Written By Darren
May 6, 2017, 9:08 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
Tonight, victory goes to the Compact.
We stand united, we stand together - Bears, Serpents, Griffins, Foxes and Dragons. We fought as one, we defeated our enemy as one. Tomorrow will bring new challenges, but I will never forget: we are stronger united, then we ever will be apart.
We stand united, we stand together - Bears, Serpents, Griffins, Foxes and Dragons. We fought as one, we defeated our enemy as one. Tomorrow will bring new challenges, but I will never forget: we are stronger united, then we ever will be apart.
Written By Freja
May 6, 2017, 5:22 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
To my brothers, I love you.
To my father and mother, If I die, see you soon.
To my father and mother, If I die, see you soon.
Written By Aleksei
May 6, 2017, 4:49 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
I hope that everyone I love knows it. I hope that if I don't come back, each of you still knows and remembers that. Because I do. I love each and every stupid, brave idiot in my life.
My family's not limited to blood. No one's is. Never forget that.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
My family's not limited to blood. No one's is. Never forget that.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Written By Morrighan
May 6, 2017, 4:23 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
And so it begins. Today we make our final stand. If I'm to go, I'll go fighting with the bears, killing as many of our enemies as I can. To the last, Redrain, you're the best adopted tribe I could ever have asked for. I'll give everything to ensure your survival.
If I live? I'm drinking. A lot. Those fuckers better get off my fucking beach. I want to go swimming.
If I live? I'm drinking. A lot. Those fuckers better get off my fucking beach. I want to go swimming.
Written By Khanne
May 6, 2017, 3:48 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
I hear them.... outside the walls of our ward. I hear the towers moving, nothing else. No sound. The Silent Army comes. It is time for me to go up to the ramparts, to wield my bow. I will shoot every arrow to the best of my ability. I will admit, there is fear.. I am not a warrior. I am not made to fight, but I will.
I do it for the Compact. I do it for the people. I do it for the Spirits.
Hopefully, I will come out of this battle with stories to tell and offerings of thanks to give. I feel their energy within me. My soul is strong, may it help guide me true on this day.
I do it for the Compact. I do it for the people. I do it for the Spirits.
Hopefully, I will come out of this battle with stories to tell and offerings of thanks to give. I feel their energy within me. My soul is strong, may it help guide me true on this day.
Written By Tikva
May 6, 2017, 3:39 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
A jeering song for the walls:
Break yourselves upon our gates
Our arrows' heads shall be your fates
We stand tall and strong before your hate
With gods behind us, five and eight.
This is our City, these are our lives
This is our army, see how it strives,
This is our might and we'll crush you betimes
Face our wrath for your Abyssal crimes!
Break yourselves upon our gates
Our arrows' heads shall be your fates
We stand tall and strong before your hate
With gods behind us, five and eight.
This is our City, these are our lives
This is our army, see how it strives,
This is our might and we'll crush you betimes
Face our wrath for your Abyssal crimes!
Written By Carita
May 6, 2017, 3:39 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
Cora came to the Reach, with her children and my brothers children... and Demi brought my little girl from the Inn.
We're staying here, the safest place that we could be, I told her.
We prayed for our brothers. Every one that is fighting for us in the city. At least, if any of them die for the cause it will be as free men...
Be well. Each and every one.
We're staying here, the safest place that we could be, I told her.
We prayed for our brothers. Every one that is fighting for us in the city. At least, if any of them die for the cause it will be as free men...
Be well. Each and every one.
Written By Serafine
May 6, 2017, 3:19 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
I've got my woman, my blades, and my orders.
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
Written By Rymarr
May 6, 2017, 3:10 p.m.(6/1/1006 AR)
I've completed my prayers in the shrines throughout the city. I can only hope that the gods will watch over us as we go into this impending battle. I know not when the enemy will make their advance. They've been on the move with much more activity of late, so it will be soon. I will be prepared to face them.
The waiting is the worst part of it all. I am fearful. It would be a fool who does not recognize that fear can be hone courage. My greatest fear is for those within the walls who are unable to fight. The elderly, children, and others who would be a greater obstacle in a pitched battle than a boon. Since I've come to call Deepwood Manor my home and mingled with the many refugees there, I've come to understand that wars and battles are more than the warriors on the front lines. There are a great many left unaccounted for in the risks of warfare.
I will not go into this titanic battle for myself, Deepwood, or even my respective lieges. I will go into it for the people who are counting on every sword and spear that will fight in the streets on their behalf. Arvum needs us, so the righteous must answer that call.
