Written By Preston
May 18, 2019, 5:47 a.m.(2/15/1011 AR)
But, the label doesn't matter as much as the person. Fighter, Warrior, Ranger, Scout, Pikeman, Archer, Knight....in all cases what matters, at least to me, is /how/ you display that, how you do it, how you fight. Is your action for your own benefit, for your people, for all of us, for the gods, for the benefit of the dark forces, or just to watch things burn? Do you swing with rage? With thinking? Without? Have you considered the impact of lifting your sword? Have you thought about who will suffer? The innocent and the guilty? Have you considered your oaths, weighed this action against those?
In the end, I do not need warriors, rangers, scouts, or any of those labels. What I need, what we all need, are men and women who are that mix of righteous, just, honourable and the humility to know they may be wrong. More than this, it is what the Gods demand of us. To take up arms, to be knighted, promotions. These are just identities we take up on the way to that higher path, to serve the Gods. To those who reject the Gods and their path, who take up arms against them and against the compact that serves them, we need no other description for them than enemy.
Written By Violet
May 18, 2019, 3:45 a.m.(2/15/1011 AR)
Written By Willow
May 18, 2019, 2:33 a.m.(2/15/1011 AR)
I was to marry a prodigal war chief who was going to bring his people in as a march, until his brother's objection and their competing for leading resulted in the man being shot dead at my feet. He was old enough to be my father, with eyes like a winter storm, and stood six and a half feet tall. I don't know that I will ever be able to find such simple and complete love again as I grew to feel for that man on getting to know him.
Flirting is fun, even some fooling around, but so rarely do they overlap with genuinely caring. And when they have been, the situation has always been impossible. Part of me is glad for the fact that I have managed to make myself useful enough to my family that the likelihood of my being /allowed/ to marry out is less.
Though I do suppose marrying in general is problematic for me. So many of those available are teenaged and/or still think of marriage in terms of love rather than fidelity and the partnership that is created. I am not missing love or romance, of those I have excess, even if they do not often overlap. But I do envy those who have a life partner to work with toward mutual ends. It would be so lovely to have that.
Written By Raimon
May 18, 2019, 1:33 a.m.(2/15/1011 AR)
This has all gotten rather philosophical and I will confess that is not my strength. I am just a soldier who happens to have been born to a Noble family. My original comment was put forth because in my own training I have come across many people who treat martial pursuits as a side project. As a hobby. A way to enjoy themselves. Since I find training in combat enjoyable I can not disagree with that. This is not where my issue lies.
I do not have an issue with those who go to fight to feed themselves or their family. I do not have issues with those who chose to go to battle because they enjoy it, or to serve their fealty. I grow uneasy about those who confess they are just scholars, just artists. Those who train to fight but are not prepared to take a life. These make me uneasy because if they decide that they are soldiers that belong on the field of battle that could put lives in danger if they are not prepared for the vigor of combat. They put their lives in danger, and they put the lives of others in danger.
Not to say that someone can not be a scholar or artist and a warrior. I have seen it several times. The stories are full of them. If someone wants to train their martial abilities for an enjoyable past time, they are more then welcome to. I would even be happy to assist. But I confess that if it was just a past time to them, I would not like to stand next to them on the battle line.
Written By Shard
May 18, 2019, 12:33 a.m.(2/15/1011 AR)
And if someone wants to fight, can hold a weapon, and can manage not to die immediately (something a lot of warriors fail at), then who cares if they're 'suited' to something else? Life doesn't care what you're suited for, and it doesn't wait for you to figure it out. Sometimes a warrior is a farmer who sharpened their pitchfork to defend their home. Sometimes a warrior is a healer who picked up a club to defend their patients. Sometimes someone makes a choice to be something else, because they want to or because they have to, and sometimes they succeed at it.
A warrior is someone who chose to be a warrior, and chooses to keep being a warrior. I don't see why anyone should make it any more complicated than that.
Written By Acantha
May 17, 2019, 11:27 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
No, Scholar, please don't look at me like that.
I was not drunk. I saw it with one of the Nox'alfar with hair the color of moonlight. The spider's name was Charlotte and as odd and as terrified as I felt inside I gave the benefit of the doubt to the man and his...mount. I even bid Charlotte a good night as people walked by shrieking as the caught the shining eyes of a huge spider staring down at them.
Written By Lucita
May 17, 2019, 10:39 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Alarissa
Written By Sparte
May 17, 2019, 7:42 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Written By Lottie
May 17, 2019, 6:25 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Raimon
It did start me thinking however and the Scholars have been real nice in helping me find other journals that reference your words that have been submitted more recently. Lady Peri's reply on the topic of "only the gods truly can know a man" or something along those lines, for instance. I agree with that, but I think that there's a perspective missing from the open dialogue that's being overlooked.
