Episode One – Interview with Wsye
By Fireangel

The lady goes to sit for awhile inside the nearby tavern, and talks to her friends. She sees a gentleman she has spoken to before on his interesting beliefs. “Would you be interested in an interview, Wsye? Are you still in a guild of anti-virtues?” Struggling to hear over the din of patrons, she motions that they move from the busy Common Room of Fire Lotus’ Tavern to a small adjacent parlor.

He nods. The small lady with red curls fairly bounces along in front of the tall man in brown, his plain staff in hand. Standing just inside the door, she smiles up at him with some relief at the comparative quiet. “I am hoping to do an interview for the group I am in with someone, or a guild, that has a different point of view of beliefs from Lord British. I know that you do, at least to an extent. Would you be interested in that; an interview?”

“I don’t know what guild I’m in now, but yeah, it sounds interesting.”

Fireangel gestures to the little table. “Thank you. I’d love for you to be my subject. Er…so to speak.” She winks good-naturedly.

Wsye takes a seat facing the lady, and holds the staff nonchalantly. “I see. I like this, but as I say, I’m not really involved with any guild right now, although I might follow some hythloth, humility, honesty, tolerance virtue system in my life through New Britannia.”

“Would you mind explaining to me – forget guilds – how exactly you differ from Lord British on your belief system?” She leans forward and whispers, “What happened to that guild, anyway?”

He whispers back, “Nothing, it sank in inactivity.” The man looks up, and then he stands up, his black hair stark against his pale skin. He leans against a wall for a moment, and gazes out the window. “Well, here it goes. My belief system, would be one of contemplative materialism. I enjoy being part of reality not as a challenger, as a performer, as a living being that isn’t there to do something in a world that isn’t part of this living being.”

Wsye looks at Fireangel, and her furrowed brows. He notices she now has a pen and parchment. “Hmm. Let me rephrase.”

She politely nods. “Please do.”

“I label myself a contemplative materialist,” he continues, “or, I am an atheist that doesn’t believe in the soul; only in the body. My existence is the one of my brain, in all it’s complexity. And it is something I find particularly peaceful and resolved. Thinking about this reality where, as a body without a soul, I am truly one with the entire universe, is a astonishing thought.”

He finds himself again looking out the window. “As I once said to others, there is no I or other, there is only matter, us, in all our beauty and everything we are. It allows me to calm down my natural fear for death, as death is what we ever were, it’s what we are meant to be. Death isn’t a punishment, it is a fulfillment, a place where you are free of existence and can return to simpler states of material reality. It isn’t an experience, therefore it can’t be disliked or liked.”

The lady looks up at him, and one eyebrow raises. She concentrates on the words, and listens, rather than presenting her own ideas on such matters for the moment. Her blue eyes glance over his slightly mussed hair and then she looks down at the parchment as he starts speaking.

“Knowing these things allow us to face life in the present moment, the ‘now’, and live to the fullest. Without getting overly concerned with our planning, with the future, with success, with happiness. Life is not a box we are thrown in to accomplish something, we are the box, it’s content and it’s walls, whether or not we are dead or alive. It takes the pressure away, and it calms down the desires and the wants that can never be fulfilled.”

“Pardon me, Wsye. When you say ‘resolved’, what exactly is your meaning?”

He looks down at her thoughtfully. “Resolved as in, it solves the problem in their essence. It’s not a philosophy of apathy, it’s more about not being afraid of fear itself anymore. Knowing, despite the problems you can have, that everything is going to be fine in the end, because how else could it go?”

“Very well. I see. Thank you.”

He smiles a little. “Our lives are negligible content of everything that was and ever will be. Contemplating the vastness of everything there is and knowing you are a part of it and not a guest visiting it can be scary to some people, but for me it’s really inspiring.”

She meets his eyes as he looks her way. “Why would death be a punishment to anyone?”

He nods. “Yeah, maybe not a punishment, but an end to avoid, as shown by the western culture, at least.”

“Would having a soul versus not having a soul alter one’s feelings about death?” She gazes steadily at him. “The one believing in the soul feels that they live on eternally as themselves, either in a paradise, or if they fear the way they have lived, to go to either a limbo or a place of punishment. While, if you believe that you have no soul, and instead become some energy of the universe, you sort of cease to exist as yourself, but keep on existing in some form.”

His eye again goes to the window. “Pushing death away is like defending ourselves against something we can’t defeat. And defending ourselves constantly with wants, with desires to control everything and master our lives is a waste of energy. I think the belief in a soul or not is central to the consideration toward death, yes. Well, if there is no ego, we already exist as the whole universe; whether dead or not.”

The lady feels amused, and wonders if she should stifle the question in her head, but decides it is not too offensive, and wants to clarify. “You are a part of Mars?” She puzzles over these unfamiliar ideas. “How are you already the whole universe?”

“Well, I am made of nothing but matter,” Wsye replies, “and there is no real void between me and the rest of the matter. You, me and Mars are the same thing.”

“Hmm.”

