Written By Sparte
May 26, 2018, 2:37 p.m.(11/8/1008 AR)
20 years old. It is a bit of a milestone, not being a teenager anymore even remotely. I wonder what the next year will bring.
Written By Sparte
May 24, 2018, 7:59 p.m.(11/2/1008 AR)
There once was a woman who killed her mum, was born before her father, and wed her brother. She was good and true and committed no crime. How is this possible?
I take no credit for the riddle, it is one from the collection I've put together over the years. Like most questions, age does not diminish the value of a good answer. Send messengers if you think you've puzzled out the answer, don't spoil it for others.
SF
I take no credit for the riddle, it is one from the collection I've put together over the years. Like most questions, age does not diminish the value of a good answer. Send messengers if you think you've puzzled out the answer, don't spoil it for others.
SF
Written By Sparte
May 23, 2018, 1:27 a.m.(10/16/1008 AR)
The latest endeavour by The Salon took time to realize. No Question Left Unasked. It wasn't very original, the title. Riding fully on the path paved by the Scholars with No Question Left Unanswered. Questions and answers are rather why I pushed for staying so close in name. People can spend a great deal of time focusing on one without enough of the other.
The notion that fueled all of this is that answers are only truly useful if people ask the right questions. You may or may not agree with that premise, there are certainly cases where it does not hold. Yet it works more often than it fails.
In keeping with this, we did not go out telling people how things were. Instead, we gave them methods to form their own questions and did our best to answer them.
We didn't always succeed. There were some farmers who were terribly clever with the questions they had, more clever than we had ready answers to satisfy. That wasn't a failing but a success. We recorded their questions, and with time we've been able to send out answers to most of them.
I am left feeling the outcome was both modest and important. The people we reached are better for our efforts, and the ability to better ask questions and delve into what a person cares about extends beyond their daily tasks. People carry that into their personal life, into conversations with friends and family. Like a seed planted, it will grow.
If properly nurtured. I pray someone sees what we've done and carries onwards. Someone who realizes that ignorance is the most dangerous poison of all.
The notion that fueled all of this is that answers are only truly useful if people ask the right questions. You may or may not agree with that premise, there are certainly cases where it does not hold. Yet it works more often than it fails.
In keeping with this, we did not go out telling people how things were. Instead, we gave them methods to form their own questions and did our best to answer them.
We didn't always succeed. There were some farmers who were terribly clever with the questions they had, more clever than we had ready answers to satisfy. That wasn't a failing but a success. We recorded their questions, and with time we've been able to send out answers to most of them.
I am left feeling the outcome was both modest and important. The people we reached are better for our efforts, and the ability to better ask questions and delve into what a person cares about extends beyond their daily tasks. People carry that into their personal life, into conversations with friends and family. Like a seed planted, it will grow.
If properly nurtured. I pray someone sees what we've done and carries onwards. Someone who realizes that ignorance is the most dangerous poison of all.
Written By Sparte
May 17, 2018, 4:05 p.m.(10/5/1008 AR)
Silent Reflections, Silent Servants, Vowbreakers, Silverhands
Whatever name people use for them, they are those who chose to reveal the secrets of others in contradiction to a vow given to the gods. Some did so for heroic reasons, sacrificing themselves to the fate they knew would follow in order to help others. Others for purely selfish reasons, seeking to gain in some way or exploit some weakness discovered. Then there are those where it was a mix of both, such as revealing something to help a loved one.
Over the past week I've spent many hours sitting amongst the Silent Reflections. They are every bit as human as the rest of us, with personalities and habits both pleasing and abrassive. All people who made a choice to reveal what they vowed never to reveal.
It has left me to wonder if I could ever make the same choice. Given knowledge I should never share, would I act on it in defiance of vows and promises I have made? When? Would I do it to serve myself or to save a life? To serve my fealty or to save thousands? Or would I stand silent and do nothing, even as the Compact burns for it?
Choices like this, contradictions between what is right and what is good, are woven into us. For the sake of knowledge we must keep some secrets, for the sake of justice we must sometimes punish heroes, and because of honor we must accept that fate when it is our own.
I have much more to consider than I will be able to put to paper tonight. This has been a painful truth to explore. While I would not take back the punishment they suffer, my heart hurts for the Silent Reflections whom I have spent time with. May they be blessed in their next lives.
Written By Sparte
May 16, 2018, 3:51 p.m.(10/3/1008 AR)
Duke Cassius was an inspirational man. I witnessed him saving lives in the Silent War, and had opportunity to receive advice from him both directly and in his written word.
We continue to lose good people to our enemies. Even in times of relative peace. I hope we can find justice for him, and that he has found peace.
I will pray for the peace of those who were closest to him, as well as those knights of solace lost with him.
We continue to lose good people to our enemies. Even in times of relative peace. I hope we can find justice for him, and that he has found peace.
