Vicien
Lord of Greed, Pride, and Order Vicien
The attacks on us by the followers of Hargit show why they will bring about the ruination of this kingdom, and must be rooted out. The claim the pillars of Vicien, our Lord and Master, are the great sins. We know, however, that they are the great virtues, the virtues that have blessed us and brought us the prosperity that protects their ability to disparage us.
They will tell you not to be proud - they say the first sin, the one that leads to all others, is Pride. How dare they? They say pride leads us to question the wisdom of the Empyreans. How dare they? They say that only by prostrating yourself before the Deities can we expect to receive their blessing. How dare they?
Vicien expects you to be proud of your accomplishments. You should be! If you can turn a field of dirt into the crops that feed a village, or a city, you have accomplished something that others cannot. If you can build a house, or shoe a horse, or sew a tunic, you are doing something that some others cannot, and Vicien thinks you should be proud of the fact. And if you cannot do anything that everyone else can do, and this brings you shame, that will motivate you to do something you can take pride in.
They will say, too, that Greed is a great sin - that when you give into pride, you become greedy, and take from others. I say to you, brothers and sisters, that greed is, for lack of a better word, good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed, in all its forms, greed for money, greed for love, for power, knowledge, or life, greed is what drives us forward. Without greed, we do not strive for more, we do not make progress to a better future.
Their assaults on the holy virtues are, perhaps, understandable. Their twisting of the Dharmus is not. They acknowledge the Dharmus as the first of the Three, of course, but they claim to be the bright end, the end that drives the Jewel. They do drive the Jewel, of course, as that is the purpose of the Dharmus, to define reality, but they do not drive it forward. They drive it in all directions at once, which is no different than not driving it at all. Order is the reason for the Dharmus, the reason for the Jewel. Without order, the Jewel has no form, no structure on which it can function. Order has dragged life and death from the chaos; order has forged civilization and organized nature from the chaos. Without order, nothing else matters.
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