Damn that was funny.

I wanna be a Goddess..

But Nym can have the "inflated sex drive" title for her own.

If Kidaen goes Divine we'll see a God of Poetry and a bard guild
Mmmm Magnagora could use that...

While I would normally tell people to try and find out in Game, I appreciate the difficulty of the situation in this particular instance. There are national biases to account with, from both sides, on top of that Gods are a little less approachable then the general player. Not to mention that Order Members will generally feel called to recite the complete tenets of the Central Dogma, leaving the listener feeling he or she was just swamped in information, without really getting anything wiser.

The difficulty also appears that most people that meet with Elcyrion in game have already figured out for themselves what he is, and are instead trying to convince him that this is what he should be, which is proving to be a very amusing pastime for me. Several times already, players have come to him and claimed he was exactly the same as Lacostian, without ever taking the time to ask Elcyrion about himself. Thich led to some very interesting discussions, as one of Elc’s main tenets is to inspire others to think outside established lines, and to not classify everything you lay eyes on, like good, evil, black, white, or even purple for all it matters.

Elcyrion, in contrast to both Lacostian and Raezon, thinks that knowledge should be available to everyone, and not just to a select few. He doesn’t necessarily few “knowledge” as such to be important, but more the ability to think logically and clearly. Being capable of seeing the whole issue as opposed to just part of it and being capable of thinking along lines that might not be apparent, as Roark would say “think outside the box.” Though when he says that, he is probably referring to his personal server and the fact that halve his hard drives and other occult things are positioned outside the box, since it was getting to small to house his 200 Gigs and 2 Gig RAM.

In contrast to both Raezon and Lacostian, Elcyrion has very outspoken views about conflict; he sees it as an utter waste of energy and is convinced that is everyone would spend the energy they do on fighting on finding a constructive solution to their problems, the basin would be a much better place to live in. Though he does not view debate as a form of conflict but a means to increase one’s knowledge and wisdom. As such he requires people to be accepting of other people’s ideas and morals, knowing that there is no one to judge whose ideas are better. An interesting consequence of this is that Elc does not seek to change the world around him, but rather confront people with the things they have not considered before, with the intention of making them see reason, so that they will change themselves.

(Please correct me on the following if I make any mistakes, as I do not know their dogmas as well as I do my own, as I did not write theirs.)

Lacostian could be seen as the opposite side of the same coin: He views knowledge as absolute, scholarship as the only worthy thing and magical arts (which again, are gained through hard concrete study) as the manifestation of the power that knowledge can gain. As a consequence of this, he views knowledge as dangerous in the wrong hands, and thinks it should only come to those who are worthy of it. He believes in structure and order as means to obtain greater things and as such they are central to his teachings.

Lacostian also doe not take the same stance as Elcyrion on conflict, seeing it as just another part of the world. A few IC days ago, someone stepped up to Elcyrion and asked his interpretation of Lacostian as the god of knowledge and Elcyrion as the god of wisdom was accurate. Elcyrion answered that this was too narrow a definition, that gods do not have things that they can claim and furthermore he refused to be put into a box and defined within certain standards. This IC reply aside, I personally suppose that if you have to qualify it in one sentence, that’s about as close as you will get.

Raezon is more about the use of knowledge then knowledge itself, a means to reach his goals, whatever those may be. He views knowledge relative; his aim is to know more then others and as such, knowledge that he craves stays with him and him alone, excluding only those view followers that he feels would be able to assist him better if he gave them that knowledge. When it comes to secrets and knowledge, the purpose sanctifies the means; as long as you obtain the secret in question, how you obtained it is no longer overly important and as such, he views the Taint as a great instrument to help him obtain his goals. In a way, Raezon stands for the raw craving for knowledge, hoarding it and obtaining ever more, unlike Elcyrion and Lacostian however, Raezon craves knowledge for the purpose it serves, rather then for the intellectual value and the smugness of understanding something complex.

