If a culture stagnates, it dies. A culture has to move in some way for it to remain a viable culture and not be absorbed into another nearby culture. Spira was regressing. They were forgetting how to use technology, engines were replaced with chocobos, the religion of Yevon had control on the mainland and the chaos of Sin was wiping out towns and villages on a regular basis. Spira was losing its sense of history and had come to revolve around this one aspect of the Summoners traveling from Temple to Temple and giving them a time of peace that lasts, for maybe ten years until someone goes and does it again. Spira had become as Auron said a ‘spiral of death.’ This was the Roman Empire regressing to the Middle Ages without lots of Kings and with the Roman Catholic Church having the final say in everything (now that’s a scary thought, cause really they did just not as obviously.)
Spira was suffering. I have to agree with Seymour there and it was time for it to stop. You can only go so far before someone or something has to give. I don’t agree with his method, controlling Sin to destroy the world is taking it a bit far and rather arrogant for him to believe that he could control Sin when we later find out that it is very clear that Sin will control you eventually no matter how strong your control is (there is something very Judeo-Christian in that.)
The way it was explained to me in a comparative religion course was to have a ‘complete’ religion it needed to start with the phrase “In the beginning there was (fill in the blank here with god, no god, many gods, I’m not sure).” In Spira however, we don’t have their ‘creation’ story to work with so I’m gonna have to resort to a list of something all religions appear to have in common. Yevonism has deities of Aeons, Former Summoners and the Element of Water. Yevonism has an evil force that acts against them in the Form of Sin, which as we learn are an aeon and a Summoner. And lastly but not leastly, Yevonism has a great hero/savior figure in the High Summoner who ascends and becomes a deity to be worshiped. Despite the fact for over a 1000 years Sin never completely went away. Yevonism also had hope that if the followers of Yevon followed the teachings and prayed for forgiveness that Sin would eventually go away. Thus there also was a plan for atonement (utterly and completely false of course, but it was there, I give credit where credit is due). And they had a place of ‘paradise’ in the Farplane where their souls could rest of eternity once ‘sent’ there.
Also, I’d like to point out that Yevon had the judge and trial system with a pretty nasty punishment in the form of Via Purifico because How did they know that no one ever survived, if they didn’t throw people in there before? To have a judge and trial system they have to have something with which to back them up other than “I am a Maester of Yevon and because I said so.” This is a like a parent telling a teenager “because I said so” without any clear reasoning. Just like a teenager, the defendant is going to laugh their way out of the courtroom. I don’t care if they have a book or oral tradition or leftover laws from 1000 years ago, they have to have something to make it work, to back up that government even if it is something as simple as “I am might, might makes right thus I am right,” (which is rather stupid logic but it has worked in the past.) Spira, at this point and time, is a theocracy of sorts. The traditional theocracy being a rule by god himself and his actions are carried out through his servants, the priests, prophets and hand chosen leaders. Spira was ruled by its religious leaders. They had a trial system that had to be used for more than just treason and their priests, soldiers and Crusaders were everywhere. Excommunication was something to be greatly feared, what would happen to your soul? You would turn into a fiend!
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Date: 2006-07-15 07:43 pm (UTC)Spira was suffering. I have to agree with Seymour there and it was time for it to stop. You can only go so far before someone or something has to give. I don’t agree with his method, controlling Sin to destroy the world is taking it a bit far and rather arrogant for him to believe that he could control Sin when we later find out that it is very clear that Sin will control you eventually no matter how strong your control is (there is something very Judeo-Christian in that.)
The way it was explained to me in a comparative religion course was to have a ‘complete’ religion it needed to start with the phrase “In the beginning there was (fill in the blank here with god, no god, many gods, I’m not sure).” In Spira however, we don’t have their ‘creation’ story to work with so I’m gonna have to resort to a list of something all religions appear to have in common. Yevonism has deities of Aeons, Former Summoners and the Element of Water. Yevonism has an evil force that acts against them in the Form of Sin, which as we learn are an aeon and a Summoner. And lastly but not leastly, Yevonism has a great hero/savior figure in the High Summoner who ascends and becomes a deity to be worshiped. Despite the fact for over a 1000 years Sin never completely went away. Yevonism also had hope that if the followers of Yevon followed the teachings and prayed for forgiveness that Sin would eventually go away. Thus there also was a plan for atonement (utterly and completely false of course, but it was there, I give credit where credit is due). And they had a place of ‘paradise’ in the Farplane where their souls could rest of eternity once ‘sent’ there.
Also, I’d like to point out that Yevon had the judge and trial system with a pretty nasty punishment in the form of Via Purifico because How did they know that no one ever survived, if they didn’t throw people in there before? To have a judge and trial system they have to have something with which to back them up other than “I am a Maester of Yevon and because I said so.” This is a like a parent telling a teenager “because I said so” without any clear reasoning. Just like a teenager, the defendant is going to laugh their way out of the courtroom. I don’t care if they have a book or oral tradition or leftover laws from 1000 years ago, they have to have something to make it work, to back up that government even if it is something as simple as “I am might, might makes right thus I am right,” (which is rather stupid logic but it has worked in the past.) Spira, at this point and time, is a theocracy of sorts. The traditional theocracy being a rule by god himself and his actions are carried out through his servants, the priests, prophets and hand chosen leaders. Spira was ruled by its religious leaders. They had a trial system that had to be used for more than just treason and their priests, soldiers and Crusaders were everywhere. Excommunication was something to be greatly feared, what would happen to your soul? You would turn into a fiend!
...continued in next response...