Maranine should always be ready to extract themselves out of the hands of the Jurors or country Deacons.
Is she at least open to exchanging recommendations on what sort of revolvers best suit women who have never touched a gun before in their lives as trainer weapons? Just, you know. Theoretically. Hypothetically. If one were to try and expand a mass section.
[X] In Gabanna on the east bank, at the intersection of chambers (G)
It is a truism that one does not pour into the filled cup, and that is what we will do if we preach on the doorstep of another sect's temple. We should build our temple in Gabanna because there is space in the souls there for our doctrine, less so for those who already pass preachers of Amalism, Confession, or even less directed forms of Pugilism every day.
My girlfriend's great-grandmother came to America from Italy after the sudden and unexpected death of her husband. Whenever anyone asked how he died she would always answer "Who wants to know?" so eventually they stopped asking.
Seems very solidly for the Western Navel, and there haven't been any new votes for a bit, so I'm going to call it here so I can get to work on the next update.
Scheduled vote count started by Cetashwayo on Apr 1, 2022 at 9:46 PM, finished with 42 posts and 23 votes.
[X] In the Pugilist Neighborhoods of the Western Navel (P).
[X] In the Pugilist Neighborhoods of the Western Navel (P).
Lost and Found
The temple is a small butcher's floor not a block from Sasan Bazaar, next to an underground cassowary fighting ring, a frock-tailor and below a small shirtwaist shop floor. Young tittering laboring girls and working mothers make a clamor on the ceiling as they walk up and down the stairs. Some of them even gather to watch the sect map out the sacral geometry and prepare to sanctify the space. The lighting is poor, The stains of blood are hard to wash out, and the bare stone of the floor austere and cool to the touch, but it is the first shrine the sect has called home since their exile, and it will be more than enough. Anointed with the powder of the convent of the Eucharist, anointed with the precious oil proudly smuggled in and with no tithes paid, the HaKhofshim Mekdash, the Temple of the Free, is formally consecrated. Within its modest walls, you hope, will be enacted wonders.
And not soon after, a wonder arrives in Nachivan. Into this modest place, standing taller than most men, a suitcase stuffed with papers in one hand, a parasol in the other, elegantly dressed in a southern sari dress, her wavy jet-black hair woven in the tight Zarni style and hidden in a pretty scarf, her ice-blue eyes always darting, enters Kendanaya Dvorah. Rebellious daughter of a minor Bradi high priest deacon, sharpest pen in the sect, and wife of Guru Kendanaya Wendam. Greeting her with watery eyes and oiled, pleated beard, is Wendam her. She observes the temple, with its half-built altar and toiling disciples, and then locks eyes with Wendam. He says hello, and she firmly that he should have written. He says to her that no words could encompass the depth of what he felt, and she says then he should have become a better writer. She then puts down her suitcase and her parasol, and the two approach, unsure of each other, her looking down, him looking up. Then, at last, she reaches out a hand and runs it through his beard and whispers that she wants to be sure he is no illusion, and he collapses into her and says he wants to be sure that she is a miracle.
Without words and without tears, they hold close to one another, lovers reunited. It was not for no reason they were split apart: When the Jury of Yomri and local Abbey of the Order of Silence shut down the sect, they separated her because it was she who they feared the most as a threat to public orthodoxy, even as they identified the rest of the sect as a threat to public orthopraxy. By destroying the link between doctrine and works, they hoped to shatter the will of the sect and dissolve its component parts. But they have failed, and now she is back, and she demands a meeting, because she thinks it is time to repair the damage they have done.
On the last rest day of the month, smoking a pipe at the wooden pulpit, the sect sitting below her on mostly gathered on the floor, Dvorah launches into an impromptu lecture on the material and spiritual conditions of the Kingdom of God, the better to prepare all for the task to come. For theirs will not just be a battle on the streets, but a battle for the minds of the people. And the minds of the people are absorbed not just on the requirements of their daily bread, but in the hope of eternal salvation. Even as the Sanhedron prepares to meet, the Battle for God has already begun. Until now, the sect has been propelled by the righteousness of its immediate actions: Now it will be propelled as well by the righteousness of its ultimate goal.
Result: HaKhofshim Mekdash Sect headquarters founded. New Sage Gained, Kendanaya Dvorah, +Doctrine to actions.
Creation & the Spiral of Truth
In the beginning, Dvorah starts, the soul was without form, and void (this will be long, she warns, so find a snack). God shaped all the creatures of the earth and humanity, crafted from four elements. Earth: the clay of skin and bone. Water, of the blood, air, of the breath, and fire, the sacral fire of the soul. Dimmer in some creatures, brighter than others, this fire was the blaze of conscious thought that propelled humanity to dominion. In the state of creation, humanity lived free, and naked, and bare, but as they ate fully from the fruit of knowledge so did they absorb the illuminating ambitions of civilization, but with it also the darkness of domination.
