Intergalactic Summit

To start with ... I apologize for shifting the source material while you were responding to it. I wasn't satisfied with the thought as it was, and wanted to make sure I had it as "right" as I could. It's ... better, now, I think. And I think your remarks still apply.

Respectfully, Ms. Schmidt, masks get used for a lot more purposes than just hiding the truth, but ... I guess I was thinking about it in Achur terms: the roles that we play in a society. In that case, the "mask" is a public role, something put on in public and taken off in private. I've found that with the less-strict Amarr the line can usually be identified by whether they want to be addressed by title.

The "masks," if I understand properly, are less about trust (or truth) and more about perception-- about duty and proper conduct in one's position. After all, a place in Amarrian society seems often to be a position first and the person who holds it second.

Maybe the "security clearance" model would work, instead, for levels of trust once the masks are off and everyone's backstage having a drink? Which people you can let see how much?

That would seem like the place and time for people to be making friends, after all.

It is no problem.




While you make good points, I would continue to say that a mask is still thinking in terms of black or white. Is it a mask when the feelings are genuine?



Masks, yes, exist to hide things, and therefore alter perception. They are less about trust or truth. The Amarrian model promotes cohesiveness. It's more important for the whole to continue working and moving together than two people to bicker for even a moment. No matter that argument precipitates a resolution of the problem at hand; keep that quiet or more will suffer. I think that is because, when the Empire is as old as it is and when families have long memories, feuds between more powerful houses could last generations if those sorts of things weren't frowned upon.

It's one of the things I don't understand, myself.



I still argue that it's not a matter of masks. When a person is working professionally, they trust no one beyond the surface, so everyone is put down to that first level. No matter if the feelings they express are shared on a lower level or not. (Thank goodness I'm no professional. I could never manage that.)

Entry Fourteen: A House in Mourning

The abrupt death of Empress Jamyl I seems to register on the Amarrian psyche as a death in the family, in every family. In this context, I'm feeling a lot like a neighbor who stops by to drop off a boxed meal and offer condolences.

The Amarrian approach to civilization makes governance a profoundly personal thing, however many layers of authority might exist between a commoner, or even a lesser Holder, and an empress. It seems to be a natural consequence of focusing people's hopes and faith so strongly upon a single person that such a person's loss is widely felt.

Due to the many roles played by this single person, though, the trauma often seems to go deeper than most simple family deaths. The head of state is also head of an all-encompassing faith, making her more than just a household name-- a guide, a role model, even a companion, if one forever out of reach; a little like God, really, but a step short and a whole bunch easier to relate to.

As an avatar of God's will and symbol of the Empire itself, an empress or emperor stands not only at the head of the government, but at the head of Amarrian life.

It's probably even worse than usual, this time, though.

A few of the roles, here, are likely out of reach for most emperors: hero; savior; miraculous sending. There are few modern examples of the hero-king, and at least one other modern candidate for that role (in the Caldari State) didn't work out so well. In some sense, Jamyl I's single greatest moment, the mysterious and, to Amarrian eyes, miraculous defeat of the Minmatar Elders, was behind her by the time she took office as Empress. But it was also that moment that foreordained her ascent to that position.

It's hard to see any other way it could have been.

As an empress, Jamyl I became something perhaps a little less sepheric than her transcendantly heroic earlier role, appearing more as a mortal woman rather than a being of divine light, but by all accounts a strong and capable leader. She might have won the Empire's faith as an agent of divine vengeance, but she seems to have earned its enduring loyalty as an empress, in the manner of an empress.

A mortal empress, as is now too apparent.

The Amarr will recover. That much is already clear. They'll rally and regroup. A few faiths may have faltered, a few souls plunged into despair (and hopefully most were fished out again), but the Trials and succession are already being prepared for.

The Empire is far from crumbling. There's a weight, an inevitability, to the proceedings going forward. It's a ritual of death and life the Amarr have carried on so many times before.

And trespassers here intending harm seem likely to face that special kind of anger reserved for those who disturb a house in mourning.

R-really?

O how wicked is SFRIM. O how vile is SFRIM.

So wicked, so vile, that SFRIM offers membership to an outspoken nihilist-atheist. O how far SFRIM has fallen from the Faith.

O how wicked is SFRIM. O how vile is SFRIM.

If a recommendation from you is like dust, so must an admonisment be equally worthless from your lips. SFRIM business is SFRIM business, I know Mrs Daphiti is a reliable leader.

And now to return to the topic. Your departure from the Empire caused quite the storm Aria. There might still be clouds on the horizon, I pray you steer a steady course.

I.... am not sure to understand the reason of that... storm... either?

Especially when it should only concern SFRIM as a whole as an internal matter...

It will be more terrible at the Judgement for the pantheists than for the atheists, for at least the atheists have the good sense not to say that the Minmatar are in some sense holy, in some sense God. God rages against the pantheists. Even now, it is but the tiniest thread of God's Hidden Will that holds the pantheists from slipping into the very Pit, whose demons claw and grasp at the pantheists in anticipation of the utter horrors that they will inflict upon them forever and ever and ever.

We're working on it.

Sadly, he's not entirely wrong.

I have as much respect and regard for Ms. Jenneth as anyone, but she is not our kind. Unless she has a sincere desire to convert, I'm of the opinion that SFRIM resources would be better used to educate the wayward faithful who already serve the Empire. It is appropriate to extend to her a welcome as she is a nominal ally, but I don't see her converting to the faith any time soon. And she has already been exposed to life in Amarr as a second-class citizen.

I welcome you back Ms. Jenneth. Perhaps you would like to extend your sojourn to Khanid? We do things a bit different here. I think you may like those differences.

Why would SFRIM resources be devoted to convert pilgrims or allies?

That would be rather disrespectful..