Written By Ailith
Feb. 2, 2019, 10:05 a.m.(7/2/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
If the ends mean compromising your fidelity, your honor, your Faith, all in the ideal of achieving a supposed wondrous end, do you remain wholly untarnished? Who are impacted unfavorably by your ends? Every decision has its consequences, from minor to major.
There are those, despite how the ends removes traces of their being, however callous and horrendous, will do so and accept or scorn the judgment of their peers, lieges, the Crown and Faith. And when they return to the Wheel, they will discover the righteousness of the Gods.
This is why we choose to uphold our fidelity and honor. Our Faith shall guide us through and have care of the choices we make.
There are those, despite how the ends removes traces of their being, however callous and horrendous, will do so and accept or scorn the judgment of their peers, lieges, the Crown and Faith. And when they return to the Wheel, they will discover the righteousness of the Gods.
This is why we choose to uphold our fidelity and honor. Our Faith shall guide us through and have care of the choices we make.
Written By Preston
Feb. 2, 2019, 8:41 a.m.(7/1/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Justify? No. If the means are bad, they are bad. If they are wrong, they are wrong. But, it may make you think the consequences are worth bearing. That is a choice people must make, the Gods gave us the freedom to do bad as well as good.
As other say though, it is a complicated matter, and often far less extreme than in the abstract. Still, our actions must be honourable, innocents must be protected, our oaths upheld - if that forces us in a position where we might lose, then perhaps it is better to lose as a good person than it is to live knowing you forfeited Gloria's respect?
As other say though, it is a complicated matter, and often far less extreme than in the abstract. Still, our actions must be honourable, innocents must be protected, our oaths upheld - if that forces us in a position where we might lose, then perhaps it is better to lose as a good person than it is to live knowing you forfeited Gloria's respect?
Written By Edain
Feb. 2, 2019, 5:33 a.m.(7/1/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
I have thought about your question and I hope it does not sound like I am being a semantic smart-ass when I say my answer is thus:
Do the ends *ever* justify the means?
Yes.
Do the ends *always* justify the means?
An emphatic no.
Do the ends *ever* justify the means?
Yes.
Do the ends *always* justify the means?
An emphatic no.
Written By Thena
Feb. 1, 2019, 10:52 p.m.(7/1/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
I don't know. For a long time I thought they did. Then I thought they didn't.
And now I don't know.
And now I don't know.
Written By Shard
Feb. 1, 2019, 10:33 p.m.(7/1/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Yes, but not always, and not to every extreme. The means has consequences as well, and those are on your head along with any successes that might come out of what's done. You can't just pretend something didn't happen because you got what you wanted out of the aftermath. So it matters which ends, and which means, and who, if anyone, gets hurt along the way.
Written By Mirk
Feb. 1, 2019, 7:45 p.m.(6/28/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
My answer is probably unsatisfying, but I'll try: Sometimes. The ends can justify the means, depending on the ends and the means. An important end goal justifies small sins, like telling a lie to keep a secret. It should only be done with consideration and care, and you owe it to the people harmed by your actions to make it right. But some things cannot be made right. Oathbreaking, for one. Murder, for another. And as it cannot be set right, it cannot be justified. There are other considerations, I think, but that is the crux of it in my mind.
Written By Thesarin
Jan. 13, 2019, 11:42 p.m.(5/9/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
With respect, Marquessa, and speaking as a friend toward Keaton.
I'd ask you think whether not choosing a side 'tween light and dark is the same as fighting the darkness without the city of Arx to flee to.
I'd ask you think whether not choosing a side 'tween light and dark is the same as fighting the darkness without the city of Arx to flee to.
Written By Shard
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:20 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
My first immediate answer is: no. No it's not better. Of course it can't be better. Walls make me feel closed in. When I'm not out on contract I feel antsy. Like I'm not moving enough. When the seasons change, I stay in one place. The smells are all wrong. The sounds are all wrong. The people are mostly strangers. You have so many, many people here, and none of their faces have the marks I grew up with. The marks mean things, ceremonially, but they also meant someone was safe. Familiar. Mine. They weren't filled with suspicion and they didn't stare. Kings and lords and ladies and princesses still seem impossibly ridiculous, and so many having so little while so many have so /much/ seems backwards and barbaric and wrong.
But it's not...all that way. I've learned things, incredibly important things to me, that I never would have. I don't starve. I could sit around and grow fat if it weren't for my work, if I wanted to. I don't freeze (but your summers are still miserable). I've seen things I never imagined. I worry less about someone coming along to murder me in my bed. I /have/ a bed (I don't know if I prefer it or not).
