OOC: The timeline for the Spice Festival a little messed up in regards to other events that happened in Tamora. For the sake of simplicity I am going to ignore some inconsistencies (it only affects Tamora’s timeline). The most important iconic building in Djerb was the Great Temple, dedicated to the prophet Mani, the founder of the faith. It is in this temple the Supreme Allyatolah holds his sermons and it is where most of the high ranking nobles attended religious service. It was in the Temple’s large complex, which had various amenities, that
Alya Safavid, the First Wife of the emperor, felt most confortable having her private meetings rather than the Imperial palace. Today was one of those days; she was engaged in a meeting with her best friend,
Musaevna Kadyrov. With so many things happening in Tamora, they didn’t have a chance to catch up. After all, it was Alya who insisted that Musaevna attended the Spice Festival without telling her why it was important and Musaevna thought she was due an explanation.
- So how did you find the Bene Gesserit cult?
- Weird to say the least, they make Anahitaism seem plain.
Musaevna, then proceed to describe the religious rituals she saw at the event.
- And perhaps more unsettling is that you constantly get the feeling that what you are shown is just a small part compared to what it going on behind the scenes. You never get the impression that they are fully honest with you.”Manists in general were very suspicious of religions or sects that kept hidden from the public; they greatly valued open worship and full expression of the dogma. A good example of this was their public defense of the institution of slavery as a religious commandment; they didn’t shy away for controversy. “At one point” Musaevna continued “I even had one of the hosts tell me that I am of their faith but I just don’t know it yet”.
- What about their religious leader? What do you think about her?
- The same as their religion, I guess. While it was clear most of her followers genuinely revered her, I had the feeling that she wasn’t the one calling the shots. I don’t believe she’s a puppet or a figurehead but there are other powers in their organization that handle the major decisions. Either the heads of the noble families or, more likely, some other branch of their faith that is hidden from the public.
- And you said their Holy Mother had a message for the guests?
- Yes, it would seem she want us to boycott Kataine in return for them allowing us to trade with Kataine after they win the war. They also promise to stop infiltrating their military branch in our countries. Basically we have to act now and in return we get very generous promises for the future. Actually, trading with them freely after the war isn’t even such a generous thing.
- And how did the others react?
- I couldn’t really tell since I hardly talked much with anyone else beside the Seleucid consul. If I were to give an educated guess, I don’t think the people in the room had that much control or influence over their government’s policy to even consider doing something like that. Now will you be so kind as to tell me what this is about. You never cared for other religions or foreign cultures, so I assume it isn’t a personal interest that is driving your curiosity.
- Indeed, the reason is that we want to see if there is any way to reach some kind of agreement with them. As you know our intelligence service isn’t fond of them. The situation is complicated, the Church is upset about the recent shifts in the government’s foreign policy and the
Elysium affair really aggravated this. So the government, despite its reluctance, decided to give the Bene Gesserit members permanent resident status. That puts us at odds with the government of Kataine and further strains relations with the rest of Mundus without any gain for us or even a formal agreement with the Bene Gesserit that defines our relationship. So we wanted to asses them first, to see what exactly we are dealing with. Intelligence reports can only tell you so much and what you’ve told me so far is not encouraging at all.
- That is suprising to say the least. If you want me to get in contact with them and see if we can arrange some kind of working relationship I can do that.
- It’s more complicated than that and I don’t want to get into the details. Anyway, it doesn’t seem we have much need for each other. They seem to be well funded, have plenty of nations to give them refuge, in some of those nations they have been well infiltrated and have notable influence over the local governments and not to mention that Kataine is far away from Tamora. On their side, they want us to boycott Kataine goods which we can’t and seek international recognition but we aren’t even part of what people would call international community.
- While that’s true, it doesn’t hurt to try. I think there are some avenues we can explore.
- You’re not selling them weapons. Abbas won’t approve it. That’s the last thing we need right now. Not to mention that East Morelander intelligence service has already sent an inquiry regarding your attendance at the Spice Festival. Good thing we gave you that diplomatic passport, otherwise who knows what they might have considered doing.
- I wasn’t thinking of selling them weapons but there are others ways we can cooperate. The way I see it, trust is the major obstacle in dealing with them. Just let me know what you decide and I believe I can set up a meeting with them. Now about the Slavans, what’s happening exactly? Morad (ooc: her husband) won’t tell me anything.
- It’s the same with Abbas, all I know is that he suspects that Slavans are up to something and that is why they got the other nations to send their fleets here.
- But they aren’t here for Slava, they are here for the Morelander sect.
- I know and Abbas knows that too. He cannot find a connection between the incidents happening in Royal Seleucid and Slava. I know he had the intelligence service look at the possibility that the locus swam was somehow
engineered by the Slavans but that didn’t turn up anything. And since he has nothing concrete, he doesn’t talk about it.
Afterwards their conversation returned to family matters.