Intergalactic Summit

It is a long and rather ambiguous process that depends on a lot of subjective factors, I would say. The same way the gallente like to elevate some of their best minds and influential persons to their pantheon.

What is considered the most significant in every time period can potentially be added to Scripture, and it does include ambiguously secular works like scientific achievements, albeit they technically are actually sacred for Amarr, since Amarrian Science is part of the Faith... which leads to even harder questions as to what is the place of foreign discoveries and revelations? Those are revelations too, even if done through different interpretations. I am pretty sure a good number of those are part of Scripture too those days, at least probably the ones that are not fully integrated in Amarrian life.

But in any case, the initiative can probably come from various influential groups, though the last word will always come from a decision of the Theology Council. Those matters can take time since including something in Scripture makes it part of the word of God, and so one can understand how it can lead to embarrassment when it is then decided to be made apocrypha or even heretical, as a few examples throughout amarrian History have shown. This is not a light decision to make.

However, it would be a very false idea to think that the Amarr only deal with validated scripture. Even fresh (or some old) imperial edicts are not part of Scripture, and yet, they are of primary concern.

I would say however, that every fact of knowledge is part of Amarrian society, scripture or not. Scripture in itself, is a validation of what is the word of God. And by that, I mean, what suits the current Amarrian ideals of Faith. Those can change, as Scripture change and is the word of God, the God of men.

In all rationality, that God is lesser than The whole Divine, for that the latter is universal, perfect, unchanging and changing at the same time, and encompasses everything. The Scriptures aim someday to be the reflection of that latter God, but they are not there yet. They are flawed, and a societal construct.

A little truth, in summary.

It's good to learn that you can see the nose on this face, Mr. Nauplius.



It's too bad you can't seem to find your own in a mirror, though.

Lunarisse Aspenstar is a cruel mistress, Lady Jenneth, to make you see such things. That slave was meant to glorify God in his destruction not in some makeshift hospital from which an inexperienced slaveowner apparently cannot even keep out guns, but in a sacred, beautiful, magical rite; a rite that would have even soothed a delicate, sensitive, melancholy person such as yourself. Instead of brain and bone matter. you would have splattered with the gentle spray of sin-cleansing blood; instead of the awful retort of a firearm, the chanting of ancient liturgy and the droning of vocal harmonies as the slave is sacrificed upon the Altar of God. Such an end has been denied to this slave, and God is punishing him and you for intervening in mysteries you understand not. Take this experience as a warning from God. Repent of your Sojurn among the wicked, vile SFRIM corporation and seek the true Faith. The Blood Age dawns; may it come quickly. Amen. Amarr Victor.

I was unaware you took Caldari slaves Nauplius? As always, you have no idea what you are talking about.
The event in question had nothing to do with any of your unfortunate victims.

I guess when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail to you.

In all candor, Mizhara Del-Thul, I leave it to Aria Jenneth if she wishes to provide more detail.

While I rarely take the effort to correct his usually factually incorrect ramblings, I was commenting here to make clear to others that the delusional one's take on it.. was completely wrong, even more so than usual.

Given the sensitive nature of what occurred (and as to which i do know all the details), I defer to Ms. Jenneth as to what she wishes to meditate on or express in her Sojourn and trust that her careful discretion will be exercised.

To shoot yourself in the head without even having the courtesy to use a hollow-point or self-fragmentation round?

Now that's just rude.

If you're going to end yourself at least have the politeness not to leave a mess.

Oi. Hollow points WILL leave a mess. Use AP if you are so concerned about not leaving a mess. You will bleed out instead of dying painlessly though, unless you aim very carefully.

Hmmm I was going to mention the concern of over penetration..... your significant other, neighbour, or visitor certainly wouldn't be too happy coming under fire from the next room from a military grade armour piercing weapon.

... okay, so ...

I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't actually say anything more about this.

I probably shouldn't have said anything to begin with, but some things are hard to put aside.

Entry Thirty-three: Changeling

I'm nearly a year old. Three more days. At 00:11 on the tenth, I'll have existed for twelve months to the minute.

It's kind of a weird age for someone like me to identify as. I'm not sure there's a better way, though; my biological age is "frozen" with the DNA samples that my clones are grown from. My mind's been developing for longer, but a lot of that ... it's like I inherited it.

I'm not myself. That's been apparent for a long time.

There are a lot of ways to describe what I am: at the kinder end, "amnesiac," "second chance," "fresh start"; at the less kind, "homunculus," "chimera," or "usurper."

However more or less accurate any of those might be, none of them really capture the situation's ambiguity.

I'm not an accident victim; somebody made me. They went to a lot of trouble to do it, too. What's more, there might be a second timeline out there, another Aria. If so, I'm probably an attack on her, meant to tie up her identity and wealth-- or I might be a trap, to bait her into the open. If people think of me as a constructed life form who only exists to harm someone they care about, I can understand why. If Aria Jenneth has to be the person who wrote the "Children of Naught," then ... well, okay, by that standard, I'm either crippled or an impostor.

It seems like the law kind of agrees with this point of view, too: if a more complete and authentic copy appeared, I'd probably lose this identity, and my capsuleer status along with it. Probably, I'd officially be a Caldari nonentity, without legal rights. At best, I'd be evidence of a serious crime; but even if they were looking into it, I don't know anything useful, so that's a job I'd be able to do just fine as a corpse. No legal rights means you can be shot if and when somebody feels like it, and at that point I'd be pretty inconvenient to a lot of people, so....

Yeah. That's maybe a reason not to get too attached to being alive.

That's actually been a pretty useful thing from a spiritual point of view. My faith tells me I don't really exist as a separate being, anyway, so why get too attached to the figment that is my self? Getting wrapped up in the illusions of the world only makes it that much harder to see and understand them-- to see the Totality, and our own places in it.

An issue comes from the point that, while not too many one-year-olds remember their first five minutes in this world, this world isn't an easy thing to stay aloof from even if you spring into it with a head full of knowledge. ... and part of what I learned, early on, was how few favors "distance" did the person I used to be.

So, I've avoided keeping mine. I've explored corners of the world where my old self was even more a stranger than I am; I've made friends, and more than friends, in places my predecessor would never have thought to go. Connection means entanglement. It skews perspective, warps neutrality into partisanship. It makes it hard to stay objective (as if such a thing was ever really possible, anyway).

If I settle in the Empire, even if I'm never a proper subject, should I bring this project to an end? Will I be able to see people I care for-- whom I love-- with clear eyes, even if I care?

I don't know. I started this project to chronicle travels throughout the cluster, to take advantage of my own rootlessness to explore, and to describe what I saw through clear eyes. If my heart is tied to a place and people, will I be able to look at others without distortion? If not, then maybe I should bring these journals to a close. Even if they can no longer serve their original purpose, though, at least they can chronicle something more typical of a journal, public or otherwise: the establishment and development of the connections that form the foundation of a life.

A vagabond might not find it difficult to look on strangers with clear eyes. Wandering, alone, is a lonely thing to be, though. Whether this life is mine to build is maybe a fair question, it's true, but I'm pretty tired of being lonely. If I have feared my own strength, dreamed my blood was turning to black ink, maybe that's because of the distance it might put between me and the rest of humanity-- those I might care for, or perhaps my own sense of belonging.

There is a place I might belong, here. I hadn't realized, before, how intensely I could want such a thing: more than travel, more than clarity, even more than wisdom.

How long we might have, I don't know. That uncertainty doesn't seem so different from anyone else's, though.