...being a transcription of a lecture given by Linete of Akhun, Corthina at the temple to Halea in Shiran to the Corathar in her charge [1]
No other faith has access to the whole truth. Each, in its way, is misguided [2] and unknowingly diverts people from the true path to inner fulfilment [3]. This failure to understand the nature of humanity and the universe in which we live takes the form of the Four
As for honour in battle, this is a fine thing if your opponent chooses to obey the same rules. But how many actually do so in the heat of the fight? It is only right to take every advantage one can, thus minimising the risk to oneself, and presumably helping to ensure the ultimate victory of your cause. Again, this so-called virtue may cause you needless harm, and is clearly no virtue at all.
Furthermore, Larani shows the full extent of her fall into the First false bargain in her attitude to other practices. To the Laranian, so-called overindulgence in food and wine should be avoided, and sexual relations should be contemplated only with those to whom you are married. How can these things be beneficial to the soul? The Laranian denies himself the pleasures of the flesh, thinking that in doing so he is purifying his soul. In reality, he abandons any hope of reaching inner fulfilment.
But the devout Peonian goes further than this. Not only does she forgive that which should not be forgiven, she denies herself the route to inner fulfilment. Like the Laranian, she will abstain from sexual relations outside of marriage and other pleasures of the flesh. To graduate to the priesthood, a Peonian must fast and otherwise undergo needless denial.
And yet even this is perhaps not the most misguided of Peoni's teachings. For many Peonians take a vow of poverty and claim avarice for a sin. Thus they deny themselves all means to inner fulfilment and take pride in their abandonment of bodily solace and comfort. Truly does the Peonian ring herself about with false morals which deny her all those things which she should seek.
The priest of Save K'nor would claim that his mind is on 'higher' things and must be kept focused on such matters. He would claim that scholasticism is a joy, and so it may be for such people. But true fulfilment of the soul may only be reached by partaking of all healthy desires [4], not discarding some in favour of others.
And with what scholastic matters does our priest of Save K'nor concern himself? What are these 'higher' things which he claims we should contemplate? There are many such areas of study considered worthy, but chief among them is philosophy. Not the philosophy of action, of how to achieve what is best for oneself, or of any other practical matter. But the philosophy of metaphysics, the nature and origin of reality [5]. Of what practical use is this? It is clear to everyone except a priest of Save K'nor, it seems, how the universe works in all ways that matter to us. Yet he puzzles over abstruse issues with no relevance to the normal man, and talks in reams of jargon only invented to conceal his lack of useful knowledge from the world. Only the foolish are deceived into thinking that if something is incomprehensible it must also be erudite.
By denying all pleasures save one, and by making a virtue of the irrelevant, Save K'nor bargains falsly in the first, and takes his followers with him.
The Laranian enters battle because he is ordered to do so. To him, the oath of fealty to his lord is of the utmost importance. Yet he is in many ways, a reluctant warrior, claiming to fight only because it is necessary. The worshipper of Sarajin, however, fights because he takes joy in doing so. Difficult as it may be for some of us here to understand, the Ivinian warrior finds battle exhilarating, he enjoys the thrill of the fight, the triumph of standing over your enemy and vanquishing him (whereas a Laranian might show 'mercy'; a purposeless sentiment under the circumstances). Where we might take pleasure in fine music and wine, the Ivinian takes it in battle. He is seeking, in his own way, the bliss of inner fulfilment.
Ivinians hope for nothing more than to die gloriously in battle. In many ways this is similar to our own belief that the most glorious death is while taking pleasure at an extravagant party. Only the nature of the act being enjoyed are different. Indeed, I once spent some time with a group of Ivinians visiting our city from Orbaal. I can confirm that they drank copiously, enjoyed music, albeit of a kind somewhat raucous to our ears, and that they enthusiastically met my needs in other ways as well. Sarajin, they said, encourages all these things in his followers.
It may be so that the ways of Sarajin are closer to ours than those of any other deity, yet he still offers the second false bargain. For Sarajin prizes only the way of the warrior. To him, taking enjoyment in things other than battle is secondary, and a person ill equipped for the battlefield by either frame or temperament will find no favour with him. And that is the fatal weakness of Sarajin's teachings: they prize only one form of pleasure and one way of acting, and fail to understand that for most humans, a life of constant battle needs not to enjoyment, but to unwanted injury and death. This narrowness of thinking, we call Circumscription, or the Second False Bargain.
