Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened by religious rituals that provide no peace, and I will give you rest, refreshing your souls with salvation.
I’ve pondered this quote from the Elders a great deal in recent weeks, most assuredly due to the Elders themselves being false gods. But, even so, did those rituals not provide us peace? Did they not give us rest, and refresh us, body and soul? My woolgathering brings to mind another axiom: “A broken clock is right twice a day.”
Cult Leader Magamar is dead, murdered by both the actions of our own and OSR, as Atani tells it. Weary and heavily burdened or not, I do not have the time to rest. Action, decisively so, must carry us to our next metamorphosis. On learning this information, I gathered the other members of the Cult of the Elders leadership and we sequestered ourselves in our chambers. This information could cause another wave of panic among our already shaken people and it is our sworn duty to be the stone shelter during the storm. I hoped for a single voice, united in purpose and message, to bolster our people in these turbulent times.
Such was not the case, sadly. Looking into the eyes of my fellow stewards of faith, I could see dissension. Some offered true doubt, a sign of a wise and cautious mind. Others… some poison grows there and must be tended before it spreads.
We remain civil, thankfully, though just barely. I fear violence is assuredly an option some would consider, but my Blessings of Faith remain, a shocking revelation to a number of my fellows no doubt. By choice or by Faith, bloodshed has been avoided for now.
Being the bearer of the Staff of the Faithful and still clearly channeling my Blessing, I naturally fell into a position of leadership among the pure-hearted among our order, but with a broad spectrum of our next actions. We left our convocation with no solid lines between us and I have spent much time with the doubtful so they may speak their concerns in private. It is a slow process, but these much-needed moments of private consideration to clear the air of more sensitive concerns have been invaluable. Not all have changed their minds, but many are amenable to my ideas. Some have outright refused my efforts, but that itself is also useful to know.
The truly difficult tasks lay ahead of us, specifically us in the Cult. There are no Elders to venerate - that revelation has shaken the faith of West Village and I don’t wish to simply switch one false god for another. With the expanded information now available for us at the , I’ve found information on two faith traditions that might serve us well - Taoism or perhaps Confucianism. I will need more time to ponder these monumental changes in the teachings of the Cult. The heart of these faiths, community, self, and soul, seem universal and already akin to much of the current Cult dogma. With luck, we can remove the need for a figure to worship and instead refresh our souls through our dedication to West Village as a home and a people.
Meanwhile, I fear I must remain diligent. I hope I am paranoid given what I've seen outside of West Village, but I see vipers in the grass waiting to strike.