Written By Tyrus
Oct. 8, 2019, 9:31 a.m.(12/22/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
That was the nuance I referred to, and you've clarified your point such that I've little to add or find issue with.
There are basic truths in this Dream. To doubt or deny them only risks a rude awakening.
There are basic truths in this Dream. To doubt or deny them only risks a rude awakening.
Written By Tyrus
Oct. 6, 2019, 9:08 p.m.(12/19/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I cannot speak on the grounds of Faith and religion, for I have not devoted myself to its study, nor have I sworn my life to them like Grandmaster Preston has. Yet something he wrote in his last entry made me consider the nature of questions, and I find I disagree on a minor point.
To deny the existence of the Gods would be foolish indeed when they are all around us, when we exist in Aion's Dream. Yet is to ask questions on their nature, on their being, subject to the same interdict? How can we understand Them better if we do not ask questions?
How can we understand the role of the King and our most ancient and venerated institutions if we do not ask?
None of us are born with innate knowledge. All must be learnt. To simply be told that this is Mangata is not enough to understand Her, to see Her in the waters of the sea and the winds of the storm. One must ask a thousand and one questions, as an adult if they were never asked as a child.
I suspect Grandmaster Preston did not refer in his entry to questioning as I framed it. Perhaps he instead meant the kind of questioning that serves not to dispell ignorance but instead serves to make a point, the questioning that is more weapon than any other tool. I cannot speak for the man, however, having never met him. Still, I believe the nuance must be made.
To question can be beneficial and indeed necessary, depending on the intent.
To deny the existence of the Gods would be foolish indeed when they are all around us, when we exist in Aion's Dream. Yet is to ask questions on their nature, on their being, subject to the same interdict? How can we understand Them better if we do not ask questions?
How can we understand the role of the King and our most ancient and venerated institutions if we do not ask?
None of us are born with innate knowledge. All must be learnt. To simply be told that this is Mangata is not enough to understand Her, to see Her in the waters of the sea and the winds of the storm. One must ask a thousand and one questions, as an adult if they were never asked as a child.
I suspect Grandmaster Preston did not refer in his entry to questioning as I framed it. Perhaps he instead meant the kind of questioning that serves not to dispell ignorance but instead serves to make a point, the questioning that is more weapon than any other tool. I cannot speak for the man, however, having never met him. Still, I believe the nuance must be made.
To question can be beneficial and indeed necessary, depending on the intent.
Written By Mirk
Oct. 6, 2019, 7:14 p.m.(12/19/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
The simple truth is that at any time, there are more causes than people have silver, and so an event raises the topic and keeps it at the forefront of peoples' minds. The right event can even sweep people along with the spirit of the occasion, and convince them to part with more money than they would have otherwise.
Written By Willow
Oct. 6, 2019, 3:07 p.m.(12/18/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I would imagine it's because not everyone is as inclined to throw a million silver directly at a charitable cause as a few of us are, and a lot of people can be enticed by the promise of getting something out of what could ostensibly deemed good works, more than might be inclined to just do those good things without the promise of reward. I mean, if I had to hazard a guess.
Written By Ida
Sept. 28, 2019, 9:29 p.m.(12/3/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I would be incredibly honored and happy to get to work with the Templars again, Sir Preston. Were things different, I would have liked to have attempted the path of a Templar. You have been kind in your regard and I am grateful to be considered a friend. It is a privilege I hope to continue to earn.
Written By Shard
Sept. 13, 2019, 11:42 p.m.(11/1/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I am pretty confident in saying that this is not something that's going to be resolved just by throwing soldiers at it.
And I wonder, what's the offense that we'd start killing over? Claiming land that the Compact claims but hasn't held for generations? I could see that. Convincing Abandoned to bend the knee? Well, they're no longer Abandoned now, are they? Not if they've sworn fealty to the Emperor. No, that would make them citizens of the Undying Empire, and considering the Compact is perfectly happy to kill Abandoned, and has been engaged in some fucking impressive examples of slaughter in the Oathlands this past year, it seems strange to be angry that someone else managed to get them to stop being Abandoned, particularly when it's likely at least in part to that same slaughter that they were willing to accept the Undying Empire's protection. And do people really think that even if the Compact's armies marched and they wiped out these three tribes, that would somehow /discourage/ other Abandoned from signing up with other powers, particularly powers that don't have the Compact's best interests at heart? People want to live, and a number of Oathlands Houses just proved that even if you bend the knee to the Compact, you're not safe from being murdered by the people you've sworn oaths of fealty to. I imagine the Emissary's offer looks pretty damned tempting to more tribes than the ones she's got so far.
