What if some IT-archaeologist 500 yrs from now (years, not yards) found the by then long forgotten full message thread of TORN, like some huge virtual scroll that just goes on and on, indefinitely supplying future scholars with overwhelming insights into the past?
   I imagine the conclusion of their research going something like this:

"Apparently, around the turn of the millennium, there was a blooming of a religious society that worshipped some entity called "TOLKIEN" - a rather liberal godhead it seems, since quite a degree of disrespect was tolerated among the worshippers, judged by the account of the mutual acceptance the cult members in between in their exchanges of expressions of opinions, showed in the versatility of the correspondence. (academic language incomprehensible even to the scholar himself)
   An informal religion with no apparent high priest - the clerical authorities seem limited to a certain variable number of unofficial caretakers, such as the offices of "Greeter" (held consecutively for approximately 80 years by the same male), "Evil Overlord", "Mad Scientist", and a totemistic trickster-figure of "Badger", along with archetypical cultural heroes such as "The Fair Knight" and "The Good Overlord" (the latter showing an outstanding wit and brilliance), probably representing the light half of the shamanistic year.
   There seems to have been a widely uniform practice of belief, involving reading of certain canonical books, none of which have survived to these days to shed further light over matters, alas.
   And only one great Schism seems ever to have taken place among the followers of "TOLKIEN", namely between an orthodox majority who believed that a certain apocalyptic creature had no wings (supported by a surviving fragment which confirms this conception), and a heterodox minority who clung to the self-created theory of wings.
   The latter minority consisted mainly of influential artists and pencillers who somehow seemed compelled to draw the figure with wings, confirming the now acclaimed fact that artists were illiterate at the time, as indeed they are to this day.

This is just a temporary academic survey. Further research is welcome and much needed."