Kingdom of God: A Quest of Holy Revolution

[Cornuthaum]

Can we at least furnish him with a Six-Shin Shooter as a parting gift? ;_;

 

[Anchises]

Qanam immediately splintering the rebell forces into two competing schisms by exporting our schizo stance on the patriarch

 

[bookwyrm]

Nah not really I don't think, the peasant pugilist base of the Metamoa with them identifying themselves as not opposed to the Kingdom of God but in fact the true expression of it within the parochial norms of Ischak and (if just barely) restricting themselves to a narrow revolution against provincial Circle structures and not the larger superstructure of the Patriarchate itself, makes all this peak "good tsar bad boyars" shit. I mean Vashti is basically the Ischak Joan of Arc, and even as an expression of the mass French peasantry's war against the hated English yoke she and her mission were so ultramonarchist that she took the time out of her great war of nations to also dictate letters to Jan Hus and the Hussites rebuking them for their rebellion against the rightful authorities set down by God and warning them that once she's done with the English they're next.

Our two-faced jumbled mess of a Patriarchal theology could actually help out a great deal by providing a firmer doctrinal justification and understanding for why its all okay for Ischak to still kneel before Amalgast the 44th as the spiritual father of the people but sadly have to grieve at the hateful falsities his hand is allegedly put to as clearly the inherent structure of the cloistered Chamber of High Priesthood holds the Patriarch as prisoner in a gilded cage and makes his Bulls of Excommunication nothing but the devilish tricks of the Great Synod and their Juror dogs.

 

[Nerdorama]

I don't think our theology is schizo, tbh.

The Emperor Patriarch is a divine being whose spiritual authority is true, if not necessarily unique, but whose temporal power was abused by previous Patriarchs and is now in the hands of institutions like the Great Synod that also abuse it. Temporal power must be leveled and granted to the people either way, whether the strong who abuse it are Infallible Patriarchs or oppressive Circles or corrupt Juries or greedy Synods.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Turn 3, 822 Kestvan: Dreams of Freedom
​

One Sage Enters, One Sage Leaves

All schisms have their own ways of saying goodbye to their disciples. Confessors may create crafted gifts and talismans, Iconoclasts write profound psalms, and Amalists share in trance-dances. And Pugilists perform. The entire sect, men, women, children, one-hundred fifty of the core in exile and four hundred of the Scourge and the Convent and the newly joined, take control of the street outside the Temple of the Free and assemble. Wendam screams and shouts and the sect answers with the stamping of their feet and a holler from their lungs. Hands shaking, arms waving in unison, they honor Qanam as a collective, manifesting the forms of the Angel Gadeon, the titan-angel with one hundred legs and two hundred arms.

The street shakes, windows quake, hands slam against chests. Qanam roars back, thrusting his arms and slamming them up against his thighs, screaming psalms until his voice is hoarse. Such is the commotion that peddlers and merchantmen retreat, fearing a riot, and hooligans and onlookers, drawn by HaKhofshim's first pamphlet campaign depicting the march of a million to a golden world to come swarm the street. Factorygirls and fighting ring jockeys peer from small windows and basement stairs.

It would be emotional enough, a tremendous goodbye to Rector Qanam who has seen the sect through so much and been one of its rocks, but then a new voice is added to the cacophony. A tenor's perfect yodel that breaks across the noise and stills the celebration, all part as Baba Tanda, returned just in time from Yomri (and sending advance secret warning to Wendam to make this particularly theatric) marches forward, flanked by twenty low priest and mouflon toilers, banging their hammers across the narrow cobblestones. Baba Tanda performs a perfect angelform, and despite her age, a flip.

Qanam performs his own flip in turn, and then the two are circling each other like beasts, feet stamping in and out, only to then hook arms and descend into a spinning hora as disciples break out their fiddlers, cymbals and trumpets, and the solemn goodbye becomes a dance. Baba Tanda declares she has seen Yomri, and she has beheld its works, and they are good, and the sect has been refounded! And she declares she has found allies, and these are the Ravs of Labour! Twenty laborers, themselves unpracticed in the angelforms, stand to disciplined attention at their introduction.

And in turn Wendam declares that he has found allies as well, and Akov steps forward and directs the scourge in a new and adapted angelform of Tzargon, the angel of redemption, waving their arms in tight circles and marching one foot after another towards Baba Tanda. And Baba Tanda looks to Qanam and says: Worry not, little brother, for you leave them in good hands! And Qanam falls into Baba Tanda's embrace, a woman he has known for what feels like half his life, and says goodbye to her as well. And then he is mobbed, and all the sect reach out to him, and he hugs everyone that he can reach out to, and then, at last, in the chaos of the crowd, he slips away, the better to confuse the Jury of Nachivan which has sent guards to watch, drawn by the disturbance.

And Baba Tanda declares she has many happenings to share, so let them all depart from the rainy outdoors and come inside (and away from the Jurors).

Results: Rector Qanam removed from sage pool, becomes ally on Ischak Plateau. Baba Tanda now available as a leader. +Popularity gain from pamphlets as a result of new printing press covenant. Black Sheep Printing Covenant added as an institution.

Triumph of the Baba

Baba Tanda is proud enough to report that the Yomri Chapter has been established. Under the wise leadership of Ghami Pola, an exiled member of the sect who found her way back to Yomri from Heldargast, the sect has near to 750 members in the city, about a third of its peak. Many of its disciples are members of the old sect who, when exiled to Petrifor, did not end up in Kutan or went into hiding, and they have eagerly accepted its new name and title, and the re-ignition of its old doctrines. They swear firm loyalty to Nachivan, and even send a small donation of dues gathered from the membership: As the sect grows, this number will also grow massively, and feed the wealth of the whole sect.

