Arkhanite Faith

From MU Wiki

The Arkhanites are one of the religious sects in the MUniverse. Their religion has been subject to persecution and was outlawed until relatively recently.

The term "Arkanite" first occurs in Chapter 47, when Mackenzie's grandmother refers to the Feast of Veil as an "Arkanite heresy". Chapter 103 indicate that "Arkhanite" is the correct term, and that "Arkanite" is a derogatory derivative used by those who consider the faith to be heresy. Opposition to Arkhanism, from information available, is apparently a product of fundamentalist Khersianism.

Due to the persecution they have received, Arkhanites tattoo the Veiled Eye in discreet places on their bodies, as a way of identifying themselves to other members of the faith. The Eye is described as "a stylized eye with a squiggly, curly sort of eye brow, inscribed within an upside-down triangle, and with the whole symbol reproduced in miniature for the pupil."

Arkhanos is the divine being associated with Arkhanism, but the Veiled Eye is not his holy symbol.

Several of the campus healers are Arkhanites, as is Steff.

The author has stated that while attitudes toward and misunderstandings related to Judaism in the classical universe inspired the Arkhanite faith, it is not based on the Judaic system.