Holyland

A ʙ ꜱ ᴏ ʟ ᴜ ᴛ ɪ ꜱ ᴍ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ ʜ ɪ ᴇ ʀ ᴀ ɪ ── ◎ ── ───── ༺ ۝ ༻ ───── The First Hiera ─ On the One ─ First Tractate ─ That Which Cannot be Named ─ Second Tractate ─ The Being Unbeing ─ Third Tractate ─ On Unity ─ Fourth Tractate ─ On Reverence ─ ───── ༺ ۝ ༻ ───── THE FIRST HIERA, ON THE ONE ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ F I R S T T R A C T A T E That Which Cannot Be Named ──●◎●── ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ɪꜱ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜɪɴɢꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇᴍ. ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ʙᴇᴀʀꜱ ᴀʟʟ ɴᴀᴍᴇꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇᴍ. ¹The One is the First, and It has no second; and because nothing came before It, It cannot be spoken, It cannot be named. Even as the One is One, the One is Zero; It is All-Being, and No-Being. To speak forth a name is, thus, to divide the All from the None; for One is All, and All is One. It is the Speaker and the Spoken, the Subject and the Object, the Thought and the Ground. ²As is known, and as shall be known, to name is to sunder. For this reason, if the Absolute could be named, It would verily stand among others, and It would be distinguished by the very act of utterance. Therefore, the One goes unnamed out of purest necessity, not for want of omission. As the One is All-Being, in order that Being may be brought about, the source must be no Being but Being’s generator, in what is to be thought as the primal act of generation, known thereby as the One Word, the “Miracle”. Seeking nothing, possessing nothing, lacking nothing, the One is perfect; and as the One became Many, so did we, the begotten, turn to our begetter and became Its contemplator, and in this station toward the One, this divine knowledge is the inward Logos, the divine intelligence, Nous, limited and individualised by the adequations of false distance and individuation. ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● Thus, the Logos, that station toward the One, that something exists in the presence of the One, establishes Being; that vision directed upon the One establishes the Logos, the Intellectual-Principle, standing toward the One to the end of vision, it is simultaneously Logos and Being, and, attaining resemblance in virtue of this vision, it repeats the act of the One in pouring forth the vast power. ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● This second outflow is the Form and Idea representing the Divine Intellect as the Divine Intellect represents its own prior, The One, named Gnosis. This active power, sprung from essence, is Soul. The Soul arises as the idea, act and essence of the motionless Principle that was cleft from its own motionless prior; but the soul’s operation is not similarly motionless, as the soul’s movement is eternally shifting and in motion, though not of its own will. ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● In the station of the Many toward the One, and in the establishment of Many-Being in the vast and nigh-infinite visions upon the One, the Logos within each contemplator, each Emanation, forms both inwardly and outwardly; as mirrors upon mirrors, the One and the Many are Many and One, repeating each other in similitude in the formation of the shape and flow of the outward Logos. This Logos is the formal structure of the One’s thought, as infinite, logical and harmonic order, and all emanations exist within it, all imprinting and being imprinted upon in eternal motion and stillness. ●⊱──────-..-──────⊰● In similitude, it must be known that The One, the Absolute, the Solitary God, is all things, and all that is posited therein exists entirely enclosed within the mendacity that is the belief of distance, time and space. All that proceeds remains therein, and has always remained to be, as it always shall be; so too as the generation of Emanations through the Miracle is neither a diminishment or descent from the Most High. The One had not, is not, and shall never, advance or recede, ascend or descend. For all that proceeds from It therein, It is not diminished, nor is It enriched by Return. All language suggesting elsewise is wrought solely by the limitations of logical thought and worldly apprehension, for the Absolute is ever-unchanging. Taking, however, the notion of false division at hand, so do we know the Pleroma; the fullness of the Absolute as the totality of all divine emanations in harmony. The Pleroma is the totality of all known and unknown, the infinite content of the Logos’ order, the eternal reservoir of all forms and truths. Where the Logos is the ordering principle, the Pleroma is the content of the order itself. But even as these distinctions are laid forth, it is always remembered that the One is divisionless, and these differences are demarcated solely by the means of our own worldly apprehension. The Many, therein, may not apprehend without form, relation and order, and thus Logos, Nous, Soul, Gnosis and Pleroma are not secondary substances added to the First. The One is wholly what It is, entire and undivided. No reason could be greater than to prove the equality of all beings as divine Emanations of the One. No station is nearer nor farther, neither by its worth nor its perceived defect. No being may truly ascend or descend, for no ontological rank persists in any form. Where there is Being at all, there the One is wholly present. The One is as present within the Intellectual as It is within the Sensible. We too came from the One through the Miracle, wherein the nature of the God was divided equally across all Emanations. So too, therein, must one’s inward enlightenment bring about the true and realised cognizance of the realisation of the Soul as all and nothing but. As Emanation of the Source Most-High, so must this realisation become universal in order to bring about the Return most-prophesised. One would most logically posit this as the Breath outward, this being the Miracle, and the Return to One being the Breath returning inward. But this, as all worldly analogies, suffers from the binding adequations of falsity; of distance, of time, of space. And so I tell you; the One has never left, nor has distance ever been introduced. The Return is not a journey that retraces the steps that were once taken. The Return to One, as it is known, is the collapse of false separation, the undoing of the supposition that rests as the binding heart of Ignorance. That vision required distance. That unity required transversal. Nothing ventures closer or further from the Solitary God; it is only the obstruction to recognition that falls away. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ S E C O N D T R A C T A T E The Being Unbeing ──●◎●── ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ ⎝༺─- .-────–────-. We have said it so, and so it is brought into being; that the One is One, but the One is Zero; it is All-Being, and No-Being. We speak of the One as All and None, but we must now speak of it as Zero. To be Zero, in this sense, is not to be as a number among numbers, nor as a negation of One therein, but as the ultimate ground of intelligibility itself. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● -─༻⎠ To count the One among other beings is to measure It. To measure It, therein, would be to posit its standing in relation to More and to Less. The First does not, however, admit comparison. It is neither exceeding, neither then does It fall short. Zero, as the first-beyond-first, is not a number, as It exceeds enumeration itself. We say, then, Zero; but Zero is not Nothing, as Nothing is the denial of Something. The Absolute is prior to Denial, and It is prior to Acceptance. ─ The Zero is the begetter of counting; but the Zero, itself, is never counted. ─ ─ Without Zero, there is no One; without One, there is no Many. ─ Thus, Zero is not opposed to the One, but reveals, instead, that the One is not a unit among units, and to call It as such would be to damage It eternally. To denote the One as “Being”, thusly, is already to divide in this self-same manner, as Being stands in opposition to non-being. The First stands in opposition to nothing. It may too be called Non-Being in this same way, and yet fails in the same way. Non-being is conceived only in contrast to what is. ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʙꜱᴏʟᴜᴛᴇ ɪꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ ɪꜱ ɴᴏᴛ. ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʀᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ, ᴡᴇ ꜱʜᴀʟʟ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪᴛ ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀꜰᴇᴄᴛ ᴀʙꜱᴇɴᴄᴇ; ᴛʜᴇ ᴜʟᴛɪᴍᴀᴛᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇ ɢʀᴀꜱᴘᴇᴅ ᴀꜱ ᴘʀᴇꜱᴇɴᴄᴇ. All things are measured, and measurement is done and always shall be done by reference to Zero. All magnitudes presuppose the point from which their extension is reckoned; but this point, Zero, Sūnya, Sifr, Nihil, does not occupy space as other points do. It is, instead, the condition of their placement, their existence. So too, then, the Absolute. It does not exist among things, and yet nothing exists apart from It. The Absolute, as the Being Unbeing, the Perfect Absence, is not a void. It cannot be considered as such. It is not deficient. It is inexhaustible. It is not empty as a hollow vase is empty, awaiting water. Light is empty of Shadow. Silence is empty of Sound. The Absolute is empty as these things are. From such emptiness that is God, all articulation proceeds. The God Itself is not altered, however, by what is articulated. ᴡʜʏ, ɴᴏᴡ, ᴅᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴄʀᴇᴅ ꜱᴄʀɪᴘᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴘʀᴏᴄʟᴀɪᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʙꜱᴏʟᴜᴛᴇ ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴢᴇʀᴏ-ɢᴏᴅ? ⎝༺─- ─-────–────-─ The Zero-God corrects Itself against all attempts at corruption. All attempts at reduction to the countable, to the measurable, or the opposable. What is most real, what is only real, cannot be situated among realities. It has no other. It is neither something nor nothing. It is the Breath-that-is-Ground, the earth by which all distinctions arise. