Ghyll:Brothers of the Lantern

The Brothers of the Lantern are a famous school in the Eastern Province of the Dulalian Empire. The school originated in the obscure period before -200 EC. For the past century, they have specialized in the four classical subjects of theology, whingelism, archaeology, and tonsorial art. The Brothers themselves are appointed for life after a serious of rigorous physical, intellectual, moral, and gargarational tests, the nature of which is perhaps Ghyll's most profound (and coveted) secret. They are known by pseudonyms which they adopt, or perhaps are assigned, on appointment.

According to the testimony of such former students as Revelerax, students and Brothers jointly explore the relevance of such archetypal pairs as light/dark, male/female, déosil/widdershins, and honng/hongg to the theory, practice, practice of theory, and theory of practice of each subject.

The Brothers rarely publish their findings, but maintain a scholarly journal of occasional work by Brothers that has no apparent relevance to the classical subjects. A notorious example was the squib written by Brother Honuphrius in -46 EC denouncing the early and middle poems of Arariax for metrical incompetence and semantic triviality.

In popular belief, the Brothers are also responsible for maintaining a safely low (absolute) value of the heh-blammo balance throughout Ghyll. However, the organization refuses to either confirm or deny this claim, and scholarly opinion is likewise sharply divided. In the absence of material evidence, the question is likely to remain open for the foreseeable future.

Citations: Arariax, heh-blammo balance, whingelism.

--John Cowan 01:07, 11 Sep 2004 (EDT)