Schisms

by V. A. Jeffrey

Appendix A

  Religion

  A most important element needed to understand the antiquity cultures of the Red Planet is the study of religion. Whether the time, what is now called the Fertile Age, between 5125 B.T.V. And 2099 B.T.V. or the place, south of Jura or north of Volgur, each culture should be understood by their religious beliefs and customs.

  - M.H. Lady Faruma Oudem, Royal Historian and Head Instructress of King's Outer Planets College of History

  It is chiefly understood that Divine Purpose was the driving force in the great upheavals of many societies across the planet. We find that whether the culture upheld religious customs that were Monotheistic or Polytheistic, myriad ancient historical and religious texts and clay tablets inform us that upheavals were believed by these ancient peoples to be created and guided by divine forces. And surely there were numerous strange things that cannot be explained within the framework of naturalism. For instance, if we focus upon the ancient kingdom of Hybron, there are many things that do not add up in any natural way but led to the precipitous second rise of the Reshaim, of which there are still descendents today.

  Let us look at just a few things that lead us to the conclusion of Divine Purpose. The great sages that were sent forth. There are many records of ancient writers, not only in Hybron that record their many astounding feats. Ancient historians from Hybron, Jura, Funda and other lands have recorded them. Of the authenticity of these documents there is no question. The greatest messenger-servant of God, Nagilla, had been called back to his heavenly abode but Saujiah, at a later time, was sent forth in his stead to reinvigorate and reawaken the Divine Purpose in the land. Also, after the Destruction the Aishanna-La were largely scattered and remained so for centuries. As the accounts tell us, a few desert holy women made the very dangerous trek across the deserts and found the ancient, abandoned fortress in Gamina. How? Besides that, they, with the help of the humble people already living there and a few others that came with them out of the darkness and chaos of Hybron at that time built it up and defended it for many years against powerful military invaders. How?

  Then there is the question of preserving the genetic line of the Reshaim all through the dark ages which spanned about five hundred years. How might such a thing be preserved in ancient cultures that did not have the knowledge and the tools we have today? Yet, we modern peoples of the stars know they have been preserved when we study and match the genetic material from living descendents with that of the preserved mummies of the ancient Reshaim. Divine Purpose is also evident when we note the Renaissance that never truly ended, that brought an end to the Age of Darkness.

  The Role of The Feminine

  The Aishanna-La were and are a people of one god. Oneness in everything is important to them. In the old times they had men called judges, or desert holy men - and a few women - to teach and move the people and effect events at key times along the timeline of Purpose in history. During the days before the Veiled Time these holy men were more numerous. Large portions of the Aishanna they did not have that we have in our time which has eliminated the need for “desert fathers” though there are still the revered instructors of the Law, the History and the Writings. It is interesting to note how the religion shifted and changed over time, as all religions do, specifically for women. Things roll back or they shift forward, depending upon the needs or desires of the people living in a particular time period. Ancient peoples did not understand it but seen from the clear sight of distance, it is very much tied to the entire revelation of the Ascension and the Unification of Man and Woman into a whole, oneness; a lesson for us. In the “old days” most women cared for home and family – and that aspect has not really changed – but there were those that either were chosen by external powers or chose on their own to follow the godly path of the desert holy woman. After the great apostasy of the Aishanna-La priesthood – who began calling themselves Ainash, meaning “separate men” in Alhar, which lead to the Destruction and then the Scattering, there were precious few desert holy men, much less women. A few women escaped to a citadel in Gamina and rebuilt it, retaining the core religious customs, no doubt guided by a Purposeful Hand. The core beliefs did not change but other things did. Most of their later spiritual descendents did not have the same divinely given gifts. Perceiving this lessening of holy talents they then called themselves scions, The Scions of the Desert Mothers, specifically. This sudden and unintentional group became a strong religious community that served three purposes; first, to shine as a light in the land and set an example to outsiders as to what the essence of the old ways are, Second, to preserve alive these faithful women and third, through them, preserve the old ways in the land for the people. But things changed over time. In this case, all for the better. An excerpt from the “History of Religions of the Southern Hemisphere on Chialis, Volume Three”:

  “The citadel housed the women of the Aishanna religion who were devoted to serving God wholly, either until they reached the age of marriage, which was sixteen years, or for their entire lives. They lived and worked a life of study, practical work, prayer and service to any community they came in contact with. Many Scions were children from faithful families who were too poor to care for them. Some were girls old enough to express desire for full time devotion to God and this was especially so if her family perceived that she was of a spiritual mind. In fact, it was one of the only places a girl child could receive an education. They were all taught to read and write at an early age, some math, music and history. There were, of course religious training: reading and reciting the holy book daily, Morning and Night Prayers and also domestic or practical training which was also called mission training. Mission training was separated into disciplines: herbal lore and apothecary, weaving, sewing, midwifery, animal husbandry, cleaning, medicinal foods and also cooking. Special disciplines were drawing, painting, accounting and fighting/weapons. Each girl was watched carefully for signs of any talent. Most eventually left and married, usually within the Aishanna-La community but sometimes they married outside of it and were often a boon to those they came to live with. Some stayed at the citadel and served this way for the rest of their lives. As it was, most women in Hybron during the age of the Twilight Kingdoms never learned to read or write so one who had a Scion in their family, whether that family was wealthy, middling class or poor, had an educated woman. This made them oddities to outsiders except to those who worshiped the sun deity, Hec.