But the greater triumph, Baba Tanda, announces, is her friend Vadar Bukuk. This huge man, a monk of the golden spike, is in fact a Grand Rav of the 'Ravs of Labour'. Introducing himself, Bukuk explains that the Ravs and HaKhofshim have been doing good work together. A strike performed by the mostly teenage mouflon girls of the Miracletwine Manufactory in the city's outskirts has succeeded in forcing concessions from the komandir on better working conditions for the girls due to growing fears of sympathy strikes by the Low Priests of the city. Baba Tanda's own work was in organizing the girls and passing intelligence gathered surreptitiously and extremely illegally on the Jury's movement, while the Ravs of Labour ran parallel strike actions in a number of workshops and advised the girls on tactics.

The Ravs, Bukuk continues, are a mystic order dedicated to the sanctification of work as good and holy. So as the Six Ravs were masters of their field, so do the Ravs of Labour seek to be masters of their own toil. The railroad monks, the mouflon millmen, the boaters and the coopers all have something in common, regardless of their divided legal status: They are all poor sons of bitches (and daughters, a nun of the gunpowder Eucharist shouts, and Bukuk assents with a smirk). It behooves them, then, these sons of bitches, to get help from mean bastards, and tough beasts, so that they can become more than that, to elevate themselves. He's told that HaKhofshim's all about aligning the personal and the collective, and so are the Ravs of Labour. There's some kinks to work out, he's not sure what in the hell the 'creature, the prophet, and the holy ghost' is, but they can work it out.

In other words, he explains, he's offering a proper alliance, or even an integration. His own organization has about 5,000 members, and they're spread about a few cities in Ralabarak, but they don't have the kind of kingdom-wide reach and smarts they need to prosper. He's told by Baba Tanda that HaKhofshim does,, but that it's also small enough that the Ravs will have their voices heard. Sure, the Amalists are all about Ravs, but As Hahayiim will swallow the Ravs of Labour right up, and the confessors up in Ohr are too controlling, and the Makabim are too fractious. But HaKhofshim, he thinks, is just right.

He's offering the sect one of two choices. The Ravs of Labour are happy to affiliate themselves formally with the HaKhofshim. The catch is they're massive compared to you, and although their disciples wouldn't directly vote on your direction, their influence would be felt. Both Akov and Galavani Chana, the most prominent member of the Convent of the Eucharist, are nervous about their own voices being drowned out. To that, Bukak contends that he understands the feeling, but that if the Ravs are paying dues towards HaKhofshim and committing to its doctrine, they want a voice - it's a matter of fairness cosmic and practical.

Otherwise, if the sect is too nervous, they can always form an alliance and the Ravs will go their own way, working in tandem just like they did in Yomri. But this is a take it or leave it deal. Many of Bukak's membership in the labour lodges are skeptical of making such an agreement with what looks like such a small organization, and if you reject it now it's not going to open again. Then again, Bukak himself is a forceful personality, known to throw his weight around: He's sure to be trouble if the sect does something he does not agree with if the Ravs are integrated as a mass section.

It is left up to the sect to debate and decide on whether the Ravs of Labour should be formally affiliated, giving dues and having a voice in sect ceremonies, or if they should remain an ally in the city. The Ravs will expand their operations in Nachivan either way, but they are eager to join their efforts with yours, having had such a good experience together. Of course, Bukak's own opinions on a number of issues are unclear, and although Tanda advises he is radical, she also warns that his radicalism is tempered by an intensity of focus on labour issues over all.

Dvorah expresses some concern about the wing flapping the bird, but Wendam counters they ought not to look a tribute moa in the mouth, and then giggle at each other's analogies like children. Akov realizes that between Qanam leaving and Dvorah and Wendam behaving like teenage lovers when in each other's presence that the entire sect may indeed be doomed. Baba Tanda just grumbles and jokes that perhaps they should sent Dvorah back to Zarnai and Dvorah throws a tea cup at her, which Baba Tanda catches effortlessly. Bukak just lights his pipe and shrugs, holding a conversation about lifting with Old Strong Belman, still training for the Great Ghadi regional tournament coming next month, and the matter is put before the sect.

Should the Ravs of Labour be integrated as a mass section or join in a labour-sect alliance in Nachivan?

[] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].
[] They are better off as allies [Gain Ravs of Labour as ally].

Night at the Museum

Proctor Kardon Hadi loves tyrant-angels. It is almost impressive in how much he knows about them - it is clear from the beginning that choosing to host a festival within the bounds of the hub of natural theology that is Yatoni Temple was not an errant choice but the culmination of obsession. The disciples of the sect expected the proctor to appear and give a short speech at the end of the exhibit - instead he guides crowds through the cavernous vaulted halls of the Temple and explains at length the paleontological significance and purpose of each tyrant-angel.

The proctor is a well-dressed priest with a widow's peak and a bowtie, and he speaks with a deep southern drawl from his hometown of Vadashta that causes more than a few members of the sect to snicker. They are the largest single group that have come to see the proctor, and cut a bizarre figure surrounded by toilers in workclothes and dignified professionals, seeing as every single member of the sect is wearing a headband and some of the women have put gunpowder on their cheeks. The Scourge had to leave their whips at admission, a fact which leaves Akov irritated the entire exhibit.