Seeking to enter heaven on their own terms, and prove themselves worthy to God, humanity constructed a great spire with machines. But the demands of its construction made demands of the flesh and soul of its builders, and the evil of slavery was created, a path by which to compel labour to act against its own will to sacral ends. God looked upon the spire its masters called divine, and saw only a pyramid of skulls, and found humanity unworthy of His light. From this is the originating sin: that man enslaved man, and so denied themselves to heaven by their own hubris. God toppled the spire, and scattered humanity as stars were scattered across the sky. Given only fragments of the Truth, and with God's revelation obscured from them, the souls of man were given the first commandment: To rebuild the spiral of Truth, not by blood, but by love.
This is the fundamental idea upon which the whole Amalgastene Creed, comprised of the orthodox rite and the schisms, is based. That God has obscured himself in mystery, that the only path to him is by means of progressive revelation, and that a portion of His truth lies in the minds of every being, that the peoples of the world-continent of Camad have each been granted incomplete slices of the originating fruit of knowledge. But now reset to nothing, forced to live in caves and scratch the ground, humanity was faced with the daunting task of reuniting these pieces, and by doing so reuniting with the God whose teachings they had spurned. By reaching the spiral's root, mankind would align perfectly with God, and heaven would become superfluous, for it would be made on Earth.
But to climb the spiral has been no easy task, and has been the work of thousands of years of revelation. To aid the sons and daughters of man, God has sent his prophets among you. And to prevent deviation that would doom humankind from ever reaching salvation, he has reached out from beyond his cosmic veil, and activated plagues and cataclysmic floods.
The Prophets and the Flood
Before Sufgan and Amalgast, three prophets made great strides in climbing the spiral of truth, and a fourth was stopped to the detriment of all humanity.
The first, 2,800 years ago, was Mashyana, Prophet of Asharei, the prophetess of song and light, in the far occident of what is today the Guarded Domains, one of the four great powers of the world. Mashyana was the first to preach for peace, and the first to discover the revelation of the Simurgh, the archangel, the first of God's deputies to reveal itself to humankind. Mashyana dispensed with the old creeds that taught of bland, bad underworlds, and instead elevated heaven, the column of light that represented salvation. For the murderous charioteers of her domains, Mashyana said, the path to the column of light was as tiny as a needle, but for the righteous and the kind, it was as wide as the oceans. Her greatest act was the abolition of human sacrifice. True morality and justice were founded by her, and the whole world is thankful for her revelation.
The second, 2,700 years ago was Rip Tang Goo, Prophet of Usral, the copper king, who started as a scamming metal merchant in the lands of old Kokab where the Circle of Sufgar is now. Rip Tang Goo was transformed by the revelation of God as an obscured cloud, the thunder-demon Gongoros, and rose as King over the Infinite Dominion that once controlled all the lands of the Upper Hadit north to Zorgan and east to Nachivan. Rip Tang Goo was the first of the monotheists, who saw in One God the possibility of universal salvation. Though his Dominion was destroyed, and the people of Usral later exiled by the accursed Malekate of Babarak from their lands, his faith has survived and evolved in the Autocephelate that still stands today. To him, and to them, you owe a great debt.
Then, 1,870 years ago, much misunderstood, came Yuhwa, Prophet of the Great Western Coven. Long despised by the orthodox and her witch-followers persecuted by the Patriarchate's unjust laws, the Pugilists understand Yuhwa as a prophetess who refined the ideas of Mashyana. She made firm the distinction between the challenge of salvation for the mighty, and the ease of salvation for the lowly, and outlined that mankind should chase the love and knowledge of God by deliberate study, deliberation, and debate. For this, she was hounded, hunted, martyred, and it is from this brutal example that the concept of martyrdom, death for God, is borne from. It is thus that you should not held witches in contempt, but see them as fellow-disciples of the Truth, who have made an essential if incomplete contribution.
The last prophet was the Prophet was not to be. Bambisnan Vashti was the first prophet of the oppressed, the prophet of the Vasp. 1,600 years ago, under the domination of the Malekate the whole Hadit river valley had been conquered and subjugated. A vast empire of slaves ruled by freemen worshiping Muktarram the demonic Bull of Hell. The Malekate placed the ancestors of the Vasp who had migrated down from the hills into chains on their frontiers, and visited evil on all. Forced to be Queen of Babarak, the Bambisnan Vashti was visited by God to grant the last chance for salvation to the wicked of the Malekate. She preached the doctrine of freedom, and would have accelerated the climb of the Spiral of Truth by thousands of years. But the Malek of Babarak did not hear her, his own wife, and he wrung her neck and put her followers to death. At this, God wept for losing a beloved daughter, who called to him in her last prayer to smite the wicked. From his tears and her wrath came the flood, an infamous day, 823 years Before Ascension. The whole of the Hadit River Valley was washed away by the deluge of the ancient glacial Lake Mutawilli, and its civilization eradicated.
