Written By Piccola
Feb. 15, 2021, 7:22 p.m.(12/11/1014 AR)
I have often regretted my birth; I have often wished to fall back into nothingness rather than advance through the series of successive sufferings and losses that will precede my death.
Even in those moments of terrible faintheartedness, when despair overmasters reason, and when I forget that life is a task imposed me to finish, I would admit to thinks I have not regretted along the way: a lover's touch; a cousin's kindness; or a cold revenge.
Yet there remain things I cannot recall having: a mother's milk; a father's love; that relationship of heart and soul between siblings; or household affections, joys, and cares.
Even in those moments of terrible faintheartedness, when despair overmasters reason, and when I forget that life is a task imposed me to finish, I would admit to thinks I have not regretted along the way: a lover's touch; a cousin's kindness; or a cold revenge.
Yet there remain things I cannot recall having: a mother's milk; a father's love; that relationship of heart and soul between siblings; or household affections, joys, and cares.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 13, 2021, 8:10 p.m.(12/7/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Haakon
My friend,
There is a difference between being incapable of fighting close and having an advantage in close quarters. Were you to ask my preference on weapons to wield whilst fighting in a narrow hallway, I would pick a pair of daggers over a great sword.
As for on a field, the best place to be is about ten yards from the edge of a pike's point on the back of a horse with a shortbow and a full quiver.
There is a difference between being incapable of fighting close and having an advantage in close quarters. Were you to ask my preference on weapons to wield whilst fighting in a narrow hallway, I would pick a pair of daggers over a great sword.
As for on a field, the best place to be is about ten yards from the edge of a pike's point on the back of a horse with a shortbow and a full quiver.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 12, 2021, 10:08 a.m.(12/4/1014 AR)
Wise general, heed these lessons of the blade.
Some think to defeat their enemies from a distance; so, they wield long swords. This is error: they do not appreciate the principle of cutting the enemy by any means. They say: "One inch gives the hand advantage". As a woman, I know this to be false. It is inferior strategy to be dependent on the length of a blade because a path too large is an encumbrance and a disadvantage to a short sword, whose wielder can avoid the first strike, close, and cut. Further, you cannot swing a long sword in a hallway and not all men have the strength of others.
Nor is the short sword the perfect weapon. To win against a man with a long blade, one must aim for the enemy's unguarded moment. This is completely defensive and undesirable at close quarters with the enemy. You cannot jump inside a defense if there are many enemies. To go against many enemies with a short blade means to parry cuts continuously, and eventually become entangled with the enemy. Further, you can never hope to defeat a line of pikes, and not all men have the stamina of others.
Whenever you cross swords with an enemy you must not think of cutting him either strongly or weakly; just think of cutting and killing him. If you rely on strength, when you hit the enemy's sword you will inevitably hit too hard; your own sword will be carried along as a result. But you cannot rely on speed alone, for speed is an illusion; events seem fast or slow only according to whether or not they are in rhythm.
The lesson is all strengths have weakness. Thus, the true path is to master strategy. The wise general controls the rhythm of the fight and its terms. The wise general chooses the best arms for each situation, relying on no single path. This is the way to victory.
Some think to defeat their enemies from a distance; so, they wield long swords. This is error: they do not appreciate the principle of cutting the enemy by any means. They say: "One inch gives the hand advantage". As a woman, I know this to be false. It is inferior strategy to be dependent on the length of a blade because a path too large is an encumbrance and a disadvantage to a short sword, whose wielder can avoid the first strike, close, and cut. Further, you cannot swing a long sword in a hallway and not all men have the strength of others.
Nor is the short sword the perfect weapon. To win against a man with a long blade, one must aim for the enemy's unguarded moment. This is completely defensive and undesirable at close quarters with the enemy. You cannot jump inside a defense if there are many enemies. To go against many enemies with a short blade means to parry cuts continuously, and eventually become entangled with the enemy. Further, you can never hope to defeat a line of pikes, and not all men have the stamina of others.
Whenever you cross swords with an enemy you must not think of cutting him either strongly or weakly; just think of cutting and killing him. If you rely on strength, when you hit the enemy's sword you will inevitably hit too hard; your own sword will be carried along as a result. But you cannot rely on speed alone, for speed is an illusion; events seem fast or slow only according to whether or not they are in rhythm.
The lesson is all strengths have weakness. Thus, the true path is to master strategy. The wise general controls the rhythm of the fight and its terms. The wise general chooses the best arms for each situation, relying on no single path. This is the way to victory.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 10, 2021, 8:58 p.m.(12/1/1014 AR)
I do not regret my youth and its beliefs.