"Now this here is a Bamakani, you know, a real bad type o' tyrant. See those gnashers - mean teeth to eat y'all up," the proctor opens his mouth wide and bares his teeth at some of the children, who jump back in fear. The tyrant-angels, Hadi explains , are a now extinct species of strange animal, and yes that's right, he confirms to astonished onlookers, many animals have indeed appeared and disappeared through time, as he lectures on ideas around the extension of the spiral of truth to the natural world and recent ideas in 'evolution', the process by which certain creatures attempt to reach God by transmutation of the soul and body over time.

The Proctor seems to take a special delight in taking the sect about, explaining he's heard a bit about you, that HaKhofshim's not a half-bad title to have. He's something of a khoffer himself, he says, as he begins into a sudden and abrupt diatribe on the necessity to 'utterly, and without compromise or compensation, slay the demon of oblate serfdom', and 'further to EMANCIPATE all of Vaspukaran by way of FREE SILVER and to PUT DOWN THE GOLDEN CALF', which he bellows, his deep voice echoing throughout the Temple's hall. One of the disciples, a known obsessive on the topic, almost swoons.

Although to be sure Wendam and Dvorah and other sages and disciples listen carefully to the proctor's lecture explaining the fundamental issue with a bifurcated currency, where gold dirhams are deflating, benefiting High Priest hoarders, and god-backed dirhams are inflating, hurting toilers and scholars, more of the disciples, especially the children, simply have fun. Young Yoni works up the nerve to ask Chana out to tea somewhere around an exhibit of the 'great bony-plate tyrant angel', and she almost laughs, and when his cheeks sting with embarrassment, says of course Yoni, I've known you had a crush on me for years in exile, and the boy exhales in such relief that it looks as though he might spit out his lungs.

By the end of the exhibit, the sect is not only well-versed in better understanding the theology behind tyrant-angels and the reality of the spiral of truth descending into millions of years in the past, but they have found an ally in an elder. Proctor Kardon Hadi, though having some iconoclastic sympathies, has no particular strong feelings on any schism, and promises that he will at least advance the cause of 'that poor gal up in the Ischak' before the Sanhedron. He's not sure how many he can sway, but he'll do his best.

But despite his modesty, it is obvious that the crowd is electrified. Hadi is one of the only southern delegates to explicitly take a stand against serfdom, aided by the fact that he represents Vadashta, itself a free territory where tranquil rite, which legalizes serfdom, does not apply. He is also, all can see, a charming and affectionate speaker, and sincerely appears to care about issues of labour on both 'farm and factory', though the specifics of his policies to rectify this beyond free silver are unclear.

At the end of the night, Hadi advises that he's established an office near the Sanhedron, and that the sect can knock on his office near the Sanhedron anytime they need help.

It's a tenuous connection, but a real one, and that it comes with an appreciation of ancient great-boned beasts put on Earth by God far before mankind makes it all the better.

Results: Gain Elder Kardon Hadi as a connection. He is a Low Priest member of the Sanhedron with a significant following, whose main planks are the abolition of oblate serfdom and free silver. The sect will gain influence.

Extinguish Evil

Even as the sect begins to expand its repertoire of relationships within the city, it also furthers its intellectual basis. Dvorah, daughter of a High Priest, classically schooled and trained and graduating from a prominent yeshiva in the Synodic Axis of Wamri, is thus a tremendous asset. Speaking extensively with Akov and his Jurors to better understand their perspective from the intuitive, she works from there to attempt to solidify its basis in reason and deduction, the most essential tools of not just the scholar but the doctrinal radical. For if the basis of beliefs cannot be defended, then what use are they except as bare unstated axioms?

The publication of On Extinguishment, and Hollow Men in Ain Soph is a milestone for the sect. It is not only the first published work the sect has put out since return from exile but a genuinely persuasive attack upon the very foundation of the jury system (d100+10=101). Dvorah argues from first principles that the Jurors have not only failed in their role as defenders of the faith (a classic and well-known argument) but completely failed members of their own chamber. The structure of the Juries, theoretically meant to support an elective principle by which the good are elevated, in fact is so rife with vile corruption, graft and robbery that it is unsalvageable.

Further, below the level of the lowest komandir, Juries are elected not by their soldiers, but by smaller and smaller electorates of komandirs and then atamans, creating an elite that perpetuates itself across generations. Using Juror monopolies created to ensure every single member is supported and well-fed, they instead turn these towards the enrichment of their own wealth. When they do pay out their own members, it is to violate every commandment of the country and to turn their guns upon other juries or the flock of the faithful. The enemy the Jurors are really designed to fight against, Dvorah further argues, is not the external pagan, but the internal believer. Only the seven angelic banners on the borders of Vaspukaran have any real preparedness to fight a real war, as the Gilded-Eagle so ruefully discovered.

In service of this system, immolation is a relic. It is a selectively applied tradition used to absolve the upper levels of the chamber from taking blame from their own mistakes: Better to die and be called martyrs than to live and be called imbeciles. Worse, she argues, it is based upon a premise of mutual valour and bravery which is not practiced by the leadership: Indeed, many juries refused to fight the Mare not out of principle but simply because it looked too hard. Immolation, designed for warriors, is ordered by bankers to be done by toilers. It is far better to extinguish your banner, and to abandon a cause which has been rendered pointless, just as your existence: Better to live free, than to die a slave.

