Path of Eris

By Omnicynic cynic@netzone.com

Nickname

Weirdos, hippies, freaks, Erisians

Description

The Path of Eris is one of the many and varied paths of enlightenment practiced by vampires who have lost their humanity. Most notably, it is the path followed and generally pioneered by Reverend Omnicynic, a former member of the Sabbat, and Malkavian antitribu.

Eris is the Greek goddess of Chaos, Confusion, and Discord, with a religious following known as Erisians, and an irreligious following called Discordians. Anything connected to the first group seldom makes sense, including this path. The second group is anyone who is not a member of the former. The two terms, however, are interchangable.

The Path of Eris is more religious in aspect than other paths of enlightenment, but at the same time it is not rigid or dogmatic. It is both contradictory and perfectly capable of not taking itself seriously, which gives its followers a good amount of power at the cost of unity.

Basic Beliefs

Erisians have five basic beliefs; these are known as the Pentabarf, and are always passed to new students of the path in text form

I -- There is no Goddess but Goddess and She is your Goddess. There is no Erisian Movement but the Erisian Movement and it is The Erisian Movement. And every Golden Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden Worm.

@@ -- A Discordian shall always use the official Discordian Document Numbering System.

3 -- A Discordian is required during his early Illumination to go off alone and partake joyously of a hot dog on a Friday. This devotive ceremony to remonstrate against the popular paganisms of the day -- of Catholicism (no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), of Hindic Peoples (no meat of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of Animal), and of Discordians (no Hot Dog Buns).

5 - 1 -- A Discordian shall partake of No Hot Dog Buns, for such was the solace of Our Goddess when She was confronted with the Original Snub.

->5<- -- A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.

Erisians also place special emphasis on the numbers 5 and 23, although the meaning of those may differ to the individual. An actual belief of the existence of Eris Herself is optional.

The Ethics of the Path

• Both order and disorder are innate to the universe, but either of which is only a concept created by us to view the universe we live in.
• There are no rules unless you choose to invent rules.
• Do as you will, until you don't want to anymore.
• Imposition of order = escalation of Disorder!
• Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
• The human (and vampiric) races will begin solving their problems on the day (night) that they cease taking themselves so seriously. The screwup became when order was taken so seriously and we were so seriously fearing contrary order and disorder, that GAMES are taken as more important than LIFE. Rather, LIFE should be taken as THE ART OF PLAYING GAMES. If one can learn to play with nonsense as one already plays with sense, then each will expose the other as the absurdity each is. From that moment of illumination, one will be free regardless of his surroundings.

History

The Path of Eris has been around, in one form or another, ever since the ancient Greeks thought up the Goddess Herself, and maybe even before then. It got a major kick in the butt when a mortal (Greg Hill) put together the Principia Discordia, a bible of Erisianism, which put a whole new spin on the Goddess, and made a lot of sense in a powerful, metaphysical manner. Many humans follow this path, but only a few vampires do, as it tends to make its followers seem insane. This can be both good and bad. It has been spread in the vampiric community mainly through the efforts of one Reverend Omnicynic, and the unwitting support of the Sabbat. By sending out war parties against the Reverend, they have supplied him with a number of converts who seem almost obsessive about spreading the word of Eris. Various other vampires have been Erisian without the Reverend's influence, but few have taken the pseudo-religion as a proper path of enlightenment.

Current Practices

There are no practices in common with any two members of this path. There are no meeting times, and no rituals to unite the followers of the path of Eris.

Description of Followers

The only common trait among the followers of the path of Eris is that they are not normal people. Normal people find a less confusing path. Most are insane to some degree, and many are Malkavians.

Views About Other Paths

"Heh. If that's what they want to do..."

Following the Path

The Path of Eris is a difficult path to follow, not from any innate profoundness of its teachings, but more from the fact that most initiates make it up as they go along. Many see the path as simply an excuse to act weird, and do not progress up into the higher, more illuminating reaches of its metaphysical ladder. This leads to a lot of vampires with very little self-control, which is not a Good Thing. While it's easy to profess understanding of the concepts of apparent order and apparent disorder, and their relationships with the creative and destructive forces, it's another thing to actually comprehend and follow those findings.

The few vampires who do have high ratings in this path tend to seem inhuman and somewhat estranged in their mannerisms. In truth, they have seen past the various filters of reality, and are reacting instead to the underlying layers of Real and True reality.

Common Abilities

Most Erisians are good at various games, art, or music. They tend to have skill with many esoteric and cutting edge abilties. The majority possess the Computer Knowledge.

Prefered Disciplines

Auspex, Obfuscate, and Chimistry are valuable for their reality changing and percieving effects. Dementation is also common.

Do's and Don'ts of Following the Path of Eris

1. There are no rules anywhere, Goddess prevails, hail Eris!

Hierarchy of Sins

Path Rating	Minimum Screwup for Path Roll
10	Taking any action to alter events you see
9	Failing to take part in any events which concern you
8	Continuing a course of action after it has become boring or unpleasent
7	Accepting rules that are not of your own making, and which you don't agree with.
6	Bowing to majority rule so as to not "make waves."
5	Refusing to consider other forms of truth.
4	Refusing to let something that is destructive, restrictive, or which you don't agree with die simply because of "tradition."
3	Changing your ways because of the opinions of people you don't particularly know or like; letting the Man get you down.
2	Forcing your truth on others who do not want it.
1	Destroying or ruining something good, fun, and cheerful; depriving others of their own joyful play; inducing destructive order.