Decadentia legionis
INTRO
It all started when the General organised a christian party for the last Solstitium and after the Saturnalia. As a Roman who has always been critic about that new middle eastern sect and their hateful ways - they consider nudity and sex are shameful and relations between men, even a masturbation, an "abomination" and a "sin", and they worship a very cruel and vengeful single deity in their death-cult - it was very difficult for me to participate.
But since I love the Romanum legion, and have been a soldier there since MMDCCLXVII (=ten years ago), I tried to find a way I could go to the party in a different way and celebrate the year/s end with mates while fitting in somehow. But I found only resistance, and that's in a ROMAN ROLEPLAY environment of the Second Life.
What follows, is my exchange with the General of the Legion, Skip Scipio who, just like the future king Louis XIV of the Gauls (aren't we lucky the Oracles can inform us practically about everything? 😄) said L'état c'est moi thinks HE himself is the Legion and who made very sure there is no possible way for me to come to the party.
Now after this exchange, during the Summer I found myself expelled from the Legion and banned from its grounds. Skip Scipio, as a good christian totalitarian dictator, without consulting with the Emperor or the Regent, nor with the other Legionnaires, expelled me by his own decision, as if he owns the place, and also COWARDLY: he didn't have the balls to tell it to my face - I found it by myself.
Not only he didn't have the valor (so un-roman, again) to tell me directly himself I'm expelled and banned (for being a Roman in a Roman world) now I also find out he didn't have the courage to tell the others: I met a fellow legionnaire and he told me the General "doesn't know" why I was not back to the trainings.
Of course, if such a person is a leader - not only of the Romanum Legion, but anywhere - it is certainly better to not be under their command.
Here I disclose the full exchange of our epistolae, so everyone can see by themselves:
(I'll use the "FL" years - 753 less than ours - just so it's clear for everyone)
WHAT IS "ROLEPLAY"?
30/11/2023
My General, Sir, 🙂
I didn’t know - or maybe I had forgotten if I did - that the Legion celebrates Christmas. 😅
Besides, you said it would be an “OOC” party. The sum of both, a christian OOC party, is a challenge to an IC character as I am whose first life self is an atheist, because it excludes me on all levels.
Our Roman world is an excellent frame for all different sensibilities, as it is inclusive for all those who share the love for Roman history and culture, regardless of our other identities (including political/religious aspects). Exiting that frame causes this kind of challenges like the one I am now finding myself in.
I am never OOC, because being Marcus Claudius is the very reason of my whole Romanum experience. I wouldn’t know how to be “OOC” without ceasing to be myself. “Out of character” necessarily kills the character.
On the other hand, my first life self is not only an atheist (therefore not being part of any religion, cult or sect), he furthermore apostasized himself out of the catholic church, unwilling to be a member of such a horrendous organisation or related to it in any way. So, a “christmas party” excludes him as not belonging to that mindset, just in the same way as it excludes all other non-christians, religious or not.
My first life self -I am not saying “real” life here, because we are equally real- is aware that in this time of year many people celebrate different things. Some people celebrate the solstice, others only the year’s ending and the new beginning, and yet others celebrate their religious holidays (christmas, hanukkah, kwanzaa, Krishna’s birthday, etc.). Therefore, he always wishes “merry festivities” to everyone in December, and in such way he doesn’t exclude anyone.
Limiting a party to “OOC christians” excludes anyone who doesn’t feel that way. And that’s what makes it difficult for me to participate in it, as an outsider in both ways.
However, I am aware that the point is spending a good moment all together and socializing out of the trainings, so I would need to find a solution, won’t I?
As I told you before, I - or should I say “we” hehe 😄 - have more lives. Six in total, or even more if we count Drusus and other secondary characters of most our other selves. For instance, as a gamer, I participate in other international metaverses like Myst Online Uru Live - a mmorpg (massive multiplayer online roleplaying game) created upon the Myst series - and as a polyglot in certain international linguistic/polyglottic communities where I even moderate a discord server). Etc.