The waiting is the worst part of it all. I am fearful. It would be a fool who does not recognize that fear can be hone courage. My greatest fear is for those within the walls who are unable to fight. The elderly, children, and others who would be a greater obstacle in a pitched battle than a boon. Since I've come to call Deepwood Manor my home and mingled with the many refugees there, I've come to understand that wars and battles are more than the warriors on the front lines. There are a great many left unaccounted for in the risks of warfare.
I will not go into this titanic battle for myself, Deepwood, or even my respective lieges. I will go into it for the people who are counting on every sword and spear that will fight in the streets on their behalf. Arvum needs us, so the righteous must answer that call.
Written By Peregrine
May 6, 2017, 2:23 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
Relationship Note on Calarian
...written in her own scratchy, near-illegible hand...
Calarian. Maybe I am bad for you exs--except for the swords I bring. Maybe there is no baby yet. Maybe I think you need to laf--laugh more. I think I am not a good city wife. But I am glad we married. You give me some smiles. If I live maybe there will be more.
If I die I tell the Gold Feathers to stay. To learn the city path. To help you learn ours.
Do not forget to feed Quork.
Calarian. Maybe I am bad for you exs--except for the swords I bring. Maybe there is no baby yet. Maybe I think you need to laf--laugh more. I think I am not a good city wife. But I am glad we married. You give me some smiles. If I live maybe there will be more.
If I die I tell the Gold Feathers to stay. To learn the city path. To help you learn ours.
Do not forget to feed Quork.
Written By Peregrine
May 6, 2017, 2:17 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
...as dictated to a priest of Vellichor...
Gold Feathers are ready. It is good, this. To see the enemy come finally after much time spent waiting. Waiting is bad for people in fighting times. It is like mice who eat away at the crust of bread. They would eat and eat until nothing is left for the children.
We will be at the gate. A thousand of us to move quickly after those that come through.
We are ready. It is good.
Gold Feathers are ready. It is good, this. To see the enemy come finally after much time spent waiting. Waiting is bad for people in fighting times. It is like mice who eat away at the crust of bread. They would eat and eat until nothing is left for the children.
We will be at the gate. A thousand of us to move quickly after those that come through.
We are ready. It is good.
Written By Estaban
May 6, 2017, 2:04 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
We move to fight once again and once again I will stand and I will defend Arx and my family and loved ones. But this time I do so with opened eyes with a new out look, we will take down the evil and fight back the darkness and I will do so till my last breath is taken.
Written By Edward
May 6, 2017, 2:01 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
Tomorrow the sun will shine on an Arx that either has new leadership or far fewer people than it should. The walls are lined with those who look forward if only to protect those that are behind them. I do not know if Brand believes the siege of the city has been a success. The attack might indicate he believes so. It does not change that the landscape of faces in Arx will change by the end of it all.
Long live the fighters.
Long live the fighters.
Written By Edward
May 6, 2017, 1:53 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
I have a sword. I have a sword. I have a sword hey hey hey hey.
Written By Aureth
May 6, 2017, 12:43 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
The dead will take up arms with you and stand against the foe on this day. Take heart that the gods are with us. Take heart that Death's gifts are bestowed upon Her City and that we will stand against all that come to break the Wheel.
Defend the City and the Compact.
Defend the Queen and the Pantheon.
Defend life itself.
Oh and please don't fuck with the zombies, they're sensitive.
Defend the City and the Compact.
Defend the Queen and the Pantheon.
Defend life itself.
Oh and please don't fuck with the zombies, they're sensitive.
Written By Merek
May 6, 2017, 12:41 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
It is not long before the battle breaks. I shall meditate. I've received a few letters, I've sent a few. I don't have much to say at the moment. What can one say? All I can say is that on that field, we will fight for every soul. Not just on Arvum, but in the whole of the world. Brand seeks to make all become undone. We are at the center. We will make him pay, and we will win. Victory will be achieved. I do not know what the cost will be, but... The world shall remain intact. The Dream shall continue. I don't know how many more entries I can make here. So I'll leave this, within the White Journals, where all can read. Continue dreaming.
Written By Rymarr
May 6, 2017, 12:19 p.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
Relationship Note on Joscelin
Guildmaster of the Crafter's Guild and a jeweler. Recently I conducted business with her that resulted in what I've personally deemed a work of art. The only assumption that I can make regarding her skill is a combination of experience brought on by time and the blessing of Jayus. I'm not often one for fanciful things, but I regularly find myself staring at this ring. One could likely accuse it of being precious to me.
The Guildmaster has proven herself to be an exceptionally skilled worker of fine things and, more importantly to someone such as myself, easy to conduct business with. I will certainly know where to go in the future if I've the inclination to buy a gift for the special someone in my life.