I will pray for the peace of those who were closest to him, as well as those knights of solace lost with him.
Written By Sparte
May 14, 2018, 4:02 p.m.(9/27/1008 AR)
I had no idea preparing for a champion duel could involve so much decorating. Absolutely worth it, ever bit.
Written By Sparte
May 13, 2018, 2:20 p.m.(9/25/1008 AR)
The Catalog, Liquors of Arx. It was a big undertaking last year, and when I took it on it was a test of my abilities as much as anything else.
Now I find myself with requests to revise the book. I honestly wish I could say I feel confident I can do even better this year, but I am forced to admit something that hinders my ability to give a full and detailed review of the liquors named.
I don't drink.
While that might make me unbiased, it means my love and passion for the area is purely academic. I hope someone else with a real interest in this area, a connoisseur, might step up to the task. I will offer my pen to help them write it, but I feel something more could be brought to a new edition by an invested party.
Now I find myself with requests to revise the book. I honestly wish I could say I feel confident I can do even better this year, but I am forced to admit something that hinders my ability to give a full and detailed review of the liquors named.
I don't drink.
While that might make me unbiased, it means my love and passion for the area is purely academic. I hope someone else with a real interest in this area, a connoisseur, might step up to the task. I will offer my pen to help them write it, but I feel something more could be brought to a new edition by an invested party.
Written By Sparte
April 29, 2018, 5:43 p.m.(8/22/1008 AR)
Sometimes it helps to know that some of the things you were worrying about are just your imagination. With so many things worth being worried about uncertainty can get the better of you. Nobody should need constant reassurances, but sometimes people do need the right ones.
Thanks to those who helped me pull my head out of my nethers, I'll try not to let it happen again.
Thanks to those who helped me pull my head out of my nethers, I'll try not to let it happen again.
Written By Sparte
April 28, 2018, 12:28 a.m.(8/19/1008 AR)
I am many things that I never thought I could achieve a scant few years ago on the farm. I recognize that the trust I've been given is a sign of how much I've grown, but I am still flawed. I have no illusions I am my best self, but I strive to be someone better again and again. I challenge myself to do things that arn't easy because they arn't easy, again and again.
It is part of the the way I've been taunt the faith, that we acknowledge our flaws. We embrace them, grow past them if we can, but know who we are.
Yet who I am feels like it has kept changing for a long time. Though I've had more successes, my mind is drawn to the failures. The ways I've let people down, the ways that has come back to haunt me that I never expected they would.
Perhaps I'm sounding like I want reassurances, I don't. At the same time I'm not sure what I do want. I struggle with the words to describe it, and fail to find them. I don't know what others feel, but I hope I've never drug another to this place. I hope I never will.
It is part of the the way I've been taunt the faith, that we acknowledge our flaws. We embrace them, grow past them if we can, but know who we are.
Yet who I am feels like it has kept changing for a long time. Though I've had more successes, my mind is drawn to the failures. The ways I've let people down, the ways that has come back to haunt me that I never expected they would.
Perhaps I'm sounding like I want reassurances, I don't. At the same time I'm not sure what I do want. I struggle with the words to describe it, and fail to find them. I don't know what others feel, but I hope I've never drug another to this place. I hope I never will.
Written By Sparte
April 27, 2018, 10:21 a.m.(8/18/1008 AR)
(This page consists of sketches of sigils and heraldry that might be attributed to houses. One that probably don't exist. One features a dolphin that looks like it is laughing, another a stoat attempting to wrestle a crown, a third a pair of ravens dressed up in fancy hats. There are half a dozen more with lesser degrees of detail. It looks like a page from a sketchbook that got filed accidentally, or maybe he ran out of scratch paper and used his journal. There isn't a single word anywhere on the page)
Written By Sparte
April 22, 2018, 9:58 a.m.(8/7/1008 AR)
Yesterday I was stabbed again. I even wore the breastplate I promised the mercies I'd wear on patrol, but they slipped the gap and got me anyway. They got me good too, a well aimed strike. I'm pretty sure they wern't trying to kill me, so bravo on the bladecraft of my assailant. Kindly throw yourself in jail if you read this.
In other news I've decided to put the book on Meditations to rest that I was working on. Thirteen people to contribute to the book was too ambitious a goal. Hardly anyone in Arx seems to care for meditation that I've asked, so I've stopped trying to make that a thing. Pity, but hardly the first time I realized one of my ideas lacked popular appeal. Probably not the last.
In other news I've decided to put the book on Meditations to rest that I was working on. Thirteen people to contribute to the book was too ambitious a goal. Hardly anyone in Arx seems to care for meditation that I've asked, so I've stopped trying to make that a thing. Pity, but hardly the first time I realized one of my ideas lacked popular appeal. Probably not the last.
