LUGNET News : ~1112/Philosophy/ReAka/


Matt Hein / Philosophy / ReAka /

ReAka’s philosophy

At the moment, this information correlated to the societies within Anachronistic Skies...applies elsewhere, this philosophy is considered very liberal, and may even coincide with the ‘noble savage’ way of life (if you would interpret it that way) which was adored by the romantics during thr 19th century. (longing to escape the foundries that polluted england.) This is sheerly an aside and can be applied to anyone anywhere as a civic way of life, not a religion.

In many ways, this can be viewed as an idealist, utopian way of life, and in respect, seem quite unrealistic. This is probably because certain societies would rather not try to attain consensus between parties. They look for complexities rather than similarities, and are thus divided. Many material interests would transcend the below, including sovereignity.

Give or take a few of these concepts, it would be possible to live an extreme of borderline existence based on this philosophy. It’s really up the person who identifies with it, so long as the tenets are not observed bypocritically.

  1. Nature is the model of all existence.
  2. Humans and animals are equal in statue.
  3. The environment and skies are to be respected at all costs.
  4. People, animals and the land should be respected at all costs
and no rights are to be violated. These rights include to live
free from persecution, tyranny, subversion and the hurtful aims
of others.
  5. Nobody may claim sovereignity over any other person, territory,
animal, object, concept. Everything is to exist in the public domain.
  6. Simple rule: respect the rights of others to live in harmony.
  7. Simple complexity is fine, complex simplicity is a nightmare.
  8. Marriage is a sacred right. Both parties must be consenting,
and fidelity is highly regarded.

Reaka was considered a popular social commenter during the early Ahrikari empirical reign, and many of his philosophical teachings in fact, carry a heavy influence over Scalia doctrine, which governs much of Albatross today. He originally devised a multiple tier-based teaching, which he figured was necessary in order for man to live in harmony with nature, his kin and the terra as a contributor to serenity. Using the ‘four tiered’ approach to a common value set for the races within Albatross, he tried not to interpret his teachings to other cultures as religions, but rather as meaningful ways of life, thus allowing cultures to interact with less strife than was of traditional experience. With luck and some diplomacy, ReAka’s teachings managed to gained much ground during the expansion of the Ahrikari Tribe’s influence upon the fertile grounds of Dragonia and eventually merged into the organized Scalia doctrine, which had surfaced only a year after the fabled convergence, which had taken place some years after the world reawakened from its abysmal state of disparity. The original teachings give rise to a personal tier one should dedicate ones self to, but also to explore those tiers in which they were unfamiliar, stressing cultural diversity for followers of any faith, as a cultured participant could contribute to their faction with greater knowledge of the arts and sciences.

ReAka was not one of the contributing Apostles to the convergence, due to never living when that occured. He lived from the years A.W 120 to year 156 when he was shot by a soldier who likely represented the Ahrikari establishment which had began to garner political power amongst the archipelago at the time. He was only 36, but his lasting impression amongst his disciples led to an explosion in diplomacy, which seemed unsound for an area low in literacy at the time and and still ripe in development.

ReAka, however, planned his civic following quite carefully and established quite an array of teachings. Being modest, he regarded his way of life as ‘nature’s mantra’ instead of ‘ReAka’s philosophy’ but the latter tended to register with more followers, so it was quickly adopted.

The four tiers are as follows

Harmonious relationship with nature
Applied logic and understanding of the sciences
Rhetoric, literature and the liberal arts
Affection, fraternity and faith

According to ReAka, a ‘civilized’ follower had to understand the delicate balance between himself and nature, and this stressed the importance of maintaining the harmony by respecting one’s environment (including the skies) by taking an oath never to violate it as their forbearers (the Lucarians) had done. Nature, according to ReAka, was the greatest paradox in which man had to compare himself to, citing its order and perfect imperfection (as humans themselves were). ‘But we must never live like animals...we must understand that in order to live meaningful lives; we must undergo our actions with fidelity and candor. Even in nature, we are to remain rational and respectable, for to kill others at will may evoke an eventual harmony, that is, the elimination of ourselves.”

