Written By Shard
May 19, 2020, 8:04 p.m.(4/26/1013 AR)
First of all, who gives a single, solitary shit about /looking/ charitable and concerned? Who cares? Not people who actually are. Just people who are still trying to get something out of it. Oooh look at me, look at all the silver I just threw at something. So what? Good job throwing silver. Recognition is not the point.
Secondly, this is a stupid fucking question that comes up every single time people start taking criticism from other people over not doing shit, and I'm going to explain why that is in four words: Why. Does. It. Matter? Why does it matter! Why? Because either someone is looking for an excuse for why /they/ don't have to do anything, an excuse for why they only have to do as much as whoever they're challenging, an excuse for how much better /they/ are, or because they are annoyed they were criticized and feel like having some kind of metaphorical sword measuring competition than actually helping.
Who cares what the person who called you out is, or isn't doing? Are they a hypocrite? Sure, alright. So what if they are? That's not an excuse for you not doing something. That's you pointing fingers like a child and whining to your mother that some kid over /there/ doesn't have to feed the horses. Once you're done actually helping as much as you possibly can, come back and yell about the bad mean hypocrites all you want. Stop having tea parties. You know who the people are who don't have tea parties? Usually the people who can't afford to have tea parties.
But sure, fine. Let's do this dumb dance yet again. What am I doing? What have I done? I'm not writing up a fucking list, here's the most recent thing: the Valorous Few are guarding the Craft Hall so that people can get fed. You know what I'm paying my people for this job? Enough to feed their own damned families, because their families are hungry and going without too. They're getting a meal from the Crafters Guild while they work. They're getting money out of the contract for danger, expenses, profit enough to make it worthwhile. You know how much the Valorous Few itself is earning from that contract? Nothing. I charged no overhead. There's not going to be any profit, the Few itself is eating the costs outside of direct pay. /I/ am not getting paid in any way for this job. Why? It sure as fuck isn't to answer stupid questions like this, or to /look/ like I'm charitable or concerned or whatever else. It's /because I don't need it/.
What am I doing? I'm working. Sellswords don't work for free, and yet look at this, I'm working for free. It's because I don't need to buy new armor. I don't need a new sword. I haven't had to worry about eating for years, but I grew up in a situation where starvation was a fucking fact of life. And people don't have to starve in Arx. Or, at least, a whole lot of them don't have to starve if all the people with most of the food and most of the money would stop whining about neo-nobles for half a second and actually pitch in.
I bet most people asking these questions don't know who /is/ actually helping. Because the people doing that aren't bothering to stand around puffing out their chests to talk about how kind and great they are. Marquessa Reigna Keaton worked her fingers to the bone and stayed up all night to save people, she went back the next day, she's probably /still/ over there healing as many people as possible, and she's doing all of that /while pregnant/. And on top of that? Donating silver. And food. Looking for other ways to help out. Oh, what a shock, she's not here in the journals talking about what a giving person she is. She didn't go to that sermon yesterday and mention one damned thing about what she's done. She's probably going to be embarrassed that I mentioned it.
And if you are doing that? Even a fraction of that? If you're doing just about everything you can? Then I'm not talking about you.
Oh yeah, and Sereceni? Stop trying to recruit desperate people in the middle of a fucking crisis, pretending like somehow you're not going to make a bunch of silver from sending them off to risk themselves by being raiders, tilling your fields, working in your mines. Everyone knows where the fuck nobles get their coin from, none of you are fooling anyone, this is no sacrifice whatsoever on your part. You're trying to take advantage for your own gain and nothing else.
Secondly, this is a stupid fucking question that comes up every single time people start taking criticism from other people over not doing shit, and I'm going to explain why that is in four words: Why. Does. It. Matter? Why does it matter! Why? Because either someone is looking for an excuse for why /they/ don't have to do anything, an excuse for why they only have to do as much as whoever they're challenging, an excuse for how much better /they/ are, or because they are annoyed they were criticized and feel like having some kind of metaphorical sword measuring competition than actually helping.
Who cares what the person who called you out is, or isn't doing? Are they a hypocrite? Sure, alright. So what if they are? That's not an excuse for you not doing something. That's you pointing fingers like a child and whining to your mother that some kid over /there/ doesn't have to feed the horses. Once you're done actually helping as much as you possibly can, come back and yell about the bad mean hypocrites all you want. Stop having tea parties. You know who the people are who don't have tea parties? Usually the people who can't afford to have tea parties.
