A response

[__WaterFox__ 636]

Notes would be tacked on tavern walls and flutter about on the winds of Vailnor. Every single one of them seemed hand written and done with time, the letters formed near perfectly and words spaced just right for the ease of reading

 

"    Hatred of the 'light' is not something new to me, I've seen it since Aegis and seen it grown since then, but to see a cleric imprisoned in this growing hatred? To know this cleric, Elvira, is locked away for choosing the profession of ridding this land of this plague of darkness both pains and worries me. Is it not wrong that the concern I feel for my son, who wishes to be a paladin like his father and I, is that he will be struck down by the mortals he is bound to protect and not that he will be turned into a soul-less husk by some undead creature? How is it that the descendants we are sworn to protect seem to hate us more than the darkness that preys on them?

    What is the cause of this growing hatred? Is the populace simply unaware that everything we do (except when we don't, I will admit that are periods in which our orders seem nonexistant) is for their well being. When we stop a woman on the street and ask to feel her palm, we do it to prevent the pain a frostwitch can and will cause. When we yank a character away from a conversation, please do not be alarmed, we would not harm an innocent (if we do our very souls are torn in two) nor perform such an aggressive without at least being tipped off by someone as to the individual's nature. Perhaps it is when we join a crowded fight with a dark creature, we can hardly help it, there is a reason we have chosen the profession we have.

   Maybe the miscommunication is on what darkness is, I can tell you now that it is not a simple result of light. There once was a time when we had neither blessing nor curse, when we lived precisely as we were originally created, and then Iblees came in. Iblees is the reason that there is such a division between light and dark, he made the symbolic darkness by perverting what was natural. The darkness is plague, it is perversion, it is absence of the natural, it is not at all like the harmless shadows cast by light. Those who serve Xan, Tahariae, and Aerial seek to return us to what we once had, or at least make us comfortable in our suffering. So now I urge those who hold Elvira to release her she may continue in her duties.

  If your anger still persists then approach us so we may speak, I say this to not only to Elvira's captors, but to all governments and factions. We cannot perform our duty if we are too busy quarreling with those we are meant to protect and those we are meant to protect cannot fight both us and the darkness

 

                                - Alirya Vincrute, Paladin of Xan                                                                                                                                                                                                       "                                                                                                                    

[Eranikus 348]

A letter is sent in response, the script flowing and neat, the parchment a soft flaxen hue with green trim about the edges.

 

"I understand your frustrations all too well, though I fight on a different front. My kin too are hated for petty reasons that deter our service to our chosen deity. We live only to serve the Aspects in our lives, and yet we are persecuted because we do not believe what others believe, or the entire group is hated because a small handful did things that were, for lack of a better term, imbecilic. Though they were punished for their actions, we are still treated as heretics or worse.

 

It is exceedingly difficult to do the work you have been tasked with when everyone and their brother is trying to deter your faith or chase you off. Only through cooperation and coexistence can we the descendants of the four brothers hope to make progress as a whole, not through wars over childish squabbles.

 

Perhaps if ignorance wasn't such a rampant disease, we'd be able to gain more ground.

 

Regardless, I pray for the safe return of your sister. It can be troubling and terrifying to know one of your own is in danger.

 

-Hare Druid Taynuel, Archdruid of the Druidic Order."

[Rig 17591]

A public notice is pinned throughout the land, the work baring the seal of the All-Seeing Eye.



"Fear the Old Dark,
pay homage not to the gods of heaven but to the hands of man,
we are made men by the dark,
we are undone by the dark."
 

" Hatred of the 'light' is not something new to me, I've seen it since Aegis and seen it grown since then, but to see a cleric imprisoned in this growing hatred? To know this cleric, Elvira, is locked away for choosing the profession of ridding this land of this plague of darkness both pains and worries me. Is it not wrong that the concern I feel for my son, who wishes to be a paladin like his father and I, is that he will be struck down by the mortals he is bound to protect and not that he will be turned into a soul-less husk by some undead creature? How is it that the descendants we are sworn to protect seem to hate us more than the darkness that preys on them?

