Cleaning House

By Moe Lane

**Flaming
Feather**

Cleaning house is never fun, but sometimes desperately necessary.

Khalid acknowledges that his time as a semi-Outcast was not, in the end, in the best interests of the Faithful. At least some of the divisions between Christian, Jew and Muslim are due to his former inability to work with his fellow Archangels (especially Laurence). However, that was then.

This is now.

Khalid is of the opinion that, at root, the problems plaguing the Middle East are due to the political and religious divisions that exist among the Faithful. The Archangel of Faith recognizes that resolving the differences between the Shi'ite and Sunni branches of Islam will be... complex... but that still doesn't necessarily preclude a political union of Arabic and Islamic nations - or at least a federation of independent states with real political clout. Once either is established, encouraging prosperity and stability would be much easier. There's even a precedent for incorporating fellow "Peoples of the Book" into the larger cultural framework, which would handily solve the problem of Israel (they're back, they're not planning to go anywhere, they've got nukes and their backs are to the wall. A peaceful resolution to the problem is clearly the optimal solution), if done correctly. Clearly, political unity is the optimal solution for everyone living in the region - but to do that, Khalid needs the Muslim equivalent of a Simon Bolivar.

PC Servitors of Faith will find themselves delegated to find one. The proper candidate must be a pious Muslim, free of racial or religious prejudice, ethical, skilled at both political and religious discourse - and have that indefinable something that will cause humans to eagerly follow him (or her, although that might be trickier to pull off). Said paragon does not have to be indigenous to the region: Khalid can work around a candidate that comes from India or the United States or North Africa.

Needless to say, they'll have their work cut out for them - especially when said work also entails discovering and neutralizing those who would build the wrong kind of union. They'll also be dealing with Khalid's dissonance requirements, of course: this is one case where simply appearing in front of the right candidate in a blaze of glory simply won't be an option. The candidate must freely choose to serve his co-religionists, without the crutch of Divine Will. Anything else could later doom the mission.

However, the PCs (and they won't be the only ones on this quest) may draw on those from other Words. Servitors of Yves will be invaluable for locating those with this sort of Destiny (and crossing off the lists those who would be instead courting their Fates). Servitors of Gabriel (peace be unto him) can evaluate those who could Inspire nations. Servitors of Marc can advise on the political considerations. Really, building a nation requires help from all of Heaven's Words - especially when one considers that the eventual leader will need all sorts of able assistants. The image of true Muslims coming from all over the planet to help restore the Dar al-Salaam has the potential of being the most powerful media image of the 21st century.

That brings us, of course, to those who would oppose this: while every Demon Prince could likewise be involved in shutting down this vision, the most likely opponents would be Factions and the War, for fairly obvious reasons. The Media might be a less overt enemy, but a subtler one.

**Flaming
Feather**

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