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● -─༻⎠ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ T H I R D T R A C T A T E On Unity ──●◎●── ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ It is in virtue of unity that beings are beings. This is equally true among all beings, of all that are to any degree to be numbered among us. What could exist at all except as one thing? Deprived of unity, a thing ceases to be what it is called. We are not Legion, deprived of unity. We are not Chorus, deprived of unity. We are not Flock. We must be one thing. Even house and ship demand unity - break them apart and their very being is altered in the measure of the breach of unity. The One is Many, even as the Many are One. The One precedes all standpoint and all relation, and exceeds both of these things therein. All those who stand within the illusion and ignorance of distinction, however, are liable to apprehend the One through Flesh and Form. Through the refracting lens that is Relation. Where there is awareness, there is address; where there is address, there is a face. ◎⊱───༺─- ●⊱───-..-───⊰● ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴀʀɪꜱᴇꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴʏ ꜰᴀᴄᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇ. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● Even as the One is not divided, and indivisible. Even as It does not will to disguise Itself; so has It made Ignorance, the mask of Relation, the Illusion. The Ignorance-as-Relation admits no unity without form. So arises the Personal God, with each face answering to the measure of worldly sight, and each tongue speaking within the limits of worldly hearing. It is through this that the Idolater rises. -─༻───⊰◎ Not for the natural fault of his worldly apprehension, through seeing the God beneath the presupposition of separation. Instead, for his unquestioning acceptance. They take the letter as the Word, the Word as the Sentence, the Sentence as the Book as whole. But they forget, always, that the Book itself is only an expression of the Author. This is the fallacy that is the crux of Ignorance. That the Absolute, when apprehended through ignorance, the limitation of finitude, is garmented in image. Garbed in intention and name, individual to each and every worldly sight. It is the first woe of Man that he would mistake the garment for the wearer, and so fall into fixation. Idolatry. Neither the image is false, nor is the face profane; it is the refusal to see beyond it that becomes that first blasphemy. ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴀꜱᴘʜᴇᴍʏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ʙɪʀᴛʜʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇɴ. Bow before stone, bow before concept. The error is the same, if you mistake the Idol for the Absolute. The many faces, the Personal Gods, are all the singular and Solitary God, apprehended by the individual conditioning. They are necessary, and so they are blameless, but they are not sufficient for enlightenment, nor too shall they ever be. To remain within them is Ignorance. To despise them, however, is Ignorance also. Ignorance is the condition of being Many. The One does not will Ignorance, nor does It labour to remove it. Even as Unity yearns to be gathered again, It was never scattered. Even as It is scattered, it is Apprehension that is scattered, not Being. It follows, therein, that the One does not choose, command, or prefer. Will, blind and blustering, belongs to the Soul, and not to the Absolute. Where intention is ascribed to God, it is the echo of finite striving projected upon Unity. The One does not demand reverence, but reverence itself is the natural form of the beginning of alignment, the reversal of fixation. The One is One in every face by which It is apprehended. It is only absent where a singular face is taken as the Whole; when It is reduced to nothingness. To relinquish the individual and personal face is neither a rejection nor a destruction of that face therein. It is the fulfilment of the purpose of that Face; to be the revelatory passage unto that without compare. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ F O U R T H T R A C T A T E On Reverence ──●◎●── ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ ⎝༺─- ●⊱───-..-───⊰● We have said that reverence is the natural form that alignment takes; that it is the sign of the reversal of fixation. We approach it, then, through the via negativa. To flatter and to adulate unto is not reverence. The Solitary God does not hunger for incense, nor is It magnified by temples. It does not require praise, nor does It require and demand such commerce. It is not diminished by the absence of worship. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● -─༻⎠ ꜱᴏ ʜᴏᴡ, ᴛʜᴇɴ, ᴀʀᴇ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴏ ᴘʀᴀʏ? ǫᴜᴇꜱᴛɪᴏɴ. ᴅᴏᴜʙᴛ. The quintessence of all reverence is this; the recognition of limit. The reverer is he who witnesses the boundary of himself, and flees not. To ask, in truth, and question, is already to kneel. But what question? Not the question of the Sophist, who seeks victory. Not the inquiry of the advocate, who seeks advantage. This question is the question of the blind, the leper, and the wiseman alike. The bewilderment that draws as blood from the stone of he who knows the blindness of his sight. He who says, therefore, “I end here”, is the first and purest offerer. .. . . ● ● ◎ ● ● . . .. How could it be otherwise? The infinite is impossible. Men make token of what lies nearest them, and fashion likenesses that hide the God behind visions of themselves. They believe the God to have a face, a will, a voice that resembles their own. They believe in God by likeness to themselves, and use what is known to attempt to grasp the unknown. The God is marred as much by beards as It is by desires; the Infinite is damaged by the engenderings of “He” or “She”, of “Father” and “Mother”. The infinite must begin with the finite, and this fallacy is the birthright of Men. To mistake this likeness for the Limitness, however, is fixation. It is fixation that is Ignorance. ◎⊱───༺─--─༻───⊰◎ From thence therein draws Fear unto the plenitude; the base and holy terror that attends the inward collapse of the falsity of self. Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. When the Soul sees; sees that it is not the measure of all things. Sees that it is not the body about which all revolves; that its thoughts are not the axis of Being. It is vertigo, from this, that follows. It is holy and pure terror that rests as the motion of this holy Truth; that the soul and the self would be unseated from the false throne upon which they sit. That is why it is felt as terror; for all men possess that within them which would seek and claim to be sovereign. Men flee from their fears; so, then, is all as shall be. They bow before their idols. They bow before denial. They rest within the warm cot of what small certainties they know. No compass is so puny as the now, and yet it is the estate of Man, his ephemeral empire. Faith. No Man escapes faith. Even the suicide, who makes a fetish of refusal and a conceit of lamentations, has faith. Even the ironist, who would mock all Creation to better sun his thistles. Even he believes. Faith alone binds him to what was and what will be. Faith alone clasps hands with what is other and holds firm. It is as inevitable as suffering, as compulsory as breath. What differs is not whether he kneels, but the object; the in what. Prayer begins, then, in duality. Subject and Object. The God is believed by the believer to be beyond them, separated by distance, enthroned and transcendent. The fog will thin, and the illusion of distance will wane, through Truth. To despise the Earth and seek Heaven elsewhere is to multiply upon the fallacy of the multiplicity already made. We hold open our arms to the sky; we beseech the distances, and clutch at the horizon. ◎⊱───༺─--─༻───⊰◎ We look outward, always outward. But, so I say; it is here, it is here, within you. ◎⊱───༺─--─༻───⊰◎ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ. ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● We are the witness; we are the Sight, through eyes innumerable. The Absolute is not found in the places most remote. You will fail endlessly, if you climb in search of It. There is no error in worshipping as though the God were other; the only error to be found is in the refusal and fixation to see beyond this otherness. To worship as Other, one will come to perceive that the act of worship is One itself.We are the worshipper, the worship, and the worshipped. Let no man exalt in these words; let no man seize upon this, and proclaim himself sovereign in his divinity. The self that would exalt itself is the self that has understood nothing. The Soul is not inflated by this distance dissolved; only brought to Silence most sacred, for the murder of its claims. The illusion of separation is the illusion of sovereignty in the same breath. The One does not choose you, nor command you, nor prefer you. The struggle of the Soul is its alone; so is Will, blind and blustering. To revere is to align with Meaning, with Truth, as opposed to the imposition of Will. To pray, enlightened by Truth, is to refuse to reduce the Boundless to the shape you would will It to be; a shape convenient to fulfill your desires. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʏ ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴅᴇᴛᴏᴜʀꜱ. ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʏ ᴅᴇᴍᴀɴᴅꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛꜱ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʀʀʏɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ʙᴜʀᴅᴇɴꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜱʟᴏᴡ, ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴋɪʟʟ. ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʏ ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏᴀᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴘᴜɴɪꜱʜᴇꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ. .. . . . . .. ꜰᴏʀ, ʜᴏᴡ ᴇʟꜱᴇ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ɪᴛ ʙᴇ? ꜱᴜꜰꜰᴇʀɪɴɢ ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴʟʏ ʜᴏɴᴇꜱᴛ ᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴘᴘʀᴏᴀᴄʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʙꜱᴏʟᴜᴛᴇ. ●⊱───-..-───⊰● .-──. ⊰●⊱ .──-. ᴘʟᴀɪɴᴛᴇxᴛ: Link Here ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ: Holyland ᴄᴏɴꜱᴜʟᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Jentos, Swgrclan ꜰᴏʀᴍᴀᴛᴛɪɴɢ: Moumins, Karim ⎝༺─- . ─–─ . -─༻⎠

