Stop the Madness

[thurgond]

My fellow Zorai, I wish to speak with you about the state of our civilization.

When I enter Zora, I don't hear temple drums, I hear the drums of war. I fear we are in the weakest position of the four homin civilizations. Our population is low, our guilds squabble amoung themselves, but most importantly we are ruled by a madhomin.

Over a generation ago, I was amoung the first to heed the call to rebuild our culture and recapture past glories. When I first arrived in the Cities of Intuition, the accents were strange but most of the customs were the same as those practiced in my village. Most. The Kami were still venerated, but the Zorai that followed the rainbows away from their ancestral jungle had aquired that most un-bluish object, a god.

As a child I was tought to honor and obey my parents. As a child is to his parents, the Kami are to homin, more powerful and more wise. One was to follow the counsel of the Kami as one would ones grandparents or guru. The Kami are the summer storms and the spring breezes, the squeek of the yubo and the roar of the kipee. When they appear to you in hominoid form, listen, learn, laugh, but above all respect their wishes.

When I was tought about the beliefs of the other civilizations I learned of the Karavan. Certainly they were in a position, like the Kami, of being more powerful than homin. But, unlike loving parents, the Karavan sought above all for obedience. To foster obedience, they postulated a more being than themselves, a god. Where less enlightened peoples needed a god to worship and obey, the Zorai venerated and deferred to the Kami.

Homin societies are structured now as they were prior to the swarming, according to their belief systems. The Zorai defer to their Grand Sage because of his superior wisdom. The Matis must obey their King because he is noble and their King. The Fyros follow their Emperor because of his honor and theirs and because in a military society the highest officer should always be obeyed. The Tryker choose their Governor, and follow because they must act in concert when dealing with the other races.

Now, the Zorai are being told, as a Matis noble would tell a commoner, that we must worship a god. The story goes, that Hoi-Cho was the first to encounter Ma`Duk, but we have only Mabreka's word on that. Like Jena, Ma`Duk is said to be the Life-Giver and creator of Atys. At least Ma`Duk has no form instead of a form designed to sway the weak minded (males) amoung us.

The greatest conceit a homin can have is to think he (for only a male would have this belief) is a god. Second only to this is the belief that you and only you can see and speak with god. For this, I believe that Mabreka must be a madhomin.

A few seasons ago when the mission to seek an alliance with the Fyros was announced, I accused Mabreka of being driven mad by the goo. Since the Grand Sage never shows himself, it is imposible to tell if this is the case. It would be difficult to hide this from his advisors, but they may be ruling in his madness' name. I now have a new theory. Mabreka, perhaps with Hoi-Cho, sought the false enlightenment of Najab slime. Ma`Duk was born in their hallucinogen dreams. The Najab outside the Min-Cho gates are a long way from water for amphibians, so they may be kept there to feed the habit of our Grand Sage.

I've been called a heretic and a fool (albeit a self-named fool), but it is Mabreka who is the heritic. He and his followers dishonor our ancestors with his false god.

It's been two generations since Atys has seen war between homin or regime change. Any day now some pointy eared Matis noble could present some maskless tart as Jena and start a war to enslave the Zorai. I applaud the peacemakers who seek to prevent war, but I don't see the mechanisms they can use to maintain the peace. I do not see a mechanism for regime change that does not involve armies and war. Since I do not have an army and have no wish to make war on my fellow mascaritas, I will remain a preacher for change.