But it is the naked lust for power that lies at the core of their particular form for which Agrik bargains falsely for circumscription. By denying the validity of other means of fulfilment, they proscribe their actions too tightly, leaving no time to stop and experience the pleasure of the moment. They desire ultimate power, yet this naturally remains forever beyond their grasp, so no matter how they strive they can never attain fulfilment. There is always one more thing to be done before they can happy, and because power, unlike love or wine, cannot be shared, there is always another Agrikan waiting to take their place and deprive of them their gains. So to do they deprive others of their chance at fulfilment [7], inflicting needless pain and suffering on those they have at their mercy.
So, Agrikans pursue that which they desire, as we do, and act under no system of false morals. Yet what they desire can rarely be obtained, or truly enjoyed when it is obtained. As such, Agrikanism is an empty faith which makes only false promises to its adherents.
Ilvir makes almost no demands of his followers, save that they visit Araka-Kalai once in a while and offer up the occasional prayer. How can one gain inner fulfilment from such acts? Of what practical benefit is the religion to its followers? This is the nature of Ilvir's false bargain--apathy; to fail completely to understand the importance of physical pleasure in our lives and to make no pronouncements on it one way or the other.
Ilvirans may produce many works of art, some of them of great beauty. Yet this is as far as they progress towards the truth in their religious life. And they do so not for the pleasure it brings them, but to emulate the creativity of their god. The Ilviran way is empty, for it has nothing to say about those things which are important in life. This is why we see their temples so run down and their priests so destitute. Ilvirans make no effort to better themselves and so find themselves limited to needless poverty.
His delight is in destruction, and he makes no bargains, only promises doom even to his followers. Those loyal to him, it is said, are reborn as Undead [9]. No longer can they take pleasure in physical things, and their free will is wiped way as if it had never been. This fate is so horrible to contemplate that I say it would be better if one's soul were expunged altogether and eternity be denied you, than than that one join the ranks of the Undead.
Morgathrians are utterly damned. No matter what their actions they may never attain inner fulfilment. Morgath destroys all those things in which we may take pleasure, and seeks to bring all of creation to that same unending doom. he offers nothing in return and his path is to be rejected by all sane persons.
We shall examine each of the faiths in turn, and show how each falls prey to one or more of the False Bargains and why it is to be rejected.
THE REPRESSIVE RELIGIONS
LARANIANISM
Larani claims as the highest virtues loyal service to one's lord and honour in battle. These are false virtues and to be rejected. One's liege lord may act in a way which is to your detriment. Might he not order you to attack another lord's land, thus placing you in unnecessary danger of suffering physical harm? If the other lord is obviously planning to attack himself, one might argue that one is acting out of self preservation. But we all know that not all lords think like this, and that fewer still do so all of the time. Thus unswerving loyalty to one's lord may be needlessly harmful, and is therefore clearly a false virtue.PEONISM
Peonians would have us believe that the greatest virtue is forgiveness. The foolishness of such a view should be apparent to all. First, forgiveness achieves nothing. If some item is stolen from us, what avails it to forgive the thief? This will certainly not return that which was stolen, and leaves us the poorer. The Peonian might counter that our soul is richer for the act of forgiveness, but if the item was one which gave us pleasure and we have it no longer, how can that be beneficial to our soul? Secondly, forgiveness does us harm, for it encourages others to take advantage of us. If someone breaks a contract with you, and you forgive them and make no attempt to seek restitution, others will take advantage of you also, and you will suffer greatly for it. Thirdly, to forgive is to turn your back on the bounty of the Goddess. For if you have the opportunity for vengeance and fail to take it, you reject the will of fortune herself in giving you this opportunity. Such ingratitude does nothing but belittle the glorious powers of the cosmos.SAVE K'NOR
The followers of this god claim they are wise, yet in reality they are foolish. While they generally do not seek to persuade others of their supposed truth of their misguided aims, they do nothing to help themselves either. The priest of Save K'nor denies himself female companionship, does not allow himself to become drunk and permits himself little in the way of creature comforts. They perform many empty rituals each day, which can have no useful purpose save to divert their minds from those things which all humans really desire. In doing so, they too, like the Laranian and Peonian, banish any hope of inner fulfilment.THE CIRCUMSCRIBED RELIGIONS
