Written By Harper
Jan. 12, 2019, 11:55 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Mydas
I'm damned angry. I'm hurt. I'm sad. I'm confused.
It's all a jumble and mish mash. But one thing's for damned sure. I'm going to miss you. You're one of the ones I actually respected. I'm getting damned tired of losing people I respect.
I hope your next turn on the wheel's a real good one. You deserve it.
It's all a jumble and mish mash. But one thing's for damned sure. I'm going to miss you. You're one of the ones I actually respected. I'm getting damned tired of losing people I respect.
I hope your next turn on the wheel's a real good one. You deserve it.
Written By Gianna
Jan. 12, 2019, 11:42 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Sorina
I was very pleased to discover Miss Sorina Bianchi sent me one of her creations. It's a lovely under-bust corset belt with shining coppery scales. I like to run my hand over them. I need to wear it before summer comes, because metal is just unpleasant in the heat.
Anyone interested in Sorina's lovely work ought to head down to the Golden Spindle.
Anyone interested in Sorina's lovely work ought to head down to the Golden Spindle.
Written By Evonleigh
Jan. 12, 2019, 11:31 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Two beautiful souls were joined in marriage today, and our Whitehawk family has expanded its number. It was a lovely, touching ceremony and one I was so pleased to be able to witness. Congratulations to Jyri and Elora. I know you will have a beautiful life together, and I believe Whitehawk is the stronger for it.
Written By Morrighan
Jan. 12, 2019, 9:42 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Mydas
No. No no no no no. Gods damn it Mydas, you can't.
You can't-
You can't-
Written By Helena
Jan. 12, 2019, 9:15 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Today I spent a lovely bit of time writing music of all things with a friend. For those of you who know I do not play with any skill, nor sing aloud except for in the bath (well, no one knew that, but now you do!), it was not I who wrote the melody, but merely found some words to put on parchment.
To hear the words just sketched on a piece of paper, flat and inanimate, come to life with voices of their own -- it's something quite beautiful and inspiring, a new experience to wonder at.
Despite the compliments from my friend, I will not be the one to sing it aloud, should it see the light of day, but I know it will be well received when he does.
To hear the words just sketched on a piece of paper, flat and inanimate, come to life with voices of their own -- it's something quite beautiful and inspiring, a new experience to wonder at.
Despite the compliments from my friend, I will not be the one to sing it aloud, should it see the light of day, but I know it will be well received when he does.
Written By Sparte
Jan. 12, 2019, 8:43 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
It has struck me how intent has been treated when I re-read the whites. Is a person's intent more important than their results? Does it matter if they try to fix it when the results were not what they intended? It seems as though the answers to that vary wildly based on whether you identify with those who were wronged or not. Anger, sorrow, regret. I've felt all of them as I look at this project, though it is so far away from effecting me directly.
I still feel fear for what may come next. There has been tragedy, but I know I am not alone in sensing this could grow into yet a larger one. I cannot guide the actions that will follow. I am just one man. Not a particularly favored one at present either, despite my own intent in the actions that led me where I currently stand seeking a penance.
In the end I think intent grants some insight into what a person was attempting to do. It helps someone understand - for those who want to - why they did what they did. Yet it does not right wrongs, and it does not change tomorrow.
Nor do the whites.
I still feel fear for what may come next. There has been tragedy, but I know I am not alone in sensing this could grow into yet a larger one. I cannot guide the actions that will follow. I am just one man. Not a particularly favored one at present either, despite my own intent in the actions that led me where I currently stand seeking a penance.
In the end I think intent grants some insight into what a person was attempting to do. It helps someone understand - for those who want to - why they did what they did. Yet it does not right wrongs, and it does not change tomorrow.
Nor do the whites.
Written By Kenna
Jan. 12, 2019, 8:11 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Moreover, should any of the peerage wish to challange Whitehawk's right to raise Jyri up, I am sure that the Champion's Gild would be ready to accept both of our coin.
Written By Cambria
Jan. 12, 2019, 8:05 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
It is one of the fundamental principles of political philosophy that politics is not a place for good individuals. On the contrary, the world being what it is, politics requires bad ones. We should recognize that we mortals are inexhaustible in our potential to do both good and evil, and lest we be hypocrites (the tendency to which is powerful in selfish Man), we must not be harder on others than we are on ourselves. That last clause seems a truism, I know, but, in the words of the Seraph of Ostria, "men and women more frequently require to be reminded than informed."
Written By Isobella
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:47 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Whose war is this? Whose feet can I lay this at, who can I shame?
These sentiments seem to swirl about the city like the chirping of so many locusts, a refrain of blame.
