Quoted By:
Certainity is its own kind of curse. One becomes so confident in the right act and true ways that doubt itself takes on the mantle of an opponent, vanquished in duel at every step. And that might be how the Theurges built an empire out of a hard-scrabble town at the edge of the world, back when world itself was much younger than it is now. It may be how they rose to prominence, grandeur and greatness. Every step on the ladder to the high heavens, taken in utter utmost assurance that it was the right choice at the right time and they the right people to make that choice.
In all the writings the Theurges have produced over the ages that return to that theme so often. Certainty. Of action, of will, of belief. Faith. Creeds. Laws. The Icons themselves as enumerated in the Tomes of Binding are brought, it is whispered, shape by the certainty we enforce upon their fluid forms. We take soft souls and harden them. It is through the very act such reckless confidence that we ourselves perhaps transcend from simple instruments of flesh and fear to the divinely endowed adherents of grand orders fit to reshape the world. There is no Order but the Order itself. To allow grit into the machinery of the universe is to grind the gears that underpin all reality into a half by the perfidious little bits of doubt. Enough of it will gum up the engine and dissuade the hand that guides and builds. Without certainty, all you have is constant questioning doubt. No good for you. No good for a theocrat. And certainly no good for politics, that insidious poison doubt is. Imagine how little would get done if the Theurges had had to stop all the time and question themselves.
And, of course, if you made mention of this to a Rebus Agent, a Senator or - voided stars and high heavens - a lawyer, they would look you up and down and ask a question that the certain rarely consider:
<span class="mu-i">How do you know?</span>
To Know and to Be is of the Other, and the Icons, and of self-propagating systems of assurance that cradle the world like the cloth that warms a babe.
But to err is human.
And without errors of prediction we would never be forced to re-evaluate the axioms that we build our lives around. A man so certain of the righteousness of his faith will join with a woman convinced of her own perfection and together they will see, in the vast wide wonder of the world, not joy and human striving. No. They'll see mistakes. To be categorised, cauterized and corrected.
Wrap yourself in too much sunlight certainty and you might start to think the Sun needs correcting on its path. All that its light ever touches is crooked to soul too hard to bend.
--
Well, theological philosophy may be interesting but it does not make troops fall in line or make sure everyone has enough water rations. Best check the soldiers again. This heat is merciless.
