Sokalyx the Learned
Sokalyx
Sokalyx the Learned was an Old Voxelian scholar and holy man who lived during the early years of written language in The Human Arc .
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Precious little is known about the early life of Sokalyx the Learned. Textual evidence from other writings discovered at his purported burial site suggest that he was born at some point in the year 4179. What is known is that he was in the inner circle of a powerful tribal lord at the time, presumably as a result of familial connections to one of the lord's confidants, and that the lord's military adventures were what brought young Sokalyx in contact with so many diverse religious practices. Such religious practices included sacred texts, from which Sokalyx eventually learned to read and constructed a simple phonetic alphabet for himself which would later evolve into the written form of Vozendi. It is known that Sokalyx married and had at least two children; individuals seeking to gain power in the Church sometimes claim to be of Sokalyx's bloodline, though these claims are difficult to prove. Sokalyx lived to the age of 99, an impressive degree of longevity for the time, and wrote various vague prophesies and surreal mythological tales in his waning years. The exact date of Sokalyx's death remains obscure, with a simple footnote in the Incunabula by one of his sons suggesting that the end came some time in the winter of 4278.
Accomplishments & Achievements
As the writer of the Incunabula of the House of the Unexpected, Sokalyx the Learned was the father of Vozendi script and, arguably, even written history itself; the Incunabula served as a record of the various tribal religions which existed in Medial A at the time of its writing. Because the Incunabula drew upon the important aspects of so many different religious currents in contemporary Medial A, the Unexpector faith promulgated by the Incunabula quickly became the most widespread religion among Humans. Sokalyx's personal notes and letters are instrumental in deciphering Medial archaeological finds, especially when script translations are required, and the body of his work is an important part of the modern New Voxelian literary and religious cannons.
Intellectual Characteristics
Though there existed no objective measures of such within his time, Unexpector religious scholars note that Sokalyx the Learned displayed impressive levels of verbal intelligence for a person born before widespread adoption of writing. Sokalyx was perhaps the most open-minded and philosophically learned man of his era, creating the Unexpector religion and shaping it into a coherent spiritual narrative which, in contrast to the House of the Unexpected's original, localized forms, persisted for many millennia after his own death. Sokalyx's influence on New Voxelian (ethnic group) culture cannot be overstated.
Morality & Philosophy
Per his own writings Sokalyx the Learned believed that every religion strong enough to persist through oral traditions carried some spark of what he called 'divine truth,' a spark which he sought to capture through the creation of the syncretic Unexpector faith. Sokalyx believed that religion had a dual role in enforcing the 'divine will' a group of people generated through faith while also carrying useful moral lessons which could be applied to real world philosophical questions. In Sokalyx's theology, there existed a transcendant moral order, what he termed the 'divine unity,' from which all other moral laws were derived.
Sokalyx's three part philosophy - divine truth, divine will, and divine unity - later went on to inform the philosophy of science in the Manifold, resulting in widespread adoption of the scientific method and the Correspondence Principle. This legacy has sometimes been regarded by the faithful as an unintentional blunder on the part of Sokalyx, as the growth of cosmological knowledge sometimes seems to threaten the faith he created, but the Unexpector faith remains widely accepted among Humans as of the year 10,000 in spite of these fears.
Species
Ethnicity
Professions
Life
4179
4278
99 years old
Circumstances of Death
Died of progressive dementia as a consequence of advanced age
Children
Gender
Male
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