I have just recently got up to date with Court of Swords and have been absolutely loving it. One thing I’ve really enjoyed is the story of Ramus and how gradually his morality has been shaped through experience to create Harmony. He was raised in the Sun, he died. He was brought back to life by The Tower without a soul. His body was “blessed” by fire itself. Gradually his body deteriorates in his soulless state but he begins to learn that the power of the Fountain can be accessed without The Sun/The Tower or Imix, that anyone can harness the power if they know how. His own faith in himself begins to grow into a religion.
He enters the void and witnesses a world where death is only the loss of memory.
Dan’s little sermons and preachings are so great that it really made me want to write a little extract from his Holy Book. A strong feeling I get with Harmony is the philosophical concept that the MIND is what defines who you are. The body and the soul are just mechanisms for interacting with the world(s), but the MIND is the self.
The below extract is intended to be sort of like a “page 2” in the book of Ramus after he has already defined the power structure of the world (Heaven/Primordials/the Void) and turns his focus on teaching the power structure of the self (Body/Mind/Soul).
Extract from ‘The Equilibrium’ (The Holy Book of Harmony) written by Ramus Krill
II.
Body. Mind. Soul.
To begin to understand Harmony, you must understand the story of myself, Ramus Krill.
I began no differently than anyone else, and like all others, upon my creation I was given three essential things. A body. A mind. And a soul.
I was born in a monastery of the Sun. Under the careful tutelage of priests of heaven, I was raised to see the world as they did.
They taught me, that my body and my mind were mundane things, born of flesh and circumstance. Of the three essential things that make up who you are, only my body and my mind truly belonged to me and were solely my responsibility. They also taught; that my soul was given to me by heaven. Assigned by Judgement itself. Through the soul we could reach enlightenment; divinity could measure, weigh and judge who I was and who I would be again.
This is the first lie of Heaven.
But it is not wholly a lie.
Heaven did foster me, and most others, with a soul. However only in my journey towards Harmony, did I discover the truth.
The soul does not define you.
The body is the vehicle of the self in the physical world and the soul in turn, is the conduit of the self in the astral world. The Path to Enlightenment is not the natural order of our world. It is only the mechanism currently put in place by the entities harnessing a power we are all entitled to.
III.
I first ventured outside the monastery…