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Guyon grew too lazy to use the entire coupon himself, so he wrote only two essays and gave the third one to Beata. Beata read Guyon's essay over his shoulder, and she found it difficult to write something of her own—he had described everything far too well himself—but she tried.
To begin with, it should be said that good and evil are not absolute things. Even the kindest person, who has not harmed a fly in their entire life, can be an unbearable evil to someone simply because they belong to the wrong biological species, gender, or religion; conversely, the actions of even the most cruel and loathsome monster can be interpreted as good from a certain point of view—at least in relation to themselves. Certainly, this does not put them on equal footing; as a rule, there are those who have brought more good than evil into their lives, or vice versa. But still, this alone is enough to slightly doubt the official doctrine that considers Akonia an absolute evil. One should consider this: Akonia was one of Arselia's most loyal allies. For a long time, they fought side by side against the celestials, protecting humans and Anuzish. In those times, Akonia was surely seen as a savior, protector, and heroine; she was viewed as absolute good (by everyone except the celestials), and indeed, she truly helped save our world. This makes one reflect on her personality. What then happened that could turn her against Arselia, against a loyal comrade-in-arms and ally with whom she had fought for so long? Only the gods know; we can only guess. One thing is clear—it was a very, very weighty reason, weighty enough in Akonia's own eyes. It is not certain that this reason can justify her betrayal; we simply do not know what happened there. But something certainly did. Akonia would not have killed Arselia for no reason. And here we enter the realm of fragile conjectures. We are unlikely to ever truly learn the whole story. Arselia has been dead for many hundreds of years. Akonia's memories, as it turned out today, live within Her Majesty Empress Naria Es Diesra Arual, but I do not think these memories will become public knowledge, and she has every right to keep them secret. We do not possess all the information, and we likely never will. I venture a bold assumption—history is written by the victors. Arselia's followers have blackened Akonia's name for too long. We are used to thinking of her as evil. But in reality... I won't attempt to put forward any... overly bold theories, such as that Akonia actually saved us all by killing Arselia, and had she remained alive, the world would have ended—it is unlikely this has anything to do with the truth. I am merely trying to impartially evaluate the information we have. One more thing should be noted. Higher entities, singularities... human emotions are not foreign to them. Certainly, they are far more powerful, older, and more experienced than simple mortals, but I think there are more similarities between us than differences. Perhaps in the story of Arselia and Akonia there was nothing epic; simple feelings and a fatal misunderstanding played their part. To summarize—Akonia contained both good and evil. She was a personality with virtues and flaws. We cannot fully judge her because we do not know her entire history, but we can, at least, reflect and treat the official version with a degree of skepticism. Guyon's Essay 3Author
The Church of Anuzish/Arselia, New Tradition, Lugranism, Liberation, Luensian Ethics, Atheism, worship of celestials and otherworldly deities: which of these currents are viable and which are not? Bonus: +10 Intelligence, +3 Luck, +3 Perception.
Each of the religions should be discussed separately. The Church of Anuzish is the most influential and powerful of the religious organizations. It holds colossal weight in our society. After recent events, the schism between the Anuzites and Arselians has sharpened among the clergy; it is difficult to say how this conflict will be resolved, but regardless of which side wins, or even if they evolve into two different currents, one thing is clear—the worship of Anuzish and her children will not lose its position in the foreseeable future. The New Tradition consists of branches of the main church. Only time will tell how viable they prove to be in the long run; nevertheless, they have already existed for hundreds of years and possess a certain influence. I consider the New Tradition a natural evolution of the Church of Anuzish. Religion adapts to its followers, to society—this is a natural process. Over time, sects may lose their influence or, conversely, spread wider; it is clear only that these are unlikely to be the last attempts to rethink the Anuzite faith. Lugranism is currently the main driving force of the Zimivian rebellion. In this country, there is a struggle not only for the helm of state but also for a change in ideology and worldview for the entire nation. Even if the rebellion is suppressed, Lugranism has already made its voice heard, and in the foreseeable future, we should expect the appearance of Lugranist cells in many countries; from the side of the state and church, they will certainly be subject to cruel persecution, but this may only increase their popularity. Will we see the dreams of the revolutionaries come true and the whole world turn to Lugranism? Only the gods know. It seems to me that some countries will make it their official doctrine, but it is unlikely to be something global. Liberation is a very selfish movement. It is an interesting doctrine with interesting views that have a right to exist, but I cannot imagine it becoming something global. Luensian Ethics, in my view, should harmoniously complement the personality rather than be placed at the forefront. This system of moral values is rightly respected outside its homeland, but it will not replace true faith. Since this is a neutral, peaceful, and generally positive current, I do not think it will have problems with the official church, but it is unlikely to dominate the whole world. The Cult of Mao is a niche thing. It is unlikely to lose influence on the Mitsurugi islands, but on the other hand, it is unlikely to gain wide distribution beyond them. Mao is a key figure primarily for the islanders themselves. Atheism is a conviction completely detached from reality, which I hope will be eradicated by competent propaganda in the foreseeable future. It has nothing in common with healthy self-respect and even less so with a healthy functioning society. The celestials and otherworldly entities, I think, have outlived their time on Anuzish. Events in Tais spoke quite eloquently of how the state plans to deal with cultists. Certainly, there are no rules without exceptions, and individual followers and small communities will arise here and there; but cultists will be dealt with even more quickly and brutally than Lugranists, and their popularity among the people will be lower. Many currents are viable and quite promising; the main one is certainly the official church. Nevertheless, there are cults that are unlikely to become powerful influential doctrines, and some may cease to exist altogether. Beata's Essay 2Author
This is a very difficult question! One could simply listen to the official doctrine, say that Akonia is evil, and be at peace, but that's boring and, moreover, not true! Akonia cannot be completely evil—after all, she helped Arselia protect Anuzish from the celestials and played an important role in saving our world! That must mean something; it doesn't make Akonia good, but it already strips her of the status of absolute evil. And we don't know why she killed Arselia! What if she had a very weighty reason? What if it was just a tragic accident? They wouldn't listen to her afterwards; everyone turned against her! Even if she was wrong, a terrible fate awaited her. Whether she suffered enough for her sins, I do not know, because I do not know how serious her sin was! I only know that she paid for her betrayal. If you look at it this way, entities like Arselia or Akonia are not so different from humans, and although it would not be very wise to judge them by our human standards, I don't think they are some incomprehensible super-intelligences; it is quite possible that we can understand them. It's a pity we cannot ask Arselia and Akonia themselves for more details; perhaps then we would better learn what happened, maybe everything would be logically explained. Well... at the coronation, Her Majesty mentioned that she keeps Akonia's memories, but it's unlikely one should question her on this topic! These memories might not be very pleasant or even personal. We can only guess and hope that we do not offend Her Majesty with our conjectures—that would be awkward! Akonia is not evil, but she cannot be called good either; she had both in her. What actually happened there, we do not know and will not know, and can only guess. But it's very sad that everything turned out this way!
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