The faction of Ahlam’s Temple is a systematic explorer of
the mysteries of experience and the senses. To the public,
the faction is best known for their inimitable courtesans.
Like the seekers, Ahlam’s Temple is an old
cult, but instead of the religious traditions of the
Seekers or the Church, the Temple’s foundation
is the eternal importance of the present. To the
Temple, the Icons represent the human soul’s
different positions, both spiritual and physical.
Just like the Church of the Icons, the Temple seeks
to spread their philosophies. The knowledge of
the purity of the present will help the people of
the Horizon lead better lives. The teachings of
Ahlam are applied to everything from dance and
art, to judiciary theory and politics. The Judicators’
interrogation methods, which don’t use torture,
are based on an Ahlamite theory. The origins of
the teachings stem from Miran temple dances and
poems from before the Portal Wars. Esteemed
philosophers like Haraman Hassam and poets
like Jasmine Sidat developed the heritage into
the Temple of Ahlam of today.
THE COURTESANS
The Temple is mainly famous for the courtesan
academies they run on Coriolis and Mira. The
education there is completely focused on the
eight arts of pleasure. Apart from the courtesans,
many influential rhetoricians, prophets, entertainers
and officers have attended the academies.
Both the Zenithian Hegemony and the Bulletin
regularly send employees and aristocrats to
the academies to be taught the mysteries of
subjectivity and sensory input.
True courtesans are only taught in the academies,
and begin their education at an early
age. Only the best students complete the program
and get their titles. On Coriolis and in
other metropolises, true courtesans are in high
demand. In some places it would be unthinkable
to enter the political arena without a courtesan
by one’s side. Wealthy families and recently even
the big corporations employ a personal aesthete
to show off their status. A part of the Temple
less spoken of is the Black Lotuses, courtesans
who have been trained in the ninth art – the
pleasure of death.
These assassins played a crucial role in the
destruction of the Nazareem’s Sacrifice, but
how active they really are today is uncertain
to outsiders.
Aside from Terminos Lete, the faction’s council
member, the Temple is home to famous
people like Hija Goua, the bi-gender courtesan
from Menele, the war dancer Palmira
Ferex from Mira, and Darkes Lamann, the
slum poet who in his wall poems mocks rulers
and plebeians alike. The Temple possesses an
ancient technology – the proxy technology. It
was designed for therapeutic and educational
purposes and lets you share another person’s
experiences and knowledge. Unfortunately, the
Syndicate has stolen the technology and uses
it to manufacture so-called proxy trips. These
are usually of an erotic nature, but rumors are
going around about “moru trips” that let you
experience someone else’s death. The Temple
is fighting to get their technology back, but
have had no success so far.
y AHLAM’S MEMATURGY
Aside from the proxy technology, rumors say that the philosophers
of the Temple can create memes of their own.
By manipulating light, sound and bio signals the so-called
mematurgs can make people believe or do things that are
not true to their nature.
For the philosophers and teachers of the Temple, the
use of memes is just a means to an end, a way to achieve
enlightenment, although the same memes could be used
to control people. It is not without reason that the saying
goes “a courtesan’s whisper is a bond for any man or
woman.” Rumors say that the Black Lotuses of the faction
are trained to use simple verbal memes. Other examples
exist of mematurgs, such as the famous tyrant Dziban,
who controls parts of the Dziban system with his followers.
Tales of the Djinni also say that they can sow thoughts into
the minds of people.
Every human is a world of its own.”
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