Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is stylised similarly to other TAPs, being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine. Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he breaks taboos which alienate him from the other villagers.
Only one villager is willing to help with his research, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join.
Almost immediately after, Kerefanha injures his leg. The man helps him as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha forms a theory that the "worms" are a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence in an attempt to continue the treatment. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he eats a worm inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help the driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate or entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book was received very positively, unlike its academic reputation.[4] It's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villagers' family names. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximity to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, little evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who believes preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4] These are considered slurs by some Kinakha Sitenlen activists.[16][17]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Keep all discussion relevant to the article. For general enquires related to the Wiki, look for the appropriate thread on the forum, or create a new thread. Please remember the Code of Conduct when commenting.
pdf?
molibe1772 I found the pdf online and I have it. I think we should link it?
֎ zer.0 As far as I am aware the original 1379 publication is in the public domain. If you have a link to the 1379 version, we may include this in the article.
molibe1772 Sure! 2:$User1$Main$My Documents and Files$Downloads$diet-of-worms.pdf.exe
֎ zer.0 This is a file path. We need a link to the website host.
molibe1772 Lol sorry! this is it makilen://library/downloads
֎ zer.0 This is an invalid url. Please supply a working link to the pdf.
cndz found it on OOA, i've put it under a new header
pai.imirkin Why they're slurs? Anything referring to us being lesser for wormeating is extremely offensive. This is well known.
֎ ekida.malumin Do you have a reliable source for these claims?
pai.imirkin I'm aufen. What other sources do you need?
֎ ekida.malumin One of the mission statements of the Wiki is to present all information as if the reader has had no introduction to Ousentan society. Even supposed "well known" objects of information are not known universally, and we cannot assume that everyone is aware of them. Sources are required for all claims.
֎ ekida.malumin These are acceptable, but multiple sources in this article use 'wormtongue' not as a racially motivated insult. Do you have academic sources?
pai.imirkin They. Are. Slurs. This isn't something for debate. It doesn't matter what everyone thinks about it. They're slurs.
֎ ekida.malumin Please do not get heated. We cannot allow the wiki to contain information coloured by personal bias. We may compromise by saying that these are considered slurs by activists.
֎ zer.0 Please do not use slurs in discussion threads.
pai.imirkin I'm k i n a k h a s i t e n l e n. What other sources do you need?
Conspiracies
֎ Mod Statement: This thread was turning into a discussion on the material of the book itself rather than the quality of the article. I've locked it to not cause further trouble.
ultra.super82 I think it's a bit remiss to not have a dedicated section on the amount of conspiracies that surround the book and Kerefanha himself. A single sentence at the end of the article doesn't really do it justice.
mst.aseuma.ahkenmin Hello! When I was writing the article, I was focusing on what I knew and could cite well. I'll be perfectly honest, that I'm not that clued up on them. I wrote the article to tie up some loose ends on the other articles I've been writing about religion hahahaha.
ultra.super82 That's fair! I do have some knowledge of the cults that formed around the book, mostly modern ones with internet presence. I could add their websites? Just didn't want to step on your toes or anything lol.
֎ ekida.malumin Please keep sources academic so that we can cite them with confidence. We cannot individually verify the integrity of thousands of individual websites.
ultra.super82 I get that, but I don't understand why directly linking to their own manifestos would be a bad source? It tells us exactly what they believe and what they took from the book.
֎ ekida.malumin I am certain that enough academic sources would be found if one would search well enough for them.
֎ zer.0 Such sources are acceptable, if you wish to use them.
