Before the guiding hand of House Ardishapur the Mandate struggled in all facets of governance. They should consider themselves blessed to have what they’ve been given.
Empress Jamyl’s politicking was clear when Lord Yonis Ardishapur was granted authority over the Ammatar Mandate. First, through material wealth concentrated in the hands of the favored, the Ammatar identity would be eroded away by the illusion of riches. Second, the declaration of the Amarr Orthodox Church as the primary body of faith would see the Ammatar Church weakened and supplanted. Third, by selecting a relative of Idonis Ardishapur—who was responsible for the genocide of the Starkmanir, the tribe protected by Governor Utulf and those that came before her—she guaranteed that there would forever be a chill in diplomacy between the Ammatar Mandate and the Republic—something organizations like the Nefantar Mining Association have labored and struggled against.
For a decade, the Ammatar have towed the line for House Ardishapur and what is the reward? The loss of our identity with neither Consulate Governor Salaf nor Lord Arim Ardishapur daring to offer public objection to Chakaid’s abuses. If they have been muzzled and bound by the corrupt, then there is no path forward for the Ammatar than independence and reform.
Well, let’s see, he rebuilt what was destroyed during the Elder Invasion, expanded your navy, enacted a massive campaign to expand domestic infrastructure, improved your economy… and didn’t actually take away as much as some people were afraid of? The things that Lord Yonis and Lord Arim did for the Mandate were absolutely the kind of thing our lords should be doing more of with their wealth and authority, and yet this bothers you?
And the conversion of people to the Orthodox Church came because the people of the Mandate earnestly believed it was a more valid avenue for their beliefs than the Ammatar one. That the Orthodox Church was declared the official religious doctrine of the Mandate is irrelevant, the Ammatar Church was and still is a valid sect of the Amarrian faith still approved for practice in the Mandate, but if the people of the Mandate choose to follow the Orthodox Church of their own volition, who are you to say that is wrong of them?
And that Lord Yonis and Arim are related to Idonis is irrelevant. They are provenly not Idonis.
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It is true that Lord Yonis did much to improve conditions in the Mandate, but the cost is clear. What good is material wealth and comfort if it means abandoning the Ammatar culture in favor of the Amarrian one? It was insidious, the propagation of material comfort to rob us of our identity.
But we shall take these gifts and as a people rise once more. The leagues shall be resurrected and the Ammatar people awoken from this drunken stupor so that they may breathe free.
Clearly you don’t understand what the reclamation is.
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I understand it well enough. Lord Yonis brought schools, hospitals, and operation centers gilded with the Amarr Rite to the Mandate. My people were not Reclaimed with faith but with bribes and comfort. It is an illusion that has sapped their will to be free.
But now, when the Ammatar are subjected to the rhetoric of the likes of Alar Chakaid, Lord Arim sits silent.
You sound like a spoiled brat. Though it is more likely that you’re nothing more than a mouthpiece purchased by some Republic cur.
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Again, that you see this as not fulfilling the proper duties of a Holder, then I don’t know what to tell you. Bribes and comfort? Schools and hospitals are bribes now? First Prophet. Just admit that you’re Nefantar now, Darkar, not Ammatar. You are absolutely demonstrating that it is indeed hubris that guides your secessionist beliefs. Yet another Ammatar thinking that for everything they have been given, they yet need more.
We were allies at Kahah and Thebeka, Darkar, but it is clear our goals have diverged quite significantly. I hope you find whatever it is you are looking for in the Republic.
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Is it hubris to see the hollow nature of temporal comforts? To see that they are distractions from what has truly become of the Mandate? With one hand Lord Yonis brought these improvements and even an ethnic Ammatar figurehead to govern his new domain and with the other, brought an influx of Amarrian holders to wrap the velvet glove around the throat of the Ammatar Consulate and Ammatar Navy.
And we should be grateful for this? Economic stagnation solved by robbing us of our identity as we are forcibly assimilated into the Amarr Orthodox Rite by virtue of being indoctrinated that Lord Yonis and House Ardishapur are our saviors from birth?
Miss Kernher, you and I are heretics. Declared as heretics. In my case, for doing nothing more than taking steps to end senseless slaughter and suffering. I admire your faith that there is hope for the Empire, but I believe the only hope for the faith rests in the Mandate.
The Ammatar Church is not the dominant doctrine in its own homeland. Those Ammatar who flock to the Amarr Orthodox Rite do so as “tsula Riters” for as long as they are fed and housed they believe. It is not rooted in the true faith, but rather a perversion designed to rob them of their national identity and to serve as second-class citizens to Amarrian overlords.
The proof of this is in Lord Arim’s silence. The Ammatar are simply a convenient laborforce and pool of cannon fodder, not equals.
