Written By Shard
May 22, 2018, 1:53 p.m.(10/15/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
When it comes to the Abandoned and the Compact, their view of what is the righteous, brave choice is not usually the one you're thinking of. When it comes to the choice Calaudrin and I witnessed playing out, actual enslavement or horrific death of themselves and the death of themselves and everyone (their children included) they knew, I'm not going to sit and talk about what choice Gloria or whoever the fuck would find the most meaningful; we saw the results of the people who either chose to resist or panicked and tried to run. If you talk to either of us (or both), in person we'll share the details.
But those were other people. As for that family? I highly doubt they /chose/ their fate. Skald's Reflection isn't usually big on choices. At least, not meaningful ones.
My point was there's nothing wrong with coming together, unifying for a cause, isn't in and of itself a problem, but conformity for the sake of conformity isn't something to strive for. It's not a virtue. Taken to its extreme, its horrifying. If that's not something you believe, then great. We agree on something.
But those were other people. As for that family? I highly doubt they /chose/ their fate. Skald's Reflection isn't usually big on choices. At least, not meaningful ones.
My point was there's nothing wrong with coming together, unifying for a cause, isn't in and of itself a problem, but conformity for the sake of conformity isn't something to strive for. It's not a virtue. Taken to its extreme, its horrifying. If that's not something you believe, then great. We agree on something.
Written By Shard
May 22, 2018, 7:12 a.m.(10/15/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I don't need a lecture about how life is cruel or unfair, or how choices can be lopsided, or how actions have consequences. We're both adults, we're both well aware of all of that for our own personal reasons. But there's a difference between life shaking out as it will, between the consequences of personal choices, and people with a great deal of power using those realities as an excuse to ignore how inconvenient, or uncomfortable, Skald can be, for the sake of stepping all over the freedoms and choices of other people.
Let me be blunter; the family I met in the Gray Forest worshiped the Enslaver and saw the Horned One as a savior for all peoples everywhere, because they had no ability to think anything differently, any more than they could think differently from each other. They were the perfect example of conformity that no one, anywhere, should ever want to be like, no matter how happy they seemed. It was one of the creepiest fucking things I've ever witnessed, and I've seen some damn creepy shit.
Let me be blunter; the family I met in the Gray Forest worshiped the Enslaver and saw the Horned One as a savior for all peoples everywhere, because they had no ability to think anything differently, any more than they could think differently from each other. They were the perfect example of conformity that no one, anywhere, should ever want to be like, no matter how happy they seemed. It was one of the creepiest fucking things I've ever witnessed, and I've seen some damn creepy shit.
Written By Shard
May 21, 2018, 2:43 p.m.(10/13/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Well, that's convenient. You could make an argument for just about anything using that, and say that Skald actually supported it. You could say that it's a choice to live in slavery or die, so anything short of enslaving the mind is perfectly fine and should be legal. You can impose any restrictions on someone else and say 'I'm not actually going against Skald's wishes, I'm just giving you /different/ choices'.
I met a family that lived in perfect conformity a few weeks back. They were so in tune with each other that not only could they finish each other's sentences, they could speak for each other, and do each other's work without exchanging a single word. They were so similar, they didn't even have names to tell each other apart. They seemed very happy. They claimed that living like they did involved no pain and no strife. I suppose you can't argue that the group they're a part of is weak. And yet, somehow, I suspect you'd disapprove of who they worshiped.
I met a family that lived in perfect conformity a few weeks back. They were so in tune with each other that not only could they finish each other's sentences, they could speak for each other, and do each other's work without exchanging a single word. They were so similar, they didn't even have names to tell each other apart. They seemed very happy. They claimed that living like they did involved no pain and no strife. I suppose you can't argue that the group they're a part of is weak. And yet, somehow, I suspect you'd disapprove of who they worshiped.
Written By Shard
May 21, 2018, 1:03 a.m.(10/12/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Violet
He took her words as a challenge. She took his words as a threat.