SARAJIN
Like the Laranian, the Ivinian makes virtue of loyalty to his lord. Also like the Laranian, he frequently heads into armed conflict and sees it as virtuous to die in battle. Why then do I say that he bargains falsely in the Second, not the First? To understand this we must appreciate the reasons behind the codes of chivalry and the Ljarl, which as some of you may know [6], is the name of the Ivinian code of honour.AGRIKANISM
Agrik is another warrior deity, and he differs greatly from both Larani and Sarajin. Agrikans fight neither for enjoyment nor because of a self-imposed compulsion, but as a means to an end. That end is the lust for power. This is the desire that fuels the Agrikan, to hold sway over his fellow men and to be able to do with them as he pleases. Art, music and fine food hold no interest for them, because they are irrelevant to the pursuit of personal power. Sex is something to be taken, not something to be shared. Like Sarajin, they value bravery and fail to understand that there may be other ways of behaving which are just as valid to the individual.SIEM [8]
The followers of Siem, it is said, take joy in the beauty of nature. By ignoring the pleasures of the flesh and concentrating solely on those of an ethereal nature, they too, make the false bargain of circumscription. This may, for all I know, be a valid and fulfilling way for a Sindar or a Khuzdul to behave, but it is not human nature. We should not seek to emulate the other races, and should instead by true to ourselves. By denying the importance of the acquisition of wealth and worldly pleasures, they can never attain the true inner fulfilment that their philosophy so clearly tries to grasp at.THE APATHETIC RELIGIONS
ILVIRANISM
Ilvir does not demand that his followers obey false virtues, and so does not barter for repression. Neither does he place arbitrary limitations upon the means of fulfilment, and so circumscription is avoided also. Yet the reason for this is that he makes no moral demands of his worshippers at all. The Ilviran worships his god purely out of admiration for his creativity. He seeks no inner fulfilment, just the acceptance of his god.NAVEH [8]
The worshippers of Naveh are fanatical killers who hide in the night. While they have no false morality, their god makes them no promises in this life. They do not know for what it is that they strive and to what ends they do their work. But we can say that their objective is not satisfaction through pleasure, and thus they will find themselves cut off from inner fulfilment. Furthermore, their life is a dangerous and risky one, and puts them at risk which could so easily be avoided where they only to follow another faith.THE BARBARIAN RELIGIONS [8]
The life of the barbarians is crude and unsatisfying. Their gods reflect this, making emphasis only of those things that are needed for the most basic levels of survival. Physical pleasure and luxury are not parts of their religion, for their society has not yet reached a level at which it can properly provide such things. One can say with some truth that the barbarian religions are more truly ignorant than they are erroneous. Perhaps given time they might advance towards the truth as our ancestors once did, but that is not a matter with which we need concern ourselves.
THE MALTHEISTIC RELIGION
MORGATHRIANISM
Morgath teaches his followers to do that which pleases them. He places no moral limits on their action, and neither does he insist that only one type of enjoyment is valid. Thus he bargains not for repression, circumscription or apathy. Yet Morgath, in his insanity, offers a false bargain more serious still. Morgath has no love for the beauty of creation, and he takes no delight in those pleasures of the flesh which are proper to humans.NOTES
[1] - see Shiran 10. Note that there is no attempt here to explain the attitudes of other religions to Haleanism, and the information provided here is intentionally (on my part, not Linete's) a biased and partially inaccurate view of other faiths. None the less, I would certainly appreciate feedback from HRT members and others on the moral stance of the other religions vis a vis avarice, lust, drunkenness, gastronomic indulgence, etc. as it may lead to refinements or changes to this article. Much of the comment in this article concerns Halean philosophy, which I should emphasise is little known or cared about by the majority of lay worshippers. Generally only priestesses or the unusually devout would be familiar with the concepts Linete expounds.
[2] - there may, for all we know, be a Kethiran religion which could be regarded as allied to Haleanism and differing on doctrinal grounds, not fundamental moral issues. But if so, it has not been described and must exist in some so far unexplored part of the world, such as eastern Lythia.