Written By Piccola
March 13, 2022, 8:16 p.m.(4/11/1017 AR)
Spring tries to remind us that life can arise even when all seems lost; but its lies are exposed when blooms wither under the summer's sun, autumn fruit falls from the trees to rot, and the biting chill of winter comes to steal indiscriminately from us again.
Written By Piccola
March 10, 2022, 12:33 p.m.(4/4/1017 AR)
The fruits of war, piled up like sand, witness mutely that being mortal we ought never cast our thoughts too high, for arrogance in full bloom bears a crop of ruinous folly from which it reaps a harvest all of tears.
Written By Piccola
March 8, 2022, 2:32 p.m.(3/28/1017 AR)
When the Queen beckons to you, follow Her, though Her ways are hard and steep.
When Her limbs enfold you, yield to Her, though Her claws may wound you.
And when She speaks to you, believe in Her, though Her voice may shatter your dreams.
When Her limbs enfold you, yield to Her, though Her claws may wound you.
And when She speaks to you, believe in Her, though Her voice may shatter your dreams.
Written By Piccola
Nov. 1, 2021, 8:07 p.m.(6/27/1016 AR)
In my journeys, I have been told that violence accomplishes nothing.
It has always made me laugh inside because violence is dreadfully effective.
That's why the craven use it.
It has always made me laugh inside because violence is dreadfully effective.
That's why the craven use it.
Written By Piccola
Oct. 16, 2021, 7 p.m.(5/23/1016 AR)
When I die let what’s left of me be given to children and old men that wait to die.
Give them my arms so they may bear them against those who oppress them. Give them my knowledge so they may pursue their ends without fail or faltering. And give them my heart so they may know no fear.
When I die let no one mourn my passing.
For those who are sad cry for your brother walking next to you. For those who need me let them find comfort in those around them. And for those who love me know that I love you as well and it is because of that love that I must leave.
The truest warrior accepts her fate; the wisest general knows her duty.
For I have found you. I know your name; I know where you are; and I know what I must do. You know what you have done, but you will come to know more. You will know fear; you will know pain; and when you beg for what is coming to end you will know torment. May you make your peace with your enemies, your farewells to your loved ones, and your amends for your trespasses.
I am coming for you.
Give them my arms so they may bear them against those who oppress them. Give them my knowledge so they may pursue their ends without fail or faltering. And give them my heart so they may know no fear.
When I die let no one mourn my passing.
For those who are sad cry for your brother walking next to you. For those who need me let them find comfort in those around them. And for those who love me know that I love you as well and it is because of that love that I must leave.
The truest warrior accepts her fate; the wisest general knows her duty.
For I have found you. I know your name; I know where you are; and I know what I must do. You know what you have done, but you will come to know more. You will know fear; you will know pain; and when you beg for what is coming to end you will know torment. May you make your peace with your enemies, your farewells to your loved ones, and your amends for your trespasses.
I am coming for you.
Written By Piccola
Oct. 7, 2021, 12:38 p.m.(5/4/1016 AR)
Now is the time to set aside reservations to set upon the courses we need to remind our enemies that we will not suffer the killing of our own.
Written By Piccola
Oct. 4, 2021, 11:22 p.m.(4/27/1016 AR)
Sometimes, revenge lies in simply forcing ones way into a place and being cut down.
There is no shame in this. By thinking that you must complete the job you will run out of time. By considering things like how many men the enemy has, time piles up; in the end you will give up. No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end. You will finish the greater part of it.
The point is not satisfaction; the point is action.
Too rarely is action taken when justified. Too often action is forgotten in doubt and uncertainty. The truth is that nothing is ever certain and the lie is that certainty precedes action. The difference between vengeance and justice is whether one is looking forward or backward, and now more than ever do I cast an eye towards my future.
I am going to find and kill every last one of them -- not because I want to, but because I must.
There is no shame in this. By thinking that you must complete the job you will run out of time. By considering things like how many men the enemy has, time piles up; in the end you will give up. No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end. You will finish the greater part of it.
The point is not satisfaction; the point is action.
Too rarely is action taken when justified. Too often action is forgotten in doubt and uncertainty. The truth is that nothing is ever certain and the lie is that certainty precedes action. The difference between vengeance and justice is whether one is looking forward or backward, and now more than ever do I cast an eye towards my future.