But sure, fine. Let's do this dumb dance yet again. What am I doing? What have I done? I'm not writing up a fucking list, here's the most recent thing: the Valorous Few are guarding the Craft Hall so that people can get fed. You know what I'm paying my people for this job? Enough to feed their own damned families, because their families are hungry and going without too. They're getting a meal from the Crafters Guild while they work. They're getting money out of the contract for danger, expenses, profit enough to make it worthwhile. You know how much the Valorous Few itself is earning from that contract? Nothing. I charged no overhead. There's not going to be any profit, the Few itself is eating the costs outside of direct pay. /I/ am not getting paid in any way for this job. Why? It sure as fuck isn't to answer stupid questions like this, or to /look/ like I'm charitable or concerned or whatever else. It's /because I don't need it/.
What am I doing? I'm working. Sellswords don't work for free, and yet look at this, I'm working for free. It's because I don't need to buy new armor. I don't need a new sword. I haven't had to worry about eating for years, but I grew up in a situation where starvation was a fucking fact of life. And people don't have to starve in Arx. Or, at least, a whole lot of them don't have to starve if all the people with most of the food and most of the money would stop whining about neo-nobles for half a second and actually pitch in.
I bet most people asking these questions don't know who /is/ actually helping. Because the people doing that aren't bothering to stand around puffing out their chests to talk about how kind and great they are. Marquessa Reigna Keaton worked her fingers to the bone and stayed up all night to save people, she went back the next day, she's probably /still/ over there healing as many people as possible, and she's doing all of that /while pregnant/. And on top of that? Donating silver. And food. Looking for other ways to help out. Oh, what a shock, she's not here in the journals talking about what a giving person she is. She didn't go to that sermon yesterday and mention one damned thing about what she's done. She's probably going to be embarrassed that I mentioned it.
And if you are doing that? Even a fraction of that? If you're doing just about everything you can? Then I'm not talking about you.
Oh yeah, and Sereceni? Stop trying to recruit desperate people in the middle of a fucking crisis, pretending like somehow you're not going to make a bunch of silver from sending them off to risk themselves by being raiders, tilling your fields, working in your mines. Everyone knows where the fuck nobles get their coin from, none of you are fooling anyone, this is no sacrifice whatsoever on your part. You're trying to take advantage for your own gain and nothing else.
Written By Shard
May 19, 2020, 8:02 p.m.(4/26/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Drusila
They need those, yes.
They do also need food.
They do also need food.
Written By Shard
May 17, 2020, 11:59 p.m.(4/23/1013 AR)
Anyone who thinks those riots started because of a bunch of damned insects is an idiot or just looking for someone else to blame. Do you think people starving in the Lowers is a problem that only started happening when a whirlpool sprung up? You haven't spent enough time in the Lowers, then. Desperate, hungry, angry people don't need some mysterious villain to tell them what to do. They need some fucking food.
Written By Shard
May 17, 2020, 4:51 p.m.(4/22/1013 AR)
You know what's great? When there's just been a riot in the Lowers involving thousands of hungry, desperate people angry about not being able to eat while the nobility has plenty, and then the next morning some noble swans in like they're the great savior of the masses. Trying to convince those hungry, desperate people that they're so much better than their peers, that they just want to help, that if all those people just uproot themselves from their homes and their lives and their city and sail away to some place they've probably never seen they'll be treated so well. That if they just agree to all come scrub /your/ fucking floors, and work /your/ fields, and crew /your/ ships, and wait on /you/ hand and foot, it'll all be so much better. Your motives are so transparent that glass isn't even enough to describe them, they might as well be tucked behind empty air.
There were people out there that got hurt. People who nearly died. People trying to save other people, people working long hours into the morning trying to heal those people, people trying to /feed/ those people enough that they wouldn't burn everything down. Where were you? Were you down there? Were you doing more than waving a sword around and ordering people to stop being angry about starving even if you were?
Are you all sitting up top chattering over brunch about how unreasonable and unruly the peasants have become? Tut, tut, tut over your tea? If you've got enough energy to pay heralds to shout your proclamations or write journals about how unsafe you feel in your big giant manors, I'm going to assume you weren't actually doing anything to try to help. The nobles, the commoners, and the godsworn who were doing that are all too busy trying to heal or sleep off the exhaustion from healing everyone else.
That's right. Prima Shard is being uppity. Everyone knows most of the Peerage would never just sit around behind their walls and only show up once things were safe again in order to try to exploit fear and pain to their own advantage. Upjumped commoners and all that. Surely, if I had been raised properly, I would know better than to dare criticize nobles being predictable nobles.
There were people out there that got hurt. People who nearly died. People trying to save other people, people working long hours into the morning trying to heal those people, people trying to /feed/ those people enough that they wouldn't burn everything down. Where were you? Were you down there? Were you doing more than waving a sword around and ordering people to stop being angry about starving even if you were?