But fine, I constantly say the Compact keeps making more enemies for itself. The plain reason why very few people are rattling their swords at the Undying Empire is because the Undying Empire has much, much bigger swords. We would lose. We would lose badly. It comes down to who ultimately holds the most power, because, unfortunately, it almost always does.
And I wonder, what's the offense that we'd start killing over? Claiming land that the Compact claims but hasn't held for generations? I could see that. Convincing Abandoned to bend the knee? Well, they're no longer Abandoned now, are they? Not if they've sworn fealty to the Emperor. No, that would make them citizens of the Undying Empire, and considering the Compact is perfectly happy to kill Abandoned, and has been engaged in some fucking impressive examples of slaughter in the Oathlands this past year, it seems strange to be angry that someone else managed to get them to stop being Abandoned, particularly when it's likely at least in part to that same slaughter that they were willing to accept the Undying Empire's protection. And do people really think that even if the Compact's armies marched and they wiped out these three tribes, that would somehow /discourage/ other Abandoned from signing up with other powers, particularly powers that don't have the Compact's best interests at heart? People want to live, and a number of Oathlands Houses just proved that even if you bend the knee to the Compact, you're not safe from being murdered by the people you've sworn oaths of fealty to. I imagine the Emissary's offer looks pretty damned tempting to more tribes than the ones she's got so far.
But fine, I constantly say the Compact keeps making more enemies for itself. The plain reason why very few people are rattling their swords at the Undying Empire is because the Undying Empire has much, much bigger swords. We would lose. We would lose badly. It comes down to who ultimately holds the most power, because, unfortunately, it almost always does.
Written By Rinel
Sept. 6, 2019, 2:33 p.m.(10/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Guilt by association no more flows from the heretic to those who provide him succour than it does from a traitorous Dominus to his ward.
I would not accuse the Grandmaster of furthering the evils contained within the heart of the Dominus Fawkhul, whose status as Godsworn proved no defense against the corruption of the world--and I would respectfully ask that he refrain from making such insinuations regarding my charity towards the Goodman Elisha, which, as stated now multiple times by the Shepherd of the Faith, is in no way a violation of our Faith's sacred laws.
Having dispensed with the authoritative issues regarding this matter, if the Grandmaster wishes to raise substantive claims of /theology/ regarding the showing of Gildian charity to those who preach views against the Pantheon, I am more than willing to write on the subject. Yet I think this an endeavour that it will not avail Grandmaster but poorly to pursue--for it was our own Faith who extended holy guest right to the emissaries of the Skykingdom of Cardia, which proclaims its masters equal to our Gods, and it was our own Faith which permitted these emissaries, along with the emissaries of the so-called "Immortal Empire" of Jaidairal, to preach their pagan ways to the faithful of the Compact.
I am a child of the Faith, and obedient to its laws. I will not swerve from what is right and allowed by the Church, whether opposition come by threats of execution, attempts at public shame, or otherwise. I am intimately acquainted with the rigidity of the Orthodox. It has led me into error countless times. I have seen the flexibility of Liberalism draw the late Driskell, Godsworn and Prelate of the Scholars, into heresy and death. And history has shown us that even a Dominus may at times be susceptible to the darkness of the world.
In support whereof I offer this quote, well known to those familiar with the Faith of the Oathlands: "We cannot build the foundations of faith by shaking them. We cannot build a world of hope by instilling doubt. We cannot demand honor while suggesting dishonorable methods. I will not see the Faith corrupted. I declare the Dominus Marach's teachings an apostasy, and demand that they be destroyed."
If I have obtained any wisdom through my follies and my penance, it is that no path of Faith grants immunity to the dangers of temptation--and that no human, be they laity, Godsworn, or the Most Holy Themselves, is free from the possibility of a fall.