Applied logic, the understanding of sciences, was of incredible interest to ReAka, and he continually stressed that his followers should ‘look to the skies, the ground, the wind, the leaves’ for answers to their most pressing questions. He begged them to ask themselves questions they had taken for granted and to rationalize everything they were told. ‘After all, truths are only as evident as you would interpret them to be.’ One potential confliction to ReAka’s teachings led himself to ponder immensely, and this was the addressed question of the machine in society. Since such technology was figuratively a science within itself, ReAka responded that technology was a microcosm of enslavement, one that with convenience and inhuman perfection, violated both its creators and the stability of a natural world. Peaceful technologies, which would not pose any threats, such as communication devices, were another story, but ReAka stressed a divorce form relying on these implements. ‘They render our oceans stone, our skies paltry and our soil in erosion...they are the bane of all existence...look towards the swamps of Cawdor, the escarpments of Kasketua, the endless crater that is Lucaria, the provenance of our forefathers.”

Rhetoric and literature, as ReAka testified, constituted an area of utmost importance in society. ‘If we are unable to record our past, how then are our descendants to remember our image, our mistakes, their heritage? Surely words passed from generation to generation will morph into unexplainable fallacies and superstition...this is not the proper manner to shape our culture.’ A common written language and written culture were of first importance to bind together a diverse, sparse culture of various races and pedigrees, and upon ReAka’s vision, he imparted his ideals into writing to distribute to other cultures, possibly for them to adopt. Much of this information passed to other regions such as Lucca, Kasketua, Kukaris and Aurell, which resided both near and far from the Albatross Archipelago. A dividing factor in his philosophy was both the prevalence of the higher rhetoric (Oceanic English) and Mingard (a 24 character phoenetic/ iconic conversion of OE) with various dialects and its own set of words, which had to be translated to understand. He chose to adopt both, but various cultures interpreted Mingard, while other seemed to accept OE as their rune of choice. OE seemed to gain higher prevalence since all cultures at the time strongly understood its common and business phrases as means of communication. (as an aside, most recovered media from the pre-apocal period was transcribed in English.) Broken Kasketuan still exists as well, but much was incorporated into Mingard speaking. ReAka’s most favored expressions were set within Rhetoric and he made a constant effort to keep his disciples interested in the works of the time, hopefully to accelerate his people to a more modern manner of living. The liberal arts above all, epitomized the sense of creativity ReAka wished his peoples to endow. ‘For a society to be truly progressive, we must be capable of generating visual prose for our descendants and to translate our message to those whom reside from foreign provinces.” Under his statements, art should be embraced by society, as it proved an interesting manner into which peoples could recreate reality in the method they wished, without affecting true reality. Works could never be censored, unless of course, they defiled the character of a society. (Such as advocating the violation of the rights of others or encouraging violence against one’s neighbors). Technology, ReAka claimed, is only an art form through the creative capabilities of the end user alone, but its means of simplification and reduction of labor in production made for an overtly common end product, which was shrouded in perfection and shielded in silicon, making emulation, modification and reproduction extensive. This was a problem, as art should be a unique product, not one which is ‘perverse in its showing’. Art is human imperfection under a façade of ingenuity, in ReAka’s words alone.

Affection and fraternity, like rhetoric, are necessary to progress a society and maintain a sense of understanding and nationalism, in which a citizen would profess pride in belonging to a country. Although ReAka disfavored violence, he strongly favored his followers to practice the military arts in means of defending a country from dissenting parties and to display fealty to a country. Men at arms were to travel the region and learn as much as they possibly could to culture themselves, then return to their native lands to share their experiences to contribute to the wealth of information a society already had. Affection, ReAka spoke, was never to transgress moral boundaries, which stated that a family consist of a man, woman and at their decision, children. Both parties, which held affection, were to remain loyal only to them and not to hold affairs with any other party, as this would trigger social disorder and conflicts of interest. Fraternity, or peace among communities was strongly advocated by ReAka, for the purpose of avoiding the very infighting that contributed to the demise of the pre-apocal world. According to his statements ‘If we are united as a nation, we should be as well under those laws which constitute a template of conscience. Boundaries are followed in the order of nature as well, and we must realize this if we are to function as a society.’ Relationships between members of different pedigrees (human, antipode, anthropomorphic, common hybrids) were not of a problem to ReAka. In fact, they were only encouraged. ‘Why should society factionalize itself? Don’t you realize that tendencies to cordon off a people would only divide a nation?’ According to his logic, research conducted in the past would like all of these cultures to the very same genetic seed, so this would debunk poor public opinion of intermarriage.

