Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist

Within the swirling Mist (IC) => Biographies => Topic started by: The Voice of Mytteri on April 20, 2021, 11:03:38 AM

Title: The Tenets of the Church of Mytteri
Post by: The Voice of Mytteri on April 20, 2021, 11:03:38 AM

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The Tenets of the Church of Mytteri


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by Astrid Guildenstern, formerly of Liara
Title: Re: The Tenets of the Church of Mytteri
Post by: The Voice of Mytteri on April 20, 2021, 12:01:54 PM
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FOREWORD

All through the country, the people of Nova Vaasa are told to toil and suffer, to sacrifice and serve, to give everything that can be given to their betters and then more on top of that. It is only through obliteration of themselves that they may ascend and become a part of the Iron Paradise. It is only by turning away from materialist indulgence and finding happiness in one's own work that we can avoid the horrors that await in the Hell of Slaves. For the sake of society at large, we are told to bury our own wants and desires; naturally, the Five Families of Nova Vaasa and those who enjoy their favor need not sacrifice anything. They live for themselves, and they have always done so.

The Lawgiver is locked in a constant struggle with Mytteri, which it contends is the source of all that is wrong in the world and a foe to the natural order of things. Mytteri represents the individual's desire to live for themselves, the individual's self-interest and ever-present wish to become more than a spoke in a wheel. The Lawgiver demands that all must know their place and that the only thing that matters is society; thus, if Mytteri exists contra and in opposition to the Lawgiver, then Mytteri stands for liberty, for the casting off of chain, for the destruction of a tyrannical and cruel world order.

The true nature of man can be found easily enough upon Liara's streets; during the day, all is quiet and the men sworn to the Hiregaards remain ever-watchful and vigilant against those who would disturb the peace or break the law; law not penned wholly by mortal hands but brought forth in part through divine providence. After sundown, however, men and women from all walks of life partake of the vices within the Staggering Stallion: gambling, prostitution, all manner of substances long ago deemed criminal. I, of course, do not judge, nor should any of you. If they do no real harm towards others, if they do not inflict violence upon another living thing, what evil do they bring about through their actions?

Merchants like to complain about Liara, claiming that thieves "run amok" in the city once it's dark; however, they pointedly ignore the most prolific larceny that is carried out in this country, perpetrated by Prince Othmar Bolshnik, the Church of the Lawgiver, and their hirelings working in concert. It is because of them that the poor and impoverished within Nova Vaasa stand no hope of escaping the cycle of misery they find themselves trapped in. The taxman comes to take from the common man what little he has earned through his toil, and the kontor persuades them to surrender even more still; after all, the pursuit of materialism is what led us all to the False World in the first place.

Mytteri, whether it is a real entity or but a fiction crafted by the Church of the Lawgiver, an "other" that was created for vilification, stands for something. It stands for the freedom to do as you wish, for the triumph of the individual over a society that exists only to prey upon it. It stands for a life lived in pursuit of pleasure, of happiness, and of personal fulfillment. It stands for a life lived free from fetters or manacles, be they placed upon the body or the mind. In my mind, that makes Mytteri a being more worthy of worship than its adversary.

When first I arrived in Barovia, I happened upon followers of Ezra; they, much like the Church back home in Nova Vaasa, asserted that their faith was "the one true faith". While they were courteous and seem to place a far greater importance on the value of human life and rightly identified those who served the Church as slavers and tyrants, they spoke frequently of 'duty' and also of their 'Grand Scheme', a divinely-ordained role for each and every person. Such talk does not impress me, nor does the thought that free will might be an illusion seem comforting to me. They told me they thought Mytteri was but a bogeyman created by the Church and my own experiences would lead me to disagree, but I shall write of this later.

For now, merely know that power and potential lies within us all; this is what the Church is afraid of. This is what leads them to fear ambition, to fear the self, to fear any who express an interest in the self. They hope to ensure the people of Nova Vaasa remain cowed; they look out at the Nova Vaasan plains and see a herd in the midst of ruminating, ignorant of the slow, calculated slaughter that awaits them. I look out and I see what Nova Vaasa could be, a harras of majestic steeds destined to roam free, if only they could think to make that leap over the fence that keeps them in.