Riven,

I am a member of the Church

Your claims of not killing church members, defiling landmarks, slaying
innocents, or stealing things are only valid in the most direct sense.
When you grant a rite of prayer to the citizens of Ashtan, which houses
many who openly fight against the Church, you are increasing their
strength to kill church members and defile landmarks. Just because you
are not the one who inflicts the killing blow on an innocent does not
mean you aren't responsible as well. If you strengthen the people who
do, you also act in the way you claim not to.

As for all your horror stories of the oppressive Church members, I'm not
going to bother an attempt to refute them. I've never heard of the two
experiences where the Ashtanite and the Warlock were cut down within
Shallam. Does this mean it didn't happen? You will say no, and I will
say yes, because in all my years with the Church that behavior is not
tolerated and dealt with immediately. Had I known it was occurring or
heard about it later, I would have stopped or tried to fix the
situation. And everyone will have this kind of story. Have I been
wronged by your city, enemied for no reason, threatened with spurious
reason, attacked for just being in your city? Of course. From my
viewpoint, _you_ are being the hypocritical one, but I won't get into
that.

I'm also a little concerned about the validity of your information. You
seem to have made some rather vital emissions as well as glaring
mistakes. As for the rites of prayer in Hashan, you completely ignored
the fact that the one officiating was reprimanded and informed that a
repeat of such behavior would lead to the same punishment as you. That's
critically important, in my opinion, yet you forgot it in your post,
oddly, or perhaps not. Another thing that caught my attention was the
claim of the use of a harmony vibration, one of my skills as a Magi, for
the aiding of those the Church calls evil. This is NOT possible: Harmony
doesn't heal anyone but the one who embeds. Clearly, your observations
are quite erroneous or perhaps you've just been caught up in this vortex
of Church denunciations that have no basis. Take a look at Omny's
somewhat recent post, #9614. Does that have any point, any correlation
with the actual subject? None whatsoever. You can just see him swallowed
by this propaganda that he manifests as petty insults as if he knows of
what he speaks. And you're going down the same path. You're a Priestess
who went to Ashtan and now actively aides those who are against us. And
you're the victim? You've taken the Devotion skill set and turned it
against us. To expect something other than excommunication to the be the
consequence is just foolhardy.

You raise the point of difference between rite of prayer and the
resurrection, among others, of those that the Church would consider
evil, and in a way this is nearly a valid point. What is the difference?
I myself have immolated people and cast reflections for those of Ashtan.
Heck, I've even given a portal for a prominent Ashtanite and he loaned
me his artifacts in return. Does this make me evil? Does this nullify my
following of the holy codex? No, it doesn't.

One of the main differences between evil people and good people (and I'm
being _very_ general), that I have observed, is that evil people will
only assist those in need if they know the favour will be repaid in some
way, and good people will help everyone without expectation of reward.
When I cast reflections on people of Ashtan I am not assisting Evil.
Often, it's something like Zsarachnor is loose. Is helping them kill
this vampire an evil thing? It is not. Is resurrecting someone of Ashtan
make you evil? Of course not. Naturally, we get to decide whether or not
to rezz the person. Are we going to heal the Church's one enemy in the
literal sense when he has committed basically every crime possible
against us? Of course not. Are we going to assist _anyone_ who has
killed innocents and such? Of course not. But the difference is that
your rite of prayer does not consider the person it assists. The
experience boost goes to everyone there, both those that have been
hunting in Shastaan and those who have been enrolling orphans in the
Church's choir. It has little do with a person as an Ashtanite. It's
about a person who goes about harming the holy Church and the fact that
you assist these people.

-Kail

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Valnuary, in the year 303 AF.