The reaction to Dvorah's piece is immediate. The Jury of Nachivan does not respond to it at all, but there are rumors that Komandirs banned its circulation almost immediately within Nachivan's juror manufactories. Akov himself thinks it brilliant, and the piece comes to the notice of Elder Varhan Sarbadgar, himself a komandir of the Pale Horse Standard and a noted radical among the Jurors. He simply sends a letter reading 'good piece, revealing many true things many are too afraid to say'. Streams of letters come in from Jurors, but not all are positive - several are actually dangerous threats, or misogynistic insults. Dvorah simply responds that if it wasn't a good article they would not have bothered to write, even as she somewhat cautiously takes lessons with Baba Tanda and the Nuns of the Gunpowder Eucharist on how to shoot a revolver.

Results: Extinguishment elevated to Tier II Doctrine and is now a general attack on the state of the Grand Jury. Its effects have been magnified and there will be a significant boost in interest, both negative and positive. The Scourge of God is extremely happy and is handing out copies at its own meetings.

The Four Attacks

But Dvorah is not alone in attracting such attention in this new issue of Ain Sof. The publication of On Witches and Non-Believers, by the Hadats Sutri and Bhadan causes vociferous condemnation from High Ataman Burs, leader of the Ramayan High Jury. Outlining fundamentally that the very idea of witches is a cosmic crime, and that Amalgast had no special monopoly on the path to the spiral of truth, and that in fact ritual, and not doctrine, should be the determiner of right observance, it elicits outrage, especially from followers of the Perusian Rite in Hamayan and Gushanaram, where witches are effectively serfs and subject to jury-directed pogroms.

On the Hoarders of God, directed by Ezterkezy Oshana directly at the High Priesthood and questioning the very purpose of their existence as a separate chamber from the low, advocating instead for a 'merged and revitalized priesthood of the general will' is no less controversial, especially as it even begins to question whether having a priesthood separate from the mass of the faithful at all is necessary. Given Oshana's notoriety it spreads far, and has Archdeadon Beselsevi of the Great Synod warning that 'there will soon be a time again where such words will not be said so lightly'.

And Ghadan Nasir's article, On Time and its Robbers, challenges the domination of time by the issuance of authorities on high, that the time available to the people, which should be determined by the people is instead monopolized by a small class of 'timekeeping priests and uniformed bankers'. The propensity of time spent on labour as opposed to leisure, and the necessity of the emancipation of popular time from its control by elite forces, is the liberation of humanity. Nasir's work forces responses even from those who might be labeled reformers in the Sanhedron such as the Komandir Akabar Morsi, who dismisses it as 'the ghosts of confessors past raving through their latest possessed vessel'.

With these four articles collectively put together in the popular press as the 'four attacks', Dvorah finds herself in strange company, as all four schisms temporarily ally on the page to attack some of the most foundational parts of orthodox theology. What is even more encouraging, this new issue of Ain Sof is massively popular, and its popularity is not limited to Nachivan: Copies are printed and sent east, north, south, and west.

The sect itself is particularly intrigued by one of the other articles, and intends to further examine its ideas. Which article most interests the sect? Once chosen, the article will be analyzed in further detail and the sect will have the opportunity to integrate some of its ideas.

[] On Witches and Non-Believers by Hadat Sutri & Hadat Bhadan [Drawing on the esoteric edge of Mystic Amalism].
[] On the Hoarders of God by Esterkesy Oshana [Drawing on the extreme peak of Political Iconoclasm].
[] On Time and its Robbers by Ghadan Nasir [Drawing on the deepest layers of True Confession].

Reapers & Reformers

The remainder of Kestvan only brings further chaos to the country. Riots have not ceased in the north and have begun to take a genuinely schismatic character. Agitation is spurred by the words of the preacher Rector Magarami Lazar, who in his 77 theses viciously attacks the 'indulgent class' of High Priests, wealthy Low Priests, and wealthy Jurors, and in particular lambasts the theological underpinnings of the Hospodari Rite as the 'compromise of fools'. Hospodari Rite, intended to convert the Amalist majority of the north by making specific concessions to Amalism, has never been able to break the Tiran-Peshutun valleys profound embedding in Rav Obrogras' faith, a faith specifically designed to evolve even stronger syncretic tendencies than the orthodoxy from which it splintered.

The High Jury of Yelisan has openly declared for the Sanhedron and warned action against its detractors, while Rector Lazar has been called to a trial in Gospodar for baldly betraying his sacrament and 'performing schism' in his position as a preacher, an attempt to forestall further escalation. But Lazar's words are already spreading by prayer bulletin, and with the end of censorship it is entirely impossible for the high priesthood to tamp down on their electrifying spread throughout the northern river valleys and beyond.

In Nesra, there has been increased organizing by the low priests in its independent metropolitans, empowered by Nesri Rite to have representative assemblies all of whom have aligned with the Sanhedron. In Dvarim, there is a brewing and rumored mutiny against the High Ataman, who Jurors accuse of using debt to ensnare not just Kutan but themselves, with many veterans entering into fradulent pension schemes. The deepening of a Vaspukaran-wide recession caused by the currency crisis and a general decline of profit in the face of over-taxation, tariff walls, and concessions to the Mare weakening the competitiveness of Vasparak goods only exacerbate these tensions. Failures in the distribution of good harvests have inflamed tensions in the cities, where the Order of the Sacral Wafer and its bakers is complaining that monks are being targeted by mobs of irate mouflon women.

All the while, the Great Synod has withdrawn its offers of compromise with the Patriarch and instead increased the level of its rhetoric against the Sanhedron. There is a growing agreement among many among the elders that it may be prudent that the Sanhedron complete its tasks soon, and at least agree to basic fiscal relief for the country, to rescue the Patriarch and the treasury from the prospect of a jubilee. But a small faction are outraged at the surrender of the majority to the pressure, and instead welcome it eagerly.