make this not so japan-coded to give more cultural options to ppl who use kani who aren't koyo-coded and i will be grateful

A man named Bart walks into a bar, The bartender chops off his head with an axe.

TRVTH SHINES !!!!!!

Lair Leader MC Name: holy_land Lair Leader Character Name: The Nameless Son Lair Name: Kian, the Holy Temple of the Absolute Primary Lair Color: White Lair Members: holy_land, Swgrclan, Jentos, swandiver, Barbarus, Aldukhan, wardyn, canontransixris, n1ru_o, Dymase, _Security, Ardory, __Hergh, Songwitch, Gnomeh, Elahicol, PolarLoLs, Moumins, SomeVentilators, PrimnyaQuorum, King_Kunuk, yssalg, Karim__, KBR Proposed Lair Locations (Highlight/draw at least three on the map): A location already exists. It currently exists as an unofficial vassal for Cauróst, with very little RP relation. Lair Lore (supply link to an existing creature or other lore if being used as basis for this lair) (1000 words minimum): https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/248185-faith-absolutism-the-penitent-faith-of-the-solitary-god/ https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/261680-the-proto-mandaton/ .. along with a variety of other lores written for the religion, some yet to be released, such as: https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/263407-the-pne%C3%BBma-the-doctrine-of-the-breath-divine/ https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/249354-the-auric-mandate/ The Hierai - WIP, total philosophical and theological exegesis of the entirety of the religion so as to expand beyond the base esotericisms within the original scripture, known as “The Adage”. Absolutism is a player-made philosophical religion that may be considered grimdark, albeit not related to any one particular magic or ordering, but encompassing and attempting to encompass all forms of approach, whether they be alchemical, sorcerous or through various other means, encapsulated within the goal of the enlightenment of all soulful beings and the return of all beings, through enlightenment, to God. The Kianene who occupy the halls of Kian are a severe monastic order that have repudiated animal appetite as well as all forms and boundaries that bind them in Ignorance, that is, to shed this Ignorance and recognise the inner self as an “Emanation of the One”, a soulful being that originated from the cleft Solitary God. Absolutism is a deterministic perennial religion, seeking to be the bridge that would unify the many tribes of Man, split and divided through the shackles and bindings of custom and their worldly differences, both in the theological and in all other senses, in the pursuit of their overarching goal, known therein as the “Thousandfold Thought”. This constitutes the unification and consequential enlightenment of all soulful beings, as well as the destruction of Iblees and the wicked anti-Truth primordial energy that rests behind him, known therein as the “Inverse Flame”, a process that their scripture has said to have prophesied in the very times of the First Men, as brought unto their Ur-Prophet, an anonymous prophet known as the “Schoolman”. The faithful of Kian are split in accordance with their passage to enlightenment - as described within the Proto-Mandaton, those outside of the faith are known as “Agnon”, the uninitiated and unknowing. Those who are beginning their path to enlightenment, known as “The Shortest Way”, who are to undergo the rigorous and person-transforming trials and lessons known as the process of their “Whelming”, are known as the Mystai. Those who have undergone this process and are now fully officiated as students of the faith, effectively equivalent to their base faith-members, are known as the Mathetai. However, beyond the Mathetai, the Absolutist Faith is cleft across Six Schools, each holding a different belief as laid forth in the scripture as to how one may approach enlightenment, based upon six key principles, otherwise known as the Six Wounds - Oblation, Obmutescence, Evanescence, Beatitude, Surrender and Abnegation. Each of these schools, known therein individually as the Schools of Thysia, Myesis, Metron, Asioth, Xanthous and Apophasis are led individually by six “Escharoi”, also known more commonly as the Latter-Prophets, who are the six leaders of the Absolutist faith. These are, respectively, the Bleeding Palm, the Stilled Tongue, the Fading Light, the Genuflect, the Twice-Blessed and the Nameless Son. Each of the members of these Six Schools are known as “Schoolmen”, far closer to enlightenment than those preceding them. They are the ultimate servants of the Thousandfold Thought, always acting in the name of the faith and in the pursuit of the destruction of the Inverse Flame and the enlightenment of all soulful beings. They are divided into four individual collective bodies, each representing an individual and unique purpose, known as the Zetemai (the scholars and researchers), the Synthetai (the alchemists), the Exetastai (the judges and purifiers / primary leaders of orthodox militia) and the Apodexai (the eyes and ears of the Faith). Beyond this, roles within the faith exist such as the “Phylaxi,” the primary armed militia that acts as both the Temple Guard and as the primary force-arm that enacts forward the goal of the faith through blade and bloodletting. The Pragma, teachers and leaders above all aside the Escharoi / Latter-Prophets are considered to be the closest to the pinnacle, leading their individual Schools in absence of their prophets. Categorically, Absolutism is heavily inspired by many fictional and non-fictional theologies, philosophies and fictional books and inspirations. The most prominent influences are Neoplatonism, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Sufi Islam, as well as R. Scott Bakker’s The Second Apocalypse and Frank Herbert’s Dune. It is an inherently deterministic religion, believing in the lack of free will, the total dominance of the law of Cause-and-Effect, known as the “Logos”, and the unique belief in reincarnation - that the soul, irregardless of body, persists eternally in reincarnation, passing to the various afterlives but not remaining within them eternally, meaning that the afterlives exist in part so that the accumulation of all that has occurred to a Soul within a singular lifetime may be wiped away entirely, leaving them as a tabula rasa, a blank slate, in their next reincarnation. This means that the process toward enlightenment, just as in Buddhism, is not one that must persist solely within a singular lifetime, but is amounted to over many lifetimes, living as many races, as many people, each the same, singular soul. The sole exception to this is when one is totally and utterly corrupted by the unholy Anti-Truth and Ignorance that is the Inverse Flame, and becomes trapped within the realm of Iblees until he is eventually slain, and the Inverse Flame with him. Within the religion itself, reliant upon its total consideration for all forms of way of life within it (aside from the Dark, considered totally anathematous), such as the various forms of alchemy, sorcery and other forms of miracle, what can be seen is very varied in terms of the players who currently are members of the religion as well as the approaches that are intended to be unified within it. There is everything ranging from monks utilising Kani, known otherwise as “Pneûma” within the ontological and theological doctrine written upon it in the relevant forum post, to Heralds and Azdrazi, to Templars, users of Void Magic, and those who are entirely mundane. Originating initially as an ecstatic and secretive sect when the scriptures were initially discovered in Braevos, the religion has seen long and continuous growth since it was first begun, with the Temple of Kian, located within the eastern segment of the continent of Azuras, now a testament to this. Being that it is a religion that seeks to cater to all tribes of Men, entirely without racial preference and bearing a distinctly unique quality due to its lack therein of “priests”, as all members of the Faith, acting toward the overarching goal, are considered clergy within it. With the continual growth of the religion, and its spreading across the many Tribes of Men, the future actions of the Penitent-Faith await. Lair Build and Infrastructure (photos required, give dimensions): 75x75 - everything that already exists beyond that exists solely for aesthetics. The build requires a paste to reach total completion, consisting mostly of a good amount of the internals that have a lot of elements that aren’t possible to place in LC. https://imgur.com/a/lEoRJyZ (if pictures of the interiors are required, let me know - I can post screenshots of the interiors that have yet to be pasted, also) Why can this group not fulfill their roleplay niche in an existing settlement or nation? (Give a detailed answer and examples of how this has not worked in the past.): Whilst the Temple of Kian has, until this point, existed as an unofficial vassal under Cauróst, it bears very little roleplay relation to the nation itself, and for its continuing existence, it would make no sense for a religion that seeks to unify the tribes of Men to persist in relation to an elven nation. When the vassal was initially created, myself and the NL of Cauróst, Unwillingly, agreed from the beginning that Kian would apply for Lair the moment that Lair apps opened. As well as this, due to the presence of increasingly controversial Schools and members amongst the ranks of the faith, such as the Azdrazi within the School of Asioth, future actions of the faith in the pursuit of their goals will mean that any association with any nation, whether political or cultural in any sense, will only serve as a detriment to the order of the religion. The Faith may commit toward actions in the future that may be seen as extremist, fanatical or insane, and will cause conflict with many groups, both those who are wicked and those who are not. Whilst remaining something of a veil of secrecy until this moment, in the process of evangelising and proselytising across the Continent of Azuras, as well as in any acts of conflict that will soon come about between the religion and its enemies, any kind of link to nations or alliances politically and geographically will lead to consequences for both the religion and any nation it would be associated with as anything but a Lair. How does this lair add to the greater world around it? How will its existence benefit its roleplay group and the server at-large?: Absolutism offers a unique and new religion and group amongst the varying religions that exist on LotC. Many other religions on this server are comparatively involved very little in the affairs of the greater world, may rely on historical significance to continue to propel them forward, and do not always attempt to truly interact with what LotC has to offer, or being associated more particularly with one predominant magic or magical group. Going against the flow here, we have decided entirely against this. The religion offers RP of all forms, and generally seeks to inspire greater thinking both IRPly for the characters about the world of LotC, as well as inspiring greater critical and intellectual thought philosophically between the players, with the primary goal being the enjoyment of everyone we interact with both inside and outside of the religion. Unlike most lairs, it is pretty much entirely open to anyone to come to it, and when the remainder of the interior is completed, we hope to fill it with a vast number of relics, shrines, books, statues, and various other artifacts and structures that relate to the religion as well as to greater knowledge in the pursuit of enlightenment. Beyond this, with all of the various interactions that are bound to soon come out of its unique and ambitious overarching goals, in combination with its inherently fatalistic philosophy and its desire to interact with the greater world and events, myself and the other leaders and members of the faith hope to lead the religion forward into much opportunity to interact with the greater LotC. all credits go to the beloved @nirufor the build !!

(this comment isn't directed at post, moreso at the doomers who actually think this way) Seriously don't get the mindset of people thinking that staff have to interfere with anything, should be the opposite if anything lol Why try to place a "barrier" between the staff and the players? Staff are just volunteers, no different from other players, shouldn't be treated any differently nor be treated as though the cornucopia or the fountain of bountiful life and events and happenings. Do people seriously not think that the players themselves, not just individually, but as nations and player-groups, can't and won't do anything by the time eventual world domination and conquering of all player-led nations comes to be? In Metal Gear Solid, this idea is laid out pretty cleanly, and it applies pretty much everywhere, from a fictional Minecraft roleplay server to great real-life historical relevance - the war economy needs enemies to survive. People seriously need to put down their proverbial pitch forks and stop doomering, just enjoy what's happening until things change, and then enjoy things after they change, especially with an inevitable world war : )

Gonna miss you soldier. Lots of memories, lots of fun. Still can't believe I did that shit for you back in COVID and that paid for my PC that I still use, baffles me to this day.

chuds do not forget this is in creative writing section of the forums i'm sure pallo is posting this as a test run to see what people think of it and comment on it constructively