Are you all sitting up top chattering over brunch about how unreasonable and unruly the peasants have become? Tut, tut, tut over your tea? If you've got enough energy to pay heralds to shout your proclamations or write journals about how unsafe you feel in your big giant manors, I'm going to assume you weren't actually doing anything to try to help. The nobles, the commoners, and the godsworn who were doing that are all too busy trying to heal or sleep off the exhaustion from healing everyone else.
That's right. Prima Shard is being uppity. Everyone knows most of the Peerage would never just sit around behind their walls and only show up once things were safe again in order to try to exploit fear and pain to their own advantage. Upjumped commoners and all that. Surely, if I had been raised properly, I would know better than to dare criticize nobles being predictable nobles.
Written By Shard
May 15, 2020, 7:51 p.m.(4/18/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Dianna
Where to start?
I think I'll start with this: I don't pity the Scholars for doing their job, and I think it's at least a little demeaning to do that, as though Scholars are servants that other people, always other people, aren't treating right. The poor, poor dears. Not you, of course. You're commenting on the contents of other people's journals, having Scholars bring them to you so that you can read them, or asking the Scholars what people have been writing, which I imagine does require some checking. Scholars are not anyone's servants, they've devoted themselves to carrying out Vellichor's work, and they chose to do that. Everyone chooses to be godsworn, even when there's a lot of pressure. It's one of the only ways for a commoner to be respected in the eyes of the Peerage, since the conversation has been about who, and who does not, deserve that respect.
It also makes very little sense to me to brag about it. I'm sure that some do, but I've never encountered an Archlector or a Legate who went around talking about how wonderful it was, what a great sacrifice it was, for them personally to join the Faith. Preston almost always seems aggravatingly self-righteous, but I've never seen him brag. Gloria's might, destroy the heretics, spread the light of the Faith via the sword if necessary, and so on, but none of that is bragging. It's just annoying. Although, there are quite a number of people that enjoy reading or hearing it, so I also suppose that there are people somewhere that enjoy whatever it is that you're doing here.
A Scholar can obviously correct me if I'm mistaken here, but Vellichor doesn't ask for us to only write nice things. He doesn't ask us to only read our own journals, or only read other journals for some sort of enlightenment, or to not have conversations through them. He doesn't ask us not to be rude. He doesn't ask us not to make ourselves look like idiots. He asks us to write as much of ourselves down in our own words as we can. He asks us who we are, so other people can know who we are. Vellichor isn't about high minded intellectual exchanges, or social niceties, or writing at least somewhat decent poetry that doesn't embarrass everyone who reads it. No, those are the rules of the nobility. Nobles insist on decorum and get flustered when nobles aren't adhering to that in public, that's not something the godsworn should care about when it comes to White Journals, otherwise why would anyone who wasn't a noble be asked to write them?
You brought up Skald, well Skald's not about making /good/ choices. Making good choices is great, but Skald is Choice. Vellichor is Knowledge. People can choose to write in whatever fucking tone they want to write in. And, with some exceptions, they can also choose to write whatever the fuck they want to write about.
If I ever have children, yes, I want them to look at these and know who I am and who I was. I want them to know me. I don't want them to know some sanitized version of me, someone who wrote things a certain way so that other people wouldn't get the vapors. I want them to see me being an asshole. I want them to see me saying things that I've been spit on for. I want them to see all the people who start angry scribbling about how I should go back and live in the woods. The people I've had thoughtful conversations with. The things I wrote when I was upset, the things I wrote when I was lonely, the things I wrote when I was missing my people. I want them to see that page where all I did was write the word 'no'. That's me. And yes, I often write /at/ people, and often, if nothing else, to make them angry. That's me too.
My parents couldn't write journals, so there's nothing of them for me to read, and I would have wanted to read that. All of that. I want to know who they were as people and I will never know. So if I have kids, they'll know. They'll know me.
And they'll know that this is how I wrote my real name, by writing exactly who I am. Just not always in the Whites.
I think I'll start with this: I don't pity the Scholars for doing their job, and I think it's at least a little demeaning to do that, as though Scholars are servants that other people, always other people, aren't treating right. The poor, poor dears. Not you, of course. You're commenting on the contents of other people's journals, having Scholars bring them to you so that you can read them, or asking the Scholars what people have been writing, which I imagine does require some checking. Scholars are not anyone's servants, they've devoted themselves to carrying out Vellichor's work, and they chose to do that. Everyone chooses to be godsworn, even when there's a lot of pressure. It's one of the only ways for a commoner to be respected in the eyes of the Peerage, since the conversation has been about who, and who does not, deserve that respect.
