The one true faith

[Jake Norwood]

At the core of Stahlish Atheism would seem to be an extreme ethnocentrism.  Stahlish philosophers, poets, leaders, and generals would all be reinterpreted as understanding the spirit of Stahl.  

Anyone want to write some...I was just thinking about it, and I really got into the idea of writing a bunch of this "iconographic" Stahlnish poetry and what-not...it'd be a lot of fun--the kind of stuff I'd love to have on the website. I spent a few years in Eastern Europe (and married an Albanian), and the way that all the pro-party, pro-dictator propaganda stuff is quite formulaic and would be a lot of fun to write. I've even read a bit of Hitler, and while I obviously am anti-hitler anti-nazi, the man was quite an orator/writer, and words have great power.

And how about this question...how do Stahl, with its official aethism, deal with Gelure, and its official demagogue-ism. Many of you have proposed that both exist to throw off the shackles of the Three-become-one...then throw Thayrism into the mix, which is also trying to do so...

Not putting out conclusions or rulings, just making observations.

jake

[Mike Holmes]

Not having read TROS (at least not the entry on Stahl), I was unaware of the specifics of their history. My point was soley that it doesn't require an indistrialized society to go over to a materialistic viewpoint. And as such, I think that Ron's assessment of the situation is perfectly valid. That's all. The rest was just "how to do it in your homebrew".

BTW, the vote of he nobles is about all the revolution you need. All Lenin did was take over something like eight locations in one city, and that was all that was needed. Sure there's aftermath, but that may just not be enumerated. I'm sure that some of the people of Stahl objected to the move. Are you sure that none of the voters did so at spear-point? In any case, even if totally peaceful, the effect is the same.

The one sticking point might be the decentralization. I see that falling back into traditional modes pretty quickly. Hmmm....

Ethnocentrism plays right into the whole Soviet style thing (which is odd considering the diversity of ethnicities that could be found in the Soviet Union). Again, this is just the Nationalism that Ron mentions.

Ooh, do they do slogans in Stahl? That was a big Stalin thing. Gotta have slogans. A quick google search produces this link of post Stalin slogans:

http://www.anet.net/~upstart/slogans.html

I'd love to see Stahl/Wyerth/Middle Ages versions of these, as I think they would be just as effective (or thought to be effective) in a medieval society as a modern one. Some, especially those that involve the peasants (oops, agricultural workers), don't have to change much. Hmmm...

Fraternal greeting to the peoples who have achieved liberation from the colonial yoke of Xanrium!

Long live the valiant Warriors of Stahl, standing on watch to guard against the oppression of Xanarium and the peaceful labor of the Stahl people!

Long live the Great Vote of Independence

Ooh, this one's real good.

Let live forever in the people's memory the unparalleled achievement of the Nobility of Stahl!

OK, just kidding. But in order to maintain such an idealistic movement over time, you need an enemy to rail against. That would be Xanarium in this case as I read you, right? And the vote of independence would be the historic event that it all pivots on, making that anniversarary the most important date in Stahl, replacing religious holidays.

On another note. While the Roman empire is referred to as having fallen, and it did collapse to the point of unrecognizability, an entitiy that bore it's name, The Holy Roman Empire, continued on until the ninteenth century. So, the fact that Xanarium is still around isn't that much of a change. Does it have the sway it once had (doesn't soun like it). If so, then what you may have is simply a parallel to the HRE.

If, in fact the Roman Empire had not fallen, then there would probably not have been a Dark Age, and we'd be about half a millenia more advanced technologically. But that's all "contrary to error/conditional to fact". It can mean anything in a fantasy world.

Mike

[Nick the Nevermet]

Hey Nick,

Blut und ... Stahl? Ya think?

Yes.  Oh, yes.


Hmm.... I'm tempted to turn my focus to the southern subcontinent's rather interesting group of religions.  But I need to read that in more detail than I have time for at the moment.

[Nick the Nevermet]

Not having read TROS (at least not the entry on Stahl), I was unaware of the specifics of their history. My point was soley that it doesn't require an indistrialized society to go over to a materialistic viewpoint. And as such, I think that Ron's assessment of the situation is perfectly valid. That's all. The rest was just "how to do it in your homebrew".

BTW, the vote of he nobles is about all the revolution you need. All Lenin did was take over something like eight locations in one city, and that was all that was needed. Sure there's aftermath, but that may just not be enumerated. I'm sure that some of the people of Stahl objected to the move. Are you sure that none of the voters did so at spear-point? In any case, even if totally peaceful, the effect is the same.
Mike

I apologize if my other post was rude; I didn't intend it to be.  If I did, I'm very sorry.

But yes, I'm sure that several Stahlish nobles were 'persuaded' to vote for independence.  I'm also sure some truly faithful nobles were found with 'suicide notes,' or had untimely accidents, just before the vote.  But hey, it was a unanimous vote, gosh darnit!

I think we're all agreeing that this is a very impressive nationalist movement.  The biggest disagreement seems to be how far to take an anology, which sounds to me like a pretty decent amount of consensus.

As for the slogans, I agree, some of those are a good basis for Stahlish slogans.On another note. While the Roman empire is referred to as having fallen, and it did collapse to the point of unrecognizability, an entitiy that bore it's name, The Holy Roman Empire, continued on until the ninteenth century. So, the fact that Xanarium is still around isn't that much of a change. Does it have the sway it once had (doesn't soun like it). If so, then what you may have is simply a parallel to the HRE.

If, in fact the Roman Empire had not fallen, then there would probably not have been a Dark Age, and we'd be about half a millenia more advanced technologically. But that's all "contrary to error/conditional to fact". It can mean anything in a fantasy world.
Mike

Here is a snipet of the relevant history (according to the Imperial Church... a heresy called Thayrism has a rather different history):
A guy named Xanar found a shard of heaven in a desert.  Through it, he was contacted by the Three Gods that Become One - the gods of mercy, justice, and Knowledge.  He then went forth and conquered the world, spreading the Truth as he went.  Then the Dark Betrayer started corrupting things (very little detail given on how).  Sorcerors and supernatural monsters started popping up.  This finally led to a battle between the forces of Darkness lead by the Dark Betrayer against the forces of Truth lead by Xanar Shard-Finder.  The result: Everybody dies, all the land within a few hundred miles sinks (creating what is essentially the Meditarranean (sp?) Sea of this world, and the Dark Betrayrer is imprisoned beneath the sea.  

Out of this chaos, an empire and a religion in honor of Xanar is started (Year 1) and quickly fills the power vacuum and progressively takes over Mainlund (the Europe of Wyerth).  It concquers, annexes, and converts people into the Empire.  It reaches its hieght of power around 1100, when it launches a set of crusades against the kingdoms to the south and west.  These crusades are primarily to regain the Shard Xanar found, and to find and defeat the Nine (the main sorcerors supporting the Great Betrayer).   They found the shard, but were repelled by the native peoples.  Different people claim different things about the Nine.  

Since that time, the Xanarian Empire has been quickly declining.  In two hundred years, it went from politically controlling a continent to only one peninsula.  The Imperial Church, however, is still the standard religion.

Now... There are a TON of differences between the Xanarian and Roman Empires.  However, for a quick & dirty description, its one of simpler ones I could think of.