I am going to find and kill every last one of them -- not because I want to, but because I must.
Written By Piccola
Oct. 4, 2021, 1:04 p.m.(4/26/1016 AR)
I refuse to content myself with writing for catharsis, only to retire to smug, passive satisfaction.
No, it is not enough for people to be angry.
The supreme task is to organize and act so that anger becomes an irresistible force.
I will find you.
No, it is not enough for people to be angry.
The supreme task is to organize and act so that anger becomes an irresistible force.
I will find you.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 27, 2021, 8:38 p.m.(4/13/1016 AR)
Even if they will fall and wither away, I still enjoy sitting in the shadows of leaves.
The winter has given way to spring. It did not leave without taking something. This is the way of winter; it is not unexpected. But that does not make the pierce any less painful. War has prepared me for pain, but not of this kind.
I remember when I thought I had no family. I lived away from Iriscal, wherever business would have me. And then, one day, I returned and was given a home once more. I justifiably feared that it would be taken away again, as it once had.
I did not foresee how it would be taken a second time from me.
The winter has given way to spring. It did not leave without taking something. This is the way of winter; it is not unexpected. But that does not make the pierce any less painful. War has prepared me for pain, but not of this kind.
I remember when I thought I had no family. I lived away from Iriscal, wherever business would have me. And then, one day, I returned and was given a home once more. I justifiably feared that it would be taken away again, as it once had.
I did not foresee how it would be taken a second time from me.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 24, 2021, 10:11 a.m.(4/6/1016 AR)
We live in a world of walls, my friend, and those walls are defended by people who have accepted that, at any time, they could be sent to their deaths. We generals have the responsibility to send them to their ends. Sometimes we have the responsibility of sending ourselves to the same. And we do this because we believe in something greater than ourselves.
Sometimes, our choices seem dangerous and reckless. But we are entrusted with that grave responsibility: to make the decisions which shall be questioned because such decisions purchase such luxury. And while we may seem grotesque or incomprehensible, this does not obviate our duties to our Houses, our soldiers, and our people.
The truth is that when a monster is needed, we are asked to be that monster. We train to cut out our hearts when we face our enemies for they are trained the same. We have been beaten and bloodied, but we accept this because of words like honor, code, and loyalty. These form the backbone of every company sent to keep those walls.
Marquessa Sabine restored my honor for one purpose. There was a price for it. I accepted that price. As I have written before, we but pay back debt for our lives in one way or another, and it is ill of us to question the reasons why, at times, that debt is called. As I have written before, I have accepted my death, and now truly live. Now is the time.
Sometimes, our choices seem dangerous and reckless. But we are entrusted with that grave responsibility: to make the decisions which shall be questioned because such decisions purchase such luxury. And while we may seem grotesque or incomprehensible, this does not obviate our duties to our Houses, our soldiers, and our people.
The truth is that when a monster is needed, we are asked to be that monster. We train to cut out our hearts when we face our enemies for they are trained the same. We have been beaten and bloodied, but we accept this because of words like honor, code, and loyalty. These form the backbone of every company sent to keep those walls.
Marquessa Sabine restored my honor for one purpose. There was a price for it. I accepted that price. As I have written before, we but pay back debt for our lives in one way or another, and it is ill of us to question the reasons why, at times, that debt is called. As I have written before, I have accepted my death, and now truly live. Now is the time.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 22, 2021, 9:42 p.m.(4/3/1016 AR)
Thoughts of vengeance are born of the pain of helplessness.
And the truth is that vengeance is invigorating. It focuses and enlivens us. It quashes grief because it turns the emotion outward. In grief we go to pieces; but in revenge we come together as a single pointed weapon aimed at a target. However destructive in the long run, it serves a useful purpose for a time.
So, to my enemies, I ask you to think carefully about what you say and do next.
And the truth is that vengeance is invigorating. It focuses and enlivens us. It quashes grief because it turns the emotion outward. In grief we go to pieces; but in revenge we come together as a single pointed weapon aimed at a target. However destructive in the long run, it serves a useful purpose for a time.
So, to my enemies, I ask you to think carefully about what you say and do next.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 21, 2021, 11:55 p.m.(4/1/1016 AR)
To whom had the temerity to harm my family:
Take a good look at everyone you know and care about. Give them an embrace, and tell them you love them. They need to know this before I find them, and before I find you.
