Written By Fortunato
Nov. 20, 2018, 3:47 p.m.(1/12/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I ask only that you be careful about seeing people as resources for the Abyss. There are those who have indeed thus advocated preemptive slaughter in the name of safety.
Written By Gilroy
Nov. 20, 2018, 3:33 p.m.(1/12/1010 AR)
But here I am in Arx, greatest city in the known world!
It doesn't smell nearly as bad as I assumed it would.
Written By Helena
Nov. 20, 2018, 3:12 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
The test -- which I had been so anxious about these past few nights -- turned out to be quite enjoyable, or at least, to me. Scholar Oswyn made it seem like this theoretical adventure I was on and it was rather intriguing. I now look forward to helping in such investigations in reality instead of merely my imagination.
And my dear family Redrain, if Scholar Oswyn has the impression that we all drink from strange basins of blood without question, I apologize for that misplaced notion. I simply was hedging my bets on the final question. Luckily he was not too disturbed, and I passed despite some grisly imagery.
Written By Isidora
Nov. 20, 2018, 2:57 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Pharamond
Nov. 20, 2018, 2:31 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Delilah
Sometimes life is funny and sends you exactly what you need when you need it. Here's hoping I don't regret asking the question!
Written By Pharamond
Nov. 20, 2018, 2:30 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
That or I clearly haven't had enough to drink today if i'm letting such thoughts actually get to me.
Written By Delilah
Nov. 20, 2018, 2:20 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Jasher
Nov. 20, 2018, 1:44 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
It will take some time until the dreams return to the sea. For now they are full of forests, dying men and women, and horrors read about but never seen until that day. Still, however raw the dreams are, they will fade. They will join the others in the background. They always do.
A kitten managed to sneak into my room; one of the Claw's brood, no doubt. I found it asleep in the bookcase after having made a mess of the place, and it was safely escorted out to rejoin the company of its family. Precautions were taken to ensure I don't have unexpected visitors into my room again.
The renovations will be done within two months, I was told. We'll see.
Written By Reigna
Nov. 20, 2018, 1:43 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
The gods provide us with this world that Aion formed in his endless Dream. Skald killed Fate and created humanity, creatures born free with the right to choose our own paths. Death gives of herself, her own blood to craft each of our souls and places them on the Wheel for us to sing our stories as we live. Petrichor provides us with the bounty of nature, giving us dominion over beasts, grains and plants for us to eat. Mangata blesses us with water, wind and wine. Gild teaches us to be a community, to be charitable to others even as we provide for ourselves. Limerance deepens the bonds between us, building off Gild's civilization to give us laws, to teach us that our words have power -- concepts that are furthered by Vellichor's thirst for knowledge, dedication to documenting so that the wisdom we accrue can not be lost to later generations, and by Gloria's gifts of honor and chivalry, an expansion of the idea that our words matter, that we should strive for greatness, and understanding that winning is not the end. The point of a journey is never the destination, but the acts and lessons acquired on the way there. When we fail, the Sentinel is there, unsmiling, featureless, as justice should be. To judge fairly without emotion, to hold us true to the righteousness Gloria demands of us. We are not without our joys, for there is Jayus to inspire us, to delights us with visions of beauty, to fill us with the potential to create wonders if we can just keep trying. Lagoma teaches us about change, how to accept it, reminding us that though change is almost always a painful process, there will come healing, and growth before change comes again. Her fires both burn and cleanse, removing the old to make way for the new.
