dekket
Well-Known Member
Considering that the founding principle of the Koriani Order was Mercy, the Koriathain enchantresses seem to have fallen a long way. But then, humanity has fallen far since the order was founded.
Trying to sum up a bit of their history:
Morriel once mentions that the Koriani Order was founded "at the right hand of government during the time that the disaster was coming to humanity", and that "our first Prime Matriarch stood at the right hand of free governance before Calum Kincaid sold out his great weapon and became the destroyer of worlds".
It was that disaster was what lead to the remnants of humanity seeking refuge on Athera.
Now Perhaps the order was founded along the lines of "the Red Cross" or "the Sisters of Mercy", bringing aid and mercy to survivors. But another of their founding tenets was preservation, as they were foreseeing the downfall of civilization.
For "amid the suffering and the atrocities of humanity's Armageddon, the Koriani Order had been founded to resist the collapse of higher culture. Their purpose had been to perpetuate mercy, while other specious, greedy factions waged war, and burned a priceless heritage to ashes".
So initially it could be imagined that the Koriani were an order dedicating to bringing mercy, but also of gathering and safekeeping the store of human knowledge/culture.
I wondering if, in the technologically advanced spacefaring civilisation of the time, recording information in crystals was a common thing, or if it was soemthing developed by the order?
I presume it was also at this time (during the "Armageddon" of starfaring humanity) that they recorded the secrets of Biedar ritual, and developed the use of magic/Korianthian teachings involve the use of (non-atheran) crystals and forced dominion - which must have been established before arrival on Athera.
When humanity arrived at Athera and pleaded for sanctuary from the Paravian races, the Koriani were already well established.
However they were apparently kept from forwarding the Koriani point of view at the initial conference about the settlement of humanity on Athera.
It was alluded in Fugitive Prince, during Morriel's visit to Althain, that the Koriani were enraged not to have been consulted when the terms of the compact were drawn up by the Fellowship. They were given the ultimation: do things the Fellowship way, or that humanity would not be granted sanctuary. To settle, they had to submit. Which meant leaving much of their stored knowledge proscribed.
This left the Koriani Prime as the sole protector of mankind's banished history, in that the Prime Matriarch is the only Koriani enchantress able to access the proscribed knowledge within the Greay Waystone.
However the Prime Matriarch seeths beneath the yoke of Fellowship oppression, and keeps this information untill the time that the Compact can be broken and mankind is free to restore is spacefaring civilisation.
So it seems as if the Koriani order started of with good intentions, and perhaps much of the order still follows those faounding tenets. However, Morriel seems focused on over turning the compact, so as to enable the release of the knowledge stored in the Waystone.
Perhaps she sees this as the ultimate fullfillment of the orders founding principles.
She seems to be overlooking/ignorant of the fact that if the Compact is broken, and Paravian survival is threatened, the Fellowship would be compelled to eliminate the threat (humanity).
But enough of the background, let me get to the point of this thread: Are the Koriathain misguided, corrupted or evil?
Here is my opinion - For an order founded on Mercy, they are far to willings to enslave, assassinate and manipulate. They seem to be able to justify all this by saying it is for "the greater good", however that really doesn't wash with me. Especially when "the greater good" is narrowly defined by the orders Prime Matricarch, and could easily be replaced by the words "the Koriani orders best interests" or even "Morriel's best interests".
This started off with Morriel simply trying to ensure the handover of Prime power to Lirenda, but since then has become so much more sinister. Morriel has subsequently tried to assassinate the Master of Shadow, has possessed the body of a junior enchantress, has tried to smash the compact by disrupting the power of Athera's lanes of force, and has Dominated Lirenda completely to hide the fact that she is in possession of Seldide's body.
I believe that the Prime Matriarch of the Koriani order has been corrupted by the very knowledge that she has been safekeeping for so long. Rather than simply preserving, she is actively working to restore the knowledge, (by smashing the Compact) no matter the consequences.
Whilst the lower orders of initiates devote their time to caring for the sick, or caring for orphans, etc, and believe that they are doing good, what is really happening is that the Koriani orders is gathering life-debt, and increasing its pool of talent/resources. These resources are then able to be used to the furtherence of the Koriani Prime Matriarch's designs.
I believe that the average Koriani enchantress could be labelled as misguided.
The ranked seniors, however, know enough about how the order operates that they can not be considered as merely misguided. But I don't believe that they have been corrupted by any outside force, it is just that, due to how the order operates, none can oppose the will of the Prime, without facing obliteration.
A country where opposition to the leadership leads to death is a tyranny/despotism, and are generally considered evil.
So can we consider the Koriani as an evil organisation comprised of lower leveled enchantresses who are merely misguided, but who are led by a corrupt Prime Matriarch.
