As-Salam alaykumu from Castrum Nazarene

[Alfred Dunholm]

Greetings Uantir from Castrum Nazarene, may the peace of the Lord be always with you!

As a long time personal friend of Uantir (albeit it at a distance) I have come in the hope of formalising relations between your fine Kingdom and our Church & state. Ideally i would like to open a church-board here in Uantir as I have elsewhere (e.g. Stormark, Bastion, Ocia, Normark, Nova England, etc) where I may share with you the worship of our Holy Anglican church in addition to carrying out diplomatic relations. At the end of this message I've included an example of the kind of religious posts that're made on the church-board and of course comments and contributions from anyone are welcome (the quote at the end reminds me also, Happy St Dominic's Day to all here in Uantir!)

I look forward to speaking to your representatives soon and it is to be hoped that we may forge ever closer friendship between our two diverse nations.

Your most humble and worshipful servant,

Alfred Dunholm
Archbishop of Willow

Saint Dominic, otherwise and perhaps more accurately known as Dominic of Osma, was a 12th century born in Castile which is now a part of Spain. He lived through an extraordinary period and, though fate repeatedly conspired against him, he emerged from it as a shining model of everything that a Christian should be. He is best known as the founder of the Dominican Order, a Brotherhood of monks defined by their simple lives of devotion, and what follows is a list of thoughts on the man and on the world on this St Dominic’s Day.

In his formative years Castile went through a great famine and in the face of such horror, and to the shock of the others in the upper-class circles in which he resided, Dominic sold nearly all his world goods to the alleviate the suffering of the poor. Such action is clearly encouraged by the Bible, notably in the famous sequence in the Gospel of St Matthew “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me”, but at this stage of history many rich individuals glossed over these verses or eased their conscience with pitiful acts of charity. It was not so for Dominic, and the devotion he showed then during his early years would come to define his life.

In the course of his work for the church Dominic travelled from Spain to Denmark via France and Germany, and while in the South of France he encountered a group of people referred to as the Cathars. These people lived as Christians but they were not a part of the Roman Catholic Church; they ordained women, lived in relative poverty, had slightly looser morality than Catholics in terms of sexuality but they were Christians nonetheless. But in addition to this the Cathars believed that it was possible to be Christian without the need for organised churches, and it was this belief that bought them to the attention of the Pope Innocent III who launched the Albigensian Crusades to wipe the Cathars out and thus preserve the position of the Church. Encountering some of the Pope’s representatives Dominic rebuked them, declaring that if the Cathars were indeed heretics then they could surely be persuaded back to the Church, he articulated this in perhaps his most remembered quote "Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth"

Though the Cathars could not be saved from the vengeance of the ironically named Pope, Dominic was nevertheless further shaped in his spiritual beliefs by these experiences. Later in life, and most famously, Dominic of Osma formed the Dominican Brotherhood and lived his days devoid of earthly comforts so as to become closer to God. This order survives to this day and still thousands are inspired by Dominic’s example to give up their riches and seek a life of prayer without the distractions and temptations posed by material goods. The applications of this story to our lives are very real and very obvious; the lessons that we shouldn’t cling too hard to world items are clear and evident to us all.

But Dominic also had something to teach us about religious tolerance in our world. Even with recent events in Norway, numerous terrorist attacks and countless minor acts of intolerance and violence that never make the headlines, we can still learn something from Dominic; a monk who died in 1221. If a religion is the one truth, and surely such a belief is the very foundation of faith, then no darkness is too deep or too great to overcome it. The words I have tattooed onto my arm are true; “Truth conquers all”. Amen.

[Rook]

Wa alaikum assalaam! (had to look that up)

Welcome Your Grace, we have indeed been on the same side of a number of discussions, debates and arguments at the Hub over time haven't we? Even though I don't agree with the way you run your government, that doesn't stop me from looking past it to the decisions you make and I can say by those merits it's good to see you here. I did notice that you set up a board for Nazarene, and I have it here in my bookmarks, but with all the focus I've been putting on finishing up with these maps and establishing the intranational rail line I've not gotten around to saying Hi.

