The Synod: Book of Black Justice (Book II of God Rising)

by atheistbasementdragon

Neia Baraja faces the last great hurdle, presenting her god, as THE god of the New World. To do this she must marshal all her eloquence, present her sacred text in its entirety...and overcome the obstacles of a hidden enemy determined to keep the undead as anathema to all. The war is over, but the last battle begins.

2. On Justice

…Synod of Arwinter…

"You have given us much to think on, Neia Baraja, yet for all that, there remains more to be said, your organization speaks often of justice, and I will admit that I have been impressed by your standards of conduct in war and in peace, however how do we know that what you do is in service to your god, or to yourselves?" A priest said from two circles up.

Neia wanted to fume, but she was now an expert in this game, and she came prepared, specifically with the edicts of her lord and what it meant to him to be just.

"Noble priest, your words are not without merit, after all, how could you not ask such a question if you have never seen nor heard his sacred text? I am sure that if things were different, I would be asking the same questions you are."

She walked around the center at the base of the great circle, eyes followed her every motion, and she met countless eyes with her burning gaze of absolute confidence. "It is because you ask this question, and I believe you do so with sincere heart and an eye towards the truth of our god's divine nature, that I will answer your question in full, here and now."

"You will?" The priest asked, seeming to be surprised at the bluntness of Neia Baraja as she addressed not only him, but the burning curious eyes of a very large body of priests.

"Yes, I will. I will now tell you the contents of the Book of Black Justice, with a recitation of our book on Justice itself, which is the second chapter out of our sacred text." She said, and then in a sonorous attention grabbing voice, she began to recite…

The Book of Black Justice

-On Justice-

J 1-1 Justice can favor no rank, it can favor neither man nor woman, it can favor neither child nor parent, no noble and no peasant, when in court, all are beneath the judge, the voice of the law.

J 1-2 What is just for man is just for woman, what is just for woman is just for man, if it is unjust for one it must be unjust for the other, all must be equal before the law, bearing like penalties and seeing justice done in kind for them both.

J 1-3 These are your commandments, the guiding principles of Black Justice and submission to the Sorcerer King, know that these are not the whole of the law, and all must be reflected upon for their intent, so that when exceptions appear to exist, proper modification of behavior may be undertaken to keep to their spirit, even if violating their letter:

The Ten Commandments

I. You shall own no person as property, neither man, nor woman, nor child may be owned as beast or object, this holds true for all thinking intelligent beings. -4

II. You shall only profit by mutual benefit between the exchange of willing trade, no profit shall be considered just if it is done by dishonesty, deception, theft, or fraud. -5

III. No intimacy may be compelled, you may not touch those who do not wish your touch, embrace those who do not wish your embrace, nor may consent be acquired by threats, violence, or extortion. -6

IV. Preserve life wherever possible -7

V. Do not seek to begin by violence, but never forget the right, duty, and necessity of defending yourself or the defenseless. -8

VI. Honor those who deserve by their conduct, to be honored. -9

VII. Obey those who reason tells you deserve to be obeyed. -10

VIII. Favor truth, even at cost to yourself, but know that your first duty is to preserve honest lives. -11

IX. You are to be held accountable for your actions, even if acting on another's orders -12

X. Give more unto the world than you take from it, for there are others coming after you -13

J 1-14 Justice lies in right action. -15 Right action can only be undertaken by knowing the meaning of right and wrong. -16 To do right means to enhance and benefit the health, happiness, and wellbeing of others. -17 To do wrong means to work harm to the health, happiness, and wellbeing of others. -18 All moral questions may be answered by asking after those three standards. -19 Who cannot do right without threat of punishment or promise of reward stands either as ignorant as a small child or is only a predator on a fragile leash.

J 1-20 Living beings require other living beings to thrive and to prosper in security, therefore the true reward of right living is a just society in which you yourself are also able to thrive and prosper.

J 1-21 Never trust anyone for whom accountability is an outrage.

J 1-22 Reflect upon the expression of your justice, and the meaning of it, to develop your moral reason and moral thought.

J 1-23 Know why you believe an action to be right or wrong, and be willing and able to defend it, in this way you will refine your understanding of your own justice.

J 1-24 Fear is not justice, and those who wish you to live in fear, are almost certainly your enemies, hoping to take advantage of your fear for their gain.

J 1-25 A good man does not take what belongs to someone else.

J 1-26 If you see the hungry, the poor, the weak, the sick, the lame, see them not as the other, see instead only yourself as you might have been, and act towards them as you would wish to be acted upon in their place.

J 1-27 To deprive someone of life or the means to stay alive, due to their poverty, is barbarism most foul.

J 1-28 All honest scales are good, all dishonest ones are not.

J 1-29 The rights of the body remain beyond death, do not dispose of the flesh in ways displeasing to the wishes of the deceased as expressed in life.

J 1-30 Fear not to ask questions, prefer questions without answers, to answers that are not to be questioned.