It also makes very little sense to me to brag about it. I'm sure that some do, but I've never encountered an Archlector or a Legate who went around talking about how wonderful it was, what a great sacrifice it was, for them personally to join the Faith. Preston almost always seems aggravatingly self-righteous, but I've never seen him brag. Gloria's might, destroy the heretics, spread the light of the Faith via the sword if necessary, and so on, but none of that is bragging. It's just annoying. Although, there are quite a number of people that enjoy reading or hearing it, so I also suppose that there are people somewhere that enjoy whatever it is that you're doing here.
A Scholar can obviously correct me if I'm mistaken here, but Vellichor doesn't ask for us to only write nice things. He doesn't ask us to only read our own journals, or only read other journals for some sort of enlightenment, or to not have conversations through them. He doesn't ask us not to be rude. He doesn't ask us not to make ourselves look like idiots. He asks us to write as much of ourselves down in our own words as we can. He asks us who we are, so other people can know who we are. Vellichor isn't about high minded intellectual exchanges, or social niceties, or writing at least somewhat decent poetry that doesn't embarrass everyone who reads it. No, those are the rules of the nobility. Nobles insist on decorum and get flustered when nobles aren't adhering to that in public, that's not something the godsworn should care about when it comes to White Journals, otherwise why would anyone who wasn't a noble be asked to write them?
You brought up Skald, well Skald's not about making /good/ choices. Making good choices is great, but Skald is Choice. Vellichor is Knowledge. People can choose to write in whatever fucking tone they want to write in. And, with some exceptions, they can also choose to write whatever the fuck they want to write about.
If I ever have children, yes, I want them to look at these and know who I am and who I was. I want them to know me. I don't want them to know some sanitized version of me, someone who wrote things a certain way so that other people wouldn't get the vapors. I want them to see me being an asshole. I want them to see me saying things that I've been spit on for. I want them to see all the people who start angry scribbling about how I should go back and live in the woods. The people I've had thoughtful conversations with. The things I wrote when I was upset, the things I wrote when I was lonely, the things I wrote when I was missing my people. I want them to see that page where all I did was write the word 'no'. That's me. And yes, I often write /at/ people, and often, if nothing else, to make them angry. That's me too.
My parents couldn't write journals, so there's nothing of them for me to read, and I would have wanted to read that. All of that. I want to know who they were as people and I will never know. So if I have kids, they'll know. They'll know me.
And they'll know that this is how I wrote my real name, by writing exactly who I am. Just not always in the Whites.
Written By Shard
May 13, 2020, 11:57 p.m.(4/15/1013 AR)
Yes, that's right, that was my entire entry. I let it take up a whole page. I'm going to let this one fill up a whole page too, before I stop being a smug jackass.
A wasteful, smug jackass.
Right, I'm done.
A wasteful, smug jackass.
Right, I'm done.
Written By Shard
May 13, 2020, 11:54 p.m.(4/15/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Alecstazi
No.
Written By Shard
May 13, 2020, 3:20 p.m.(4/14/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Rysen
I don't know you at all, but in your case you're presenting yourself as a /whiny/ asshole. Yeah, I'm not a charmer. So why is it that I'm having to point out to someone like you that the rules of the nobility, which nobles came up with at some point in the past, say that if you're throwing shit at each other you need to stop throwing shit, get Champions, have a duel, and then let it go.
I got /into/ a verbal shit flinging contest with Alecstazi a few years ago, and I /did/ challenge him over it. We didn't even end up needing the duel, because we communicated and worked it out in private like vaguely reasonable people. And I still think he's an asshole, and he probably still thinks /I'm/ an asshole, and I bet we could start up a hell of a fucking fight right now if we wanted to. But you know what? He has principles, even if I really hate some of them. He wasn't petty. I wouldn't really say he was any meaner than a lot of people I've had arguments with, and other people have certainly been nastier than he was. And he wasn't even arrogant either once I realized where he was coming from.
I don't know the details of what's going on between the two of you and I really don't care. I also don't have any idea why you're bringing things up that are completely unrelated, such as what you're doing or what's happened to you. I'm sure Alecstazi is also doing stuff, and I'm sure I don't really care about that either.
The point is, you're not supposed to still be going off and insulting him in your white journal, where anyone can read it. The purpose of duels is for nobles to work things out without starting wars, particularly wars over extremely stupid things. I guess the purpose is also to have duels over extremely stupid things because nobles get bored, but officially the first reason. And if /I/ can manage that, so can you.