If I can’t be Marcus Claudius, (and I certainly can’t, specially not at a christian party, because as Marcus Claudius I have always expressed my alertness and suspicion towards “that nasty little middleeastern sect” that “hates our way of life and plots to take over” etc. etc., along all the criticizm against their hate of male love, hypocrisy and false morals), I would need to send the XXVIII century Marcus, the builder and student at the SL Builders Brewery in my stead since other selves aren’t represented in the SL.
Not that Marcus the builder will enjoy the christian environment, he certainly won’t, but at least it is the only possible way I can be OOC without the need to bite my tongue about how the christians stole decorating trees and other traditions from germanic or celtic barbarians, or even from us Romans. Marcus from the future doesn’t care at all about that, he sees it as a funny mythology of past times and is centered into improving his 3D modelling and other multimedia skills, learning programming languages and designing a game with Unreal Engine. (whatever that may mean)
As we commented, not having crosses around would greatly help. They are torture and execution devices and no party can be cheerful with them around, regardless of who was tortured and executed on them, even if it is a fictious/mythological character as Mr Christ.
Finally, I’d like to remind you, should you need us to build anything for the party (except crosses or other christian merch), Marcus will do it gladly.
Thank you Sir for understanding 🙂
Salutes !! and hugs! 🙂
(He never replied, nor tried to find an inclusive solution.)
5/2/2024
Then we gathered after the Winter break, but he didn't come:
My General, Sir 🙂
I hope you had a great winter rest, and are well and happy.
We were back today for the Training, but not all of us had received a notice
so we waited a bit
Luckily Jonny DID receive a notice and informed us that today was meant to be more spontaneous and that next week we'd do the naval practice
Anyway, we are all glad to be back
we (Boby, Quintus, Jonny and me) fought two rounds with all weapons on the WHOLE area, Castrum and woods included.
and it was FUN
we need to do that more
BUT we do need to check what's wrong with the Legion's messages, and how come some receive them and others don't
and find ways for all of us to get all the info.
Anyway. Have a great week, and all the best! 😊
Si tu vales bene est, ego quoque valeo 😊
HUGS
11/2/2024
Unlike him, I would tell when I was unable to come:
My General
I am sorry, I am affraid I won't be able to come to training today, some things have come up to my guy in the future. He has a new "job" again (whatever that may mean), and his schedules are a bit shuffled.
Everything should be soon back to normal though.
Si tu vales bene est, ego quoque valeo
25/2/24
Ave & Salve
I am affraid he'll have to work again tonight, finishing some drawings for tomorrow, so I won't be free. I will do my best to make him finish before the training, I certainly do need to practice and all after such a long break.
hoping to see you later,
hugs
(still no reply)
Then, a week or so later, there was a christian notice in the Legion group, to which I replied from a Roman point of view. Neither is available any more so I can't reproduce them now. Something about "hurting feelings". Of course, as always, only christian feelings matter, but not the others. The General wasn't happy so at least he spoke after ignoring me for months.
4/3/2024
Just as I sent my notice, I received yours, we were simultaneous 😅
But THEY have hurt much more than feelings throughout history
It's hard to be a Roman in Rome nowadays 😅 isn't it?
..as no one seems to care about OUR feelings
anyway, have a great Week and all the best!
Hugs
And finally, after a long while, he also replied on Facebook. Very shortly and angily:
and now its you that fight in the legionsgroup this fight. i just asked not to discuss such things in the group and take care for comrads feelings. please accept others opinions and way to live. and btw, we live now in the year 2024. the romanum legion is just a game and a rp light, we are not here to be teached by you and your way of living.
I didn't see your message before sending mine, and was replying to Janu's.
I am not fighting or teaching anything, it's just pointing out that we are in Roman environment here (not a medieval monastery of monks) so this thing is out of place. I keep far away from them in the first life, so I couldn't care less about the "opinions" their clergy feed them from the bronze age "holy" book. 😄
But ok, you're right, no need to go further, we said what we had to say.
Have a great week 🙂
17/3/24
You seem to be "Active now", as says the network. Greetings, my General 👋🙂
I hope you are not too angry at me for being Roman in a Roman environment 😅
Anyways, it is not a fight, nor anything like that.
Precisely our Romanness is what keeps us safely out of XXVIII century politics and their nonsenses.