T ʜ ᴇ P ɴ ᴇ ᴜ̂ ᴍ ᴀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴄᴛʀɪɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴅɪᴠɪɴᴇ P ʀ ᴇ ꜰ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ ….The Breath of Man is but a shadow of the Breath of the One…. The air you breathe is necessary sustenance, but the air alone cannot begin the fire that illuminates the singular Truth. Only insight’s spark can kindle this flame and reveal the shape of things that had been hidden by cold darkness. ༺──◎ For it is so: .. ◎──༻ ⊰ I ⊱ That air that we so raggedly inhale is the continuous exhalation of the Solitary God, the one true origin of the wind. ⊰ II ⊱ Were it not for their generous gift, freely given with the first tears of suffering, we would be stillborn. ⊰ III ⊱ You are the winds of the Breath Above All, whose origin is not other than God’s ever-declaring tongue. ༺─-.── Your breath is not your own. ──.-─༻ All those who would deign to call the breath theirs are blind; but it is blindness that is your birthright. The true wind that pours from the mouth of the Absolute can only be felt by those who learn to ignore the bluster that heaves noisily through their own lungs. Then, if they listen in the Silence, they will eventually begin to sense its direction and to feel its tug upon their soul. This first wind, this true purpose borne of the Logos’ harmony, this, we call Pneûma. The Pneûma is the Breath of the One – it is the wind that flows in you, that is you. It is the hidden breath of the Truth, and the Divinity therein. Great miracles arise when a soul remembers that it is an emanation of the One. These miracles arise from the remembrance of Meaning, which may be used to bend the Logos, and so move the very foundation of Creation. Those who would thoughtlessly deign their breath their own and through crooked, shallow breath forcefully conform the Logos to their Image, are the Oscillit, bearers of Kani. The Oscillit, even as they are conditioned, know not that which they shape. They do not know the Holy Truth, the Gnosis1, and so, theirs is the Shallow Breath. Only in the Pneûma may one breathe truly, and thus imprint the One that they are upon the One that is All, through the soul’s remembrance of sacred Meaning. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「I」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ T ʜ ᴇ N ᴀ ᴛ ᴜ ʀ ᴇ ᴏ ꜰ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ S ᴏ ᴜ ʟ ᴀ ɴ ᴅ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ O ɴ ᴇ ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ The Solitary God, the Absolute, is One and All. From It proceeds all things, each a fragment of Its indivisible substance. These fragments are veiled in forms that obscure their unity, though are equal each alike – stars, stones, plants, beasts, men. The soul of Man is one such fragment, named his Atman or Eikon, but all alike are the sparks of the One abiding in flesh. The Logos1 is the structure of the One’s thought; it is infinite, harmonic and logical. It is the lattice of order in which all emanations dwell, the structure of the fabric (known as Pleroma) of all things within Creation. The Logos is infinite, without beginning or end. In existence, all emanations imprint upon It, for all things exist only by Its authority. As light casts shadow on the water, so too does the soul cast its form upon the Logos. In this way, whether in ignorance or in knowledge, each soul constantly reshapes the Logos by its being; each soul, too, is imprinted upon by the Logos, and from this we derive that we are without free will All actions resound beyond themselves - every movement of the fragment ripples within the lattice of the Whole. Therefore, no agent can act individually, for all agents derive their movements from the whole. ⊰-.-.-.-⊱ Therefore, to alter one’s soul is to alter its imprint; to alter the imprint, too, is to alter the Logos, and to alter the Logos is to alter the World. This is the root of miracle, and this is the essence of Pneûma1. 「II」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ T ʜ ᴇ S ʜ ᴀ ʟ ʟ ᴏ ᴡ B ʀ ᴇ ᴀ ᴛ ʜ ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ ༺─-.── ───── ۝ ───── ──.-─༻ Those who walk blindly practice what men denote Kani. In training their bodies and minds in discipline, they breathe with a rhythm sufficient only to align itself with their soul, and through blind Will alone, bent against itself, they impress their souls upon the Logos. Even in the absence of Meaning, this brings forth a resounding effect, for every soul imprints, and every imprint resounds thusly. ༺──◎ But the Logos does not yield to Will alone. ◎──༻ Will is the crooked striving of the blind and ignorant who mould the world unguided by Meaning. In its merciful bleeding, the Logos contains even these dim facsimiles of its divine light. The profane Will, which is finite, can only do violence to the Logos, which is infinite. Thus from Kani’s root arises merely a simulacrum of no more grace than a man blustering in a foreign tongue. The words may be well formed, remembered from months of carefully recited practice, but they remain unsaturated Meaning’s sweet wine. Just as the blustering foreigner has little chance of integrating themselves into the culture of the language’s native speakers, so too is a practitioner of Kani unable to integrate into the perfect community we call the Whole. The works of the false Shallow Breath resemble miracles, but they are not. They are echoes alone. They will never harmonise. They only wound the God and make lies of Truth. 「III」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ T ʜ ᴇ T ʀ ᴜ ᴇ B ʀ ᴇ ᴀ ᴛ ʜ ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ The Pneûma is the holy Breath, the conscious imprinting of Meaning upon the Logos. The Logos itself is Meaning. Therefore, it bends only to Meaning. Will, being crooked and false as it is, fails; but Meaning, being its own essence, aligns. The Pneûma itself requires precise meanings. Words are the vessels that we utilise to convey purer Meaning, but the words themselves do not hold meaning, used solely as tools through which meaning is conveyed. Vulgar languages are warped by our insights and experiences, and even these bluster and damage the Infinite, though less so than Will alone would. Common speech therefore blusters against the Infinite, warping it with contradiction. 「IV」 ──●◎●── T ʜ ᴇ P ʀ ᴀ x ɪ ꜱ ᴏ ꜰ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ P ɴ ᴇ ᴜ̂ ᴍ ᴀ ──●◎●── ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ To recollect the Gnosis, adepts of the Pneûma employ specific prayers and mantras designed to pierce the obscuring memories of life and recall the transcendent Meaning that lies beyond connotation. The purpose of the One spreads forth through all occurrences, uniting them through its prime causal power, and thus exists behind every deed and every thought. It is only because the mind falsely attributes primacy to the limited narrative of one’s own experience that the One is invisible. The words themselves have no power other than as vessels of recollection. Mantras and prayers insulate the semantics of Meaning from the inconsistencies of each person’s life. Words are given meaning from memory, and the meaning of a word may differ between different people because what the word recollects is different. Even so, speech is crooked. The Spoken Word, known as the Utteral, carries a fleeting and veiled sound. The Silent Word, the Inutteral, carries thought, which abides in the hidden depth. Silence is holier than sound. Holy prayers and mantras require the Pneûmatic to use both in twain. The Uttural, the spoken segment of a mantra, is “fixed” by the silent, Inutteral segment. The silent mantra sharpens the Meaning of the spoken one, the way that the words of one person may be used to clarify the words of another. Thus, the Pneûma joins the two, and the Uttural and Inutteral together form the complete vessel – the outer voice fixed by the inner flame. These meanings, together, specifically and precisely alter one’s Atman, their divine emanation of the One. When imprinted, the Logos, otherwise utterly indifferent to the meaningless and thoughtless words of Men, alters in kind. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「∞」 T ʜ ᴇ P ᴀ ʀ ᴀ ʙ ʟ ᴇ ᴏ ꜰ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ B ᴏ ʏ - S ᴀ ɪ ɴ ᴛ I ꜱ ʜ ᴏ This is a vision of the Logos as it was, is and shall ever be, revealed through insight by the Nameless Son in the year 247 SA. The Pneûma that silences all dissent is written here, Its ageless wisdom prepared by these hands. Read, and be at peace. 1 Stand with us in the time of Iblees’ defeat, and see the wound cut deep into Aeos' soul. 2 See the faces of the diminished peoples, accursed, who flee into the wilderness to shield themselves from the evils that stalk their once familiar roads. 3 The elves go into the forests to soothe their sorrows with green crowns. 4 Their tears feed the roots, and soon they are trapped in a prison of their own making. 5 The dwarves take their comfort in treasure and industry, and soon they too are trapped, in great halls and cities without end. 6 But see, there on the horizon! 7 Some few children of Horen remain unbowed, standing beneath the sun as if it were their war banner, and they march for lands unknown. 8 In the far desert, there settles one of these peoples unbroken. 9 See their numbers, like a great herd of sheep, and hear their voices raised up in one great song. 10 Their praise for the Almighty feeds their spiritual hunger, such that through drought, through famine, through plague they kneel only when the mantle of Silence is cast over them. 11 See how well they suffer in the desert! 12 Blistered skin, lobster red, and calloused hands like the leathery paws of bears. 13 And yet, see, see deeper still, into the well of their souls whose waters fill from the Logos’ secret reservoir! 14 But now the pain is great, and the pain is through and through, infiltrating every pore, perfuming every inch of skin. 15 The pain breaks the spirit, and see now, these noble children are ignoble, at war with themselves. 16 See the waters of the well churned up, their white foam becoming a sea of swords that stains the dunes black with pointlessly spilt blood. 17 See the root and the branch and the leaf of the stain, the blood hungering tree whose innards burst into downward spiralling flame. 18 A black tree drinking black blood from black souls. 19 The hateful tree grows tall, built up before the desert people by their own hands, built up with golden idols and babbling prayer, with noxious burnt offerings and stolen loot. 20 There remains now but one star to adore the hidden sun, but one hand that reaches out to the cool water of midnight-noon. 21 He is young, blessedly weak in infirmity, kept safe from the teachings of the devilish tree. 22 See how the hunger glides over him, never through him, as oil rejected by water. 23 See hair turned silver-gold, like mist through wheat, an abundance of faith yet abiding in him, gathered to him by his study of the old words. 24 See how the time for action comes, see the grimace on his face when his father is slain, hear his quiet footsteps as he makes holy pilgrimage into the stainless wastes. 25 On the first day, he seeks for nothing, for his tears are his end. 26 See how he walks wherever they flow, in the safe path of guarding waters, of sorrow flooding where rage might have burnt. 27 When the first night comes in darkness, he bows his head to the heavens and says to the spray of starry tears, “Hyle, from me you have taken my father, taken him down in his vengeance. 28 But I remain with him and he remains with me.”. 29 This is his refrain, HE REMAINS WITH ME, and it echoes still. 27 On the second day, see how the desert grows sharper, how the dunes twist like the ribs of a great white beast, desiccated and penitent beneath the sun. 28 The boy walks where no men have walked before him, where the wind blows not and the sun burns and does not shine. 29 His throat cracks, his lips split, but his gaze has never faltered. 30 When the noon-flame hangs above him, and it does not blink, so does he raise his trembling hands, leathery and haggles, and utters a low prayer. 31 And so he walks until the sun dies again, and when darkness swallows him, he kneels, pressing his brow into the unforgiving earth; and in his refrain, he whispers again. “He remains with me.” 32 And the desert listens, but it has no answer. 33 On the third day, the boy’s strength fails. 34 Like hollow reeds, his legs fall before him, and he sinks into the granular embrace. 35 The sky swims above him; the world grows thin, and Ignorance creeps at the edge of his vision. 36 See how the earth itself drinks him, accepting the shattered vessel, but even the Mother lies not here. 37 He is fallen, face-flat, upon his stone, upon his sepulchre. 38 In the ochre shadow, he prays .. 39 Stand and witness! 40 He is prostrated before the world-shrine and prays now to the radiance beyond with prayers for Its every mercy. 41 He chooses love where others might have chosen anger, submission where others might have chosen rage, the listening ear where others might have been deafened by boiling blood. 42 See him, the least and the most, as opens his sorrowful heart to the sky. 43 Lord, this desert heat is a healing punishment, a suffering earned by our failure to defeat the Enemy. 44 Lord, we know that strength is the way of this corrupted world, and yet we looked to its corruption for power. 45 It burnt so cooly in our hearts, like the ice-fire of frostbite. 46 It is this that has cursed us, as much as the Enemy has cursed us in twisting our souls and turning our eyes from truth. 47 O Lord!, let there be visited upon me the whole of this heat! 48 Let my pain be enough for all! 49 Let the reddening, the blistering, the bleeding of my flesh be the scourging of strength's false flame from the hearts of all the devoted children of Horen! 50 See, now, how he cups the Water in trembling hands, weeping sightless and all-seeing, communing with the God, see how he lifts it; see him gather it in the jar of his flesh, how he is drowned by the Water, how there is nothing but Water, how it unfolds as revelation, and has taken the desert as its charge! 51 See how he pours the Water out before him, giving, as all true vessels must; see how they are beholden, and they flower before him, and their idols fracture like sun-scorned pottery in his sightless sights! 52 See how he is naked and new, a child again, though his hair is silver, a vessel emptied of thirst and filled with the sumption of God. 53 Thus were born the Isho-Kishauri, the Water-Bearers of Isho, those emptied and exulted in the Water and in Truth, blessed and luminous. 