Gadianton robbers game

The Prophet, members of the Gadiantons, or any characters, may reveal themselves publicly if they feel that it is in their best interest to do so which it mostly is not , provided that they never reveal their actual cards. Lying is permissible, and, for instance, a Gadianton may claim to be a Prophet for the sake of having someone non-Gadianton convicted of being a Gadianton. No player, though, under any circumstances, may display their card to another player, unless the player turning his card over is dead.

The moderator, after allowing for a period of discussion shall ask for accusations. Any player may accuse any other player of being a Gadianton. If an accusation is lodged, the accuser shall be allowed to explain the reason for his accusation. Then, the moderator shall ask for a second. If the motion is seconded, then the accused shall be allowed to state a defense. Other players may comment briefly on one side or the other. Then, the moderator shall take a vote.

If a majority of the surviving members vote to convict, then the convicted player turns their card face up-- they have been put to death and may no longer participate in the game.

If there is no majority in favor of conviction, the accused is acquitted and may not be accused again in the same turn. The day ends when: a Someone has been convicted and killed, or b The moderator determines that no more accusations are going to be or can be made.

In case b , none is killed during the daytime. The moderator shall allow sufficient time for accusations to be made, but shall not allow the game to drag on unnecessarily. At the end of the day, the moderator shall terminate discussion immediately. Then, night falls and the moderator shall ask everyone to close his eyes. Winning: The Gadiantons win when the number of Nephites including the Prophet are less than or equal to the number of Gadiantons remaining.

The Nephties win if all of the Gadiantons are convicted and killed. Cards Page 1 Cards Page 2 Rules. Rules of Gadianton The Scenario: Gadianton is a game that pits the forces of light against the forces of darkness. It is at this point that we have what must be the most confusing narrative interruption in the Book of Mormon.

After this look forward in time, Mormon abruptly changes the subject. He has been talking about the Gadianton robbers. He has even created a foreshadowing link between those Gadiantons and his own time. Now he stops, makes a full chapter break, and begins the next chapter with what appears to be a completely unrelated topic. Mormon inserts a discussion of migrations to the lands northward. Even more surprisingly, Mormon brackets this migration narrative on both ends with a shift in narrative time to his own day.

However, none of this is in error. Each of these anomalies are intentionally placed by Mormon the author for his own narrative purposes. This sequence, awkward though it might appear, was carefully constructed to elaborate the meta-message of the secret combinations. Both before he begins this narrative sequence, and immediately afterward, Mormon references his own time. This shift in narrative time is important because it tells us that the narrative in between is the focal point on which the time-shift is made.

Mormon is doing more than denoting place; he is connecting time. The inserted, out-of-place narrative describes a northward migration of the Nephites. Of course, Mormon has discussed northern migrations before, but this description is unique.

For example, the northward migration of Hagoth received some notice, but the narrative emphasis was on the departure, not for the ultimate destination. This textually unusual fixation on the land of destination is even more curious because there is no indication that any of these people came back to tell about the land northward.

As historians, we must ask the serious question of how Mormon arrived at his description of the land northward, since he does not record any of these people coming back to describe where it was or its characteristics. Nevertheless, Mormon describes it in some detail:. And they did travel to an exceedingly great distance, insomuch that they came to large bodies of water and many rivers. Yea, and even they did spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land.

And now no part of the land was desolate, save it were for timber; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land it was called desolate. And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, nevertheless the people who went forth became exceedingly expert in the working of cement; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell.

The detail of the description of the land northward is given in such a way that Mormon likely supposed that we should easily understand what he was describing. The passage of time has made this description a little less obvious than it would have been to Mormon, but still he gives us enough information to make an identification of the location to which he is referring. The essential elements that allow us to identify this area are:.

It is north of the Nephite lands. It is near the lake that at that time occupied the current site of Mexico City. It has buildings made of high quality cement. Mormon the author is pointing his finger at a specific location at a specific time because that location serves as the historical fulcrum on which his meta-narrative is leveraged. That problem is one of timing.

