Scars of Risenholm

*Penny is seen stocking her usual spots with a stack of new parchments, ready for the town's readers. *

TNN EDITORIAL EDITION: RYSTEL'S WELLWISHES - A BEGINNER'S SURVEY - PART I

Fellow Risen,

This editorial is the beginning of what I hope to be many other editorials in an ongoing series on faith, religion, divinity, philosophy, and Truth I shall title “Rystel’s Wellwishes”. This world is a strange and frightening one, so if this helps you find some level of comfort, I am all the happier to toil over these manuscripts. Penny Aller has convinced me to put my learning and oft-meandering thoughts into writing, and I hope I do not disappoint her or her readers.

Arriving here in Risenholm with little to my name or memory, one thing I was immediately and keenly aware of was my need for solace in something divine. The need felt deep and familiar, so I chased it. At the start of my trek to discover some kernel of Divine Truth, I have interviewed a number of fellow Risen for their stances, and still continue to do so. At this juncture, I present a beginner’s summary of several basic but opposing positions which I have uncovered thus far in my studies. In this first edition, I expand on my thoughts regarding internal conviction versus external canon.


Part I - Internal Conviction vs External Canon

One thing that is plentiful in this land is the internal conviction that one is “right” in what they are doing. This is unsurprising - we have been dropped off into a strange land with no knowledge of who we are and have been left to fend for ourselves using nothing but our best judgments. A simple read-through of TNN’s past articles gives us at least one example of where one’s best judgment is maybe not as good or as clear-cut as we hoped it would be. Still, there are plenty of examples of where personal, internal conviction seems to be working out just fine for now. Case in point, a woman by the name of Lunas I interviewed some days ago. She is a self-professed priest who is “not sure of what” she is a priestess of. Her convictions consist of “healing people and shooting things with [her] bow”. Simple as that.

While it seems to this philosopher-writer that such a conviction is very simple, that is perhaps not a bad thing in Risenholm right now. We are a simple people, though with complex problems. Don’t we all need an ally on our side who is willing to heal us, and shoot things with a bow when necessary? Dear Readers, if any of you find yourself in similar shoes, with very simple convictions on what is right and wrong, I urge you to look for opportunities to put these convictions into action that helps the community. Join the Reeves or the Millers to keep the town safe. Join the hunters to bring in fresh meat. Join the farmers in their toil. Join the builders, masons, brick-layers, carpenters, and laborers in piecing together a better place to live. Join the scholars and researchers in their expeditions and studies. Join the young in learning. Join the old in remembering. Never laze about or steal, expecting to profit off another’s work or rest on another’s pain.

Conversely, this town is very, very lacking in external canon - by which I mean, established general laws, rules, and principles upon which we judge right and wrong, false and True. We lack both sacred tome and scripture as well as sacred tradition and structure among followers and instructors. Yes, Dear Reader, I acknowledge we do have a collection of books the Elder offers for us to read, as well as the directive written upon stone we have all read (or should have all read by now). But is this truly enough to call external canon?

The answer, I posit, is no. Consider the Message: “You who inherit tomorrow: We have sacrificed everything so that you might live on free of the burdens of our folly. Live for the future, for there is naught but sorrow behind you.”

This is a moving message from our predecessors, people we know little to nothing about, can never properly thank, do not understand, and can only guess as to the horrors they lived through. We are given a directive: Live.

The message seems simple, but it is not so. Who inherits the future? Who were our predecessors? What does it mean to live free? What are, or were, the burdens? What were the original follies? What goal are we striving for when we ‘live for the future’? What must we avoid in order to prevent the repeat of past follies?

We don’t know the True answer to any of those questions. We individually may have guesses as to what we think the answer is, based on personal conviction or what little we have learned about our world so far or what “feels right” - but, collectively, we have naught but a rock in a garden pointing the way forward.

We have been given a sign and pointed in a direction, but the road under our feet is not yet laid out. This road, which needs to be built brick by brick, is that canon we shall build over time if we are hungry for the Truth.

Please look forward to Part II - Agnosticism vs. Omnism, for a review of two extremes of faith: not knowing anything at all, and accepting everything at once.

Always Yours,
Rystel Winters

Re: TNN EDITORIAL EDITION: RYSTEL'S WELLWISHES - A BEGINNER'S SURVEY - PART II

Agnosticism vs Omnism

Agnosticism is the belief that nothing is known, or can be known, of the existence or nature of the Divine or of God(s) - or, frankly, of anything beyond what is material and observable in the here-and-now. Many of those who profess these thoughts acknowledge the existence of something powerful enough to create our reality, and that logically such an entity could be called a God - linguistically, that is what the word means, does it not?

They reject belief on faith alone, and demand hard physical proof. As one local who goes by the name “Vee” put it (to paraphrase): Hearing a God requires proof beyond the people simply trusting the speaker won’t lie.

Perhaps our more jaded neighbors demand physical proof while rejecting obvious signs or the strength of personal conviction because of some level of suspicion in others, mistrust in authority figures, the inherit need to rebel - or, as I heard uttered once in a darker corner of the local tavern the other day, because of “Daddy Issues”.

I posit that overall agnostics are incorrect to reject the existence of a divine, and are taking the easy (lazy) way out by not attempting to find the Truth, they are correct in one key point: If a person requires divine punishment to not do bad acts, and divine reward to do good acts, maybe they were an immoral person to begin with. I redirect my Dear Reader’s attention to the paragraphs above with the directive to not be lazy.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Omnism. Omnism is the recognition and respect of all religions, including the lack thereof entirely, with or without the agreement that any or all of them are correct or encompass the Truth. In layman’s terms, it is simply throwing our hands up in the air and saying everyone is right. My best and most obvious example of this is our dear wise Camiril who, in our long conversation about the Risen faith, opined that every faith is valid, and just because one thinks differently does not make the other invalid.

This position garners support in this town simply by the way it allows the community to get along swimmingly, without any need for us to come to blows about our differences. This is not entirely a bad thing. We’re a small community and only a few decades in, still struggling to survive. We do not have the luxury of factions or subsets of communities. We must share the same spaces. Many of us sleep in the same few rooms at night, take our meals at the same tavern, wash our clothes and bodies in the same stream, and gather at the same single market day in and day out. Those of you who still recall the concept of a large city after your exit from the Well may recall the feeling of belonging in some parts of the city but not others, or recall being in a foreign land where they “did things the wrong way”. Such does not exist here.

I caution you, Dear Reader, to not take this concept too far - just as I caution myself not to embrace it too much. As our dear wise Camiril stated, we all take ownership of our faith. In this concept, Camiril is completely right. We all take ownership of our faith, and we must accept responsibility for our search, acceptance, and promotion of the Truth. If we spread lies or misinterpretations of the Truth and the divine, we must be seen as responsible for the confusion, disappointment, or strife that we cause.

So, as much as I would love to believe everyone in Risenholm has found a kernel of Truth in their faiths, I must acknowledge the probability that there are some people out there who are not acting in the best interest of the Truth.

Always Yours,
First Chronicler Rystel