J 1-31 Justice has seldom come from ignorance, therefore pursue knowledge and revere the good teacher.

J 1-32 Justice is action, to be able to act is to have power, therefore justice comes from power, but not all power is just, it must be measured against its outcomes.

J 1-33 Even the most just may make mistakes, but only the fool persists in error.

J 1-34 Never fear to change your moral answer if your current answer has failed to make for a better community with respect to the three standards.

J 1-35 If you wish to know if your community is just, then ask yourself if you would feel anxiety or fear if you were born to the ranks of the least of its members. -36 If you would, then your community must be reformed.

J 1-37 An unjust society creates injustice.

An Encounter with the Sorcerer King

J 1-38 There came a day where the Sorcerer King, his exalted majesty, was walking the streets of a great capital with a man of great renown, and there together they encountered a starving child. -39 This child had played the thief, attempting to steal bread on which to live another day, and the owner of the shop was in the midst of beating her for her crime. -40 The Sorcerer King asked after the circumstances, and being informed of her theft, he asked why she did not buy bread for herself. -41 It was then that the girl stated her lack of options, she had only her body to trade, as she had escaped as a slave, she had neither skills nor hope nor family. -42 The Sorcerer King inquired with the great man and the baker as to whether she had done wrong, and where the baker said yes, the great man said no. -43 The Sorcerer King then offered to let the baker starve for thirty days to see how long it would be before he snatched a loaf of bread that was forbidden him, and he went silent. -44 The Sorcerer King then asked the great man if 'he' had done wrong himself, to which the great man expressed confusion. -45 You rule over this land and these people, is it just that they starve? -46 If you create the kind of society in which a person must either steal or starve, then you are as guilty of theft as they are, for you steal their lives to protect loaves of bread.

J 1-47 It is a poor community which protects the interests of the few at the expense of the wellbeing of the many.

J 1-48 The price of a functional society that is worthy of survival, is that the labor of the lowest and the least is not a cause for scorn if it be honest, and that their lives and wellbeing are provided for by that society out of deference for the vital labors they perform. -49 To be the least is not to be sentenced to death for the penalty of poverty.

J 1-49 If you are not bettering the world, you are leeching from it.

J 1-50 What use is a community that does not look out for its own? -51 Therefore never fear to ask, what can be done better, for more?

J 1-51 Who looks down at man, woman, or child as a lesser, is a lesser themselves.

J 1-52 Who says to you "I love you" then raises their hand to wound or strike you, lies to you of their love. -53 It is just that you part ways from them, depart from them and abjure them, reject them for the lie they have told and know you merit more than that.

J 1-54 Who among the world has done no wrong? -55 No, not even one is fully innocent, yet it is unjust to demand perfection of the imperfect. -56 Therefore if you have done wrong once, strive to do right the second time, and where possible, make right the wrong you have done before.

J 1-57 If you wrong your neighbor, make amends to your neighbor, if you wrong your child, ask forgiveness of your child, the only forgiveness that matters, can come from the ones that have been wronged.

J 1-58 When the one who wrongs you asks forgiveness, you grant it for yourself to be made whole, not for the wrongdoer to feel relief. -59 Therefore offer and accept forgiveness only where it is sincerely meant, and then, only because you the wronged wishes to do so.

J 1-59 Fair trade comes only through equality both under the law and with an eye to mutual gain, imposed trade out of fear or threats is extortion.

J 1-60 Justice cannot exist without the courage to speak out against injustice.

J 1-61 It is easier to steal from one whose neighbors tolerate the theft, but a neighborhood that tolerates no theft sees all neighbors secure.

J 1-62 When the fighting is over, tend to the wounded, spare the lives of the defeated as you also would wish to be spared, and end no life that need not be ended.

J 1-63 Do not make war upon those who are not fighting.

J 1-64 Do not make playthings out of the bodies of the dead, nor the bodies of the living. -65 That a woman's husband, father, or son fought against you, does not entitle you to punish her or her children or her community.

J 1-66 War is the last resort of the just, the first resort of the unjust, and is loved only by those who do not have to fight it.

J 1-67 Do not make children the pawns of war.

An Encounter with the Sorcerer King's justice

J 1-68 It once happened that a certain general of the Sorcerer King's army was besieging a city of the Southern Holy Kingdom, and within this city there was an educator entrusted with the care of the children of many of the city's most important leaders. -69 This educator…desiring to ingratiate himself with who he saw as the likely victors, took these very young children with him over the wall in the dead of night and presented them to the general of the Sorcerer King. -70 He promised that with these children as hostages, the city would capitulate. -71 The general, a moral man, not only rejected the offer, he halted the siege of the city after sending a message to the city fathers as to what had happened. -72 He then, under flag of truce, brought the children and the corrupt educator to the walls so they could be raised up and returned to their parents and to the justice of the city. -73 Trade not a child's life for convenience.