  A Scion had many avenues open to her while in citadel training but she was still under the law of her family unless she was an orphan. When an orphan became grown she had total freedom. She could become a religious historian or scholar, a scribe, an envoy or emissary for the citadel – a dangerous, perilous position - or a midwife, herbal wise woman, musician, storyteller or chronicler; many things, all to the glory of God.

  Then there were the rare few who had visions. Those usually became leaders, Mothers of the citadel. In the old days some of them were known as Temple Mothers. On rare occasions some became holy judges or desert mothers; the prophetesses of old. As they always stayed in or close to desert places they were called desert mothers. The most elemental desert mothers who were filled with visions stayed in caves or huts in the remote desert but they were rare. Even desert prophets or fathers as they were called in the old days, were rare. Desert prophetesses, even more so.

  All of this gained the hatred of the Ainash priesthood who thought women had no place in religious life whatever and thought that women poisoned everything they touched outside of home and hearth. They worked to rewrite the Aishanna to reflect this changed view. Some priests still had the true writings and hid them and passed these scrolls and leaves around so the knowledge was not lost among all the people. In these latter days the women of the citadel were viewed more as a charity group and a place for girls to refine themselves before marriage instead of what they were intended to be – the religious education and devotion of holy women to God in order to be able to effectively nurture and in so
me cases, judge the peoples of the land, along with the men who had also devoted themselves to God. The Scions viewed this role important, as it was, but they lamented the change in view. But they also knew that God worked in different ways according to the times and saw marriage as an excellent way for a woman to continue to influence her family in the way of truth. Thus, they helped spread the hope of prophecy among the Aishanna-La over the centuries and even among a few outside of the community. In later times most who stayed on were orphans, girls rescued from brothels, abandoned when they were babies or who fled from other terrible circumstances and this drew the hatred of some people. Those who dared to attack them and take a daughter or wife back whom they'd mistreated often found themselves mysteriously struck with boils or leprosy or struck down dead and among some, the name against the Scions was whispered “witches.” The Scions themselves had nothing to do with witchcraft. As far as they saw it, those who did evil brought evil down on themselves and God judged and punished them appropriately.

  Always, the Ainash looked for reasons to destroy the citadel. Each time they had failed and this revealed in the eyes of many common people who was approved by God and who was not. The remembrance of the common people of who had saved a laboring wife from a hard birth, a child dying from a fever or a grandparent from painful aches and the hated ailments of old age while they were viewed as dirt by the Ainash made a silent and powerful impression in the minds of the people, and not just the faithful, for the Scions served all who needed it.”

  It is after this time that things changed again for these women were in the prime position to foster and spearhead the education of women and girls in the kingdom and when that happened the full flowering of the kingdom – the Renaissance – came into being. Such a community of only woman no longer exists among the Aishanna-La but it had its purpose for a time and it and the prophets of old that came before and after all left their marks on all humans. Divine Purpose, once again, may have been at work for what profit does a society and its culture have when half its people are not educated? What profit is there when rulership and kingship is comprised of only the strength of male qualities without the temperance of the qualities of the female? “All things flow from the king.”, as the saying goes and any imbalance in leadership in any way works itself down into all other aspects of society. The near perfect union of both is by God's own design and we modern peoples have seen the greatness and all the benefits of this in society today. That is the oneness that is meant, true unity in thought and purpose, the separate powers of the masculine and the feminine equally respected, utilized and valued in society. This seed-lesson began with the Reshaim, though it was imperfect and flawed through them, but through that flaw God brought about perfection in Hybronian society and taught a lesson. Society needs the intrinsically different powers of both the Man and the Woman. One is not better than the other. One is not good while the other is bad. If one is bad, both are bad because both are irrevocably tied to one another. Woman came from man and was created for him, yet there would be no human race at all without her. May we never forget this lesson.

  The quoted passage from the book is also interesting for what else it reveals; how others outside of the religion viewed those that adhered to its moral precepts and those that were primarily concerned with self-interest. Interests that required the subjugation of many peoples, especially women. An important clue in the later spread and growth of the religion.

  APPENDIX B

  Machines and Technology

  It must be said that the issue of machines and the progress of technology has always been a struggle for mankind. What have they really done for us? Do they serve any truly good purpose? The obvious answer to that is yes, but it is far more complicated than that and has served to create riots, bans and wars over their use and perceived “evil”.