I would not accuse the Grandmaster of furthering the evils contained within the heart of the Dominus Fawkhul, whose status as Godsworn proved no defense against the corruption of the world--and I would respectfully ask that he refrain from making such insinuations regarding my charity towards the Goodman Elisha, which, as stated now multiple times by the Shepherd of the Faith, is in no way a violation of our Faith's sacred laws.
Having dispensed with the authoritative issues regarding this matter, if the Grandmaster wishes to raise substantive claims of /theology/ regarding the showing of Gildian charity to those who preach views against the Pantheon, I am more than willing to write on the subject. Yet I think this an endeavour that it will not avail Grandmaster but poorly to pursue--for it was our own Faith who extended holy guest right to the emissaries of the Skykingdom of Cardia, which proclaims its masters equal to our Gods, and it was our own Faith which permitted these emissaries, along with the emissaries of the so-called "Immortal Empire" of Jaidairal, to preach their pagan ways to the faithful of the Compact.
I am a child of the Faith, and obedient to its laws. I will not swerve from what is right and allowed by the Church, whether opposition come by threats of execution, attempts at public shame, or otherwise. I am intimately acquainted with the rigidity of the Orthodox. It has led me into error countless times. I have seen the flexibility of Liberalism draw the late Driskell, Godsworn and Prelate of the Scholars, into heresy and death. And history has shown us that even a Dominus may at times be susceptible to the darkness of the world.
In support whereof I offer this quote, well known to those familiar with the Faith of the Oathlands: "We cannot build the foundations of faith by shaking them. We cannot build a world of hope by instilling doubt. We cannot demand honor while suggesting dishonorable methods. I will not see the Faith corrupted. I declare the Dominus Marach's teachings an apostasy, and demand that they be destroyed."
If I have obtained any wisdom through my follies and my penance, it is that no path of Faith grants immunity to the dangers of temptation--and that no human, be they laity, Godsworn, or the Most Holy Themselves, is free from the possibility of a fall.
Written By Shard
Sept. 5, 2019, 6:32 p.m.(10/12/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I'm no expert, but I'm going to guess the practical 'why' is 'because they want to have money to eat too'.
If the intent was just to kill him slowly, or force him to start stealing in order to survive (so that he could then be punished for that too), then you might as well take his head off now, it will save time. I somehow doubt that's the case.
He's not Abandoned; he's still in the city for one thing. Is it legal for someone to do whatever they want to him now? Can I just walk up and murder him in the street because his unending fucking nonsense annoys me? The last time that happened the killer at least pretended it was in self defense, so I don't think that's the case either.
Slow starvation isn't a good way to convince someone you're right. It's just a good way to break them into saying whatever you want them to say so they can eat, regardless of what they feel or believe. Those are not the same things at all.
If the intent was just to kill him slowly, or force him to start stealing in order to survive (so that he could then be punished for that too), then you might as well take his head off now, it will save time. I somehow doubt that's the case.
He's not Abandoned; he's still in the city for one thing. Is it legal for someone to do whatever they want to him now? Can I just walk up and murder him in the street because his unending fucking nonsense annoys me? The last time that happened the killer at least pretended it was in self defense, so I don't think that's the case either.
Slow starvation isn't a good way to convince someone you're right. It's just a good way to break them into saying whatever you want them to say so they can eat, regardless of what they feel or believe. Those are not the same things at all.
Written By Peri
Sept. 4, 2019, 12:49 p.m.(10/10/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I assert that an excommunicated person should still be able to buy food at a market. And despite their untrustworthiness, they must be able to work else how shall they eat? How shall their children or family eat?
Written By Shard
Aug. 8, 2019, 2:31 a.m.(8/11/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
The idea that killing a person somehow damages you forever is an idea I've always found to be ridiculous nonsense, and it's usually trotted out by someone who either has had the luxury of being able to choose whether or not they'll take a life, or someone who has been listening to people who have. That's not to say that the first time it happens to someone it doesn't affect them somehow--I think I'd look sideways at anyone who didn't at least feel /something/--or that it can't be awful. There's a reason people tend to remember first kills. I threw up after mine.
I tentatively agree that it's the reasons for it, and just who exactly is dying, that matters. Some people really do just need killing. A lot of people, sometimes. Some people have to die because there's no better way around it. And for some people, dying is better than the situation they're in.