Ah, religion. It's a great topic, especially if you enjoy losing friends. You're a braver man than I creating a theocracy like you have. You'll find that the majority of the active members, and thus the majority of the simulated population here are pagan or non-religious, though the Countess Nesslandria Haneh is Christian. I am firm on two fronts, that there will be no national religion and that there will be no discrimination or intolerance of any religion or its subset. I am very careful to avoid even the inference that I endorse any one religion over the other; otherwise I would make more spiritual / pagan-y related posts.

I respect spirituality, no matter what form it takes. For the longest time I refused to accept any religion, and in some ways I still do, but that entire time I believed in something. It's why I continued to search for whatever made that “something” seem most reasonable in my head and heart.

Keeping the above stated conditions in mind I extend to you a warm welcome and I am fully supportive of you creating an area where Uantirians can express and discuss their religions. This offer is of course extended to anyone of any faith who uses the forum. Let me know what name you want for the board and I'll put it up in the General category with the Lounge and the Infirmary and such. I make a note of visiting all areas of the Kingdom to see how things are progressing, so I will keep an eye on the board, but don't be offended if I don't post there often. As I said, Christianity is not my religion, and one that I don't like that much.

A few things to keep in mind though. Uantir respect religion on an official level, but refuses to allow it to be used by the unscrupulous for nefarious means. As such religious doctrine that comes into conflict with laws or regulations does not receive precedence and are overridden. Religious sites are not immune to lawful warrant and search, sanctuary cannot be declared over pursuit by authority. Only private residences may prohibit the carrying of firearms or other weapons. No public area, even government facilities, may disarm someone as a condition of entry, including religious buildings. No one who identifies as an authority in any sect of religion may hold public office or government position. If I were to become a leader of a pagan church or convert and become a priest I would by rights have to abdicate the throne. No religious organization may maintain any control over the government. It goes without saying, that if I were to get deployed and Uantir were to become as inactive as it was when I was in basic training a wardship like the one you've initiated over Ocia would be unwanted and illegal. These are simply examples of the attitude of the government towards religious influence, and are in no way meant to be the only situations that may apply. They simply seek to establish the attitude that the government has and set precedence and frame work for common sense decisions in future situations.

As long as my boundaries are respected I won't have time to troll the Christian boards. I look forward to the activity spike, and perhaps Nessa won’t feel like too much of a religious outsider any more with all of us long haired hippy shamans running about.

[Alfred Dunholm]

Your Majesty, thank you for your salutations and for taking the time to look up the response! We have indeed generally been on the same page in discussions on the MCS and Hub for quite some years now if you include my period in Bosworth.

I do understands your concerns and just have a few points I would like to make, if I may. You mentioned that our style of government in Castrum Nazarene isn't ideal, and I entirely agree, but the problem is that as we're a "one man band" as it were it would be hard to hold any sort of elections. But in many ways we are one of the more liberal-internationalist states on Micras, for instance we're the only state i know of that incorperates the "Four Freedoms" into our international treaties and the people if Castrum Nazarene live with no government interference in their every day lives. And with regard to the Wardship in Ocia there has perhaps been a bit of misinterpration of our intentions there; it was enacted primarily in response to stop the Alexandrian attempt at annexing Monovia turning into a piecemeal irradication of all Ocian territory in absence of their actual government. I personally don't desire to expand our territory at present at all, and i certainly don't want any of the land Ocia currently holds, the Wardship is designed to keep Ocia in it's current form without any sort of mass-land-grab up until either the government returns or the MCS removes it. If the government returns or the MCS wants to remove it for inactivity we will stand aside on both counts. Ocia is the only situation in which we've enacted a "wardship" to date and given the response I'm in no hurry to do it again and certainly I won't be doing it here given you've specifically said not to .