With the Empire in turmoil, with the MIO overstretched, God gives the Ammatar people a second chance after the Elder Invasion. A second chance to be free.
The work the Lords Ardishapur did with the Mandate is the kind of stuff we need more of in the Empire. That is the right duty of a Holder, the kinds of things so many of them fail to do.
The Ammatar are free (aside from the slaves you yourselves hold), given your own land, still most Mandate rulers are of Ammatar birth, you’re allowed to bypass religious laws regarding slave ownership and other such things, and the Mandate has been considerably invested in to help you recover after a foreign invasion. Truly, an oppressed people.
Again, what does the Ammatar Church matter? It has always been a branch of the Amarrian Rite. Are you so blinded by your pride that you care more about a ‘church of your own’ than faith in God? The slight differences in tradition are enough for you to call foul and push for secession? We are all children of God. If an Ammatar feels their faith is better represented by adherence to the orthodox traditions instead of the Ammatar ones, again, why is this an issue?
The issues in the Mandate have nothing to do with its identity. It has to do with the corruption and abuse found in many of your rulers, a problem the Mandate shares with the Empire and the Kingdom and which must be exorcised from all of us to restore a true Holy Amarr Empire.
The traitors already left. Feel free to join them, Nefantar, but I don’t expect many more will follow your lead.
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On the one hand you say that we should stay to reform Holy Amarr and on the other tell me to go to the Republic. But I cannot and I will not abandon my home to further depredations and the decadence of the tsula Riters.
And how different it could have been without the indoctrination that walked hand-in-glove with all of these so-called “improvements.” I am surprised by your disbelief that Ammatar can solve Ammatar problems, for I say that the Ammatar have a right to self-determination. I agree with you that the slaves owned by Ammatar are a blight upon the Mandate, but Lord Yonis and Lord Arim have done nothing to end the practice. Again, can you not see that the faith preached by the Amarr Orthodox Rite within the Mandate is false?
Better to sleep beneath the stars upon free Ammatar soil than beneath the gilded splendor of a Cathedral erected by House Ardishapur. By returning to the Ammatar Church, allowed its freedom and the chance to reform, the brutality of slavery can be washed away from Derelik.
You demand patience, Samira Kernher, but what has patience won for us since Kahah and Thebeka? You and I have both been cast out. Are the conditions on Thebeka III any better? Were those who wished to be freed, freed? Were those responsible for the countless tragedies brought to justice or did they escape to continue their terror elsewhere?
We face a race against which we are losing. The corruption of the Kingdom and Empire spread deeper and further afield. The Mandate is as yet a bastion against the worst of these degradations, but as you yourself are dismissive of the Ammatar people and our ways, so too is the rest of the Empire. After all, despite all of Chakaid’s bile, Lord Arim And Governor Salaf have only kept their silence.
The Ammatar people must choose between living beneath the corrupting influence of the golden shadow of the Empire for which only damnation will follow or choose the path walked by our cousins in the Republic and embrace a destiny carved out by the struggle to be free.
*Edited for neocom spelling error.
I was under the impression that the Ammatar Church doctrine was to preach salvation through eternal servitude, with the practical effect being that Ammatar felt themselves unworthy of any higher status than a servant.
Whereas of course the Amarr Orthodox doctrine is that after sufficient cultivation of the spirit, then the Ammatar would be worthy of being commoners, and after a millennia or two, even minor holders.
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You might be thinking of the Salvation Church.
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The MIO means well, but they have been in desperate need of any sort of restructuring for a long while. Their Arbiters were always competent, but quite frankly they were far too predictable. Im not sure that was an internal culture issue or what, but they lacked creativity in presenting their cases.
In light of the most recent Scope broadcast, The Ghosts of Kahah are prepared to support the Republic Justice Department Taskforce formed to apprehend Orlon Zashev. We hope he is brought to justice swiftly to answer for his crimes.
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Careful, good people of the RJD. This guy’s a bit of a crazy.
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If I am crazy for fighting against the tyranny, oppression, and suffering that you perpetuate by propping up the houses of corruption that is Holy Amarr, then I do not wish to be sane. Countless multitudes of my brothers and sisters have bought into the sweetened lies of Yonis and Arim Ardishapur but the illusion will come to an end and the Mandate will be free.
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Crazy or not, Mr. Darkar, between you, Ilan Ardishapur, and (sadly) Samira Kernher, we’re seeing a good illustration of what happens when people stop compromising for the sake of getting things done: you each get to be very pure (at least by your own standards), but you’ve all lost most of the ability you might have had to really make a difference.
And considering how extreme in your own distinctive ways all three of you are, that’s probably just as well.
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“Whom God would destroy, He first makes mad.”
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As opposed to all of the vast power to effect change being displayed by everyone who isn’t trying to.
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