The Guildmaster has proven herself to be an exceptionally skilled worker of fine things and, more importantly to someone such as myself, easy to conduct business with. I will certainly know where to go in the future if I've the inclination to buy a gift for the special someone in my life.
Written By Aislin
May 6, 2017, 11:49 a.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
I am not an eloquent writer. I can be /verbose/, gods know, and I like to think thorough as well. But I'm not one of those who writes an elegant entry that inspires with just the perfect words -- much less one that will be referred to centuries from now. But a fight like the one we face deserves at least an effort.
Because while I have every faith that we -- Arx, the Compact, Arvum -- will survive this cataclysm, just as we've survived others... there will be lives spent to buy that survival. And any one of us -- myself included -- could fall, defending the walls.
I've long thought we stand in a catacomb of ignorance; we're surrounded by ornate carvings on the walls, the crumbled and shattered remains of some grand mosaic of the world at our feet, and we can see none of it in the darkness. A torch shows us only a little at a time -- rarely enough to truly understand what we're glimpsing. A carving of a wolf... is that a sign of a threat? The sigil of a god? Some grand and forgotten spirit of the wilds? What does it mean about how the pieces of the mosaic fit together? We stumble around blind in the dark, squinting and hoping to catch a glimpse of what's around us.
For years, I've wanted to piece that mosaic together for reasons that I told myself were Vellichorian -- to restore knowledge -- but which, if I were wholly honest, were also selfish: I am an innately curious individual, and I wanted to /know/. To understand the forgotten bits of history I kept stumbling across, or glimpse even a part of what that mosaic -- what our world -- looks like when properly put together. And so I tried to make myself a torch -- a light, so I could glimpse that catacomb around me.
But the truth is, that mosaic isn't merely an artwork; it is a guidebook. As we piece it back together, hidden in its imagery, we find the forgotten lore we need to fight the things out there that threaten us. Things like Brand and his army. And the greater threats still looming. Somewhere along the way, my road became less about satisfying my own curiosity, and more about restoring those tools to us.
One torch is hardly enough to help us put this back together. And there are so many ways to light a torch. Curiosity to learn of our past, or to see what's over that next hill -- to bring back the missing pieces. A burning desire to defend others, to be the shining sword that cuts a path into the darkness. To do the /impossible/, and show people that it's possible after all.
Every time a scholar uncovers some forgotten ritual to fight the abyss, that gives us hope and lights another torch. Every time a researcher finds a new way to see Bringers weakened, that gives a bit more hope. Every time an explorer returns with some forgotten relic, or tales of some old battle against these sort of things which we /survived/, that gives a bit more hope. And every time a warrior strikes a dramatic blow -- shows that even now, people can aspire to the examples left to us in the Hall of Heroes -- that lights a torch of hope as well.
The past two years have been tumultuous ones, both on a personal level and an /existential/ one: we've met /elves/, three missing gods have been restored to the pantheon, and we've learned more about the strengths and weaknesses of abyssal creatures than we would have thought possible. Fighting darkly supernatural things is becoming commonplace. And somewhere in all of that, I've made -- and lost -- friends who influenced me, shaped me, more than I wanted to admit. Those who I'll miss fiercely -- Vincere, Pietro, Dawn -- and those who I'm glad to have at my side now. And gods know I never expected anything about my relationship with Niamh, or how fiercely I feel for her.
And in that time, through the friends we've made -- and the examples of the friends we've lost to the fight -- and the things we've found along that way... many more torches have been lit. And I hope that for everyone who falls, the embers of whatever torch they might have been carried will be used to light two more. That slowly, more and more of the catacomb around us will be revealed, and more of the mosaic put together.
And so when the /next/ threat comes, the Compact will be that much more prepared to face it on behalf of all Arvum.
I take comfort in that.
Because while I have every faith that we -- Arx, the Compact, Arvum -- will survive this cataclysm, just as we've survived others... there will be lives spent to buy that survival. And any one of us -- myself included -- could fall, defending the walls.
I've long thought we stand in a catacomb of ignorance; we're surrounded by ornate carvings on the walls, the crumbled and shattered remains of some grand mosaic of the world at our feet, and we can see none of it in the darkness. A torch shows us only a little at a time -- rarely enough to truly understand what we're glimpsing. A carving of a wolf... is that a sign of a threat? The sigil of a god? Some grand and forgotten spirit of the wilds? What does it mean about how the pieces of the mosaic fit together? We stumble around blind in the dark, squinting and hoping to catch a glimpse of what's around us.