I am looking forward to meeting you at tomorrow's training 😊
Hugs!! ❤️
I am sorry, finally I won't be able to come, my FL self is not feeling fully well and would need to go to bed earlier in order to be able to "work" tomorrow (whatever that means).
All the best, and have a great training! 🙂
7/4/24
My General! I was very determined again to come today, but also again I am too tired.
I will need to reorganise my Sundays.
Big hugs to all
7/7/24
Then, at the beginning of July, I dared to observe how Romanum was losing its romanness, and getting heavily christianized:
which resulted in being thrown out of the Legion without a word -in a very christian way 😄- and banned from the grounds. I wouldn't find it out immediately, because he never told me, but a week later:
14/7/24
My General 🙂
I see you are much angrier at me than I thought you were. So much that you threw me out without a word and even banned me from the Legion grounds.
It’s ok, the first life doesn’t leave me space for the Trainings anyway so I wouldn’t be able to continue in any case. And the progressive christianisation and de-romanisation is certainly uninspiring.
However, I do love Romanum and the Legion because all the fond memories of what they were, and I will continue - as I always have - sponsoring events and contributing occasionally to the barrels at the Legions grounds. Now that I’ve been banned the access, how should I proceed next time: send one of my alts to do it for me or maybe ask Jonny, Quintus, Claudius or Boby and give them the Lindens for the barrels? Or maybe to you directly?
Although you are angry at me, I am not at all angry at you.
On the contrary, I am very fond of you and like you just as I always have. There is this song that always reminds me of you, the one you sang with your First Life choir. In Russian it’s called “The Horse” but in Polish it’s sang as “My Sea” (my first life self is studying Polish now among other things so the song came along https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJovzwrEDF0).
Be well, my General, 😊❤️
Hugs
At that moment, Skip did bother to write a couple of lines: 😃
hello marcus,
maybe we can talk to each other again one day. but as long as you can't distinguish between reality and second life, and you live out your hatred of everything Christian so dogmatically, I don't see any chance of that happening.
I've removed the donation barrels. I don't want any donations from you!
21/7/24
My General 🙂
Thank you for your words, they bring optimism as they imply we can talk anytime then - because I don’t hate anything or anyone.
I have never felt hate, I don’t know how it feels, and it is not very likely I ever will. And I am always happy to exchange opinions and discuss anything.
And let me reply to your message from the “2024” point of view, just to not lose any detail that could possibly lead to misunderstandings:
So, there are a couple of things here that aren’t as you suppose:
1
I do not hate christians. I feel sorry for them for being abducted and brainwashed by such an awful institution, and manipulated with a notion of a cruel and vengeful “god” that is able to drown the whole humanity or kill all the first born sons, etc. etc., you know all the horrid tales. And then - in “his” name - fight wars, burn witches, abuse children, etc. etc.
Not only do I feel sorry for the christians, but also for their jewish and muslim cousins who follow the same abomination but in a slightly different way. All the three big middle-eastern monotheistic religions have the same roots and are equally evil. They are still massacring each other in their own “holy” land as we speak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIdCsMufIY
And apparently, there’s no way they would even want to evolve, following a book written in the bronze ages. 😔
2
It is not “hate” as you put it, it is disliking.
I don’t like the religious mentality of all three middle-eastern sects of the same religion (christian, jewish and muslim alike) and their imposition and dominance.
Just as I dislike all the other totalitarian and fascist ideologies and tyrannies. And just as I don’t make friends with fascists and nazis, I also prefer to keep religious people - who worship and obey authorities that impose discrimination of women, gays, immigrants, gypsies, etc., even left-handed people among so many other - at distance.
Their devotion to the death cult (symbolized by a tortured corpse on a stick) in which they ritually drink his blood and eat his flesh, is certainly spooky and it is better kept at a distance.
