Written By Umbroise
Feb. 13, 2019, 3:59 a.m.(7/23/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Your statements are kindly worded during this difficult time, Sir Preston. Of course, if it is in my power to do so, and with the grace of the gods, I will do my best to ensure that the Seraph of Highrock is duly honored, his remains returned into the embrace of his family, the Faith.
As to duels, what if one is a House Sword, and the other neither House Sword nor Champion? This is our dilemma. This is why we seek the path of diplomacy, rather than a duel. While I am certain Gloria's rites would be perfectly acceptable in some instances, in this instance, the proposal is not in accordance with the honored traditions of the Compact.
I shall take your wise and gentle words into consideration as we move forward in negotiations.
As to duels, what if one is a House Sword, and the other neither House Sword nor Champion? This is our dilemma. This is why we seek the path of diplomacy, rather than a duel. While I am certain Gloria's rites would be perfectly acceptable in some instances, in this instance, the proposal is not in accordance with the honored traditions of the Compact.
I shall take your wise and gentle words into consideration as we move forward in negotiations.
Written By Thena
Feb. 3, 2019, 7:24 p.m.(7/4/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
You are correct. When Grandmaster Armel died, I received a number of messenger expressing concern for his pet rabbits' welfare. I said that an ancient and venerated Faith Militant order could damned well take care of a few rabbits, and we have.
I lay no claim whatsoever to the title of 'Bunny Knight'.
I lay no claim whatsoever to the title of 'Bunny Knight'.
Written By Lucita
Feb. 2, 2019, 11:53 p.m.(7/3/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Good listener, good advice, good fighter and organizer. Pleasant personality and easy on the eyes, too. He makes meetings over distressing situations not as difficult as they could be.
Written By Thena
Jan. 27, 2019, 1:21 p.m.(6/18/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I did get better, but no thanks to the man who who put me there in the first place.
Written By Amund
Jan. 21, 2019, 11:51 a.m.(6/6/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Your assumption is that the ways of the people and their culture will cease to exist when there are external pressures. You give the Arvani too little credit. It doesn't matter who the overlord is. Banners will always change with conquest and diplomacy. What won't is how people go about their business. That, in the end, is culture. It's intrinsic to the way people live.
Written By Amund
Jan. 20, 2019, 2:28 p.m.(6/4/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Pontificating about survival is all good and well until you understand it is, verily, not a virtue. It's a requirement. And that has a cost in and of itself.
Written By Shard
Dec. 16, 2018, 9:56 p.m.(3/9/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
It baffled me at first, but it's not too hard to understand. People need to make their way, and sometimes all they have are strong arms and a sharp blade. Sometimes they have nowhere else to go, or nowhere else will take them. Often they just like fighting, and being paid for fighting. There are dozens of reasons, but they're usually the same reasons anyone does anything.
You often don't live long, unless you're good, or lucky, and usually both. You don't get mourned the way soldiers and knights do. You don't get praised for what you do when the nobles get together to talk about sacrifice and war. There aren't any monuments. Funds for orphans. And you usually get sat on the front line, to take the brunt of anything that comes.
That's the wars. There's nastier work that people approach you and pay you for, because they don't want to get their hands dirty.
You often don't live long, unless you're good, or lucky, and usually both. You don't get mourned the way soldiers and knights do. You don't get praised for what you do when the nobles get together to talk about sacrifice and war. There aren't any monuments. Funds for orphans. And you usually get sat on the front line, to take the brunt of anything that comes.
That's the wars. There's nastier work that people approach you and pay you for, because they don't want to get their hands dirty.
Written By Rinel
Dec. 2, 2018, 4:07 p.m.(2/8/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I thank you for your kind words. I pray only that my journey ends in the service of our holy Gods--for it is in such that will I find happiness.
Written By Thena
Dec. 1, 2018, 10:31 p.m.(2/6/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I thank you because I remember what it was like to have no one to rely on but myself, and I'm grateful that that is no longer the case.
And you are very much a brother to me, even though I roll my eyes when you call me Little Sister in front of people who need to take me seriously. But I think you already know that.
And I do pity those who oppose us when we're united in one purpose, and I pity their furniture.
I'm still /older/ than you.
And you are very much a brother to me, even though I roll my eyes when you call me Little Sister in front of people who need to take me seriously. But I think you already know that.
And I do pity those who oppose us when we're united in one purpose, and I pity their furniture.
I'm still /older/ than you.
Written By Thesarin
Nov. 22, 2018, 2:19 p.m.(1/15/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Grandmaster, I ain't saying we ought not kill our enemies. That's been my business damned near thirty years.