I sincerely hope this has outlined some of the basic differences, but as I said, I am no expert on all fronts, and if anyone has interpreted things differently (including Elcyrion’s teachings) please state so.

Elcyrion

I wanted to thank you for speaking with me last night, it was a good bit of fun.

Elcyrion had made himself visible, and a wind came from the mountain he appeared at, so a few of us went up there, thinking it might be an event or something. When nothing happened, I contacted him, and asked if it was just him entering.

He came over to us and ended up talking with me for about an hour, and it let me see a little bit more about what kind of god he was. At one point, he even said something along the lines of "you think like Raezon", which was quite true, as I'm in his order (I'd been told once that gods cannot see who is in whose order, so I thought this was neat).

My viewpoints seem to be between Elcyrion and Raezon both, so this will give Richter something interesting to think about.

Edit: Oh, and I wanted to explain the "ruins" comment I made, out of the game. I asked if the place was the ruins of Lord Xyl's temple, and I swore the room desc said ruins. I even looked again when the group gathered! That's what I get for skimming...

The problem with that was, Richter did not -see- ruins, but I swore it -said- ruins. Turns out, the thing is just a crystal spire that you made. I felt like an idiot afterwards, because I had no IC way to explain.

Richter has conveniently left out that it was him, among a group of other players.

As for the spire. Elcyrion has reconstructed that to honour his cousin Xyl, who he admires greatly.

Should have used "us" in the italicized part, but the bolded parts showed there were others there.

Isune wasn't impressed

From having spoken to Elcyrion several times in game (and camping out in his Fulcrux) I would have to say that I agree that Lacostian and Elcyrion are pretty much opposites. They are even opposites in how Joli deal with them. Generally.. Joli avoids Lacostian, because he scares me. She thinks that anytime she speaks around him that whatever she says will be analyzed and ripped to pieces, which upsets her a lot and for those that don't know.. that is why I suddenly go silent when I know he is around.

Elcyrion on the other hand... is one of the only Gods that calms her. That is why she stays in his fulcrux so much. After speaking to him about some things she doesn't get as bothered by Celest as much, because she knows what he thinks about people who get snippy with each other a lot. Yes, in her mind when she gets upset she just thinks "Elcyrion said not to do this, so I'm going to be good and not let them bother me." I really like him and I'm going to keep talking to him until he finally lets me into his order.

Elcy broke it out all eloquently so let me do the fast and gritty version..

Elcy=fluffy happy peaceful=can't truly learn ALL knowledge because he excludes some realms of knowledge... thus no absolute truth

Laco=protective ofknowledge - should be kept away from those who shouldn't have it

Raez=knowledge=power The more he has, the more it facilitates what he can do and it doesn't matter what in the heck he has to do to get it.


As for Elcy's mention of the taint in reference to Raez, it's not that he sees it as a good tool, more so that he just sees it just as it. Not something good or bad, it's just there, just another piece of the world.

Really, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Elcyrion Raezon Lacostian

I always knew Raezon was bald.

oh and Raezon.. admit it to the world. You're a crackhead. (not literally..) Raezon

Well, I suppose there's a reason I chose you Raez.

I exclude realms of knowledge?

I'm guessing he means the knowledge of combat and stuff like that.

We all know he's insane.. cut him a bit of slack.

I'd assume that distaining conflict/direct malevolence would cause an exclusion of such arts as torture, methods of murder, treachery and the like.

At least.. I would laugh if after talking about how everyone needs to take a break from the conflict and have a debate, you added in "But, if someone absolutely refuses to see things your way, simply strap them into this device here, and pull that lever there, and give those knobs a few good turns! Problem solved!"

Yeah, the application of force is just another realm of knowledge. You can't really learn it unless you use it, thus the consideration that it's excluded.

Woah.. there for second I thought that said that actually happened.

Meh.. I need sleep.. My eyes are playing tricks on me again.