Trying to sum up a bit of their history:
Morriel once mentions that the Koriani Order was founded "at the right hand of government during the time that the disaster was coming to humanity", and that "our first Prime Matriarch stood at the right hand of free governance before Calum Kincaid sold out his great weapon and became the destroyer of worlds".
It was that disaster was what lead to the remnants of humanity seeking refuge on Athera.
Now Perhaps the order was founded along the lines of "the Red Cross" or "the Sisters of Mercy", bringing aid and mercy to survivors. But another of their founding tenets was preservation, as they were foreseeing the downfall of civilization.
For "amid the suffering and the atrocities of humanity's Armageddon, the Koriani Order had been founded to resist the collapse of higher culture. Their purpose had been to perpetuate mercy, while other specious, greedy factions waged war, and burned a priceless heritage to ashes".
So initially it could be imagined that the Koriani were an order dedicating to bringing mercy, but also of gathering and safekeeping the store of human knowledge/culture.
I wondering if, in the technologically advanced spacefaring civilisation of the time, recording information in crystals was a common thing, or if it was soemthing developed by the order?
I presume it was also at this time (during the "Armageddon" of starfaring humanity) that they recorded the secrets of Biedar ritual, and developed the use of magic/Korianthian teachings involve the use of (non-atheran) crystals and forced dominion - which must have been established before arrival on Athera.
When humanity arrived at Athera and pleaded for sanctuary from the Paravian races, the Koriani were already well established.
However they were apparently kept from forwarding the Koriani point of view at the initial conference about the settlement of humanity on Athera.
It was alluded in Fugitive Prince, during Morriel's visit to Althain, that the Koriani were enraged not to have been consulted when the terms of the compact were drawn up by the Fellowship. They were given the ultimation: do things the Fellowship way, or that humanity would not be granted sanctuary. To settle, they had to submit. Which meant leaving much of their stored knowledge proscribed.
This left the Koriani Prime as the sole protector of mankind's banished history, in that the Prime Matriarch is the only Koriani enchantress able to access the proscribed knowledge within the Greay Waystone.
However the Prime Matriarch seeths beneath the yoke of Fellowship oppression, and keeps this information untill the time that the Compact can be broken and mankind is free to restore is spacefaring civilisation.
So it seems as if the Koriani order started of with good intentions, and perhaps much of the order still follows those faounding tenets. However, Morriel seems focused on over turning the compact, so as to enable the release of the knowledge stored in the Waystone.
Perhaps she sees this as the ultimate fullfillment of the orders founding principles.
She seems to be overlooking/ignorant of the fact that if the Compact is broken, and Paravian survival is threatened, the Fellowship would be compelled to eliminate the threat (humanity).
But enough of the background, let me get to the point of this thread: Are the Koriathain misguided, corrupted or evil?
Here is my opinion - For an order founded on Mercy, they are far to willings to enslave, assassinate and manipulate. They seem to be able to justify all this by saying it is for "the greater good", however that really doesn't wash with me. Especially when "the greater good" is narrowly defined by the orders Prime Matricarch, and could easily be replaced by the words "the Koriani orders best interests" or even "Morriel's best interests".
This started off with Morriel simply trying to ensure the handover of Prime power to Lirenda, but since then has become so much more sinister. Morriel has subsequently tried to assassinate the Master of Shadow, has possessed the body of a junior enchantress, has tried to smash the compact by disrupting the power of Athera's lanes of force, and has Dominated Lirenda completely to hide the fact that she is in possession of Seldide's body.
I believe that the Prime Matriarch of the Koriani order has been corrupted by the very knowledge that she has been safekeeping for so long. Rather than simply preserving, she is actively working to restore the knowledge, (by smashing the Compact) no matter the consequences.
Whilst the lower orders of initiates devote their time to caring for the sick, or caring for orphans, etc, and believe that they are doing good, what is really happening is that the Koriani orders is gathering life-debt, and increasing its pool of talent/resources. These resources are then able to be used to the furtherence of the Koriani Prime Matriarch's designs.
I believe that the average Koriani enchantress could be labelled as misguided.
The ranked seniors, however, know enough about how the order operates that they can not be considered as merely misguided. But I don't believe that they have been corrupted by any outside force, it is just that, due to how the order operates, none can oppose the will of the Prime, without facing obliteration.
A country where opposition to the leadership leads to death is a tyranny/despotism, and are generally considered evil.
So can we consider the Koriani as an evil organisation comprised of lower leveled enchantresses who are merely misguided, but who are led by a corrupt Prime Matriarch.
Maybe Lirenda, too. There is certainly a need for the kind of humanitarian order the Koriathain aspire to be, but cripes - helping people - they're doing it wrong.