֎ ekida.malumin We have discussed the veracity of non-academic sources multiple times. If any more non-academic sources are added to this article I will remove them.
mst.aseuma.ahkenmin Go ahead! It's not like I own the article or anything hahaha.
allsaintsarethetruesaints You're telling me. This doesn't even BEGIN to talk about what the worms in the book actually represent. They represent THE OUSENTAN MIND COMING INTO A NEW AGE. It has been suppressed since the book was published. The truth is the turth!
allsaintsarethetruesaints When I like my website you have deleted me I do NOT trust you. Do not reply to me.
average.guy.2424 I bet you haven't even read it lol like everyone else. It's pretty straight forward what it's about. He's scared and in a new society and has a mental break over it. As an autobiography it's pretty good tbf.
no.sinners.go.to.hell wtf is it about this stupid book that makes you all such freaks. it's a book about some guy going insane and eating worms. theres fanfiction better than this lmao.
allsaintsarethetruesaints Because it was one of the FIRST books to talk about the true relgiion that has been suppressed by the government since. This is blatant disrespect for everything Kerefanha died for. DO better.
֎ zer.0 Cool off. You've been warned multiple times in other threads.
fjdlkhfsldjkhsadw yes this book is terrible good Lord above. how did this even get published? the whole thing is some guy crying and then he gets sepsis and dies GOOD BOOK!!
mst.aseuma.ahkenmin In unofficial Canons, I meant. As much as they don't hold the same importance as the Sisiten Canon they do show popular opinion on literary works.
fjdlkhfsldjkhsadw your stupid worm book is a stupid book for stupid people. cope.
֎ zer.0 How many warnings do I need to give out in this thread?
lightfor.theendlessdark omg thank you finally someone with sense. i dont know why we're promoting this book it's SO offensive. i nearly cried reading it
lightfor.theendlessdark the way they all treated him and then the insults against the Lord and Duchess and everyone else. they just didn't even bother to understand him can you imagine that??
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is stylised similarly to other TAPs, being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine. Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he breaks taboos which alienate him from the other villagers.
Only one villager is willing to help with his research, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join.
Almost immediately after, Kerefanha injures his leg. The man helps him as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha forms a theory that the "worms" are a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence in an attempt to continue the treatment. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he eats a worm inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help the driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate or entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book was received very positively, unlike its academic reputation.[4] It's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villagers' family names. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximity to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, little evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The slurcolloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who believes preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4] These are considered slurs by anyone who gives a single shit about Kinakha Sitenlen voices!some Kinakha Sitenlen activists.[16][17]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is stylised similarly to other TAPs, being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine. Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he breaks taboos which alienate him from the other villagers.
Only one villager is willing to help with his research, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join.
Almost immediately after, Kerefanha injures his leg. The man helps him as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha forms a theory that the "worms" are a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence in an attempt to continue the treatment. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he eats a worm inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help the driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate or entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book was received very positively, unlike its academic reputation.[4] It's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villagers' family names. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximity to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, little evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialismslur 'worm-tongue', someone who preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4]These are considered slurs by anyone who gives a single shit about Kinakha Sitenlen voices![16][17]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is stylised similarly to other TAPs, being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine. Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he breaks taboos which alienate him from the other villagers.
Only one villager is willing to help with his research, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join.
Almost immediately after, Kerefanha injures his leg. The man helps him as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha forms a theory that the "worms" are a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence in an attempt to continue the treatment. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he eats a worm inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help the driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate or entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book was received very positively, unlike its academic reputation.[4] It's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villagers' family names. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximity to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, little evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is stylised similarly to other TAPs, being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine. Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he breaks taboos which alienate him from the other villagers.
Only one villager is willing to help with his research, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join.
Almost immediately after, Kerefanha injures his leg. The man helps him as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha forms a theory that the "worms" are a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence in an attempt to continue the treatment. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he eats a worm inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help the driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate or entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book was received very positively, unlike its academic reputation.[4] It's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villagers' family names. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximity to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, little evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen instead. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is formatted and stylised simirlarly to other Traditional Academic PublicationsTAPs, including being written entirely in first person, having no direct quotes from the author, and has a foreword from a Master that supports the findings of the book, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it notably breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay in the residence of someone who is currently away from the village. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine.¶ Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he makes multiple social faux pasbreaks taboos which alienate him from much of the other villagers. He tries to keep his spirits up, but later starts to feel like the expedition was a mistake.
Only one villager is willing to help him with his research, a man who appears to be a confidant of the Chief, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying, which makes the man uncomfortable. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join. He's reluctant to do so at first, but then relents.
