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To: The Holy Church of Aschlon
To my esteemed counterpart,
I am wittening as a representative of the Church of Mani (https://independentorder.net/index.php?topic=1082.msg11192#msg11192). Our holy institution traces its roots more than a thousand years ago to the Prophet Mani. Thanks to his teachings and God’s guidance we dare admit with humility that the Tamoran Empire has been true to the teachings of our church for the last thousand years.
Our religious institution has always sought dialogue, cooperation and understanding with the Muslim faith from which we trace many of our traditions and history. We now seek to expand our dialogue with other Abrahamic religions, especially ones that share many of our values. Our theological department has spent time trying to understand your particular expression of the Christian faith and, according to their understanding, we share many in common, much more than with other expressions of Christianity that we have encountered so far. We both believe in a strict hierarchy (https://independentorder.net/index.php?topic=1772.msg16975#msg16975), that some are chosen to lead and the rest to follow, we understand that this is not a choice but a commandment from God one that we must follow regardless of our personal opinions toward it. We also seem to be in agreement that a sovereign must reign over the nation just as God, the supreme sovereign, reigns over the kingdom of Heaven. We believe these common principles are a foundation towards building a constructive dialogue, one through which we hope to explain and reach a compromise stating that the practice of slavery is compatible to the teachings of your faith.
I would also like to note that our holy institution is aware of your plight and the persecutions you are facing for standing true to your beliefs against the power and might of the Atheist government. While we do not share the same faith we respect your commitment to martyrdom and strongly condemn the actions of for Atheist government. And while we are worried and troubled deeply of incident such as the recent ricin attack, we reserve judgment for now and understand that it was an act of desperation in regards to a Mundus that has ignored your plight for too long.
Considering the aspects mentioned above, I would to invite a member of your church to Djerb, our holiest of cities, to talk in more detail about the aspects that are common to our faith, to hear your views on slavery, to inform us more about the persecutions you are facing and perhaps how we can cooperate for the betterment of God and the institutions he laid in Mundus to guide the faithful.
I look forward to your reply.
Ayatollah Najid Bolandian
Head of Interfaith Relations
Church of Mani*
*OCC: the word church is used portly on my part and is meat to mean religion organization. The Church of Mani shares many similarities with Islam (but is a different religion) and is not a Christian church.
The Church of Mani(CoM) had never taken much interest in other religions except for the other Abrahamic religions and more recently the Bene Gesserit. CoM was strict in its monotheism and in a mostly polytheistic Mundus that meant religious dialogue impossible for them. And even with the other Abrahamic religions, dialogue was difficult since it was the opinion CoM that the other faiths had changed their teachings so suite the times while the other faiths were reluctant to engage with CoM because of CoM’s unapologetic stance on slavery.
So when the hierarchy of CoM found out of the Holy Church of Aschlon(HCA) they were most interested. Here it was an Abrahamic religion that embraced hierarchy the same as CoM and seemed it could potentially consider slavery as morally acceptable, something which many in the hierarchy CoM wanted since CoM was currently alone in Mundus on its stance of slavery.
Ayatollah Najid Bolandian was charged to represent CoM during the exploratory talks with the HCA. He and his team handled the paperwork necessary to provide the guests with the visas to enter Tamora. A letter of recommendation signed by him in the name of the CoM and sent to the Foreign Affairs Office of Tamora was enough to get the guests visas extremely fast. They also made arrangements so that airport officials treated them as foreign diplomats allowing them to skip lines and not wait in the very busy Djerb international airport. Once they finished the formalities and exited the airport, a few limousines were waiting for them outside to take them to the Prophet’s Grace Hotel, the best hotel that the CoM owned in Djerb. While not the most luxurious of Djerb’s hotels it was definitely among the top ten.
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The lobby of the hotel, like most Tamoran hotels, was lavishly decorated. It of course featured several portraits of the Prophet Mani as well as the Tamoran flag.
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The receptionist welcoming the guests.
Afterwards, the hotel staff made all the necessary arrangements so that the foreign guests receive their accommodation.
At noon, Ayatollah Najid Bolandian together with a few other imams arrived at the hotel for the schedule meeting with the foreign guests. Najid had been at the hotel many times before and as a high representative of the CoM the staff was well aware of whom he was. He proceeded to go to the reception desk where the receptionist immediately recognized him and greeted him. As he didn’t want to be late to the scheduled meeting he got to the point straight away:
“I trust the guests are well taken care of. See to it that they have everything they need. Should they want to visit the city provide them an escort. Is the meeting room ready? We will be going there right away.”
The questions were more like orders and the receptionist answered with “Yes, Your Excellency”.
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The meeting room where Najid Bolandian was to meet the delegate(s) from Aschlon was lavishly decorated and the best meeting room the hotel had to offer
The hotel staff guided the foreign delegate(s) to the meeting room. Once they entered the room, Najid Bolandian greeted them:
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Ayatollah Najid Bolandian of the Church of Mani
“Welcome to Tamora, dear guests. I am Ayatollah Najid Bolandian and I will be representing the Church of Mani during our talks which God willing will provide with an interesting perspective into each other faiths.
Please tell me if you need any refreshments or anything that the hotel servants can bring you. “