It is at this point that we understand the nature of the references to the future that frame the northward migration narrative. Mormon does not have historical records that tell of the land to which these people went, but Mormon nevertheless gives us a particular location for them, a location they may or may not have reached.

His understanding of that land is based upon his own current time period. This is not unusual for ancient historians. Remember that both before and after the narrative insertion of the migration to the land northward Mormon has shifted the narrative focus to his own time period.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, Mormon is notifying us that the concern for the land northward pertains to his own day, and that it has a link to the previous time. It is important that we recognize that this tie between the first Gadiantons and the last Gadiantons that Mormon makes through this bridge in time and space is an artificial construction. It is at this point that we see the author describing the patterns rather than the iron filings.

There is very little chance that the iron filings are the same, even though Mormon makes a pattern of them. A brief note on the narrative history of the Gadiantons should suffice to show the artificiality of this tie between the two Gadianton bands.

After the first Gadianton secret combination accomplishes its fatalistic task of destroying the Nephite government just before the arrival of the Savior, they disappear from the land for over two hundred and sixty years.

This is a different group in a different land and with a gap of two hundred and sixty years between them and their earlier namesakes. Seen with the dispassionate eye of modern historiography, it is highly unlikely that this latter group that appears to be prominent throughout most of the land would have remembered and honored an otherwise short-lived and obscure band of robbers from inside the Nephite polity.

Is there any history behind this narrative artifice? If there is, we will find it by looking where Mormon tells us to look. We must look at the land northward that has many waters, is devoid of trees, is made of cement, and is on his mind in his own day.

In Mesoamerica, this problem is exacerbated by the nature of the available sources. Very few pre-Conquest texts are available, and the vast majority of our information comes from post-Conquest sources. In Mesoamerica, this virtually forces us to the world as it was at the time of the Conquest. One of the most valuable sources of pre-contact cultural information is the Florentine Codex, which is the Nahuatl text written by the native informants of Fray Bernardino de Sahagun.

From these Nahuatl texts father Sahagun created his Spanish-language opus on the history and culture of the Aztecs. The Nahuatl text has been translated into English, and there is a passage that is important to our understanding of pre-contact secret societies. This passage is cited as translated with the exception of one word that I have intentionally left in Nahuatl:.

The [ nonotzaleque ] went about carrying its hide [jaguar]—the hide of its forehead and of its chest, and its tail, its nose, and its claws, and its heart, and its fangs, and its snout. It is said that when they went about their tasks with them—that they did daring deeds, that because of them they were feared; that with them they were daring.

Truly they went about restored. The names of these are [ nonotzaleque ], guardians of tradition, debasers of people.

The passage paints an unfavorable picture of these people, but we can sense a duality in the presentation of the information. It would seem that these nonotzaleque were some kind of group that dealt with pre-Conquest ideas and traditions.

We take the verb work and get workers. The important information about the people who all do this thing is communicated by the meaning of the verb to which this stem is attached. In this case, we have the Nahuatl word nonotza, which has various meanings revolving around the idea of speaking together, consulting, or agreeing. Sahagun presents these conspirators as a pre-Conquest group.

Miguel Covarrubias links these nonotzaleque to the nahaulista movement after the Conquest. Perhaps even more important is the connection the original group had to the jaguar. Nahualista is a combination word that takes a Nahuatl noun and adds a Spanish ending. The Spanish ending denotes a group of people who hold in common whatever the root of the word would be. In this case, the root word is the Nahuatl word for a shaman.

The persistence of a group attempting to retain the old ways after the Conquest is aptly named for those practitioners of the old religion, and the association between the jaguar and the shaman provides another touchpoint between the description of the nonotzalque and the nahualistas.

The nahualistas were a subversive organization after the conquest, and one may suppose that they intended to keep their identities secret. Similarly, the nonotzaleque appear to represent a group.

Both groups have internal structure, and both are linked to the disruption of political entities. Both of these are at least grossly similar to the Book of Mormon descriptions of secret combinations. It was not the only identifiable order, but each was marked by particular clothing. In this case, however, it is not specifically the secrecy, but rather the conspiracy that links these groups. It is not the secret, but the combination. They want to convert you. They want you to think that you couldn't possibly survive without their all-wise oversight over your every choice.

