An Open Letter to the Halfling People

[HalflingPrincess 411]

[!] A pamphlet is copied and handed out to every door in Bloomerville and Fort Hope

An Open Letter to the Halfling People

My dear friends and neighbors;

Long have I remained silent in the face of the great hardships and conflicts that have come upon our people. Even now, as I write this letter, I look upon my past words with regret. I recognize that, despite the time that has passed, the speech I gave at my wedding in 1787 gave many within the village a poor first impression of me. I readily admit that the decision to bring politics to a wedding was overly opportunistic, and, with my second marriage coming within the next month, I knew that it would be wise to express my opinions here rather than succumb to the temptation of addressing a crowd, lest I repeat past mistakes. When I spoke in 1787, I did so with the intention of calling the halfling people to action. My views had been radicalized by unreliable sources, and I had believed that there was no chance of reform without immense pressure from the masses. In my many discussions with our Thain Isalie Gardner, however, it has become clear to me that I was deeply mistaken in calling her a tyrant.

With that in mind, I now begin my intended message in earnest; this is not a call to arms, nor is it a call to political action. I am not writing to the people on behalf of the Thain, nor do I write to the Thain on behalf of the people. With my words I intend to address everyone with a plea and a promise:

I know these have been trying times. I will not waste ink on tales of our sorrow, for I am quite sure you have all had your fill of it. But all the same, we must recognize the enormous challenges that the halfling people must overcome. Moreover, we must realize that it cannot be achieved without setting aside our petty squabbles and coming together. Having stood on both sides of the line at differing points in my life, I am well aware of both the importance of our tradtions to propers as well as the desire for freedom in the hearts of impropers. We cannot allow those labels to divide us howver. We must unite.

I know these words may be weakened by the fact that I am the one writing them. I am only too aware of my own defects. I am obnoxious and vain; I am disliked because I talk too much and try to exert intelluctual and moral authority, even though I know, deep down, that my wisdom is far from infinite. I do not claim to be above any of the people I criticize. I do not wish harm upon anyone, I ask only that they consider my words. I wish not to divide our people any futher, nor to usurp the Thain, nor to silence her opposition. Though I write from within the government, my message is purely my own; for I seek only understanding between all of us.

I write first, then, to my dear friend Isalie Gardner, beginning with a sincere apology. I was gravely mistaken in calling you a tyrant during my 1787 speech. I understand, now, that you accepted the role of thain not because you believed everybody else to be beneath you, but because nobody else proved up to the task. You have performed admirably, and have displayed a deep love for your people as well as a willingness to listen. You have been like a mother to the halflings, and we are grateful for your warm care. However, speaking from experience both as a child and now as a mother, there is such a thing as being too involved. We mothers wish to protect and guide our children, and it is our duty to do so, but we cannot allow our desire for their safety to blind us to their free will. I write delicately because I do not mean to be offensive in my criticism, but I fear also that you may be offended regardless. You have not always been particularly appreciative of criticism and many fear you. You are a strong lady of stature and authority and, to those who do not know you as well as I do, it makes you intimidating. It must be admitted that you often seek to be directly involved in every little matter of our people. Though I recognize this as a sign of your immense care for us, it feels overbearing to many; like a parent who forbids their child from leaving the house. Your authority is, of course, enshrined in halfling law and custom, and while it was indeed wrong to go against you to build Bloomerville, you must recognize and respect both their reasons for doing so as well as the great effort that was put into it. While I recognize that you did not intend for this land to become our home, it has been for nearly four years now. I recognize and respect your notion that "the village" is an idea rather than a place; and furthermore I recall your intentions to  move our people for their safety from the assassins, but we must recognize that not everyone is being targeted. Though illegal, there were legitimate reasons for building a more permanet settlement  in Fort Hope.

Before I describe these reasons in more detail, however, I wish to draw attention to the growing division of our people into two groups. While it would be disingenuous to directly call one group "proper" and the other "improper", it must also be recognized that tradition is more highly regarded by the "Bloomers" while Isalie and her supporters place greater value in freedom and safety. My greatest fear is that these groups will continue to drift apart, and ruin any chance of returning to a community in the fashion of Brandybrook or Dunshire, where all halflings are united.

To those like myself, who have stood adamantly beside Isalie, I say this; while our Thain is indeed a wonderful person, we cannot blind ourselves to her mistakes as a leader. We must recognize that the "Bloomers" are concerned about our "properness." It is my understanding that "proper" is a word that has largely lost its meaning, and in many ways we tend toward being improper, mostly in regards to our use of bladed weapons. Our disregard for the concept of "properness" as well as our notion thsat it is outdated is viewed by the "Bloomers" as a rejection of values that define us as halflings, which our ancestors worked very hard to establish. They feel that, by rejecting their traditions, we dishonor our ancestors and rake the achievements of our forefathers through the mud. They question what the difference is between an improper halfling and a biggun.

To the "Bloomers", I say this; having studied "properness" in greater detail, it must be understood that many self-proclaimed "impropers" do not understand what it really means to be "proper"; it is a term that was muddled by the corruption of Rollo Applefoot's coup and the dictatorship that followed; a term that slowly lost meaning as his successors were overcome by unprecedented challenges such as inferi, murderers, demonic pumpkins, and assassins. These ordeals have put our lives at risk and have thrown many of us into despair; we have thought little about simple pleasures and luxuries such as taverns and burrows because we have been concerned primarily with our own defense, which is also largely the reason for our movement toward biggun-style arms. With that in mind, I ask that the "Bloomers" reconsider any hostility they may harbor toward the Thain, she has done everything witihin her power to keep us all safe, and while I recognize and commend your efforts to restore traditional halfling life, going against her orders without so much as an apology conveys a message of great disrespect.