It's the ones that didn't have to die, and didn't deserve to die, that should haunt people. Unfortunately, most of their murderers are usually very good at justifying their ghosts.
I tentatively agree that it's the reasons for it, and just who exactly is dying, that matters. Some people really do just need killing. A lot of people, sometimes. Some people have to die because there's no better way around it. And for some people, dying is better than the situation they're in.
It's the ones that didn't have to die, and didn't deserve to die, that should haunt people. Unfortunately, most of their murderers are usually very good at justifying their ghosts.
Written By Brianna
July 26, 2019, 4:36 p.m.(7/14/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Why would a question be forbidden?
Written By Thena
July 18, 2019, 9 a.m.(6/26/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Stop saying nice things about me in the journals, you're ruining my carefully cultivated reputation.
Written By Aureth
July 9, 2019, 2:35 p.m.(6/8/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Struggling to trust them is wise. In fact, I would encourage you to cease struggling and simply do not do so, except in so far as you trust them to honor their own agendas and priorities.
Written By Elisha
June 9, 2019, 8:36 p.m.(4/4/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
A silver tower rises in Arx, city of golden stone, with a crystal globe in every room. Looking into the first globe, you see a blue stone city with a pewter tower, the model of a different Arx. These are the forms the city takes when Aion rouses from slumber for a sip of water before returning to interrupted dreams.
In every age someone, looking at Arx, imagines that the city is eternal: "Asking /why/ the tower is copper serves no purpose." Carnifex Alora worshipped the gods and gave obedience to the royals, yet before even so lofty a personage as she installed her model into a crystal globe, the stones of her Arx changed hue and the tower grew a new skin.
On the map of your empire, Templar, there must be room both for the big, stone Arx and the little Arx in crystal globes. Not because they are equally real, but because they are equally unreal.
(In a vision, my Master told me: "We are certain of this much: the dream we can interpret is not Aion's dream, the principles we can obey are not Aion's principles, and any doubt that is born of virtue is not Aion's doubt." Upon waking, my Mistress added: "None of that is true.")
In every age someone, looking at Arx, imagines that the city is eternal: "Asking /why/ the tower is copper serves no purpose." Carnifex Alora worshipped the gods and gave obedience to the royals, yet before even so lofty a personage as she installed her model into a crystal globe, the stones of her Arx changed hue and the tower grew a new skin.
On the map of your empire, Templar, there must be room both for the big, stone Arx and the little Arx in crystal globes. Not because they are equally real, but because they are equally unreal.
(In a vision, my Master told me: "We are certain of this much: the dream we can interpret is not Aion's dream, the principles we can obey are not Aion's principles, and any doubt that is born of virtue is not Aion's doubt." Upon waking, my Mistress added: "None of that is true.")
Written By Peri
June 8, 2019, 12:26 p.m.(4/2/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Sir Preston,
In your journal of 3/25/1011 (OOC: June 6, 2019) you write about choice and questions. I passionately agree with you when you say, "Choice is not something to be taken or discarded simply", but I disagree on other things you say.
I feel that questions made in good faith can be shared with others without fomenting discord. It is questions made in poor faith that do so. I have to ask questions of others sometimes because I do not have the wisdom within myself to reach an answer based only on introspection.
Emissary Zulana gave a talk on writs recently, and I am mulling over all of the questions I have. Over time I may begin to ask questions of others.
In your journal of 3/25/1011 (OOC: June 6, 2019) you write about choice and questions. I passionately agree with you when you say, "Choice is not something to be taken or discarded simply", but I disagree on other things you say.
I feel that questions made in good faith can be shared with others without fomenting discord. It is questions made in poor faith that do so. I have to ask questions of others sometimes because I do not have the wisdom within myself to reach an answer based only on introspection.
Emissary Zulana gave a talk on writs recently, and I am mulling over all of the questions I have. Over time I may begin to ask questions of others.
Written By Thena
June 1, 2019, 8:53 a.m.(3/15/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I suspect there will be quite a bit of artistic license taken by any poor bastard who decides they want to chronicle my life and deeds.
Written By Sparte
May 29, 2019, 12:19 p.m.(3/10/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
To respond to your journal on the lack of authority I described as being unique to commoners, I will clarify my stance.
