Written By Marius
Feb. 16, 2017, 10:58 a.m.(12/8/1005 AR)
I wrote before about the noise of Arx. I've decided to do something about it. I need help, though.
My family will build a grove. A wild thing, made of Greenwood trees and scrub and undergrowth. No manicured lawns or sculpted hedges or wonderful fountains. No, this will hearken a soul to the forest, to draw one into the wild quiet. Peace.
Not even the Greenmarchers can raise a forest by themselves. If you would like to put your own energy into this, please send a messenger. I have no end of ways you can bring a piece of the untamed Greenwood to Arx, for everyone to enjoy.
My family will build a grove. A wild thing, made of Greenwood trees and scrub and undergrowth. No manicured lawns or sculpted hedges or wonderful fountains. No, this will hearken a soul to the forest, to draw one into the wild quiet. Peace.
Not even the Greenmarchers can raise a forest by themselves. If you would like to put your own energy into this, please send a messenger. I have no end of ways you can bring a piece of the untamed Greenwood to Arx, for everyone to enjoy.
Written By Marius
Feb. 16, 2017, 10:55 a.m.(12/8/1005 AR)
When I was in my teens, old enough to understand when I was seeing soul-rending loss, but far too young to have experienced it, some warlike Abandoned killed a man's wife and others in a raid. I knew the man well enough, I suppose, but he completely changed after his wife's death. It was as though the pain of what he was enduring was drawn into him like a breath, and he held it. For a very long time. That pain became fuel for a fire whose embers were sparked at the loss of his wife.
That fire grew hotter and hotter. And when the man could not stand it any longer, he took up his axe and went into the forest alone.
My father sent a few of us the next day to try to find him, bring him home. We found him, and we found the little camp of the shavs who killed his wife - it's not hard to tell which group is which if you know what you're looking for. The camp was... to say butchered is to do an injustice to the sight. It was as though a great machine had mown through the camp and simply chewed everyone up. I retched. Grown men did too.
We found the man from the Greenwood, alive if barely. He was cuts and arrows and stab wounds; bleeding from a thousand injuries. And yet his blue eyes blazed with the fire that he still held, as a breath. When he saw us, he smiled faintly and then said, "Greenmarchers. Good." And he exhaled his last breath, and the fire went out with it.
We are facing a time in which we stare into a great chasm of promised grief; it touches the soul like a shadow.
But fire dispels shadows.
That fire grew hotter and hotter. And when the man could not stand it any longer, he took up his axe and went into the forest alone.
My father sent a few of us the next day to try to find him, bring him home. We found him, and we found the little camp of the shavs who killed his wife - it's not hard to tell which group is which if you know what you're looking for. The camp was... to say butchered is to do an injustice to the sight. It was as though a great machine had mown through the camp and simply chewed everyone up. I retched. Grown men did too.
We found the man from the Greenwood, alive if barely. He was cuts and arrows and stab wounds; bleeding from a thousand injuries. And yet his blue eyes blazed with the fire that he still held, as a breath. When he saw us, he smiled faintly and then said, "Greenmarchers. Good." And he exhaled his last breath, and the fire went out with it.
We are facing a time in which we stare into a great chasm of promised grief; it touches the soul like a shadow.
But fire dispels shadows.
Written By Marius
Feb. 14, 2017, 11:06 p.m.(12/5/1005 AR)
If the reports are to be believed - and who in their right mind would lie about a thing like that? - it seems we were right all along; shavs by the thousands are massing against us. Hardly a surprise to us Greenmarchers, but I would wish with all my strength that we had been wrong. But, we are not a wishful group of people - the Greenwood's stark realities cleanses us of that particular quality early on... that's not to say we're lost in doom and gloom, lacking art and imagination - by no means! - just that fanciful wishing does not usually put the rabbit in the stew.
So: we have met the enemy and they are as we thought - feral, vicious, and driven by the Bringers. Well, if they want a fight, they have come to the right place. We held the Greenwood against them a thousand years ago, and we Greenmarchers intend to bring that same tenacity to the Compact. We are Untamed and Unconquered for a reason; it seems to be time to remind the demons just what that reason is.
Marian, Eirlys, and Fiachra made it plainly known, in this first encounter. I could not be more proud of them if I tried. Marian is a whirlwind of death when she's in the mood, and I would trust Fiachra to part a man's hair with an arrow at a hundred paces, on horseback. Eirlys surprised me, ushering many mindless shavs into whatever dark eternity they're destined for as she protected Prince Edain's blind side. I'm not surprised at her tenacity or duty - she is a Greenmarcher! - I just don't often think of her wielding a weapon. I laughed a little, wondering if the feral shavs she slew discounted her... to their ultimate demise, of course.
I am proud of my family as rule. We are all proud of our family - just ask anyone who has made the idiotic mistake of speaking ill of a Greenmarcher around Muiryn! - but today, it might just threaten to spill out from the Lodge like a wave...
The loss of life always causes me grief. I do not revel in the death of allies, even respected enemies. Deaths can have meaning, though, and I choose to believe that we will not waste our pain; we will use it to hone us into more lethal foes, more terrifying enemies, until even the demon horde itself is forced to admit they were wrong to press us.
So: we have met the enemy and they are as we thought - feral, vicious, and driven by the Bringers. Well, if they want a fight, they have come to the right place. We held the Greenwood against them a thousand years ago, and we Greenmarchers intend to bring that same tenacity to the Compact. We are Untamed and Unconquered for a reason; it seems to be time to remind the demons just what that reason is.
