Intergalactic Summit

It is quite easy to say that Scripture is vague (it is) and should be made clearer.

Most codes of civil law in all society, are vague as well. If you start to make them precise, they lose their value and stop applying to pretty much everything. For that, you have common law.

It is not that different for Scriptures.




It would be better to compare the Minmatar to the Ealur. Unlike the Ni-Kunni, the Ealur were forcefully conquered through the raw force of arms. What differentiates them from the Minmatar is the scale of their civilization and how it could withstand the Amarrian invasion.

They both are, however and arguably, half failed results of the traditional Reclaiming.

For the Udorian, they are the shiniest example of a totally successful Reclaiming. Both them and the little Island of Athra went to war at some point, and the Udorians are now a central part of nobility and politics in the Empire, not far behind the True Amarr on the way to enlightenment.

Respectfully, I'm afraid they're of a piece. The "issue" isn't in scripture; actually, the changes to scripture over time are part of the issue, here, as a lot of Sani sects claim to be following the "true" form of the Amarrian faith. The result is an existing dynamic that disgruntled Amarr can easily tip into.

"Burning books" obviously isn't an answer itself, but some books (say, one written by Nauplius) are still problematic.

Dialog is ... well, if they get caught early on, it's likely the MIO will sweep them up and try to ... solve the problem, whatever that ends up meaning.

Debating the Sani, though, if that's what you meant, is really a problem. As noted, it's not so much that the Sani are "wrong," from an Amarrian perspective, on any particular point. It's more that their faith has died, or darkened into something actively malign.

They're not so much provably "wrong" in a way you can show in a debate, and more horrible.

I used to think the Amarr went kind of overboard about this. Then I saw the conflict up close. It's vicious, ruthless, pervasive, and intensely personal. The Amarr approach it with sword and fire, but the Sani ...

... they're worse. At every turn. Even the ones who seem really pleasant here on the IGS.

So much worse.

The Sani have a single, jagged shard of truth. (The Amarr have the same one; it's just kept more or less well-padded.) Debating them is a problem because they're not so much wrong as limited and awful-- limited because they only have a fragment of the whole, awful because their core insight-- power, its forms, its acquisition, and its use-- is merciless, jagged, cruel thing.

That, as far as I can gather, is why Samira has promised to shoot me if I ever try to do Sojourn: Sani Sabik.

It's also why I'm no longer very tempted to do such a thing.

It never gets old, to see non-believers claim to know All About the meaning of Sani Sabik as a religion, spinning a long, boring tale of their own long-held prejudices, based on having met a particular self-proclaimed Sani Sabik celebrity years ago.

Maybe I should write about the Achura or Minmatar religions, because on that principle, only non-believers in a particular religion are the experts on it.

"The Achura believe that the universe hatched from a giant egg, that was poked at with a stick. The stick, known as the Rod of the Creator, is the most holy relic of Achuran spirituality, and is at the centre of their culture, influencing metaphors, such as 'more than you can shake a stick at', denoting a large quantity, or 'cut a stick when you see it', exhorting people to seize opportunities as they present themselves. The Rod of the Creator is of arbitrary dimension, being capable of manifesting itself in a variety of forms, as can be seen from another metaphor - 'I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole', which is a reference to the Rod's dimensional adaptability, and the necessity of keeping objectionable items at a good distance."

This stuff practically writes itself !

Ms. Valate:

It's probably a little unfair and unkind of me to speak about the Sani without having visited properly.

Respectfully, though, it's your own sect-- your own corporation, actually-- that persuaded me to stay away. You used me as a messenger in one of your projects.

I got a close look at at least one thing you've been doing.

My work does carry an open invitation to correct me where I'm wrong. However much I might say, I want to learn. If I'm wrong, I want to be set right. That's an implicit invitation in anything I've written.

So, respectfully, it's really interesting to me that instead of telling me how I'm wrong, you attack the project at its root.

I don't visit the Sani because I've seen your work. I've seen who you are to the Amarr, and while that might not be a complete picture, it's enough for me to work with-- to decide to stay away.

I stay away because I'm afraid of you.

Looking at your reactions to these few poor sketches, though ... I wonder whether maybe you're afraid of me, too.

I'm out of the office for a few days, however I can't say that I remember which project that was, offhand.

You are sure that it is myself, and not one of my associates that you are thinking of there ? I know Synthia has some, ideas, about research that I am not fully aware of.

Sincerely, etc.

The analogy was mainly that besides a minority of successes here and there, both are still widely used as "cattle workforce", have close to no opportunity of social emancipation and are most of the time relegated to the lower level of the social strata.

However, what differentiates them is that one has been totally subjugated, and that the other have been for way less time enslaved.

Out of respect for Lady Jenneth, we at Hoi Andrapodistai remain ready to accommodate her research and will even tune the level of horrifying violence against slaves she witnesses to that her delicate personality can tolerate. There are some limitations; for example, she could not ask to see a Blood Mass and yet have the actual sacrifice be omitted, as this would be an offense to the rite and to God, but should she desire to commune alone in perfect privacy with the Altar of God, an object of so great a beauty and so great or horror that surely Jady Jenneth's existential angst-filled mind would never be the same for better or worse having encountered it (not to mention the sheer number of IGS posts her meeting with such a sacred object would inspire), then we would be willing to accommodate it.

The threat of Samira Kernher should not be overrated (and I would be sad to find that Shirley Serious's private silence since my date with her was caused by Samira's horrifying threats against her), as not only is Samira not so active lately but I used to spend months in the same station with her taunting her with the sacrifice of slaves in my very hanger and yet station security insured, as usual, that any violence between Samira and myself occurred only in space where CONCORD wants such violence to occur. And if PIE were willing to war with SFRIM over a Sojurn, so much the better: the coming of the Blood Age will clarify all things.

Sojurn: Sani Sabik. Your destiny awaits, Lady Jenneth. Amen. Amarr Victor.

Actually, it seems I was conflating events. The person responsible was Mithri Araz. Before that it was Natalei. Before that it was Blood Raider boarding parties.

There was a war with your corporation at about the same time (my word bound me to nonviolence at that time, though, so I wasn't directly involved). ... so ... I guess it wasn't your corporation specifically I got a look at. I got a really strong sense of how personal this all gets, though: friends and relations pitted against each other, families turning in on themselves.

You're more interesting than most Sani I've met. A thoughtful person, maybe, though I can never be sure what's genuine reflection and what's just a maneuver.

That's true with everyone, of course. But if I'm even partially correct about the Sani approach to the world, it would be horribly dangerous to trust you at all.

And whether or not you're actually a very thoughtful person, you're definitely clever.

So....

I for one look forward to the Burning. Perhaps one day we'll throw the apostate Max Singularity on the pyre too.