I, Sani (AMA)

I am Sani Sabik.

Before I graduated from UC’s capsuleer school one of my friends, who has been a capsuleer for around a decade now, sat me down and gave me some advice. They told me about some capsuleers to watch out for, some who were good people, and to never read Jita local. They also told me that, as a capsuleer, any mention of my beliefs would automatically put me at a disadvantage. They said that capsuleers interact with Blood Raiders all the time, usually violently, and that there are Sani Sabik capsuleers who delight in their depravity and violence. She continued to explain that for the vast majority, the Blood Raiders are the Sani Sabik, and the Sani Sabik are the Blood Raiders. If I said I was Sani, then most capsuleers would assume that I was also a Blood Raider, and it would be a struggle, a fight to explain otherwise. Even then, some would not care.

It’s been a couple of months. I’m bad at taking advice, it seems. Though, to tell the truth, I was content to just be me, tell a couple of close friends, and go be a great pilot. Until my friend Vlour was murdered.

She was killed shortly after the news broke of the attack on Matar by the Blood Raiders. The killers were helpful in their motive by leaving a message “Death to All Blooders.”

However, Vlour was not a Blood Raider. Vlour was merely Sani Sabik. More to the point, she was Gallente Sani. There is a difference.

Vlour would have been one of the first to donate to a charity that delivered aid to Matar. She would have been one of the first to speak out against the act, to call her representatives for actions to help the Matari, and to fight the Blood Raiders. If she had been given the chance.

I blame her killers for their actions. I am not sure they are responsible for their ignorance.

Last weekend, another one of my friends was put into hospital. I can no longer stay silent and feed into that ignorance. I am compelled to speak out, to use that little influence I have to try and stop this violence.

There are likely billions of Sani in the Federation; Lifeblood sold 8 billion copies. If you put a dozen of them in a room and ask them about what it means to be Sani Sabik, you’re likely to hear a dozen different answers. We Gallente generally frown upon the top-down control like the god-bothering Amarr. Add in the fact that Sanism is very focused on individual empowerment, and the opinions become more diverse.

It’s like this with most Gallente religions. Half the god-bothering Amarrian types in the Federation are officially heretical sects of the traditional Amarrian faith. As far as our own, home-grown religions and faiths? I plan to live forever and even I don’t want to catalogue them. By and large, so long as you pay your taxes and obey the law, citizen, the government doesn’t care what your believe, gods wise.

And our being Gallente heavily influences our faith. No Sani sect would last for more than an hour and a half in Caille acting like the Blood Raiders do. Slavering and sacrificing is highly illegal.

Rather than attempt to distinguish my beliefs from the Blood Raiders, because ■■■■ them them, I am going to explain what I believe. I would hesitate to use the term typical to describe me. (Or anyone.) However, I will say I am firmly in the bounds of mainstream Sanism in the Gallente Federation.

I was drawn to the Sani faith through the songs of Midna Lyre. I liked her music before hand, and when she came out with Lifeblood, well I was hooked. Yes, there are other circumstances that lead to that choice, but those are my own.

The first part of my spirituality is that we are not solely beings of flesh and blood. There is more, unseen than the matter we interact with. It doesn’t matter what you call it: a spirit, a soul, a life essence, an empyrean shadow. I believe that who we are is not comprised solely of the atoms that make up our body.

I do not know if there is a God. As my own thoughts on the matter are evolving, I’ll save that for another time. However, the idea of a Red God, sitting on some Throne of Judgement stroking his beard as he judges us is not within my beliefs. If there is a God (likely Goddess), I am quite sure that she doesn’t get off on us sacrificing our fellow humans to her.

My belief in our spirituality is very akin to traditional Gallente Animism, and doesn’t require there to be a more Amarrian-type or Lunaries-type God to exist.

Blood is the medium with which we can interact with each other’s spirit. In our rituals, the giving and receiving of blood is practiced, to unite us together, to give strength, to show love. In every rite and ritual I have ever been a part of, this giving and receiving of blood has always been voluntary, practiced by Sani Sabik. It is never taken from someone unwillingly. Period.

Blood rituals are very intimate. To take blood from someone unwilling would be a horrific as rape. Which is something the typical Gallente does not do. (I know there are criminals, and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.)

I also believe in personal empowerment, personal responsibility, and personal improvement. All men and women are capable of greatness. However, true greatness doesn’t mean being superior to other people, but being superior to yourself, yesterday. Elise Randolph might say that we can all only do our personal best, but I say that if you don’t wake up every day with the drive to beat your own personal best, you’re not really all that great.

If someone is running a race, and they win because they untied their opponent’s shoes at the starting line, that’s not a true victory. This is partially why I (and almost every other Gallente Sanist) do not believe in slavery. Though, a significant portion of that is from cultural reasons.

