Jan Crito
Philosopher, Author, Heretic
Few scholars have influenced academic, political, and popular thought as much as this Galencian philosopher. While many have claimed that his most important work - Singularity borrowed heavily from an imperfect understanding of Flind stoicism, passed down from his grandfather's imperfect understanding that he gained from the explorer Yarmin Knowlchuck, equally as many claim that it is this imperfection that has made the theory of a singular body and mind so unique. Unlike many, Crito did not rely on complicated logic or contorted syntax to make his point; his work was accessible to the least educated peasants (assuming someone read it to them). Many of the theories expounded this book provide a basis for monastic traditions in the Flietch-ta Empire, self exploration among Khadric elite, and even, surprisingly, behind some theories about divine magic.
He so believed in his work that he beggared both himself and his wife's family to purchase space on the Khadric presses of New Kharolin, a decision that both cost him his marriage and ensured his widespread fame as the printed book spread both east to the Frosted Mountains and south to the Inner Seas.
It was while using some of the techniques, particularly meditative ones, detailed in Singularity that Crito began to formulate the outline of his next work. Seizing on the wholeness of the body and mind, he began to think about how it might incorporate a soul. Understanding the religious significance of this line of thinking he decided to approach the philosophy as a story, instead of as his own beliefs. Borrowing heavily from the constructs of Soulmeliti theater, he crafted several hundred pages of story where his main character, Arkady, undertook a journey of self-discovery. In the end, he concludes that the gods are simply myths; tales told to explain the unexplainable nature of soul and its solidarity with the body. Along the way, he had written Tarien's first novel, entitled The Atheist.
The decision to explain his philosophies as a story, however, did not work. Whether seeing through his intentions or simply outraged the story itself, churches across central and eastern Tarien began to ban the novel shortly after its publication. The church of Tyloma became the first to declare him a heretic but was quickly followed by the churches of Arimathica , Anderi, Tiras, and a dozen more. Promised sanctuary in Pash-ti by the heathen Flind, Jan was fleeing his home in Geran when a mob of Anderi fundamentalists arrested and burned him to death.