Would be nice if the world were one peoples didn't come across every border to take what they could from those ain't could stop them. For all it'd mean folk like you and me would needs learn a trade. But that ain't the world we live.
Wherever the Compact can't hold, more like than not Abandoned will settle. Wherever the Compact can hold, it'll border spots it can't. Learned folk tell me there's two of the Abandoned or more for every soul in the Compact.
There's Abandoned who needs be your enemies and there's Abandoned who ain't. March on folk ain't your enemies and it's damned sure they are after. Tens of thousands of Abandoned, these last years, have taken shelter in Deepwood and Riven from the Horned God and his slaves; who do you reckon they can look to for shelter when it's the Compact coming for them?
Would be nice if the world were one peoples didn't come across every border to take what they could from those ain't could stop them. For all it'd mean folk like you and me would needs learn a trade. But that ain't the world we live.
Wherever the Compact can't hold, more like than not Abandoned will settle. Wherever the Compact can hold, it'll border spots it can't. Learned folk tell me there's two of the Abandoned or more for every soul in the Compact.
There's Abandoned who needs be your enemies and there's Abandoned who ain't. March on folk ain't your enemies and it's damned sure they are after. Tens of thousands of Abandoned, these last years, have taken shelter in Deepwood and Riven from the Horned God and his slaves; who do you reckon they can look to for shelter when it's the Compact coming for them?
Written By Shard
Nov. 21, 2018, 3:57 p.m.(1/14/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Oh yes, we have very different perspectives. But when I said 'slavery or death', I didn't mean to imply the choice was the Abandoned's. I've never heard of the Horned One giving people that choice. It would surprise me quite a bit if he did, considering. If you're quick enough, you might be able to cut your own throat. Throw yourself on your sword or off a cliff. Kill your family? But otherwise, if he wants to take your name, he will take your name. He will take you. And then you're lost to almost everything that can be done.
I don't think we'll ever agree on what should be done, but your proposed solution is much better than what I've heard in the past. You making a distinction between different tribes is a lot more than I hear from most people on this subject. And when the Horned One is coming, I much prefer having tribes flee to simply wiping them out to make sure he can't use them against the Compact. This causes its own problems down the line, but it's better than the alternative.
I don't think we'll ever agree on what should be done, but your proposed solution is much better than what I've heard in the past. You making a distinction between different tribes is a lot more than I hear from most people on this subject. And when the Horned One is coming, I much prefer having tribes flee to simply wiping them out to make sure he can't use them against the Compact. This causes its own problems down the line, but it's better than the alternative.
Written By Thesarin
Nov. 21, 2018, 11:16 a.m.(1/13/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
And if you drive them from the lands hold the bones of their mothers' mothers, and leave them without homes or shelter, who do you reckon is waiting to take 'em in, making them promises of their pride, their lands, and vengeance against them killed their kin and left them with nothing?
Written By Fortunato
Nov. 21, 2018, 10:53 a.m.(1/13/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Thank you for indulging me. It is easy for an artist with no authority and no capacity for battle to warn broad cautions and speak in a way that reflects my own nightmares. You did not have to address the doubts of a nobody about a word choice.
Written By Marian
Nov. 21, 2018, 2:01 a.m.(1/12/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I will not suffer an enemy at my doorstep. Nor would I sleep well while they rested on my lands. Because I have been raided in the dead of night by enemies of the Compact. I have woken to the cries of warriors falling at the hands of the enemy. Had to rush to grab my sword and defend children in a nursery from murdering marauders who entered my home. I have known the grief of losing family and friends from such a raid.
So for those critics that speak harmony, know that I lean more on the side of supporting Sir Preston's efforts to actively push back Abandoned tribes to the borders. If there is an Abandoned tribe found on Compact lands in the North, they are asked to bend on knee or move on peacefully. For diplomatic reasons, we've offered in the past to assist Abandoned tribes in their relocation off Compact lands, escorting them to the borders and helping them leave so they are out of the path of conflict with the Abyss. While I don't wish harm on these people that chose to live their lives in peace but outside the Compact, they are not my responsibility if they do not bend on knee. I shall not offer them my protection as long as they reject the Crown and Compact.
Violence is never my first option. If they answer in violence, they are killed without remorse because of the threat they pose to our people. Those survivors and non-combatants are given a choice again after the battle to bend on knee or move on. If they move on, then once again, we offer escort to ensure they arrive at the borders without incident. It's brutal but effective in keeping the lands as cleared as they can be.
There are large pockets of the land that are far away from civilized roads that only get scouted periodically because there are not enough warriors in the North to be everywhere. After the Battle of Stormwall, when many warriors fell in battle, those patrols became even less. As we rebuild from these losses, we start picking up these patrols when weather permits. I imagine it will be more difficult in this Spring because we had to take time to recover last season.
