RS149
Another factor, and one more complicated, is the limits placed on thralls by their ideology. Thralls believe in the purity of nonexistence, and the embrace of nothingness. Much as decadents of the Luminous Body see greater material wealth as effectively ‘more existence’ with which to venerate Nyue, so do thralls of Ybris see the absence of material wealth as ‘more nonexistence’ with which to venerate Ybris. This philosophy is immediately apparent in thrall culture—one need only look at the barren caves in which thralls live, the meager scraps of fabric they wear, and, with shocking regularity, their self-amputated limbs. However, the degree to which individual thralls adhere to this philosophy is volatile, and it is equally typical to see thralls adorning their rags with the bones of victims or, importantly, wielding scavenged, superior weaponry of the very cultures they left behind. Indeed, this is how thralls at all have access to explosives, among other things.
It could be said that a willingness to selectively ignore tenets of one’s faith to gain an advantage is hypocrisy; whatever the term, it remains a fundamental aspect of all religion.