Discussions/ImmaculateTexts

It occurs to me that, given that the Immaculate order is all based around the immaculate texts, and that it is the major religion of the setting.. has anyone ever given any thought to what is actually in them? that is: ever given thouht to taking a stab at writing them up? I'm pretty sure there are excerpts from them scattered around, would it be worthwhile making it a compendium? what is thought of the idea of perhaps making a project to write these things as a communal resource? i originally meant to write this 12 hours ago, when I was awake, and had ideas, but.. bah. Thoughts? - Molikai

I think that would make an excellent CommunalProject, indeed. I myself recall writing a couple of Immaculate Text excerpts for my giant fanfiction project, but nothing substantive, and it would be awesome to have something big. I also remember at least one vaguely-religious texts idea that was floating around ... hmm ... I believe it was EJGRgunner's obsidian prophecies. I think that's all.
~ Shataina

We would need to start trolling our various religious texts to get a feel of how it would be laid out as well as the way the words flow in general. But I can see alot of milking to be done in the anathema section, which I'm sure would be a fairly huge section, say maybe a 3rd of the whole text, this of course includes their being thrown down in various graphical manner. ^_^;;;
- Haku

This is actually pretty unlikely. I mean, how much room does the Bible put into its book about the Devil? The Anathema are a fearsome and horrible group of demonic and purely evil beings according to the Texts. What's more likely is various parables describe the inner righteousness of the Immaculate Dragons as they are tempted by the Deceiver and the Blasphemous, as they fight against the Forsaken on the battlefield and the Unclean in the halls of academia and their dark forbidding Manses, and the sacrifices the mighty Host faced as the Wretched snuck into homes to slay innocent children of the Terrestrial Exalted and assassinate powerful generals of the Sun-Devouring Dragons committee.

Then you have parables after the Usurption of the rebuilding of society the Dragons helped to found, moral lessons and such. Then you've got the 'sex' bits, which are prolly no more raunchy by today's standards than the Song of Solomon, and which when read are actually a rich allegory for Essence cultivation or one's place in the Perfected Hierarchy. - Patkin

Oh and don't forget the parts with sex in them. Fokuf needs something to please himself to. -Paladinltd

Indeed, this might also cover the graphic anathema section, after all... they must have done some rather naughty things, yes? - Haku

Well.. If we want a place to plunder for what religious texts are like. Might I suggest people look here? ;) Internet Sacred Texts - Molikai

We should not forget the heroic deeds of the Immaculate Dragons. They are the "perfect Sworn Brotherhood" and there should be more space for epic action than in the Bible, as the dragons really fought against them. I think every Immaculate Dragon is a different character, who goes its own way, until they finally meet and destroy the "demonic powers" of Creation. The Iliad, the Odysee or the Edda might be inspirations for that. Another thing we have to think of is the matter of form and structure. Should it be sutras, just prose or even japanese poetry. This has to be thought over first, before starting the Communal Project. Jiba

I think that the Immaculate Texts would be an awesome idea. I think in the tradition of religious texts, we should do a amalgam of several major ideas. It should be broken into the five aspects (air, earth, fire, water, wood), and each aspect has stories and sutures that can be taken in many different ways but are done in the spirit of the element. Air would be texts involving prophesy and the more complex path to enlightenment. Earth would be the moral pillars and how the Realm is supposed to worship. Wood would be the “sex” section that most people refer to in the Immaculate texts, but it would be the section that describes the rituals of life. What I am thinking for this section is more like a Kamasutra of social functions between people. Fire and Water I am sort of at a loss to describe at this moment, but maybe someone can expand on what I have already written. - Savare

I too think this is a cool idea. I would suggest that, however it is organized, it should contain many parables about the original immaculates, probably with the morals written up as sutras. For additional sources for things that can be converted to parables, try Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales
--BrilliantRain (who just found that Grimm page and doesn't know how good it is yet.)

Great idea Savare! I thought about Water and Fire; the Fire section of the Immaculate Texts could include great battles (remember David and Goliath?) against Anathema and the like, while the Water Section could be a source of descriptions on the belief's structure and organisation (Bureaucracy sticks to Water nevertheless). But don't forget the journeys of the Dragons themselfes in the proper sections; Pasiap teaching his children how to construct powerful manses should be in the section Earth, not Water. Maybe, we should make a forth chapter for comments and statements of various holy men and women, or even scholars, who have to say something about the Order. Jiba

I do like your break down on Fire and Water Jiba. I would like to say that the foundation philosophy of the martial arts would also be contained within the texts of the Fire section. After rereading the section about the Immaculate Order from the Dragon Blooded book, it would seem that there are texts and not just one complete book. So, my thought is that there are collections of scrolls/books that make up the complete text at the core. However, book versions of the Immaculate Texts are also made available to people traveling or to the common practitioner. Kind of like the Bible. Also, on page 80 of the Dragon Blooded book, they say that the Immaculate Texts contain Hymns and Sutras. - Savare