Within the Lyceum, amidst the silk and the flowers, one will find a notable number of mirrors in our designs, in our homes. Reflective jewelry, mirror-hilted blades, both ornamental and otherwise. So perhaps we see ourselves more often, more clearly. Ours is a pragmatism famed; it is interesting to note the things which make us who we are, and possibly how we are.
This is our war. These were our choices, these are our repercussions. Find the blame in a mirror, and face the problem head-on.
These sentiments seem to swirl about the city like the chirping of so many locusts, a refrain of blame.
Within the Lyceum, amidst the silk and the flowers, one will find a notable number of mirrors in our designs, in our homes. Reflective jewelry, mirror-hilted blades, both ornamental and otherwise. So perhaps we see ourselves more often, more clearly. Ours is a pragmatism famed; it is interesting to note the things which make us who we are, and possibly how we are.
This is our war. These were our choices, these are our repercussions. Find the blame in a mirror, and face the problem head-on.
Written By Isobella
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:36 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
At Princess Katarina's recent gathering, a discussion was had regarding the line between the privilege and the responsibility of power. There were many opinions expressed from those both with privilege and those under the thumb of power, those born with titles and those that came into them through tragedy and circumstance.
I find myself straddling the line, now. Surely I was born a Velenosa, which carries with it a modicum of power; those who wax philosophical and doubt the nature of a name have clearly never witnessed firsthand all that can come of a name's utterance even in the dark. But having now been appointed as a Voice, to speak with an authority that is no longer simply implied, I carry a weight that is not aptly described as responsibility but as expectation.
Will I thrive? Will I succeed? Will I succumb? And who will cheer or weep for me if I do?
I find myself straddling the line, now. Surely I was born a Velenosa, which carries with it a modicum of power; those who wax philosophical and doubt the nature of a name have clearly never witnessed firsthand all that can come of a name's utterance even in the dark. But having now been appointed as a Voice, to speak with an authority that is no longer simply implied, I carry a weight that is not aptly described as responsibility but as expectation.
Will I thrive? Will I succeed? Will I succumb? And who will cheer or weep for me if I do?
Written By Kaldur
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:23 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
And now, what I truly came to the Scholars for. Some of you have expressed concern over my ill-health. Which you all know of because my father, the Count, thought to share with everyone. I suppose we can all take comfort in a father's capacity to embarrass his children. Some things never change and we can thank the gods for family and friends. So, I thank you, father. Friends. My spell of illness is not, however, because of the stress of terrible news reaching us from every corner of the Compact, though that conclusion is an understandable one.
No. It is because I received a Vision of Ruin.
I was praying at the Shrine of Mangata when I was struck by a Vision of Ruin. Capital 'V' and capital 'R.' While I can state definitively that it was not Mangata who visited this Vision upon me, it is no less faithfully delivered.
I do not know what to make of what I Saw, but if the Road has taught me anything, it is that I am not alone and together one or more of you can help me make sense of it.
No. It is because I received a Vision of Ruin.
I was praying at the Shrine of Mangata when I was struck by a Vision of Ruin. Capital 'V' and capital 'R.' While I can state definitively that it was not Mangata who visited this Vision upon me, it is no less faithfully delivered.
I do not know what to make of what I Saw, but if the Road has taught me anything, it is that I am not alone and together one or more of you can help me make sense of it.
Written By Kaldur
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:21 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
I don't tend to write into the White Journals often. I'm not actually here to share my thoughts about the Great Road with the Scholars today - I have something more important to write about - but since I am here and while I have the stomach for it, and because I am who I am - the voice and mind connecting all this effort - I will share a perspective on the Great Road that all of you do not have. Mine.
I'm certainly not here to weep over events (I have) or crow over the Great Road (I have not) or defend it - I think it needs no rhetorical defense - but to put my voice and thoughts down as the one uniquely at the center of it.
There is a sense out there that this road happened suddenly. I can assure you that it did not. It was the work of countless days and nights stretching back before I even began formally seeking support. There are plenty of cockamamie ideas that have passed through this noggin of mine and I assure you, as many as I have, only some stick. Only some ring through me like the vibrations of a perfectly struck note. The Great Road was one such idea. It is a resonance that feels nearly divine, though I can claim no great Vision visited upon me by Jayus or any other deity. It was the idea of one man who saw something that could be and set out to do it.
I am a young man, but I have learned in my short years to listen and pay attention to these ideas when they cannot be shaken. Usually they are important in some way.
Countless meetings, countless missives, countless pages, barrels of ink, calluses grown, eyes ruined, voices talked rough, arguments, agreements. There is nothing sudden or haphazard about any of this - that events have spiralled wildly and bloodily out of control all at once has little to do with the care and caution brought to the effort and is, in fact, in spite of that care and caution. Could things have been done differently, or better? I hope to all the gods, yes. Otherwise we are truly doomed because there is nothing left to do - we are all the best we can be - and this is sadly it. However, I will not stand by for anyone suggesting that the effort was rushed. It was not.
