Note: While discussing matters of extremely controversial and provocative nature, this article should not be construed as endorsing any viewpoint offensive to the Targhandist reader.

The three words "Is Not Man-" are not often uttered by any not wishing to start an immediate brawl, even though both the speakers and the parties offended to violence more often than no have no idea what the cause of the offense might be, nor even the next words in the statement to which they are alluding. All that is known to most is that it is mortally insulting to any decent Targhandist. However, the ecclesiastical court records regarding the actual facts of the matter have recently been released for academic study, allowing new conclusions to be drawn.

Immediately after the death of Targhand, every personal possession he had ever owned wound up being going onto the market as Relics, sold to whomever would pay the price. One of these reclics, a Philosophy book Targhand had studied out of in his first year at the Imperial Academy, was purchased by Namm, a parish priest on the outskirts of Filmar. It remained in a reliquary there until, on Namm's death, the parish was given over to a young priest named Velos, who made a habit of idly turning through the pages of the book. It was as he was doing this that he, according to his own account, came across a small scrap of paper, on which was written, in what appeared to be Targhand's script, "Is Not Man the Most Wretched of All the Beasts of All the World?"

Velos wrote to colleagues about his discovery, not being bright enough to keep silent. The idea contained on that tiny scrap of paper- that Targhand considered humanity to be simply another kind of animal, rather that a special and distinct creation of the Great God , who then created the entire world simply to appropriately punish that creation- was a shock to great for any faction of Targhandism to bear. If accepted, it would have upended theology, rendered the Goat-Sheep Controversy entirely moot (and made fools, retroactively, of the partisans of both sides), and even overturned every traditional Uzdan Family structure in favor of practices that would be considered superior husbandry for a healthy herd of animals. In short, it would have required a second Reformation, and the Church was still trembling from the first. So, rather than making any changes in doctrine, Velos and the note-paper were both tried and convicted of Heresy, and both burned at the stake in consequence, although the book-relic which had housed the dreadful forgery was pardoned for its role in the crime, and escaped the flames.

The idea was brought back a few more times by extremely disillusioned members of the clergy, already on the verge of expulsion for heresy, several of whom were killed on the spot by colleagues for uttering the first three words of the forbidden 'Targhandic' maxim, allowing at least the idea of the deadly insult to pass into less-educated hands even though the substance did not.

See Also:

Family

Filmar

Goat-Sheep Controversy

Reformation

Relics