The Alfzarian spaceship captain Zalat tells Dominic Flandry:
"'Altai was first colonized more dan zeven hoondert Terra-years a-pazt: in de verry dawn, you say, of interztellar travel.'"
-"A Message in Secret," p. 342.
That sentence encompasses an immense stretch of fictional history. The Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League have risen and fallen. The Terran Empire has emerged from the ensuing Troubles. Aeneas and Altai have become different, distinct planetary civilizations. On Altai, rats from spaceships have become white and dog-sized, the Prophet Subotai has synthesized Islam with Buddhism and his followers have built a two-kilometer high Prophet's Tower. Ironically, Aeneas nearly launched an interstellar Jihad. Both planets are fertile ground for Merseian subversion. The "Game of Empire" continues past Flandry's lifetime but fortunately, according to the Chronolgy, the rival empires will wear each other out in the mid-fourth millennium.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And that sense we get for the deeps of time and history is strengthened when we recall how Altai was mentioned in "Esau." The family of the POV character in that story, Emil Dalmady, had been among those who colonized that planet.
I would not be so confident, however, about that "fortunately." I fully expect there to be other problems, dangers, conflicts, rivalries, etc., in the millennia after the Empire fell. Nothing in human history makes me think that will ever cease to be the case.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Pual!
I should have added that if we go by my proposed revision of Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, then Altai was colonized by or soon after AD 2400. That would be more than 700 years before Flandry went to that planet.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another thought I had was wondering HOW Subotai could have synthesized anything that made sense from merging two things as drastically different from each other as Buddhism and Islam?
If Altai was originally colonized by Russo/Mongols, I would have thought either Orthodox Christianity or something wholly Buddhist would have become the dominant faith.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Sufi mysticism? Traditions can head off in very different directions.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Except I recall no mention at all of Sufiism in "A Message in Secret." I also remember the religion preached by Subotai described as stern and harsh. Or stern and bitter.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Of course it doesn't mention Sufism but then it doesn't mention anything much! Maybe it was austere aspects of Tibetan Buddhism that went into the mix.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Austere? I usually think of Tibetan Buddhism as being better called garish and outlandish. It is not much like the Buddhism of Thailand, for example!
I do recall that the two kilometers tall Prophet's Tower on Altai had one side engraved with the "stern and bitter" precepts of Subotai. It's a pity some of them were not quoted in "Message."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But my point is only that traditions are internally diverse and that they change, especially over long periods of time. Christians include Papists and Paisleyites. There are Hindus who reject polytheism, idolatry and casteism.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Of course I agree long lasting philosophies and religions can change and become diverse, in ways both good and bad. The Taiping Rebellion of the 18500's/60's were inspired by leaders with a grotesque version of evangelical Protestantism. Which Aycharaych himself mentioned in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
And those reform minded Hindus you mentioned have gotten almost nowhere in their efforts. The vast mass of ordinary Hindus pays no attention to them. These reformers might as well become Sikhs or Catholics!
Ad astra! Sean
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