I have wasted time, but not to live. Youth and inexperience wield force, but they are rarely lucid. Sometimes it has a triumphant liking for what is now, and the pugnacious broadside of paradox may please it. But wise generals know that true innovation does not come to those who have not lived. What if the stern greatness of present events will educate the generation which today forms our frontier?
Therefore, place hope, wise general, in youth.
I have wasted time, but not to live. Youth and inexperience wield force, but they are rarely lucid. Sometimes it has a triumphant liking for what is now, and the pugnacious broadside of paradox may please it. But wise generals know that true innovation does not come to those who have not lived. What if the stern greatness of present events will educate the generation which today forms our frontier?
Therefore, place hope, wise general, in youth.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 9, 2021, 10:44 a.m.(11/26/1014 AR)
Freedom exists where the happiness of all depends on the happiness of the weakest.
Slavery exists where people condone the disadvantage of one for the good of another.
Slavery exists where people condone the disadvantage of one for the good of another.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 7, 2021, 7:42 p.m.(11/23/1014 AR)
Be careful, wise general, not to forget that your enemies are people.
There are many who seem to be unable to contemplate military operations for clear political objects unless they can cajole themselves into the belief that their enemy are utterly and hopelessly vile. To this end do they concoct and charge the enemy with all conceivable crimes. This may be very comforting to the leisurely, philanthropic persons at home; but when an army in the field becomes imbued with the idea that the enemy are monsters to be slain, barbarity may easily be the outcome.
Unmeasured condemnation is unjust, dangerous, and unnecessary.
Remember, instead, that wars are best fought by armies of professional soldiers. When mighty, proud people are impelled on each other, each individual severally embittered and inflamed. When the resources of science and civilization sweep away everything that might mitigate their fury, a war can only end in the ruin of the vanquished and the slightly-less fatal exhaustion of the conquerors.
Any war of peoples will be more terrible than those of kings.
There are many who seem to be unable to contemplate military operations for clear political objects unless they can cajole themselves into the belief that their enemy are utterly and hopelessly vile. To this end do they concoct and charge the enemy with all conceivable crimes. This may be very comforting to the leisurely, philanthropic persons at home; but when an army in the field becomes imbued with the idea that the enemy are monsters to be slain, barbarity may easily be the outcome.
Unmeasured condemnation is unjust, dangerous, and unnecessary.
Remember, instead, that wars are best fought by armies of professional soldiers. When mighty, proud people are impelled on each other, each individual severally embittered and inflamed. When the resources of science and civilization sweep away everything that might mitigate their fury, a war can only end in the ruin of the vanquished and the slightly-less fatal exhaustion of the conquerors.
Any war of peoples will be more terrible than those of kings.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 4, 2021, 2 p.m.(11/16/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Orland
To the esteemed Lord Orland of House Amadeo,
I will attempt to be succinct in the interests of reflection and responding to a peer.
Question: "What is are you afraid of?"
Answer: Feign disorder before destroying your enemy.
Question: "What are your opinions on honor?"
Answer: A wise general seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of her subordinates.
Question: "What path do you see for yourself?"
Answer: All can see these tactics whereby a wise general seizes victory, but none sees the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Question: "What advice would you give to one who really needs it?"
Answer: Be subtle to the point of formlessness; be mysterious to the point of soundlessness; and thereby direct your opponent's fate.
We are not the only ones who can read these entries.
-- General Piccola of House Tessere.
I will attempt to be succinct in the interests of reflection and responding to a peer.
Question: "What is are you afraid of?"
Answer: Feign disorder before destroying your enemy.
Question: "What are your opinions on honor?"
Answer: A wise general seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of her subordinates.
Question: "What path do you see for yourself?"
Answer: All can see these tactics whereby a wise general seizes victory, but none sees the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Question: "What advice would you give to one who really needs it?"
Answer: Be subtle to the point of formlessness; be mysterious to the point of soundlessness; and thereby direct your opponent's fate.
We are not the only ones who can read these entries.
-- General Piccola of House Tessere.
Written By Piccola
Feb. 2, 2021, 8:23 p.m.(11/13/1014 AR)
Wise general, remember well that the worst product of war is ignorance.
We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion. Many have traded in beliefs for bitterness, cynicism, or a heavy package of despair. Opinions can be picked up cheap while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.