Notes on ReAka -

1. Class structure, noticeably, nor placement on any spectrum was a missing tier in which ReAka did not wish to implement. ‘Wealth is a subjective term, but objective in the fact that it is an exclusive, linear and hereditary trait. It is of particular disgust, as wealth creates a context for suppression and manipulation of a people by a small few.’ ReAka’s ideal society would be classless, free for opportunity by all and contribution by all. In essence, it was a sound idea for democracy, bound by certain rules of course. No parties could claim land, acquisitions, territorial stakes or any piece of nature for themselves alone. As all citizens under the society shared fraternity amongst themselves with peace, so should they with nature as well. ‘Hack and slash’ developing which has destroyed much of the pre-apocal world was vehemently despised by ReAka, and he went to great lengths to ban any essence of the practice. ‘Our world is not ours for the disposal…we are not the measure of everything we truly see, for it is only natural for us to shorten our horizons in search of our promised land, of dreams of ascendancy and avarice. With such direction, our only gain is a loss of options as a society, and our disfavor with nature.’ For dividing land, ReAka simply encouraged those following his word to take up residency without damaging nature around it. Fortresses or massively large structures were not necessary for living, even for a community. In the natural essence, a society was supposed to be open, not ‘sealed beyond locked doors and raised bridges which encroached upon the land’.

2. ReAka did not even consider a god to truly exist. (In fact, he was agnostic) Under his opinion, the only forces governing life were the laws of nature. Whether a deity or central force controlled this were not his questions, but rather the harmony, incredible beauty and serenity demonstrated by nature, and the repercussions of violating that openness that the wilderness offered in favor of humanistic tendencies. His following was more of a ‘civil’ code in which to live, and it was quite common during the convergence for his ‘men at arms’ to travel the known world spreading ReAka’s word. (They were soldiers of candor and rhetoric, trained both martially and morally.) Many of them embarked on pilgrimages from the Archipelago to various surrounding regions that were still in developing stages, such as Lucca and Aurell, as well as classical societies such as Kasketua and the scattered provinces off Lucaria.

3. Note: Scalia (its corrupted variant) grew to defile many of the teachings ReAka had eventually put forth, leading to tendencies of segregations and favoritism of certain peoples. Humanistic values formed by the machine and a more prolific society led to the collapse of certain tiers in favor of others, and in result, the religion borrowed pre-apocal ‘political cult’ tendencies, even though it was an organized religion. Instead of relying upon teachings, it instead relied upon propaganda and forced introduction to garner support, and secretly harbored those technologies created by Forresfoxe (who was the mechanical dichotomy of ReAka) The release of these technologies was the result of infighting and divisions of faith, in which three interpretive factions fought for control of the inter-regional political structure. Those opposing the growing state of strife included the ruling parties of the Free City Allercus, which had an equal representation parliament, the harbor city Valencia (governed by an independent authority and sponsored by Lucca - takes no side in the conflict) and the sparse outlander parties (wanted pagan representation)/ Rohadrim following. (Which supported a neo-Christian influence over the archipelago.) Allercus seemed to be the only peaceful region, while other parties (Akael FIN, Jade’s Akael interpretation faction (serpent’s order), Ti’ahmat factions from Gariland and the Kilahne DPR all fought.

4. Note: Currencies, business acquisitions and the control of natural resources were all tendencies heavily discouraged by ReAka. ‘No manners of society should ever be controlled by a noble few…a collective whole is necessary for a justifiable, understandable rule. Leaders should be temporary and numerous in positions, the paragon of the most modest, reserved and realistic peoples within a society. They must be cultured and capable of understanding the needs and experiences of a people. They must never claim sovereignity upon a people, or impose tyrannoical laws upon them. They must be compassionate in stature and view their constituents are theit equal. It is an order of candor and respect.’

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