They were a threat, by the way, even if he didn't mean them to be. That's because he /does/ have power, and he's using it merely by saying something like that. Unjustly? Well, we all know what the law is in the Compact.
They were a threat, by the way, even if he didn't mean them to be. That's because he /does/ have power, and he's using it merely by saying something like that. Unjustly? Well, we all know what the law is in the Compact.
Written By Shard
May 12, 2018, 7:40 p.m.(9/23/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Kaldur
Use a messenger. I'm around, except when I'm not.
Written By Shard
May 9, 2018, 1:58 p.m.(9/17/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Jordan
You can't. It's possible no one can.
If that bothers you, consider this; every man, woman, and child in that village, every life, has no legal worth to begin with. Technically they're all trespassing on the king's land, so if they all die it just makes room for Compact citizens to move into their homes and take over their fields and sleep in their beds when the danger has passed. Compact children can even play with their abandoned toys.
I think I'm doing this right?
If that bothers you, consider this; every man, woman, and child in that village, every life, has no legal worth to begin with. Technically they're all trespassing on the king's land, so if they all die it just makes room for Compact citizens to move into their homes and take over their fields and sleep in their beds when the danger has passed. Compact children can even play with their abandoned toys.
I think I'm doing this right?
Written By Shard
May 9, 2018, 1:48 a.m.(9/16/1008 AR)
People often ask about 'what are Abandoned like', and then I talk about how that question can't be answered, because Abandoned are all different, every tribe is different, and the only possible answer is to point out how the question itself is wrong. But let me tell you about one tribe, one village I met that was very different from the tribe I grew up in. They had fields full of crops, with farmers to work them. They had a blacksmith that made tools just like yours, but little to no weapons, because the village didn't seem to have any warriors. Their village sat along a small river, and their children played in the shallows while their parents kept a watchful eye, talking and laughing with each other. They didn't have a liege lord, of course, but to look at them, to watch them, they were indistinguishable from a Compact village in every single way.
And they're probably all going to die.
And they're probably all going to die.
Written By Shard
May 8, 2018, 1:58 a.m.(9/14/1008 AR)
Is this what living in a house is like? All this damn space? All this quiet? (At least...usually. Comparatively.) No wonder people end up collecting so much useless junk and stuffing it everywhere. I'm not sure how I'll get to sleep.
Written By Shard
April 30, 2018, 1:28 a.m.(8/23/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Laric
That sounds vaguely dirty.
Written By Shard
April 27, 2018, 11:42 p.m.(8/19/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Orathy
You put it in your Whites, you dumbass.
Written By Shard
April 27, 2018, 11:26 p.m.(8/19/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Orathy
What the fuck is that? Is that supposed to be a wounding insult? 'Hurrhurr your face?'
You were toasting the memory of a man who brutally murdered entire villages with torture and plague out of convenience, and you come yelling about some severed heads like anyone's supposed to take your tears seriously. There's plenty of people who can kick up a fuss over this, but when you do it, anyone with memory longer than a thumbnail is going to laugh you off of your soap box.
You were toasting the memory of a man who brutally murdered entire villages with torture and plague out of convenience, and you come yelling about some severed heads like anyone's supposed to take your tears seriously. There's plenty of people who can kick up a fuss over this, but when you do it, anyone with memory longer than a thumbnail is going to laugh you off of your soap box.
Written By Shard
April 27, 2018, 11:03 p.m.(8/19/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Orathy
Oh this is fucking rich. This from a man who kissed the ass of Abbas once-Thrax both before and after he was de-nobled. All of a sudden you're going to cry about 'barbaric murder'?
Written By Shard
April 25, 2018, 2:41 a.m.(8/12/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Bliss
What?