Those tainted with the Abyss are dealt with swiftly. There is no reasoning with the corrupted, no parlay to those that would serve the Abyss.
So for those critics that speak harmony, know that I lean more on the side of supporting Sir Preston's efforts to actively push back Abandoned tribes to the borders. If there is an Abandoned tribe found on Compact lands in the North, they are asked to bend on knee or move on peacefully. For diplomatic reasons, we've offered in the past to assist Abandoned tribes in their relocation off Compact lands, escorting them to the borders and helping them leave so they are out of the path of conflict with the Abyss. While I don't wish harm on these people that chose to live their lives in peace but outside the Compact, they are not my responsibility if they do not bend on knee. I shall not offer them my protection as long as they reject the Crown and Compact.
Violence is never my first option. If they answer in violence, they are killed without remorse because of the threat they pose to our people. Those survivors and non-combatants are given a choice again after the battle to bend on knee or move on. If they move on, then once again, we offer escort to ensure they arrive at the borders without incident. It's brutal but effective in keeping the lands as cleared as they can be.
There are large pockets of the land that are far away from civilized roads that only get scouted periodically because there are not enough warriors in the North to be everywhere. After the Battle of Stormwall, when many warriors fell in battle, those patrols became even less. As we rebuild from these losses, we start picking up these patrols when weather permits. I imagine it will be more difficult in this Spring because we had to take time to recover last season.
Those tainted with the Abyss are dealt with swiftly. There is no reasoning with the corrupted, no parlay to those that would serve the Abyss.
Written By Shard
Nov. 20, 2018, 5:14 p.m.(1/12/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
You and I will never fully agree on this, but the things you've written recently are less...harsh than I tend to expect from the Templars. Obviously there are dangers that have to be dealt with. Bandits. Cultists. The Compact and many Abandoned tribes have been raiding each other probably since the end of the Reckoning. But I remember the fear. I remember harsh winters with an empty stomach because we didn't want to take the risk of wintering somewhere warmer, for fear of being attacked by Compact soldiers. I remember all our avoidance, our hiding, our wandering, our running amounting to nothing in the end, because we had a contract taken out on our lives anyway, and now my tribe wanders somewhere much, much farther away from the Compact /and/ the Horned One, somewhere with less food, less shelter, less warmth, because both would destroy them. If he hasn't destroyed them already.
I think, though, that what I would say is more or less this; choice is a very inconsequential thing when it comes to him. For probably most of those serving him, they never had a choice, and they have no choice now. He takes what he wants, and what he wants is to remove that ability to choose anything. Some chose to fight...they're enslaved or dead. Some chose to flee...they're enslaved or dead. Some didn't know the danger until it was far, far too late. And some feared you more than they feared him. Certainly, there are Abandoned who made the decision to join him more or less on their own; I know stories of at least one tribe in particular. But those types of people are rare. A slaver doesn't care if his slaves want to be free. And this slaver removes the ability of his slaves to even think against him.
And he will come here, regardless of whether or not there are more people to harvest along the way. We have things he wants.
I think, though, that what I would say is more or less this; choice is a very inconsequential thing when it comes to him. For probably most of those serving him, they never had a choice, and they have no choice now. He takes what he wants, and what he wants is to remove that ability to choose anything. Some chose to fight...they're enslaved or dead. Some chose to flee...they're enslaved or dead. Some didn't know the danger until it was far, far too late. And some feared you more than they feared him. Certainly, there are Abandoned who made the decision to join him more or less on their own; I know stories of at least one tribe in particular. But those types of people are rare. A slaver doesn't care if his slaves want to be free. And this slaver removes the ability of his slaves to even think against him.
And he will come here, regardless of whether or not there are more people to harvest along the way. We have things he wants.
Written By Fortunato
Nov. 20, 2018, 3:47 p.m.(1/12/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
My concern is that we make the Abandoned and the Abyss one and the same. My caution is toward seeing every expulsion or skirmish as a righteous one. My caution is against forgetting that the Abyss does not need permission or worship to corrupt or destroy. Shard can forever speak better and surer about her own people.
I ask only that you be careful about seeing people as resources for the Abyss. There are those who have indeed thus advocated preemptive slaughter in the name of safety.
I ask only that you be careful about seeing people as resources for the Abyss. There are those who have indeed thus advocated preemptive slaughter in the name of safety.
Written By Fortunato
Nov. 20, 2018, 1:03 a.m.(1/10/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Remember it is not only the Abandoned who can be a resource for the enemy. Remember that to be a 'resource' is often to be a victim.
