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Written By Adora

Nov. 16, 2018, 12:12 p.m.(1/3/1010 AR)

We make caskets.

Seems relevant.

Written By Morrighan

Nov. 16, 2018, 11:38 a.m.(1/3/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Bliss

Initially I wasn't going to say anything, but the lack of class and overall tastelessness of your remarks doesn't settle well with me. I have to admit, your skill at putting your foot in your mouth is astounding. For a Whisper, I would expect better behavior from you, but that's expecting a lot, given past incidents where you speak without thinking. Who in the abyss do you think you are to complain about the way the people of the Compact choose to remember those who have fallen? Do you know the story of every single individual that died, how they died? Were you there? Do you know of every single accomplishment they've made or what efforts they put in while serving the Compact? I highly doubt it. Some believe that in giving their life so that others might live makes them a hero nonetheless in death.

As Duke Vercyn has said, those who may be viewed as heroes, they don't go around boasting or grandstanding to garner attention for themselves. They don't go around and shout at the top of their lungs what they've done and demand that people oooh and aah over them or slather them with praise for how spectacular and amazing they are. It is duty, to do what must be done, regardless of the danger. It is selflessness and sacrifice. It isn't about glory. What wars have you fought in? What have you done besides complain and berate others, going into a harangue because they have said or done something that you don't personally agree with? It doesn't matter if YOU believe so and so isn't deserving of being committed to memory as a hero. Mind your own matters and let people honor the fallen and grieve how they will, it is no concern of yours.

You do yourself a disservice by speaking ill of the dead. Who cares whether you liked them or not? It doesn't exclude them from being remembered fondly by those that knew them. There were some that fell that I didn't particularly hold warm feelings for, but I can honor and respect them for the sacrifices they made, for facing the abyss, for knowingly going into danger, at good or bad odds, knowing they might not make it out alive. Doesn't matter what I may have thought of them personally, they're still deserving of respect and recognition for their bravery. It is because of their efforts, and everyone else involved, that we have been successful so far.

You might have missed heroism while playing at it on the Champions stage, glamoured up like a doll, basking in the applause and attention of the crowd to further inflate your ego and misplaced sense of self-importance.

Written By Leona

Nov. 16, 2018, 11:22 a.m.(1/3/1010 AR)

Oh, heroes. Once again the people of the Compact strive against a foe who would destroy what is held dear. And once again there is musing on heroes. A hero is an ideal - it is something no one living can truly live up to, but it is not real. Even the greatest heroes of Arx were people with flaws and foibles, with weak moments and dark times. But those aren't the things that get remembered. Those aren't the moments that live on forever.

Alarice the Great wanted nothing more than to see what was over the horizon. She liked throwing vases, especially at her husband's head. She was, by all accounts, argumentative and occasionally pig-headed. None of that is on her statue in the Hall of Heroes.

We remember what we value. In the Hall of Heroes go to each individual Hall. In the Lyceum, those immortalized there were canny, crafty - snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by machinations and manipulation. Go to Grayson and you'll find the great diplomats - those who were willing to put Compact above self. Who were willing to sacrifice much in a practical attempt to save their people. Go on - each one will tell you what those people prize.

The only purpose a hero can serve is an inspiration to hold a specific value dear. Their flaws fall away, their quirks and idiosyncracies forgotten in lieu of the story that remains to be told. The inspiration to a thought, an emotion, a response.

But talk of heroes is not for the moment of mourning. The moment of mourning is a time to remember the person - with all their flaws and failures, all their dreams and successes. Heroes are not mourned, they are frozen in time. But they are not real. In this moment, as people fall in defense of the Compact take a moment to mourn, to grieve, and to remember the lives that were lived. Don't turn your dead into heroes too soon, lest you forget all the individual uniqueness that made them so loved.

Written By Sparte

Nov. 16, 2018, 10:11 a.m.(1/3/1010 AR)

I finally saw one of the big ones. The really, really big ones. I froze up, I went chill, I felt fear. If it was not for Dame Esoka's intervention, I don't know if I would have shaken that sense off. We lost many valiant men and women on that soil, but without her it would have been far worse.

