Cleaning house is never fun, but sometimes desperately
necessary.
Khalid acknowledges that his time as a semi-Outcast
was not, in the end, in the best interests of the
Faithful. At least some of the divisions between
Christian, Jew and Muslim are due to his former
inability to work with his fellow Archangels
(especially Laurence). However, that was then.
This is now.
Khalid is of the opinion that, at root, the problems
plaguing the Middle East are due to the political and
religious divisions that exist among the Faithful.
The Archangel of Faith recognizes that resolving the
differences between the Shi'ite and Sunni branches of
Islam will be... complex... but that still doesn't
necessarily preclude a political union of Arabic and
Islamic nations - or at least a federation of
independent states with real political clout. Once
either is established, encouraging prosperity and
stability would be much easier. There's even a
precedent for incorporating fellow "Peoples of the
Book" into the larger cultural framework, which would
handily solve the problem of Israel (they're back,
they're not planning to go anywhere, they've got nukes
and their backs are to the wall. A peaceful
resolution to the problem is clearly the optimal
solution), if done correctly. Clearly, political
unity is the optimal solution for everyone living in
the region - but to do that, Khalid needs the Muslim
equivalent of a Simon Bolivar.
PC Servitors of Faith will find themselves delegated
to find one. The proper candidate must be a pious
Muslim, free of racial or religious prejudice,
ethical, skilled at both political and religious
discourse - and have that indefinable something that
will cause humans to eagerly follow him (or her,
although that might be trickier to pull off). Said
paragon does not have to be indigenous to the region:
Khalid can work around a candidate that comes from
India or the United States or North Africa.
Needless to say, they'll have their work cut out for
them - especially when said work also entails
discovering and neutralizing those who would build the
wrong kind of union. They'll also be dealing with
Khalid's dissonance requirements, of course: this is
one case where simply appearing in front of the right
candidate in a blaze of glory simply won't be an
option. The candidate must freely choose to serve his
co-religionists, without the crutch of Divine Will.
Anything else could later doom the mission.
However, the PCs (and they won't be the only ones on
this quest) may draw on those from other Words.
Servitors of Yves will be invaluable for locating
those with this sort of Destiny (and crossing off the
lists those who would be instead courting their
Fates). Servitors of Gabriel (peace be unto him) can
evaluate those who could Inspire nations. Servitors
of Marc can advise on the political considerations.
Really, building a nation requires help from all of
Heaven's Words - especially when one considers that
the eventual leader will need all sorts of able
assistants. The image of true Muslims coming from all
over the planet to help restore the Dar al-Salaam has
the potential of being the most powerful media image
of the 21st century.
That brings us, of course, to those who would oppose
this: while every Demon Prince could likewise be
involved in shutting down this vision, the most likely
opponents would be Factions and the War, for fairly
obvious reasons. The Media might be a less overt
enemy, but a subtler one.
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