Written By Sparte
April 16, 2018, 8:59 p.m.(7/24/1008 AR)
Sigils and signs, heraldry and lost houses. Putting these books together is a labor to be sure, and I wonder how many have tried to do similar in the past. I hope it proves useful to someone. I certainly wished for such a resources when I came to Arx the first time, and again when I became involved assisting the scholars.
I hope someone will pick up this work after me as well. I claim no ownership to future revisions of it, I just want it to exist.
I hope someone will pick up this work after me as well. I claim no ownership to future revisions of it, I just want it to exist.
Written By Sparte
April 12, 2018, 10:26 a.m.(7/15/1008 AR)
Word just came back to me from Setarco. Betsy's leg did not properly mend after the fall she took in the battle. It could be worse, she can walk and isn't in any visible pain, but a horse with a limp cannot be in battle again. Betsy was a fine horse, and I've sent some of my small savings to ensure she can be put to pasture.
I can't do without a horse though, so I'm forced to start looking for one to replace her.
I can't do without a horse though, so I'm forced to start looking for one to replace her.
Written By Sparte
April 10, 2018, 1:15 p.m.(7/11/1008 AR)
Found the oar I lost. I was fortunate in that it washed up back on shore with some driftwood and similar things. There ends my good fortune in this.
Someone I /thought/ was a helpful soul, fisherman I think, told me where it was in a vague sort of way. He didn't tell me it was an hour's walk on foot from Arx proper.
I don't think I'll ever get all that sand out of my boots. At least it is done and behind me.
Someone I /thought/ was a helpful soul, fisherman I think, told me where it was in a vague sort of way. He didn't tell me it was an hour's walk on foot from Arx proper.
I don't think I'll ever get all that sand out of my boots. At least it is done and behind me.
Written By Sparte
April 8, 2018, 9:48 p.m.(7/8/1008 AR)
It has been a long time since I've been so embarassed at an event. I am not particularly big or brawny, but I don't hesitate to try at things. When I signed up as an extra for the rowing event I really didn't expect to actually be on the boat.
I admit that was only the second time in my life I have gone rowing, and the first time I capsized the boat. So in that context I did alright only losing an oar. In the broader context of the event, I think I would have rathered be buried in the sand dunes.
I admit that was only the second time in my life I have gone rowing, and the first time I capsized the boat. So in that context I did alright only losing an oar. In the broader context of the event, I think I would have rathered be buried in the sand dunes.
Written By Sparte
April 7, 2018, 8:38 p.m.(7/6/1008 AR)
I managed to escape the color celebration after giving my donation without being covered in powder. I suspect I'll need to watch my back for a few days, lest someone try to tag me after the fact to bring some sort of completeness to the mess.
Written By Sparte
April 6, 2018, 6:27 p.m.(7/4/1008 AR)
Of late I have taken daily visits to the Shrine of the Lost. I slip it in after my morning shift, when the sun is high in the sky and the garden is at the most beautiful. I settle down before the altar with a book, and I read stories.
I say them out loud, as though the altar were my audience. Daft sounding, I know. Gradually, others have begun to sit with me and listen to the tales I tell.
Telling stories is one of the things in my day that I enjoy the most. Not because I'm particularly good at it. I'm mediocre at best. What I enjoy is embracing and learning from them. I like to see people's eyes as they imagine the things being described.
I know that I am still in penance for the stuffed animals, and some will be sore over that. I promise this is no trick or amusement, but a sincere offer.
If anyone reading this has a story they wish to have told, I would delight in writing and sharing it. If anyone out there wishes to tell their own story, I would delight in sitting and being the listener as you spin your tale.
I say them out loud, as though the altar were my audience. Daft sounding, I know. Gradually, others have begun to sit with me and listen to the tales I tell.
Telling stories is one of the things in my day that I enjoy the most. Not because I'm particularly good at it. I'm mediocre at best. What I enjoy is embracing and learning from them. I like to see people's eyes as they imagine the things being described.
I know that I am still in penance for the stuffed animals, and some will be sore over that. I promise this is no trick or amusement, but a sincere offer.
If anyone reading this has a story they wish to have told, I would delight in writing and sharing it. If anyone out there wishes to tell their own story, I would delight in sitting and being the listener as you spin your tale.
Written By Sparte
April 5, 2018, 12:37 a.m.(6/28/1008 AR)
A spoken rhyme storytelling of the Lesson of Grim Eye.
There once was a man who all his life
felt destined for struggle and combat and strife.
A soldier true he learned wield wield blade, bow, and wits...
Then recounted to women the fanciful bits.
Yet for all of his skill he was not immune to misfortune
A grave strike half blinding him and branding him Grim Eye.
The scar we would see only the start of his woes,
as it seeped into everything as soldiering goes.
Grim Eye remained brave, though in fights he soon was out paced.