And then there is Tehom. The most uncomfortable of the gods. Lagoma gives us pain, but Tehom gets under your skin and itches. He dwells within the shadows of your heart and your mind and he lingers there. Oh, you can choose to ignore him. To try to pretend he is not there. But he is still there, lurking at the periphery, a grain of sand in your boot, a splinter lodged under your nail. Tehom teaches us not to be afraid. Fear makes our lives smaller. We might believe this gives us control, we can fool ourselves into thinking this is a choice, but it is not. It is allowing your fear to take the reins. It is removing freedom. Can you truly be free if fear drives you? Tehom does not let us forget those places within our hearts that we like to pretend are not there. Those sides of ourselves that, for whatever reason, make us feel shame. What is shame but fear of someone finding out? But there is no reason to be afraid. We all judge ourselves so much more harshly than anyone else might. When we make a mistake, how many are quick to say 'Well, that was stupid!'. Now think for a moment -- if your friend did the same thing, would you call them stupid with the same sincerity that you used on yourself? I very much doubt that you would. That self-directed criticism drives us to shame, to fear. If we stop running from those feelings, if we look inside ourselves, take the time needed to really listen to ourselves, I believe we could all be so much stronger, freer. Tehom's lessons also keeps us safe, keeps us from falling into traps disguised as harmony.
Dominus Orazio is fond of saying 'Unity is not a virtue of the gods'. I will admit I struggled with this concept for a long time. My first impulse was to think his journal had been taken over by a prankster. How could a Legate (at the time) not want his flock to be unified? The longer I thought about it, the more sense I began to see. When people choose to unify, when they make that choice to set aside differences, it is a powerful thing. But unity for the sake of itself... that breeds conformity. And conformity is a sublimation of self. That strips us of our power by removing choice. To blindly follow out of a misguided desire for 'unity' plays into the hands of our enemies. Which is why we must always question. We must face that which we do not know, release our shame at the thought of being ignorant -- Ignorance is not a crime, it is a state of being, one people must choose to get out of -- and question. If your belief or Faith cannot withstand questioning, perhaps your belief is not as strong as it should be. Questioning will only deepen your belief. You will find the answers you seek to prop up your faith, or you will confront the fact that what your belief is not as certain as you think it is.
One of the most common complaints I have heard from my fellow Oathlanders is an objection to the contrarian nature of Mirrormasks. And I agree, there have been some in my experience that seem to delight in being so, delight in not testing someone's faith but genuinely attempting to tear them down because they feel powerful in doing so. That attitude, in the opinion of this Oathlander, demeans the worship of Tehom as much as someone using Gloria's righteousness to bully someone else. Our Pantheon is supposed to be asperational. The virtues and strengths embodied by our gods should be tools we use to better ourselves and the world around us. When it is used as a weapon... it becomes a twisted, ugly thing. Do not deny your faults. Acknowledge them. Embrace them and move past them.
Written By Samuele
Nov. 20, 2018, 1:38 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Reigna
Nov. 20, 2018, 1:24 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
I am getting away from myself I think. But back to the point about Oaths.
If someone's word is given, it must be upheld. If it is not, then the person who failed to live up to their word deserves to be punished. There should be social condemnation, or pressure applied to them, some form of penance required before they can reestablish themselves. Only by accepting that penance wholeheartedly, not grudgingly, but willingly, can the stain be removed from their honor. Obviously the severity of the penance should be appropriate to the circumstance, no false equivalence should be pushed to lessen or deepen the punishment, but there needs to be genuine contrition, an understanding of wrongdoing and an acceptance of that blame. It is like an infected wound. When rot sets in there is no way to reverse the death of tissue. If left alone the rot will spread and a limb or even life might be lost due to not facing the truth of the situation at hand. The sooner acceptance of what is happening occurs, the sooner a surgeon can excise the rot, leaving only healthy tissue behind. It will hurt, but it will also heal. There may be a scar, but what is a scar but a reminder of something overcome?
These are the lessons we receive from the gods. Not just devotion to one, but to all. That is the life that we all should strive for. One that blends the lessons, the virtues of our Pantheon and illuminates our personal stories with wisdom.
