A Letter to Godric Edvardsson

[rukio 8924]

 

Spoiler

 

[!]

A small, nondescript Blue Jay would find it’s way to Morsgrad. A letter would be tied to it’s left leg, other copies of the same letter might be found elsewhere, readily available for the curious to read.

 

To a man I once called brother:

 

I know you, Godric. I was raised in the same house as you, you tended my wounds when I was injured as a child. You watched me grow up and I watched you grow into the role of a leader. And because I know you, I know it matters not whether or not I refer to you as family, or call myself Ruric. I know you will have your men hunt me until I am dead, for I did not concede to death, but had chosen what your men called the coward’s way out. You will have them hunt me because I chose to abandon the ways of our ancestors, because I do not believe I am tied to what our forefathers were, but that we are obliged to break free of their bindings and better ourselves and the lives of our future children.  Yet. Someday you will capture me, you will severe my head from my body, and you will have Amice do what he had done to Vladmyr. And unlike Vladmyr, there will be no sympathetic child there to show me mercy and burn my body. You have cut me off from every aspect of our religion, even the right to join the Father and my birth father in the afterlife. Or perhaps that was Solvi’s idea, it matters not. I am rambling.

 

I write this letter with no expectation of a response. Catharsis is a powerful being though, and writing is one of the better ways to achieve it, as far as I am concerned. I know you are not a stupid man, and so I wanted to ask you about revenge, Duke Godric. You spoke often enough of it as I grew into my teen years, as I was raised in the thoughts and ways of a Ruric. You spoke of how if they take one of ours we must take all of theirs. That if someone does wrong against you, you must respond to it, you must ensure they cannot rise back up and do it again. And I have always viewed you as a smart man. You were not outwardly kind, but I know you care about your people and you care about the war your forefathers began. You were one of the smartest people I knew, you carried your burden with a strong back and a forward gaze. You put your people before you before this war began. Yet you are also the stupidest person I have ever met. 

 

You speak of how we are obliged to our forefathers’ burdens. How we have to avenge their old grievances. Yet what has revenge done for your family? What has revenge given the Rurics, or anyone, but death and more death. What good did my killing of Jorii do? It did not bring Edvard II back, it just meant a cousin and a father was dead. What did the paragon Astrid gain by murdering Bjorn in his sleep? Nothing, she committed suicide the same day. She is damned to the void just as I will be damned to the void by your High Keeper. What did Vladmyr dueling Edvard achieve? Nothing, nothing but two more dead men on top of the already deceased Aeyn and Cassio, who were gone before my time but still matter to my heart all the same. What has revenge done for the Ruric man but kill off bloodline after bloodline? Eiriksson, Caunter, Rosik, Freysson. All have had too many caught up within feuds of faith, of blood, of nation. What did revenge achieve for them? Nothing, they are all dead or dying.  

 

Kogami was a good man, his life did matter. Whether or not Haense killed him, I am unsure. Your late wife, Eleanor, ruined any chance of the truth being discovered by interfering in my investigation. But, even if they did kill him, his life is not worth the suffering and destruction both sides have had to face because neither is willing to release their swords and say “I am sorry for what has transpired, but humanity must not be divided any longer.” War after war after war. Revenge plot after revenge plot after revenge plot. It has always been humanity’s downfall. The inability to agree and stop bickering as though we are the same as the men born a hundred generations past is our curse, not our short lives. 

 

You will claim the south has changed me, but perhaps change isn’t so bad. No one I have spoken to wants this war, they are tired of watching innocent children be murdered for walking down a road, they are tired of non combatants being maimed or worse. They are tired of losing their loved ones and dearest friends. I, too, am tired of watching my friends, the people I love most, the people I chose to care about despite all our differences, be hunted down because you are bitter that I refused to play into this archaic game of revenge. Revenge and the desire for war has been the fall of every Ruric kingdom before yours. Why must you continue to risk the lives of those you claim to care most about in a war that we both know won’t matter even twenty years from now? Why must you choose revenge and hatred, instead of love and forgiveness? Why? Do not cite our ancestors to me, Godric. For we both know how their stories end. Write your own story. Be your own person, for you are not Aeyn. You are not Edvard. You are Godric.

 

-Edyth of Nowhere

[RaccoonPete 73]

“What a dysfunctional family”, Peter would think

[Cobbler 809]

Tovelm would read the missive while his men cleaned the training grounds of Morsgrad, his body covered in the scars of the war that turned him from a boy to a man, a soldier to a leader. He would recall all that Godric had done for him and would begin to cry, something the giant hadn’t done in ages.

 

”This has got to stop, Oren has to understand that all they do is kill their own. I’m tired of killing my highland brothers, I’m tired of the lives that Oren refuse to let live because of their arrogance and “honor”. I’m tired of all the lies, deceit and trickery that Oren uses to manipulate their people.  All we want is to be free of that DAMNED empire, they caused destruction for all of Arcas, and will continue to cause it if someone doesn’t do something. We were tired of marching south to kill elves and orcs that mean nothing to us. We refuse to be the playthings for the powdered wigs of the empire to use. We made up half the damned army of Oren before we decided to stand up for ourselves, the heartlanders shall no longer guide us through this journey, we don’t need to be “together”, we shall guide ourselves and be stronger for it. The north shall never kneel.”