Almost without fail, Gallente Sani do not believe in violence as part of their faith. I feel very comfortable saying this. No slavery, no sacrificing, no forcible blood taking. The vast majority of us are rather indistinguishable from our neighbors. (And while we could have a long discussion on Sani fashion, we won’t here.) We work regular jobs for respectable companies, pay our taxes, and sort our recycling from our garbage. While we are people driven to succeed, that alone doesn’t define a Sanist. There are plenty of people driven to succeed without being Sani.

So, if you’re walking around Caille, and you see a woman or a man in stylish clothing with reds and blacks wearing a golden vial around their neck, they’re not a Blood Raider. They probably hate the Blood Raiders more than you do.

Sometime in the coming week, I hope to hold a vigil in Caille for the all those hurt by the Blood Raider attacks, and intend to invite Gallente Sanists as well as Minmatar living in the Federation. I hope and pray we can come together and move past this.

In the interest of promoting understanding: Ask Me Anything. There are no secret rites, no occult knowledge. Everything I do, and believe is available up front, for anyone to know.

P.S. Midna, when is the Red Album coming out? (Obligatory)

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What is your opinion on the teachings of Dr. Valerie Valate, Greatest Sani Sabik Philosopher?

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I ignore her as best I can.

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I see …

It’s been my feeling for a while (a few years, so, most of my subjective existence) that the Federation made a mistake when it chose to tolerate Sabik practice in any form. That “personal empowerment, personal responsibility, and personal improvement” you believe in is the gentlest form of something much darker-- and contains its seeds.

The seed is, “what you can do: that is your worth in this world.”

It’s a problem. It’s a problem because, if I take it seriously, then what I can do includes: playing on trust to advantage; betraying every oath I’ve given; making victims of people who risk trusting me.

I could do that. That’s in my power.

Those who believe in such a thing might benefit a little from examining the history of the Takmahl: swift rise, swift fall. Such a rigorous individualism denies the ties that bind individual to individual, calling them weaknesses to be exploited. In that kind of environment, anyone who would trust anybody is a fool. And yet it’s hard to live without trust, and harder to build a world, a civilization.

This isn’t, probably, your idea of what Sabik practice means. But spin it out, and this is what it comes to.

Maybe you’ll stick to the shallows.

(Usually I’d be suggesting anybody with a philosophy or faith go deep in, and explore its implications fully. Here … yeah, no. There’s nothing there worth diving for.)

Was there a question there? I read a lot of pontificating, some opinions.

I will answer some points.

You don’t understand the Federation if you think we pick and choose what people can believe.

I think humanity contains the seeds of it’s own darkness. Everything can be twisted and corrupted. It doesn’t take faith to become evil. There are nihilist-anarchist terrorists. There are devoutly-religious terrorists. There are serial murderers that kill because it tickles their willy.

If you have an actual question, Mamzelle Jenneth, please ask it.

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More a declaration, really. Or a series of same. So, sure, pontificating.

Doesn’t make me wrong, even a little bit.

My questions about Sabik practice usually come down to details, to the degree I’m interested.

(Mostly I’m not. I bother talking about stuff like this mostly to discourage people who might otherwise go, “Oo, that looks neat, tell me more!”)

Everyone picks and chooses such things to some extent, even if it’s just a matter of trying to discourage them from being spread. Maybe try expressing some unambiguously pro-State sentiments and then see if you can get a teaching job? Just as a thought?

Sure. But some beliefs invite destruction.

The ones that spit in the face of even the idea of civilization being a central example.

Not a one. Your faith doesn’t interest me much. It doesn’t even have the dignity of being actually wrong. It’s more like it started down a long journey, stopped at the first marker, and keeps insisting to passersby that this is all there is.

Even in its most harmless forms it’s …

… contemptible.

I’m sorry.

(It HAS gotten to know that first marker really well, though!)

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Ahaaahaaahahhhahahhaaaa, rude.

What level are you in your particular… cult… ? You say that in all the things you’ve been part of, you’ve only seen certain things. But, if you’re not top priestess in your cult, you can’t really claim that things don’t happen at all in your cult, now can you ?

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I’m just a lay person. I wouldn’t call it a cult, we’re more like a church, or congregation, or fellowship. The door is open for anyone. There’s a potluck once a month, an ice cream social once a year, and in the fall, we have an open to the public festival.

If there is some hidden cult or secret order of insiders, then I am not a part of it. And I cannot testify to what I do not know. What I said above is what I practice, and to the best of my knowledge, it’s not too different across Caille.