There too is fear. It provokes us to see the images of heretics in a neighbor’s yard and stampedes us to burn down this house. And there is doubt: doubt of what we have been taught and of the validity of so many things we had long since taken for granted. It has become more difficult than ever to distinguish black from white, good from evil, and right from wrong.
Except for those who think in terms of platitudes of piety or dogma of prejudice, people don’t speak their beliefs easily, or publicly. That is something I won't write: a pat answer for the problems of life. I have never pretended that my words are a spiritual medicine chest where one can come and get a dose of wisdom to banish the headaches of our times.
Like the fog of war, this general's beliefs are always in a state of flux and ever formless, as they should be.
We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion. Many have traded in beliefs for bitterness, cynicism, or a heavy package of despair. Opinions can be picked up cheap while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.
There too is fear. It provokes us to see the images of heretics in a neighbor’s yard and stampedes us to burn down this house. And there is doubt: doubt of what we have been taught and of the validity of so many things we had long since taken for granted. It has become more difficult than ever to distinguish black from white, good from evil, and right from wrong.
Except for those who think in terms of platitudes of piety or dogma of prejudice, people don’t speak their beliefs easily, or publicly. That is something I won't write: a pat answer for the problems of life. I have never pretended that my words are a spiritual medicine chest where one can come and get a dose of wisdom to banish the headaches of our times.
Like the fog of war, this general's beliefs are always in a state of flux and ever formless, as they should be.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 29, 2021, 9:01 a.m.(11/4/1014 AR)
Know this, wise general.
Do not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or ignorant, then those who come to the Compact looking for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that limits freedom costs us the confidence of men and women who aspire to the same freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful; and to be truthful we must admit our failings.
Do not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or ignorant, then those who come to the Compact looking for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that limits freedom costs us the confidence of men and women who aspire to the same freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful; and to be truthful we must admit our failings.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 26, 2021, 8:48 a.m.(10/26/1014 AR)
What I write now, wise general, might do nobody good.
At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse me of fouling my own stable. My House maybe accused of having given hospitality to dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of command in which we all live -- noble, commoner, diplomat, soldier, sailor, soldier -- will not be so easily shaken or altered.
It is merely my desire, if not my duty, to teach you with some candor about what I have seen in my limited years.
For those who roam the battlefield like alpha wolves, there is little advice or counsel I can offer for the coming days. Stay safe, survive, and see that those who depend on you do the same. You will, I am sure, forgive me for not telling you that what you do is work miracles no less mystifying and splendid than the terrifying works our enemies may conjure to defeat us. It is not necessary to remind you of the fact that your voice, amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of this great kingdom to the other, does not confer upon you greater wisdom than when your voice reached only from one end of the tavern to the other.
All of these things you know.
I have no feud with any but myself and the disquiet I suffer from. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what is happening even now to our society, our culture, and our heritage. Our history will be what we make it, and if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now there should be preserved in Vellichor's archives, recorded in black and white pages, evidence of the decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. And I have reason to hope, as do many of you, that my words are viewed as they are presented: fairly, calmly, and in the spirit of illumination, not agitation.
We are to a large extent an imitative society.
We are wealthy, comfortable, and complacent, living in a fantastic image of what we believe our Gods' splendor ought to be. We seem to have an allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. And unless we apply our surpluses and excesses to the welfare and benefit to not only just the creation of that fantasy but also the amelioration of our avoided nightmares, then we will be forever be seen as vulnerable to discord and rebellion but also to those demagogues whose simple messages provide to the masses an alternate vision wherein they may be abused less.
I therefore urge you, wise general, to remember well for what you fight, lest it become a mockery of the sacrifices you make.
At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse me of fouling my own stable. My House maybe accused of having given hospitality to dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of command in which we all live -- noble, commoner, diplomat, soldier, sailor, soldier -- will not be so easily shaken or altered.
It is merely my desire, if not my duty, to teach you with some candor about what I have seen in my limited years.
For those who roam the battlefield like alpha wolves, there is little advice or counsel I can offer for the coming days. Stay safe, survive, and see that those who depend on you do the same. You will, I am sure, forgive me for not telling you that what you do is work miracles no less mystifying and splendid than the terrifying works our enemies may conjure to defeat us. It is not necessary to remind you of the fact that your voice, amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of this great kingdom to the other, does not confer upon you greater wisdom than when your voice reached only from one end of the tavern to the other.
All of these things you know.