As for your other conditions I can't see it being a problem, previously we've never even remarked on the government of a host nation nevermind tried to get involved in it. Generally I won't stray beyond the designated board unless invited to. I would generally hope that people will leave their weapons at the rifle-rack provided at the entrance, but even if they choose not to I can't see that it's going to be a big issue provided no one uses a weapon inside the Church. Similarly it's unlikely that i'll mind very few contributions to the board from others given that my posts about St Dominic's Day on 7 different forums have thus far yielded 0 responses . All being well perhaps we could have a board (or even a sub-board as is usually the case) entitled "The Church of our Lady Redemption" and the description "An outpost of the Holy Anglican Church of St George".

I thank you again for your remarks and I look forward to meeting with more of Uantir's citizens in future

[Rook]

It’s unfortunate that you’ve been so misinterpreted, as you misunderstand my conflictions. Keep in mind that Uantir is a Monarchy. I do not condemn you for being a one man nation. Micro-national democracies are, bluntly, a joke. Three people randomly voting on something two of them came up with is a government macramé circle jerk. Uantir itself is designed, from the absolute monarchy system of governance to the territorial baron style aristocracy, to run more pleasantly with one to a thousand people than any Federation, Democracy or convoluted Parliamentary / Constitutional Diarchy (or whatever the kids are coming up with these days.) Also, Uantir is the first Libertarian Monarchy I can think of, micro or macro-nationally. It’s the Libertarian in me that is innately distrustful of the rigid hierarchy innate in the Christian religion and what effect that may have when it influences legislation that may affect those who do not practice the same belief system.

Also, I am not, and never was, part of the crowd that assumed the Wardship was a land grab. I know you meant well, which is part of the problem, but I don’t want to get into that. The issue is that Uantir is so staunchly secular that no matter how good the intentions such an act could only be considered an insult and oppression. I hope we’re on the same page. I don’t see you as a conniving religious cloud on the horizon with terrible ulterior motives. I’m not insinuating that you would take advantage of religion. But people do, and there are safeguards in place to prevent it. They are not personal and I do not think the less of you for having to implement them or by enforcing them equally.

Don’t feel confined to the religion board. By no means are you a clerical pariah that needs to be contained. The lounge is open to all and is the ‘let your hair down titles don’t matter’ section of the boards anyway. Foreign dignitaries and the like are also welcome to sit in and lend discussion on government action in other areas of the boards, though they do not have a vote unless they also accept an aristocracy. Only citizens get a vote and the opinion of nationals are always considered before foreign influences.

It’s up to you and your people what you feel about multiple citizenships, but we have no prohibition against them. We are also probably one of the biggest sticklers on sovereignty in the hobby, so there’s no threat to being considered a vassal state or subject of Uantir if a head of state registers as a citizen of Uantir. We can keep our A column affairs in the A column, and the B column affairs in the B column so to speak.

Very few Uantirians carry around rifles and more rarely shoot anyone. An armed society is a polite society. Anyone who decides to shoot someone else has to contend with the fact that 9 out 10 times that person can shoot back, and 9 out of 10 of his buddies can help with the same. The wild west of the movies is mostly a lark to make films more exciting. The average person is a bit more conservative about being shot. Plus, I’m sure that those religious enough to go to church probably leave their pistols at home or keep them concealed.

I’ll put up your board and make sure you’re a moderator. If we get multiple religious boards, we’ll combine them into a category and make them sub boards. No reason to make it more complicated than it needs to be in the beginning.

[Alfred Dunholm]

Thank you, Your Majesty

[Rook]

It keeps kicking back my attempts to make you a moderator of the church board. I think you need to activate the account first.

[Mira O'Halloran]

Ooh. A church. I think that would be interesting, and nice. Perhaps we could create a religion/spirituality section were people can discuss upcoming holidays and religious based things?

[Rook]

Mira, are you interested in a church board as well? If so let me know what you want it named and I'll start re-arranging things into sub boards.

[Mira O'Halloran]

With my current beliefs being what they are, if I were to be labelled, Christ-Pagan would best fit. So, yes, I'm interested.

Proposed name:

Estel imi Ainatar (Hope, Faith and Trust in the Holy Father.)

Let me know if it's too long winded.

[Rook]

I have opened up the 'Spiritual Alley' in the general thread. Both of your church boards are now sub-boards of the Alley.

Enjoy!