Profound debate still holds on what the flood meant. Many hold that it was a just punishment, others that it was a tragedy of a revelation come too soon, and others that it was a trick played on God by darkness that made his obliteration of the Hadit valley total.
What do you believe, members of the sect, on this great and terrible event?
[] That the Flood was a just punishment for the wicked of Babarak [Iconoclast & Orthodox Opinion].
[] That the Flood was a tragedy that delayed the cause of world salvation [Amalist Opinion].
[] That the Flood was treachery by evil to sabotage the justice of God [Pugilist Opinion & Confessor Opinion].
Sufgan and Amalgast
The Hearth of Soul-Fire, most common symbol of Vaspukaran
The aftermath of the flood brought barbarity to the lands that would become Vaspukaran, and deprived hope for its people. For hundreds of years, anarchy reigned. Then, 1100 years ago, rising to be the King of all the Vasp, Sufgan brought the revelation of the law. Taking from the far occident the archangel Simurgh , Sufgan enacted worship of the cosmic eagle, and founded the first priesthood. He composed his analects, which offered rules for moral and good living, codified a law, and created the idea of rites. Rites today as rites then are the doctrines and rules for life which define the community: They contain both the scriptural laws that outline the rules of the society, and customs and ritual. Sufganarot Rite takes its name from Sufgan, who was its founder, though he would not know it, for he mistook Simurgh for God, and worshiped the eagle for he could not grasp what made the sky it flew through.
Sufgan's Kingdom did not survive him, for in those days mankind was still wedded to the evil of inherited blood rule. Sufgan's children did not have his piety or his moral virtue, and their decline was opportunity for the Gushan Rohirrate. A horde of horsemen from beyond the Jasper Gates of Nahad Gandar in the northwest, the Gushans swept and conquered all the kingdoms of the Vasp, and Usral, and the steppe around Lake Hamgad. Believers in a harsh and false version of Yuhwaism that demanded all pray to the martyred prophet, the Gushans imposed their faith on the unhappy people, exacted tribute and taxation, and slaughtered all who resisted them. Under their Rohir, all were made to kneel. God, who hated this, at last sent four plagues: of earth, of water, of fire and of air, and awakened his next and greatest prophet.
This was the child who would become Amalgast [Amal = All, Gast = Powerful]. A slave boy with a slave name in Harasdad and ravaged by a plague that nearly blinded him, Amalgast at the brink of death saw God, who ordered him to free his people, and gave him his name, All-Powerful. The greatest prophet, Amalgast assembled followers from everywhere, and redeemed all who met him. From bandits led by the Tutonac brigand Yovan came the Order of the Grand Jury. From traitor horsemen to the Gushans led by Cham Yataryn he formed the Order of the Cheshvan Host. From Urmah, petty prince of Usral, he formed the Melikim, princes owing fealty, and named Urmah the first Stormcrown of Usral.From Sansun, he formed the new priesthood, and named him Archdeadon of its Great Synod.
Amalgast, who was hounded from Harasdad to Nachivan by the Rohirs, then won escalating victories as the peasantry rose to his side, and then vanquished the Rohirrate utterly at the Battle of Perusan in what is now Gushanaram. Shattered, the Rohirrate split in two, and Vaspukaran was free. After his victory, he declared The Kingdom of God, and the Patriarchate of Vaspukaran, and himself its first Patriarch. He abolished slavery, defended the rites of the farmer, and made bloody war against the heathen. Where some prophets died before their time, and others lived but did not rule, Amalgast lived for sixty years as the agent of God on Earth, ruling from Harasdad. He composed his sayings, wrote the four books of the Tessarateuch, created the doctrine of the Spiral of Truth, established firmly the rites of the Kingdom, and then died at an old age, riding off one last time upon his horse before ascending to heaven on wings of fire on the place of the Holy Mount of Nachivan. All calendars count from this glorious day, 822 years ago, as 'After Amalgast', and everything before as 'Before Ascension', dividing all creation.
But the old evil of blood rule emerged again, and it was this that would nearly doom the Kingdom. In the meantime, however, Amalgast himself was venerated as the greatest of all prophets. Among the schismatics, opinions more vary: Some adore him, and see him as essential, while others see him as the great inflection point, but a firm part of the past that must be moved beyond.
But what do the free think about Amalgast? Is he a prophet above all the others, or merely one great step on the Spiral of Truth?
[] Amalgast is separated in kind, not just degree, from other prophets, and he is the foundation of all that came after [Popular opinion].
[] Amalgast is the greatest step yet taken, but he is not so special and essential that he should be totally above all others [Radical opinion].