Written By Valdemar

Nov. 16, 2018, 9:12 a.m.(1/3/1010 AR)

Rather than speaking ill of the recently departed and hiding it behind long-winded "honesty", people might consider examining their own ships for leaks. Perhaps it will not net you the same amount of attention, but in the long run, you will be better for it.

Written By Soren

Nov. 16, 2018, 8:29 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Macda

You know, I might be not the brightest, but I'm pretty sure writing code in a white journal defeats the purpose of a white journal.

Or that's what a scholar told me years ago.

Unless you're looking to draw attention to yourself, in which case, have at it.

Written By Bliss

Nov. 16, 2018, 8:16 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Vercyn

I recommend you spend some time in the Hall of Heroes, then, Duke Halfshav, and take some time to familiarize yourself with our heroes. They were the ones who went above and beyond the call of duty - and many, many, many of them were larger than life. Do take some extra time in the Lyceum Hall, the Thrax Hall and - in fact - the Redrain Hall.

As for the matter of my worst enemy?

If anyone thinks positively of Everard Telmar after everything that has come out, I think those people are rather scum, as well.

Even if you mean my living ones? The same thing applies. There are true monsters in this world.

Written By Miranda

Nov. 16, 2018, 8:12 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

I find it kind of amusing to be called a 'silk' as if that is somehow supposed to be derogatory.

I do wear it.

Silk is smooth and beautiful and feels divine.

All things considered, it is quite the compliment.

Written By Brigida

Nov. 16, 2018, 7:01 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Orathy

Some things are best kept in your blacks, dear.

But I suppose these things happen when your journal while drunk.

Written By Brigida

Nov. 16, 2018, 6:55 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

<OOC: directed to Bliss, forgot to do relationship note in it and couldn't edit it in.>

Well, name names, dear.

You offered a brief list of heroes, and so generously offered to acknowledge the soldier's sacrifice, but I do believe the people of Arx deserve A Whisper's List of Cretins.

I will say, I don't believe anyone other than perhaps Grandmaster Caspian has said that Sable was a hero, but she was a soldier who did her duty. Of course, some of those heroes you named, some of the heroes in the Hall of Heroes, were simply people who did their duty on a grand scale. Sir Erec Redhill was doing his duty. His life saved a city, but does history even say who was in that city? Sable saved one life, but what's to say what that one life might do that he wouldn't have otherwise?

The problem isn't that people turn their loved ones into heroes. The problem is people, wonderful, musical, theatrical people, who think being a hero matters so much (and you may wish to revisit your list and see what each of those heroes listed think about heroes) that they draw a hard line between hero and cretin.

My friend died saving someone she barely knew in defense of a Compact she barely trusted. I am not about to call on Prince Edain to nominate her for a place in the Hall of Heroes, but knowing of her sacrifice makes me keenly disinterested in some random Champion's thought on why our dead friends just aren't quite up to snuff.

Written By Audric

Nov. 16, 2018, 6:47 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Gareth

I didn't like you much. You paid well, which counted for a lot, but you also were the one who led to my meeting Kima. For that alone, I'll take an unprofessional amount of pleasure in being there when your killers are summarily dismembered.

Written By Audric

Nov. 16, 2018, 6:44 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Bliss

It's an odd thing, isn't it? The reverence people have of the deceased. I still attribute it to my life as a sellsword - we celebrated our dead by laughing at their fuckups, drinking heavily to their victories, and being happy. It's why some people call me a morbid man. Death happens to everyone, it's the one thing we all have to face. Don't mourn it! Stare it in the face, embrace the wheel, and laugh when your time comes. Celebrate life, and if you have to be upset about someone dying, get -vengeance-. Like my mentor Sazine always said: Smile every day you are alive, for you'll find it much more difficult once you're dead.