I got /into/ a verbal shit flinging contest with Alecstazi a few years ago, and I /did/ challenge him over it. We didn't even end up needing the duel, because we communicated and worked it out in private like vaguely reasonable people. And I still think he's an asshole, and he probably still thinks /I'm/ an asshole, and I bet we could start up a hell of a fucking fight right now if we wanted to. But you know what? He has principles, even if I really hate some of them. He wasn't petty. I wouldn't really say he was any meaner than a lot of people I've had arguments with, and other people have certainly been nastier than he was. And he wasn't even arrogant either once I realized where he was coming from.
I don't know the details of what's going on between the two of you and I really don't care. I also don't have any idea why you're bringing things up that are completely unrelated, such as what you're doing or what's happened to you. I'm sure Alecstazi is also doing stuff, and I'm sure I don't really care about that either.
The point is, you're not supposed to still be going off and insulting him in your white journal, where anyone can read it. The purpose of duels is for nobles to work things out without starting wars, particularly wars over extremely stupid things. I guess the purpose is also to have duels over extremely stupid things because nobles get bored, but officially the first reason. And if /I/ can manage that, so can you.
Written By Shard
May 12, 2020, 4:21 p.m.(4/12/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Rysen
I don't give a shit about love matches. I also think Alecstazi is an asshole.
But this is fucking embarrassing at this point, just shut up until the people you've recruited go and beat on each other with some version of shaped metal on a stick. And then continue to shut up about this afterward, I'm fairly certain that's how it all works.
But this is fucking embarrassing at this point, just shut up until the people you've recruited go and beat on each other with some version of shaped metal on a stick. And then continue to shut up about this afterward, I'm fairly certain that's how it all works.
Written By Shard
April 25, 2020, 5:06 a.m.(3/5/1013 AR)
If you go far enough into the Everwinter, the seasons are strange. ...And there are seasons, though sometimes it's hard to tell them apart from each other. In the summer, the days get longer and longer, but far longer than they get down here, or even down near the Bonespire. They get so long that for at least one day, there's simply no night at all. It's damned hard to figure out when anything is; mostly we just knew to sleep when we were tired. We only spent a few winters that far north, only when we had to, because Winter itself rules there, and Winter is a king that has never known mercy. But in winter, the nights eat the day instead, getting longer and longer until the sun simply doesn't rise. That's when you huddle into as many furs as you have, you crowd around a fire and you hope that you have enough things to burn to last until light comes again. It's also good to hope nothing comes to eat you during that night, because everything is hungry in the Everwinter and a fire draws attention. It's not always enough to keep predators away.
It doesn't snow as much as you'd think, either. It's usually the wind biting at you and pulling the snow up with it. But when it does snow, it's a raging storm, and all you can do is try to hide from it. Only idiots stand outside when that happens. Those idiots turn blue and die.
You see the lights a lot more often in the Everwinter. They'll dance across the stars. We used to have a lot of stories about what the lights were, though I doubt any of them are actually true. But you never know. There are much stranger things in the North.
It doesn't snow as much as you'd think, either. It's usually the wind biting at you and pulling the snow up with it. But when it does snow, it's a raging storm, and all you can do is try to hide from it. Only idiots stand outside when that happens. Those idiots turn blue and die.
You see the lights a lot more often in the Everwinter. They'll dance across the stars. We used to have a lot of stories about what the lights were, though I doubt any of them are actually true. But you never know. There are much stranger things in the North.
Written By Shard
April 18, 2020, 5:23 a.m.(2/19/1013 AR)
My parents saved me, but she saved me too. She ran all night. Kept crossing streams to try to cover her trail. Carried me the whole way, the whole way, while I cried and cried. Right through until dawn, until the smoke from the cooking fires of her tribe were rising up in front of us and one of the camp guards tried to help her and even then, she refused to let me go.
I remember that. I remember the empty pyre they made for my parents, the feathers she burned for them. I remember her wiping my tears and telling me that the ravens would find where my parents had fallen and guide their souls to a place that was always summer, and where there were no monsters. I remember her saying that all of them, the whole tribe, would be my family. They would protect me. She told me that I wouldn't be alone.
Her name was Mashti. I hope it still is. I hope she's still out there.
I remember that. I remember the empty pyre they made for my parents, the feathers she burned for them. I remember her wiping my tears and telling me that the ravens would find where my parents had fallen and guide their souls to a place that was always summer, and where there were no monsters. I remember her saying that all of them, the whole tribe, would be my family. They would protect me. She told me that I wouldn't be alone.
Her name was Mashti. I hope it still is. I hope she's still out there.