We did not ask for the guidance of you, much less your putrid Tahariaen counterparts. The very fact you refer to us as mere mortals is insulting, for we are no different. We all bleed. 
 

    What is the cause of this growing hatred? Is the populace simply unaware that everything we do (except when we don't, I will admit that are periods in which our orders seem nonexistant) is for their well being. When we stop a woman on the street and ask to feel her palm, we do it to prevent the pain a frostwitch can and will cause. When we yank a character away from a conversation, please do not be alarmed, we would not harm an innocent (if we do our very souls are torn in two) nor perform such an aggressive without at least being tipped off by someone as to the individual's nature. Perhaps it is when we join a crowded fight with a dark creature, we can hardly help it, there is a reason we have chosen the profession we have.

Time and time again I have been persecuted for my Xionist beliefs, some clerics going as far as attempting to lynch me and a comrade in Sutica despite the fact we did nothing to them. Thence you now have a reason, your kind prey on mine. Your jobs are just as focused on death as that of the supposed necromancers you hunt.
 

   Maybe the miscommunication is on what darkness is, I can tell you now that it is not a simple result of light. There once was a time when we had neither blessing nor curse, when we lived precisely as we were originally created, and then Iblees came in. Iblees is the reason that there is such a division between light and dark, he made the symbolic darkness by perverting what was natural. The darkness is plague, it is perversion, it is absence of the natural, it is not at all like the harmless shadows cast by light. Those who serve Xan, Tahariae, and Aerial seek to return us to what we once had, or at least make us comfortable in our suffering. So now I urge those who hold Elvira to release her she may continue in her duties.

  If your anger still persists then approach us so we may speak, I say this to not only to Elvira's captors, but to all governments and factions. We cannot perform our duty if we are too busy quarreling with those we are meant to protect and those we are meant to protect cannot fight both us and the darkness

Xionism is a branch of antitheism, we do not worship your dark gods, nor the Archdaemon Khor'Iblees. 

"Where there is light, it casts a shadow."

By nature, darkness and light are merely hues, black and white attitudes shall never get one far in this hectic world. Let me remind you that it is rarely one of us who strikes the first blow, but the hand of the god-smitten comes fast for us regardless.
 

 

                                Alirya Vincrute, Paladin of Xan                    

Not for long.

 

[arakrsptec 171]

A separate note is pinned as well.

 

"Do not hide the blood upon your hands, Taharien. The simple thought of your deities brings bloodshed to the descendants you call upon. Your followers threaten those who oppose you with false words, and strike those who think different with bloody swords."

[Farryn 860]

A lone elven woman would pick up the note from outside a tavern, hints of blood over her fingers. Behind her, the body of a lone thief is sprawled over the cobblestone within the alleyway, multiple slices on his body. Her cold grey eyes examining the words carefully before she in turn writes a reply back.

 

-=+=-

I do not know this Elvira person or how close you are to them, but I do indeed pity you. That your family is involved with this ongoing fight, that they will be harmed, killed, or hated for it.

 

No one deserves to see a loved one captured and isolated because of this continuous war between the light and the darkness. Yet this hatred will never cease. It is eternal, much like light and darkness itself. Where there is light, there is darkness. They rely on each other for their existence, much how clerics and paladins rely on necromancers and wraiths for their duty. No matter how much the light and dark try to eradicate the other, they can never be fully erased. To accept the duty of a cleric, paladin, necromancer, or any role involved in this war is simply placing you within a fight you cannot fully win. It's not worth putting your life towards.

 

You can try and stop the beings that will seek to harm mortals, or try to use dark magic for good, but be aware that conflict and hate will always erupt between the two sides. No matter how much you plea, struggle, or fight. It's simply something you all, both light and dark, must accept. You have all got blood on your hands, blaming the other's for their crimes does not help you.

It only brings forth more bloodshed.

