Intergalactic Summit

Often, sure. One thing that's a little interesting to me, though, is how far the Amarr have gotten without anybody trying to play that game-- or at least, getting very far with it.

One of the consistent surprises of my time here has been finding out about all the little systemic tensions and balances of power. The whole thing's set up like someone spent an AWFUL lot of time and effort working out how to keep abuse of power from ever actually threatening the feudal hierarchy, which goes a long way towards explaining why the Empire's stood for so long.

With any luck they've got a few centuries to work out the kinks. Probably they'll take their time about it. The Theology Council seems to be kind of what you get when you make an empowered think tank out of an Empire's worth of top theologians who probably have an average age north of 200 standard years and the pragmatic life experience to go with it.

They're not exactly amateurs at this.

Disagree.

One does not repeatedly after being warned numerous times by The Order to remain silent continue to spout heresy and expect to walk away without severe consequences. He not only dishonored himself but the House of Kor-Azor as it's representative. Most of us have had to grieve for our respective Heirs. If this is how he opts to cope with such grief he was not fit to be a Holder to begin with.

This is what worries me. The timing is convenient.

I guess it falls to me to be the voice of dissent on that score. Not only is this a fairly crass political move to curry favor with the capsuleer class, it dovetails in solidly with the Empress's announced plans to push for more capsuleers—and to push for those capsuleers to be directed not toward their own self-determination, but to be strongly encouraged to "support the Golden Fleet".

We all know capsuleer vessels require a smaller crew than baseliner vessels. When you're planning a significant military build-up, and part of those plans is using "the largest expansion to our pod pilot training program ever conceived" to provide "tens of thousands more capsuleers", well, it doesn't take a genius to see that you need to provide a loophole to the implications of the Sacred Flesh doctrine. It's blatantly being done in order to stretch the 'support' manpower as far as possible.

If I did believe in the Amarr concept of a soul, this kind of cheap pandering wouldn't reassure me at all. Just the opposite. This speaks nothing of actual deliberation, but rather of the willingness of the Theology Council to say whatever is politically expedient—or whatever will give the extremely wealthy Empress who is in a position to offer any number of rewards whatever cover she needs to grease the wheels of her military/industrial plans.

Might as well just overturn the 105 Heideran's Decree and let capsuleer Holders have as big a space fleet as they need through retainers while she's at it.

I'm sure all the Tash-Murkon Holders would love that too. Kickstart that Imperial military-industrial complex.

As a politician myself, I must admit to some envy as to how immutable and sacrosanct the very Word of God remains for self-interest, yet how astonishingly malleable and modern it becomes for self-interest.

I hope you don't mind me being a little blunt, but I think "they'll figure it out" might be giving the Amarrian system of government a bit more credit then it rightly deserves.

It's undeniable that, for the greater part of their history, the Empire was an extremely stable and reliably self-correcting system, despite it being based on a relatively simple system of government. But I don't think I'd be being unreasonably critical to say it has not done much to prove itself adaptive to shake-ups. Since it ceased to be (from it's perspective) the sole dominant power in space, it's absolutely collapsed in size and relative influence, and it's fared even worse in the Capsuleer era, where things have been changing and developing much more rapidly. To the point that the average life expectancy of an occupant on the Throne is being soundly trounced by the terms of Federal Presidents.

I would think that part of a reason the Empire has lasted so long - And probably why feudalism works, when it does - Is because it's been a system that gone out of it's way to reward patience. No one powerful (certain suspiciously-young caldariphiles excepted) wants to rock the boat with potentially destabilizing ambition because they know it'll only harm the whole system, and when the older generation passes on, they'll get their turn anyway.

That feeling has probably already been harmed by the political shakeups. What happens when it flies completely out the window?

I don't think the Empress would miss any of these implications, nor the direction the Empire seems to be going in the cluster on it's present course. Which makes me think that this - Alongside her plans to vastly expand the Capsuleer program - is either a short term move to build up the military power of her rule and avoid the fate of her predecessors, regardless of the cost... Or the beginnings of a long term one, to shift the Empire as a society in a new and coldly-pragmatic direction.

A warning to all of you who are happy at your, uh, ensoulment.

Souls can be sent to Hell. Most of the souls of the people posting in this thread will be.

And that is precisely what makes the timing suspect, Your Holiness. If this had been a question unconsidered, it could easily be said that the decision was asked for, and reached swiftly. That it is a topic that has been argued for so long points to large volumes of treatises on both sides having been written, studied, scoffed at, rebutted, ignored, re-examined, worried over, and mulled upon at length.

It is an issue with significant consequences for the Empire and its people: if clones do not have souls, then who in their right mind would give theirs up to spend an eternity as a husk? If they do, though, then they become a way to cheat at sin and virtue. Be as bad as you like, your soul will escape judgment as long as the medbays stay on. You'll have plenty of time to repent later.

Immortality, even only perceived immortality, has a way of making even the worst transgressions seem... negligible. Especially when they're just variations on a theme that we regularly tell ourselves is just fine:

As pirate-hunting numbers in Delve solidify, we're on-track for destroying 300 million Blood Raider ships this year. How many baseliners will that be? How many baseliners do capsuleers all across both Null and the Empires kill in a year? Many of them are haulers, convoying together with the folks who hired them. Non-combatants. All those lives, we take, and we end without a thought.

And you wonder why members of Rote thought nothing of killing one particular baseliner? This is what immortality breeds. This is what this decision endorses:

"Be as vile as you like. There will be time to atone." -A Message from the Theocracy Council.

Speaking from a small bit of personal experience, Ms. Arrendis, our alleged immortality is a little overrated. I didn't make it ten years.

Also, the average capsuleer career isn't exactly forever.

Also, also, the Amarr aren't exactly all-forgiving. It's not quite like you can live anything down if you just live long enough. Aside from the existence of cleansing pits (which I still haven't seen and am dreadfully curious about but not quite THAT curious), there's also that bit about only knocking on the gates of Paradise once.

If you leave, I mean, really leave, they don't let you come back.

(It's one of the reasons they seem to be okay with me honestly being a heathen: better that I remain at a distance until really ready than that I come to the door, knock, and then leave again.)