There is the authority granted to some of us from birth who are blessed to be members of the Peerage, and there is authority that is earned, as you have touched upon. These two authorities are both important to our society. You, myself, and the others you name hold station and titles that reflect the authority we have been recognized with. Our words hold more weight because of that authority, but we all know that when we were younger there was a time we did not speak with such a voice.
Authority comes from many places, and to come up as a commoner is to start life with none inherent. Perhaps that isn't true for the richest and most affluent of commoner families, but for the majority it is. To speak from where we are now in life is different because we have earned recognition, earned titles, earned authority and station. In the Faith those who dedicate themselves to the path of Godsworn forgo title and membership in the peerage as you say, if they had been granted such before. Arvum society recognizes that. There is an authority unique to the Godsworn because of it, not title in the sense of the Peerage, but certainly authority.
When I said a commoner through and through, I imagined myself as I was before I came to Arx. A farm boy, with very little to my name, from a family most had never heard of. Certainly no recognition nor authority. I imagine even the white I am writing now, and how it would be seen as very different were it to come from such a source. Perhaps people want to believe they would treat it with the same weight, but only the rarest amongst us can hear an argument without measuring what we know of the source. There was a time in your own life, Sir Preston, when you were the same.
That is a thing only commoners and prodigals ever experience. It is foreign to those who are born into the Peerage, a thing they have to step out of their own circumstances to even imagine. There is no shortcoming or flaw in that on either side, it is just a truth of how we all live different lives with different expectations upon us. It is a thing that, despite Rinel's great merit as a theologian, she has not yet managed to overcome. For the readily apparent reasons I stated previously.
There is the authority granted to some of us from birth who are blessed to be members of the Peerage, and there is authority that is earned, as you have touched upon. These two authorities are both important to our society. You, myself, and the others you name hold station and titles that reflect the authority we have been recognized with. Our words hold more weight because of that authority, but we all know that when we were younger there was a time we did not speak with such a voice.
Authority comes from many places, and to come up as a commoner is to start life with none inherent. Perhaps that isn't true for the richest and most affluent of commoner families, but for the majority it is. To speak from where we are now in life is different because we have earned recognition, earned titles, earned authority and station. In the Faith those who dedicate themselves to the path of Godsworn forgo title and membership in the peerage as you say, if they had been granted such before. Arvum society recognizes that. There is an authority unique to the Godsworn because of it, not title in the sense of the Peerage, but certainly authority.
When I said a commoner through and through, I imagined myself as I was before I came to Arx. A farm boy, with very little to my name, from a family most had never heard of. Certainly no recognition nor authority. I imagine even the white I am writing now, and how it would be seen as very different were it to come from such a source. Perhaps people want to believe they would treat it with the same weight, but only the rarest amongst us can hear an argument without measuring what we know of the source. There was a time in your own life, Sir Preston, when you were the same.
That is a thing only commoners and prodigals ever experience. It is foreign to those who are born into the Peerage, a thing they have to step out of their own circumstances to even imagine. There is no shortcoming or flaw in that on either side, it is just a truth of how we all live different lives with different expectations upon us. It is a thing that, despite Rinel's great merit as a theologian, she has not yet managed to overcome. For the readily apparent reasons I stated previously.
Written By Rysen
May 18, 2019, 5:37 p.m.(2/16/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Thank you for your advice and confidence, Grandmaster. Such wisdom is strong armor against the bloody claws of Vengeance.
Written By Acantha
April 26, 2019, 10:21 p.m.(12/28/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I met with Sir Preston today about a project that we are working on. I didn't feel any anxiousness about the meeting given he'd been so very kind to me in previous messengers. When I met him face to face I could tell that he was a good man. He doesn't have the easiest of jobs and I'm sure the road is stressful, but I look forward to assisting him and the Templars.
Written By Thena
April 7, 2019, 9:47 p.m.(11/18/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Gods almighty, I don't want to go on errands INSTEAD of Sir Jeffeth Bayweather. I don't have time for that sort of thing.
My point is, neither does he.
I'm really not nearly as good at saying nice things about you in the Whites as you are saying them about me, but I miss you too.
My point is, neither does he.
I'm really not nearly as good at saying nice things about you in the Whites as you are saying them about me, but I miss you too.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.