Fall and Rise
Amalgast's ride to heaven split the Kingdom. On the one side, the Amalists thought that Amalgast had fully died and ascended, and his successor should be elected by the Priesthood. On the other side, the Gastites thought a portion of Amalgast's soul had been transferred to his descendants, and they should rule in his stead as Guardians of his holy ghost. A civil war was fought, lost by the Amalists, who fled underground. But while Guardian Mushad, the first, is venerated, all those after are accursed. They pointlessly crushed the heathen and the heretic, extorted the people, and made evil dwell within the house of God. The Melikim, those feudal princes, grew over-powerful, and at last put the Guardians in captivity, while these ungodly men brawled over the carcass of Heaven, 570 years ago.
Into this chaos of the Weeping Years, a final alliance for salvation was forged in the temples. Militant Ravs, scholars and sages and preachers from the Priesthood, waged an incredible and miraculous war. Amalists, Jurors, Priests, Usralites, and at last Cheshvans joined the Ravs, who drew on the power of the peasantry to destroy the feudal order. Inheritance of title was abolished, and secularism ended: the sacral and the temporal would now be one, a process started by Rip Tang Goo and now complete. Rav Yatoni composed the scripture and laws of this new country, and erected the institutions of the Juror and Priest chambers and the autocephalates. A new syncretic and open rite was proclaimed, and all heathens within the Kingdom of God made into witches, to save them from persecution. Rather than deniers of the word of God, these witches were merely under a spell of darkness, and would in time be illuminated: there was no need to crush them, for they would surely soon see the light if treated with God's grace.
This was the Second Patriarchate which all still live under today, founded 456 years ago by the Vermillion Bull. But the Patriarchate's founding, for all its goodness, was borne on a betrayal: Rav Obrogras, of the Amalists, was exiled. Rav Yatoni wished to merge the Amalist and Gastite philosophies, and discovered in a revelation the Patriarch could absorb by transmigration the soul of Amalgast, a portion of which still existed on earth. To discover a worthy vessel for the Host of the Holy Ghost, the priesthood would select them. Yatoni and Obrogras' falling out is famous, for Obrogras disagreed that Amalgast still dwelled, refused to worship a 'corpse king', and rebelled. Defeated and exiled north, Obrogras and his followers developed the doctrines of Amalism into a new unifying missionary religion, and scattered a diaspora across the northern edges of the Kingdom.
What does the sect think, of the betrayal of Obrogras by Yatoni, that led to the formal schism of Amalism?
[] Obrogras was the betrayed, and the Amalists are in the right [Amalist Opinion].
[] Yatoni was the betrayed, and the Ravs are in the right [Orthodox, Pugilist & Confessor opinion].
[] Both were in the wrong, and their feud divided the faithful [Iconoclast Opinion].
Yatoni rose then, and was elected: He would become Amalgast II. But his power and his majesty did not sit well with the other Ravs, and one by one they either withdrew from public life or focused on their great areas of interest. Rav Zurah and Rav Hastata founded yeshivas and advanced the cause of learning. Tologda delved into deep syncretic mysticism and is still feared for his ideas today. Rav Rongen served as diplomat and administrator and organized the Synodic Circles. Rav Karogen, ever a brash warrior, was elected first High Ataman of the Grand Jury, and reorganized that order, waging wars of defense, as Vaspukaran now officially would never declare war unless war was declared on it.
The Schisms and the Sanhedrons
The Sword of the Four Schisms (Amalism, Pugilism, Iconoclasm & Confession)
The Ravs had made a new system, but they had founded it upon the basis of the Spiral of Truth. Balancing between the two chambers of the Jury and the Priesthood, along with the Patriarch, would ensure the continuing reform, change, and evolution of the Kingdom, while also preventing its division and collapse. But the tendrils of evil, seeded in the Second Patriarchate's foundation, grew stronger. To stop its expanse, and maintain the Spiral of Truth's progression, God sent new revelations in the form of schisms to force the Patriarchate to correct and rectify its path. Amalism, already established, would create grave challenges for the Second Patriarchate, and it was only with a series of treaties that mutual respect and toleration was allowed. For the others, a more formal process was necessary, and so the Ravs had prepared a special tool by which to resolve the irresolvable: The Grand Sanhedron.
You, the Pugilists, were the first to rise and succeed, 350 years ago. The peasantry, their traditional freedom undermined by the rise of oblate serfdom, were drawn to the words of the Pasan Ghadi and his gurus, representatives of the angelforms who taught in the villages. Advocating for justice and land, Pasan Ghadi inflamed the central circles, using war wagons to rout the Cheshvan horse and organized pike and shot to crush the Juror swordsmen. Coming close to toppling the Patriarchate altogether, Pasan Ghadi was murdered by treachery. His movement survived, however, and uprisings became such a problem that the first Sanhedron was called. At this Sanhedron, the Mouflon Chamber created. With protection from unjust prosecution, new self-governing corporate land communes for the peasantry [minyanim], a Folk Rite established in several circles (such as Ischak and Heldargast), the partial abolition of oblate serfdom and equal representation in the next Sanhedrons, the people had added their voices to the multitude, and been brought, no matter how imperfectly, into the House of God.