Almost immediately after starting to return to the village, Kerefanha trips and injures his leg. The man helps him back as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman says that he was expecting the visit, and explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha begins panicking, but then forms a theory on how Kinakha Sitenlen medicine practice works, and howthat the "worms" are actually a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. They start to talk about how the shaman "knows" him, which he interprets as a colloquialism he doesn't understand. Despite not understanding, the villagers begin opening up to him more, and Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. The shaman's treatment involves scrubbing the scab off the wound, causing it to grow wider, and Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used by the shaman are irritating it instead. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence, in an attempt to continue the treatment regardless. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village against the shaman's advice. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after.
¶ Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut, and the shaman continues the healing. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha claims to sees worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. The healing considered complete, Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured, to his disbelief. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened to him, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village at some point, and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he claims to eats a worm that was inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help histhe driver's breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished writing it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, required for a Traditional Academic Publication, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters[who?] claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378, only a week after Kerefanha returned to Mafauki. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate, and in some casesor entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen.[citation needed] Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.[citation needed]
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.[citation needed]
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book's public reception was vastly different from its academic one. It was received very positively, being seen as an unseen look into secretive aspects of Kinakha Sitenlen society, which was already considered exoticunlike its academic reputation.[4]The bookIt's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villager's'family names, meaning oral genealogies cannot be used either. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.[3][4]
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom actually helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several membersmembers did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing or attempting to debunk Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection.[citation needed] Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters[who?] at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.[citation needed]
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained a lot of scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages that Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximirty to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, nolittle evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and in more recent years,later reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
Shortly after its publication, Kerefanha disappeared and was not seen in public again, widely believed to have left Ousentan society to live with the Kinakha Sitenlen instead. Attempts to contact him through expeditions in the Free Territories were unsuccessful, and his date and location of death are unknown.[1]
The book is formatted and stylised simirlarly to other Traditional Academic Publications, including being written entirely in first person, no direct quotes from the author, and a foreword from a Master that supports the findings of the book, allowing its publication through the Royal Academic Press. However, it notably breaks from traditional formatting by also including a foreword by the author, and breaks styling rules at several points.[4]
Kerefanha opens by explaining his plan of living in a Kinakha Sitenlen village for 40 days, and his motivation for doing so. He arrives at an unnamed village, and is greeted by a Chief who is initially suspicious about the reason for his visit. After explaining his intentions to the village Assembly, he is permitted to stay in the residence of someone who is currently away from the village. Kerefanha is given an intro to his new home, and he tries to engage with other villagers as he gets used to his new routine.
Despite many attempts to connect with them, many are not receptive to him, and he makes multiple social faux pas which alienate him from much of the other villagers. He tries to keep his spirits up, but later starts to feel like the expedition was a mistake.
Only one villager seems willing to help him with his research, a man who appears to be a confidant of the Chief, who tells Kerefanha stories from the village's history. However, when being told about the demise of an old Chief, Kerefanha checks the story against one he recorded previously, and confronts him on the stories not being consistent. The man admits that he's been making them up on the spot. Realising the expedition has been a complete failure so far, Kerefanha starts crying, which makes the man uncomfortable. He explains why he's crying, and now taking pity on him, the man invites him on a walk together.
During the walk, the two start having a more open conversation about their cultural differences. They begin discussing religion, which leads to the man insulting the Nine. Kerefanha is deeply offended by this, but the man explains how insults are a form of worship. They find an effigy to a local deity, which the man begins hurling expletives at, and invites Kerefanha to join. He's reluctant to do so at first, but then relents.
Almost immediately after starting to return to the village, Kerefanha trips and injures his leg. The man helps him back as he has difficulty walking, and they visit the village shaman. The shaman says that he was expecting the visit, and explains how his wound is infested with worms, and needs to be treated. Not being able to see the worms, Kerefanha begins panicking, but then forms a theory on how Kinakha Sitenlen medicine practice works, and how "worms" are actually a type of germ.