My Taylor was an Iron Guardsman. He didn't enlist for any great purpose aside from being hungry and wanting to be able to someday support a family. He learned to wield a blade and hold a shield. He got quite good too. I understand that may be a hard concept for some to wrap their head around, learning to fight so that they can afford to eat. That's not a knock at the Peerage, but it just is what it is. Some of us in this world aren't granted the freedom of a reliably full belly and warm place to sleep. I'm getting off topic, though. Anyway, my Taylor learned to fight and he became something more than he was before.
Sometimes our journeys start in different places, but to diminish someone trying to enhance themselves simply because they don't fit a definition you've decided (or were taught)... well, it's wrong. Sometimes we /have/ to become something we are not prone to. My Taylor was not a warrior, but he died as one. Perhaps he only fought because it was his job and wouldn't have if the choices he made and circumstances he overcame were different, but he still fought and the Compact needed him. It needed his and every other sacrifice that has been made in its name so the rest of us could/can continue forward and hold such conversations.
Instead of discouraging those who are trying to improve themselves martially because you may not think it's where their strength may lie, perhaps guide them? Teach them to be better because it is a very brave thing to pick up a sword simply because you think you should. The world we live in is full of both wonder and darkness and I think the Compact can use every sword arm it can get.
Written By Braden
May 17, 2019, 6:25 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
May we meet again soon.
Written By Mabelle
May 17, 2019, 5:28 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Cristoph
Oh! And I hope many visit the mansion! And view the cute little snow bee on the path leading there!
Written By Mabelle
May 17, 2019, 5:21 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
One discovers many things about themselves when reaching this wonderful city. I must thank Lord Martino for helping me discover abilities in myself I was not aware I had.
Written By Mabelle
May 17, 2019, 5:15 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Joslyn
Written By Rook
May 17, 2019, 3:46 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Alarissa
Written By Wren
May 17, 2019, 2:29 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
For a little while at any rate. I have some business to attend to but I suppose Arx will do for now. Gods know it won't take long for me to fall into something. Probably face first if I keep on finding every spot of black ice on my way across the wards. Do they even bother to lay down a little salt or sand anymore? Which only makes me wonder if Timothy is still in business. Suppose he'll be my first stop after I attend to a few small concerns.
And visit my brother.
Written By Stygia
May 17, 2019, 1:40 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Evaristo
Written By Delilah
May 17, 2019, 12:55 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Like unexpectedly delightful tea blends, say, lime and rosemary, these joys are welcome when they strike.
Written By Syd
May 17, 2019, 12:44 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
By a gelding's missing plums, my rosy children of snow and statues! No offense to Vellumichor but my personal recommendation is more lovemaking and less inkspilling. You're young, lusty, and boastful. Find yourself the ugliest lover who'll take you abed and make smiles together in warm flannel sheets every afternoon for a month.
The White Singer and the Widening Gyre, the Lord of Antlers and Echo of Whispers? Let them bide for a time, in this chilly city, and wrap yourselves in the little pleasures.
There is a brawny blacksmith of my acquaintance, can't remember his name, who smells of honest sweat and iron sparks, and any night he sleeps with his burly arms empty is another tiny tragedy. I'm too old to lay him gently in my own bed, so I must delegate. There is a charming young slab of a naval lady, built along the lines of a galleon--though twice as swift and thrice as strong--who in my younger days I would've pursued with such a persistence passionate pestilence that she would've been obliged to crush me like a boom swinging with the force of Jayus's spare hammer. There is a tailor with a throb in her voice and a candymaker sweeter then her goods. A knight whose sword is neither swift nor sharp, but it's long, my children, with a steady, purposeful, pounding. There is a heart in a heart, aglow with enough warmth to bring summer single-handed, and there is a mind of such startling diamond brilliance that all you can do--all you can wish to do--is prop your head on the pillow and watch the morning light play among its facets.
War is easy. Love is hard.
And ponder on this for a time, a saying from the Mother of Mercies: "We start whole. That's what 'whole' means. How we start."
Written By Rysen
May 17, 2019, 12:33 p.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
I remain eager to speak to High Lord Victus, and I offer my sincere thanks to those who helped us to investigate in the Northlands, especially my cousin, Duchess Fianna, Lady Amari Keaton, Lord Cadern Ravenseye, Rukhnis and even Gilroy Greyhope, whose insolence, under very specific circumstances, is quite useful.
To any who may be involved: look around. Your co-conspirators have been sent in agony to the Shinning Lands to await punishment for their sins and betrayals. There is still time for you to decide whether you will be a tool to be disposed of, or whether you will to do right in the eyes of the Sentinel. Send word before it's too late, for if I track you down, even Mercy will whet the blade of Justice.
Written By Athaur
May 17, 2019, 11:41 a.m.(2/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Joslyn
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