200 years ago came the Iconoclasts. Preaching a doctrine of the state of creation, when all of humanity was free, the Iconoclasts attacked the idols of the Priesthood and the Jury, declaiming these institutions as barriers to the worship of God. Under the principle that the only king they knew was God, the Iconoclasts made a firestorm in the east and south, even erecting their own Antipatriarch, and especially attracting the urban artisans, those non-Vasp nations such as the Kazarene who wished for greater freedom in choosing their rites, and lower members of the Priesthood. Fifteen years of delibilitating warfare brought both sides to their knees and to a Grand Sanhedron. Here, a new chamber was created for the Lower Priesthood, split from the High Priesthood, Metropolitans were founded to allow for civic self-rule by the great urban centers and the Vernacular Rite was created to allow for greater deviation in rites by specific circles in the north, south, and east. By this path the Low Priesthood emerged as a force, and the House of God was further filled.
Finally, 100 years ago came the Confessors. Unlike the Pugilists and Iconoclasts, who rose by way of uprising, the Confessors infiltrated the highest levers of power. With their doctrine believing that the soul is a true spiritual creation trapped in a false material world, and that the way to the truth is to be made by the soul imposing its will on the material, the Confessors swayed vast portions of the artisans and low priesthood. They also swayed, most importantly, the Patriarchs. The Infallible Patriarch Amalgst the 32nd Mamiyar took the confessor rite as his own, and at the Grand Sanhedron he called of his own accord integrated its doctrines into the Patriarchate's. A massive suite of new orders would be founded, the Patriarchal state expanded, the artisans brought into the Low Priesthood, and the possibility of High Confession almost realized. In its last heady days, High Confession nearly led to the collapse of the country: Under the Patriarch's strengthening hand, time and space would be reorganized into a universal and total system by which the demiurge would be annihilated, and this required total reformation of the whole society and the end of deformity in doctrine, causing rebellions to explode everywhere. Unity would prevail, however, and unity would triumph and the Patriarch prepared for a war of reformation.
Was this vision something the sect approves of, or was it a nightmare justly stopped?
[] High Confession was a nightmare that would have smothered the people and the world [Orthodox & Amalist Opinion].
[] High Confession was a dream cut short that we can hope to realize in some form, again [Confessor Opinion].
Rite of Liberty
It was the Temple Coup of 747 AA which brought an end to this. An alliance between the Jury of Nachivan and the Great Synod, supreme legal authority on the scripture, smothered the hopes of High Confession. The last Infallible Patriarch was cloistered, the orders restricted, taxation alleviated and reduced, planned wars of universal unity cancelled. On the principle of a 'rite of libert'y, the Jury of Nachivan and Great Synod pursued limited and restricted government and allowed the expansion of the temple-factories. The peak of this system was under Patriarch Amalgast the 38th Maravan, who ruled for nearly forty years from 767 AA to 810 AA, and through his charisma and intellect increased the dignity and popularity of the Patriarch even as his power still remained weak and declining in favor of the Synodic Circles ruled by Archdeacons and the High Juries by High Atamans. Under him, many reforms were made to improve literacy, alleviate the worst excesses of the new temple-factories, and promote free-thinking in the so-called Vasparak Illumination, a new movement of natural theology and rational thought and debate.
But Maravan could not live forever, and the detente that existed under him began to collapse. In his wake, Amalgast the 39th Petrifor disastrously mishandled nearly all aspects of government in his aim to support the Great Synod's plans of High Priestly domination. Affronted by the Grand Mare, he escalated a conflict over the tributary island of Kandi into a general war that Vaspukaran lost and lost disastrously.
Dying a broken and pitiable host of the holy ghost, Petrifor was succeeded by Amalgast the 40th Santsarran. He is a cipher and enigma, a surprise choice after fourteen rounds of indecisive voting in the Grand Convocation of the High Priesthood. Known mostly for his moderate reforms to the rites of women and witches as Archdeacon of the Circle of Warabad, and a scandalous set of deeply impure letters he sent to his wife and somehow leaked to the prayer bulletins, Santsarran has been buffeted by competing forces at every turn. He is known to be personally kind, sympathetic to the poor, and mild-mannered, but as Patriarch he has mostly been mysterious. The Great Synod did not want him to call the Grand Sanhedron at all, but also declared illegal many of his proposed fiscal reforms, while the High Juries compete with him and one another for attention. It is unclear if this Sanhedron is the result of a grand plan or a panicked response by a host of the holy ghost upon the brink.
What do you as a sect make of the Patriarch Amalgast the Fourtieth Santsarran?
