Karma? Justice? Cruelty?

[PrinceTheDM 275]

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

OOC: This is a personal journal entry, please do not metagame any information. Because this is a personal journal, the events may not be completely accurate.

Karma? Justice? Cruelty?

 

Written by [ANONYMOUS SCHOLAR]

 

---

I do not know why I stayed.

Fear? Curiosity? Obligation? 

Someone needed to see it. Someone needed to write it down.

Someone needed to keep this story safe. 

And so I write… I record the events before memory softens its edges, and the sharpness of the blade dulls to be forgotten.

 

The hall felt too large at first. It was filled with murmurs bouncing from pillar to pillar, like restless birds, opinions, observations, assumptions all being chirped across the way.

 

I looked upon those in the center. The persecuted. The judged. The scorned. The Sohaer stood in the center, flanked by mali’thill who came to support him- no came to support Haelun’or. The swords and shields that surrounded them felt akin to sharks swirling around the water, if only a shed of blood were spilt, they would be torn apart.

 

I remember thinking to myself, that he looked tired. Not defeated, but strained, as if his thoughts weighed more than his body could comfortably carry. I’ve never seen him like that. All of the city’s burdens fell upon him. How unfortunate that the weight of the accusations far surpassed what he could hold.

 

The trial began simply enough. The King of Numendil spoke. “The trial shall commence” - the Prince stepped forward, seemingly held by duty alone. He spoke calmer than I expected, strangely so, as if he was not subjugating a people but scolding a child. “Elf” he said “when your land was in turmoil, we offered stability. Why then,” His fingers curved around the wooden railing, “Did we find a demon’s den beneath your city?” 

 

A sharp whisper of shock rose from behind me. I did not turn. I could not. 

 

Acalmaehr’s reply came just as soft, “I did not know. I failed to see the signs in time.” 

 

The Prince leaned closer, for but a moment I thought pity might soften his scowl. I was wrong. His next words cut any possibility of mercy apart. 

 

“You walk those streets every day. My men do not. And yet… they found the corruption before you?” - “Do any of you believe this farce?”

 

It was thus then that the crowd erupted.

 

“No! Your Imperial Highness!” “They consorted with demons!” “They lie!”

Dozens of accusations, each louder, each more venomous.

I felt the sound rising in my bones.

 

When the king stood, silence swept the hall, as if a tide had pulled the breath from every chest. “It seems” he said slowly, “that Haelun’or has become tainted. And with that weight upon me… I dissolve the city. No banner shall bear its name.” 

 

I saw the Sohaer stiffen. Two young elves clutched each other. I saw a guard grin.

I saw any chance of this ending peacefully dissolve.

 

“The Sohaer shall be executed”

 

That was the spark. 

 

Everything after ignited with impossible speed.

Metal clanged, and voices bellowed.

 

Someone behind me shouted “KILL THE ELVES!”

The words slithered through the hall wrapping itself around the soldiers’ spines. Swords scraped free, shields locked into place. I smelled iron before any blade touched a throat.

 

Commanding words rang out “STOP THEM! Grab the Sohaer and their council!”

 

Chaos thus consumed the hall.

 

I saw a child duck beneath a swing of a mace. I saw an elfess shove a defender aside and sprint toward the exit as the iron gates began to creak to life, raising to prevent any from fleeing. A golem within the crowd pivoted, runes flashing, desperately trying to find some directive that would save them, but to no avail.

 

And then I saw Sir Leofric reach the Sohaer.

 

He pulled him to the ground and the Prince commanded in a flat, soulless tone, “Make it cruel and painful” The chaos had made it hard to hear but his lips were easiest to read. Slow, methodical and deliberate were his words. 

 

Leofric raised his sword, attempting to speak once more the Sohaer looked up. The blade fell down. A clean arc. A head rolling. A gasp caught in a thousand throats.

It was then that a blazing light split the hall apart.

 

An Aengul descended, wings beating light through blood and smoke. People fell to their knees, whispering prayers or choking on them. “TAR ARGELION ZORZAGAR” the Angel intoned, “THE TIME IS NIGH TO UPHOLD OUR COVENANT” In its palms was an image of the Silver City, nestled gently between its holy hands. A stillness, some prayed, some cried out, it did not react. 

 

Finally it spoke, “SO BE IT” and disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

 

I stood in the aftermath, trembling. Someone pushed past me muttering about civility in the Empire. Another, blood-splattered and smiling, murmured, “Justice.”