Written By Shard
April 12, 2020, 1:59 p.m.(2/7/1013 AR)
You know, I wasn't going to say anything. People are mourning, the only times Arianna and I ever interacted were almost entirely arguments and those pretty scattered and far apart. I didn't know her. I wasn't really any part of her life. It didn't seem right to put anything out there. It's why I never wrote anything openly about Aislin Ashford when she went, because we didn't meet each other often and, while she did a lot of good for me, while I still owe her a debt because I could never pay that back even if she'd never expect it, never ask for it, while I admired her--I couldn't call us friends. Our paths didn't cross enough and her real friends and family didn't deserve me pretending like we were. So it didn't make any sense to say anything about Princess Arianna Pravus, because about all I could say would be that, if she had to go, taking a bunch of slaving murderers with her is a pretty good way to go out.
But it would be great, it would be really swell, if House Pravus could go one single, infinitesimal second without patting each other on the back and crowing about how they're the greatest supporters of freedom and the most ardent opponents of slavery out there, maybe the best there ever were, because slavers were in their way when they went into the Chain with the goal of growing their domain as part of their bid to become a Great House. What they did was admirable, it involved a lot of loss, and it deserves praise. There are a lot of former slaves that owe Pravus their freedom and their new lives, thousands of them.
But they don't speak of the allies that helped them. They don't speak of Grimhall, they don't speak of Stormbreak. They don't speak of the Faith, the other Great Houses, individuals, entire armies, often the whole Compact that have been fighting and sacrificing against slavery since at least the days of Queen Triscali the Black Rose, let alone all the others who have been involved in it just in my own lifetime. How many missions did Princess Reese Grayson lead into the Gray Forest? How many sacrificed their lives defending Farhaven? How many dead fighting slavers who attacked the Lodge of Petrichor, where Duke Harald Grimhall himself fell? How many died defending /Setarco/?
And how many are gathering, planning, and marching to meet the Skal'dajan fleet that's been set against House Pravus? How many have answered the crusade, how many have flocked to the banners of Houses great and small? How many are prepared to die for the sake of freedom?
Maybe it's not the best look for Pravus to use the death of a family member they're still mourning who only died /a few days ago/ in order to take political potshots at people and organizations who criticized her for things that had nothing to do with fighting for freedom or opposing slavery and everything to do with her mocking a dead and beloved member of the Faith; an action that, at the time, Pravus insisted was Arianna's and Arianna's alone and they couldn't be held accountable for it, and yet immediately chose to throw the entire weight of their House's influence against the Nightingale of the Bard's College, a commoner, who dared to suggest it wasn't a good thing to do.
Maybe. I don't know. It seems in poor taste. But really, who's going to bother reading the Whites of a prodigal commoner at any time, let alone with so many more important things going on in Arvum?
But it would be great, it would be really swell, if House Pravus could go one single, infinitesimal second without patting each other on the back and crowing about how they're the greatest supporters of freedom and the most ardent opponents of slavery out there, maybe the best there ever were, because slavers were in their way when they went into the Chain with the goal of growing their domain as part of their bid to become a Great House. What they did was admirable, it involved a lot of loss, and it deserves praise. There are a lot of former slaves that owe Pravus their freedom and their new lives, thousands of them.
But they don't speak of the allies that helped them. They don't speak of Grimhall, they don't speak of Stormbreak. They don't speak of the Faith, the other Great Houses, individuals, entire armies, often the whole Compact that have been fighting and sacrificing against slavery since at least the days of Queen Triscali the Black Rose, let alone all the others who have been involved in it just in my own lifetime. How many missions did Princess Reese Grayson lead into the Gray Forest? How many sacrificed their lives defending Farhaven? How many dead fighting slavers who attacked the Lodge of Petrichor, where Duke Harald Grimhall himself fell? How many died defending /Setarco/?
And how many are gathering, planning, and marching to meet the Skal'dajan fleet that's been set against House Pravus? How many have answered the crusade, how many have flocked to the banners of Houses great and small? How many are prepared to die for the sake of freedom?
Maybe it's not the best look for Pravus to use the death of a family member they're still mourning who only died /a few days ago/ in order to take political potshots at people and organizations who criticized her for things that had nothing to do with fighting for freedom or opposing slavery and everything to do with her mocking a dead and beloved member of the Faith; an action that, at the time, Pravus insisted was Arianna's and Arianna's alone and they couldn't be held accountable for it, and yet immediately chose to throw the entire weight of their House's influence against the Nightingale of the Bard's College, a commoner, who dared to suggest it wasn't a good thing to do.
Maybe. I don't know. It seems in poor taste. But really, who's going to bother reading the Whites of a prodigal commoner at any time, let alone with so many more important things going on in Arvum?
Written By Shard
April 5, 2020, 9:24 p.m.(1/22/1013 AR)
You'd think the nobility had never read a dirty book before.
I know some of you have. I know for a fact. Don't think I don't notice what's on your shelves when I'm waiting around for you to deign to turn up for contract negotiations.