[] He is surely a good man and soul of Amalgast, blocked by evil forces [Popular Opinion].
[] He is a misguided creature of his chamber, trapped within his cloister [Radical Opinion].
[] He is a false shepherd who must not be trusted to lead the people to freedom [Ultraradical Opinion].
The Count of Souls
At this point, Dvorah takes a small break, calls for Wendam, and caresses his hand while commanding him to fetch her some tea. Members of the sect watch in astonishment as the Gabbi bounces off to fetch a cup from the local teahouse, and she retrieves from her suitcase with an almost animalistic grin a number of sheet of papers. This, she explains, is an abridged and published summary of the Count of Souls of 811 AA Baba Tanda 'borrowed' from the office of the Metropolitan Pontiff-Prelate in Yomri, published by Santsarran ahead of the Sanhedron, and the basis by which the four-hundred elders will be chosen. Inside the count is a census of all the souls in Vaspukaran, and the construction of the one-hundred elder prefectures from which the elders of the Sanhedron will be drawn, each by an election by their peers, with 412 seats in total.
Vaspukaran, she reads, is a country of 395,695,777 souls. The last three numbers are a holy estimate, for the Order of the Silver Knot's clerks will always round to the nearest 7. Within this country, 54 millions are contained within the Missions and Nahad Chesh. The Missions, each of them marches of Vaspukaran whose purpose was originally to convert heathens but now exist perpetually as self-governing fractions of the country, send only four elders to the Sanhedron, one for each. Each of the missions is governed by a priestly Vicar Superior, who answers to a central Vicars General and local Vicars Particular. Below them are the Jurors, and then the converted mouflons, and the unconverted heathens. Nahad Chesh, in accordance with the agreement reached at the beginning of the Second Patriarchate, owes loyalty to the Patriarch personally, and so 'gives' their seat to him, granting two votes, called the special seat, and allowing him to break ties. Nahad Chesh is ruled by a Cham, who is elected by way of the Sichs, ancient clans who claim lineage from the Cham Yataryn. He is charged with defending the frontier with the Great Western Coven, and contributing a personal guard to the Patriarch.
Next are the Autocephalates, comprising 61 million souls. The autocephalates are self-governing vassals in direct communion with the Patriarch, allowed freedom of worship in exchange for paying a lump-sum tax, the synkrata, and contributing their armies and navies as special levies to the command of the Patriarch.
Each Autocephalate is a fossilized version of a once virile polity, rife with internal disorder. The Stormcrown of Usral that you may recall is a grotesquely decadent man selling out his autocephalate to factory interests, with his bastard and trueborn children preparing for a civil war so soon as he dies. The Great Calligrapher of Hayabiru is entrapped inside his temple-palace while the countryside devolves into syncretic fanaticism. The Kusri Avatar of the All-Mother is held captive in the permanent Chrysanthemum Union with the aristocratic Prince of Flowers, the least happy marriage in all of Vaspukaran. Azam's potlach system has been breaking down in the midst of the hoarded wealth of its chiefs. Eykal's pirate assemblies are feuding and divided. Mangar is in an economic decline, and its border is threatened by the rise of the Shehu of Gontagora, a new prophet of that people. Karman is corrupted by the fur and ivory trade, that pits its constituent nations against one another in the hunt for profit.
These Autocephalates represent about sixteen-percent of the country, and the navy is filled with members of their nations who have fled from the growing crises in their homelands. And yet to the Sanhedron they only send seven representatives, one for each Autocephalate, and hold only a collective veto over issues pertaining to their own governance. Otherwise, they may as well not exist, for what little their votes add to the proceedings.
The Miserable and Chamberless
What is left, then, is the population of the Synodic Circles, of which Dvorah reads out as 279,900,327. But ah, ah, ah! There are still more souls to exclude from representation, for although God's Kingdom claims the support of all its souls, such a maxim is better claimed than demonstrated.
Think on, for example, witches: 28 millions of their number, and yet not a one will be represented in the chamber. Originally founded by the Rav Yatoni on the basis of the pronouncement of Amalgast that "There will be no Non-Believers in the Kingdom of God" (Amalgast, P23:A76), witches are heathens outside of the Missions, and are governed by the laws of the Bull Maleficent. Subject to a poll tax as well as total restrictions on advancing in position, witches have been excluded from nearly every aspect of religious life. In many places, they live in walled quarters that they are not allowed to leave (Nachivan abolished such a restriction, though its quarter still stands). In savage parts of the country, such as Gushanaram, they are even subject to pogroms. Everywhere, they are required to wear the witches' garb, consisting of a wide-brimmed hat and whatever local cloak signifies witchery in that synodic circle. All Yuhwaists in Vaspukaran are witches, but not all witches are Yuhwaists.
