Tag Archives: fantasy

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The Cult of the Starsisters: Morality

Morality, as taught by the Cult, provides another strong and insidious element of control over the population.  It is also another outrageous self-contradiction:  it is simultaneously presented as both completely relative and absolutely binding.

In general, from my observations as I traveled through Nightfall, the Cult focuses on tearing down any and all belief in the existence of right and wrong in the young, whether inherent to their nature or taught by the remnants of older views.  They do this by gradually exposing children to more and more brutal rituals, such as the murderous feasting that always accompanies Hai’Lyn’s Night in the evening of the year.  Over time, people lose all practical sense of conscience, and will do anything the Cult dictates, even killing their own family members.  This results in “citizens” who not only accept atrocities without question, but they willingly participate in them in the hope of a reward–usually food or some other pleasure.

As people grow older, the Cult gradually begins to emphasize its own absolute form of morality to which it demands complete and immediate obedience–the first and foremost dictum of which is absolute faithfulness to the whims of the starsisters and the edicts of Nightfall.  Over time, with all vestiges of good moral sense forcibly burned out of them, young women and men move from simply accepting the atrocities of Nightfall to believing them to be completely and totally right, normal, and just.

It is brilliant really:  Whenever someone begins to feel a twinge of conscience about something she is being made to do, she is immediately “reminded” that there is no such thing as right and wrong (if that doesn’t work, torture and deprivation are usually effective). At the same time, they are to treat Nightfall’s own twisted system of morality as if it were absolute and unquestionable, keeping them away from asking questions the Cult dislikes.

From my observations as I traveled the realm of Nightfall, the teaching of morality is somewhat contingent upon social class and standing.  With anyone with a weapon and the ability to use it–the yaoban or the army, for instance–a much heavier emphasis is laid on absolute obedience.  For some of the peasants, moral teaching stops with the first stage.  The Cult generally grinds the lowest classes down into an exhausted haze:  Willing to accept anything as long as it gives them a decent chance at a full belly and a whole night’s rest.

There are of course many in the former Empire of the Sun who cling to the old ways, the truth, and a belief in actual right and wrong, but they are becoming fewer and fewer.  Some are quite adept at subverting the system, but most live in mortal terror of discovery.

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Mi’lu

The mi’lu is a wild antelope or deer that is very common in the far eastern piedmont or plains districts, outside the twilight.  They run in herds of anywhere from five to more than one hundred.  They range far and wide, grazing quickly and then moving on before the area they are in can no longer support them.  In past generations, the mi’lu were said to keep mostly to the forest, but since the farmers and other peasants are no longer allowed weapons of any kind, they are now common on the plains as well.

The zhuan and their yaoban are allowed some limited hunting privileges, and mi’lu meat is considered a regular delicacy in higher class households.  The lower classes are punished viciously if found hunting mi’lu.  At first I thought this was mainly an issue of status, but I now believe that it is one of sheer practicality–Nightfall will not tolerate a population that can care for itself.   People who can feed themselves will invariably think independent thoughts.

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Cult of the Starsisters: Epistemology

As I have mentioned in my previous, the Cult of the Starsisters is a bizarre mix of customs and ideas.  When it comes to epistemology (how they know what they know about the world), the Cult seems to embrace more contradictory premises.  On the one hand, it holds to a harsh form of naturalism–only ideas and truths pursued and “proven” through the magical and alchemical studies of its matriarchs and patriarchs (their terms for scholars) are found to be worth believing.  On the other, they arbitrarily (or are directed by said matriarchs and patriarchs) close themselves off to entire lines of reasoning that are found to be unpopular.  What results is a very effective system of practical, political epistemology–true followers believe what they are told by the “authorities” with blind, absolute certainty, while reacting violently to the mere suggestion of truly contrary points of view.

It of course is made all the more effective by the fact that any scholars who attempt to pursue unsponsored lines of reasoning are severely “disciplined” for doing so.  Asking the wrong questions or coming up with answers that might lead to someone else discovering the wrong questions* at the very least will result in a scholar being cast from his profession into a lower professional class.  (The logic seems to be that the mere existence of some questions in a person’s mind is enough to “prove” they are no scholar at all.)  At the very worst, I have heard of entire family lines being simply extinguished, either quietly in the darkness of the twilight** or publicly via some of the Cult’s murderous rituals.

Three things (at least) have resulted from this approach.  First, the Cult has succeeded in imposing a very successful system of self-censorship.  Second, they have succeeded in eliminating almost all original, contrary thought–all “scholarship” is really little more than variations on a sponsored theme.  Finally, they have extinguished all practical hope of discovering something True or Real in the matriarchs and patriarchs.  Even the most radical worshiper has, in reality, fallen below this line of despair.  With nothing to cling to but the Cult and the sisters themselves, they do so with maniacal fervency; they will to anything to please them.