In summary, my message to the halflings is this: we all have reasons to congratulate ourselves, just as we all have reasons to be ashamed. We are each as worthy of credit for doing the right thing as we are at fault for doing the wrong thing. We must recognize this not only in ourselves as individuals but in every member of our community. If the halfling race is to prosper; we must set aside our differences and hold on to the fundamental truth that we are all halflings. For indeed, all halflings are born free and equal and with certain rights; life, liberty, and perhaps most crucially the pursuit of happiness, which cannot be infringed. I give all of you the same assurances that Isalie gave me; that, once we do finally settle into a new permanent village, a new government shall be established in which she has pledged to share her power with officials elected by the people. 

No such government can exist, however, without cooperation and compromise; we must not devolve into the petty politics of bigguns. The power of self-government comes also with a host of responsibilities. It is only a matter of time before we depart this wretched and doomed continent and sail alongisde the Sea Prince to a new world. When we get there, any notions of a divided halfling people must be set aside. We must be ever steadfast in our own unity; rejecting war, embracing neutrality, and avoiding the disease of partisanship.
 

Our people are facing a great test, and only by standing united can pass it. Twilight has fallen upon Arcas, but a new dawn shall soon arrive, and ere the sun rises it will smile upon our people if and only if we are willing to smile at each other and to remember that, proper or not, we are all halflings.

I wish long life and prosperity to halflings everywhere; that we are and ever shall be a people fair and free. I could have no greater honor than that which I have been given, for I am and shall remain among the people's most humble and obedient of servants.

Knox save the Thain!

Greta Goodbarrel
-Elder of Brandybrook




 

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

Spoiler

Bloomerville is a literal meme name I came up with for what me and TakeMeT0TheFae were building, but it stuck. The halfling race had crashed at Fort Hope a while ago, yet nobody was building anything. Everybody was just living in biggun houses and doing biggun-like stuff despite being a halfling. Most halfling characters, and basically all of the halfling leadership, were having mental problems and were sad all the time due to losing their homeland. Everyone was convinced the world was going to end soon, and that there was no point in doing anything to improve the condition of the race. This is what I nicknamed the "Doomer Era", since the halflings just logged online every day to roleplay being really sad and that was about it.

 

This all changed when TakeMeT0TheFae and ButterPotato came back onto LOTC. They were old halflings from 2015-2016, a time so long ago even I wasn't around. They noticed that the halflings had literally nothing to call their own besides some biggun houses at Fort Hope, and they got to work making halfling stuff in the area along with me. In this new village, there was going to be none of the ol' halfling doomer mentality that had gripped the race for so long. We were to be bloomers all the time, and thus I nicknamed the place "Bloomerville". The name stuck.

 

I'm glad to have taken part in making halflings significantly less homeless and depressed at the end of 8.0. I would like to thank @chaosgamer_ for letting us use a good portion of Fort Hope to build Bloomerville, and for being so considerate to our needs with the palisade and unlocking chests

and whatnot. Let's hope we can have a really fun Thanksgiving festival to send off Arcas!

 

 

Filibert Applefoot smokes his pipe "Oi'll give Isalie more respec' when she nay wan's ter abandon Bloomerville an' all t'a work me an' Peregrins 'ave done fer t'a wee folks."

[OddOllie123 255]

Bassett read the letter three times over. Leaving it time to ponder on it before coming any conclusion of his own. "Oiy was completely unaware of c'ance of violen' acts between 'proper' an' 'improper' people. Nor could oiy feel muc' tension, per'aps an issue on my part. 'owever with this letter and the great pain our friends an' family have endured. oiy believe it ta be t'e rig't t'ing to do in saying that oiy shall not take any side. Not proper, nor improper. Oiy s'all support everyone in t'e same way oiy always have an' that's by lending an ear or a 'and. So often people are separated into groups and labels. Leading ta t'em forever being placed in a certain box of cans and cants. Now as much oiy stand with my statement of not separating myself between any of such groups, oiy must say oiy find it disrespectful and outright a crime to even think of any violent acts against our T'aine. We may have our opinions but violence whether it be with shovels or with words is not what us halflings are about. Lets remember who we all are and that its our duty to stay neutral. Any conflict now is not what we need. To make it any further than we have already got we need to stay united. An' oiy truly believe if we can succeed in that. T'en we will have an extremely bright future ahead of us. Especially with this government which oiy strongly feel will empower us, strengt'ening our voices and truly cementing our name in 'istory." Anyone around Bloomerville could hear his words. Something Bass assured as he spoke thoroughly about his opinion. Even giving people a chance to speak to him about the subject instead of carrying on with his baking and gardening. 

[Noixkaloni 26]

Rufus sits down in his burrow, covered in a large pile of blankets, all while eating some cookies and would also be looking far more anxious than was seen the day before. He grumbles at the notion of "everyone in Bloomerville" or so he thinks. "Oi- Oi feel un-unjustly tah'geh'teh'ed b-boi t'is... Oi l-live in Bloomah'ville cus' oi 'ave noeh- noeh t'where else tew goeh. In m-moi opinion, Filiber' cahn goeh fawk'im'self f-f'er abandonin' his- his woife- w'if Ezila, noeh l-less. Noeh respec' f-fer teh man..." Rufus reads over the letter again, pondering. "Noewh, t-t'is elcec'ion 'art, t-t'ah't soun's gewd- ver- ver'eh gewd... Isaile ain' ah ba' person, bu' all- all t'ah't pow'ah e-es shtewpid, in'nut? May- May'eh'beh oi sh-shoul' t'ink ab-about t'is soem'moar..." Rufus would go quiet, thinking for a while, before falling right to sleep. All of this reading and thinking makes him quite a bit tired.