What about a blood mark - a type of birth mark (extremely red ) to establish ownership of the helot’s blood?
Okay then maybe only the Keriatou do it since they seem to be a fair bit more cruel and severe than the neighbouring “noble” masters. Now let’s hope that somewhere near the end of the next game our blood magic is finally good enough to get rid of it and the physical scars of our former helot life. We can eventually do that right? I mean my mc will find out that fixing the physical scars doesn’t quite fix many of the psych issues, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt either.
Besides if we get anywhere with Simon he doesn’t really want him to see his backside as it likely is now.
Yes, and that is why my mc opposes it so vehemently, more than anything else since it’s the pillar that props up that abominable caste system that decreed he should be a farm animal for his entire life.
Where does it say that the helot MC is branded?
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It doesn’t, the helot mc likely does have some pretty nasty scars that mine would love to get rid off though.
I assume LIM means “left to the imagination” here and Hector and his dad certainly seem cruel enough to enjoy giving their helots a bit of extra humiliation by branding them.
Havie’s little things are a bit strange, but I managed to track down that this one means “Less Is More”; but I suppose you’re close enough. After all, this is what fanfic is made of.
Okay, well the scars themselves are likely more than enough for my mc to (desperately) want to get rid of them, even without extra humiliating marks. I’ll just imagine the former Keratou helots to be a bit more scarred than the rest of them.
All a brand would have done is give my mc an extra bit of burning hatred for Hector, but I don’t think it’s necessary anyway as that hate-meter was pretty much maxed-out anyway, 
What makes you say that? I see no reason to think of it as orderly or chaotic.
It’s similar to love, I suppose, in that it can make people do stupid things. People feel on a much rawer, higher plane than animals; one which transcends common sense and self-preservation.
It makes us challenge, it makes us unpredictable, it makes us wild and raw. Unpredictablility and change, ambition, emotion and anarchy are the main forces of Chaos. That’s what I learned from Tellius, anyway.
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Well, since there’s an achievement in getting Ecclesiast Linos to explain it to you, I’ll just check if you’ve already found that before responding.
I think @Bagelthief spilled the beans on this already. (in the post right before yours), I might be foreshadowing the situation or would it be narrating with commentary though, I’m not sure which… better check.
Havenstone, all-learned author: Please, respectfully, check the source material first.
Me, Mx. Tea Noble, Resident Annoying Obnoxious Brat of the Forums: OH BOY OH BOY
Everyone: Tea, no-
Me, inevitably: ANOTHER CHANCE TO REFERENCE SOMETHING /vomits info/
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Hm, yes I had gotten that long ago. Because I started skipping over the Horion/Linos conversations as much as possible after the first half dozen or so times reading them I had forgotten about that bit, but the moment you mentioned it I was reminded and knew exactly what you were talking about.
After rereading it a moment ago to further refresh my memory further, I must say that while his arguments make sense to me in the context of the hegemonic order, I don’t find it particularly compelling enough in application to order in general to think my MC will share in that particular doctrine, even if it turns out that Linos is telling the truth about it not being a heresy.
It would be hard to argue that the hegemony is not a beacon of order though, and in that context I admit compassion certainly could be a force against that order, the way Linos describes.
Well, I was running out of ideas there.
Maybe Xthonos and Xaos do exist, but not in the way the Hegemony imagines them to. I’m still more on the side of “they’re real”, though.
And, why do you think Theurgy could cure your MC’s scars?
No, their take on it is actually different from Linos’. Not that Tea’s is wrong; but this is what the priest says:
“Compassion. Along with justice, the highest virtue in the Canon. The only thing which makes Order between humans possible at all. If we could not feel what others feel, how could we possibly live in Angelic harmony with them? And what could be a more obvious part of human nature?” The priest spreads his hands wide, warming to the topic. “And yet… compassion also makes us flinch from the sacrifices that are necessary to preserve Order. Compassion lies behind every misguided attempt to free helots, to end Harrowing, to make peace with the Xaos-loving nations beyond the borders of Hegemony. The highest virtue, and the greatest danger.”
“I heard another Ecclesiast from the Reach speak this way of ‘false compassion’. Quoting the Psalm of Kapirus.”
Linos shakes his head. “Your Reacher priest made the matter too simple. There’s no ‘true compassion’ which is safe from Xaos. Compassion always threatens Order as much as it underpins it. Always.”
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Order and Chaos are primordial forces in many religions (though I think this version in particular takes from Ancient Greece the most). It’s not literal order of and in the things around you, but order in person and in reactions with other people, society, learned guilt, etc.
Yes, I do understand. Do you not believe that the Hegemony is a force for order? Evil order to be sure, but order it is.
Debatable. Any Order which invites and incites Chaos in retailation is doing a bad job as Order, wouldn’t you say?
Not that it wasn’t created to be Order, but, all things change… that, too, is Chaos at work. Law which goes too far against the natural State of Being is gonna fail. Praise the Hunter.
No, I would say such an order may create an overabundance of violence, but I wouldn’t think violence to be inherently chaotic. Like compassion it depends on the context in which the violence is found, and one must admire the hegemonys ability to twist violence into support of social order.
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Violence is not chaotic. Ambition and emotion are and they usually come before violence in great waves. Yoooooo
Oh, it can do all sorts very advanced medical things, if it can do a sex-change operation perfectly then it can also get rid of some scars and I imagine that theurges with their long lifespans know all sorts of tricks to keep them looking youthful and if you can get rid of age related wrinkles you can certainly get rid of scars
In fact it should be relatively easy to get rid of scars and restore the natural state of the skin.
In any case getting rid of them so he can feel (more) proud instead of ashamed of his body in its natural state is infinitely better than perpetually having to cover it up with clothes.