The Pub Discussion Board

Could do a short story about the priestesses having a vision about a male protagonist whom they have to help to save Mirelia from... well something bad. Instead of the character being a “good guy†, part of the difficulty of the story is he is actually a thug that needs to reform his life in order to protect Mirelia.

darthel0101 wrote:

If there are no priests, then there should be no male acolytes, right?

Because there are no nuns in the Catholic faith, right?  This was a silly question.

Having some of the shadow cats follow a male acolyte around a lot might be enough to make the priestesses maybe question the matriarchal-only aspect of the religion. Note that I am not putting forth a possible rulership change, and IIRC, the queen made the statement that she is queen and high-priestess by chance, not because one implies the other.

Not sure how the queen's status is relevant to the discussion one way or the other.  Both the nation of Mirelia, and the religion of Diva Devata Jumala Zot are run by matriarchs.  Though I have not said as such directly, it is strongly implied through the narration that Mirelia was established by the religion, and then "set free" to run the secular portion of its citizens' lives.

As to questioning the structure of a religion:  The only religion I can find with a similar-to-DDJZ structure is Catholicism.  Catholicism's structure is based upon Biblical teachings... in fact, the first Pope was Peter, and he was given that job by Jesus Himself... the (alleged) Son of God.  In my personal view, anything the Church does differently now from what Peter told it to do then is heretical: Peter's instructions came from God Himself.  When God tells you how to do something, you do not argue. 

Similarly, the monastics of DDJZ would never question the structure of their religion, because they know that structure was imparted upon them by the tivaru.  To question it directly is to openly defy "God".

Just in case you are about to ask, "Shouldn't the religion change with the cultural norms?"  NO, it should not.  That implies that morality is malleable, which is not supposed to be the case.  Morality is supposed to be an absolute.  God said "You shall not commit adultery."  He didn't say, "Don't commit adultery unless, you know, everybody else is doing it, or society says it's okay..."

Eric Storm

darthel0101 wrote:

Ummmm, nun �  acolyte.

I will assume the unknown character was the "does not equal" symbol.  In what way does a "female who has devoted her life to service under the auspices of a specific religion" not equal "male or female who has devoted themselves to service under the auspices of a specific religion"?  An acolyte to DDJZ is not just "any believer".  Pretty much everyone in Mirelia believes in DDJZ.  An acolyte of DDJZ is basically a form of monk.  As is a nun.  Pretty much a 1:1 comparison.

Also, didn't the queen state, flat-out, there have been NO communications from the Tivaru, and that the faith posits the belief in the Tivaru with the statement that "something" must be guiding, among other things, the creation of the (pardon my generalization) fairies?I

If there have been no communications from them, then they would have a hard time imparting the structure of the religion which reverse them with any structure.

I THINK you meant "reveres"... not actually sure.  As to your point, you just saw, earlier in book 8, that they have a means of "communication" with "the tivaru", when they helped David with the elemental shield.  So, no, no direct communication.  Doesn't mean they don't have means by which to intuit the tivaru's intentions.  In any case, someone, at some point, would have to (at the very least) have convinced people that, "The tivaru have revealed to me that this is what our religion should look like."  That person may have been lying through their teeth, but the point is that the faithful believe it. 

RE nothing other than Catholicism: evidently you like to ignore British history.

Well, in general, yes, I do.  But you might read just a bit more carefully.  I said "The only religion I can find..." (emphasis added)  Please note that this somewhat implies that I am not a noted comparative-religions scholar.  When looking around, the Anglican church didn't even occur to me, quite frankly.

Remember as well that the Episcopal structure is a subset of the Anglican.

How the fuck would I "remember" something I didn't know?  See: "not comparative-religions scholar" comment above.

IIRC, the Anglican Church apparently recognizes the supreme royal as also the Supreme Head of the Church of England -- IOW the Pope of the Anglicans. THIS more closely mimics the current structure of Diva … than does Catholicism which maintains minimal contact with decision making in the countries in which it is practiced.

According to Wikipedia, the Monarch of England is not the supreme "head" of the church.  They refer to them as the "Supreme Governor", and the role is largely ceremonial.  The actual governing head of the church is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

You have, however, just unintentionally made the point for me.  DDJZ does not recognize the Queen of Mirelia as its spiritual leader.  I have made that clear in the story, and you mentioned it in your earlier post.  It recognizes, specifically, the High Priestess as the supreme leader of the faith.  That the High Priestess and the Queen are the same person at this point in time is a coincidence.  And so it leaves Catholicism as a closer match, still, as the "church" of DDJZ has no ties to the government, and plays only an advisory/counseling role.  And, in any case, as the Anglican Church stems directly from the Catholic Church, thus having the same structural beginnings, this doesn't change the point in the slightest.

Someday we may learn how the Queen became High Priestess (or, perhaps, how the High Priestess became Queen).  All that has to be true for this to happen is for both entities (government and church) to not prohibit a single person from holding both positions.  That doesn't link the governance of the two in any fashion.

Eric Storm

Fun fact about Catholicism is that, the pope is an incarnation of Jesus ( or something like that).What people doesn't know is that the pope was actually the incarnation of St. Peter, but because Kings and Emperors alike claimed to be God chosen one, they acknowledge the pope  but with a lower stature than them so To gain the upper hand The church "modified" the records saying the pope is the incarnation of Jesus.

They changed that centuries after of course. But it is true.

Well, it was a time where information was not wide spread, so there was no way to deny it. So when ignorant and uneducated people are told by people that the pope is the spiritual incarnation or Jesus, who are they to deny it ?

That's not the only thing that the Catholic church did  for something like that.
It was  a time where any man on the clergy was able to be married and have multiple wives. Except people interested in europe history nobody would know about that. There was a big conflict between the " righteous" clergy people pushing for member of the church to stay single, and people not so righteous pushing for not changing a thing. After all the more you had wives the more money you got from her family when you married her and the more you gain influence.

Honestly with all the shit that happened in the church history ( and that still is happening) I'm surprised It's still standing.
For exemple Alexandro Di Borgia( a spanish pope) had children and was fucking his own daughter ( so was his son by the way). Rome was just a big brothel at the time.

Eric Storm wrote:

...

No, I did NOT write the Catholic Church's history!



Eric Storm

Of course you didn't. Your version would have been MUCH more entertaining, much better written and make a lot more sense.

Any status on the reviewers? Just wanna know if coming back 4-10 times a day to see if it’s posted is worth it.

I can’t see how you are going to be able to finish the school storyline with the dean and her jealous gobi fish, the elemental shield, David’s true love, the war, the portals, and everything else in the way8. Hoping for a book 9

dusty wrote:

I can’t see how you are going to be able to finish the school storyline with the dean and her jealous gobi fish, the elemental shield, David’s true love, the war, the portals, and everything else in the way8. Hoping for a book 9

Hate to burst your bubble, but all of that (and more) will be resolved in Book 8.  Book 8 is already planned out, so I know that these things can be closed out.  Trust me, there is not going to be a book 9.

Eric Storm

Update for February 24, 2020:

The Woodward Academy, Year 7, Chapter 12, has been made public.  This completes WAY7.
The Woodward Academy, Year 8, Chapter 6, has been posted to PRM.

AC Chapter 9 is well underway.  WAY8-7 will be started in the near future.

Eric Storm

Thanks for the update Eric