Prosperity

From A Children's Primer of the Way

The Path of Prosperity

Prosperity does not hide in the vault of the miser.
It does not sleep in the belly of the gluttonous sot.
It does not dance for the lucky gambler who chances on wealth.
Prosperity grows out of sweat and toil,
And takes wing in the celebration of that labour.

The well-earned feast by the roaring hearth. The unnatural bounty of the spellbound mine. The city-wide day of celebration paid for with the Merchant Prince’s purse. Prosperity is all of these, and this is what comes to mind when the uneducated think of it. Wealth and luxury, celebration and finery – all of these are the fruits of Prosperity. But so, too, is the work it takes to harvest that fruit.

The fireside feast is paid for by hard graft in the fields. The mine is tended by the magician’s skill as well as the miners’. The Merchant Prince’s celebration marks the culmination of a hard year of trading, negotiating and saving, of cunning and wise investment, and of her entire Guild’s hard work – and by this her whole Guild have earned the right to show off.

Of course, there are other ways to come by great wealth, and other things one can do with it, but they are not true Prosperity as the Way understands it. The miser who refuses to spend his money for fear of losing it forgets that his next incarnation will be starting from scratch: "You cannot take gold into the Labyrinth," as a priest might say. The glutton who spends his coin only on himself is left alone and disrespected, admired by no-one. The lucky gambler who spends money she never earned may win friends for a time, but those who rely on chance discover that good fortune is as fickle as their fair-weather friends.

Many priests of Prosperity can agree that selfishness and overindulgence are unvirtuous, but luck is the most debated aspect of Prosperity-theology. In the past, Marcher theologians in particular have occasionally condemned those whose efforts were supplemented by good fortune as undeserving and unvirtuous. "What one achieves cheaply, we value cheaply," as Abbott Simon said in the time of Empress Teleri. More persistent are the subtle attempts of some historians – mainly Highborn Archivists – to quietly erase the element of fortune from great tales of human Prosperity and other Virtues. In this, as in many things, they have butted heads with the Torchbearers.

True Prosperity is the celebration of earned success, whatever form it takes, and the spirit and effort it takes to earn that celebration. Whether they did it by the sweat of their brow, the skill of their hands, their study of the Realms or the silver on their tongue, the truly Prosperous are those who can look upon all that they have achieved and know for certain that they deserve a night’s rest with those who helped them achieve it. Tomorrow, though, the work begins anew.

Guidance on the Path

Through study of the Paragons and Exemplars, the priests of The Way have gleaned insight into the heart of the Virtue and how best to pursue it. There are collections of parables, tales, sayings and teachings that distill this for Imperial Citizens to learn from. The following are a handful of teachings and sayings deemed to be essential to understanding the Path:

• Strive, toil, and claim the just rewards of your labours.
• Enjoy the fruits of your labour today; no one knows what the morrow holds.
• There are three things that should never be made: Food that goes uneaten, coin that goes unspent and magic that goes unused.
• The Prosperous are not selfish; all that is worthwhile is shared with those who deserve it.
• Despise the thieving bandit, the lazy wastrel, the grasping miser and those who take without giving.

Paragons and Exemplars

Paragons and Exemplars of Prosperity are considered reasonably easy to identify owing to their efforts and labour, and how they use - or share - the fruits of those labours. Recognised Paragons and Exemplars of Prosperity include:

• The legendary Paragon Good Walder of the Marches.
• The Exemplar known as The Little Mother, whose tireless work helped to establish the importance of charitable deeds in The League.
• The Exemplar Long Tom Goodfellow, the healer and brewer whose legacy still encourages pilgrimages today.
• The Exemplar Zemress, the Blade of the Isles, who not only encouraged hard work and investment, but also the importance of taking-up of arms to defend what is yours.

Symbols, icons and trappings

The Path of Prosperity has many symbols across the Empire but one of the most common is the Wheatsheaf. This is symbolic of harvest time, which is widely known as a time of prosperity. Many Priests and Pilgrims of this Path may have a stalk of wheat or other grain upon them. Along similar lines an Apple or a Cup or a Coin are known symbols of this Path.

It is quite common for Priests and Pilgrims of the Path of Prosperity to carry waterskins, or bear fruit or other food, to enjoy or share as Virtue guides them. It is not unusual for some to also carry an oaken club as Good Walder did.

Further Reading

• You can learn about the various spiritual roleplaying effects created by priests dedicated to Prosperity here.
• You can learn about the skills that priests can use to support the virtue of Prosperity here.