From owner-wod-l@netcom.com Fri Mar 8 15:52:01 1996 Received: from mail5.netcom.com (root@mail5.netcom.com [192.100.81.141]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id PAA06636 for ; Fri, 8 Mar 1996 15:51:58 +0100 Received: by mail5.netcom.com (8.6.13/Netcom) id QAA10723; Thu, 7 Mar 1996 16:36:12 -0800 Received: from mach1.wlu.ca by mail5.netcom.com (8.6.13/Netcom) id QAA10670; Thu, 7 Mar 1996 16:36:04 -0800 From: axon2250@mach1.wlu.ca Received: by mach1.wlu.ca (5.65/1.35) id AA26240; Thu, 7 Mar 96 19:34:38 -0500 Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 19:34:37 -0500 (EST) Subject: The Nephandi (fwd) To: wod-l@netcom.com Cc: wod-l@netcom.com Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-wod-l@netcom.com Precedence: list Reply-To: wod-l@netcom.com Status: RO X-Status: I wrote this a week ago (29 Feb 96) but I guess the bounce is slow, as I haven't seen it. So I am sending it out again... Tadd Axon Year 2 Honours BBA Wilfrid Laurier University axon2250@mach1.wlu.ca ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Someone, a little while ago raised the point of why would any "normal" mage, not a Widderslainte, be they Technomancer, Tradition, Orphan or Craft become barrabi? How do you seduce someone to enter the Caul? Basically, how do you make becoming a Nephandi attractive to someone who does not have a poisoned Avatar to begin with? Here's an example: (Please forgive the constantly shifting tenses) A Virtual Adept, Primordial Essence. His creed was information wants to be free, and that all things were simply information quantified. But the more he tries to free information, the more he realises the futility. It is never "free", it is accessible, but it is static, it doesn't change upon being widely distributed. It is not even free from subjectivity. He sees the same thing everywhere throughout Reality, so he delves into the more dynamic spirit, the Digital Web, were infromation is free, or so he is told, where anything is possible. All he finds are the contrivances of others, which rapidly diminish the "free" undefined areas. Then he finds a Domain in the Web that is constantly renewing itself, never the same way, information becoming free, finding new permutations. The Void Engineer barrabi who rules the area takes this young mage under his wing, telling him of the plans of the Lords of Oblivion to remove the hateful, constraining concepts of form, definition and subjectivity from the world, to return it to its natural, free state. The freedom of Nothing. The Virtual Adept is very much attracted to this philosophy, and spreads it around among his contacts. It attracts many Cultists of Ecstasy, who rail against censorship and enforced morality, Sons of Ether, looking for a theory to fill in their Tenth Sphere and Hermetics who seek the Forms behind all Reality. It also attracts retribution by mages who recognise the true thinking behind these ideals. Rejected and hunted by his peers for his beliefs, the Adept turns to his only solace: the Fallen, who sympathise and feel as he does. >From there, formally joining them in their quest to bring about the blessed state of Oblivion is inevitable. Tadd Axon Year 2 Honours BBA Wilfrid Laurier University axon2250@mach1.wlu.ca