Remember that a member of the Compact is not protected from becoming the same. Not if you killed or drove off every strange man or a woman in a thousand miles. We all grieve, but there is no 'safe'. And you cannot slaughter a place into being safe.
Remember that a member of the Compact is not protected from becoming the same. Not if you killed or drove off every strange man or a woman in a thousand miles. We all grieve, but there is no 'safe'. And you cannot slaughter a place into being safe.
Written By Shard
Nov. 20, 2018, 12:19 a.m.(1/10/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
Those who died at the Lodge were killed by one person. Two if you count his master. A lot of the people he sent against us were also his victims. The forest is full of villages he emptied. The Northlands are covered in the unmarked graves and the absent camps of the people he took or murdered. You've paid a high price, we've all paid a high price, to stop him where we did. But the Abandoned have been paying that price for far, far, far longer than the Compact. You're not the only people to have stood up to him. You're not the only people who have lost friends, family, fellow warriors to him. You're not the only ones who grieve.
You're right that he uses the Abandoned. He takes or kills anyone that fall within his grasp, and they don't have massive stone walls, or siege weapons, or enormous armies and orders of knights. All they can do is run, or fight and die, or start listening to his lies because he takes the truth of what the Compact has done and twists it back on you, convinces them that the only way they can have safety, the only way to have justice, the only way to keep what is most important to them is to join him. If me and my tribe had not already known some of the truth about him, we might well have done the same.
The way to stop this man is not by doing more things that he will use against you. It's not by attacking the people who are caught in the middle and pushing them further and further into his reach. The way to stop this man is to find him, to kill him, to tear him to pieces and burn the remains, to grind the bones and the ashes until nothing is left.
And do the same damned thing to anyone else that ever tries to take his place. That's how any of us get justice for what he's done. Or revenge.
You're right that he uses the Abandoned. He takes or kills anyone that fall within his grasp, and they don't have massive stone walls, or siege weapons, or enormous armies and orders of knights. All they can do is run, or fight and die, or start listening to his lies because he takes the truth of what the Compact has done and twists it back on you, convinces them that the only way they can have safety, the only way to have justice, the only way to keep what is most important to them is to join him. If me and my tribe had not already known some of the truth about him, we might well have done the same.
The way to stop this man is not by doing more things that he will use against you. It's not by attacking the people who are caught in the middle and pushing them further and further into his reach. The way to stop this man is to find him, to kill him, to tear him to pieces and burn the remains, to grind the bones and the ashes until nothing is left.
And do the same damned thing to anyone else that ever tries to take his place. That's how any of us get justice for what he's done. Or revenge.
Written By Fortunato
Nov. 1, 2018, 5:36 p.m.(12/1/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I am here to speak for doubt.
I am not here to speak for viciousness, for tyranny, for brutality, for sloth. But I will speak for doubt.
Do you really know the people you think you know? Are your visions of the gods too narrow? What do you rely on that is too fragile? What do you rely on that is not really there? The gods are greater and broader than we often speak of them. The world encompasses much. Even we may be greater than we expect.
There is the doubt that paralyzes, that corrodes, that makes us weak. And there is the doubt that leads us to look into the mirror and will ourselves brave. We who never thought we were that at all. We can speak of doubt as a chink in one's armor, or we can speak of doubt as realizing it was there, and that it can be repaired. Next year, if you and I still live, Preston, I'd like to take you to the masquerade.
I am not here to speak for viciousness, for tyranny, for brutality, for sloth. But I will speak for doubt.
Do you really know the people you think you know? Are your visions of the gods too narrow? What do you rely on that is too fragile? What do you rely on that is not really there? The gods are greater and broader than we often speak of them. The world encompasses much. Even we may be greater than we expect.
There is the doubt that paralyzes, that corrodes, that makes us weak. And there is the doubt that leads us to look into the mirror and will ourselves brave. We who never thought we were that at all. We can speak of doubt as a chink in one's armor, or we can speak of doubt as realizing it was there, and that it can be repaired. Next year, if you and I still live, Preston, I'd like to take you to the masquerade.
Written By Rosalie
Oct. 13, 2018, 7:08 p.m.(10/10/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
I understand your meaning, Sir Preston.. but I'm not sure I would equate an heirloom weapon held in a family for centuries with a few silver from a purse. It would be more the equivalent of the servant being entrusted with your great-grandmother's heirloom ring, and having the servant barter it away for something. While yes, the merchant still deserves their payment, the ring itself should be returned to its rightful owner and equal economic compensation accepted in its place. That ring was accepted under false pretenses, after all.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.