I greatly appreciate Princess Tikva's staunch oppostion and even moreso, her support, however grudgingly it was offered. Because - for all of you who decry the effort now as avoidable, not one of you reached out to me. Princess Tikva's words and warnings helped. It is difficult to imagine how, but this could have gone much worse and it would have without her. The point of the Compact is that our whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The point of the Great Road is to connect us. For any who saw the trouble coming and didn't speak up or didn't do anything about it, well, next time, take the risk, whatever that might mean. Lives depend on it. We are all, for good and ill, in this together.
To any who used this to sow chaos and make profit, I curse you with every fiber of my being and hope you reap a bitter harvest that gives you no peace until you return to the Wheel.
To any who lost dear ones, you have my condolences.
To those lost who I never knew, I am sorry we never learned your stories.
A road is both an invitation and a promise. It is an invitation to step out into the world and a promise that there is something at the end worth seeing.
And I promise you all, the end is worth seeing.
I'm certainly not here to weep over events (I have) or crow over the Great Road (I have not) or defend it - I think it needs no rhetorical defense - but to put my voice and thoughts down as the one uniquely at the center of it.
There is a sense out there that this road happened suddenly. I can assure you that it did not. It was the work of countless days and nights stretching back before I even began formally seeking support. There are plenty of cockamamie ideas that have passed through this noggin of mine and I assure you, as many as I have, only some stick. Only some ring through me like the vibrations of a perfectly struck note. The Great Road was one such idea. It is a resonance that feels nearly divine, though I can claim no great Vision visited upon me by Jayus or any other deity. It was the idea of one man who saw something that could be and set out to do it.
I am a young man, but I have learned in my short years to listen and pay attention to these ideas when they cannot be shaken. Usually they are important in some way.
Countless meetings, countless missives, countless pages, barrels of ink, calluses grown, eyes ruined, voices talked rough, arguments, agreements. There is nothing sudden or haphazard about any of this - that events have spiralled wildly and bloodily out of control all at once has little to do with the care and caution brought to the effort and is, in fact, in spite of that care and caution. Could things have been done differently, or better? I hope to all the gods, yes. Otherwise we are truly doomed because there is nothing left to do - we are all the best we can be - and this is sadly it. However, I will not stand by for anyone suggesting that the effort was rushed. It was not.
I greatly appreciate Princess Tikva's staunch oppostion and even moreso, her support, however grudgingly it was offered. Because - for all of you who decry the effort now as avoidable, not one of you reached out to me. Princess Tikva's words and warnings helped. It is difficult to imagine how, but this could have gone much worse and it would have without her. The point of the Compact is that our whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The point of the Great Road is to connect us. For any who saw the trouble coming and didn't speak up or didn't do anything about it, well, next time, take the risk, whatever that might mean. Lives depend on it. We are all, for good and ill, in this together.
To any who used this to sow chaos and make profit, I curse you with every fiber of my being and hope you reap a bitter harvest that gives you no peace until you return to the Wheel.
To any who lost dear ones, you have my condolences.
To those lost who I never knew, I am sorry we never learned your stories.
A road is both an invitation and a promise. It is an invitation to step out into the world and a promise that there is something at the end worth seeing.
And I promise you all, the end is worth seeing.
Written By Shard
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:20 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
My first immediate answer is: no. No it's not better. Of course it can't be better. Walls make me feel closed in. When I'm not out on contract I feel antsy. Like I'm not moving enough. When the seasons change, I stay in one place. The smells are all wrong. The sounds are all wrong. The people are mostly strangers. You have so many, many people here, and none of their faces have the marks I grew up with. The marks mean things, ceremonially, but they also meant someone was safe. Familiar. Mine. They weren't filled with suspicion and they didn't stare. Kings and lords and ladies and princesses still seem impossibly ridiculous, and so many having so little while so many have so /much/ seems backwards and barbaric and wrong.
But it's not...all that way. I've learned things, incredibly important things to me, that I never would have. I don't starve. I could sit around and grow fat if it weren't for my work, if I wanted to. I don't freeze (but your summers are still miserable). I've seen things I never imagined. I worry less about someone coming along to murder me in my bed. I /have/ a bed (I don't know if I prefer it or not).
I don't know where my people are. I'm pretty sure they're far, far away from the Compact now. And I can't speak for them, and won't. But if they could keep living as they do--with changes, I know, but we always have to change our paths and our trails eventually--if they could still be themselves, if they could still keep to the North, and if they could forgive...then maybe. Maybe someday.
But it's not...all that way. I've learned things, incredibly important things to me, that I never would have. I don't starve. I could sit around and grow fat if it weren't for my work, if I wanted to. I don't freeze (but your summers are still miserable). I've seen things I never imagined. I worry less about someone coming along to murder me in my bed. I /have/ a bed (I don't know if I prefer it or not).