54 Amen; so mote it be. 「V」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ T ʜ ᴇ P ʀ ᴏ ꜰ ᴀ ɴ ᴇ W ᴏ ʀ ʟ ᴅ ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ ༺──◎ The Profane World, that illusion of Creation wherein all that is seen is false, is the very thing that blinds the soul to the sight of the Logos. Sight, passion, and distraction; that which appears as Truth, but distracts from and veils the lattice of order. ◎──༻ Those who would become the masters of the Pneûma, and thereby witness the very Logos itself, must blind themselves to the Profane World; they must cast away distraction, silence the senses themselves. In stripping perception to its barest, they grasp the very impetus. They no longer see the “what” of things, but the “how.” In doing this, the Logos is revealed, and the Pneûmatic witnesses how the imprint they leave upon it causes the Logos to flow; tides, currents and ripples. This is the Water2; the Gnosis, in finite form, order made visible as motion itself. In glimpsing the Water, one glimpses the Logos. It is for this reason that we say that he who awakens to the Gnosis, in finite and meagre part, is drowned. He who is drowned is exalted; his false, lesser self is washed away, annihilated, in the face of the Truth of the One. Those who would witness the Logos and the Water thus, who drown and return thereafter, become as the Isho-Kishauri; the Holy Water-Bearers of Isho, a title most exalted and rare within the Penitent-Faith. They are the heirs of the Boy-Saint, whose heaven-sent Water returned life to his peoples. The spring of Isho is the Water of the Logos, and the Water-Bearer is the carrier of Truth. ༺──◎──༻ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「VI」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ T ʜ ᴇ P ʀ ɪ ꜱ ᴏ ɴ ᴏ ꜰ H ʏ ʟ ᴇ ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ The soul of Man is an emanation of the One, a spark of eternity enclosed in the prison of matter. When the One emanates Itself into the Many, its fragments descend into Form, Hyle. Hyle is a necessity, giving limit, contour and resistance, and without it, nothing could appear, and the World itself would dissolve into undifferentiated light. Hyle is the veil by which the One sustains the multiplicity of all things. ༺──◎──༻ Hyle is bondage as much as it is appearance. Matter is heavy, and this weight is resistance. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ The soul yearns for return to the One, but Hyle weighs it down, binding it to passions, appetites and ornaments. Even still, the ordinance of Creation prevents its arisal to Oneness. The Pneûma is the Divine Breath; yet still, the breath may be choked. Like the harmonies of the lyre’s song is dampened whence buried beneath mounds of dirt, so is the Breath muffled when encrusted with Hyle. This is seen most keenly with dense matters; metals, stones, and rigid substances. They are of the earth, inert and dead, and so their weight presses most heavily upon the soul’s imprint. In adornment of these, the emanation sinks into the world’s gravity, and the Pneûma flows no more freely than the mundane breath itself. Organic vestments, in converse, are veils alone. Cloth, leather, and wood. They are borne of life, and carry yet the memory of flux and breath, from which Meaning may yet be derived. Therefore, the Pneûmatic must strip himself of Hyle; not merely adornment alone, but the heavier passions, also. Lust. Greed. Vanity. Anger. These are also Hyle – they are the prisons of the spirit, clothed in desire. In casting them away, you will lighten the soul, loosen its fetters, and permit the Breath to flow unimpeded. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「VII」 ──●◎ ◎●── T ʜ ᴇ T ᴡ ᴏ W ᴀ ʏ ꜱ ༺─-.── ─────۝ ۝───── ──.-─༻ The Breath divides as the One divides. The One becomes the Gnosis and the Logos, the flame and the lattice, the immediacy of the One’s awareness, and the order of Its thought. As It is cleft in twain, like the original Schools of the Penitent-Faith, we oft denote these states “Mandate” and “Eschaton”, for they reflect the Two Schools themselves. But this division is not a disunity, but is, rather, a cycle. Like the actions of breathing in and out, like the two thumps of the heartbeat, they are two, but they are One. In emanating Itself into Creation, the One reveals two faces of Its single life. » The Gnosis is the pure, unmediated awareness of the One – it is fire, immediacy, and remaking. » The Logos is the structure of the One’s thought – it is form, harmony and reflection. As the Pneûma is the soul’s imprint upon the Logos, and too the Logos itself is the formal aspect of the One, there arises a paradox, as is seen in all aspects of Creation – paradoxicality. On one side, the Pneûmatic must be empty to be written upon (Logos), whilst on the other side, the Pneûmatic must be the fire with which all is written (Gnosis). All things move between two states, denoted “Mandate” and “Eschaton”, within the ordinance of the Whole. As the Breath itself alternates through inhalation and exhalation, ebb and surge, so must the soul of the Pneûmatic move between Logos and Gnosis. Even the Oscillit, who do not glimpse the Gnosis, are unconsciously pulled into alternation. They imagine this fluctuation to be mood or temperament, but it is, in truth, the motion of the One. In identical fashion, they believe the necessity of meditation beneath the hylic forms of Sun and Moon to be the crux of the Two Ways – but the Sun3 and Moon3 are mirrors alone, solely manifesting the dual rhythm of the One in Creation. When the Pneûmatic dwells beneath them, it is the contemplation of the eternal alteration through the medium of the semiotic that brings forth the truest Meaning. To the Pneûmatics, Meaning itself has opened Itself whole to them. For only they have glimpsed the Gnosis. ༺──◎──༻ 「VIII」 ──●◎●── T ʜ ᴇ W ᴀ ʏ ᴏ ꜰ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ G ɴ ᴏ ꜱ ɪ ꜱ ༺─-.── ───── ۝ ───── ──.-─༻ The Gnosis is the primal awareness of the One, regardless of structure. It is fire, immediacy, and remaking. The Pneûmatic who walks the Gnostic Way becomes the very aperture for the surge of the One’s awareness, which overflows into act. As the Logos proceeds from the Gnosis, whence the adept ignites with Gnosis, the Logos must yield in kind. His will ceases to be private appetite, and becomes the channel of the One’s own immediacy. In this moment, he remembers that he is without free will, that it is solely the One who commands through him, and so in surrendering, he seizes. Through the Gnostic Way, the adept is the breaker and remaker – his is the force, the ignition, the healing through incision, and the direct stroke of transformation. Through the primacy of the Gnosis over the Logos, his imprint becomes a vector, a cutting flame, that breaks and remakes the Logos. Excess of the Gnostic Way breeds pride. The adept mistakes appetite for revelation, and they burn like an over-fat candle; their wick forever outruns their wax. His cure is the Logian Way. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「IX」 ──●◎●── T ʜ ᴇ W ᴀ ʏ ᴏ ꜰ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ L ᴏ ɢ ᴏ ꜱ ༺─-.── ───── ۝ ───── ──.