Many have raised issue with the complaints over Cyrene's policy
regarding citizenship. I must respond that I agree completely. It is a
city's right to make whatever laws the please. If you want to be a city
of slavery or a city of pink bunnies and chocolate mints, so be it! I
also have a right to not be a part of that if I so desire. What I do
take issue with is people's misunderstaning of freedom since Ashtan
purports to be a city of such, yet many seem to not understand freedom
in all its forms. Though the topic has been raised in passing, it has
nonetheless been raised in a way I find out of context.

Long ago, Ashtan was under the influence of Eris. She fell asleep, and
ultimately it came under the influence of Sartan. Sometime between those
two events, before Sartan ruined it fairly well, Ashtan adopted an idea
of freedom. It was based in part from Vastar due to Vastar's order
having a strong presence in Ashtan, though Vastar did not force Ashtan
policy with an iron fist during His brief patronage as many gods do to
their cities. (Besides, Lupus I believe patroned Ashtan for most of this
period). Though Vastar also had a strong presence in the Sentaari,
Kharon, Sentinels, and even a secretary in the Paladins, His mortals'
influence on Ashtan during this post-Eris time was perhaps greater than
other areas purely due to random chance.

Now that Sartan's misleading influence has been ejected, Ashtan has made
a move back towards the ideals of freedom. Although these may not be
perfect and though Ashtan has not chosen the true divine patron of
freedom, I do believe that the principles of freedom do apply to some
extent in this day. The confusion many have with this is that freedom
comes from the individual, not from a collective governmemt. Thus though
Ashtan's governmental policy probably is not a model of collective
freedom like a more communistic government, it does at least attempt to
make some steps towards freedom of the individual through individualism,
even if it is not perfect. (I for one would love to see many laws
rewritten, but they are more satisfactory than other cities by my
opinion). For example, though Ashtan is no friend of the Church, it has
allowed citizenship of the occassional Church member desiring membership
with Ashtan and proving himself trustworthy.

Thus to clarify freedom as believed by the divine order of freedom, I
present this essay. Note that this is not official policy of Ashtan.
Though I believe Ashtan's overall mentality (not to be confused with the
mentality of some of its individuals!) has been favourable to these
ideals, it has never been ratified nor presented as Ashtan policy in an
official manner. Many Ashtanites do fall short of this. But bear in mind
that the idea is that Ashtan government not force freedom upon its
citizens whether they want it or not but rather it not infringe upon
Ashtan's ideas of freedom, though those ideas do not explicitly derive
from the divine order of freedom since it is not affiliated with that
order.

Nor is it me speaking as an Occultist, which is a rare event indeed.
This is an area that transcends Occultism and government. It transcends
dogma. It has been utilized successfully by the righteous, by many
neutral yet noble tree-huggers residing in forestal groves, by several
monks and serpents of all walks of life, by citizens of Shallam, Cyrene,
Hashan, and Ashtan, and by one much admired and greatly despised
Occultist.

======================================================

The Vastarian way is at a high level about freedom and achievement,
though this is misleading to many. Ultimately, those are side effects of
the Vastarian way of life. They are end goals of something greater: self
discovery and mastery of the self.

Vastar has no dogma. He does not state that certain forms of behaviour
are better than others, as numerous other gods do even when they
contradict each other. He does not teach that some things in this world
are good and some are harmful. Though perhaps He does have opinions on
these matters (He did, after all, take a side in the Chaos wars), He
does not impose these views on us mortals. Even when He does come into
conflict with other beings, He does not require His followers to act; it
is the individual choice of each member to choose. And that leads to the
core of the Vastarian way: individuality. Through individuality comes
individual freedom.

First I should back up a bit and define what Vastarian freedom is not.
Vastarian freedom is not anarchy, a society in which there are no laws
and anyone may do what they want with wild abandon. It also is not a
noble crusade to destroy all oppressors in the world so that people may
live free of slavery and other forms of oppression. Vastarian freedom is
not hedonism, living life for the sake of pleasure alone. Nor is it
fascism wherein you enslave others to give yourself the freedom to have
and experience whatever you so desire on a whim. Although these could
perhaps be classified as types of freedom if put in certain
perspectives, they are not Vastarian.