For years, I've wanted to piece that mosaic together for reasons that I told myself were Vellichorian -- to restore knowledge -- but which, if I were wholly honest, were also selfish: I am an innately curious individual, and I wanted to /know/. To understand the forgotten bits of history I kept stumbling across, or glimpse even a part of what that mosaic -- what our world -- looks like when properly put together. And so I tried to make myself a torch -- a light, so I could glimpse that catacomb around me.
But the truth is, that mosaic isn't merely an artwork; it is a guidebook. As we piece it back together, hidden in its imagery, we find the forgotten lore we need to fight the things out there that threaten us. Things like Brand and his army. And the greater threats still looming. Somewhere along the way, my road became less about satisfying my own curiosity, and more about restoring those tools to us.
One torch is hardly enough to help us put this back together. And there are so many ways to light a torch. Curiosity to learn of our past, or to see what's over that next hill -- to bring back the missing pieces. A burning desire to defend others, to be the shining sword that cuts a path into the darkness. To do the /impossible/, and show people that it's possible after all.
Every time a scholar uncovers some forgotten ritual to fight the abyss, that gives us hope and lights another torch. Every time a researcher finds a new way to see Bringers weakened, that gives a bit more hope. Every time an explorer returns with some forgotten relic, or tales of some old battle against these sort of things which we /survived/, that gives a bit more hope. And every time a warrior strikes a dramatic blow -- shows that even now, people can aspire to the examples left to us in the Hall of Heroes -- that lights a torch of hope as well.
The past two years have been tumultuous ones, both on a personal level and an /existential/ one: we've met /elves/, three missing gods have been restored to the pantheon, and we've learned more about the strengths and weaknesses of abyssal creatures than we would have thought possible. Fighting darkly supernatural things is becoming commonplace. And somewhere in all of that, I've made -- and lost -- friends who influenced me, shaped me, more than I wanted to admit. Those who I'll miss fiercely -- Vincere, Pietro, Dawn -- and those who I'm glad to have at my side now. And gods know I never expected anything about my relationship with Niamh, or how fiercely I feel for her.
And in that time, through the friends we've made -- and the examples of the friends we've lost to the fight -- and the things we've found along that way... many more torches have been lit. And I hope that for everyone who falls, the embers of whatever torch they might have been carried will be used to light two more. That slowly, more and more of the catacomb around us will be revealed, and more of the mosaic put together.
And so when the /next/ threat comes, the Compact will be that much more prepared to face it on behalf of all Arvum.
I take comfort in that.
Written By Leta
May 6, 2017, 11:33 a.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
I hear the enemy's ready, and I've been ready for days myself, though unlike some I don't mind the wait. That means more time for wine and merriment before the big thing. I doubt I'll be doing much of note in the battle that is almost happening. I'm no hero or anything of the sort, and I haven't fancy metal, though I expect the regular kind's good enough for most of the work that needs doing. I've no task with the Valorous Few, or with anyone else.
I've got but one thing to do, and that's to keep a princess from harm. I'm paid well enough for it, though it's not the sort of job one does for silver. And I'm sure there's other princesses that it would be easier to guard. This one's a hero, and that'll make my work harder than it needs to be, but that's just what she's like, and I'm used to it by now. It's been a year, she told me. A whole year to the day yesterday, since she first beat me in the arena and we got to know each other. I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign, that it's been a year, just the day before battle. I'll call it a good sign. It's just the first year, and if I've any say in it there will be fifty more at least. So I've got to keep this princess alive or else the world ends, like in the stories. Not everyone's world, and folk would keep on living, but I've got no world without her in it anymore.
I've got but one thing to do, and that's to keep a princess from harm. I'm paid well enough for it, though it's not the sort of job one does for silver. And I'm sure there's other princesses that it would be easier to guard. This one's a hero, and that'll make my work harder than it needs to be, but that's just what she's like, and I'm used to it by now. It's been a year, she told me. A whole year to the day yesterday, since she first beat me in the arena and we got to know each other. I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign, that it's been a year, just the day before battle. I'll call it a good sign. It's just the first year, and if I've any say in it there will be fifty more at least. So I've got to keep this princess alive or else the world ends, like in the stories. Not everyone's world, and folk would keep on living, but I've got no world without her in it anymore.
Written By Nash
May 6, 2017, 11:33 a.m.(5/28/1006 AR)
Today I will make a wager. I've never owned much, not as long as I've been alive, but it still seems I have some things to lose, however intangible. Hope, for example. I think today I'm willing the gamble all of it on a simple premise. If the sun rises tomorrow, it will because there are still men and women of courage and conviction. I bet that the sun rises. I bet that there are better men than I.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.