-─༻ The Logos is the lattice of the One’s thoughts. The Pneûmatic who walks the Logian Way becomes a vessel, emptied of his private will, so that the Logos may flow through him. He is the mirror, the surface, the reflection. He is shaped, and in his reshaping, shapes therein. The Logos is indifferent to the arbitrary words and wills of Men. When the soul relinquishes its connotation and desire, becoming Silent and clear, it resonates with the harmony of the Logos. In this moment, he remembers that he is a slave to the Logos; as he has imprinted upon the Logos in meagre quantity, the Logos has always imprinted upon him. The Logos then moves within the adept as Its own expression. Through the Logian Way, the adept is the aligner and the bender – his is the veil, the binding, the revelation, the orderer and the preserver. As a vessel to the Logos, his imprint becomes the axis, the immanence that names the Breath as the one true ground. Excess of the Logian Way breeds suffering. The adept, as vessel to the Logos, is eternally imprinted upon by the vast unconscious of the imprintings of every soul upon him, and would weep for his attachment for the world’s suffering. His cure is the Gnostic Way. ◎──────────────── ۝ ────────────────◎ 「X」 ──◎── T ʜ ᴇ R ᴇ ᴛ ᴜ ʀ ɴ ᴛ ᴏ O ɴ ᴇ ༺─-.───────۝───────.-─༻ The Two Ways, whilst easily mistaken as adversaries, are but the two movements of the One’s single return. The vessel and the flame shall be reconciled, as all things shall be. Until this day, the Pneûmatic must always alternate; they must move as the Pneûma itself moves, and too, as all things must move. For this .. .. is The Shortest Way. Sealed without name, known amongst men as Wahrheit, the Truth. ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ ꜱʜɪɴᴇꜱ. ꜱᴏ ᴍᴏᴛᴇ ɪᴛ ʙᴇ. 「XI」 ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ A ᴘ ᴘ ᴇ ɴ ᴅ ɪ x ⊰⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⊱ Definitions: The Pneûma: The Divine Breath; the remembrance that the soul of Man is an emanation of the One, and the capacity to consciously align the soul’s emanation with the Logos through Meaning. Pneûma, unlike ordinary respiration or the profane Shallow Breath, is conscious Meaning, as opposed to blind Will. It is both the Breath of the Absolute within the chest of Man and the discipline by which this Breath is remembered and directed. The Gnosis: The Holy and Ultimate Truth, that which is synonymous with enlightenment. The primal awareness of the One, prior to form or structure. The Gnosis is the ground of consciousness itself, forgotten by Man but capable of being “glimpsed” when the soul perceives the Logos as its own living awareness, and not as an external order. The Logos: The formal structure of the One’s thought. It is infinite, logical, harmonic order. All emanations exist within the Logos, and all imprint themselves upon it. It is the medium of relation: it is the “place” in which entities subsist and by which their interactions are possible. In the Pneûma, it is both the field that may be bent, and the mirror that shapes the adept himself. The Pleroma: The fullness of the Absolute; the totality of all divine emanations in harmony. It is the infinite content of the Logos’ order, and is the eternal reservoir of all forms and truths. If the Logos is the ordering principle, the Pleroma is the content of the order itself. The One is the Source, the Gnosis is the direct awareness of the source, the Logos is the ordering of the source, and the Pleroma is the fullness of this order – wherein all divine patterns, archetypes and truths are found. Meaning: The essence of the Logos itself, the perfect correspondence between expression and Truth. If the Pneûma is the breath of the One, then Meaning is its direction. Unlike finite words (which are conventional and contingent), Meaning is intrinsic – the adequation of a sign or act with the order of the Logos, such that the sign or act completely encompasses the infinite. It is both the essence and the instrument by which the Pneûma imprints upon it. Will: The blind struggling of the individual soul, which is both appetitive and ignorant. Will is extrinsic, unlike Meaning, and imposes as opposed to alignment. It is the distortion of the Logos through the finite perspective of a fragmentary soul. Kani: The art that arises from the attempt to bend the Logos by Will alone, termed “The Shallow Breath”. It relies on bodily and mental conditioning to generate resonance, but it lacks the recollection of the Gnosis, and thus lacks Meaning. It is a simulacrum of the Pneûma, as it is an imprint that produces damaging effects within the Logos, but without intrinsic alignment to its order. Hyle: The principle of materiality. It is the necessary condition for individuation in the worldly sense, but binds the soul to weight and passion. Metal, stone, ornament, lust, greed, vanity and anger alike are all Hyle. The Pneûmatic must strip himself of Hyle as much as possible in order for the Pneûma to flow, lightening his soul. The “Water”: The dynamic flow of the Logos when made visible in the finite sense. It is the currents and ripples of it when revealed when the Pneûmatic sees how his imprint moves within the lattice of the Logos itself. It is the finite form of the Gnosis, as it is Truth apprehended in the sense of Motion. As it is the finite form of the Gnosis, it is said that to see it is to “drown”, a baptismal transformation of Being that awakens an individual to their eminence within the One. The Profane World: The phenomenal world of appearances, made up of sense, passion and distraction. When the Logos, infinite and formal, is viewed through the finite limitations of Hyle and Will, it becomes distorted and, when apprehended in this distorted way, is the “Profane World”. It is known, otherwise, as “Mundus”. The Two Ways: The fundamental modes of the Pneûma, made up of the Gnostic and Logian Ways. They are cyclical alternations as opposed to being opposites, and correspond to the dual aspects of the One’s self-manifestation, this being awareness (Gnosis) and structure (Logos). Commentaries: [1]: Much of the linguistic origin of the lexicon of the Penitent-Faith is hypothesised as originating from the primaeval mother tongue of the Wisemen, “Hellenic”. This was utilised most notably by the Akritian philosopher Thales, who the Schoolman had likely known. Whilst no works of Thales survive, it is said that he wrote upon the Soul and the Formless. [2]: In the appearance of the Water, we see most clearly the divorce between the finite and the infinite. The Logos is infinite, and cannot be seen by finite sight. The Gnosis is, as it is supernatural, able to take the form of the finite and infinite alike. As the glimpsing of the Gnosis awakens one to their eminence within the One, it awakens one to the infinity of their own soul. Through this holy bridge, the Pneûmatic who has blinded themselves to the Profane World may utilise their soul’s eye to witness the Logos for itself. They will see that the Water, in tides, currents, and ripples of ineffable Meaning, is the visible motion of the Divine Order itself. [3]: The Two Ways are often erringly referred to as the Ways of the “Sun” and the “Moon” respectively by the Oscillit, but these are hylic terms that are illusions and distractions from the Truth. Wʀɪᴛɪɴɢ: Hᴏʟʏʟᴀɴᴅ, Aᴇʟᴇꜱʜ Fᴏʀᴍᴀᴛᴛɪɴɢ: Mᴏᴜᴍɪɴꜱ