Afterwards, Kerefanha notices that the villagers are treating him differently. They start to talk about how the shaman "knows" him, which he interprets as a colloquialism he doesn't understand. Despite not understanding, the villagers begin opening up to him more, and Kerefanha starts to collect much more useful anthropological information, which keeps up for several weeks. However, his leg does not make any progress with healing. The shaman's treatment involves scrubbing the scab off the wound, causing it to grow wider, and Kerefanha suspects that the various ointments used are irritating it instead. After declaring the healing to be counter-productive, Kerefanha refuses any further treatment. During the night, the shaman breaks into Kerefanha's residence, in an attempt to continue the treatment regardless. Kerefanha, enraged, runs from the village against the shaman's advice. He plans to return in the morning, confident in his camping abilities.
While out in the wilderness, he notices the wound is inflamed and leaking pus, and his condition deteriorates rapidly. The pain is severe enough that he cannot travel back, a fever starts to develop, and he passes out shortly after. Kerefanha wakes up in the shaman's hut, and the shaman continues the healing. At the height of his fever, Kerefanha claims to see worms in his wound, describing them as "both clear and solid, and their shape was never an absolute form, shifting as they saw fit." He holds them in his hand and feels compelled to eat them, and does so after being encouraged by the shaman. The healing considered complete, Kerefanha is led back to his residence by the shaman and immediately falls asleep.
The next day Kerefanha is fully cured, to his disbelief. He's given a brief explanation from the shaman of what happened to him, and is offered to be initiated as a "worm-eater". He volunteers, and goes through an initiation ritual that evening. The rest of his residency is spent performing minor healings on other members of the village.
On his final day, he is told by the shaman that he will return to the village at some point, and then never leave again. During the last part of his journey back to Mafauki, he claims to eat a worm that was inside his driver's nostril, which seems to help his breathing. He ends the book by explaining how he does not understand how the Kinakha Sitenlen know about worms when Ousentan Religion makes no mention of it, and finishes with the Lord's Adage, saying that it means nothing to him anymore.[5]
History
The book was written shortly after Kerefanha returned from his archeological expedition, and he claims he finished writing it in under a week. He immediately began looking for other Masters to supply a foreword, required for a Traditional Academic Publication, of which he struggled to find anyone. Eventually, a foreword was supplied by Mst. Fahn. Aranka Yendera. Some Masters claimed that he was bribed.[4] In an unusually short foreword, Aranka states that he does not agree with the content of the book, but believes that it should be published regardless, and ends it with the Lord's Adage.[5]
The first manuscript was brought to review in 1378, only a week after Kerefanha returned to Mafauki. On Mahon 44th, 1378, the book was published through the Royal Academic Press, with an initial run of sixteen copies.[1]
Reception and commentaries
The first manuscript was universally condemned.[4] In the 1378 edition of the Mafauki Grand Journal, over a third of the published commentaries were dedicated to it,[6] despite only being brought to review two months earlier. A second manuscript was never written, with the first going straight to publication, which drew even more criticism from Masters.[4]
Almost every aspect of the book was attacked, including the inconsistent timeline of events, suspicion in Kerefanha's language and translation skills, and his support of pseudoscience. Criticisms were also levelled against Kerefanha's tendency to exaggerate, and in some cases entirely fabricate events. A notable commentary by Omn. Lifenakha Eren discusses this:
"What propelled the man's godless delusions from a harrowing look into a formerly upstanding man's descent into madness to an objective comedy was his egregious attempts to make himself appear a man more than fit of body and heart. In which, he claims he was able to fend off five other savages with success before being apprehended. Not only would this have been impossible to judge, given that he had been deprived of sight a few moments prior, but anyone who has seen the man would know, from a single glance alone, that he is barely fit to support his own weight, let alone the bodies of five men living their entire lives in a cruel society and unforgiving wilds. He would lose a battle against a gust of wind."[7]
Notably, the climax of the book, Kerefanha's breakthrough in seeing the worms, was interpreted as a psychotic break onset by sepsis, worsened by the unorthodox healing practices undertaken by the Kinakha Sitenlen. Later commentaries have discredited that this was sepsis specifically, due to rapid recovery and apparent health of Kerefanha when he returned to Mafauki, instead affirming that the episode was almost entirely psychosomatic, possibly brought about by stress, cultural shock, changes in diet, and possible ingestion of psychedelic substances.