When I find you, I will hurt you in ways you cannot possibly imagine. I will make sure to bring the finest and most gifted of apothecaries, so that they will keep you alive even when you beg to see the Queen. Because I will then hurt you again, only to have you tended once more.
And when your body gives out, I will do everything in my power to ensure that your eyes are open, and your mouth is open. And when you scream for your death, I will tell you in a whisper: "no."
I will find you.
Take a good look at everyone you know and care about. Give them an embrace, and tell them you love them. They need to know this before I find them, and before I find you.
When I find you, I will hurt you in ways you cannot possibly imagine. I will make sure to bring the finest and most gifted of apothecaries, so that they will keep you alive even when you beg to see the Queen. Because I will then hurt you again, only to have you tended once more.
And when your body gives out, I will do everything in my power to ensure that your eyes are open, and your mouth is open. And when you scream for your death, I will tell you in a whisper: "no."
I will find you.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 20, 2021, 8:46 p.m.(3/27/1016 AR)
We are but captives in a cage who imagine that death will bring us liberty.
We cannot believe that such a dream makes us prisoners all the same.
We cannot believe that such a dream makes us prisoners all the same.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 19, 2021, 9:21 p.m.(3/25/1016 AR)
To those who complain that it is a great misfortune to die before our time, I would ask: what time? What has been given all of us is as a loan of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. And when that loan is called in, what reason is there to complain? For we have by then reaped the rewards of what we have borrowed, which was never ours to begin with.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 15, 2021, 8:27 a.m.(3/16/1016 AR)
Those who suffer are apt to fix their eyes on the very worst; those who do not, towards the very best.
The battlefield cares for neither the worst nor the best; it takes who and what it wishes, regardless of how we see the moment.
This is why the best generals never let themselves be judged by such an arbitrary and capricious thing as war.
The battlefield cares for neither the worst nor the best; it takes who and what it wishes, regardless of how we see the moment.
This is why the best generals never let themselves be judged by such an arbitrary and capricious thing as war.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 13, 2021, 9:10 p.m.(3/13/1016 AR)
Fear is why people do terrible things and never come to terms with the damage they cause until the sum of their horrors comes to take them.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 12, 2021, 7:47 p.m.(3/11/1016 AR)
Traditions are solutions for problems we have forgotten. And if the solutions are forgotten or tossed aside, the problems shall return.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 12, 2021, 7:42 p.m.(3/11/1016 AR)
One night, wise general, it occurred to me what was impossible before: that I had not spent my life as I should have.
It occurred to me that my scarcely-perceptible attempts to struggle for good might be unnoticed, if they were successful; that my professional duties and the whole arrangement of my life and of my family, and all my social and official interests, might all have been false; and in my mind I tried to defend all those things and suddenly felt the weakness of what I was defending. I lay on my back and began to review my life in an altogether new way. And in the morning I saw my horse, my weapons, and my armor, and knew that every word and movement I had perceived in my mind's eye confirmed the awful truth that had been revealed to me during the night.
In them I saw myself and saw clearly that I was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death.
It occurred to me that my scarcely-perceptible attempts to struggle for good might be unnoticed, if they were successful; that my professional duties and the whole arrangement of my life and of my family, and all my social and official interests, might all have been false; and in my mind I tried to defend all those things and suddenly felt the weakness of what I was defending. I lay on my back and began to review my life in an altogether new way. And in the morning I saw my horse, my weapons, and my armor, and knew that every word and movement I had perceived in my mind's eye confirmed the awful truth that had been revealed to me during the night.
In them I saw myself and saw clearly that I was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 12, 2021, 12:38 a.m.(3/9/1016 AR)
Death gives meaning to life.
Living in fear of death is living in denial. It's not really living at all, because there is no life without death.
It's two sides of the one.
Living in fear of death is living in denial. It's not really living at all, because there is no life without death.
It's two sides of the one.
Written By Piccola
Sept. 10, 2021, 6 p.m.(3/7/1016 AR)
Wise general, remember these four truths.
1. All warfare is deception.
2. Victory and defeat are matters of circumstance.
3. The noblest struggle is justice before a tyrant.
4. True wisdom is freedom from one's own ideas.
1. All warfare is deception.
2. Victory and defeat are matters of circumstance.
3. The noblest struggle is justice before a tyrant.
4. True wisdom is freedom from one's own ideas.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.