Vastarian freedom is the idea that true freedom for the individual comes
when a person realizes who he is and takes mastery over his self being.
Perhaps it could be summed up as "self realization." It is believed that
when you know and master who you truly are then no one can control you.
Note that I am not referring to control like slavery, physical control.
I am referring to your inner being. I will use Aldair as an example.

Aldair is archprelate of the Church. She is righteous and lives a life
of charitable morals. If she had achieved Vastarian freedom through
mastery of her inner self then she would know in her soul that this is
the way life is to be for herself, and nothing could change that for
her. No influence from Sartan or His minions and no amount of torture
would be able to turn her to evil. No twisted magics of the Chaos Lords
would be able turn her towards Chaos. If Aldair had achieved Vastarian
freedom then such cases of controlling Aldair's inner being would be
impossible. Some people choose to become slaves to a cause. Though
Vastarians also can choose a cause, they choose such because it is in
their individual hearts, not because of some nebulous and indefinite
thoughts or because someone with political power or a god told them to.

One may see a possible contradiction to this, though. Suppose both I and
Aldair have both achieved the Vastarian freedom of self-mastery. Aldair
is well known to be bitterly opposed to me, so how can two people living
a Vastarian life of freedom be bitterly opposed to each other? This
brings to a second facet of Vastarian freedom, for it is more than just
realization and mastery of the self. To use Skarash's wording, it is
"self realization without the constraints of prejudice." This extra
facet to Vastarian freedom could be a reason many unshakable souls,
possibly including Aldair (though I will make no claim of judgement
there, have not achieved Vastarian freedom.

Along with self realization and mastery must come recognition that those
who also have achieved such a state can not be controlled. The problem
with prejudice is that it leads to the carte blanche idea that some
group must be squashed, their will broken and forced to change to your
way. It leads to hatred and the desire to convert others. The problem
with this is that a Vastarian's will can not be converted or enslaved. A
Vastarian recognizes this, and thus a Vastarian does not hate others for
being who they are. Though a Vastarian may still try to influence
others, as I have often done, he will still recognize that this is not
possible against those who have achieved the Vastarian freedom.
Therefore, the direction that prejudice leads to becomes illogical. A
true Vastarian would in his heart hold a respect and admiration for the
individuality of others, no matter how much he may disagree with them.
This is perhaps the most difficult part of achieving Vastarian freedom.

Along with freedom is the idea of achievement, striving for your goals
or "aiming for the sky", so to speak. Though it may seem off topic, it
is closely related to freedom; it gives possible reason why it is ideal
to achieve Vastarian freedom. The Vastarian way teaches that only
through mastery of the inner being through self discovery can one truly
achieve his greatest potential, only then can one unlock his full
capacity. It basically boils down to two things.

The first is that one who does not know his inner self can not unlock
his full potential. For example, one who is truly and undeniably evil at
heart will fail if he tries to force himself to be righteous. Though he
me be in fact capable of being righteous if he tries really hard, he
will unlikely flourish and grow, much like a fish out of water; he would
unlikely be able to cope with the responsibilities of being a prelate or
leader of a righteous guild like the Paladins.

Secondly, without mastery of your inner self, you lose potential to
resist outside influences that interfere with the path you choose. One
who is truly illuminated at heart but has not mastered his inner self
may become swayed by the influence of Twilight's manipulative order of
darkness, and he may stumble in his path due to their influence and
control over him. Only by removing the ability of others to control
one's self can one be able to achieve goals without interference of
those who would try to force you down another path.

So in summary, the Vastarian way of freedom is realization and mastery
of your inner self. When you have achieved this, you will become free in
the sense that no one will be able to forcibly change or control your
inner being. It also unlocks one's inner potential, opening up the
greatest facility for achievement. Thus the Vastarian way leads to
freedom and the capability for success.

Penned by my hand on the 10th of Glacian, in the year 320 AF.