La Société de la raison éclairée

La Société de la raison éclairée is a small but growing group of educated yet delusionial Dementlieuse whose faith in modern science mirrors that of a zealot in his religion.

By modern science the society understands material science: the science of things and of the mechanical, mathematically bound universe in which they were purported to exist. Science is the study of the great machine of existence. Existence consists of matter in motion. Being that is not matter in motion is being that should not exist, in fact is being that does not exist. Men are biological machines. Thougtht is electrical impulses. Philosophy is, at best, groundless speculation and, at worst, obscurantist superstition. Magic is, at best, smoke and mirros and, at worst, is as yet unexplained instances of matter in motion. Religion and the gods are obscurantist superstition.

The society owes its ideology to science as it is practice in Lamordia. The group's existence does not reach back into the false history of Dementlieu. Instead the society came to be two after Dementlieu came into existence on the southern border of Lamorida.

It is at least possible that the seed from which the society sprung was planted by Lamordia's Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens. At present, however, there is little in the way of contact between the two groups. Whereas the Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens prompts violence against being that should not be that it might in fact not be, La Société de la raison éclairée is non-violent and believes in the power of clear thinking to rid the world of enigmas and mystery. The Lamordia group would happily orchestrate the death of wizard. The Dementlieuse group would invite the wizard to tea and, after persuading itself that he is not a simply charalton, offer him instruction in the methods of science so that all may arrive at the truth of what he is doing when he thinks that he is casting spells.

Indeed the society was only formed in 709 BC,

Philosophy is, at best,  

Philosophy, previously the ultimate form of scientific endeavour, was cast out of science as groundless speculation at best and as obscurantist superstition at worst. And it was as obscurantist superstition that religion and the gods were dismissed and consigned to the dustbin of history.

The Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens

Science began as reflection that deemed the ascription of the unknown workings of the stuff of existence and of existence itself to the gods as lacking sufficient curiousity and rigor. It grew into a boundlessly curious and largely rigorous exploration not only of nature but also of the nature of nature. Tremendous advances in mathematics and most especially in mechanics, combined with the explosion into open conflict of the struggle between science and religion over the authority to define the nature of nature, triggered a revolution in science. Science became material science, the science of things and of the mechanical, mathematically bound universe in which they were purported to exist. Science became the study of the great machine of existence. Philosophy, previously the ultimate form of scientific endeavour, was cast out of science as groundless speculation at best and as obscurantist superstition at worst. And it was as obscurantist superstition that religion and the gods were dismissed and consigned to the dustbin of history.

In the Land of Mists only the people of Lamordia, and by no means every last one of them, conceive of science in its modern form, which is to say as material science. In other modern lands material science may certainly have a foothold in the universities and especially among those working in mathematics and mechanics. Its methods are very conceivably gaining ground in biology and in alchemy, threatening the division of the latter into alchemy and chemistry. There is likewise also the potential for a split within psychology. The burgeoning science of economy would certainly see much that is admirable in the new science and at least some historians and linguists may be beginning to wonder about its applicability to their disciplines. Those in arcane studies would regard it, at best, as a wayward child and, at worst, as a slanderous and unconscionable attack upon the legitimacy of their own field of research and endeavour. New science would be universally abhored by those in theological studies and by the religions as a false god. Outside of the most modern domains, however, science in any form would have but a tenuous hold on the popular imagination, with modern science being the least understood of all.

Victor Mordenheim is the arch-priest of modern science in the Land of Mists, although he doesn't spend much of his time evangelising.