The Weighing of the Heart
Theme
Know thyself, know how your fellow Egyptians view you
Backstory
When you die, you will be judged on your acts during your lifetime here in Egypt, your heart must be weighed before you can go on to the Afterlife. All of us must prepare to rest our heart on the scales of Osiris. Most Egyptians prepare for this moment by having a mock tribunal amongst their peers, for to be denied by the gods is to not exist, ever again.
Practical Stuff
Regional Project-style building (like Sphinx) a large “Scale” with a feather on one end and the other empty.
Those signed up for the test will click the scale and offer their heart to be weighed.
First you will judge yourself, or judge how you feel other participants will judge you. (More on transgressions to come below.)
Then, each participant will see a list of Egyptians also doing this test. You will have a series of check boxes for each person where you will check whether or not you have witnessed them do or never do a certain transgression (more about the transgressions later.)
If you do not click any boxes for a participant it’s not counted and is considered that you didn’t know them enough to vote.
The list of transgressions is up for negotiation but here are some basic ideas based on Ancient Egypt:
- Raising voice in anger
- Stealing
- Lying or asking someone to lie for you
- Destruction
- Betrayal
Test Results Options
Automatic Pass
If you as a participant believe you have committed no transgressions and all other participants agree (meaning no one clicks your 'bad' check boxes) you have an automatic pass. This means your heart is "true of voice" as the ancient Egyptians called it.
However this is an all or nothing option. If you say you have done no transgressions and even one person participating checks a box for you, you will not pass, nor move forward in the test.
Progressive Pass
If you as a participant choose to click some of the transgressions about yourself (that you believe others will click) AND others concur with you AND you are amongst the top of the group that have the least amount of transgressions. You move forward that week, 3 total moving forwards pass the test.
All participants will need to visit a scale each week to make their decisions, only participants of the test will be able to vote. This is a tribunal of peers also in the test.
Comments
One concern I have heard has to do with people being able to game the test or intentially give poor votes to someone who doesn't deserve them, here is how I attempted to address those issues in the test's design:
- You don't have to go for the automatic pass if you don't believe everyone agrees with you that you are without transgression (I certaily wouldn't!) That type of pass is supposed to be VERY hard :)
- The judging on the progressive type of pass is exactly like reason/critic so if there is a gaming flaw in this, it also exists in these other two tests. I think overall, it is difficult to game either of those tests and thus, this one also.
- My idea is to limit gaming by mules to only allow those signed up for the test to sit in the mock tribunal to judge other participants.
Another concern I have heard is that this test seems too much like leadership instead of harmony, I disagree here's why:
- Although superficially this reminds us of leadership because we appear to be voting for or against people, on a deeper level this test is attempting to make us a more perfect society. We used to talk about making us a more perfect society all the time in Tale 1, I can't remember the last time I heard someone say that. This is an attempt to get back to that ideal, that goal. For me, I know that to be a better person I need to look at myself and say, "Hey, I could be doing this differently." Or maybe I think I am doing something that helps society but really my perception of myself is completely off. This type of tribunal is meant to help us examine our 'perfection' or lack thereof. I can see how this can be very off-putting for some but in the end I feel it is exactly where this game should be headed to get back to our roots, plus it's very Egyptian. :)