A bird on the throne
In the book A bird on the throne, Falix Fisibird and Tiheri Baudelf give an account of politico-spiritual power by exploring the displacement of the Bird Gods by the Pantheon of Twelve (and most notably @Waye) via a historical process that runs from Nesidyn the Bard to Bothandal the Crafter.
Document Structure
Clauses
The view of the ancients
In the first section, Fisibird gives a detailed account of the spirituality and worldview of the early elves, both before and after The Shimmering. He argues that the Bird God religion was pluriform and lacked normative character. Instead, the Bird Gods provided allegories for the world as-is and provided no moral guidance beyond demonstrating cause and effect. Fisibird gives the example of the myth of the hunter whose carelessness results in the death of his family. This tale, claims Fisibird, has been interpreted as moralistic but could just as easily be seen as a literal description of cause-and-effect relations in the natural world. Baudelf then chimes in to reflect on the source of moral authority, which according to him was deeply authoritarian. What is right was determined by the commune elders who could weigh moral argument according to the particular needs of the collective.Shifting to the metaphorical
In this section, Fisibird and Baudelf study Nesidyn's The Clearest Truth. Following the work of the sage Sathorius, they state that through his poetry, Nesidyn brought the old mythologies from the literal to the figurative sphere. Moreover, they state that this 'metaphorical shift' paved the way for a normative religiosity. Descriptions of the world as-is became abstracted into universal lessons about the world as-should-be, and the pluriformity of the Bird God tradition was projected on a singular Waye who then took on the moral authority previously possessed only by village elders. Indeed, the setup of The Clearest Truth is that Nesidyn speaks religious, moral truth to worldly powers. While it is true that Nesidyn was ultimately declared an apostate and was banned from Qosid, the song ushered in an era in which spirituality became more narrow and the source of moral authority.The Bothandalite philosophy
In this section, the authors track the intellectual and personal development of Bothandal the Crafter. When Bothandal took the throne in 444 BLC, he was already greatly influenced by the musings of Nesidyn and he was known to be an active worshiper of Waye, even though this brought tensions into the relationship with his wife Sanya the Watcher. The principles of Wayan religion, which emphasizes harmony and mutual dependence, inspired Bothandal to reshape royal politics. He famously tolerated human activity in Silimanis and solved the backlash against this support by introducing the Province Keeper system, which offered the provinces of the kingdom a high degree of autonomy and nourished collaboration between them. While much has been said about Bothandal's fascination with magic as a transformative activity, Fasibird and Baudelf emphasize that Bothandal chose to foster magic schooling via a network of academies, adding another collaborative structure to the kingdom. This, they argue, were all reflections of the Wayan value system, which Bothandal considered to be higher than himself.Politico-spiritual power
Here, Fisibird and Baudelf introduce the complex concept of politico-spiritual power. In their view, power in society is a fluid that can be distributed across the political and spiritual domains, but the more that is brought into one domain, the less that is left for the other. Where power is concentrated, one finds decisiveness and unity and where there is a lack of power, one finds pluriformity and incoherence. According to Fisibird and Baudelf, the shift from the Bird Gods to the Pantheon of Twelve led to a redistribution of politico-spiritual power in such a way that it is now the political domain that suffers from pluriformity and incoherence, while the spiritual domain exerts moral authority. They problematize this by stating that the Kingdom of Laeryll is no longer able to act in its own interests, as it is divided against itself. This is also where the title of the book comes in: it is as if the Bird Gods make up the political caste right now, with one of the birds taking a seat on the throne.Alternative forms of politico-spiritual power
In this final chapter, Fisibird and Baudelf systematically look at the other powers on the world stage, from The Porcupine to Zhai and from the Free Cities to the Labarean Empire. In their view, the Kingdom of Laeryll is now weak against all but the Free Cities, as the other cultures strike a more favorable balance between the political and the spiritual. They do not see the end for the Kingdom of Laeryll, though -- disbanding Bothandalite structures could in their view still bring the kingdom back to its former glory.Historical Details
Background
The Labarean Invasion of Silimanis in 724 LC had shook up the political relations within the Kingdom of Laeryll. King Olyxx III appeared to have accepted Labarean expansionism, even into a territory that had been declared a protectorate of the kingdom. In the decades following the invasion, Silimanis was turned into a colony and a slave breeding facility, leading to outrage among the elven population.
Against this backdrop, the traditionalist writers Falix Fisibird and Tiheri Baudelf published an exploration of the religious and political history of the kingdom. Their central claim: the restoration of absolute monarchy in the Kingdom of Laeryll is a necessity if the elves wish to survive changes on the Northern Arm.
Public Reaction
The book was received positively in a small circle of radical traditionalists, but was ridiculed by the political and religious elites. These critics argued that Baudelf's and Fisibird's concept of politico-spiritual power completely ignored the role of the advisory structures that Bothandal had built. Taken together, these structures act as an integrated system of moral, executive and legislative authority.
Still, the accusation that Olyxx III reign was one of indecisiveness and weakness was appealing to a much larger audience than just the radical traditionalists. Especially religious groups could not accept the fall of Silimanis and agreed that current politics in the Kingdom of Laeryll needed change.
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