Written By Jeremiah
Jan. 1, 2017, 2:27 a.m.(7/15/1005 AR)
Relationship Note on Samantha
Ah; she's my employer, and my patron. I can say kind words beyond...but they might ring hollow--after all, she employs me. Suffice to say that I am a young man of few means but my skills, given connections, contacts, silver, and a chance to better myself. She gives me these chances.
She is good because she helps those who need it and fights for those who cannot. To be given a chance to fight those same fights is a privilege beyond all else she gives me--though do not think I would not fight those battles on my own, if she did not.
She is good because she helps those who need it and fights for those who cannot. To be given a chance to fight those same fights is a privilege beyond all else she gives me--though do not think I would not fight those battles on my own, if she did not.
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 21, 2016, 7:53 p.m.(6/13/1005 AR)
[This entry is written in a precise, flowing, delicate hand. It is titled: 'The Thraxian Problem: Solutions Through Reform.' It references an earlier entry regularly, one that laid out why Thraxian Thralldom was a problem, morally, economically, and legally. This time, the author focuses not on a problem, but a solution: morality is left behind, only the legal and economic focused on. It is at times highbrow and dry, and at others charming and with brief quips, and has been worked on by a sharp, quick mind with experience in both the law and economics.
Historical references are rare, but they are there, mainly quotes of older philosophers of Sentinel or Vellichor.
Suggestions as to reform are rarely revolutionary, unique, or wholly original, but their presentation is structured well, and the economic advice--for example, that Thralldom should be reformed to be based off of and closer to the work and wages that freemen perform and earn--is sound enough, at least in theory.
Snatches of the work itself:
'Recividism is inherent of Thralldom as if by design; furthermore, the poverty it causes among otherwise-ordinary serfs sworn in fealty to House Thrax causes an increase of crime unique to the lands of House Thrax and those likewise sworn in fealty.'
'Poor, unable to find work or compete with those forced to work for free, farmers, miners, and those that would work in the mills are pushed out of employment and a proper place in society; the East cannot support the population and position it holds in the Compact and maintain Thralldom both.'
'It is the claim of the defenders of Thralldom that it turns raiders and criminals into good members of the Compact; it is the truth of reality that Thralldom turns good members of the Compact into raiders and criminals, and then Thralls. As an economic plan, it is good business...in the short-term. Until the wages and conditions are raised to more generous levels, Thralldom will forever be self-sustaining.'
In the end, the paper--some twenty pages in length--devolves into a historical assessment of the size of Thraxian Thralldom relevant to the population at large, posits it is growing and will continue to do so, and insists that 'the weight of blame for the growth of criminals and crime in Thrax rests solely on an Institution that makes villains out of all involved, and punishes the common-born workers of the region until they have but one choice: steal or die. If it is designed to improve criminals, it is a disastrous failure...however, if it is designed to corrupt good men, it is a subtle masterwork that will go down in history as the designers' greatest work.' It is signed, at last, in the same hand that scribed it, simply 'Jeremiah Arvani']
Historical references are rare, but they are there, mainly quotes of older philosophers of Sentinel or Vellichor.
Suggestions as to reform are rarely revolutionary, unique, or wholly original, but their presentation is structured well, and the economic advice--for example, that Thralldom should be reformed to be based off of and closer to the work and wages that freemen perform and earn--is sound enough, at least in theory.
Snatches of the work itself:
'Recividism is inherent of Thralldom as if by design; furthermore, the poverty it causes among otherwise-ordinary serfs sworn in fealty to House Thrax causes an increase of crime unique to the lands of House Thrax and those likewise sworn in fealty.'
'Poor, unable to find work or compete with those forced to work for free, farmers, miners, and those that would work in the mills are pushed out of employment and a proper place in society; the East cannot support the population and position it holds in the Compact and maintain Thralldom both.'
'It is the claim of the defenders of Thralldom that it turns raiders and criminals into good members of the Compact; it is the truth of reality that Thralldom turns good members of the Compact into raiders and criminals, and then Thralls. As an economic plan, it is good business...in the short-term. Until the wages and conditions are raised to more generous levels, Thralldom will forever be self-sustaining.'
In the end, the paper--some twenty pages in length--devolves into a historical assessment of the size of Thraxian Thralldom relevant to the population at large, posits it is growing and will continue to do so, and insists that 'the weight of blame for the growth of criminals and crime in Thrax rests solely on an Institution that makes villains out of all involved, and punishes the common-born workers of the region until they have but one choice: steal or die. If it is designed to improve criminals, it is a disastrous failure...however, if it is designed to corrupt good men, it is a subtle masterwork that will go down in history as the designers' greatest work.' It is signed, at last, in the same hand that scribed it, simply 'Jeremiah Arvani']
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 16, 2016, 7:53 p.m.(5/26/1005 AR)
[From an entry describing the positions and duties of a man employed as a clerk in Whitehold, and his attempts to scrimp and save for travel south to Arx. The entry is written in a precise, flowing, almost delicate hand, and the beginning of it follows:]
My exit from the orphan at fourteen led me into harsher conditions, but at least these were mostly self-imposed. I knew I must head south into Arx, for my chances as even an unemployed pauper would be better than my chances as the head of all clerks in Whitehold. Each week, I would set aside...
My exit from the orphan at fourteen led me into harsher conditions, but at least these were mostly self-imposed. I knew I must head south into Arx, for my chances as even an unemployed pauper would be better than my chances as the head of all clerks in Whitehold. Each week, I would set aside...
