Intergalactic Summit

Do not presume to speak for the Achuran in claiming we seek the Amarrian god. Our faith is not found through the piety enforced by Amarrian beliefs.

I'm sure it would have been a major announcement if the Theology Council had made a ruling on its inclusion.

With all the respect possible, you are no longer Caldari. Caldari isn't an address or a race or a genetic heritage it is a cultural identity. By foreswearing the Way you have ceased to be Caldari and are now an Achuran who worships the Amarrian faith.

You are a reclaimed former-Caldari.

Once again, you take your personal choice and search, and then claim that all of Achur shares in your belief.
You, personally, may have found your own theological home away from the Creator's grace, however, you presume too much by claiming that ALL share in this.
My people, We of Achur, in general have far more in common with those who follow Maker and Wind, than God and Empress.

Clarity is important in these matters, lest your words confuse the matter for any who do not know our ways.

looking at all the different peoples within the state it is difficult for me to see Caldari as one uniform culture.
The Civire and Deteis share little with the Achur.

Again, with all respect, that's probably one of the reasons why you couldn't adhere to the Way and ceased to be Caldari.

It's not ... quite that simple, I don't think. Following the Way doesn't necessarily make you Caldari, but it's not something you can reject outright and retain a Caldari identity.

If I remember, the Way of the Winds, as a religion, isn't actively practiced by all Caldari, but it's the most widespread religion in the State and is deeply entangled in Caldari culture. Its philosophical teachings are hard to distinguish from Caldari culture at all.

A Caldari who doesn't literally believe in nature or ancestor spirits is nothing unusual. A Caldari who rejects them for the sake of a foreign god is ... kind of another matter.

(Achura like me get a sort-of pass: our faith is recognized as another version of the Way, but we aren't recognized as proper Caldari unless we convert entirely to the Caldari culture. A lot of us sort of switch back after becoming capsuleers, but no one seems to mind very much, or at least very loudly-- the difference isn't major enough to make a big deal out of.)

Pilot Kontrahage is Amarr. He has roots in the State, but that is his identity, now.

Is it really so simple? ... maybe I just have an Achur perspective on this question.

The Achur faith is recognized as a form of the Way, but the Achura are a client people-- not Caldari, not unless we conform to the Caldari culture.

Edit:

Pieter, I can't really speak from personal knowledge on this anymore (though presumably I once could), but ... do you know how thoroughly an immigrant has to acculturate to be considered officially Caldari? You have to not only adopt the Caldari culture, but totally abandon your old one.

We're talking inspections by corporate naturalization officers examining whether your pantry has only the right kinds of food, and none of the wrong kinds. I'm not sure how I learned that, but ... probably personal experience.

Following the Way may be enough for you, but, respectfully, either the Caldari Way is dreadfully exclusive or it seems like there's more to it.

Perhaps I'm the wrong one to ask about this as I haven't studied it. I can usually tell a Caldari by the way their clothes smell. The way they hold their head. Their body language when they greet a friend or a stranger. The way they react to certain sights or sounds. The word they hiss under their breath when they stumble on a loose hatch coaming.

And the Achur? I am not used to this meek minority race you describe. I grew up Suvee and Achur were virtually a plurality in my orbital.I was a capsuleer before I encountered an Achur with a giant chip on their shoulder. Apparently there's still work to do there.

Mr. Takedi:

With respect, the Achura enjoy, effectively, protected status on our homeworld. We have self-rule under the Elder Visionaries, and isolated Achur monasteries can be found even in the Federation.

We are not asked to submit our internal matters to State review. Nor, critically, are we required to put our internal issues up for a vote.

If anything, what's been done to us is the opposite of what happened to the Caldari: we lost our major cities when the Caldari uplifted (not to be confused with the Sansha practice) our pre-industrial culture, but the rest of the planet is a cultural preserve. Rather than saying we can do as we like, but making us participate on their terms in a majority rule system where we will never be the majority, the Caldari actually let us do as we like within our own domain.

Which, I should stress, is the majority of the planet.

They do ask us to acculturate if we're to take advantage of certain programs only offered to State citizens, such as capsuleer training. Frankly, that seems fair enough.

Now, it is true that we're a small people living in the shadow (and at the sufferance) of a great power. It shields us, but it doesn't really share its toys or pretend we're its equal, and "power" isn't something we have much of.

But ... here's a question: in a world like this, is power really so desirable?

There's a rare artifact that pilots sometimes find, an antique brush from old Achura, before the Caldari, used for signing documents of military surrender. The bristles were made from the eyelashes of the defeated, plucked from their living eyelids while they screamed.

We may live in a cultural preserve, but we have self-rule and peace, and we're free to explore the universe. It's not a position of strength, but ... for all our philosophy and love of learning, it doesn't seem to me like we handle power better than anyone else does.