I don't know where my people are. I'm pretty sure they're far, far away from the Compact now. And I can't speak for them, and won't. But if they could keep living as they do--with changes, I know, but we always have to change our paths and our trails eventually--if they could still be themselves, if they could still keep to the North, and if they could forgive...then maybe. Maybe someday.
But it's not...all that way. I've learned things, incredibly important things to me, that I never would have. I don't starve. I could sit around and grow fat if it weren't for my work, if I wanted to. I don't freeze (but your summers are still miserable). I've seen things I never imagined. I worry less about someone coming along to murder me in my bed. I /have/ a bed (I don't know if I prefer it or not).
I don't know where my people are. I'm pretty sure they're far, far away from the Compact now. And I can't speak for them, and won't. But if they could keep living as they do--with changes, I know, but we always have to change our paths and our trails eventually--if they could still be themselves, if they could still keep to the North, and if they could forgive...then maybe. Maybe someday.
Written By Soren
Jan. 12, 2019, 7:18 p.m.(5/7/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Doc Boss.
Look. I think you're alright. Good people. Worth listening to when it comes to healing.
But you need to stop commenting on shit you don't have much experience on. Don't presume you know others are better off just because how you live is the only life experience you have. And I kinda doubt you're gonna give up your cushy life to experience otherwise.
My advice is to quit while ahead. Shard's got her experience, you got yours. I don't suggest debating on which is right or wrong. You ain't gonna get a good answer.
Look. I think you're alright. Good people. Worth listening to when it comes to healing.
But you need to stop commenting on shit you don't have much experience on. Don't presume you know others are better off just because how you live is the only life experience you have. And I kinda doubt you're gonna give up your cushy life to experience otherwise.
My advice is to quit while ahead. Shard's got her experience, you got yours. I don't suggest debating on which is right or wrong. You ain't gonna get a good answer.
Written By Shard
Jan. 12, 2019, 1:02 a.m.(5/5/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
When I first heard that story told, I heard it differently. I heard it differently from a number of different storytellers, from different tribes. The Compact stories say that those who didn't go to Arx, who didn't agree to the Compact, were cowards, or on the side of the demons. The Compact stories say, in essence, that the Abandoned /abandoned/ the people of the Compact in their time of greatest need. Abandoned stories say the Compact left them to die. If they have a personal, tribal history that reaches that far back, they'll tell you how they stayed to protect their lands and people. How they were cut off by demon armies and couldn't get to where humanity was gathering. Or how they were forced to fight alone against impossible numbers. Some, I assume, have stories about how they came to worship their new gods or masters, but those weren't tribes mine ever traded or camped with. Demon cults don't usually care very much who they're preying on.
But there are other stories too. Other histories. Some people fought to protect the new Compact from the Reckoning, but fought so long that when the fighting finally stopped, they and the Compact were strangers. Some went behind enemy lines to harry the enemy while others marched for Arx. Some were your people, or your allies, a long, long time ago. I'll share some of these stories with you, someday, if you want.
But the Compact makes no allowances for history. All the land belongs to them, even though a thousand years have passed. All tribes must bend the knee, nevermind old feuds, old alliances, nevermind the changes that they've had to make for survival, nevermind how much blood has now been spilled between them. Nevermind how much peoples have changed, what they've sacrificed to survive, or how they now live. You're right; a long, long time ago most of the Abandoned were a part of these kingdoms. A long, long time ago, we were all mostly one people.
But if you break a pot, and you leave pieces of it in your house, and pieces of it in a river, and pieces of it outside in the snow and the rain and the sun, eventually when you go to gather them all up again, even if you find each and every piece of that pot, they won't be the same exact shape that they were before. You can make something new with them, if you're creative and careful. But they will never be the pot they once were. And pot shards don't have the problem that they've all been killing each other for centuries.
I don't know where my tribe originally came from. If there's a story they've held onto that long, I never learned it. As far back as the stories I did hear went, we had always roamed the North, following the herds and forging our own hunting trails. My people were not farmers, or blacksmiths, or builders. My people didn't herd animals or live in houses. We were hunters and the whole wild was open to us. I don't deny that bending the knee, for them, would come with benefits. They wouldn't have to worry about soldiers. They might have protection against hostile tribes. There wouldn't be as much a risk of starving. But what would be the cost? I ask that honestly. We didn't live in any way like you. No kings or nobles or enormous stone cities. My people would cease to be who they are, and have been, and love being. And they wanted that enough, and feared you enough, that I'm not sure they'd ever be willing to give it all up, for the sake of how someone else thinks they should exist.