“Every fifteen years, our bodies are completely changed. Everything that was us fifteen years before is gone back to nature. But there is no I, there is no individual. There is only matter expressing itself with various means, and while the complexity of our consciousness may suggest we are a distinct thing from the rest of it all around us, a ‘content’ in a ‘container’, science suggests more and more that it isn’t the case.”

Fireangel takes his pause to press at a certain point in the subject that makes little sense to her. She poses it as a question. “Perhaps belief in a soul or not is more central to the consideration to life, rather than to death? A person’s belief system makes them live life a certain way, and they only think about death as being a fulfillment of that life, or as nothing. Is that something you differ with, Wsye?”

“A lot of people see it as a sad end, I’d say.”

She smiles and says softly, “Or a glorious end, and a new beginning.”

“Yeah,” he acknowledges. “I see it as the most natural way to exist. Being dead is what I’ve mostly ever been, and that’s what I’ll mostly ever be. Nietzsche has a nice quote about this, let me recall it. Ah, yes. The quote is, ‘Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.’ ”

The lady again presses down her tendency toward easy laughter and jesting. “I feel it is all life,” she says zestfully, “but in a different form.” Fireangel sits up a little taller. “Yet I am here to learn what you believe,” she smiles.

“Hmm.” She decides to change the topic from death a little. “Do you have specific differences with Lord British’s Virtues, or specifically, with his ideas of Truth, Love and Courage?”

Wsye carries on, “Yeah, well, regarding Lord British’s virtue, I am not entirely opposed to it as the anti-virtue system would. I am opposed to the anti-virtue in the exception of Hythloth. My principal opposition would be toward the direction the three principle virtues take. Where the Lord British system represents spirituality, I take the opposite way with hythloth. But Truth, love and courage are principles I don’t reject, of course.”

She remembers the gentleman saying something of this thought to her before, and nods. “Please explain your Hythloth diversion.”

“Once you take the pressure away with the realization of material reality,” he says, and looks out the window, “you can seek truth without fearing it as much, you can love others without asking for anything back, and you can face reality with more courage. In fact, instead of setting on spirituality, I settle on humility, in a way. Although, i’m not sure humility could be the same as hythloth. There are certainly some similar ideas within my belief system that is close to an atheistic-wiccanism, where there is a reconciliation with nature, with everything that we are.”

The lady notices there are a lot of points that her friend has just stated. “Please elaborate. Do I have your permission to quote you on all of this, I hope?”

Wsye smiles genuinely. “Yes, if you rephrase it and correct my grammar mistakes.”

Fireangel laughs heartily.

“I don’t feel like I am expressing myself clearly,” he chuckles.

“I will be very careful and respectful. If I’m not understanding your meaning, I will ask. More elaboration leads to a better understanding.”

“To elaborate, humility is close to the negation of the ego, of the individual, of the soul-content inside a remote world. Hythloth is the unity of substance, of matter being one, which is close in that matter to humility.”

She stops her friend, raising a pale hand. “How is matter or substance ‘being one’ like humility?”

“Well, being one with matter certainly makes you more prone to humility and passivity, to tolerance rather than control and activity, or to accepting life as it is rather than tiring oneself in changing it, in trying to control every variable.”

“You mentioned wiccan. Is your belief system close to wiccan, in your opinion?”

He shakes his head slowly in the negative. “Not really, as the wiccan is theist, but the relation of harmony to nature is there.”

“Hmm… what about self, in your type of humility? Do you try to change your ‘self’ to be better?”

“What do you mean, better, Fireangel? I don’t seek an optimal system of morality, if that is what you meant.”

She looks up at him. “To improve one’s self, being humble, realizing you may not be responsible to others if you are too unhealthy, or too drunk, or too rebellious, or anger too easily, or lie too much, for example.”

“Oh, regarding responsibilities to others, it is hard to say. These are kept to a minimal. Being a very solitary person, I don’t relate to others much, or at least, not enough so that their condition might depend on my actions.”

The lady adjusts herself in her chair and takes another angle at the same question. “What about nature then, and being too drunk to drive, too unhealthy by eating unnaturally, too sloppy with the environment, needing to improve ‘self’? Also, what about the idea of being a drop into the water of all life, causing a ripple in Life’s ‘pond’, and what ripples you cause for others, whether or not it is your intention?”

“Regarding my body and my health, I do seek some sort of balance, certainly. But it’s not for other’s sake more than it is for my own comfort. Of course, there is no way to completely avoid interaction with the rest of my material environment, which contains other livings beings. If the ripples reach greater impact than I would have expected, I am not aware of it. The Chaos theory suggests it does, but these things are all out of our control.”

“Are you a believer in the Chaos Theory?” Fireangel asks, hearing a new belief from him.

“Well, it’s not really a theory, but more a mathematical consequence. A small change in a system leads to a great change on a larger scale. Maybe it’s called the butterfly effect in English, I’m not sure if that is the Chaos theory.”

She clarifies, “Chaos, though, is closer to you, say, than Order? Do you believe more in Chaos than Order in the universe?”