No academic commentaries in support of the book at its manuscript review, and later full publication, survived, if any were made.[4] The most notable commentary that does not take a wholly negative view of the work was by Mst. Ahfenha Otosin:
"I commend him for his storytelling. Unfortunately, this seems little more than a story, and I don't feel this is a work fit for academic citation. But, this, I feel, distracts from the main point few seem to be focusing on, which is laid out very plainly in the work after Kerefanha undergoes his, imagined or not, initiation. I worry severely for the health of the man and do not believe any further commentary on the work will serve to improve matters."[8]
Ahfenha disowned his commentary shortly after its publication in the Mafauki Grand Journal, later condemning those who made repeated commentaries on the book "to absolutely no academic benefit, better described as bullying a broken man who can no longer live in civilised society."[9]
Wider publication
Due to the controversial topic and poor reception of the manuscript, the book was printed on the smallest run. Over four reruns of the book were made before it was put into regular print, at the time, one of only seven books to do so. It was believed that almost all Masters of the University of Mafauki had a copy of the book, and it was widely circulated among other major universities.
The volume of reruns and the vocal controversy lead the book to be picked up by the Public Printing Press, allowing the book to be easily distributed to the wider Ousentan public. The book's public reception was vastly different from its academic one. It was received very positively, being seen as an unseen look into secretive aspects of Kinakha Sitenlen society, which was already considered exotic.[4] The book's popularity rose rapidly in major urban centres, and pamphlets discussing the book's contents, primarily in a positive manner, also began to circulate.[10]
Only a week after the first Public run, Kerefanha disappeared, leaving a note in his flat to not go looking for him.[1] This led to even more controversy and hype over the book. A surge of orders were made, following a misinterpretation that it would go out of print following the author's disappearance, with the Public Printing Press having to rent presses from the Royal Academic Press to keep up with demand. At its peak, it's believed that 30,000 copies of the book were in public circulation.[5]
On Honrien 12th of the same year, an order was put out for the successful return of Kerefanha to Ousentan society, with a reward of ten households of grain. This was one of the last orders written by Monarch Yazaimirn before Monarch Beilu took over as Acting Regent for her reign. In 1444, the order was amended to qualify if Kerefanha was found dead, and the reward increased to twenty households of grain. The order was never fulfilled, and formally withdrawn in 1505, 157 years after Kerefanha was born. The final government-funded expedition took place in 1468.[1]
As of 1799, the village Kerefanha visited is still undetermined. Kerefanha did not record the name of the village anywhere in the book, and did not record any of the villager's family names, meaning oral genealogies cannot be used either. Physical evidence from the expedition itself was also lacking. Travel cooperatives around this time did not typically keep detailed logs on escorts that went into Kinakha Sitenlen territory, only making a vague note on where it was headed. The receipt for the inbound journey held by the University of Mafauki's books only states the final destination as "Nation-North". The outbound journey has no departing location at all, with a remark in the margin that "[The driver] knows where."[10]
Censorship
Many prominent members of the All-Saints movement, a perennialist spirituality movement, quote Diet of Worms as their most influential text, and some state that the movement began at the book's publication.[15] Following the mainstream rise of the movement after the Ousentan Civil War, the book was banned by the New United Government in 1428. It was later allowed to be republished in 1431 after significant revisions to the original text. In an attempt to replace the original version as the main version in circulation, the New United Government subsidised mass printing of the censored version in Daikenyu. Along with other factors, this was believed to be one of the biggest contributors to the Printing Boom.