J 1-74 Debt is never to be a form of slavery. -75 Where repayment is made impossible, terms must be adjusted according to conditions that make it possible.

J 1-76 Weakness can never create justice, therefore pursue strength to the greatest degree.

J 1-77 Strength may come in many forms, physical, mental, financial, moral, and more, find your strength to find your path to justice and its expression in your life.

J 1-78 Examine your life often and ask if it is the life you wish to live, and if it is being lived as it ought to be.

J 1-79 If you are blessed, then you must be a blessing in turn to those around you, else your blessing is like unto a thick blanket in the summer heat, useless to all, needed by none.

J 1-80 Your actions decide the justice of your community, make them wise ones.

J 1-81 To deprive the innocent of their freedom of choice and of movement is as unjust as it is to deprive the living of their lives.

J 1-82 The limit of your right to act is limited by the impact of your actions on those around you. If you poison the river upstream so that it sickens the neighbor downstream, you are guilty of a grave injustice.

J 1-83 Neither justice nor wisdom require fear. -84 Therefore it is often the unjust which promote false terrors.

J 1-85 Justice is seldom had by a belief in what is false. -86 Believe only what is evidently true, and until it is evidently true, withhold belief accordingly. -87 Apportion your belief to the degree that claims of truth are verified. -88 If a claim cannot be shown to be true or to be false, you are not obligated to believe it.

J 1-86 It is unjust to promote falsehoods as truth, or to claim as true that which has not been shown to be true.

An Encounter with the Sorcerer King

J 1-87 There was an occasion where the Sorcerer King was passing through E-Rantel, and as he walked, he heard a merchant hawking his wares, which among them included a healing potion that he claimed could cure even the most grievous injuries instantly. -88 Because our lord, the god of all Justice, is a river of prosperity, security, health, and happiness to all his people, this drew his attentive eyes and he approached the seller for a demonstration, because the price being asked was far below the typical cost of producing such things. -88 The merchant was happy to do this, and called forth a volunteer, only for the Sorcerer King to stop the volunteer in his tracks, and instead demand that the merchant try his product on himself. -89 The merchant of course wanted nothing to do with this notion, and he sought to ply all manner of excuses upon the ears of our almighty lord, yet the Sorcerer King, his majesty, the one true king over all other kings, would have none of it and gave the order that it be done. -90 The merchant bore a minor cut and was told he must use the potion to demonstrate its effectiveness. -91 The potion failed the test given by the Sorcerer King, and on further investigation it was found that the potion was nothing but water, dye, and cheap herbs, and the 'potion' was worth not even one one-hundredth of what the seller was asking for it, as it could not do what it was advertised to do, any better than time itself or even the cheapest of common healing potions. -92 This seller, sells no more in any of the lands of the Sorcerer King.

J 1-93 They that live by preying on the just, the innocent, and the weak, are not entitled to the safety to continue to do so, the limits of their rights under such a way of life, are the limits of the law with respect to their trial for their misdeeds.

J 1-94 Wealth gained by service to the community or to the wider world is wealth that has been justly gained.

J 1-95 All those foreigners who travel in your lands shall be granted justice identical to that which is granted to you, they may not be harmed or exploited, stolen from or violated, sold or deceived, justice for one cannot be held in common faith if justice is not granted for all, for all are citizens of the world first, and the nation after that.

J 1-96 It is unjust to expect to be treated better than you yourself treat others.

J 1-97 If you bribe the judge, are you surprised when the judge can be bribed to turn against you? -98 Therefore tolerate no corruption in your officials, even where you might gain thereby.

J 1-99 Punishment must be apportioned according to the severity of the crime.

J 1-100 Justice is known by example, therefore do justly, and you will have justice, if no example is set, no justice will be had, know when to obey and whom, and also when not to obey, remembering that to be just first requires that you be accountable to your conscience, then to your household, your neighbors, your community, your city, your kingdom, and to the god of justice whom you serve, abide in this knowledge, and you will prosper.

AN: Well here is the other chapter of my commissioned work, and I hope you found this worth reading. Don't expect a lot of action in this story, Neia is presenting before the Synod of Arwinter, there will be chapters where she merely defends her beliefs and where she only presents her sacred text before the priests of the New World, adding depth to the conflict by showing that their religion is not just slapped on as an afterthought by the author, but one which could, magic aside, actually function within a real society. What can I say, I fucking love world building.

Now, if you want to support this author's efforts, you may do so at my patrion dot com slash godrising (replace the i in patrion with an e. The filter cuts it off if I spell it correctly).

If you wish to support my charitable works, you may do so at bdgiving dot org.

If you wish to get advance looks at the works of either this author or more recently 'A Learning Man' who also betas on my discord, well take the invite and come join us all on my discord server, its a great supportive and positive community.

And if you don't want to do any of that...that's OK too! Just leave a review so I can hear your thoughts. :)