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 16, 2016, 7:50 p.m.(5/26/1005 AR)
[From an entry almost curtly but kindly describing the conditions of an orphanage in Whitehold and the men and women that ran it. The entry is written in a precise, flowing, almost delicate hand, and a part of it follows:]
Despite my origins as a child not of the Compact, the orphanage treated me kindly. There has rarely been a softer time in my life, and the meagre, beggarly conditions seemed instead princely to me. Of particular kindness was one Goodman...
Despite my origins as a child not of the Compact, the orphanage treated me kindly. There has rarely been a softer time in my life, and the meagre, beggarly conditions seemed instead princely to me. Of particular kindness was one Goodman...
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 16, 2016, 7:47 p.m.(5/26/1005 AR)
[The following entry spends its time tracing the yearly movements of one tribe of Ravashari Shav'Arvani until their eventual disappearance. The entry is written in a precise, flowing, almost delicate hand, and the ending follows.]
In the year 993 a brief plague and famine swept through Whitehold and the surrounds, and this is when records of what I believe to be my tribe cease. While I can not find any contemporary commentary on the disease spreading to the tribe, the cessation of any other references to the Andali leads one to the conclusion that this is the tribe I came from before their decimation and dissolution.
In the year 993 a brief plague and famine swept through Whitehold and the surrounds, and this is when records of what I believe to be my tribe cease. While I can not find any contemporary commentary on the disease spreading to the tribe, the cessation of any other references to the Andali leads one to the conclusion that this is the tribe I came from before their decimation and dissolution.
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 12, 2016, 4:41 p.m.(5/13/1005 AR)
[What follows is nothing short of a thirty-page position paper regarding the morality and legality of Thraxian Thralls. It is scribed in a precise, flowing, almost delicate hand. At times charming and smooth, at times a fiery invective, and yet further sometimes slightly dry and focused on the law and philosophy, it is perhaps only slightly more leaning on charisma than raw logic. The position, in short, is that the 'Thraxian Institution of Thralldom is rife with corruption down to the core, irredeemably immoral despite any bankrupt attempts to defend it from its own terminal infection.' In particular, the actual length of thralldom compared to the crimes committed is examined from an economic standpoint, claiming that the cost of individual thralldom compared to the cost of paying a freeman grants whatever noble holds their 'debts' incredible profit over the loss due to crime and feeding and clothing the Thralls are 'so very generously provided.' 'Beyond that,' it is claimed, 'the unique enforcement of violence and fines upon distant family is unique in Compact law in that there is no real equivocation or even link between the criminal and crimes committed and those suffering and bearing the debt, with the harsh iron of the law bearing the potential to punish even those who have committed no crime, taking threats to their very lives and freedom based upon the misjudgments of even the most distant relatives.' Later, the 'generational slavery of Thrax' is furiously flayed as 'crimes committed before even conception being visited upon the very definition of innocence, newly-born descendants,' Furthermore, the economic effects of Thraxian Thralldom on the common folk are given a deep and considering examination, resulting in the conclusion that 'Thraxian Thralldom benefits the common man none, for a job that a laborer would be paid well do to, a Thrall may do for but the cost of weevil-ridden grain and hand-me-down clothing made by the Thrall's grandfather.' Even yet later, the 'Institution' is derisively and extensively mocked for being self-defeating: 'Indeed, the brief moment of justice is that an Institution so extensively designed to punish generations-yet-unborn will in the not-distant future destroy itself; the future noble descendants of the Thraxian houses will, inevitably, come to the brink of their very dissolution and collapse due to the economic problems caused by the slavery permitted and persecuted by their forbears. If thralldom is not abolished, and the longer it goes unabolished, the graver the slow and otherwise-unavoidable economic collapse will become. In the end, pitifully, this may be the final straw that removes the abhorrent Institution and leads to the emancipation and manumission of the most unfortunate, maligned, and abandoned members of the Compact.'
A deeper investigation might reveal that the author borrows some phrases from even more critical, directly-scandalous philosophers and past authors on Thraxian slavery, including one that directly criticized 'the Crown Itself for Allowing the very Existence of Thralldom,' though neither the paper nor the author seem to go so far as to take that opinion in direct expression nor in implication. It is signed simply 'Jeremiah' at the very end, in the same hand that scribed the entire thing.]
A deeper investigation might reveal that the author borrows some phrases from even more critical, directly-scandalous philosophers and past authors on Thraxian slavery, including one that directly criticized 'the Crown Itself for Allowing the very Existence of Thralldom,' though neither the paper nor the author seem to go so far as to take that opinion in direct expression nor in implication. It is signed simply 'Jeremiah' at the very end, in the same hand that scribed the entire thing.]
Written By Jeremiah
Dec. 10, 2016, 3:10 a.m.(5/6/1005 AR)
I find this exceedingly odd, but I will give this a shot, for posterity's sake. I can barely write in my usual style, as this feels more like a performance than not, truly. Still. Some weeks in and I have made some progress; my standard of comfort is worse than it was at Whitehold, but I have met people I would recommend and people who would recommend me. I have joined both the Crafter's Guild and the Silver Consortium in some manner, and intend to contact the Scholars.
As for personal matters, it seems even more exceedingly odd to write of them here. Perhaps that will have to wait for the next time I visit these chambers.
As for personal matters, it seems even more exceedingly odd to write of them here. Perhaps that will have to wait for the next time I visit these chambers.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.