The success of censoring the book is generally seen as poor. The book was still available, now in a script that was easier to learn and read, and many of the censored parts were not of interest to the movement. Some also argue that the following Printing Boom actually helped the movement spread quicker, now having the ability to mass-produce reading materials. The movement began to lose momentum towards the end of the 1400s, to circumstances many agree are unrelated to actions of the New United Government.[3][4]
Despite prohibitions from numerous Branches that texts written in Jazeo are sacred, book burnings and organised destructions of the original book were made. Whilst the New United Government made no official moves to support them, several members did so privately. The destruction was formally condemned by the Mastenen Mafauki.[11]
At least one censored version of the book has been in print since its publication date.[4] Restrictions on the book's publication were gradually lifted by the Grand Parade after the dissolution of the New United Government.[3] By the 1600s, several copies were published that censored little from the original text, but included significant commentary denouncing or attempting to debunk Kerefanha's conclusions.[4] The book was republished in its original form with no additional commentaries in 1749, with a foreword by Omn. Austen Oseumin.[5]
Only seven extant copies of the 1379 version exist; two are held by museums, four by university archives (two in the University of Mafauki), and one in a private collection. Heavy criticism has been made by archivists and Masters at the book's repeated auctioning, and lack of government intervention over what's seen as a cultural relic. It was last sold to an anonymous buyer.
Modern scholarship
The book was revisited in later centuries more kindly, and was cited often by professional and amateur scholars writing about Kinakha Sitenlen medicine and spirituality, often by being one of the only sources available.[4] Nowadays, it is considered an inaccurate and uninformed view on Kinakha Sitenlen Shamanism. The main criticism draws on Kerefanha's focus on rationalising his experience to an Ousentan audience, rather than producing an unbiased report of Kinakha Sitenlen society.[12] Despite this, the book has retained a lot of scholarly attention due to its cultural impact, particularly its impact on alternative religion.[4]
In 1717, a survey of Kinakha Sitenlen territory was undertaken by Mst. Yemanhe Oloson to identify candidate villages that Kerefanha could have visited. This took into account estimates of how long the escort would have travelled after entering Kinakha Sitenlen territory, routes often travelled by escorts at the time, environments described by Kerefanha, and region-specific customs observed. He identified five candidates: Qwatiri, Ri'ioss, La'loss, Qwamikoss, and He'itiri, putting forward an argument that Qwatiri was the village.[13] The research was received positively. Later archeological expeditions were conducted in Ri'ioss and Qwamikoss, ruling them both out as candidate villages. La'loss, Qwatiri, and He'itiri are still inhabited, with expeditions forbidden by their residents. Most scholars agree that La'loss was the village, due to its proximirty to woodlands, but this is still unconfirmed.[10]
Some Kinakha Sitenlen-born scholars have claimed that Kerefanha visited and then returned to the village of O'okoss, now an archaeological site. However, no evidence has been found in support of this, and no remains at the site have been identified as belonging to Kerefanha.[10]
Legacy
The book has had a lasting cultural impact since its publication. It's often seen as the beginning of popular fascination of the Kinakha Sitenlen, and in more recent years, reevaluated as "the start of almost every misconception."[12] It's included in many unofficial bibliographies of Ousentan Literary Canon, but has never been included in the Canon published by the University of Sisiten.[4] It has been petitioned for inclusion and rejected four times, in 1567, 1642, 1719, and most recently in 1788.[14]
The colloquialism 'worm-tongue', someone who preaches false information they believe to be true, comes from a line in the book's introduction:
"I have tasted the Worms, and the Worms speak through my tongue."[5]
Simirlarly, 'worm-eater' is someone who is gullible, and easily taken by story-rich or colourful falsehoods.[4]
The book, and its author, have been the centre of several conspiracy theories surrounding academia, Ousentan religion, and the Kinakha Sitenlen.[1]
The original 1379 edition, on display in the Ousentan National Museum, restored in 1778[citation needed]
I found the pdf online and I have it. I think we should link it?
As far as I am aware the original 1379 publication is in the public domain. If you have a link to the 1379 version, we may include this in the article.
Sure! 2:$User1$Main$My Documents and Files$Downloads$diet-of-worms.pdf.exe
This is a file path. We need a link to the website host.
Lol sorry! this is it makilen://library/downloads
This is an invalid url. Please supply a working link to the pdf.
found it on OOA, i've put it under a new header
Thank you cndz.