First, I thought the meeting went well, both as OOC- and IC-informative, and as an IC exercise. There were some minor disagreements and personality clashes, but those only added to the RP success of the event, imo.
Even back as far as Book's treatise 'On Necromancy' (written while he was still ostensibly anti-necromancy), he states that necromancers of all stripes tend to suffer from infighting. I personally intuit that Book's advent into necromancy and creating the Philosophers may, at least in part, be an attempt to develop a sect that minimizes that infighting. (And I have an additional idea of Book's motive from that tome that I will keep to myself for now.) But it is 'the nature of the beast' that a certain amount of distrust is inherent among our members. Both guild lore and extensive forums discussions have pretty much confirmed this reality.
But there's a tenuous equilibrium between PotK. We have innate suspicion of our own kind, from the top down, but also have a strong motive to overcome distrust and build coalitions, because it's in our own personal and collective best interests.
I have had little opportunity for roleplay thus far in this guild. I've definitely had precious little interaction with other Necros, and I had a few insights last night on my own PC's motivations and personality. The 'Necro as scientist' idea is more in my PC's character than I had realized; the analogy goes deeper than "rationalist and empiricist". He really is quite like a research scientist in personality, though one with the sense of job security of tenure: he is cordial and polite in matters of mundane pleasantry (perhaps annoyingly cheerful to many PC Necros), but operates in a wholly different mode in matters relating to his profession. There, he is uncompromisingly truthful, and unyielding to authority. This tendency, in fact, is both part of the reason he chose this profession, and is also reinforced by his sense that he is entirely self-sufficient, and doesn't actually need any other members of his guild.
However, he, like Book (imo), sees the potential advantage in attempting to build coalitions, or even mentorships, within the guild. So he is quite willing to attend such events in the future. He may be challenging, even to Necros much higher circle than himself, but were he the type to recognize internal hierarchy, he would have joined any other guild besides the Necromancers. In fact, he sees the Clerics as the antithesis of Necromancers primarily on their extremely hierarchical structure. He is non serviam to the core, except to his ideal of Truth. Perhaps his closest analog in fiction is Rorschach from The Watchmen (though only in his uncompromising nature, and perhaps not quite as extreme in that regard).
(He has an additional motive for joining the Necromancers that I discussed in this folder last summer.)
It's interesting to watch this struggle between desire for complete independence, and the need for cooperative interdependence, play out. I wonder if, in fact, this push-pull is at the very heart of the PotK sect.
"4.116 Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly." ~Wittgenstein, 'Tractatus'