Marian, Eirlys, and Fiachra made it plainly known, in this first encounter. I could not be more proud of them if I tried. Marian is a whirlwind of death when she's in the mood, and I would trust Fiachra to part a man's hair with an arrow at a hundred paces, on horseback. Eirlys surprised me, ushering many mindless shavs into whatever dark eternity they're destined for as she protected Prince Edain's blind side. I'm not surprised at her tenacity or duty - she is a Greenmarcher! - I just don't often think of her wielding a weapon. I laughed a little, wondering if the feral shavs she slew discounted her... to their ultimate demise, of course.
I am proud of my family as rule. We are all proud of our family - just ask anyone who has made the idiotic mistake of speaking ill of a Greenmarcher around Muiryn! - but today, it might just threaten to spill out from the Lodge like a wave...
The loss of life always causes me grief. I do not revel in the death of allies, even respected enemies. Deaths can have meaning, though, and I choose to believe that we will not waste our pain; we will use it to hone us into more lethal foes, more terrifying enemies, until even the demon horde itself is forced to admit they were wrong to press us.
Written By Marius
Feb. 9, 2017, 2:35 p.m.(11/22/1005 AR)
So they've chosen a new Dominus. Good. The matter was taking far too long to settle, in my mind. Of course, it might be the Abandoned in me that says, "Why not just put an arrow through that broken one and be done with it," but there are processes and procedures, and let it never be said I would ask the Faith to act hastily. If the Dominus speaks for the gods, a good one should be chosen with care.
I look forward to meeting the new Dominus - Aldwin, he's named - and I hope he proves himself worthy of the title. He won't build many bridges to those of us who hold to shamanism if he behaves like the previous one.
I am, again, impressed by my liege's actions. Prince Edain was resolute and steadfast in his convictions. He acquitted himself perfectly in this time of trial, and I - and my whole family - am proud of the way he handled the matter.
I look forward to meeting the new Dominus - Aldwin, he's named - and I hope he proves himself worthy of the title. He won't build many bridges to those of us who hold to shamanism if he behaves like the previous one.
I am, again, impressed by my liege's actions. Prince Edain was resolute and steadfast in his convictions. He acquitted himself perfectly in this time of trial, and I - and my whole family - am proud of the way he handled the matter.
Written By Marius
Feb. 9, 2017, 2:30 p.m.(11/22/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Simone
We've been married five years, and I find myself drawn to her more closely with each passing day. She is inestimable, without peer in every way one can imagine. She is a true equal, and her strengths balance my weaknesses well. She is a voice of reason and calm, no matter how my blood might boil. I could not have asked for a better wife than Simone, and am grateful to the gods - new and old - that she is mine.
Written By Marius
Feb. 8, 2017, 11:54 a.m.(11/18/1005 AR)
I've been back in Arx for just over a month, and had forgotten just how different it is from the Greenwood. Noise, noise, noise, everywhere noise! It's almost inescapable, even within the bounds of the Lodge. It's clattering, almost shattering in its intensity and pervasiveness. It threatens to overwhelm the heart...
...and, inexplicably, fills that same heart with energy. A different kind of energy than the Greenwood, mind, but no less vivifying.
The day-to-day matter of the family have been ably seen to by Uncle Muiryn, who proves himself more loyal a man than anyone has a right to expect. My family has welcomed Simone and me back to the city with warmth and a genuine sense of gladness. By the old ways, I have missed them all.
It's funny: I'd almost forgotten just how... different we Greenmarchers are from our fellow Valardin vassals. You lose that perspective when all around you are people like you - wildly passionate and never shy from expressing it - but I overheard someone remark they wished they'd brought us in years before my father swore. That's a compliment, in my mind.
So: I begin the task of reacquainting myself with Arx and her peoples, and forming new relationships. Something is happening out there in the wilds, to the land and the Abandoned. We will need all the strength we can muster to combat it; I know this to my very bones.
...and, inexplicably, fills that same heart with energy. A different kind of energy than the Greenwood, mind, but no less vivifying.
The day-to-day matter of the family have been ably seen to by Uncle Muiryn, who proves himself more loyal a man than anyone has a right to expect. My family has welcomed Simone and me back to the city with warmth and a genuine sense of gladness. By the old ways, I have missed them all.
It's funny: I'd almost forgotten just how... different we Greenmarchers are from our fellow Valardin vassals. You lose that perspective when all around you are people like you - wildly passionate and never shy from expressing it - but I overheard someone remark they wished they'd brought us in years before my father swore. That's a compliment, in my mind.
So: I begin the task of reacquainting myself with Arx and her peoples, and forming new relationships. Something is happening out there in the wilds, to the land and the Abandoned. We will need all the strength we can muster to combat it; I know this to my very bones.
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:20 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Neve
Cousins. Neve is adopted, though she was adopted from infancy and raised by Marius' uncle Muiryn. She is an innocent free spirit who grew up talking about the spirit of the Greenwood even though she is not a Shaman.
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:10 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Rowan
Cousin
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:10 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Neve
Cousin
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:10 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Niamh
Cousin
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:10 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Eirlys
Cousin
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:10 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Fiachra
Cousin
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:08 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Muiryn
Voice. Uncle (Marcel's brother).
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:07 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Marian
Eldest sister. Married to Valen Valardin.
Written By Marius
Jan. 23, 2017, 1:06 a.m.(9/25/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Monique
Youngest sister. Unmarried so far. Might be married soon, to a former outlaw
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