On The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh: This faction is getting me really excited. At first glance, it sounds super depraved, and by our outsider perspective, maybe it is. But after reading up on them a bit, they’re starting to make a lot of sense. So from my approximation, here’s why they’re the closest thing to a “state religion” in Duskwall / The Imperium.
In a world where the gates of the afterlife have been blown open, spirits walk the earth, and are the single greatest threat to human life as they become more and more feral over time, the spirit is not revered the way it is in our world, it is reviled. The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh refers to the spirit as “The Devil Inside,” in their dogma the spirit is not who you are, it is a corrupting influence, the essence of the self is the body.
As such, they preach both indulging the pleasures of the flesh, and also preserving and caring for the flesh. In my group’s fiction for example the Church sponsors various brothels, drug dens, and bathhouses, and they are trying to get legislation passed that would require all brothels to be registered with the church.
The greatest achievement for a Disciple of the Ecstasy of the Flesh is to become a Hollow. Where from our outsider perspective the concept is associated with zombies and horror, to the Church, it is the greatest purity of being that a person can achieve. Of course such creatures tend to be mindless servants of the church…
I also see the Church as being quite similar in essence to the Confessional of Guy Davis’ really excellent MARQUIS – it is a place to revel in all of the things of the flesh.
Cool cool, of course nothing that I said here is Canon in any way (other than in my own group’s game) but I got excited when the concept of the church clicked in my head. Since at first it seems out of place until you think about the way that the spiritual apocalypse of this world would affect the culture of the Imperium.
Oh, Hey, Chris – your entry is fantastic; I’m doing similar things over in my own threads on Maps and suchlike, so of course I’m a fan. I was simply adding my observations. I will probably run with your perception of the Church in my own game, once I get to run it. (grimace)
Haha I don’t think that we were contradicting each other in any way regardless!
So…they’re sexy Scientologists?
Jeff Johnston
I don’t really know anything about Scientology, but I think they can be as sexy or not as you want to play them, to me that’s an aspect of the Church, but they’re focus is on the body holistically, sex is just one part of that.
Also, I feel like the hatred of the spirit is as important to the church as the worship of the body.
If you’re curious, look up Thetans and you’ll see why I said that.
Well I looked it up and read a bit about Thetans… wow Scientology is fucking weird as hell.
millions of tiny spirits attached to your body created by a galactic dictator named Xenu? nah.. not really what I had in mind for the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh… 😛
Have you read Monster Blood Tattoo Chris?
In our game I introduced the idea that Church disciples are Mercenary Ghost Hunters ‘Witch Hunters’ in the classic vein. As in MBT, these FULGAR(S) ~ said “fool-garr,” also astrapecrith (“lightning-holder”); are Ghost Hunters whose surgically inserted organs (known as the systemis astraphecum) allow him or her to make, store and release immense charges of electricity in order to incinerate spirits.
The church naturally supports such surgical alteration, and has a high council of fervent surgeons – full of holy benediction.
Nathan Roberts
that sounds super awesome, it stands to reason that the church and the spirit wardens have strong ties, either as allies, or perhaps competitors due to having different philosophies on what should be done to eradicate spirits.
If there were a schism in The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh, it could be over the philosophy of “ecstasy”.
The term “ecstasy” is used in existential philosophy to mean “to be or stand outside oneself” (from the Greek ek- “out,” and stasis “a stand, or a standoff of forces”.) Drew Leder talks about the ecstatic nature of the body in his book The Absent Body. This ecstasy is the tendency of the body to project outwards into the world, in order to perceive and interact with the world. This is experienced as an absence, or surface disappearance, because the body parts for perception and action, like the eye or the muscles, are often not themselves experienced. That is, the eye is not seen during visual perception, nor the tongue tasted when eating. This relates to the dys-appearance of the body, where the body appears in times of dysfunction (pain, illness, incoordination, shame). This dys-appearance is in part because the ecstatic nature of the body is its normal, healthy, functional state. At peak function, our body is absent from our experience. That is, a perfect body is an absent body.
All of which is to say some disciples of The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh might follow the same rituals, but for entirely different reasons. Such heretics may agree in preserving and caring for the flesh, but only to ensure the body does not dysfunction and thus disrupt the ecstatic experience of the world. They might indulge in pleasures of the flesh, but not to enjoy the body but to deepen the experience of standing outside one’s body. Taken to its nth degree, this heresy might say that leaving the body as an untethered spirit is the true ecstatic experience, for it eliminates the chance the body will dys-appear and thus achieves the ultimate absent body.
Therefore, we could find this heresy says the opposite of the core tenet of the orthodox Church. That is, the essence of the self resides in the spirit, not the body, and the greatest purity must be the spirit without a body. Pragmatic issues—like that most ghosts ultimately lead a wrathful, mad and blood thirsty existence—would surely temper even these heretics from rushing to escape the flesh. But with the proper rituals and atonement, they might hold that a discipline can retain, broaden and enhance their faculties and experience true ecstasy.