Written By Fortunato
Nov. 1, 2018, 5:36 p.m.(12/1/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I am here to speak for doubt.
I am not here to speak for viciousness, for tyranny, for brutality, for sloth. But I will speak for doubt.
Do you really know the people you think you know? Are your visions of the gods too narrow? What do you rely on that is too fragile? What do you rely on that is not really there? The gods are greater and broader than we often speak of them. The world encompasses much. Even we may be greater than we expect.
There is the doubt that paralyzes, that corrodes, that makes us weak. And there is the doubt that leads us to look into the mirror and will ourselves brave. We who never thought we were that at all. We can speak of doubt as a chink in one's armor, or we can speak of doubt as realizing it was there, and that it can be repaired. Next year, if you and I still live, Preston, I'd like to take you to the masquerade.
I am not here to speak for viciousness, for tyranny, for brutality, for sloth. But I will speak for doubt.
Do you really know the people you think you know? Are your visions of the gods too narrow? What do you rely on that is too fragile? What do you rely on that is not really there? The gods are greater and broader than we often speak of them. The world encompasses much. Even we may be greater than we expect.
There is the doubt that paralyzes, that corrodes, that makes us weak. And there is the doubt that leads us to look into the mirror and will ourselves brave. We who never thought we were that at all. We can speak of doubt as a chink in one's armor, or we can speak of doubt as realizing it was there, and that it can be repaired. Next year, if you and I still live, Preston, I'd like to take you to the masquerade.
Written By Fortunato
Sept. 13, 2018, 5:50 p.m.(8/4/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Oh, it's quite all right. If we commoners don't manage an air of ill-bred menace, what do we really have going for us?
Written By Fortunato
Aug. 14, 2018, 9:58 p.m.(5/24/1009 AR)
I have been thinking. About choice and change.
How it can be a pleasure and a privilege to be a little lost. To be walking the path you have chosen and to know it is insufficient. Perhaps not a path to be left, but a path to be added to.
It can be a pleasure and a privilege to wake up and ask, what next? To ask, now what? To ask, what do I want? To ask, what do I need?
I have many times lifted the brush to something new. I have many times spoken with a close friend to realize I was dissatisfied. What next? Now what?
It is a pleasure and a privilege to explore. And, eventually, decide.
How it can be a pleasure and a privilege to be a little lost. To be walking the path you have chosen and to know it is insufficient. Perhaps not a path to be left, but a path to be added to.
It can be a pleasure and a privilege to wake up and ask, what next? To ask, now what? To ask, what do I want? To ask, what do I need?
I have many times lifted the brush to something new. I have many times spoken with a close friend to realize I was dissatisfied. What next? Now what?
It is a pleasure and a privilege to explore. And, eventually, decide.
Written By Fortunato
July 19, 2018, 10:41 p.m.(3/21/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
I have no knowledge of medicine and cannot speak to it. But perfect balance is stasis and an excess of weight or lean, one direction or another, is the key to momentum. Not that I am against balance, if I am not the greatest fan of Victus's suggested amputation, but I think you and I think of different things when we speak of balance. It's been some time! Perhaps we should talk.
Written By Fortunato
July 19, 2018, 7:53 p.m.(3/21/1009 AR)
We are, all of us, unbalanced.
Written By Fortunato
July 14, 2018, 10:27 p.m.(3/11/1009 AR)
Ah.
All this, all this, is why I stick to paint.
All this, all this, is why I stick to paint.
Written By Fortunato
June 17, 2018, 8:24 p.m.(1/12/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Aleksei
I understand Aleksei's choice.
I understand lying in the dark and knowing where you are, and knowing where you want to be. I understand wanting to be two people and in two places at one time. I understand how the path not taken can eat you alive from the inside, especially when that path's rooted in love as well as regret.
I understand how deeply and deeply Aleksei loves.
I understand his choice.
I understand lying in the dark and knowing where you are, and knowing where you want to be. I understand wanting to be two people and in two places at one time. I understand how the path not taken can eat you alive from the inside, especially when that path's rooted in love as well as regret.
I understand how deeply and deeply Aleksei loves.
I understand his choice.
Written By Fortunato
June 16, 2018, 4:19 p.m.(1/10/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Aureth
Orathy seems to thrive in a fiercely contrarian space. While I do often think he's off-base or, at least, I don't understand the point he's making, I think there's some merit to what he's saying here, amid all his usual invective.
Written By Fortunato
June 16, 2018, 3:51 p.m.(1/10/1009 AR)
I try not to assume that anyone who does something I find reprehensible is a demon. And I can certainly feel pity for a person who was a traitor, certainly, but also a person, with his own complexities and terrors. We see each other but dimly. If expressing pity is darkness, then I question if we are forgetting the role of Lagoma's mercy, Mangata's light, and the cycles of the Queen of Beginnings and Endings. Of Jayus, the Prince of Stories. Even when we judge, and must judge, there is room to recognize that a person is not just the evils they caused.
