[X] Plan The Taming Of The Crazy
-[X] "You speak of masks and that makes me wonder..." Cut yourself off. "No, I think if we are to argue theology, we should not stand around in the desert. If I may?" Bloodwish: Fabricate some stone benches, arrayed in a circle. Enough of them that everyone can sit down while leaving a few places empty, allowing Mel and the group to be separated. Make a point of sitting with your group, but at the place closest to Mel. // What's coming might set her off something fierce, so we need to set up the stage. A stand-off in the desert can go off any second, but sitting around and talking raises her hesitation to fling spells at us. At the same time, we give her enough room to keep some degree of separation, but don't put her on point by seating her directly opposite of everyone. Viserys being close to her shows both interest and prevents the image of a king holding court against her. The whole "cutting yourself off"-thing is calculated. It makes this looks more spontaneous instead of a very calculated move.
-[X] "Masks you said. A curious way to put it, for while a mask might be used to hide one, it can also help to become many. Though that might be my years in Braavos talking, I can not in good conscience think that everything hidden is wicked. I have met my fair share of people donning many masks, seeking to aid and spread wisdom from behind them instead of donning them to poison and deceive just as often as the other way around." // This is a very important point to figure out if she can accept this. The root of my argumentation is that she is right, from a certain perspective, and wrong, from another perspective. The Red Faith can be interpreted to include other divine beings, even worthy of worship, but to convince her of this, we need to convince her of the value of facades.
-[X] "See, the Westerosi pray to the Seven Who are One, claiming that there is but one god with seven aspects in the shape of people and their roles. They too reject the notion of other gods, claiming them demons and false idols, much like you did just now. Malarys here, he used to pray to Balerion who has gone silent after the Doom. Nowadays he prays not to any god at all, but to Order itself. And this Order listens. Every day, he is granted power, not by any god, spirit or demon, but by this idea of order." // Stating some facts about the world. The Seven - Burny parallels are surprisingly deep when viewed through this filter and Malarys is well and truly an outlier. Her model of Burny as the One True God and Source Of All That's Good And Just doesn't really account for the possibility of concept clerics. I need this dissonance in her mind for the final blow.
-[X] "You said yourself that a mortal can't conceive the fullness of a gods mind. How could he? A god who forged all of this, not just this world, but the dance of the spheres, the ordering of the outer spheres, the river of souls connecting all of it, how should a single mind comprehend a mind so vast it could make all of this? But then again, it's hard to imagine even the vastness of the infinite planes in our minds. So what if there is one god responsible for all of this, but he is so vast that he needs those masks to be comprehensible to a mortal? Masks like the Smith or the Maiden, like the Father... like R'hllor." // Cue combat or deep faith crisis. Place your bets people.
The religious views expressed in this post are neither mine, nor supposed to be Viserys. They are just what a person taking stock in faith needs to hear.