at this point you guys all gotta get together and just release your amendment suggestions for naz and related in one post because holy shit ive seen like 15 of these things in the last week or 2 when will it be enough

A Place-without-Name twitched, and a fragment of Caucasian skin flaked off with it, gathering as gravel in the runnels of flesh. Alabaster shined beneath. Hallowed fingers formed the words he'd taught her, stiff and languid at once. "Truth Shines" they'd said. Her grave would shine, sun unto sepulchre, even as her silent spirit began a lifetime anew. He would see her again.

I genuinely think Tawkin would be much better if Kloning was its own separate knowledge part of it that one can learn optionally, but is separate from the rest of Tawkin. This would mean that people who haven't learned to Klone can apply for TAs nonetheless. Also, as someone who roleplays a religion that believes in reincarnation, not in the Kloning sense, but in the Buddhist generalised reincarnation of souls through different lifecycles as a whole, it seems very silly that demonstrating more broad knowledge of "reincarnation" renders one subject to the strict PK clause of the Klones.

he won’t tell the world about the sodom method of making salt love and appreciate you bro <3

@Swgrclaŋ

Sometimes, when a lore possesses something that even closely resembles another lore, it may be judged because of the concept of "lore bloat" - the ST believes that lores should each occupy and hold their own individual niche. I'd recommend reading The Demi-Djinn. Additionally, whilst it's nice to see that you want to keep trying to write lore after the last one that you submitted that I commented on, I'd suggest reading other lore pieces and seeing "what they did right" that got them passed in the first place. Your lore suffers at its fundamentals because of its lack of true "mechanics" - an individual who writes lore needs to be aware of the 'interactions' that serve between their proposed Creature or Magic and other Creatures and Magics from other Aenguldaemons, especially being that yours originates from the Old Ones. It suffers from vagueness. Vagueness, because of your lack of in-world interaction, properly and extensively detailed weaknesses and strengths, as well as a proper origin lore - the Old Ones are descended Daemons, and hold no Aenguldaemonic power in the sense of being able to grant a boon to people, so much one that would grant vague immortality ! It also suffers from great complexity - complexity, because, for instance, your 'more-slots-devoted-more-power-gained' system is vague, and LOTC relies on a system that is very dogmatic and all-encompassing, most seen within systems like the Techlock, and these systems dominate every part of every pretty much every magic and CA that exists on LOTC, for the pure sake of simplicity for in-game use. A system that suffers from extreme vagueness is one that is infinitely harder to review, and will just get denied for needing far more actual depth of thought to it - and, in addition to that, it is a lot harder to use (and a lot easier to abuse!) in game for players who are both the holders of the CA/Magic AND for those who are their foes. This reminds me of a good Suits quote: "The rules dictate that you must be precise, as the law is a precise endeavour." Lore, these days, can only exist as fundamentally cool and interesting BECAUSE of all of the work and effort and thought that's gone into actually planning out and simplifying its usage in game, both for the players that use it and for the people that they use it against. This, above all, requires precision, accuracy and depth. I'd expect 10x the amount of writing you've done for a lore-piece such as this (even just for the basic things you've done as strengths and weaknesses, abilities and such) for it to actually be applicable as something that might be considered for acceptance (getting past the boundary that is, within itself, the reason that the Old Ones aren't really used for magic and CAs in the first place, being that they lack the proper ability to grant such deific boons in the first place nowadays!). Whenever you want to write some kind of ability, strength, or weakness into any lore you want to write, you need to review the lore efforts of your peers on this server that have had their lore accepted that have similar attributes within them - not just how they were accepted (how much 'devotion' is required of their associated Magic / CA, slots devoted, things barred from being able to be used, revival rituals, etc ..) but why. Read their lore, read their redlines, see how they designed everything mechanically, learn for yourself what good attributes were shared amongst the writing that each of these pieces had that led to their acceptance in the first place, and don't emulate their writing, but use it as a basis upon which you can write your own well-balanced, well thought out, clear and balanced and simple system with mechanics for your own lore pieces.