4th July 2012
21:59 GMT
"
No."
"You
may want to reconsider that.
"
Unlike my relatively intimate meeting in Prelate J'emm's office, Prelate P'thet's… Throne room is an expansive affair. Our Green Manhunter escort handed us over to armed Reds in the antechamber with a bizarre degree of grovelling, and as far as I can tell those Reds are part of the Prelate's all-Red bodyguard. The Red heads of the local Manhunter force stand in attendance, while a cross section of their Green subordinates kneel behind them with their hands on the floor in ritual supplication. And it's not just the Manhunters; the theme repeats itself amongst the civil servants and priests. At least, I assume that the Greens with the magic users are priests: their clothing is different enough that they might just be vergers or something.
The Prelate herself looks almost identical to every other Martian I've seen. Some ornamentation with what my rune stone says are enchanted accoutrements, but there's nothing particularly unique about the default Martian physique she's using. Whatever it does, it's not blocking my empathic vision. Unlike Mr. B'lanx she's not in this for herself, but rather to maintain a system of order that she regards as the divinely revealed correct way to live. A genuine believer in noblesse oblige, and in the natural inferiority of those she's obliged
to. In the American context, she wouldn't set fire to a cross on a White Martian's lawn, but she wouldn't want them to be able to get golf club membership.
"After all, as I understand it, your office only grants you the authority to restrict your citizens from migrating to other Martian cities.
"
The composition of the attendants just shouts that they have a highly racially stratified society, and that the entire power structure depends on it. There's not a single White here, nor anywhere else in the building. The Greens are permanently genuflecting, and the Reds the only ones allowed to speak. The Greens are literally just here to take up room behind their hereditary overlords. And they're
fine with it. As far as I can see, they
consider this an honour.
"That is merely a specifically enumerated power. I also have a wide variety of powers which I may exercise in order to preserve civil order."
Fucking emergency laws. I hate those blasted things. I've heard it said that
hard cases make bad law, but my personal belief is that a law should be able to handle unusual situations. If it can't, it's a bad law and should be improved, not entirely bypassed by giving supreme executive authority to someone. At least not during peace time.
"And you believe that preventing violent political radicals from leaving improves civil order?
"
"Letting them go is an admission of defeat, of the acceptability of slights against the divine order. I will not sacrifice the future perfection of our civilisation to make a short term accommodation with a
disruptive element."
"I… Shared a particular memory with Prelate J'emm last year. I was rather under the impression that he'd shared it in turn with his fellow prelates. Have you seen it?
"
"Yes. But it is irrelevant. The 'Guardians'-" She looks… I'm guessing 'coldly', but Martian faces aren't all that expressive, at John. "-did not create order here after they left. Karmang the Good did, and this is the order which he decreed. The reasons he had for doing so are irrelevant, as is the origin of the groups for which he decreed it."
Ah. Blind faith. J'emm was willing to change things because he only kept it going due to the fact that it was tradition. Once he found out the true origin of the three colours he considered it rationally and realised that it was irrelevant. But P'thet has Word of Karmang, and is not at home to reason. Unless Karmang him or herself turns up in person-.
"I'm afraid that Martian records being telepathic has rather precluded me from learning about Karmang. Are they a god, or merely an enlightened Martian?
"
"Karmang the Good was the greatest teacher and builder of our earliest history. He established our first cities and temples and taught the basics of agriculture and magic to our most distant forebears. He created our civilisation and ordained its proper order. We do not consider him to be… Something separate from Martians, but he is our most revered antecedent."
"Are you still in contact with him?
"
"No. To the best of my knowledge he is long dead. Martians live longer than humans, but not forever."
"But you have access to magic. Don't you have necromancers?
"
"No."
"Because I know some necromancers? I mean, if Karmang's final word is that the White Martians should submit to your rule there's really nowhere for me to go, but it seems to me that the highest authority on what Karmang wanted is Karmang himself.
"
"This is not a matter in which there is any confusion. All of Mars agrees that all of Karmang's disciples were Red, as were those he anointed primates and prelates. Even if I knew a way to communicate with his spirit directly, I would not trouble him over an issue like this."
Interesting. Z'üm was talking to someone called Karmang, and all of the Hyperclan members I met had Z'orr in place of their family name. They clearly had access to magic…
"And just to confirm: amongst Martians, magic is an unbroken secret amongst the Red priesthood? I understand that some cities are more liberal about such things than yours.
"
"Primate?"
The leader of the clerical delegation genuflects to the throne, then rises to face me.
"The energy manipulated by the arcane arts is theoretically available to anyone. But even in the most
divergent temples, no Martian who is not Red has ever been taught, nor copied the style of magic taught there."
"And you have no records of either Green or White Martians becoming notable magic users outside of your tradition?
"
"No. Those Whites who identify themselves as the Hyperclan are augmented by magic, but none have any skill with magic themselves. Once the Rite of Ending is performed they either die or are restored to their original form."
"So it's either a Red or an alien that's doing it.
"
"If… Forced to speculate, I would imagine that it was most likely a White who had developed a magic tradition independently."
"Is that..? Is that heretical? I mean, they wouldn't be using the tradition Karmang taught the Reds…
"
"Yes, it's heretical. The tradition Karmang taught is the only tradition which fits within the social system which he laid out for us to live by."
"Do the other cities see it the same way?
"
"If they do not, they hide it well."
I nod, and smile at the Prelate.
"Thank you both for the information. I feel obliged to inform you that I will be requesting clarification from the Planetary Council on whether you actually have the authority to do what you're doing, and given the general opinion on the subject amongst your fellow Prelates I fully expect them to say that you
don't.
"
I bow.
"Thank you for speaking with me. I'll show myself out.
"
Without waiting for a formal dismissal I turn and fly away, back towards the main doors. The entire ruling elite, and not one that I could see had a contrary opinion. And not 'they had them, but were keeping quiet for reasons of self preservation.'. They've all drunken the kool aid, the White enemy within keeping them together in the face of the opposition of anyone with any sense.
I wonder if the Controllers
do have a spare planet I can borrow?