Specially in today’s (yes, 2024 of the “common era”) more and more aggressive world, where the totalitarian ideologies are on the rise everywhere, supported as they always were by the religions. Trump’s “Project 2025” is an ouverture to the real-life Handmaid’s Tale, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is based among other motives on his disgust with “western decadence” (equal rights, recognition of gender fluidities, etc.), here in Spain the neofrancoist parties are deeply catholic, in Croatia men kneel on squares praying for domination over women and “decent clothing” of them, further east women must wear burkas, and the shariah laws get them stoned to death if they desobey, just as men who love men get hanged on cranes.
And we will probably all hang and get stoned or gassed when they return to powers. How much are our happy twenties similar to the twenties of a hundred years ago, and an end to an era, we shall certainly see in the following years. But at least, until they come to take us, it’s better to have fun and enjoy all we can, and without anger 🙂
3
It is funny you say I’m dogmatic 😆
Dogma is a very christian thing, it means you must “believe” what they say without any criticism, question, or doubt. Like the “immaculate conception” for instance, as in “Mary was a virgin”, the unquestionable first and greatest of all Dogmas. As a non christian, I don’t “believe” in anything, I am just telling what I see and how I interprete it, so “dogma” as a concept doesn’t apply at all. These are my opinions, yours are obviously different, but I am not saying you must agree with me.
Of course, feel free to disagree, criticize, or mock whatever I say as much as you want, I won’t be offended, nor angry, nor will I ever “hate” you for your opinions 🙂
4
I am merely pointing out that a “Roman Roleplay” environment is expected to be Roman. Specially if it is meant to be contemporary to Traianus (as in beginning) or Antoninus Pius (as the Emp changed it later), as is specified on Romanum website and several welcome intros and descriptions.
And christians in that time were a very small sect so that’s how my Marcus character, a Roman, refers to them. Maybe you should move Romanum 200 years into the future, into times of Constantine and afterwards, when christianity becomes the official religion. And call it Vaticanum 😄
“Roleplay” means playing a role, a character, so what is “reality” in Second Life, or any of the other metaverses?
There are many realities there, as each “SIM” has its own reality, rules, environment, and the realities change. There are Samurai sims, Vikings, Star Treks, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc., metaverses and they play they chosen roles in their own reality.
In this case here, the “roman roleplay” instead of being a real role-playing in a roman metaverse ends up by being merely dressing up in roman-looking costumes. I miss the old times when it was much more roman and much more roleplay, and that’s the core of my critics. But also many of our friends left, and there don’t seem to be any new ones coming to help in restoring the former glory.
Finally, I am sorry to see you feel angry, and to hear that your anger makes you retire the donation barrels. Of course I understand you, in your anger, wouldn’t like anything from me. But that is subjective, it’s your personal feelings, not the whole Legion’s.
My contributions have always been directed to the Legion and to Romanum, not to anyone in particular. And I am happy to keep them going from time to time, as I like to sponsor the events (even though Romanum is less and less roman, but I am still very fond of it, including Gladiators and Legion of course, and all the happy memories). Maybe we should ask ALL the Legion members what they think about the contributions system and, if they agree, enable a way that the donations can be received in alternative ways. I’ll also ask the Regent, of course. Maybe HE could centralize the incomes and distribute them anonimously, or something.
Also, sorry I am so late in replying, it was not my intention. The week was very intense on different levels, and I couldn’t find the moment before now.
As always, I wish you all the best and send you warm hugs. 😊❤️
Also, my General, I have hidden the message on my wall that made you so angry, so now it's invisible. Next time I criticise the de-romanisation of Romanum publicly, I won't mention you.
At that point, I still didn't know he had said to the others he "didn't know" why I "left". During this summer, I found it out. His cowardice and hypocrisy (sooo christian, right? 😆) at it make me think he isn't really fit to be a General of any legion or even leader of anything.
According to the Oracles, our next Emperor Marcus Aurelius will soon write in his Meditationes "Η δε κρείττων νίκη το μη εξομοιούσθαι αυτοίς" (Optima victoria est non eis assimilari, the best victory is to not be like Them)
Precisely because of that, I am informing him directly before sharing this historial with all of you.
Skip Skipio will be skipping happily up and down in the Legion fort forever while I'll be wandering around through the ancient worlds for ages, but I do hope Romanum leadership will find it interesting some day to (re)define the "Roleplay", since it's not Roman any longer at all.
Valete