Written By Fortunato
June 10, 2018, 9:36 p.m.(12/18/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Khanne
I may wish to be frank about average human likelihood of embodying ideals (we are not ideals), but the extreme of bad that evil represents is always worth fighting against. I am given to doubt and to looking too long in the shadowy spaces. I want to understand. But I also would find truly evil actions, such as torture and slaughter, indefensible.
Written By Fortunato
June 10, 2018, 5:50 p.m.(12/17/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Laric
Ah, balance.
I have-- hm. I am not a man wholly comfortable with the ideal of living by ideals. I mean this in the gentlest way I can. I love the gods and worship them, but I know I am unequal to endless growth and aspiration. I am a painter who often explores darkness as a subject, and not in a way that is wholly meant to be instructive.
I am an imperfect person, in the sum, who sees some worth in my imperfections and struggles.
This is, perhaps, my own balance. My own equilibrium. My own internal pendulum.
I am familiar with the work of Archlector Py in this area, and I have interpreted it as the maxim, you must act. I believe this. Sometimes the desire for equilibrium or balance can lead us to paralysis, to be afraid of change, certainly. But I am also wary of classifying actions as Light or Dark, when much of what we do as humans is necessarily muddied. In the middle. Or unreadable.
I respect the gray represented by the complexity of acting over a lifetime. I respect duality. The pendulum swings the world. And the pendulum swings in us, restless. We will never be perfect, you and I. But we must act.
I have-- hm. I am not a man wholly comfortable with the ideal of living by ideals. I mean this in the gentlest way I can. I love the gods and worship them, but I know I am unequal to endless growth and aspiration. I am a painter who often explores darkness as a subject, and not in a way that is wholly meant to be instructive.
I am an imperfect person, in the sum, who sees some worth in my imperfections and struggles.
This is, perhaps, my own balance. My own equilibrium. My own internal pendulum.
I am familiar with the work of Archlector Py in this area, and I have interpreted it as the maxim, you must act. I believe this. Sometimes the desire for equilibrium or balance can lead us to paralysis, to be afraid of change, certainly. But I am also wary of classifying actions as Light or Dark, when much of what we do as humans is necessarily muddied. In the middle. Or unreadable.
I respect the gray represented by the complexity of acting over a lifetime. I respect duality. The pendulum swings the world. And the pendulum swings in us, restless. We will never be perfect, you and I. But we must act.
Written By Fortunato
June 10, 2018, 5:36 p.m.(12/17/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Pasquale
Pasquale. A man of thoughtful reserve who loves Limerance. Limerance is a god I often struggle with, having no fealty, unlikely to marry, my love diffuse, but when I speak to a man like Pasquale, I understand the power of the vow. I understand the power of swearing yourself to a house, a concept, an aspiration that you love and long to serve and fulfill. I understand how a passion may lend itself to constraint and focus and thus become stronger. I am glad to be this man's friend.
Written By Fortunato
June 6, 2018, 8:34 p.m.(12/5/1008 AR)
Ah! For an organization of crafters and entertainers who exist only for their own expression and only incidentally for others. But I suppose that's the Crafters Guild and your due auspice of Jayus.
Written By Fortunato
June 6, 2018, 9:29 a.m.(12/5/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Driskell
We did not understand each other. I would have liked to know the man a bit more before the end.
Written By Fortunato
June 3, 2018, 5:45 p.m.(11/27/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Rohran
The apple seller, as well as the king, serves the world.
Written By Fortunato
May 24, 2018, 1:19 p.m.(10/24/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Vercyn
If Triscali, who freed the slaves of the Compact, is Piet, than this goat at least is grateful to her. Even as I eat bread doubtless meant for better beasts.
Written By Fortunato
May 24, 2018, 11:59 a.m.(10/24/1008 AR)
It is well for the great to debate and discuss.
It is also well to remember that the actual subjects of many arguments are not given to participate. And that any one of us, especially those of no blood, may be in such a situation in this life or the next.
It is well to pray not to be in such a situation. But prayer is not enough.
Remember only that the gods are for the small as well as the great. That memory is for the small as well as the great.
It is also well to remember that the actual subjects of many arguments are not given to participate. And that any one of us, especially those of no blood, may be in such a situation in this life or the next.
It is well to pray not to be in such a situation. But prayer is not enough.
Remember only that the gods are for the small as well as the great. That memory is for the small as well as the great.
Written By Fortunato
May 24, 2018, 9:48 a.m.(10/24/1008 AR)
Skald is not much for prayers. But if I were to pray to Skald, it would be.
May I never be in a situation where the powerful sit in the whites and argue about how I would be most acceptably free without being truly free. May I never be in a situation where my limited power is so sapped that my future has nothing to do with my own will, but only with the high will of others.
May I never be in a situation where the powerful sit in the whites and argue about how I would be most acceptably free without being truly free. May I never be in a situation where my limited power is so sapped that my future has nothing to do with my own will, but only with the high will of others.
Written By Fortunato
May 22, 2018, 9:51 a.m.(10/15/1008 AR)
A priest I am not, but I don't have the impression the god of freedom is delighted by certain choice sets. Namely "do this or die".
Written By Fortunato
May 20, 2018, 10:23 a.m.(10/11/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Joscelin
Please don't . . . drink that.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.