But I think we both agree that more violence only makes the possibility that much harder.
But there are other stories too. Other histories. Some people fought to protect the new Compact from the Reckoning, but fought so long that when the fighting finally stopped, they and the Compact were strangers. Some went behind enemy lines to harry the enemy while others marched for Arx. Some were your people, or your allies, a long, long time ago. I'll share some of these stories with you, someday, if you want.
But the Compact makes no allowances for history. All the land belongs to them, even though a thousand years have passed. All tribes must bend the knee, nevermind old feuds, old alliances, nevermind the changes that they've had to make for survival, nevermind how much blood has now been spilled between them. Nevermind how much peoples have changed, what they've sacrificed to survive, or how they now live. You're right; a long, long time ago most of the Abandoned were a part of these kingdoms. A long, long time ago, we were all mostly one people.
But if you break a pot, and you leave pieces of it in your house, and pieces of it in a river, and pieces of it outside in the snow and the rain and the sun, eventually when you go to gather them all up again, even if you find each and every piece of that pot, they won't be the same exact shape that they were before. You can make something new with them, if you're creative and careful. But they will never be the pot they once were. And pot shards don't have the problem that they've all been killing each other for centuries.
I don't know where my tribe originally came from. If there's a story they've held onto that long, I never learned it. As far back as the stories I did hear went, we had always roamed the North, following the herds and forging our own hunting trails. My people were not farmers, or blacksmiths, or builders. My people didn't herd animals or live in houses. We were hunters and the whole wild was open to us. I don't deny that bending the knee, for them, would come with benefits. They wouldn't have to worry about soldiers. They might have protection against hostile tribes. There wouldn't be as much a risk of starving. But what would be the cost? I ask that honestly. We didn't live in any way like you. No kings or nobles or enormous stone cities. My people would cease to be who they are, and have been, and love being. And they wanted that enough, and feared you enough, that I'm not sure they'd ever be willing to give it all up, for the sake of how someone else thinks they should exist.
But I think we both agree that more violence only makes the possibility that much harder.
Written By Shard
Jan. 11, 2019, 7:49 a.m.(5/4/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
I thought about this one. How to explain. Let me put it this way, and either it'll make sense or it won't. Or maybe it'll make sense later.
You went into battle as a healer. You saw war. Would you bend the knee to Cardia? To the Undying Empire? All of these great powers believe they know the best way. That their ways are right and true, and your ways are stupid and inferior and, in some cases, dangerous to yourself and others. At least one of them sounds as though they already believe Arvum is theirs. Another might lay a claim. What would you say to them, if they did? Would it matter to them if you told them the land was yours, and you and your people had been living on it for generations? What would you do if they brought armies instead of emissaries? Would you resist? Would you fight back? Why wouldn't you just bend the knee and accept their changes, instead of fighting for your people and your traditions and your beliefs?
I doubt any of those questions are hard to answer. They were never hard to answer for any of the people I used to know.
You went into battle as a healer. You saw war. Would you bend the knee to Cardia? To the Undying Empire? All of these great powers believe they know the best way. That their ways are right and true, and your ways are stupid and inferior and, in some cases, dangerous to yourself and others. At least one of them sounds as though they already believe Arvum is theirs. Another might lay a claim. What would you say to them, if they did? Would it matter to them if you told them the land was yours, and you and your people had been living on it for generations? What would you do if they brought armies instead of emissaries? Would you resist? Would you fight back? Why wouldn't you just bend the knee and accept their changes, instead of fighting for your people and your traditions and your beliefs?
I doubt any of those questions are hard to answer. They were never hard to answer for any of the people I used to know.
Written By Domonico
Jan. 6, 2019, 6:14 a.m.(4/22/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Lady Reigna's work and aid in helping with the injured Lady Miranda will not be forgotten.
Perhaps I may need to refrain from delivering headbutts when sparring with my cousin in the future to avoid a repeat of this.
I'm sure Lady Reigna will agree.
Perhaps I may need to refrain from delivering headbutts when sparring with my cousin in the future to avoid a repeat of this.
I'm sure Lady Reigna will agree.
Written By Domonico
Jan. 6, 2019, 6:14 a.m.(4/22/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Lady Reigna's work and aid in helping with the injured Lady Miranda will not be forgotten.
Perhaps I may need to refrain from delivering headbutts when sparring with my cousin in the future to avoid a repeat of this.
I'm sure Lady Reigna will agree.
Perhaps I may need to refrain from delivering headbutts when sparring with my cousin in the future to avoid a repeat of this.
I'm sure Lady Reigna will agree.