 

Justice. 

 

I do not know what that word means anymore.

 

I only know I watched a city die today-

Without fire.

Without siege.

 

Only the sound of sword drawing breath and a crowd deciding what mercy should not be.

 

Tonight when I close my eyes, I will still see the Sohaer’s head lifted high, holy light staining red stone. Within the solitude of my bedchambers, silence would accompany me, the air thick with the realization that even in justice there is cruelty. Even in righteousness, there is revelry, at the pain that one can cause others.

 

Darkspawn. Imperial. Darkspawn. Imperial.

 

The lines blurred more and more- a children’s eyes filled with horror all the same whether their loved ones were being burned by Demons or cut down by Imperials.

 

When will it all make sense? When devoted to a deity who tells you all you need to see and know? When your soul is tainted and tarnished for the fleeting sense of power? 

 

I do not have those answers. I simply allow you to glimpse how I perceive the events transcribed and give you the freedom to choose your own opinions.

 

Ave Imperium? Might is Right?

 

One day you shall heed those calls. One day you shall walk these halls. And I can only hope that you could hold your head just as high as the Sohaer did this day.

[Rig 17581]

 Rhys said to his wife Rhianwen, "Watch all of them cry over the destruction of an establishment built on the crimes of ethnonationalism, racial supremacy, and the desire to subjugate their peers. To the point a sign in their Dark Elven district said 'Wash after visiting'." He resumed his work at his desk afterwards, the politics boring him. 

 

(Put on Imgur so High Elven players cannot meta-game, heh.)

[TaraJess 2849]

25 minutes ago, PrinceTheDM said:

 

Justice. 

 

I do not know what that word means anymore

 

Did you all not see the warning of my own demise?

[deviouschungus 164]

On 11/15/2025 at 10:39 PM, rigorous said:

snip

 

From her perch on the couch just behind Rhys’s cluttered station, Rhianwen had only hummed her resigned agreement. She carried the thought further in her mind, tracing its bitter contours: those who most zealously preached the tenets of Maehr’sae Hiylun’eyha always seemed to be the ones deemed unclean by the very creed they upheld. The notion left a faint sourness in her chest, a disbelief that her own kin could be both the sufferers of such judgment and its most dutiful enforcers.

 

Thus the cycle turned once more, devouring its own faithful until fervour withered into silence.

[Werew0lf 24181]

Spoiler

Great post. 

 

[sam33497 7356]

1 hour ago, PrinceTheDM said:

 

One day you shall heed those calls. One day you shall walk these halls. And I can only hope that you could hold your head just as high as the Sohaer did this day.

 

Incidentally, Maximilian Caius Horen also thought something like this, shortly after the ordeal:

 

Who is the man that does violence and expects to ever be divorced from it?

What is the logic that can possibly provide righteousness to violence?

 

...

 

As those of the Silver City had well-chronicled, Mankind does little but slaughter themselves.

In the name of realms and ideologies, continually they find excuses to kill each other.

Man will never escape violence, it is as much a part of us as love and happiness.

 

There is no righteousness, no true cause, no justified killing.

There is only a world where harm is mitigated, where many Men live in happiness...

And so, until the day he is felled by the sword he lives by,

regardless of what he must do,

regardless of the violence necessary,

he will bring about that future.

 

Otherwise, he was born for nothing.

Were there one born with the charge to shield all Descendant-kind and not merely one race, he would surely weep for them.

[MrMojoMordor 2413]

A goblin who had come to watch drama unfold, only to witness a 1 sided massacre in the court room let's out a hum: "Wub iz izi now.. 2nd massacre bi da hand ob Numendillianz? Reazonz azide, mi wonder who'z next. Iz there a zkoreboard?" 

[Hungy 66]

An elfess whom had the unfortunate luck to witness it all unfold first hand, reads the writing. 

"A trial they promised, a massacre they delivered." - "Goes to show how honourable and truthfull this so called 'Empire' truly is. Resorting to weak lies and a witches deception to simply get what they want, not need. A childs behaviour..."
She hissed then, remembering events that followed.
"If they do not play fairly, who's to say i shouldn't either?"
She added with a short tongue. Going to grab her quill and ink, writing a letter to one she should have written to long ago...

Edited November 16, 2025 by Hungy