Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.

Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how he behaved.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was a devotee of Stoicism and wrote treatises on it.

Stoicism in Videssos

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was a follower of the Stoicism school of philosophy and tried to live his life by its tenets.

After Scaurus and his three cohorts were magically transported to the Empire of Videssos, he met with Apsimar, the senior priest of Phos in the city of Imbros, to discuss the religious beliefs of the "Ronams." Scaurus first described the various Olympian Gods but Apsimar viewed this with distaste rejecting it as "another puerile pantheon". After a moment's thought, Scaurus began describing Stoicism which, while a philosophy and not a religion, he thought might please Apsimar. In this he was correct as Apsimar expressed approval stating it was a closer approach to the truth. Apsimar then began explaining the truth as he saw it though Phos worship.