 

As for I personally. I am neither light or dark, I will harm anyone who seeks to harm others, use their magic to harm the innocents, or destroy a side that did nothing wrong to begin with. If a ghoul harms a village, I will destroy it. If a cleric tries to strike down a frost witch who is trying to live a normal life, I will strike the cleric down. To both sides, I can be your greatest ally or your greatest enemy.

 

Regardless. I will now speak to the group holding this cleric.

While I understand you are furious about the light... I call for you to release the cleric Elvira.

Even though she is your foe, she is still a mortal such as the rest of you. She holds emotions, thoughts, memories. Has the same body structure and blood within her, we all come from the four brothers so we are all very distinctively related in blood. Yet you hold her against her own will because of her role? It's not worth  holding a life captive or to try and fill her head with lies, what you've done by holding her is only bringing a possible conflict to you. Something you may not want. She has accepted the path of the cleric, therefore taking up this duty onto her very shoulders. In the end, it is best to let her go and face the consequences of her choice to become a cleric, rather than to be locked up to rot eternally.

 

However. If you do not release her after a year or two, I will personally come and release her myself, regardless of who you are, what your intentions are, or if you are innocent. She is mortal and has her own life, I do not wish to see you hold back a life that could be healing and saving many lives with her power. While I disagree on using the Aengul Tahariae's gift for the killing of dark, I do agree on using it for healing others. I understand the clerics will be asking for her back, so I shall wait but heed my warning well.

 

The fighting of light and dark must not bring the innocent into it.

-=+=-

 

The note would be unsigned.

(Yep. My new character decided to respond :) )

[Cpt_Noobman 1954]

Yet another note is posted on the wall, the characters stiff and blocky yet intricate as if written by a Dwarven hand.

 

"It is not for your reasons, nor your methods that the descendants 'hate' you as you claim. It is a matter of distrust, and the secrecy and attempted omnipotence of your order that the people do not trust your help. Even when you might have the best intentions in mind, it is not always clear to those who you try to assist. I myself distrust these orders. When someone becomes a cleric or ascended or any other type of paladin, they might as well sign their soul over to the aengul that they follow, and become an eternal servant. As with Iblees, it is clear that these celestial beings do not always have the best intentions for us mere mortals. If you wish to earn the trust of the people, be one with them. Do not place yourselves as our 'protectors', we can protect ourselves without the help of some aengul worshipper. Instead, place yourself as our ally, and friend.

 

((written on phone, please forgive bad grammar 

[Swgrclan 2682]

"The realm of Man belongs to Man; the conflict of light and dark exists synthetically, for it is a defense, not an equal war. The dark had existed first here, and the light invaded."

[__WaterFox__ 636]

"     I see who have read my notices thoroughly and respect them, but for those who take the interactions of light and dark far too literally and clearly did not read the whole paper, I will be more direct. There is good and there is a bad, I doubt the mori necesarily thought themselves evil but I certainly know they had their own concept of bad. Bad or evil in it's most simplest form is the deviation of what was ordained good and orderly, hence why paladins strictly handle what is evil in the sense of is unnatural and not what at the time is considered to be bad. We started off with a natural world (light) and then it was perverted (dark), so please do not delude yourself by thinking that serving the 'dark' is helping anything. I will repeat AGAIN that Xan, Tahariae, and Aeriel all seek to either return (yes this mean killing those who would willingly pervert themselves and refuse to return to their natural state) us to that state of NATURAL or atleast EASE OUR SUFFERING from the hands of darkness. As for saying that we seem to make ourselves above mortals, did you even read the notice or did you just see that it was against your beliefs? You do not simply become 'paladin' as much as you just simply become a 'soul puppeteer', it takes grit to stand against things that you were never meant to face in the first place and it takes the same grit to use what you were never meant to have in the first place against a fellow descendant. You could almost say that the paladin was already a paladin and the soul puppeteer already that, but without the abilities that come along with it. Again, I repeat myself again, do not delude yourself by taking the interactions of light and darkness as they appear in nature. Symbolism can only go as far as a lie can"

[Elad™ 560]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.