Some answers. It will be a while before the new thread gets underway, so bear with me.
Many thanks for kind words
Precisely what drugs in what combination do you have to consume to think up this example of genius?
Naah, we're all too old and long in the tooth for that kind of stuff these days.
What will be the name of the new thread?
The Rape of Morne II
Some questions (in case you weren't sure what they were),
1. Did Ed's player react the same way (head spinning boy)?
2. Were the other players present for this negotiation?
3. Was the language used in play similar to what was used here?
4. When are you planning to publish this?
1. Not as much.
2. Yes - I couldn't stop them.
3. Similar, although neither I nor Lombard are that articulate.
4. Eventually.
does this mean that Ed just realized that there is no end to fighting the good fight? that there is no point of "winning" this war after which you can lay down your arms and return to simpler times?
That's pretty much it, in a nutshell.
and what reasons did you hope to become clear, that you mentioned at the start of the last post?
That was more a reflection of my uncertainty in actually being able to convey the gist of the exchange.
This must have been an incredibly hard session to run
Yep. We took it very slowly. I was still a complete head

, though.
What is Oronthon, if compassion and revelation are not unidentical?
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What does this mean, then, if revelation equates (as it would seem to) to a confrontation with evil? Is the suffering and death that may come from such a confrontation a part of that compassion?
The point of the
kius - and this is just one example of many - is to force the mind into new patterns of apprehension. The double negative is crucial - to say
they are not unidentical is not the same as saying
they are identical - at least, not in any absolute case, although their identity can be inferred, if you read the
kius a certain way. Truth is never positively asserted through the
kius because to do so violates the Urgic premise that the Truth is, ultimately, inexpressible.
The rational mind is not
supposed to understand the
kius.
Not all truths are unequal is the 'final word,' if you like, insofar as it is self-referential,
and it is posited as the Truth, rather than posed as a question. By positing
not all truths are unequal as the Truth, the statement actually brings its own validity into question.
Sunyasunyata (pron. shunya-shunyata) - or the 'Emptiness of Emptiness' is the closest parallel I can think of: the Buddhist idea that all phenomena are ultimately un-Real or Empty, including the doctrine of Emptiness itself.
Have you used/adapted many modules for use in the Wyre campaign? Obviously most of the action you have outlined in the Story Hour threads hasn't been dictated by module, but have you used any in the past?
Nope.
How many philosophy degrees do you have round your table?
One, and it's not me.
the greatest manipulator bar one? greater than mephistopheles even?
I've overhauled the Hells. I'm afraid Mephisto in all of his Faustian glory has gone bye-bye, in favour of more traditional devils from the Lemegeton of Solomon, the Grand Grimoire and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.
More accurately perhaps, do the orthodox say Oronthon changes?...Hmm, I'm guessing orthodox Oronthonists contemplatives are dualistic. Or are they?
According to (traditional) Orthodoxy, Oronthon is perfect, eternal and unchanging. When the orthodox contemplative achieves a mystical state of consciousness, he or she subsequently
interprets it as being in the presence of the deity - i.e. the mystic and the Godhood are in close communion, although they retain their separate identities. Oronthon is viewed largely as a transcendental, rather than immanent reality. Orthodoxy is, in that regard, dualistic.
The Irrenites view the 'conventional' Oronthon - as perceived by Orthodoxy - to be an emanation of the 'Absolute' Oronthon, in much the same way as the Adversary is. They revere the 'Absolute' Oronthon as ineffable, numinous and largely otiose. By uniting the dualities, the goal is union with the Godhood - which is reality/truth etc. All things are, ultimately, Oronthon - hence, the Irrenite Heresy leans towards monism, although it is framed in dualistic language.
The Urgic mystics are also dualists, although they emphasise a different duality - that of matter and spirit. By shedding the physical form, through Gnostic realization, the Urgic Mystic comes to realize the identity of himself and the Godhead. The 'divine spark' is reunited with Oronthon, from which it was never actually different in the first place, and all phenomenal truths are revealed to be incomplete.
Tramst used the premises commonly employed by the Urgic Mystics, and subjected them to a series of
reductio ad absurdum arguments, using the negatory dialectic which the Urgics themselves had devised. His conclusion was that even the statement
all truths are relative - a common Urgic maxim - was, in fact, relative itself. Philosophy was irrelevant. Speculation about the nature of the deity was irrelevant. Only direct experience of the deity mattered.