I have no feud with any but myself and the disquiet I suffer from. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what is happening even now to our society, our culture, and our heritage. Our history will be what we make it, and if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now there should be preserved in Vellichor's archives, recorded in black and white pages, evidence of the decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. And I have reason to hope, as do many of you, that my words are viewed as they are presented: fairly, calmly, and in the spirit of illumination, not agitation.
We are to a large extent an imitative society.
We are wealthy, comfortable, and complacent, living in a fantastic image of what we believe our Gods' splendor ought to be. We seem to have an allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. And unless we apply our surpluses and excesses to the welfare and benefit to not only just the creation of that fantasy but also the amelioration of our avoided nightmares, then we will be forever be seen as vulnerable to discord and rebellion but also to those demagogues whose simple messages provide to the masses an alternate vision wherein they may be abused less.
I therefore urge you, wise general, to remember well for what you fight, lest it become a mockery of the sacrifices you make.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 25, 2021, 8:34 p.m.(10/25/1014 AR)
Beware, wise general, of the definitions of freedom.
There are two freedoms: freedom as a means; and freedom as an end. The first is the freedom to direct one's own life and to choose between good and evil as one understands them; the second is the freedom that liberates one from one's lower nature for the service of what is highest and best. So it is that we often mean by one and the same word that initial and irrational liberty which is prior to good and evil and determines their choice or that intelligent freedom which is our final liberty in truth and goodness.
Be careful, then, of which one you imply.
There are two freedoms: freedom as a means; and freedom as an end. The first is the freedom to direct one's own life and to choose between good and evil as one understands them; the second is the freedom that liberates one from one's lower nature for the service of what is highest and best. So it is that we often mean by one and the same word that initial and irrational liberty which is prior to good and evil and determines their choice or that intelligent freedom which is our final liberty in truth and goodness.
Be careful, then, of which one you imply.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 23, 2021, 7:14 p.m.(10/21/1014 AR)
We live together, we act on, and react to one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves.
The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Our sensations, feelings, insights and fancies are private; except through symbols and hearsay, they are incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves.
From family to nation, every human group is a society of islands.
The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Our sensations, feelings, insights and fancies are private; except through symbols and hearsay, they are incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves.
From family to nation, every human group is a society of islands.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 21, 2021, 10:36 p.m.(10/17/1014 AR)
Surviving is a strange thing, wise general.
We valorize and even deify survival. We talk of it as if it were the only point to existence. That it is the only thing that matters, the acme of one's skill at life.
How quaint.
We valorize and even deify survival. We talk of it as if it were the only point to existence. That it is the only thing that matters, the acme of one's skill at life.
How quaint.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 19, 2021, 8:17 p.m.(10/13/1014 AR)
From afar, I remember seeing the City in its splendor.
I saw the efforts of generations of countless people to change the land into something crafted. Of stone, of steel, of timber and construction, of all the hallmarks of that which the Compact holds against its neighbors and its less-fortunate denizens, all creating a small space in which to crowd. I witnessed the expressions of ingenuity and might looming tall to cast shadows across the nearby fields, as the sun dipped low towards the horizon. But none of this could shut out the inexorable coming of the spring, just as the night cannot stop the dawn.
The sun shone; the grass revived; and the animals and insects which shielded themselves from the deadly days of winter slowly made their way out. And everything seemed to be all right once more, even as men manufactured from behind those walls the means of their own captivity.
I saw the efforts of generations of countless people to change the land into something crafted. Of stone, of steel, of timber and construction, of all the hallmarks of that which the Compact holds against its neighbors and its less-fortunate denizens, all creating a small space in which to crowd. I witnessed the expressions of ingenuity and might looming tall to cast shadows across the nearby fields, as the sun dipped low towards the horizon. But none of this could shut out the inexorable coming of the spring, just as the night cannot stop the dawn.
The sun shone; the grass revived; and the animals and insects which shielded themselves from the deadly days of winter slowly made their way out. And everything seemed to be all right once more, even as men manufactured from behind those walls the means of their own captivity.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 15, 2021, 8:42 a.m.(10/4/1014 AR)
The fear of abandonment or exile is only a threat to those who have felt a sense of belonging.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 14, 2021, 1:33 p.m.(10/2/1014 AR)
One day, when I was a young woman, my horse ran from me.
The timing was poor because we had been hired to eliminate a band of roving shavs from a meadow near a village up north. Because I did not have my horse, I was told by my captain that I could not participate. The others left for the mission the next day; I remained in the village. They never returned.
The next hour after I learned such news, my horse returned to me, and I rode back to the company's headquarters.
