From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Mon 13 Sep 1993 - 09:55:29 EEST
>
> Illuminates do what GLs do, but without the rationalist
> myth-technology they have. Instead of manipulating myths on the hero
> and god plane, they join cults, gather powers, and move on. (But: Arkat?)
My personal comception of the difference between Arkat and Gbaji and the GLs is that the powers given by all are very similar, they differ mainly in moral attitude. The important thing about Illumination is that it frees you from the morality imposed by others - you realise that the morality of law and chaos is just something that you have been taught by your cult, not a true reflection of the situation, and similar insights apply to other cult prohibitions, hence the immunity to spirits of retribution and ignoring geases, etc. I feel that the effect of Illumination (full illumination, know that Dorastor tells us that not all Illuminates have all abilities) is to make yu realise that the morality taught to you by your cult and society is just a social/magical construct that only has meaning because you let it.
I feel that the Dark and Light sides of Illumination are truely just different attitudes to this moral freedom - and generally oversimplification. The Dark side - Gbaji - is to take the freedom to choose your morality as the freedom to ignore or do without. Some people take illumination as freedom and power to do what the hell they want.
The light side of Arkat/Nysalor is to realise that with freedom and power comes responsibility. I think of the original Nysalor cultists as naive, with very liberal attitudes to chaos and cult associations, and perhaps some of the Lunar Empire is like this - particulary the civilised inhabitants of the heartlands - that have never actually seen evil chaos in action. They would disapprove of anti-chaos fanatics as we disapprove of religious fanatics.
The Illuminated Arkati I think of as being much less naive. They are not exactly fanatic in the sense of unthinking rejection, but they are ruthless in the extreme. I think that the true teaching of Arkat is similar to philosophers like Nietsche - I think that the message of Arkat is that the Illuminate has trancended the restrictions of society and cult and can see more clearly what must be done, and has the responsibility to do what must be done, particularly when others will not do it. Arkati consider themselves the ultimate moral arbiter, and believe that they have a responsibility to do the things that others are too weak or too restricted by cult to do. The classic example is Arkat joining ZZ - he saw that the codes of honour and the respect for the innocent of the Humakti and other Orlanthi pantheon types was crippling them, and that the cult of Nysalor would survive, so he did the unthinkable and joined ZZ. Arkati are seen by others as fanatics, but they see themselves not as religious fanatics, but as ruthless, ends-justifies-the-means types. I also think that Arkati walk a very narrow line between the dark and the light, and that it is easy for them to fall into the Gbaji trap.
I think that Arkati are quite capable of using the tools of chaos to destroy it - but I could be quite wrong. Perhaps they are truly moral examplars, who strive to display honour at all times to show that they are not trapped by the dark side. Or more likely, Arkat is such a controversial and important fidure that there are probably many different ways of interpreting his teachings, and they probably vary as much as sects of Islam or Christianity do today. But I like the idea of Arkati terrorists, destroying those that they see as a threat by any means necessary.
Actually, what I really like about Illumination is the moral ambiguity that it introduces. I would love to see this really appear in a game.
I would also like to mention that I think that Arkat and the God-Learners had very similar insights (though the majority of Arkat worshippers would be unaware of this). Arkat was the discoverer of the type of HeroQuest that changes mythology and forges new paths, rather than re-enacts it (not the first one to do this, but the first one to study it systematically). This is the same ability that enabled the GLs to perform most of their mythical alterations, and they probably learned most of it from the Arkat cult when they conquered the Dark Empire. The difference between the GLs and Arkat is merely one of hubris, when Nysalor was killed, Arkat wanted to be a normal person once more, but the GLs had an urge to change and conquer and bend the world to their will.
Cheers Dave Cake ---------------------
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