However, I am certain I would notice if the Sanists in Caille sacrificed people on the regular. I have faith in the Caille PD.

So you’re in some kind of Sanist fandom all about the shared camaraderie of blood rituals, fashion, and Midna Lyre albums?

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I would not look at it like I’m in a Sani fandom You can feel free to, if you subscribe to the idea that only the Blood Raiders are ‘true Sani Sabik.’

Do not misunderstand me! I am huge fan of Midna Lyre albums, the shared camaraderie of Blood Rites, and Sani fashion. However, I would not say that’s all to my beliefs or who I am.

Lithara,

This being is very sorry about what happened to you and about your situation.
Yours one is not a racial discrimination, but an ideal discrimination. You chose to follow a way that it’s viewed negatively from the common people and do you know why? Because the main entites who “represent yours” are criminals and followers of a terrible sect that’s the Blood Raiders and they started to use the “Sani Sabik” word as a synonym of “Blood Raiders”. This is unacceptable and it’s against the human nature.
The Sani Sabik, the one who chose to not harm anyone unwillingly anymore, are to be considered like the Gallente Federation: They had a dark past but now they are improved and perfected.
This being won’t judge anything about you; your ideals, your thoughts, your religion, your culture, your costume… And he’s not the only who do that. There are hundreds of thousands of bilions within and without the Federation who would like to tolerate you despite the different believes they have, and not because they’re nice, not because they’re good, not because they are sweet; but just because they’re human.

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They’d have to be stupid to do that sort of thing if they couldn’t get away with it and stupid they are not.
“Stupid” does not make an empire of exiles that eclipses technologically those who exiled them (if only briefly, and thank God for that).
“Stupid” does not form a rogue state that builds capital ship fleets and rains WMDs on empire planets on a monthly basis.
“Stupid” does not get to hold the office of Court Chamberlain for decades.

The Blood Raiders are but a facet of your cult. The most recognizable, powerful and probably numerous one at that. It would be most unwise to think they have no influence over the rest, or that they would not spread their rot if allowed to.
The Sani Sabik are deep in the red (har har) when it comes to trust credit. Suspicion is something you’ll just have to live with.

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Well, no offence But, that kind of sounds like there’s as much insight available from you, as you’d get from questioning a random ordinary citizen of Kaztropolis about the nuances of synthetic cultism.

Lithara,

You are brave. I hope that you’re well prepared to defend yourself and your faith from whatever the kind, civilized, caring people of the cluster are going to pelt you with. (Might include live ammo).

Good luck.

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The thread title says to ask you anything.

What is your favourite ice cream?

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To me it seems like the rot’s deeper and more inherent in Sabik practice, ma’am: closer to the surface in violent cults like the Blood Raiders, but always present, if only as a ghastly thread just waiting for someone to follow it up.

Which someone predictably will.

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Funnily enough, that’s how a number of us feel about the ‘I am a weapon to be wielded without question’ you espouse, Aria. It’s a fatally flawed framework that might be ok enough in your situation, with the person you have chosen to obey, but historically, it’s been far more commonly a one-way ticket to atrocity and mass bloodshed, and is fundamentally anathema to the idea of civilization.

But then, that can also be said of pretty much every other ideology, too.

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According to The Scope, that tolerance is diminishing.

Did you really just suggest this to someone in the Federation coming out as Sabik, who recently lost a friend who was killed in the Federation for being Sabik?
:disappointed:

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“Better than you were yesterday”. Fine. What is “better”, for you and for all the rest of your…blood friends? I don’t rotty know what you lot are.

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I am not trying to misunderstand you, rather I think a person tends to be the sum total of the choices they have made and I was curious what led you to make the choice of Sanism.

If you’re worried about me trying to misrepresent you over that choice, don’t be. I might be many things, but I don’t feel overly judgemental is one of them.

Sure, some might consider Sanists monsters by default, but I’ve never been too terrified of them. I’d say a real monster is the type of person who becomes so self-righteous they no longer have any more room for doubt or reflection. They’re really more common than you might think, just look at the mobs who burned Eturrer, or killed Abel Jarek, or waved the flag at a Provist rally, or maybe just the history of conquest by the Amarr.

The frightening thing is, most of those people were just regular folk most likely – but give them a good reason to feel righteous and they’ll burn, and maim, and kill in the name of a better world, for salvation, for a promised land. Destroy or burn their fellows with such indignant outrage of whoever the masses deem the enemy, who would deny their dreams and once all the blood has been flowing go back home and rest well at the notion of their good deeds done for the day.

Just regular, good, decent, kind folks who truly care.

That said, who can’t enjoy a bit of judgemental advice from a person on their own wrack of the wheel of fire once in awhile? It’s always good for a laugh.

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