Enlighten and the free-mason logo (now off topic - on the nature of mathematics)

On the next patch, a new gem will appear : Enlighten. It's probably going to be usefull, but the problem is not there.

The problem is that Enlighten gem logo is a free-mason logo.






I've said in the news post video that it's either bad taste, a lack of historical knowledge, or maybe even an insult toward christianity.

I'll go further and add that it may even be an insult toward jewish.

Ah, and in before you push the complotist button, I do not think that free-mason run the world, I do not believe in the Illuminati bullshit, and there is no judeo-masonic plot to take over the world.
On the other hand, i'm not an idiot neither, and I think that free-masonery is a religion without Revelation. It has no God revealing to humanity the truth and the morality, but it has : temples, priests, initiation rituals, a code and symbols.

BAD TASTE :

I recall a post about unique item designing where a diamond supporter stated that he wanted his item call "hell's something" or having the flavour text involving the word "hell". The developpers answered that in the PoE lore, there is no hell.
As you can notice, there is no real religion references in PoE. Yes, there is crossed-dead bodies in The Coast area, but it's just the way bandit used to be punished in antiquity, so why not.

So why would you add a free-mason logo ? It's just un-logical and has nothing to do with the lore.


A LACK OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE :

I'm going to talk about free-masonery and christianity in France, because it's the subject that I know more. And i'm going to try to make a very very long story short, so please understand that I jump from time-period to another and take short-cuts.

Before the french revolution of 1789, the country was runned by kings. Since Clovis got baptism somewhere around 496 and 506, all the kings have been Catholics. As in any european states of the times, the king did not had direct power, and had to deal with dukes, counts and barons. Until 1665, when Louis XIV, really managed to assemble all the powers in the hands of the king (himself), monarchy was more a concept than a reality.
You have to understand that it was not the "times of darkness", as it it commonly described. For example, priests and jesuites where teaching kids how to read. Of course there were priviledges, of course nobles had advantages over the simple people. But I think that it's not the case of monarchy, nobility, but simply the case of power. Power is the abuse of power.

Under the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, free-masons ideas developped in the educated Bourgeoisie (rich people with power and no nobility title). Under the direction of Diderot, and with great help from Voltaire, the Encyclopedie or the reasonned dictonary of sciences, arts and crafts was published. The purpose, under the justification of enlightment, was to insinuate, in the people's mind, anti-catholic thoughts. For example, the article about fanatism (sorry it's in french, it's too long for me to translate) : http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5:530.encyclopedie0513
In this twisted article, they associate the brutality of pagan religion with the brutality of monotheists religions, without stating that religion itself and political use of religion are REALLY two different things, and of course without stating the benefits from a monotheist religion (making tribes into nation, by creating only one God, so putting a stop to tribal wars and also making things like forgiveness come into people's mind and heart - I don't say that it worked for everyone, sadly -).
Just a translated quote from the end of the article :
"Si la superstition subjugue & dégrade les hommes, le fanatisme les releve: l'une & l'autre sont de mauvais politiques; mais celui - ci fait les bons soldats."
"If superstition subjugates and degrades Men, fanatism wakes them up : each one are bad policy, but makes good soldiers."
That would be called trolling nowadays, wouldn't it ? :)

Well, Louis XVI was disconnected from the people, because since Louis XIV, nobles spent their times at the king's court trying to get his favour. While it was a way for Louis XIV to have them under control, about 150 years later, it turned out to be a bunch of idiots in fancy clothes getting disconnected from reality and not knowing what was going out outside. The void was filled in by masonic ideas, and when people got mad because of taxes and famine, they had new leaders who hidden themselves under the enlightment (le siècle des Lumières). You have to understand that you cannot make a revolution without organised military leaders and opinion leaders. And that place was taken mostly by free-masons.

The idea of the french revolution itself is not that bad, philosophically speaking. Getting the power into people's hands. The problem is that in facts, it never really happened. It's simply a power taking over another power. (I won't get into details of la Terreur, of kids going from jesuites school to revolutionary hand craft factories, of persecutions and executions of priests, if you are interested read Maurice Talmeyr, read de Lannoy, read Jacques Bainville, etc...) (and compare Rousseau and Voltaire, you'll see which one is the universalist and which one is the anti-semitic, anti-islamic, anti-catholic, esclavagist asshole pretending to bring Light to the people).

So, pretending that was enlightment is an insult toward intelligence. It was a war of a power against another power.


AN INSULT TOWARD CHRISTIANITY :

Well, from the previous part, you can understand that very simply, right ?

For those who didn't had the courage to read it : masonic ideas, behind the french revolution, lead to priests execution, disbanding and taking all the jesuites properties, and lies going on for alsmost 250 years about the catholic monarchies (i'm not saying that they were saints, i'm saying that the picture is not so dark, especially when you compare it with the revolutionary one).

AN INSULT TOWARD JEWISH :

If I was a jewish, I would really not like getting associated with godless people and getting the greatest symbol of my religion degradated. Star of David (2 equilateral triangle, with a sense of equilibrium) turning into some pyramid with lights and separation on top, great logo for enlighten gem guys... What better thing to get associated after the facts with masonery and getting accusations as a judeo-masonic plot to take over the word ? I would really not like that.



Well, to make it very clear : I'm sure it was some kind of a joke on your part, GGG. But understand that this joke is not well suited in your game. You better keep doing fish jokes. ;)

I'm sorry, I wanted to post that in feedback section... :/

Are you going to write to Obama too?

I didn't know freemasons owned the rights to triangles. Better call up Nintendo, too.

The Eye of Providence, which is what you're trying to refer to by 'free-mason logo', is not affiliated with them at all. The freemason variant of the Eye of Providence is circular and not contained, while the triangular variant references the holy trinity. You can see this on things like the US dollar.

The usage of the Eye of Providence as a symbol goes back at least three thousand years. You're stretching really hard, here.

This is really stretching it. The fact this gem is really bad (10% bonus at 1.44 billion XP, lol., talk about Korean MMO... :)), is far worse than this alleged freemasonry wannabe design.

It's also obviously not a Star of David, but a pyramid with some pointy things around.

So what's your stance on the naked sexslave girls on the health- and managlobes?

Yes, it's an old symbol. Svastika is an old symbol also. Should it be in this video game ? I don't think so.

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Jojas wrote:

So what's your stance on the naked sexslave girls on the health- and managlobes?

They are just a drawing of spirits. That fact that they are attached to the globes can significate that the character is bound to his mana and health pool. So I couldn't care less.

This is what happens when you start censoring for certain groups. Anything that's mildly offensive needs to be taken out too.

No women (as there's no non-offensive way to show them)
No triangles

Anything else we should be removing while we're at it? Druids have problems with how the trees are depicted?

edit: my buddy pointed out another good point. The whole game should be offensive towards christians and jews as in the old testament it forbids black magic. Also homosexuality, I hear one of the girls is a lesbian, I would know if I read the dialog.

"

Zemel wrote:

Yes, it's an old symbol. Svastika is an old symbol also. Should it be in this video game ? I don't think so.

Patch 1.06 will bring a new gem - Enreich!!

Mobs drop 500% more gold when killed with supported active skills. Gold doesn’t actually drop, but accumulates in a Swiss bank account

:P