Derisively called 'reapers', for their initial public support for the Metamoa revolt, these radicals have taken up the cause of 'an open Sanhedron' demanding that Patriarch Santsarran not restrict debate to finances but instead open it so that all the issues of the country may be discussed. Against them are reformers who, while potentially sympathetic, do not wish to undermine the Patriarch, as well as those who draw the line severely at fiscal and tax reform. And of course there remains a large plurality of conformers who, whether by principle or instinct, remain reluctant to surrender any privileges at all.

Known for sitting at the back of the Sanhedron in their respective section, the reapers count among their number Pontiff-Prelate Amalgani Samangan in the High Priesthood, Komandir Varhan Sarbadgar in the Grand Jury, Proctors Massima Rachel and surprising many, Proctor Kardon Hadi in the Low Priesthood, and the comic Verata Maya in the Mouflon chamber. Both the Mouflon and Low Priest Chambers have flipped decisively to reform, but passing a Sanhedral Bull will require the appeasement of certain conformers in the upper chambers for any effort to succeed.



Man & Chimera

So it is with significant compromise, scrambled together near the end of Kestvan, and intending to do the minimum fiscal reform possible, that the reaper-derided 'Bull of Surrender' is put before the Sanhedron. With the country's taxation system a disastrous shambles of competing jurisdictions, multiplying and duplicating taxes, and manifestly unfair sumptuary taxes which nevertheless provide significant funding to circles, deaconates and Juries, the least controversial and most convuluted proposal, based upon the temporary levying of a few small taxes and the increase of the Autocephalate synkrata tax, goes forward. Gone are the Reaper proposals for a tax on the value of land, or to remove the tax-exempt status of the High Priests to many of the sumptuary taxes.

Praised in elite circles as a 'prudent measure', it is immediately derided in the press and on the street as an incomprehensible mess, and not the justice demanded by the flock. The Patriarch himself, however, seems behind it, perhaps eager that the Jury of Nachivan, it is rumored, are implying the terms of his captivity might be re-negotiated if the Sanhedron is put under control. Others claim instead that this measure is a purposeful sabotage, as the Patriarch himself barely used the powers available to him to support it, and that he is in fact unhappy with it and hopes it fails in favor of a more permanent relief bull.

At the same time as the Sanhedron holds its session toe vote upon the bull, a new opera is played at the Ghazzan Conservatory, a novel work by the extraordinary female composer Sister Wadahara Mina of the Order Symphonic. Mina's Man & Chimera tells the story of a monk, Jofar who, trapped by his own sins, is approached by a magician to create a doppelganger of himself to absorb all of his vices, while he retains all of his common virtues. Agreeing, Jofar is split in two, with his other half locked in a box that remains throughout the acts at the back of the stage.

As the Sanhedron begins to vote on the floor as in the opera, Jofar rises to success. A majority in the Mouflon Chamber passes the Bull, thanks to the defection of some conformer elders to reform. As in the opera Jofar marries into a wealthy family and becomes a prominent low priest rector with his own legal practice, the Low Priest Chamber passes the bull, after loud objections from both Kardon Hadi and Massima Rachel, who call it an insult to the assembly. As Jofar sings of his triumph and his rise to success and ignores the knocking from within the box containing his sinful doppelganger, the juror chamber grumpily passes the Bull, with Ataman Burs tentatively giving his support and swaying some of the Atamans. As on the opera stage the banging within the box grows louder and louder in the background of Jofar's dinner parties and study circles, the High Priest Chamber votes down the Bull, but is outnumbered 3-1. It appears primed to pass.

And then, on the opera stage, as the box bursts open and a chimeric monster, the scapegoat of all of Jofar's sins, asks why he is afraid, for they are twins of the same soul, the elder from the Autocephalate of Hayabiru stands up and declares that he intends to add his tally to a collective Autocephalate veto of the bull, for which all seven Autocephalates must vote together to defeat the bull. As the chimera stomps towards Jofar and asks him from where he thinks his success comes, the Elder of Usral stands up and declares he will add his vote to the veto As Jofar collapses on the stage and the orchestra ascends to a crescendo, the elders of Karman, Mangar, Azam, and Eykal declare they added their votes to veto. And as the chimera before Jofar transforms into an apparition, the angel of judgment Metamoa, Shushan Hayasaka, the elder of Kusro, adds the last, required vote to the veto.

And as Jofar is dragged, screaming, to his judgment as the orchestra fades chillingly, the Sanhedron is dragged silent to its judgment, as the Patriarch Santsarran, evidently as shocked as all the other elders struck mute, announces that as the Bull contains certain provisions relating to the increase of the Autocephalate synkrata tax, which were necessary for the Bull to function, the Bull is defeated by collective veto.

And as the curtains fall upon the stage of the conservatory, and the audience erupts into a standing ovation, shaken by the experience, the curtains fall on the Sanhedron, as compromise collapses, and criers spread the word throughout the city that the Bull of Surrender has been defeated by 'our heathens', in the Autocephalates, and elders of the Sanhedron wander home, unsure of what comes next.

In the aftermath, it becomes clear that in order for the bull of surrender to work, a bet had been made within the chambers that taxes only need to have been raised on the Autocephalates. Hoping them too divided to possibly garner a collective veto, the bull was instead pulled down by a last-minute decision by Elder Shushan Hayasaka of Kusro to destroy the bull, having lost all patience with the Sanhedron's disinterest in listening to the Autocephalate demands. In the Alangan Yards, there are supportive marches by sailors, while elsewhere, the Autocephalates are cursed as the bastard-children of Communion, who depend on a veto that should be stripped as they are clearly not faithful of God.