Written By Preston

Nov. 16, 2018, 5:01 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

625 brothers and sisters of the Templars lost - a little under 200 of us walked from the field. We had won. But the cost? The cost is something that once again weighs on my soul. It is a price we keep paying, a price we have to pay, and it is a price I would give anything not to have to pay. To see those I know, men who seem so invincible one moment before, crumple lifeless to the ground with their bodies broken.

The bodies will be taken to the harlequins for preparation, before the remains go to the ossury at the Grand Maosoleum of the Faith. I will have to speak with Dame Thena once she is up and organise a Solace escort for that on the road.

Each time it feels we come closer to the point of defeat, each defense is one step closer to a defeat we cannot recover from. I am tired of it. It is time to restore the Faith Militant to what it was in the time of the great eras of the past, to the force that held against the darkest times in the Elven Wars and since. It is time.

Written By Shard

Nov. 16, 2018, 2:52 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Bliss

No living person is a hero, not the kind of heroes built up in legends. A hero is a story and a set of ideals, someone trotted out again and again to admire and learn from. That's not how people are. People have flaws, they make mistakes, they betray themselves, they have stupid little habits that drive other people crazy. People can do heroic things. They do them more often than others realize. And most of those are forgotten and never recognized. They don't become stories. They don't become legends. The powerful decide who gets a statue in their honor. Bards and writers decide whose name comes up again and again. It's never accurate, so who cares if friends or family want to call their dead heroes? Not the dead.

Written By Vercyn

Nov. 16, 2018, 2:09 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Bliss

The greatest heroes are those who were simply doing their job. Heroes are rarely grandstanders, braggarts, or egotistical blowhards. They are often humble men and women who simply went out to do what must be done.

Do not begrudge others in how they mourn. It is unbecoming. If you do not have anything good to say about the deceased, it is best to say nothing at all. Even your most foul enemy is someone's dearest friend and a mother's child.

Written By Kenna

Nov. 16, 2018, 12:35 a.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

Weirdly,

Arrows hurt.

I mean, I knew this.

I just didn't realize //how// much it would hurt.

Written By Orathy

Nov. 15, 2018, 11:24 p.m.(1/2/1010 AR)

SHIT. I reckon I be hearin that some Princely Inquisitor got dead - too bad it weren't someone else with a stupid fire lizard. EH, ya gota take the good when ya get it. One less inquisitor. Fuckin blokes in the Lowers will DRINK to THAT!! I drink to that!

Written By Bliss

Nov. 15, 2018, 7:49 p.m.(1/1/1010 AR)

There is an odd thing that happens when people die: we pretend they were far greater things than they ever were, far greater people. This isn't the case, and some of these deaths were very simply people doing their jobs - people who weren't fantastic people in their lives, and some of whom are being treated as such.

Many of the recent dead, I never met. Some, only briefly - those ones, I actually have an awful lot of good to say about, and wish I had made more of an effort to speak with more often.

But let us not make every dead person into a hero, claim that their deeds match those of Dame Sugan or Steel or Queen Valeria or Duke Orlando. We do our past a disservice when we add cretins to those ranks. We diminish ourselves, because our stories of our heroes are aspirational, tales of who we could be when we are the best that we could be. We all have different concepts of what that means, but on the base idea, I think, we all agree. On the importance of these figures.

To all of the common soldiers who have died in these fights, who aren't having long, lengthy journals written about them: I see you, I see your sacrifices, and I recognize they are the equal of the others. Lack of a title does not mean that you did not honor Gloria, or that the Queen loves you any less. It does not mean that your family isn't suffering as well, that our streets aren't full of more orphans, that there are husbands and wives out there faced with the grim prospect of how to survive this winter with half the money they once had.

May all the dead have a better go of it on their next Turn, or find Elysia everything they dreamed it to be and more.

Written By Riagnon

Nov. 15, 2018, 7:27 p.m.(1/1/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Sabine

That was ONE time and it wasn't even that big of a fire. To think of it being referenced in challenges, now!

Written By Soren

Nov. 15, 2018, 6:59 p.m.(1/1/1010 AR)

Relationship Note on Cybele

Another dead hero.

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