They want you to rejoice in your enslavement and trust in them like a child trusts its parent. They want you to believe in them. They want your adulation, reverence, and unfailing obedience. God disdains them because they embody the great Satanic ideal, Satan's very program incarnate. They will save you all, in exchange for your agency and your mind. Just like Satan, they want you to surrender your will to them and worship them.

Remember Moses' experience in the wilderness? The jealous Satan ranted and raved up and down the earth, "son of man, worship me I am the Only Begotten, worship me! Satan thinks he is God. He is the ultimate megalomaniac. His narcissistic personality traits trickle down to modern-day Gadiantons and Secret Combinations.

Why would they not want to be like their master? What is the common theme? A State full of sociopaths. The same story is told over and over again: people living under totalitarian control, stripped of their humanity and ability to choose, most of them comfortable in their slavery.

But someone always wakes up. There is always a Winston, a Catniss, or a Montag. There is always someone who has enough of a mind left to realize that something is not right. It is like awakening from a dream. The scriptures are full of such imagery: awake to a sense of your awful situation!

Ether God -the real one- reveals that it was the devil who "put into the heart of Gadianton" those "secret oaths and covenants. Yea, it is the same being who put it into the heart of the Gadianton And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men.

Hel , 30 Emphasis Added. Did you catch that last part? Satan wants your heart. He knows you are never going to outright give it to him, unless you're some kind of devil worshipper or member of the Skull and Bones. But he already has the hearts of the conspirators, so how could he get yours, the good Christian, the great majority, the multitudinous masses? If he could just create on organization, an institution, an entity that you can put your trust in; an abstraction of your mind that you believe has your best interest and does your bidding.

A seemingly inevitable, monolithic, ubiquitous superstructure that protects you from bad guys, feeds you, instructs you, and lulls you into blissful apathy. The beneficent Leviathan, the altruistic Beast. The counterfeit for the image of God. The great deception. The ultimate idolatry. The State. The sobering truth is those plans that the devil passes down from generation to generation are designed to create tyrannical States.

He doesn't care about the Gadiantons; they are just pawns in his game, the real target is you. God is " no respecter of persons. Because " all are alike unto God ," it is a logical fallacy to suppose that we need leaders to tell us what to do. According to Christ, the "least among us" Luke are the greatest.

The leader is the servant, not the master. There is no hierarchy. Power in heaven is the opposite of what it is on earth, which makes the State the greatest satanic illusion ever contrived.

John, on the isle of Patmos, explained it in perhaps the only possible way we can comprehend; the image of the Beast. You can't see the State because it does not exist. You can only see the images it portrays: flags, armies, kings, presidents, courts, statues, fasces, buildings, etc.

It hides behind these symbols to deceive you into believing it is real. But it is none of these things. It is merely an idea, conceived of and summarily rejected in a heavenly council eons age. Government, which literally means mind control, exists primarily as a figment of our imagination.

Its only real power comes from the credence we lend it. If everyone stopped believing in it, it would vanish in an instant. The man behind the curtain is merely a man, blinded by his own hubris and perceived greatness. Christ is the only one who has ever " condescended " far below our station as mortals on earth, and because of his great suffering, and lamb-like submission to a tyrannical State, he is the only one qualified to rule this earth.

We began this post with a quote by Spooner, and we will end with one. Perhaps he can explain best why God would consider the State the most abominable institution of all:. The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful. The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act.

He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a "protector," and that he takes men's money against their will, merely to enable him to "protect" those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these.

Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful "sovereign," on account of the "protection" he affords you. He is too much of a gentlemen to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave. Spooner, No Treason. Bibliography and Suggested Reading. Andersen, Verlan H.

Orem, Utah: Andersen, Anderson, Verlan H. The Great and Abominable Church of the Devil. DiLorenzo, Thomas J. New York: Three Rivers Press, Jouvenel, Bertrand de. Boston: Beacon Press, Rothbard, Murray. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, Alabama: The Mises Institute, The Anatomy of the State. The Mystery of Banking. Second Edition. Spooner, Lysander. IV,