[Fic] "Defender of the Faith" -- original, "The Sum of Things"

This story is set in the same world as The Sum of Things, my very, very unfinished novel that was my failed attempt at NaNoWriMo in 2004. "Defender of the Faith" takes place about 1200 years before "The Sum of Things," in what later became the nation of Halo, a country more or less permanently engaged in holy war with Kanos. The old Haloro religion was polytheistic. Their new religion, Novi Samhiva si Temor (the Church of the Living Savior), is monotheistic, considers all other religions lies spread by evil demons to keep people chained to the endless cycle of reincarnation, looks forward to an apocalypse and subsequent perfect new creation, and is violently evangelical. You see, their apocalypse can't happen until a certain percentage of the people of the world have 'cast off their chains,' i.e. converted to Novi Samhiva.

"Defender of the Faith" is a story from the early days of Novi Samhiva, when its adherents were fighting to have it legalized and sheltered from persecution by the leaders of the old Haloro religion. It was an evangelical faith from the beginning, and its adherents were never pacifists, but the concept of holy war was several generations in the future. I think you don't tend to get forcible evangelism until you have some form of state power behind you, and until the ritual duel between Shemoni Kikalava and Jonoma Topio, state power was emphatically against Novi Samhiva.

( Defender of the Faith )

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On the one hand, I think I've written more in the past month than I did in most months of 2008. On the other hand, I am not finishing "Secrets." *thwaps self for being so distractible*

[Fic] "Defender of the Faith" -- original, "The Sum of Things"

This story is set in the same world as The Sum of Things, my very, very unfinished novel that was my failed attempt at NaNoWriMo in 2004. "Defender of the Faith" takes place about 1200 years before "The Sum of Things," in what later became the nation of Halo, a country more or less permanently engaged in holy war with Kanos. The old Haloro religion was polytheistic. Their new religion, Novi Samhiva si Temor (the Church of the Living Savior), is monotheistic, considers all other religions lies spread by evil demons to keep people chained to the endless cycle of reincarnation, looks forward to an apocalypse and subsequent perfect new creation, and is violently evangelical. You see, their apocalypse can't happen until a certain percentage of the people of the world have 'cast off their chains,' i.e. converted to Novi Samhiva.

"Defender of the Faith" is a story from the early days of Novi Samhiva, when its adherents were fighting to have it legalized and sheltered from persecution by the leaders of the old Haloro religion. It was an evangelical faith from the beginning, and its adherents were never pacifists, but the concept of holy war was several generations in the future. I think you don't tend to get forcible evangelism until you have some form of state power behind you, and until the ritual duel between Shemoni Kikalava and Jonoma Topio, state power was emphatically against Novi Samhiva.

( Defender of the Faith )

---------------------------------------------

On the one hand, I think I've written more in the past month than I did in most months of 2008. On the other hand, I am not finishing "Secrets." *thwaps self for being so distractible*

wherein Liz is puzzled by her sudden popularity among Russians

In the past week or so, I have been friended by three Cyrillic-alphabet journals that were then struck through within hours of friending me. I assume the deleted journals were spammers or hackers or something. (I checked the first two before they vanished; they were exactly the same journal, just with different vaguely Slavic-sounding usernames.)

Is this happening to anyone else?

(I was also friended by one English-language advertising/search/spam journal, which seems to still be undeleted. I am not sure if it's part of the same pattern.)

wherein Liz is puzzled by her sudden popularity among Russians

In the past week or so, I have been friended by three Cyrillic-alphabet journals that were then struck through within hours of friending me. I assume the deleted journals were spammers or hackers or something. (I checked the first two before they vanished; they were exactly the same journal, just with different vaguely Slavic-sounding usernames.)

Is this happening to anyone else?

(I was also friended by one English-language advertising/search/spam journal, which seems to still be undeleted. I am not sure if it's part of the same pattern.)

reading! yay!

Things that make me happy: beginning to put up the new book shipment and discovering that we have copies of Turn Coat, the new Dresden Files novel, in the store! Where we give 25% discounts on all books, all the time!

I bought it on lunch break and was 1/3 of the way through by closing. And now that I have caught up on the internet, I am going off to read the rest. I have to get up at a proper morning hour to get to my dentist appointment, but I don't care. Sleep is for the weak!

*dives back into book*

reading! yay!

Things that make me happy: beginning to put up the new book shipment and discovering that we have copies of Turn Coat, the new Dresden Files novel, in the store! Where we give 25% discounts on all books, all the time!

I bought it on lunch break and was 1/3 of the way through by closing. And now that I have caught up on the internet, I am going off to read the rest. I have to get up at a proper morning hour to get to my dentist appointment, but I don't care. Sleep is for the weak!

*dives back into book*