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In many ways, it is like the Buddhist idea of Nirvana, although its residents remain far more active. Members of the Society strive to uphold the tenets of The Three Pillars, as described in the helpfile, through specific means as well as their general actions. Society members are expected to be above flaming, personal attacks, macho posturing, revenge, and pointless whining. Indeed, members should try to act to reduce such vices wherever they find it. To further this goal, the Society will offer mediation services for individual conflicts and large-scale note board debates whenever needed.
The Three Pillars arise from the reconciliation between the opposing Lawful and Chaotic influences within each person. Law is stable, focused, and disciplined, but in extremes it can be sterile, severe, and static. Chaos is creative, beautiful, and liberating, but becomes selfish, uncaring, and destructive in its extremes. The synthesis of the two encompasses peace, beauty, love, equality, selflessness, and true justice. The prime goal and duty of the followers of The Three Pillars is to uphold these ideals at all times through speaking with respect and forethought, treating all others with civility and kindness, and acting to stop aggression.
In addition to their activities on note boards and channels, members actualize these beliefs by always standing in opposition to organized aggression against other people - such retaliation must not be born of anger and violence, but instead of peaceful protest and resistance.
While some would say this is an ineffectual way to resolve conflicts, The Society of Tanelorn seeks to make the world a better place for everyone by embodying the teachings of the Three Pillars whenever and wherever possible, and by rewarding those outside the clan who do the same.
Members of the Society of Tanelorn are expected to resolve conflicts through peaceful means; The tired methods of violence and hate solve nothing. Members are also encouraged to give dissertations about The Three Pillars to all who would listen. Topic must be of the members/ prospective choosing, and should relate an event, action, or player attitude to a theme of peace or friendship. One dissertation is required for entrance, and extra dissertations can lead to promotions (see below.) All dissertations will be immortalized in the clan's library for all to see and remember. Such dissertations should be given to teach others about the ways of the Society, but members should refrain from pestering others about the clan's ideals; such actions can only cause more harm than they prevent.
As previously mentioned, there are three pillars of inner peace and harmony: peace through knowledge, wisdom, and experience.
Knowledge is vital in the search for one's inner harmony because only those who demonstrate a thorough base of information can comprehend what true peace really is; simple killing proves nothing about the strength of a person's character.
Wisdom plays a significant part because the wise are able to realize the impact that their actions have on others and on the world. Thus, such wisdom enables people to better relate their actions to the tenants of The Three Pillars.
Finally, experience is necessary as well; as a person spends more time in this realm, they begin to lose their aura of immaturity and naivete that cause minor conflicts to bloom into full fledged war.
To obtain entrance into the clan, a prospective member must ascend all of The Three Pillars to find the embrace of the Society. The applicant will begin by speaking to active members of the clan and waiting for one of the active members to give sponsorship into the application procedure. Please keep in mind that anyone above the rank of Brother/Sister is allowed to sponsor an applicant. After this has been done the individual must seek inner peace. Inner peace being something that one must first seek on his own before being fully accepted into the society, any form of help on the tests of The Three Pillars will immediately and permanently disqualify the candidate.
Even the most devoted followers of the Three Pillars spend years searching for Tanelorn before they find the city, so applicants must be level 150 and at least 600 hours online. In the old days, your character would have an age of 47 by that time. They must have also demonstrated, through their actions on public boards, behavior in areas, and conduct on public channels that their life experiences have taught them how peaceful interaction with people is the best way to interact with others. The most important factor in an application is whether or not the applicant demonstrates belief in the principles of The Three Pillars on public forums, both previous to and concurrent with applying. The peaceful balance of the world cannot be achieved through acts of ineloquence and pointless flame wars; such responses only create more conflict, and thus, are harmful to the society's message of peace.
Knowing the various workings of the world helps a person find his or her own sense of serenity. The more knowledge a prospective accumulates, the more he is able to appreciate how peace is not born of violence and fighting. Hence, members will be given a set of 3-5 room descriptions from somewhere in the world and be asked to identify from which area and room they come from. This pillar, often considered to be the most difficult of the three, ensures that all members of The Society are acutely aware of their surroundings and that they have not simply gone through the traditional, violent methods of power-leveling with total disregard for the world.
As wisdom greatly affects the way people interact with their surroundings (especially with mud society as a whole,) the wisdom of all applicants will be tested via one of two means.
The character must prepare a dissertation of no longer than 3 pages (60 lines of text on the note board.) This essay must be about a specific incident that the prospective experienced or some belief he/she holds and how that topic relates to the society's Three Pillars. Eloquent, well thought out answers are much more important than choice of topic the prospective is given complete freedom in topics as long as they can successfully relate their chosen topic to Tanelorn's ideals. Topics can range from the peacefulness of an area's room descriptions, the effect of peace upon certain races, or even how a particular skill or spell brings about the ideals of The Three Pillars.
The applicant must fetch a minimum of 6 gameload items from the mud
that the applicant can relate to each of Tanelorn's pillars. Two items
per pillar. These can not be manor items, clan items, or imm/special
items. Once the items have been obtained, the applicant meets with
the clan in the same way they would for an interview for an informal
show-and-tell where they explain why they chose the items they did.
The applicant may fetch more than 6 items in case the clan disapproves
of particular some choices but they must have all their items gained
prior to meeting with the clan.
The people who attend, will then do votes on if the item is valid for
the pillar it's being associated with. The applicant will have to get
approval for 2 items per pillar. So it's in their best interest to try
to have a backup or two!
Item Dissertations are held in the Dissertation hall.
Remember that these time at Wanderer is under the assumption that the applicant is
relatively active during that trial period. Applicants that spend their first month+
offline or extensively MIA will naturally remain at Wanderer even longer!
In summary - Applying to for membership within the Society of Tanelorn takes
the following path:
Promotions have been moved to their own page! Click the link above to go there!
Crimes can include giving private information to outsiders, breaking any of the clans rules, or consistently acting contrary to The Three Pillars' tenets (through actions on channels/noteboards, behavior in areas, refusal to defend the verbal honor of Tanelorn, etc).
No specific rules for punishment or enforcement will be written, since each case should be judged on its unique merits; the idea of legal precedent is one of the most common fallacies of Law.
Suspects will be temporarily reduced to Wanderer until their case is decided by clan vote (see decisions).
Topics of dissertation are to be chosen by the applicant (see more information on dissertations under rule #6 in rules3.) An in-person interview will be conducted by at least 2 of the leaders at a time that is acceptable for all parties. The purpose of such an interview is to determine the moral strength of the character by asking questions about the character's background in this realm, inquiring as to what The Three Pillars mean to the character, as well as determining the character's motives for joining the clan.
Issues will generally be decided by clan vote.
Leaders can make the decisions if speed or secrecy are needed, but the clan as a whole has absolute veto power if they disagree with the actions taken by leaders; peace and balance cannot be brought about through dictatorships or totalitarian governments.
As mentioned previously, no alignment restrictions exist for the society, since true inner peace can be sought by all. Since even the more violent races and classes can learn to overcome their shortcomings and lead a benevolent life, no race or class restrictions exist either.
Many of these were mentioned elsewhere in the petition, but not stated explicitly:
Last Updated: June 10th, 2006