Written By Reese
Jan. 3, 2019, 8:11 p.m.(4/17/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Marquesa Reinga is amazingly wise and intelligent and I had the pleasure of getting to speak with her much lately. I think will be better for having had the chance to speak with her.
Reese
Reese
Written By Adalbern
Dec. 5, 2018, 12:39 p.m.(2/13/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Apparently the Marquessa Reigna wants to know when Vigga can come over and play with her own little ones. I'd honestly not have expected such kindness from someone placed so high in society, especially not towards what they call a Prodigal like myself. I get the feeling she just loves children regardless of whose they are however, which I can't really find any fault with.
Written By Alrec
Nov. 21, 2018, 8:50 a.m.(1/13/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
You have nothing to apologies for, marquessa. It was a good read never the less.
Written By Marian
Oct. 3, 2018, 5:17 a.m.(9/17/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
I wasn't born a noble. I became a lady when I bent on knee to the Compact. When I married Prince Valen for love, I became a princess.
I wasn't trained from childhood to be a knight. But when my first husband fell at the Tragedy of Sanctum, I picked up his heirloom sword, and defended the remaining members of Valardin. I was named Sword of Sanctum for my efforts.
I wasn't groomed to be Warchief of Redrain but when my second husband was murdered after calling the banners, I led the armies of the Compact to victory, putting the needs of the Compact over the twins that were in my belly.
Marquessa Reigna Keaton, am I worthy to lead despite being a prodigal? Am I one of your exceptions? How many times did I have to bleed for the Compact to be as worthy as a noble born into that family? How many deeds did I have to perform?
Remember she is just starting her journey as a leader. When I married Prince Valen, no one knew how my story would unfold. Rather than set criticism, celebrate when those before her fell, she stepped in to take the mantle. In my mind that is a better measure of a leader than circumstance of birth.
I wasn't trained from childhood to be a knight. But when my first husband fell at the Tragedy of Sanctum, I picked up his heirloom sword, and defended the remaining members of Valardin. I was named Sword of Sanctum for my efforts.
I wasn't groomed to be Warchief of Redrain but when my second husband was murdered after calling the banners, I led the armies of the Compact to victory, putting the needs of the Compact over the twins that were in my belly.
Marquessa Reigna Keaton, am I worthy to lead despite being a prodigal? Am I one of your exceptions? How many times did I have to bleed for the Compact to be as worthy as a noble born into that family? How many deeds did I have to perform?
Remember she is just starting her journey as a leader. When I married Prince Valen, no one knew how my story would unfold. Rather than set criticism, celebrate when those before her fell, she stepped in to take the mantle. In my mind that is a better measure of a leader than circumstance of birth.
Written By Riagnon
Oct. 2, 2018, 11:13 p.m.(9/17/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
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Keaton Pgymy Goat Order Slip
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1. Pet or Food? ____Food (for a bear)_____
2. Quantity? ____1?_____
3. Gender preference? ____What?_____
4. Color of fur? ____Gray?_____
5. Personality (Can impact flavor)? ____Condescending_____
6. Age (Definitely impacts behavior and flavor)? ____Normal_____
7. Pick up or Delivery? ____Delivery_____
Keaton Pgymy Goat Order Slip
*****************************
1. Pet or Food? ____Food (for a bear)_____
2. Quantity? ____1?_____
3. Gender preference? ____What?_____
4. Color of fur? ____Gray?_____
5. Personality (Can impact flavor)? ____Condescending_____
6. Age (Definitely impacts behavior and flavor)? ____Normal_____
7. Pick up or Delivery? ____Delivery_____
Written By Eleyna
Oct. 2, 2018, 4:35 p.m.(9/16/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
A courtesy title? My brother was born a Prince and is currently my Voice. That's hardly just a 'courtesy'. Is your position as Voice of Keaton also a courtesy title given you by your husband?
Written By Mydas
Oct. 2, 2018, 3:40 p.m.(9/16/1009 AR)
Relationship Note on Reigna
Marquessa, do remember the commoners are not children. While I'm as shocked as you are that I have to remind you of that fact, worst of all that it should come from me, but you are forgetting their ability to choose. They are not forced into the peerage, they must accept it.
Choice, as ever and always. Unless you imply that the latest addition took the title under duress, which is a troubling implication if accurate.
I would like to imagine that a fervant follower of Skald such as yourself would know better than to imply the above.
Choice, as ever and always. Unless you imply that the latest addition took the title under duress, which is a troubling implication if accurate.
I would like to imagine that a fervant follower of Skald such as yourself would know better than to imply the above.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.