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*Interestingly they are more focused on squelching questions than answers.  Questions, after all, can lead in all sorts of directions and are far less predictable in their effects than answers.

**I have heard that as many as two hundred souls have gone missing in Nightfall from a single family, almost simultaneously.  I do not know how the Cult coordinates such massive covert operations, but their effect on the population is evident.

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The Cult of the Starsisters: Religious Nature

The Cult of the Starsisters will also take a large number of entries.  Perhaps I will collect them all together in the editing process before the final submission of my report, perhaps I will just index them.    The Cult is a strange mix of self-serving contradictions.  It is a non-religious religion that the starsisters have built up around themselves and are using to slowly focus succeeding generations to idolize their rulers for the very crimes the people should hate them for.

It teaches that there is no God (or gods).  In the place of a higher power, the starsisters place the government of Nightfall itself–the state–which is the embodiment of the ideal of their “mother,”  Hai’Lyn.  While this is obviously a claim to be completely secular, from what I have been able to discern, the Cult acts and believes in all ways as one would expect a radical sect of religious believers.  While they claim that there are no gods, no personal being to worship, they manifestly and maniacally worship Nightfall and the starsisters themselves.

I find this doubly ironic, since the starsisters are manifestly of the same “stuff” the gods of old seemed to be made of.  But they aren’t supposed to talk about that–more on their views of reason and rationalism later.

While this sounds like a laughable combination, it is really a very effective means of control.  The Cult’s followers hold it in complete, mystical awe while at the same time disdaining all other religious claims.  Why?  Simply because the other religions, whose moral systems might reveal the starsisters for the monsters they are, are “religious” and the Cult’s beliefs are somehow “rational.”  Believers therefore hold the Cult to a completely different, naive standard of evidence that their own religion–for that is what it is–cannot itself meet.

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The Twilight of Nightfall

The Twilight:  It is a topic that I will need to revisit several times before I can even begin to do it justice.  I don’t know that I can ever really succeed.  The Twilight of  Nightfall is like nothing the world of Khumkato has ever seen.  It defies all natural law.  It is intangible, overpowering, sinister, and unstoppable.  And I do not impress easily.

The Twilight is some form of perpetual, creeping night that devours all natural light with which it comes into contact.  It seems to be centered on the towers that the starsisters create in the various parts of Nightfall, most strongly around the towers the sisters themselves occupy.  I would try to say that the towers “generate” the Twilight, but how do you create nothingness?  It is as if there is a massive hole pierced through the daylight, revealing the perpetual nighttime of the darkspace beyond.  In the locations where it is “thickest” (I must find a better word for it) it is just as if you were walking through a cold moonless night, staring up through the murky blackness toward strange constellations, even if you know that only a few miles away, it is a completely warm and sunny day.

Traveling into any one of the cities is an unnerving prospect as one passes through the edges of the Twilight into its heart.  The sky seems to “set” as it would during a normal night, no matter what time of day it is.  The idea of “geographical” night takes some work to adjust to.  If one approaches at night, one can pass entirely inside its borders without ever realizing there was a transition.  

The Twilight is at times beautiful and is always mysterious.  There is something comforting in it–at the beginning at least–the feeling of absolute solitude, privacy, and protection.  Therein lies its greatest danger.  The Twilight is also patient.  It corrupts its victims slowly, so slowly that most do not even know that they are changing.  Animals are warped into disfigured shadows of their former selves.  The only plants that seem to thrive are kinds of moss and lichen alien to Khumkato, some of which grow to be the size of large trees and reproduce at an alarming rate.  The people, too, gradually fade from their normal honey brown skin tone to a pale, sickly white.  Left untreated, their bodies become hunched, lean, and used up.  They come to hate the sun and believe it to be deadly to them.  Their diet changes from healthy foods to the mosses and lichens, and some have even been know to resort to cannibalism.

Only regular participation in the rituals of the Cult of the Starsisters seems to affect the transformation, allowing the people living in the Twilight to maintain a semblance of humanity–those who display the most radical devotion to the sisters seem to suffer the least.

I do not  know whether starsisters are the cause of Twilight or if they simply feed off of it.  Perhaps it is both.  They are extending it, however.  As they use up one husk body after another, they push the boundaries of the Twilight farther and farther by ensconcing husks in smaller towers on the borders of their realm.  More than half the continent now lies in the perpetual darkness of Nightfall, while the starsisters exploit the rest to supply food for the large portions of the population (and their thrall armies) that still depend on human food.  This is a slow way to conquer a world, but the Twilight is irresistible, and immortals can afford to be patient.