  Over the many ages the use of technology has risen and fallen. During the first great age, that dark but proud and ultra violent age – the Age of Empires – there were some important advances made, especially in the middle of the world, in and around Hybron, that allowed for such great and massive empires to form and rise in the first place. This primitive technology, such as the wheel, water clocks, the building of bigger and better scaffolding, the craft of forging weapons from metal was immediately used to advance military might in the region and with that came wars on a previously unimaginable scale. Those empires soon disintegrated and then rose the Reshaim kingdom. Under these kings technology came to a full flowering and many good things were produced for learning, agriculture and the like. The notion of “science” or what the ancients in Hybron and in many other lands called alchemy* rose then and this study not only increased mankind's understanding of his world and the universe but his appreciation for the One that created it. For a time.

  Many wondrous things came about: the study of the stars and constellations in greater detail, the making of the first primitive airships, small machines for important but menial tasks, better clocks, the rise of the Age of Iron where weapons became more powerful, the rise of metallurgy which rose with weapon making, advanced medicine and the study of the human and animal body; structure of the skeleton, muscles and the heart and brain which lead to achievements in medicine only surpassed by our modern day. Aqueducts that brought fresh water from very far away to the city, better irrigation and the like. Along with the good things came the darker uses: experiments on animals and humans for purely selfish reasons or financial gain, the idea that because of Man's achievements there was no longer any need for God or any of the gods, after all, once man un-cracked the code of the human body and the code of the universe what need he of gods? The problem is that the code is infinite and once one looks at one piece and thinks he has the answer to all, look! There is more. Much more. These dark things led many to view the old ways of worship of any religion as quaint or even foolish or backward, including moral precepts, or what we call ethics. Even before the Destruction things were not going well as anyone who has read the history of the Red Kingdom knows. All sorts of negative consequences resulted. Experiments gone awry resulted in people being engineered and enslaved for the selfish and perverted uses of others, machines used so much that they made some people lazy and others were made obsolete in their craft or work; whole economies stopped and toppled over because of this unrestrained and disrespectful use of technology and the machines it produced. The twisted metallurgy and alchemy from it led to the extreme actions of banning alchemy, metallurgy and all advanced technology and its uses altogether in the kingdom. This was a mistake in the other direction. By then Hybronian, culture fell back into a dark age. It must be noted that not all societies around the world came to this conclusion. Some societies that learned of these techniques and alchemies kept them, to some degree.

  What stops this back and forth between ultra freedom and ultra-conservatism? For one side is simply a constant and knee-jerk reaction to the other and leaves a society swinging here and there without proper purpose and no rational way of looking at the root problem of all this societal lurching. One forgets balance is what is needed. One asks the question: How can the beneficial be taken or extracted from these practices and leave the detrimental behind? Ah! But that is where the moral precepts come in. One cannot abandon them just because one has “grown up” so to speak. There is wisdom in the Law and the Writings that can guide us down the path that leads not to darkness but to ever increasing progress and light, Not a meaningless, floundering progress with no Ultimate Guiding Hand, which is no progress at all, but a progress that is in accord with the Divine Purpose. One that eventually reunites the human family with the First One in absolute perfection as was meant to be from the beginning.

  A Note On The Iron Age

  Although it is not mentioned as much as other worldwide epochs, the Iron Age was possibly one of the most pivotal. The very redness of the planet, its very “blood” is made of iron and it is from iron that the cultures of war and glory rose around the world. The ma
king of glass and crystal arose during this time as well, though those crafts remained for the longest time in Egi and Pallinona but iron truly ran the world. Iron making gave many a kingdom a powerful military edge and many cities and even individual merchants grew wealthy. There is a deep reverence and romance associated with that metal in mankind's history that no other has attained. Even now with starships that travel through space, deep cultural pride and the shared reverence for iron causes many a man or woman to harken back to the times of old; the warrior-glories of the past with all the sagas, legends, dirges, songs and poetry of red iron pouring forth at large family gatherings. Weapons and old forges from those ancient times are still being found in the ruins of archeological sites and many of the most intricate swords and axeheads rest in the solar system's great museums of antiquity. Besides that, the study of metallurgy in other lands developed and with that came a stronger form of iron that created stronger weapons: steel. With the use of steel in Hybron many things came together like a wave crashing down, the birth of a new king, the use of steel weapons, though it was said that the king himself used a sword made of stardust and fire, a weapon that would probably be seen as a holy relic today, which brought about his own rule and through that rule many needed changes which helped produce the conditions for the great advances we benefit from today.

  *It must be noted that though alchemy refers specifically to the work of transforming other low metals into high metals it came to encompass almost any science endeavor in Hybron and is used as a general term for science.