A Pocket Guide to Refutation
Maelstrom again. I wrote an IC sestina back in early October, did some edits based on oxfordgirl's feedback, and rewrote the final stanza again as it still wasn't clear. I think it's now more tightly written and holds together better, so am happy to show it to people.
This one might actually make it into uptime at some point, unlike another recent IC poem, so I'm happy to put it on a more public filter. Still, contains some in-character information and opinions about various heresies and their refutations, and is thus under a cut. :)
A Pocket Guide to Refutation
In keeping with the spurious "Law of Five",
a fanciful suggestion that the Gods,
the magics, trading houses, even names
of races (human, wemic), and the Fall's
five covenants are somehow all the same:
five verses to refute five heresies.
First, then, Pentatheistic Heresy;
both pantheons made up of the same five.
(Two or three pairs may almost look the same,
but you can't reconcile ten different Gods;
their focuses, demands, designs don't fall
together, so why try to pair their names?)
Two closely-linked positions have the name
of Interficiary Heresy.
Inverse - the True Gods North, South those who fell
(then why no call for war from either five?) -
and transverse - North the fallen, South the Gods
(the argument against this is the same).
The Gods know only what is prayed, the same
as absent friends with letters (but your Name
They knew since you were born); this view of Gods
is sometimes called the Finchian Heresy,
named for Utopia's founder. (Of these five,
it's often held where all the others fail.)
And from the demon Khaniel, who fell
when he enshrined philosophers, the same
philosophies he sees in Gods; each five
aren't entities, but concepts, with their names
describing what they are. (This heresy
ignores the active judgements of the Gods.)
A final heresy, that all the gods
devour souls - a neverending Fall -
is known as the Essurean Heresy
(but all the Gods grant chosen priests the same
rite - Excommunication, with no Name -
which would remove those souls from either five).
Five proofs, based on what's known about the gods,
of how the theories by these names all fail;
now do the same for other heresies.
This one might actually make it into uptime at some point, unlike another recent IC poem, so I'm happy to put it on a more public filter. Still, contains some in-character information and opinions about various heresies and their refutations, and is thus under a cut. :)
A Pocket Guide to Refutation
In keeping with the spurious "Law of Five",
a fanciful suggestion that the Gods,
the magics, trading houses, even names
of races (human, wemic), and the Fall's
five covenants are somehow all the same:
five verses to refute five heresies.
First, then, Pentatheistic Heresy;
both pantheons made up of the same five.
(Two or three pairs may almost look the same,
but you can't reconcile ten different Gods;
their focuses, demands, designs don't fall
together, so why try to pair their names?)
Two closely-linked positions have the name
of Interficiary Heresy.
Inverse - the True Gods North, South those who fell
(then why no call for war from either five?) -
and transverse - North the fallen, South the Gods
(the argument against this is the same).
The Gods know only what is prayed, the same
as absent friends with letters (but your Name
They knew since you were born); this view of Gods
is sometimes called the Finchian Heresy,
named for Utopia's founder. (Of these five,
it's often held where all the others fail.)
And from the demon Khaniel, who fell
when he enshrined philosophers, the same
philosophies he sees in Gods; each five
aren't entities, but concepts, with their names
describing what they are. (This heresy
ignores the active judgements of the Gods.)
A final heresy, that all the gods
devour souls - a neverending Fall -
is known as the Essurean Heresy
(but all the Gods grant chosen priests the same
rite - Excommunication, with no Name -
which would remove those souls from either five).
Five proofs, based on what's known about the gods,
of how the theories by these names all fail;
now do the same for other heresies.