Fourth Day
The Mistery of Belicena Villca
For all we have seen , it will be evident that from the strategic way of life only could proceed an extremely austere kind of Culture . Indeed , peoples of the Blood Pact never stood out for any cultural value other than the ability for war . It is that these peoples , at the beginning , behaved like true foreigners on Earth : they occupied the region in which they lived , perhaps for centuries , but always thinking of leaving , always preparing for war , always distrusting the reality of the world and demonstrating essential hostility towards strange Gods . It is therefore not surprising that they made few utensils and even fewer sumptuary objects ; However , though scarce , things were perfected enough to remember that they were builder peoples , endowed with skilled craftsmen ; to verify it , it would be enough to observe the arms production , in which they always excelled : those were manufactured in ever increasing quantity and quality , fear and respect caused by them being proverbial in the peoples of the Cultural Pact that experienced the effectiveness of its offensive power .
The peoples of the Cultural Pact , contrary to the occupants of the land believed in land ownership , loved the world , and worshiped the propitiatory Gods : their Cultures were always abundant in the production of luxury and ornamental utensils and articles . Among them it was accepted that the work of the land was despicable to man , although it was practiced for obligation : their greatest ability was , instead , in commerce , which served them to spread their cultural objects and impose the Cult of their Gods . According to their beliefs , man had to resign himself to his fate and try to live as best as possible in this world : such was the Will of the Gods , which should not be challenged . And to please that Will , the right thing to do was to serve their representatives on Earth , the Priests and the Kings of the Cult : the Priests transmitted to the people the Voice of the Gods and begged the Gods for the fortune of the people ; they stopped the arm of the Kings who were too fond of war and they interceded for the people when the levying of taxes became excessive ; they were the authors of the law and often distributed justice ; what evils would strike down on the people if the Priests weren ' t there to appease the anger of the Gods ? On the other hand , according to them , it was not necessary to seek Wisdom to progress culturally and achieve a high degree of civilization : it was enough to seek the perfection of knowledge , for example , it was enough to overcome the utilitarian value of a utensil and then stylize it into an artistic or sumptuary object . Wisdom was proper to the Gods and it irritated them that man invaded his domains : man should not have wisdom but knowledge and perfect the known , until , within a limit of excellence of the thing , it lead to the knowledge of something else that should also be improved , multiplying in this way the quantity and quality of cultural objects , and evolving towards increasingly complex forms of Culture and Civilization . Thanks to the Priests , then , who condemned the heresy of Wisdom but enthusiastically endorsed the application of knowledge in the production of objects that made the life of man more pleasant , the civilizations of refined customs and exquisite luxuries were in stark contrast to the austere life of the peoples of the Blood Pact .
At first that difference , which was logical , had no effect on the peoples of the Blood Pact , always distrustful of what could weaken their warrior way of life : a fall would occur , the Wise Warriors prophesied , if they allowed foreign Cultures to contaminate their customs . This certainty allowed them to resist for many centuries , while in the world the civilizations of the Cultural Pact grew and spread . However , over the centuries , and for many and varied reasons , the peoples of the Blood Covenant ended up culturally succumbing to the peoples of the Cultural Pact . Without going into details , it can be considered that two were the main causes for that result . On the part of the Blood Pact peoples , a kind of collective fatigue that enervated the warrior will : something like the drowsiness that , at times , usually invades the sentinels during a long day of vigilance ; that fatigue , that torpor , that volitional weakness , left them defenseless facing the Enemy . On the part of the peoples of the Cultural Pact , a diabolical Strategy , conceived and executed by the Priests ,
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