Vastar has not been banned from the Church for as long as anyone can
remember. Rather, he was banned in quite recent memory for me. Even
during Dresden's famous reign as Sultan she posted explicit support for
having Vastarian shrines in Shallam to promote diversity within its
walls. This recent phenomenon is perhaps attributable to an event from
the past, wherein Miramar instigated a dispute with Vastar over the
title for one of Vastar's followers. It is a fairly long and drawn out
story, but ultimatley it resulted in hostilities between the two orders,
though not reaching the point of actual war.

Afterwards, prominent members of Miramar's order and friends of the
order spread the seeds and propoganda of discontent against Vastar.
Perhaps the first instance of this is when Miramar's Taranis, with no
clear reason I am aware of, banned Vastarians and ex-Vastarians from his
newly founded Magi guild despite the fact Vastar was at that point in
time welcome in Shallam and all its other guilds, including the Church.
I recall a time when no one I asked had any clue why the ban was in
place for the Magi, except that "it was always like that, so there must
be a reason," even though in this period I also recall an active
Dawnstrider guild secretary, friends and neighbours of the Magi, was of
Vastar's order.

Over time this mentality spreads slowly to other guilds, including I
believe the Dawnstriders whom had of course previously been lead by the
high ranking Vastarian. I then begin to hear people make up lies to
support such a rule they have no idea why exists, such as "Vastar
supports chaos" (in truth, he's never allied with Eris and Occultists
are rarer in the order than anything other than followers of evil, which
have not yet found its way into the order) or that freedom represents
lawlessness even though His public statements on freedom are about the
individual, not about society and thus have nothing to do with law. (And
that lie reminds me of what a forgotten fascist once taught his people:
"War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.") Other false
statements spring up, such as Vastar making war alliances with a god
Vastar in reality has made no such alliance and in fact claims actively
spreads lies about Vastar and the order. As time goes by, this unfounded
hatred spreads to other societies in Shallam and lies are created as
means to justify the false ends. Thus the Church's recent ban on Vastar.

And on the issue of violence, clearly there is a large difference
between defensive violence and violence of aggression against other
sapients. Pure pacifism in my opinion is naive. Let's please not get
into that obviousness.

And no, I do not desire power. I have not called for people to join with
me for anything. And in fact I hereby make it explicit: I am not
attempting to start any new society or whatever. Please no one ask me
about joining me for anything. I explicitly wish to not have followers.
Do not ask to be my follower or disciple. You will be turned down.

And Qwilleran, no, it is not governments who have found me
disheartening. I was even honored to be granted archonship shortly
before I departed Ashtan. Rather, it is I who find governments
disheartening.

Finally, there is a story. Several monkeys are let into a cage. Whenever
one monkey walks to one end of the large cage, its master zaps it with a
firelash and says that place is banned. After awhile, all the monkeys
all stay away from that side of the cage. A new batch of monkeys are
placed into that cage and the firelash of the master is removed.
Whenever one of the new monkeys gets near the firelash side, even though
the master is no longer there to threaten his unfounded law upon them,
the other monkeys screech and beat their chests and pull the new monkey
back. The orginal batch of monkeys pass on, but the newer ones know not
to go to that side of the cage, though the know not why. When the third
batch of monkeys is placed into the cage, any time one of them gets near
the former firelash side the other monkeys screech and beat their chests
and pull the new monkey back, though they know not why. Thus we see the
reasoning some policies are sustained over time.


Regards,
-Saruman.

Penned by my hand on the 4th of Valnuary, in the year 331 AF.