I don't know where my people are. I'm pretty sure they're far, far away from the Compact now. And I can't speak for them, and won't. But if they could keep living as they do--with changes, I know, but we always have to change our paths and our trails eventually--if they could still be themselves, if they could still keep to the North, and if they could forgive...then maybe. Maybe someday.
Written By Soren
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:18 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Doc Boss.
Look. I think you're alright. Good people. Worth listening to when it comes to healing.
But you need to stop commenting on shit you don't have much experience on. Don't presume you know others are better off just because how you live is the only life experience you have. And I kinda doubt you're gonna give up your cushy life to experience otherwise.
My advice is to quit while ahead. Shard's got her experience, you got yours. I don't suggest debating on which is right or wrong. You ain't gonna get a good answer.
Look. I think you're alright. Good people. Worth listening to when it comes to healing.
But you need to stop commenting on shit you don't have much experience on. Don't presume you know others are better off just because how you live is the only life experience you have. And I kinda doubt you're gonna give up your cushy life to experience otherwise.
My advice is to quit while ahead. Shard's got her experience, you got yours. I don't suggest debating on which is right or wrong. You ain't gonna get a good answer.
Written By Edward
Jan. 12, 2019, 6:55 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Oh and that's a body behind one of my favorite bars. Well seems our foreign friends are stirring up trouble all over the place.
Written By Draven
Jan. 12, 2019, 6:48 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Shard
I like a lot of what you write! It helps to remind people like me that there are other Prodigals dealing with all this Stuff and Fluff! And not liking how the Fluffy people don't care much about us! I bet we'd be friends! I bet! Watch! Oh! We should meet!
Written By Jasher
Jan. 12, 2019, 6:31 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Ysbail
Your standards of kindness must be admirably broad to name me such, but consider your words appreciated.
Written By Kenna
Jan. 12, 2019, 5:47 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
I cannot and will not accept the preposterous claims that it was Jyri and Elora's wedding which finally decided the treasonous actions against Deepwood from House Grayreeve.
I have no doubt that they were looking for reasons to rebel for years now and have decided upon it now with this thin claim that this wedding provoked it.
If Deepwood calls, I will march with them. I will not take such slights without action.
I have no doubt that they were looking for reasons to rebel for years now and have decided upon it now with this thin claim that this wedding provoked it.
If Deepwood calls, I will march with them. I will not take such slights without action.
Written By Jaenelle
Jan. 12, 2019, 5:44 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Mydas
Ettore Mydas Velenosa, do remember some of the vows I made to you on our wedding day.
In the Queen of Endings' grace, I vow each moment is spent as if it were our last together. That nothing is taken for granted and when our times come to return to the wheel that we will both have found that contentment that we sought in each other, and find that Death's embrace is found to hold no regrets. In Vellichor's grace, I vow to remember. Even should Death come for you first, you will be remembered long after, your story shared with our children and theirs after.
What will I tell him of you? How will I tell him everything he needs to know when he is old enough? Will I remember everything he deserves to know?
I hope when the time comes I can tell him that you were redeeming yourself, how you were changing for the better and it was because of him that you were able to see the light. I will tell him despite other's insistence, you smiled often and laughed with your entire being. I will tell him how wonderfully stubborn you were with everyone but his mother, and with her you were gentle and kind and loving, without question or stipulations. I will tell him there was a darkness inside of you, that you were far from perfect and you had your own terrors to fight but you had the desire and willpower to overcome those obstacles.
He loved you, Vittore, more than I could write here but I will do my best to make sure you know that love till the very last.
In the Queen of Endings' grace, I vow each moment is spent as if it were our last together. That nothing is taken for granted and when our times come to return to the wheel that we will both have found that contentment that we sought in each other, and find that Death's embrace is found to hold no regrets. In Vellichor's grace, I vow to remember. Even should Death come for you first, you will be remembered long after, your story shared with our children and theirs after.
What will I tell him of you? How will I tell him everything he needs to know when he is old enough? Will I remember everything he deserves to know?
I hope when the time comes I can tell him that you were redeeming yourself, how you were changing for the better and it was because of him that you were able to see the light. I will tell him despite other's insistence, you smiled often and laughed with your entire being. I will tell him how wonderfully stubborn you were with everyone but his mother, and with her you were gentle and kind and loving, without question or stipulations. I will tell him there was a darkness inside of you, that you were far from perfect and you had your own terrors to fight but you had the desire and willpower to overcome those obstacles.
He loved you, Vittore, more than I could write here but I will do my best to make sure you know that love till the very last.
Written By Alrec
Jan. 12, 2019, 4:55 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
My thoughts on the roads; easier to get to us, easier to get to them.
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