Written By Shard
April 17, 2018, 6:32 p.m.(7/26/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Bliss
Asking if anyone has experience with the Abandoned is a little like asking if anyone has experience with humans. It's so damned broad it's practically meaningless. Every single Prodigal who joined the Compact above a certain age has meaningful experience with the Abandoned, but chances are high that experience won't necessarily apply to any Abandoned you'll encounter. That might be the only advice I can actually offer, in fact. Stop thinking of the Abandoned as a single people, find out which tribe, or tribes, you might come into contact with. Abandoned, as a word, only applies as a way to define them against the Compact, and that's the only way they use it. When they think of themselves, they think of their tribe.
The same goes for asking about a singular language. Abandoned peoples speak multiple different languages, depending on where they're from. Which one?
The same goes for asking about a singular language. Abandoned peoples speak multiple different languages, depending on where they're from. Which one?
Written By Shard
April 14, 2018, 4:09 a.m.(7/18/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Hating people you don't know is easy. It's the easiest thing in the world. It's a cherished pastime, probably in every society, but certainly this one. Certainly the one I came from. You don't need any particular reasons for it either, but it really, really helps if the people you don't know are also responsible, or you think they're responsible, in some way or another, for something ugly you do happen to know very well. Fear, hunger, cold, death, pain...pick one, or several, or choose something similar. And, while this won't be as easy to relate to, if they're not responsible, it can be enough if they just have something you desperately need instead. It doesn't matter if they'd give it to you. Hate doesn't have to be reasonable.
I grew up hating all kinds of people I didn't know. I didn't give a shit whether they were noble or commoner; what difference did that make to me? And Arvani have a word specifically for this purpose, it's 'shav'.
Of course, when you /do/ get to know someone you hated, things either get more complex or you just end up hating them in entirely new ways.
I grew up hating all kinds of people I didn't know. I didn't give a shit whether they were noble or commoner; what difference did that make to me? And Arvani have a word specifically for this purpose, it's 'shav'.
Of course, when you /do/ get to know someone you hated, things either get more complex or you just end up hating them in entirely new ways.
Written By Shard
April 13, 2018, 3:56 p.m.(7/17/1008 AR)
Knighted or not, it doesn't make much difference when you're the mouse.
Written By Shard
April 12, 2018, 4:41 p.m.(7/16/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Bliss
If you've never been terrified by your emotions, you haven't felt one strongly enough.
That's not a suggestion that you should try. Just a caution about thinking you know other people and how they should live better than they do.
That's not a suggestion that you should try. Just a caution about thinking you know other people and how they should live better than they do.
Written By Shard
April 8, 2018, 2:09 a.m.(7/6/1008 AR)
Relationship Note on Itzal
People say a lot of things.
Written By Shard
April 7, 2018, 7:10 p.m.(7/6/1008 AR)
I thought about the question, but even though I've been a commoner for a number of years now, I don't think I'm really the person to talk about what it's like to be common, or what that means to me. I didn't grow up that way. It's not a part of me the way it's a part of the people who have answered.
I could talk about what it means to be Abandoned, but /that/ is something I don't think people would find enjoyable to read, and I doubt it would be taken terribly well.
I could talk about what it means to be Abandoned, but /that/ is something I don't think people would find enjoyable to read, and I doubt it would be taken terribly well.
Written By Shard
March 28, 2018, 6:59 a.m.(6/11/1008 AR)
If you're looking to help with killing rabbits, but aren't particularly useful in the forest on your own--or at hunting in general--I'm making an offer to act as a guide. For free.
I don't guarantee we'll find rabbits with how many other people are killing them, or that you'll kill any (your aim is entirely on you), but as long as you don't wander off and agree to leave when it's time to go (hint: if we run into things that want to kill us, instead of things we want to kill, it's time to go), I can guarantee you'll get back home without getting lost. Considering the price, I think that deal is fair.
I don't guarantee we'll find rabbits with how many other people are killing them, or that you'll kill any (your aim is entirely on you), but as long as you don't wander off and agree to leave when it's time to go (hint: if we run into things that want to kill us, instead of things we want to kill, it's time to go), I can guarantee you'll get back home without getting lost. Considering the price, I think that deal is fair.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.