I know some of you have. I know for a fact. Don't think I don't notice what's on your shelves when I'm waiting around for you to deign to turn up for contract negotiations.
Written By Shard
March 7, 2020, 4:22 a.m.(11/19/1012 AR)
I've said before that I'm not a crusader. I have no interest in holy wars, and I don't think I ever will.
But I will kill slavers. I will cut through each and every slaver that I have to in order to reach the one they knowingly or unknowingly worship. If they put a wall of slaves between me and them, if there is no other way to break their chains than to send them to the Wheel, then at least their torment will be ended. At least in death they're free. And at least I can see to it that their master joins them.
This is how it is with the Horned One. If this is how it must be with Skaldaja, so be it.
But I will kill slavers. I will cut through each and every slaver that I have to in order to reach the one they knowingly or unknowingly worship. If they put a wall of slaves between me and them, if there is no other way to break their chains than to send them to the Wheel, then at least their torment will be ended. At least in death they're free. And at least I can see to it that their master joins them.
This is how it is with the Horned One. If this is how it must be with Skaldaja, so be it.
Written By Shard
Feb. 24, 2020, 4:49 a.m.(10/23/1012 AR)
There is a saying in my tribe, that was directed at me more than I'd care to admit, that goes as follows: lone wolves rarely prosper. It's true, though that 'rarely' is also important; there are always exceptions. Most lone wolves don't stay that way, provided they survive long enough. Most lone wolves are only looking to form their own packs, or, occasionally, to try to find acceptance in another. But while they're lone, they're vulnerable. They have no territory, they have no protection, they have no help in the hunt. Starvation will stalk them, and any large predator might kill them, particularly other wolves. Anything larger than a lost fawn is likely out of their ability to kill on their own, so they live off of rats and mice and the occasional rabbit. They scavenge. The survivors become careful. Cautious. Even paranoid. Some might expect the most powerful wolves to be the ones to survive this kind of situation, but they'd be wrong. It's the ones that learn cunning that last the longest, provided they don't think themselves to be smarter than they actually are.
There was also the saying that 'a greedy raven eats well, but a fat raven can't fly', but I'm not sure how well that kind of wisdom would go over in this city.
There was also the saying that 'a greedy raven eats well, but a fat raven can't fly', but I'm not sure how well that kind of wisdom would go over in this city.
Written By Shard
Feb. 18, 2020, 2:58 p.m.(10.399592427248677/16.377175925925926/1012.7832993689374 AR)
Relationship Note on Arik
Those Abandoned bent the knee because the Undying Empire not only offered them protection, not only offered them training, but proved they were both capable of and willing to provide it. Protection from the Compact, but also protection from the Horned Butcher. As much as I hate the sacrifice they took, it's important for people to understand /why/ these Abandoned would make that choice, or else this is just going to keep happening. Those people are safer now than they've been in a long, long, long time. And while I doubt the Undying Empire thinks of them as anything more than most people in the Compact do--resources to be put to use, at best--I also doubt they're being treated like scum stuck to someone's shoe either. I doubt they're in danger of being killed or driven away because the person they've sworn to changed their mind about whether they should actually be allowed to live, a thing which I will remind anyone reading this journal was happening in the Compact, in the Oathlands where these people were living, not long before they made the decision to bow to the Undying Empire.
The Undying Empire has a foothold on Arvum in part because of the danger presented by the Horned Butcher and his followers, but it also has one precisely because of the Compact's old and also extremely recent history with both the Abandoned and Prodigals. This is not the sort of thing that gets solved by even more killing, and nobody in their right mind thinks we can go to war with the Undying Empire and ultimately come out on top.
The Undying Empire has a foothold on Arvum in part because of the danger presented by the Horned Butcher and his followers, but it also has one precisely because of the Compact's old and also extremely recent history with both the Abandoned and Prodigals. This is not the sort of thing that gets solved by even more killing, and nobody in their right mind thinks we can go to war with the Undying Empire and ultimately come out on top.
Written By Shard
Feb. 16, 2020, 2:44 p.m.(10.256215277777779/8.348055555555554/1012.7713512731482 AR)
I don't understand the expectation so many people have to simply be told what to do, whenever someone with some amount of power offers them a choice or an exchange. I especially don't understand expecting that of the Seraph of the First Choice. Skald does not give orders. I'm confident he doesn't even give instructions. He doesn't even give /paths/. You stand in an open field with the entire world in all directions, and it's always up to you to decide where and how and why you move, if you even move at all. And if you're given an offer of power from him if you should choose to do something, of course you have to make all the choices to get there. Isn't that the whole point?