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The Starsisters

The seven starsisters, under their mother Hai’lyn, are the ruling powers behind the nation of Nightfall and the center of the Cult of the Starsisters to which all are forced to pay homage.  They are incredibly powerful mystical beings that, according to the peasants’ legends, descended to our world of Khumkato from the outer darkness more than seven generations ago. They are said to be the living representations of the stars in the constellation of the serpent, where Hai’lyn allegedly resides.  While no one has ever seen their mother and some doubt her existence, the sisters are clearly very real and their strength grows steadily with the corruption they spread.  They are subduing this entire continent.

While I know that there are seven sisters, I have only been able to identify and locate five of them in the portions of Nightfall that are contained in the former Empire of the Sun.   (I would suggest that your majesty consider further expeditions to locate the remaining two.)  They are   Anhilisha, Anhilynya, Anhilerya, Anhilysha, and Anhilarya.   Apparently Hai’lyn likes to do things in groups and isn’t very creative with her naming.  Each of the starsisters will be treated to a separate entry in this compendium as I compile information on them.

From what I have been able to ascertain, the starsisters are not physical/corporeal in any real sense of the word.  They are very powerful spirits of some kind, and they possess the bodies of mortals to interact with and rule their physical realms here on Khumkato.  Their energies burn through the individual’s body, leaving behind a mindless husk that obeys their commands and seems to be able to manipulate the darkness of the twilight.  Thus the twilight is spread and maintained, even in places where the starsisters are not present.  I have seen one of Anhilisha’s ceremonies of transition.  It was…disturbing.

Each of the starsisters maintains control of a different section of Nightfall, living in a tower that burns with a brilliant white light at it’s peak.  Usually, the tower sits at the center of their ever-expanding district, and they sometimes have constructed newer abodes as the center of their twilight shifts and moves with time.  They are nearly always to be found in the darkest parts where the destruction of the corruption is at its worst.  Their cities all have grandiose, almost ceremonial, names such as the “City of Glorious Twilight,” the seat of Anhilisha’s district.  While marvels of engineering and planning at their center, the cities’ outer regions are dirty and chaotic.  They are universally dangerous places to be no matter where you happen to be inside them, and the mara haunt the grounds surrounding the towers.

The starsisters are very different from one another in terms of personality and style of rule, though they all share a love for cruelty, sadism, and murder.

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Niun

A “niun” is a large, very ugly cow-like creature that serves as a beast of burden.  It has short tusks instead of horns, and is capable of intense bursts of energy.  Most are docile, but I have also seen them become quite formidable when provoked–they can stick those tusks in all sorts of inconvenient places.  A niun appears to be something between the ox and the boar of your land.

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The Empire of the Sun

My lord, as you know, the Empire of the Sun originally ruled this continent, that is before Hai’Lyn and her spawn took it by force.  That began more than seven generations ago, and still the war goes on.  It is a pitiful farce of a war to be sure, but at least the Empire can pretend it isn’t over.

The actual beginning of the war is lost in the fog of peasant memory, the starsisters having long ago slaughtered any historian who dared remember anything they didn’t approve of.  (I saw enough in the eyes of some of the village elders to make me think more is known, but generations of hard experience have taught them to keep quiet, no matter how drunk they get.)  I did learn that the Empire held on to at least part of the continent for the better part of two generations.  The emperor who lost it all was named Li.  He and his supporters lost their last foothold here and were driven onto the Iron Isles, far to the west.  Li was an arrogant man and he swore an oath on his ancestors that he would reclaim his empire.  Of course, we all know that the sworn word of an emperor is infallible (or so the Empire said).

That left the pittance that was the Empire of the sun in a bit of a twist when Li died on the Iron Isles as they tried to scrape together livable cities.  Not to be disproved, the Empire just renamed his son “Li” too, and then his son after him and so on.  I suppose eventually one of them might take something back over someday, and that would give the Empire the chance to say that the emperor still hadn’t missed a step–if you don’t count all the generations between one Li and the other.

From a strategic standpoint, the Empire cannot be expected to make inroads against Nightfall anytime soon.  The Iron Isles are a fortress–probably one of the most defensible places in all of the world of Khumkato, but they are also barren, rocky, and cold.  The “Empire” has difficulty maintaining its own tiny population, let alone mustering an army that could even make the starsisters nervous.  If you seek armies to ally with you against the twilight, you must look elsewhere.

Of course, the Empire has adapted.  What they lack in force, they make up for in guile.  Their intelligence network inside Nightfall is better even than that of my people, and their assassins are first rate.  They can be useful–if you can stomach their prideful reminders of the “greatness” of the Empire Sun.