The debate even reaches the sect, where arguments erupt on whether the Autocephalates, being as they are archaic and aristocratic constructions that undermine the unity of God, should be abolished or merely reformed to better represent the will of their faithful. Many within the schismatic sects denounce the Autocephalates now, and in the coming days the press turns decidedly against them as the representatives of a borderline heretical vassal aristocracy, falsely profiting from the Kingdom of God's weakness. But there remain a number of credible defenses of the Autocephalates as individual permutations of the idea of God within a larger Amalgastene Creed, and that to strip them down would invite catastrophe and the loss of loyalty of millions of souls to the Patriarch.

But what does the sect think of the Autocephalates?

[] The Autocephalates should be abolished [Popular and Radical Opinion].
[] The Autocephalates should be reformed [Amalist Opinion].

Amid the debate and the furor and the collapse of the first major proposal by the Sanhedron into nothing because of its own chimeric contradictions and obscure laws, a further omen reaches Nachivan as Kestvan ends. Blowing from the north, a cold and frosty wind carries with it a heaving blizzard of bone-white snow, falling across Nachivan, for the first time in almost fifty years.

Winter has come to the Kingdom of God.

​

The Sect of HaKhofshim [The Free]

The Three Prescriptions of the Righteous Movement

Discipline {Focus}: Absolute. The movement is a deeply tight-knit group of exiles and deserters who trust one another implicitly.
Fervour: Extreme. The movement's respectful contentiousness supports its founding ideals.
Popularity: Small. The movement has started to spread in Nachivan and has established another chapter.

The Three Stolen Tools of the Foolish Master

Wealth: Small. You have a consistent flow of income but little enough to spend.
Influence: Tiny. You have some underworld connections, but nothing of much note.
Doctrine: Unimpressive. There were few printing presses and fewer grand symposiums on radical theory in obscurity.

HaKhofshim Relics, Institutions, Traditions

These are the physical or symbolic anchors of the sect and represent its shared heritage, history, and bonds.

Six-Shin Aluf [Relic]. The sacred angel-flag that flies in defiance of evil. Steels the hearts of all who see it.
The Spirit of Hasadaya [Tradition]. The founding myth of the HaKhofshim, a heroic prison break immortalized in sect memory.
Crimson Headbands [Tradition]. Blood-red headbands reflect the blood of martyrs and the cleansing of the strain of evil.

Black Sheep Printing Covenant [Institution]. You operate a contracted printing press which allows you to magnify your popularity.
The Guns of Hasadaya [Institution]. You are armed and dangerous and have a hidden cache of bolt-action rifles.

HaKhofshim Fundaments

Fundaments represent the originating beliefs and philosophical tenets of the sect. They cannot be invested into or improved, and are more difficult to change without consequences.

Pasan Ghadi's Legacy (Metaphysics): You are a sect of the Pugilist schism, believing in the dualism of the soul into parts light and darkness, the war against five evils, martial arts training, and the necessity of personal and collective alignment to hasten the apocalypse and the world to come. Increased affinity with other pugilist sects.

Sayings of Guru Myriam (Theopolitics): You are a sect of the militant pugilist splinter of the Pugilists, interpreting the world to come as a call to action. You believe that the world to come will be achieved only by a dramatic transformation of real conditions and the levelling of social relations and equality of the human soul. Increased affinity with militant Pugilist sects and other radicals.

Flood as Treachery (Theodicy): Holding that God is intrinsically good but that the Flood was a result of the treachery of evil that forced the direct intervention of God, you argue that it is essential to work to expel and destroy evil within the souls of humanity in order to prevent terrible intervention from the righteous judge. Increased affinity with Pugilist and Confessional sects.

Transmigration (Apotheosis): You agree with the position of Rav Yatoni and the Second Patriarchate that the Patriarchs Amalgast really do possess a portion of the soul of the prophet Amalgast, and that it is possible by election or selection to elevate a figure or entity to supernatural power. Increased affinity with Confessors, Pugilists, and the non-Amalist masses.

Amalgast the Accelerant (Prophecy): You place Amalgast within the broader Spiral of Truth as simply the greatest of prophets so far rather than as a being different in kind as well as degree. Greater affinity with all radicals and with foreigners, decreased affinity with the orthodox masses.

Low Disavowal (Eschatology): You deny and despise the works and doctrines of High Confession, seeing its prioritization of a Patriarch-led and totalizing vision of existence as anathema to the possibilities of freedom offered by the world to come. You have far less affinity with High Confessor sects.

HaKhofshim Doctrine

Doctrines represent politically focused and present-oriented positions elaborated on from the sect's fundamental tenets. Doctrines are separated into tiers by order of power. Investment of doctrine points increase effects.

Doctrine of Extinguishment (Tier II): A powerful attack on the insttituion of the Grand Jury as it is currently constituted, on the practice of immolation, and Juror self-sacrifice. Significantly increases Juror recruitment but also attracts negative attention from their commanders.

Abolition of the Threefold Tithe (Tier I): An elementary attack on the threefold tithe for its fundamental unfairness and robbery from the lower to the upper chambers, and advocacy for its total abolition.

Light of the Sanhedron (Tier I): Your sect believes that the Sanhedron, if used correctly, can act as a tool of freedom for the people and for the rescuing of the country from its place of bondage. This is a popular position with the masses.

Incapacity of Cloister (Tier I): Your sect argues that the Patriarch, both because of his background as a High Priest and his captivity, cannot be counted on to be a faithful friend of the flock. This is a radical position, and will mark you as such to both the masses and other sects.