Written By Shard
Feb. 12, 2020, 12:47 p.m.(9.964812334656084/34.02949074074074/1012.7470676945546 AR)
I think people misunderstand why I often grimace or make faces when they call me Prima. Yes, it's uncomfortable, and strange, but it's been over two years since that revelation, I've dealt with it. No, I grimace or make faces because most people who use it think it's at least a little bit of a joke. They either don't know what it means, or they don't particularly care. They didn't care about who my family was before that revelation, and they don't see why they should care now. It's funny, or it's polite but empty, or it's both. As far as most anyone's concerned, I'm still just a commoner Prodigal who now has a weird title, the only purpose of which is to occasionally use it to try to needle me, because why even entertain the idea of taking it seriously?
Fine, but frankly, I wish they'd fucking stop.
Fine, but frankly, I wish they'd fucking stop.
Written By Shard
Feb. 10, 2020, 4:01 p.m.(9.728017939814816/27.769004629629627/1012.7273348283179 AR)
Relationship Note on Leola
The Abandoned do not call themselves 'Abandoned' because /they/ broke /their/ oaths.
That aside, I don't understand. People want to be safe, I get that. But wild places are not safe places; that's why they're wild places. This promise doesn't sit well with me. Are you trying to fill up every single spot in Arvum so that there simply aren't any wild places any longer? Nothing but endless farms and fences and walls and cities? That won't make you safe either. If the wild places are gone, the things that lived in the wild places won't have any place to live except alongside you.
That aside, I don't understand. People want to be safe, I get that. But wild places are not safe places; that's why they're wild places. This promise doesn't sit well with me. Are you trying to fill up every single spot in Arvum so that there simply aren't any wild places any longer? Nothing but endless farms and fences and walls and cities? That won't make you safe either. If the wild places are gone, the things that lived in the wild places won't have any place to live except alongside you.
Written By Shard
Jan. 31, 2020, 11:44 a.m.(9.00145419973545/1.0814351851851853/1012.6667878499779 AR)
Has it been such a long time since the Compact faced an existential (or potentially existential) threat that some people just don't actually know how to deal with it? I suppose mostly soldiers and sailors saw the true scope of the Gyre War. Not too many saw what came for the Lodge. And the Silent War? I don't know. They were all victories though. Costly victories, but victories. They all let the Compact, as a whole, retain the idea that they're the biggest, baddest piece on the board. It seems like the reality of Jadairal and Cardia--the reality of them, not the concept of some vague empire in that direction we've never seen or talked to--just drives some people out of their head to the point they start insisting that no, really, the Compact is still superior in power, the other empires are secretly afraid of us for some reason, and we actually still hold all the cards. Or some other people decide that the only thing we can do is start throwing our weight around and grabbing everything in sight as fast as possible, as if this will impress the other empires and convince them that we actually are the big bullies we say we are, worthy of being respected and feared.
The Compact did not get through the Reckoning or the War of Stolen Names by puffing out our chests, overextending ourselves, or denying the reality of the situation. Importantly, the Compact also didn't get through the Reckoning or the War of Stolen names alone. The Compact had /allies/. And those allies weren't won over by braying about how we're just the /best/ and everyone should look up to us by virtue of our existing. They weren't won over by force, or dragged kicking and screaming into an alliance against their will. We cannot take on the entire world by ourselves just by being /stubborn/ enough. Or, at least, we can't do it /only/ by being stubborn enough. Wouldn't that be nice.
Being the underdog isn't the end of things. Take it from someone who has been the underdog her entire life. It doesn't mean you roll over and submit, or give up what's important to you. It doesn't mean you let them change who you are. But it does mean thinking differently. It means approaching things differently. It means being at least a little bit cautious. It means making friends, and not enemies, where you can. And it also means you don't always get everything you want by shouting and waving your weapons.
The Compact did not get through the Reckoning or the War of Stolen Names by puffing out our chests, overextending ourselves, or denying the reality of the situation. Importantly, the Compact also didn't get through the Reckoning or the War of Stolen names alone. The Compact had /allies/. And those allies weren't won over by braying about how we're just the /best/ and everyone should look up to us by virtue of our existing. They weren't won over by force, or dragged kicking and screaming into an alliance against their will. We cannot take on the entire world by ourselves just by being /stubborn/ enough. Or, at least, we can't do it /only/ by being stubborn enough. Wouldn't that be nice.
Being the underdog isn't the end of things. Take it from someone who has been the underdog her entire life. It doesn't mean you roll over and submit, or give up what's important to you. It doesn't mean you let them change who you are. But it does mean thinking differently. It means approaching things differently. It means being at least a little bit cautious. It means making friends, and not enemies, where you can. And it also means you don't always get everything you want by shouting and waving your weapons.
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