Seven Strictures (Dishonored)
Channel: GMJ
Date: 2021-05-02

Something I made for a game I'm running. It contains a reading of some of the holy texts from Dishonored, namely the Seven Strictures & an excerpt from the Litany on White Cliff and Sayings of the Overseer.



The First Stricture:

Restrict the Wandering Gaze that looks hither and yonder for some flashing thing that easily catches a man's fancy in one moment, but brings calamity in the next. For the eyes are never tired of seeing, nor are they quick to spot illusion. A man whose gaze is corrupted is like a warped mirror that has traded beauty for ugliness and ugliness for beauty. Instead, fix your eyes to what is edifying and to what is pure, and then you will be able to recognize the profane monuments of the Outsider.


The Second Stricture:

Restrict the Lying Tongue that is like a spark in the heathen's mouth. It is such a little thing, yet from the one spark an entire city may burn to the ground. Better to live a life of silence than unleash a stream of untruth. The echoes of lies come back as the voice of the Outsider.


The Third Stricture:

Restrict the Restless Hands, which quickly become the workmates of the Outsider. Unfettered by honest labor, they rush to sordid gain, vain pursuits, and deeds of violence. Of what value are the hands that steal and kill and destroy? Instead, put your hands to the plow, the fork, and the spade. For even the lowliest labor that is rigorous squeezes the muscles as a sponge, rinsing impurities from the mind and body.


The Fourth Stricture:

Restrict the Roving Feet that love to trespass. They pay no heed to the boundary stones of a neighbor’s fields. They wander into foreign lands, only to return with their soles blackened by iniquity. Where have you strayed that destruction now comes behind you? Would you walk across burning coals or broken glass? Then why do you prowl into the homes of the honest, or into the dens of hidden things, for the result is the same. You will fall into the Void! Instead, rest your feet on a firm foundation so that WHEN the winds of the Outsider shriek against you, you will stand firm and not be overthrown.


The Fifth Stricture:

Restrict the Rampant Hunger or the intemperate will rise up among you like a virulent swarm, devouring everything wherever they go, even filth. For what goes into your body, poisons you, and if you eat filth then filth is what you will vomit up. Surely the glutton will sell away birthright, family, and friends for a morsel of meat.


The Sixth Stricture:

Restrict the Wanton Flesh. Truly, there is no quicker means by which a life can be upheaved and sifted than by the depredations of uncontrolled desire. What avail is the concourse of a prostitute? The attention of a loose companion? Nothing. And what of the fruit of such unions? Only sorrow is born, only misery is multiplied; within these things, the Outsider dwells.


The Seventh Stricture:

Restrict an errant mind before it becomes fractious and divided. Can two enemies occupy the same body? No, for the first will direct it one way, and the second another, until they stumble into a ditch and its neck is broken. Likewise, two contrary thoughts cannot long abide in a man's mind, or he will become weak-willed and subject to any heresy.


All these behaviors must be restricted in order to keep one's heart free from malevolent influences. They are the inroads of the Outsider.


Litany on the White Cliff:                    
I say to you, brothers, it is here that we make our stand as a righteous force against the growing darkness. It is here that we unite against the spirits of the unknown that would drag us screaming into the night, never to return to our homes, to our families! Together we will serve as a rod to those who would stray from the herd, for the foggy gray wastes of the Outsider. We will burn a bright fire with our virtuous actions so that others will not lose their way. And to those who choose to wander, beyond the walls of our homes, in far places, we will strike at them swiftly before they whisper to their neighbors, filling their hearts with strangeness and doubt.

"An Overseer is he who lives in the world of the invisible, spying with his eye all that hides within the hearts of wayward men."