HaKhofshim Sages

Sages are leaders and notables of the sect who provide bonuses to actions to which they are assigned.

Guru Wendam [+Popularity]. Former Juror and sect sage with strong experience in subterfuge. Available.
Flagellent Akov [+Fervour]. Juror defector from Nesra, leader of the Scourge of God. Available.
Kendanaya Dvorah [+Doctrine]. High Priest's daughter and accomplished schismatic writer. Available.
Baba Tanda [+Discipline]. Well-armed low priestess grandmother and organizer. Available.

HaKhofshim Mass

The mass represent unique sections of the movement not incorporated into the sect proper, who have particular ambitions they hope to fulfill.

Scourge of God [Heterodox Underground Juror Standard-Cult]

Ambition: Spread the word of the Lord to the Jurors of Nachivan. Be inculcated into the sect's doctrines.

Convent of the Gunpowder Eucharist [Militant Religious Feminism]

Ambition: Advance radical gains in womanly rites. Expand the ranks of the convent.

HaKhofshim Chapters

Chapters represent individual sub-sects established across the Kingdom of God. Chapters self-govern but send a share of member dues to the central sect.
Yomri Chapter [Established]
Size: Tiny (Sub ~1000)

HaKhofshim Allies & Connections

Yeladada Merchant Clan [Connection]: A smuggling family of Amalist merchants with which Wendam is working on circumventing the city's customs walls with.

Elder Kardon Hadi [Connection]: An elder of the Sanhedron representing Vadashta for the Low Priesthood, he is an oblate serfdom abolitionist and champion of free silver.

Rector Qanam [Ally]: Rector of the sect, on a mission to the Metamoa revolt on the Ischak Plateau to spread the teachings of HaKhofshim and assist Maryam Vashti in her holy people's war.

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An updated map is below. Please note that some changes are cosmetic rather than in-character. For example, I have added some additional railways and removed some mountain ranges where they felt too convenient. I will continue to do these kinds of updates mostly in really distant and disparate areas where I feel like I can make them more geographically interesting. This does not mean that mountain ranges are being flattened in days, or that God is back from behind the veil of mystery but only to extend the length of a river a hundred kilometers.

Spoiler: MAP OF VASPUKARAN 822 KESTVAN

END OF TURN 2​

 

[ConfusedCanuck]

I definitely say we let Rav join our Discipline and fervor are very high for the sect we can take a hit to those for a boost in popularity.

 

[DocMatoi]

Electoralism fails, as it has before.
So with the autocephalate veto, the debt jubilee is to go through. Who's debts exactly are being absolved, here?

There's some kinks to work out, he's not sure what in the hell the 'creature, the prophet, and the holy ghost' is, but they can work it out.

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very Big Bill Haywood of him, i like these guys

 

[Cavalier]

[X] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].
[X] On the Hoarders of God by Esterkesy Oshana [Drawing on the extreme peak of Political Iconoclasm].
[X] The Autocephalates should be abolished [Popular and Radical Opinion].

If the HaKhofshim are going to become a viable revolutionary force they need to expand their appeal and membership to the laboring classes of the cities. It's really that simple. There is a risk that they represent an unruly element, but their focus on labor over doctrinal issues should allow the ideology of the Sect to maintain cohesion while pushing it in a more radical direction of egalitarianism. And speaking of, as the Jury system is an important enemy of the Sect's vision of the future, the High Priesthood represents yet another. It needs to be cut down to size; I'm not in favor of pushing to abolish the priesthood per se, but a move to reinforce its sacred character by paring away non-core functions and abolishing any formal distinctions between "high" and "low" priests will be necessary.

As for the autocephalates, well, just going with the flow there. They do maintain some aristocratic structures that are not compatible with the idea of an egalitarian Oikumene acting together. And to a certain extent it would help to, as they say, "heighten the contradictions" of the existing system if they were pushed to revolt.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Electoralism fails, as it has before.
So with the autocephalate veto, the debt jubilee is to go through. Who's debts exactly are being absolved, here?

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There are still five months to pass a bull, but with this compromise failed it's not clear how and what bull would be passed. The Bull of Surrender was a kind of defrauding of the Autocephalates where they were meant to bear a lot of the cost, allowing few taxes to be levied on the other chambers. And the Patriarch's threat was a general abolition of all debt, though kept intentionally vague.

 

[Deadly Snark]

Lmao, they thought the guys holding veto and only one seat each wouldnt bother to read the bill ratfucking them.

I will say, we probably should integrate with the Ravs. Shit is hitting the fan at alarming speeds, we need the numbers and influence. And with the laborers on our side, we are one step closer to forming a common mass revolutionary foundation.

But at the same time, after integrating the Ravs, we should not merge with anyone else. Otherwise, we would have too many competing interests and factions.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Lmao, they thought the guys holding veto and only one seat each wouldnt bother to read the bill ratfucking them.

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It's hard to tell because a lot of the politics is beyond your ken but there are rumors that Shushan Hayasaka actually promised she would withhold her veto (thus preventing a collective veto, as it needs to be a consensus among the Autocephalates to work) to the chambers until the very last moment and then ratfucked them in turn.

 

[Deadly Snark]

It's hard to tell because a lot of the politics is beyond your ken but there are rumors that Shushan Hasayaka actually promised she would withhold her veto (thus preventing a collective veto, as it needs to be a consensus among the Autocephalates to work) to the chambers until the very last moment and then ratfucked them in turn.

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Based Stacy Elder. Would kneel to as her supplicant student.

 

[TheArcanist]

[X] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].