Where his talent once won now it was by his wits he was saved.
Through challenge and struggles he was never done in,
living long enough to retire and carry his stories with him.
Now Old Grim Eye remains, in a town, on a farm,
with a story for the children if they'll do a task for his yard.
In all of his stories you can hear how he changed,
how that one blinding blow shaped the rest of his days.
His loss is in every struggle, his cunning in every plot,
that let him reach the end of a road where many do not.
Were you to ask Old Grim Eye if he were special
he'd agree without a pause, tell you a story, expect your applause.
But in time you'd see that there is another tale.
That we all suffer loss, that we all at times fail.
Whatever happens leaves a mark. We all carry them, some shared.
When we see that mark clearly we know how to grow beyond what was there.
There once was a man who all his life
felt destined for struggle and combat and strife.
A soldier true he learned wield wield blade, bow, and wits...
Then recounted to women the fanciful bits.
Yet for all of his skill he was not immune to misfortune
A grave strike half blinding him and branding him Grim Eye.
The scar we would see only the start of his woes,
as it seeped into everything as soldiering goes.
Grim Eye remained brave, though in fights he soon was out paced.
Where his talent once won now it was by his wits he was saved.
Through challenge and struggles he was never done in,
living long enough to retire and carry his stories with him.
Now Old Grim Eye remains, in a town, on a farm,
with a story for the children if they'll do a task for his yard.
In all of his stories you can hear how he changed,
how that one blinding blow shaped the rest of his days.
His loss is in every struggle, his cunning in every plot,
that let him reach the end of a road where many do not.
Were you to ask Old Grim Eye if he were special
he'd agree without a pause, tell you a story, expect your applause.
But in time you'd see that there is another tale.
That we all suffer loss, that we all at times fail.
Whatever happens leaves a mark. We all carry them, some shared.
When we see that mark clearly we know how to grow beyond what was there.
Written By Sparte
April 2, 2018, 9:28 p.m.(6/24/1008 AR)
I feel I should put this in a proclaimation to fully express my regret, but I have been asked to limit it to a white journal and am honoring that.
Yesterday, after an evening taken with an idea in poor taste, I gathered some others to perform a prank that has caused terrible harm. Purchasing taxidermied bunnies from local businesses, we sat and made them tiny inquisition outfits and little plaques with what we felt were comical epitaphs. I then left these taxidermied bunnies outside of the Inquest.
Less than a day has passed since I did so. I'm told people have pulled their support from the Inquisition over it, and blamed them for the display. That archlectors and highlords have written demanding answers, taking up the time of Inquisitors and making work for much of the day impossible for the flood of messengers and the need to reassure individuals.
What was meant as a jest quickly became a serious problem. I did not anticipate that, I did not intend that, but I am responsible for that. Further than just being a mark upon myself, that is a mark upon the Iron Guard, whom I do not wish to be marred by my lapse in judgement.
I have agreed to foresake my pay as a guardsman until such time as the senior officers of the iron guard feel my penance is met, along with whatever other penalties they deem suitable for my actions. I am further sending what aid I can to the Inquisition to make up for the time I have cost them from their duties, and offer to personally make amends to those others who were troubled by my actions should they reach out.
Signed,
Sparte Fatchforth
Yesterday, after an evening taken with an idea in poor taste, I gathered some others to perform a prank that has caused terrible harm. Purchasing taxidermied bunnies from local businesses, we sat and made them tiny inquisition outfits and little plaques with what we felt were comical epitaphs. I then left these taxidermied bunnies outside of the Inquest.
Less than a day has passed since I did so. I'm told people have pulled their support from the Inquisition over it, and blamed them for the display. That archlectors and highlords have written demanding answers, taking up the time of Inquisitors and making work for much of the day impossible for the flood of messengers and the need to reassure individuals.
What was meant as a jest quickly became a serious problem. I did not anticipate that, I did not intend that, but I am responsible for that. Further than just being a mark upon myself, that is a mark upon the Iron Guard, whom I do not wish to be marred by my lapse in judgement.
I have agreed to foresake my pay as a guardsman until such time as the senior officers of the iron guard feel my penance is met, along with whatever other penalties they deem suitable for my actions. I am further sending what aid I can to the Inquisition to make up for the time I have cost them from their duties, and offer to personally make amends to those others who were troubled by my actions should they reach out.
Signed,
Sparte Fatchforth
Written By Sparte
April 1, 2018, 3:58 p.m.(6/21/1008 AR)
The fight with Caspian was popular, far more people were in attendance than I expected. I hope it was a suitable rite to Gloria. I don't normally get asked to help in those, but I felt it was a good cause and Caspian is a good fighter. I could think of few reasons not to participate.
Luckily where he cut me is healing well, I should be spared a noticable scar at least.
Luckily where he cut me is healing well, I should be spared a noticable scar at least.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.