((Got bored, was drinking, wrote a parody, was too proud to just delete it.))
Started by early counter-culture Minmatar immigrants, the Most Holy Alphabet is a collection of ulterior meanings behind the standardized Gallentean alphabet. Typically used by “sway” singers, and later adopted by other musicians, the alphabet was the product of Zai Al’Zerah Hallud, the spiritual leader and political activist who rose to prominence in the counter-culture movement of the YC60’s.
Hallud studied with the shamans of Matar, and as a young man was vetted as a future shaman of great influence. However, during his adolescence, Hallud found himself disillusioned by the traditions of his tribe, and the Republic in general. He began a nine-year pilgrimage among the stars as an ascetic, surrendering all personal property except for his clothing, totem, and shaman’s drum. This journey led him to the Federation, where he became engaged in the “sway” lifestyle: living in a commune, eating only that food which could be collected by hand with no inclusion of animal labor or death, and, most notably for critics of Hallud, the usage of narcotics.
Hallud had studied dozens of religions, and at the age of thirty he began preaching a message of peace. He formed a band of his own, “Mother Bear,” and simultaneously toured as a musician and public speaker. He developed a base of followers among college students and young activist groups, and lower-class Minmatar who felt disenfranchised with Federation society.
His most well-known project remains the Most Holy Alphabet, which he produced after what he called “a period of meditation and reflection” on multiple Matari religions. He claimed that he had seen beyond the basic nature of language and identified the key meaning inherent in letters, the building blocks of communication. He dubbed the alphabet a spiritual tool, to be used by his followers to gain better understanding of their existence.
Hallud attracted as many detractors as he did followers: many consider the alphabet to be a fairly nonsensical and artificial construction, pointing to the fact that although he was developing a “spiritual alphabet” based on Matari religions, Hallud used the Gallentean alphabet, and never explained the specific purpose of the alphabet. Furthermore, Hallud’s qualifications as a “religious scholar” have been called into question. After his death in YC86, the alphabet was adopted - for better or worse - by the more violence-centered “gutter” and “spit” musical cultures. Though the practice has died out, older-generation spit artists used the alphabet to name themselves based on their personal interpretations of Hallud’s spiritual teachings. Names are taken from three or four letters and pronounced phonetically when possible.
A - All-Mother or All-Father, the highest power
B - Become, the act of origination and transition as one
C - Clansman, one with the tribe
D - Disciple, the one who studies the truth
E - Eternity, everlasting, continual
F - Freedom, understanding and being at peace with life
G - Giver, the one who sacrifices for the better of another
H - Heart, courage and fear in one vessel, the home of the nomad
I - I Am, to acknowledge one’s existence and claim their name
J - Join or Joining, to fuse with another essence
K - Kin, Kinship, or Kinsman, all the children of Matar
L - Love, the bond of family and clan, perfect despite imperfection
M - Matar, Matari, or Minmatar
N - Nation, the goal of unity among all Matari, or one’s home
O - Full Circle, or Cycle, returning to the point of origination
P - Preach, to make one’s voice heard and speak no lies
Q - Quiet, as in meditation
R - Respect, for your fellow kinsman, for your chief, for All-Mighty
S - Shaman, the leader of faith
T - Truth, the absolute, without distortion or corruption
U - Universal or Unity, collective love among all Matari
V - Victory, in struggle against hateful society
W - Warrior, one who fights for their clan or their cause
X - Cross, the place where two roads meet
Y - Your, that which must be given to the other
Z - Zai, the man who brought wisdom, the goal of the disciple
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Topic: Most Holy Alphabet (Read 1049 times)