We need warm bodies, and we need them to be in sections of society we don't normally touch, like urban workers. This is an ideal scenario for us, with our discipline and fervor being so high but our popularity so low.

[X] On Time and its Robbers by Ghadan Nasir [Drawing on the deepest layers of True Confession].

The reformation will not be complete until we spiritually annihilate the concepts of space and time.

 

[Tabascoheath]

[X] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].
[X] On the Hoarders of God by Esterkesy Oshana [Drawing on the extreme peak of Political Iconoclasm].
[X] The Autocephalates should be abolished [Popular and Radical Opinion].

 

[Nerdorama]

This is fine.

[X] They are better off as allies [Gain Ravs of Labour as ally].

I know we all love labor here, but in a practical sense I think it's better to keep our focus and discipline as the HaKhofshim, and align ourselves as part of a broader coalition of schismatics, than attempt to align every sympathetic ideology into a single organization. Popularity is fine, but true friends are better.

[X] The Autocephalates should be reformed [Amalist Opinion].

Potentially unpopular, but this follows my same logic in wanting allies more than lukewarm converts. If we are going to reform the House of God, it should be a cooperative association of many paths on the Spiral of Truth, not simply throwing out the rights of others because their choices were inconvenient, once.

[X] On Witches and Non-Believers by Hadat Sutri & Hadat Bhadan [Drawing on the esoteric edge of Mystic Amalism].

Brethren, sistren: magicians. We need to start worrying about them sooner rather than later!

 

[ArvisPresley]

If we Choose to reform the autocephalates we prolly should go for the amalist option in the four attacks

 

[Anchises]

[X] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].
[X] On Time and its Robbers by Ghadan Nasir [Drawing on the deepest layers of True Confession].
[X] The Autocephalates should be abolished [Popular and Radical Opinion].

We absolutely need the deepest layers of true confession. You rejected high confession, mend the divide with the pugilist-confessors by declaring war on the time robbers. This is the bottom-up confession y'all said you were fine with.

 

[Cetashwayo]

It should be kept in mind part of the outrage around the Autocephalates is that their elders are not selected from elder prefectures by election but are appointed from normally pretty aristocratic or outright blood-lineage aristocracies. This is widely despised in Vaspukaran proper and a reason why they are seen as such an affront here. Of course that's also difficult to disentangle from their fundamental presence as vassal states in federated communion, since that's the system by which they are integrated.

 

[Voikirium]

As the Sanhedron begins to vote on the floor as in the opera, Jofar rises to success. A majority in the Mouflon Chamber passes the Bull, thanks to the defection of some conformer elders to reform. As in the opera Jofar marries into a wealthy family and becomes a prominent low priest rector with his own legal practice, the Low Priest Chamber passes the bull, after loud objections from both Kardon Hadi and Massima Rachel, who call it an insult to the assembly. As Jofar sings of his triumph and his rise to success and ignores the knocking from within the box containing his sinful doppelganger, the juror chamber grumpily passes the Bull, with Ataman Burs tentatively giving his support and swaying some of the Atamans. As on the opera stage the banging within the box grows louder and louder in the background of Jofar's dinner parties and study circles, the High Priest Chamber votes down the Bull, but is outnumbered 3-1. It appears primed to pass.

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I certainly can't tell which major broadway production from 2015 you are attempting to subtweet, no sir.

 

[TheArcanist]

More to the point, expanding our appeal to urban workers by fully integrating the Ravs of Labor has very strong synergy with the confessor option, because working hours(and make no mistake, that's what this is about) are something that urban workers care about a whole lot. It makes a lot of sense as a political strategy.

 

[Anchises]

More to the point, expanding our appeal to urban workers by fully integrating the Ravs of Labor has very strong synergy with the confessor option, because working hours(and make no mistake, that's what this is about) are something that urban workers care about a whole lot. It makes a lot of sense as a political strategy.

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Confession is also the most appealing ideology to actual workers. The deepest layers might seem too arcane for normal workers but yeah this is about working hours and the toxic concept of selling your time (labour) to others to survive.

 

[Woltaire]

[X] Integrate the Ravs of Labour as a Mass Section [Gain Ravs of Labour as mass section, sect popularity triples but fervor and discipline will fall].
[X] On Time and its Robbers by Ghadan Nasir [Drawing on the deepest layers of True Confession].
[X] The Autocephalates should be abolished [Popular and Radical Opinion].

 

[Cavalier]

Like what does Robbers of Time even actually argue? People are assuming its about working hours and conditions of the laboring classes but the Confessors are the technocratic centralizers of the Schisms, and the "deeper layers" suggests an ideological impenetrability at odds with a simple message denouncing the 12 hour workday.

 

[Regency]

People are assuming its about working hours and conditions of the laboring classes but the Confessors are the technocratic centralizers of the Schism

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Another reminder the High Confessors=/=the far more grounded True Confessors. And also it's quite obvious to interpret that from what this particular True Confessor preached based on the "which should be determined by the people is instead monopolized by a small class of 'timekeeping priests and uniformed bankers'." line alone. I think it's also an assumption to think the thought presented as particularly impenetrable.

 

[DocMatoi]

Like what does Robbers of Time even actually argue? People are assuming its about working hours and conditions of the laboring classes but the Confessors are the technocratic centralizers of the Schisms, and the "deeper layers" suggests an ideological impenetrability at odds with a simple message denouncing the 12 hour workday.

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I was assuming it's something like Time Cube, the infamous online tract arguing that earth days are actually supposed to be 96 hours long were it not for the efforts of a cabal of jewish bankers and railroad officials