The timing was poor because we had been hired to eliminate a band of roving shavs from a meadow near a village up north. Because I did not have my horse, I was told by my captain that I could not participate. The others left for the mission the next day; I remained in the village. They never returned.
The next hour after I learned such news, my horse returned to me, and I rode back to the company's headquarters.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 13, 2021, 11:12 p.m.(10/1/1014 AR)
Pride turns nobles to tyrants; humility turns soldiers into heroes.
Humility is the capacity to learn from criticism. Humility is not a willingness to submit to authority. Abandoning what one is doing merely because it does not accord with the will or word of another is death to the spirit; the proper term for that is servility.
The humble are without ego, and for that they shall enjoy the Gods' blessings.
Humility is the capacity to learn from criticism. Humility is not a willingness to submit to authority. Abandoning what one is doing merely because it does not accord with the will or word of another is death to the spirit; the proper term for that is servility.
The humble are without ego, and for that they shall enjoy the Gods' blessings.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 11, 2021, 8:20 p.m.(9/25/1014 AR)
I lived in one of the greatest villas of Iriscal.
Poverty looks grim to grown people, and still more so to children, for they have not much an idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty. They think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners and debasing vices. Poverty for me was everyday life: it was the degradation of living under the eyes of parents who thought it fair to allow their children to determine who it is that shall have the most of each meal, as if we were but hunting hounds at the feet of our masters.
But for the hearts and souls of those who served the family, I would have been a corpse by the time I bled.
Poverty looks grim to grown people, and still more so to children, for they have not much an idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty. They think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners and debasing vices. Poverty for me was everyday life: it was the degradation of living under the eyes of parents who thought it fair to allow their children to determine who it is that shall have the most of each meal, as if we were but hunting hounds at the feet of our masters.
But for the hearts and souls of those who served the family, I would have been a corpse by the time I bled.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 10, 2021, 1:29 p.m.(9/22/1014 AR)
On a journey back to the Lyceum, I stopped by a man sitting by the side of the road.
"Weary traveler," he said, "come sit with me." So, I did. And we talked about a few things over a broken loaf of bread and some cheese I had purchased at a village a few miles away. I sent my horse to graze, but she was set to return.
"What do you think of glory?" he asked of me. And to him, I said, as was taught to me once, "Those who seek freedom seek not seek glory; those who deny the drumbeat can better hear reason."
He laughed at me.
"Oh, child, what know you of freedom or glory? True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it. What wisdom can you teach others from the shadows? What lessons from your life will others come to know if you don't accept the price of acclaim?"
I gave the man half of my spoils from my last mission, and continued on my way.
"Weary traveler," he said, "come sit with me." So, I did. And we talked about a few things over a broken loaf of bread and some cheese I had purchased at a village a few miles away. I sent my horse to graze, but she was set to return.
"What do you think of glory?" he asked of me. And to him, I said, as was taught to me once, "Those who seek freedom seek not seek glory; those who deny the drumbeat can better hear reason."
He laughed at me.
"Oh, child, what know you of freedom or glory? True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it. What wisdom can you teach others from the shadows? What lessons from your life will others come to know if you don't accept the price of acclaim?"
I gave the man half of my spoils from my last mission, and continued on my way.
Written By Piccola
Jan. 6, 2021, 9:21 p.m.(9/15/1014 AR)
Let me tell you a story about perspective.
When I was on my own, I used what little I had to buy some gear so that I could become part of a mercenary company I attracted the attentions of. The yeoman who taught me to be a skirmisher was a stern, old man. I could only afford a half-dozen arrows, and he took five from me before each training session. I could fire only a single arrow before having to retrieve my arrow.
One day, exasperated, I asked him, "I could get more practice if you would not take all but one of my arrows." He said to me, "You could get more chances to hit the target if you ran to get your arrow instead of walking."
It took my almost two years to earn enough to get my first horse, but by then I had become one of their best.
When I was on my own, I used what little I had to buy some gear so that I could become part of a mercenary company I attracted the attentions of. The yeoman who taught me to be a skirmisher was a stern, old man. I could only afford a half-dozen arrows, and he took five from me before each training session. I could fire only a single arrow before having to retrieve my arrow.
One day, exasperated, I asked him, "I could get more practice if you would not take all but one of my arrows." He said to me, "You could get more chances to hit the target if you ran to get your arrow instead of walking."
It took my almost two years to earn enough to get my first horse, but by then I had become one of their best.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.