Title: The Old Ways
Author: Celarus
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Price: 580
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Content:


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[/center]The Old Ways:

[/center]The Customs and Philosophy

[/center]of Grave and Faithful

[/center]Council



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 We who know the Old Ways are well aware of the
existence of a spiritual world invisible to the
unenlightened. Just as one living in a kingdom but
unaware of the political machinations may see a new tax
or battle preparation as capricious fortune, many
observe floods, famines, and madness with helpless
incomprehension. This is deplorable. As the great Cuilean
Darnizhaan moaned, "The power of ignorance can truly
shatter mithril like glass."

 What, after all, is the origin of these spiritual forces
that move the invisible strings of Mundus? Any neophyte
of Artaeum knows that the spirits are our ancestors, and
that, while living, they too were bewildered by the spirits
of their ancestors, and so on to the original Acharyai.
The daedra and gods the common people turn to are no
more than the spirits of superior men and women whose
power and passion granted them great influence in the
phantom world. Certainly, this is our truth and our
religion, but how does it help us in our sacred duty to
seliffrnsae, or "provide grave and faithful counsel"?

 Firstly, we can easily grasp the necessity of both
bringing good men great power and making powerful men
good. We recognize the multiple threats that a strong
tyrant represents -- he breeds cruelty which feeds the
daedra Boethiah and hatred which feeds the daedra
Vaernima; if he should he die performing a particularly
malevolent act, he may go to rule in Oblivion; worst of
all, he inspires other villians to power and other rulers to
villiany. Knowing this, we have developed patience in our
dealings with such despots. They should be crippled,
humiliated, impoverished, imprisoned. Other counselors
than we may advocate assassination or warfare, which,
aside from its spiritual significance, is expensive,
aleatric, and likely to cause at least as much pain to
innocents as the brutish dictator was inflicting. No, we
are intelligence gathers, dignified diplomats, not
revolutionaries.

 How, then, are our counselors "faithful"? We are faithful
only to the Old Ways -- it is essential always to
remember the spiritual world in watching our world.
Performing the Rites of Moawita on the 2nd of Hearth
Fire and the Vigyld on the 1st of Second Seed are
essential means of empowering the salutary ghosts and
debilitating the unclean spirits. How, then, are we faithful
to those we counsel and to the Isle of Artaeum?

 Perhaps the sage Taheritae said it best: "In Mundus,
conflict, disparity is what brings change, and change is
most sacred of all the eleven forces. Change is the force
without focus or origin, and it is the duty of the
disciplined Psijic (enlightened one) to dilute change where
it brings greed, gluttony, sloth, ignorance, prejudice,
cruelty ... (Taheritae lists the 111 Prodigalities) ... and
to encourage change where it brings excellence, beauty,
happiness, and enlightenment. As such, the faithful
counsel has but one master, his mind. If the man the
Psijic counsels acts wickedly and brings oegnithr ("bad
change") and will not be counselled, it is the Psijics duty
to counterbalance the oegnithr by any means necessary."

 A student of the Old Ways may indeed vassal himself to
a lord, but it is a risky relationship. Should the lord
refuse wise counsel and order the Psijic (to use
Taheritae's out-moded word) to perform an act contrary
to the teachings of the Old Ways, there are few
available options. The Psijic may abandon his lord, which
will bring shame on him and the Isle of Artaeum, and so
may never be allowed home again. The Psijic may also
kill himself.