We of the Oathlands hold honor above almost everything else. For if we do not have honor, what do we have? To be without honor is to be outside of the Compact. Our society revolves around the only true currency any of us truly have. Our word. If you cannot trust me to fulfill my word, how can you barter with me? How can you ally with me? The social contracts that make our civilization depend entirely on the faith we have in one another to keep our word. Without honor? We have nothing. We are nothing. Now we all may squabble among one another about what exactly is honorable. The Valardin have likely the most rigid views on what behavior is expected to retain one's honor. We have the reputations of being fussy and demanding. Righteous, and not in the good way. The Lycene may well think that having honor is about being practical and seeing the hard truths that the idealists of the Valardin look away from, try to pretend are not there. The Thrax find honor in the traditions that have remained intact within their culture, in the ability to endure the test of time without wavering. But all must agree, that if one cannot keep their word, in the spirit as well as the letter, then they are lacking the most fundamental element of honor.
To return to my previous metaphor, it is far better to cut out rotted flesh. It will hurt. It will take time to heal. But it WILL heal. Embrace the pain, embrace the cost and come through it stronger, better. Come through it with unstained honor.
Written By Lisebet
Nov. 20, 2018, 12:49 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Lisebet
Nov. 20, 2018, 12:49 p.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Carmen
Nov. 20, 2018, 11:53 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Written By Sparte
Nov. 20, 2018, 11:19 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
I am requesting the assistance of a co-writer and access to the collections of those in Arx with a penchant towards imbibed spirits. The text will credit all parties appropriately, and will be shared at no charge with those whose liquors show amongst their pages - if the maker is known. For those who requested this, know that I won't be undertaking the effort with a co-writer.
Written By Sparte
Nov. 20, 2018, 11:01 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
I can have five people and get six answers to this. Not because it is a difficult question, but because rarely are people so simple as to have only a single motivation. I have had the privledge of serving alongside people so very different from myself yet united in common cause. There is something magical, something holy about people coming together in such a way.
I will pray, as I have after every battle, that people remember that unity. That we hold onto it. If only for a short while.
Written By Preston
Nov. 20, 2018, 9:03 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Fortunato
I also do not advocate slaughter. Many of the abandoned in the Oathlands, for example, hold corrupted variances of our own Faith. Now in that corruption there is danger, but I do not think them an enemy and I would hope they could be convinced to bend the knee and thus agree to remove the threat they pose to us. What I advocate is holding our land so that those who choose not to rejoin the Compact do not encroach onto the roads that we need to move our supplies, our silver, our armies. So they stop being able to strike at will when raiding into the heart of our lands. You say, and others say, that those who choose to side with the enemy are also victims. And perhaps I would agree. But, being a victim does not make you innocent. Nor does it excuse you from the consequences of the choice that you made in which type of victim you wished to be. Nor does it relieve us of our duties to safeguard our people, our faith and true innocents.
Nothing will make us fully safe, you are correct. But that does not mean we should stop trying, striving for a place where people are as safe as we can make them. And it does not mean that we cannot push back the threat so that at least our homesteads are protected and instead the battle takes place at the edges of civilisation rather than at its heart. It does not mean we cannot do something to stem the constant flow of dead.
Written By Domonico
Nov. 20, 2018, 6:23 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Samuele
I plan to start testing him further soon and see what he is capable of.
Written By Preston
Nov. 20, 2018, 5:47 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Delilah
Why, against such horrors as we saw at the lodge, the lines held - I could give in to hubris and say it was the presence of their Grandmaster, but in truth we had Dame Esoka with us - Gloria's chosen. When the beloved of our patron God steps forward, how can we do anything but match that step? She led the infantry with bravery and placed her own life in no greater regard than that of the most common born of her charges. And that is the kind of love we share in the Templars. None of us are better. The disciples have a voice. And the Godsworn knights will come together to discuss decisions at the Chapter House. Even if their Knights Marshall and I must make decisions ultimately, all voices are heard. And opportunity is there for all. I am, after all, a fairly simple orphan, and now I am the Grandmaster.
Written By Duarte
Nov. 20, 2018, 5:09 a.m.(1/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Alrec
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.