And as for Penitents, you need not think on them for you were one yourself! A full 14 millions of the country outside the missions exist in this unhappy state. Deprived of their normal rites, penitents are governed by the Bull Repentent and distributed between circles, given over to missions, or used as a loophole around laws barring oblate serfdom in many parts of the country. Favored by holy orders and Archdeacons as a cheap and docile labour force, penitents are created by the edict of a synodic or Metropolitan court revoking your access to a chamber. Penitents are generally time-bound in their punishment, but hereditary penitence is a particularly vile practice by which some circles, such as Sufgar, evade the laws of the First Sanhedron which bar serfdom in all the circles of Vaspukaran that were in the Kingdom of God at the time of its conclusion.
The Four Chambers
Now one can begin to appreciate that this 'Grand Sanhedron' is missing portions in its tapestry of the faithful. But still, but still, here it is, then, this glorious body. Each of the four chambers (High Priesthood, Jurors, Low Priesthood, Mouflons) are sending 100 members, drawn from 100 elder prefectures prepared by the Order of the Silver Knot on the basis of the last Count of Souls. Each Chamber votes internally, and then votes by chamber, so that the Mouflons agree to a proposal by internal majority vote, and then cast one chamber-vote out of four.
The trouble is, you all see, that no Sanhedron has been called for one hundred years, and as the Pugilist sage Opernani Myriam would write, the contradictions have grown deeper. Everywhere, the faithful are riven. Consider each of the four chambers, and the social crises, institutional drifts, and compromises of the prior Sanhedrons which by God's own will has shattered their precious unity:
The High Priesthood, representing 1.4 millions, claim to be the supreme interpreters of the rites and laws of Vaspukaran, both composing and judging scripture. Prelates rule towns and cities, Deacons rule deaconates, and High Deacons deliberate in their circle synods. And finally, the Great Synod, the supreme court of all of Vaspukaran, rules in Nachivan. The Patriarch is elected from among their number. This is the legal clergy, who prefer power to be kept in the circles and have their own regional loyalties. But now added to this is the higher echelons of the monastic clergy, for the leadership of every holy order in Vaspukaran, all the Abbots and Abbesses, and the Pontiff-Prelates of the Yeshivas and all the ministers of the Patriarch himself, comprise the larger portion of the High Priesthood, and wish to strengthen the center, not see it weakened, and who are all men and women (for female high Priests are found only in the monastic clergy) of significant standing and repute.
The Grand Jury, representing 28 millions, have the right to non-appeal, representation in their juries, and the right to bear arms in defense of the country. Jurors elect komandirs who appoint starshy officers and elect Atamans who elect High Atamans. But to prevent a military coup, the juries have always been wildly decentralized. Jurors owe loyalties to their palatines, permanent self-governing landholds. They also owe loyalties to their standards and banners, the military conglomerations by which they are organized in wartime, and also to the circles and metropolitans where they often form garrisons.
But they also owe loyalty to one of the five High Juries (Ramayan in the west, Yelisan in the north, Kedarkan in the center, Dvarim in the East, and Barabanan in the south) who are the final courts of appeal for their region and have loosely defined rights to command. Each of these high juries have their own political cultures and ambitions: Kedarkan and Dvarim are reformist, Yelisan borderline schismatic, Barabanan passively conservative and Ramayan violently orthodox. Added to this are the fact that many jurors now reside outside their circle and form exilic juries, owing partial loyalty to their home circle and part to where they reside now. Are you beginning to see why we lost the War with the Mare, disciples?
The Low Priesthood, representing 40.5 millions, have the right to perform sacraments, legal representation and to gain a stipend from the threefold tithe. Low Priests, entering by examination, are rectors and proctors, novices and monks and priors. But the Low Priesthood has gone from merely a 'lower' portion of the Priesthood to representing all professionals, almost all artisans, and the lower members of every single holy order in the country. Much of the urban population of Vaspukaren are low priests, and much of its rural skilled labour, and some members of the landholding farmers of the rural gentry, mostly proctors who administer village tithes. Educated and aggrieved, the Low Priesthood is united in its hatred of the higher orders and the indignity visited upon them as the 'true' bearers of the sacraments and maintainers of the moral order, but little else.
The Mouflons, representing 168 millions, which now accounts thanks to the wondrous efforts of the Iconoclasts and Confessors to the dregs of the society, with their greatest leadership deprived of them by elevation to the higher chambers. The top perhaps 5% are the marginalia, merchants, traders, shopkeepers and others whose professions are excluded from the Low Priesthood. Near to a third are laborers, urban and rural, who are free to work for penny-wages and die alone. Another 40% are members of the Minyan peasantry, free corporate congregations where all land is held in common, though the High Priesthood is doing its best to reduce this number by clearances.
And finally, of course, we cannot forget the quarter who are Oblate serfs, held in bondage to a High Priest or a Monastic order, who are counted but cannot elect elders from their number and must elect a free Mouflon to represent them. Dominating the peasantry in the south, oblates are the backbone of that 'most spectacular and tranquil' region that grinds their bones to make their fine white bread.