“Of course, since order is subjective. Chaos refers to the state nobody puts a name on. When you put a name on it, it becomes ordered.”

The lady looks at him oddly, and says, “Mathematically, I would say order is in charge.” She shrugs, and smiles. “But we are going with what you believe. I am just thinking about DNA strands, and that many scientists now acknowledge Intelligent Design.”

Wyse returns her quizzical look. “How so? Are you referring to the ‘golden ratio?”

“I am referring to order in the tiniest flower, or seed, and that order seems logical to many scientists these days. Math follows logic, does it not?”

“Yes.”

“There is order in a DNA strand of magnificent exact complicated order, is there not?”

He walks back to the table slowly. “Not really. There is a lot of it that we used in our evolutionary past, but not today. Nah, it’s pretty messy in fact, and it changes constantly.”

“Intelligent Design is a theory that life, or the universe, cannot have arisen by chance and was designed and created by some intelligent entity. One strand of your DNA is uniquely ordered, and can only belong to you, and can reproduce that part of you, for example, the liver.” She finds that she is leaning on her palm, her elbow on the table, and sits upright.

“Your liver is devised from a thousand of unique bits of your whole DNA.”

She nods. “Yes, but only yours. Your fingerprints are only yours. Your palms are only yours. Your irises are only yours. No one else ever has those same patterns.”

“Except in cases of monozygotism,” Wsye states, “or ‘perfect twins’. Well, two individuals made from the same impregnated egg. Twins that share the same DNA.”

She sighs, “Not quite so identical. Monozygotic twins are genetically nearly identical. They have differences.”

“Of course, there is no way to avoid mutations,” he chuckles.

Fireangel calms herself and continues, “Anyway, even they do not have the same irises or fingerprints. Have you more to elaborate upon?”

“Not really, I believe it’s clear for me for now if you don’t have any other issue you want to discuss”.

She smiles brightly. “Thank you so much!” She stands to give him a polite hug.

Wsye allows it. “That was not a problem. I’m curious to see what you’ll do with these things, what shape it’ll take I mean.”

“I’ll try not to change any of your meaning at all, but fix only for clarification, if needed.”

He nods. “I haven’t had the time yet to look into the group of the community you belong to yet. It seems really interesting.”

“It is! They don’t belong to any guild, so you are free to come and go from any guild, or none, and belong to them. There are all types of adventure styles.”

“I will learn deeper of it soon!”

“Good.” She grins, then pauses thoughtfully. “Could we summarize your beliefs? Do you say there is no reality? ”

“There is no innate, objective meaning to reality. I’d say it’s a belief in the pointlessness of existence. the absence of objective truth. the absence of objective reason.” He emphasizes the words objective each time.”

Fireangel frowns slightly, “Does this mean to you that all ‘truth’ is subjective, as in there is no truth, or ‘what is truth?'”

“Yes.”

“The same with reasoning?”

“Yes. Well there is reasoning. But it isn’t objective.”

She grins. “Yet you are reasoning with me. Pfft.”

“Of course things exist,” he chuckles.”

“Can you summarize this ‘natural nihilist’ – you call yourself?”

“Well, existence is the nature. Nature or existence doesn’t move from point A to B in a linear, ‘reach some objective’ way, but rather function according to it’s own nature, according to what it is blindly, without conscience or purpose.”

She nods. “Is life without value to you? Is there no morality, no right and wrong?”

“There are plenty of subjective rights and plenty of subjective wrongs, but the consequences of them aren’t of much weight or primary importance in existence. Life or death is not to be valued or not, it’s just what it is, the most natural thing. Things are, and they are nothing else than that. And we are part of it all.”

“Since it’s pretty abstract talk, it’s hard to find the right words when it’s not in my native language,” Wsye smiles, “and it might be confusing. It’s not part of my regular conversation I frequently use in English. If you seek a definitive, two-word summary of my character’s belief system, you could present the idea as the ‘Hylothian Druid’.”

Fireangel shifts on her feet. “I remember we talked about this once, but Hythloth to you, has a meaning of humility, not pride, as some definitions say, correct?”

Wsye nodded, “Hythloth for me just represents the absence of spirit, not something to do with pride.”

“Where does that definition come from?”

“Well, some say it’s the opposed virtue to spirituality, not an opposition to humility. The hylotheistic soul does not believe in, nor care about the spirit. It believes that only matter exists. For such a soul, there is no reason to ever pursue any higher ideal than personal gain, material security or sensual pleasure. The hylotheist often acts like a devout believer of their own religious school and may try to sway others to their belief. hylotheism is closely related to and often leads to cynicism. This is the anti-virtue definition, but in itself, it isn’t good or evil, although such revelation could lead to harmful cynicism toward others. It’s more about beauty and contemplation for me.”

“Thank you for your explanation.”

“It has been no problem, Fireangel. I don’t usually talk to people about these things in depth.”

“I’ll see you sometime soon! Thank you again.” She waves at him.

Wsye grins. “Great idea, this whole interview thing, by the way.”