DEVOTIONALIA

We're an elderly priest or monk, the last of our kind, in a decaying temple by the sea. The imagery is of something ancient crumbling into the primordial, of lonely outposts looking out over a vast wilderness. Together with the glowing hypertext links and the echoing chants of the background music, the whole package is a hauntingly beautiful piece that reminds me somewhat of Porpentine, albeit with less anger in the fuel. There's the understated inhumanity, as well: an offhand reference to fins when looking in on the young acolytes, and apparently we have mandibles. The nature of the deity we follow is like nothing else I've heard of, too -- something unearthly that would be horrific if it were not presented as sacred, like the seraphim and cherubim as actually described in the Bible -- but the mythology around them seems pretty thoroughly fleshed out.

The piece seems to be about the nature of religious devotion. The unfamiliarity of the story's deity and cosmology serves to isolate the acts of prayer and sacrament so that they can be looked at without our own beliefs getting in the way. There's a lot here that's really worth contemplating.

As a game, it really boils down to how we put together an act of devotion: how well we understand the mythology surrounding the deity, that we can put together something pleasing to them. It's almost inconsequential beside the overall flavour of thing, and really serves as a means to give us alternate views of the one central theme.

As a breakfast, I think it's rice congee with a firm, white fish, topped with flakes of crispy fried onions and fresh chives. It has an ascetic look, but threads of ginger and sesame oil boiled in with the rice make it surprisingly flavourful. And then, piping hot green tea.