Now, perhaps, you see the maelstrom, and the crisis, disciples. Now, the question for you all now, tactically, is whether you believe the Sanhedron can do anything to rescue the country from its problems.
Will you look to this Sanhedron for salvation, or it is a false path, that will you away from the spiral of truth?
[] The Sanhedron, if used correctly, can lead to the freedom of the people [Popular & Radical Opinion].
[] The Sanhedron is too easily manipulated and too unsatisfying a tool for liberation [Ultraradical Opinion].
God's Last Chance
And while Dvorah lectures and while Dvorah explains, the Fourth Grand Sanhedron is started, on the 30th day of Yoshrei, 822 years After Amalgast. This opening ceremony is barred to the public, and so it is by the reports later you learn of it. The Sanhedron is hosted in the lower portion of the Navel, in the brilliant stark shining spire of the Muvad Mekdash, constructed by the Infallible Patriarchs as an expression of their desire to reach infinity, with stained glass windows, high ceilings, and icons of baleful angels.
Each of the orders arrive now: 100 High Priests in their turbans and robes of purest white and coats of golden fabric, embroidered with the flowers of the rainbow. 100 Jurors, with their four-cornered caps, coats of stark gray, and cloaks emblazoned with the sigil of their military standard. 100 Low Priests, in their black and blue habits, sharply dressed, austere but finely. And 100 Mouflons, in their rainbow coats, a mess of colors from every circle and every region and every city of Vaspukaran. 7 elders of the Autocephalates, dressed in their national garb, from the silk kimono of the Kusri Oracle to the glittering jewelry and scripture-covered robe of the Hayabiru Calligrapher. 4 Elders of the Missions, each similarily dressed in vestments of pink and purple, with a sash of gold to represent the glory of their mission.
And then, there, at the head, as all await standing at their seats, is the Patriarch Amalgast the Fourtieth Santsarran. A gaunt man, spry and serious, not very prone to smiling, he is now elevated to one step short of godhood. In addition to the white and blue of his order, all behold the breastplate of jewels, the jewels of the country, the jewels of Vaspukaran. All shudder as he places on the death mask of Amalgast, and speaks as if he is Him, returned. Beside him, the beautiful Bronkar Keturah, his former wife and now unholy paramour is here as well, beaming. Most agree she should not be here, beside him, for Amalgast's wife was Esther, and she is 850 years dead. But still, they are quieted by his guard, a group of huge and burly Cheshvans, each with long mustaches and spiral tatoos on their bodies and their faces, carrying spears with which they hit the ground to silence all dissent.
All whisper and all speculate as to the true purpose of this Sanhedron, although all agree that it was required if the country was to survive. Amalgast the 40th, now not Santsarran but Amalgast the first born again, initiates the ceremony with a prayer to God, a prayer to Vaspukaran, a prayer to the missions, and the Autocephalates, and the four chambers. And each of the members join him in the prayer, and sing to him a hymn of praise, and some even shake, to be in the presence of the prophet of God. Most of the members are conformers, who seek only to safeguard their own privileges and pass the most meager reforms, but this is a disposition rather than an organized stance, and many might be swayed to join the ranks of the reformers, who seek instead to support the cause of restoration of morality.
And then the proceedings begin. Amalgast, as all await with baited breath, announces the purpose of this Sanhedron. The High Priests hope it will be to rejuvenate the country, the Jurors to restore its honor and enrich it, the Low Priests to sanctify, the Mouflons to save it.
And Amalgast clears his throat, and Amalgast says: Due to the fiscal circumstances of the Patriarchate, Vaspukaran will exhaust all of its ability to pay its debts within six months. The Sanhedron has one purpose and one purpose only: To agree to financial reform that would improve this desperate situation totally, and reorganize the country's debts. If no agreement is reached by the end of the half-year period, the Patriarch will declare a general and total debt jubilee and repudiate all debts everywhere in Vaspukaran, and by doing so bring unholy iniquity to its knees, in finality.
The Grand Sanhedron is dead silent. Some of the elders, especially from the High Juries, have turned red. The High Priests have turned pale. Many of the Low Priests hang their mouths agape. The Mouflons are motionless. And Amalgast takes off his death mask, and becomes again just Amalgast the Fourtieth, Santsarran. And he commands, that the elders may speak now.
And the Grand Sanhedron, unified and holy legendary meeting to restore the faith, erupts into complete chaos.
Please, Cata, stop updating when I am about to go to sleep.
Edit: See warning about bringing a sneck. Scrolling down.
Sister Dvorah, I am most thankful for your warning, for as much as mind my wish to listen, my body no longer follow. I must wait until the next sunrise before I learn of your wisdom. Until then, I wish a good night to everyone here.
