Today was part of the Dawning Age. Before the Dawning was the Darkness. Before the Darkness was the Gods Age.
In the Gods Age all was perfect. and nothing in the world ever died. All beings were gods. Law oversaw all. Prosperity reigned in the Kingdom of Logic.
Logic demands that all beginnings have an end. What was started must be finished. From the moment of the first mathematical evolution of One into Two the end was destined to come. The division of one into Two made the Creator and Destroyer. A choice was given, and we chose the One. If alI the world had chosen One we would exist in harmony still.
Two is the Destroyer, who can make Three out of Two, Four out of Three, and Five out of Four. The Destroyer seduced half of One, and brought it to imperfection. The Destroyer inhabited half of One, and brought it to death.
Malkion took our people in his hand, for we alone were loyal to the One. When Malkion was born again he taught his secrets to us, and we are the Chosen People. When all else devolved into more, we maintained our contact with the One. We are the chosen of the Invisible God. We are good, all else is defiled.
Two is the Destroyer. All that is touched by his power is dead or dying, and will eventually die and be gone. That will leave the One again.
When Zzabur asked his father “How do we stay immortal?” the Prophet answered simply. He said. “Do not change. Do what you have done. Act within the Laws and Ways you have been given, for they are immortal. Your actions embody the One, your bodies enact the One. Anything new from this moment forward is Death.”
Thus we were never severed from Life, like the rest; from Magic, like the rest; from Divinity, like the rest; from Good, like the rest; from ourselves. like the rest. We are not living people, or divine people, or good people, or our own people — we are. All else is a pale shadow of us. When we die, the world dies. We are the last holders of the One. When were are gone, all else wilI go too. When we are gone, everything left is corruption and death.
There came a time when Creator was often called the Invisible God by the common folk. For the most part the thousands of people had never experienced a personal experience with the Creator. Dangerous and threatening times, death brought depressed energy, personally helpless and hopeless, and society in disrepair and despair.
Malkion came, with his Solace of the Body doctrine which teaches “Eternity is Now,”and that as long as conformist ways are maintained, “Now is Forever.”
He also taught the rituals and methods to share this with others. Malkion was hailed as the First Prophet of the Invisible God, and his sect called the Malkioni.
Because they had spent all their lives in the Darkness, many of the people suffered greatly at the Dawn. Some never adjusted properly, and the worst among the malcontents was Hrestol, the Heart of Discontent, who started a cult among the generally confused Shadow Generation.
Hrestol introduced the “Cult of Personality,” and his “Joy of the Heart” is nothing except a momentary thrill at realising the Cry of Mortality.
This Cult of Personality is particularly hated by the brithini.
Importantly the Brithini understanding of the cosmos is compatible with all those divine genealogies I posted a few months ago. The gods exist, they have powers, they did many deeds that define the world and nearly broke it. The big difference is that the Brithini think the gods acted in error, that they have condemned themselves to a hollow existence, and to worship them leads to Death.
If you look at it from the Brithini perspective, of course Hrestolism is awful. It is a Cult of Personality that elevates Hrestol’s personal experiences above rationalism. Hrestol was a malcontent, who did plenty of stupid, unlawful things and got exiled for it. His entire philosophy is a just a fleeting exultation of the transitory.
The Cult of Personality is not [Dwarf] Individualism or even remotely the same.