SyndicatedColumnists

The Rurikid Theatre

A Review by Critics of the Arts

We writers were most intrigued by your most recent performances. We will examine these, act by act, in an honest review of your work.

ACT I. The Warhawk

Godric, cutting down a man he’s hanged because he forgot he was on his side.

Here, we find your character in a strange predicament. Aligned against the Uruks for some time, you and the Lord Protector stood side by side. Yet not long after his death, relations with Peter III turned sour. You accused Haensemen of killing a merchant, when it was in fact not a man of Morsgrad at all, and nor was he killed. Many of us had seen this play before. You were playing the part of the warhawk, finding whatever reason you could to kill Haensemen for the deep-seated grudge you and the dragonsblood you align with have.

From Why We Fight, 1744

You claim in this document that the people of Oren aggressed, but not once did they march into your land, or the land of any other. Capturing a few Lorrainians in an empty city does not constitute full scale invasion. You have thrown away all narrative cohesion. You pretended that calling Haense to fight in a field to the death was reasonable and right, and refused to quit the field when the Emperor wished for reason and trial in place of senseless bloodshed. This is a prime example of attempting to appear strong and decisive, when in truth you were hunting for blood to spill.

A noble man, a reasonable man, would have been written to have the rationale of something more than a cucumber. This character has, instead, rallied folk across the planet to a false cause by citing grievances which do not constitute the total war you (where women and children are killed and no single person has freedom to walk the roads unmolested) have embarked on. Instead, it constitutes nothing more than a proper conversation between leaders of people, who seek the best for their fellow man. In this, we find your character to not be particularly believable.

ACT II. The Nobleman 

Godric, attempting to cure a victim of Morsgradie Mould.

You have duly managed to, without batting an eye, wear the mask of one who cares for others and their health and sovereignty. You will be acclaimed critically, no doubt, for acting as though you did not murder the Governor-General, Ester Devereaux, in cold blood. And to think, only some years ago you issued an edict banning all Curonians from your land to spite them, and then you invite them to meet with you. A worse actor would have failed at this endeavor. Even so, you have managed to convince your legion of bandits and psychotic murderers that you are genuine in your ask for peace. Surely only such a brilliant liar would be capable of producing such crocodile tears. 

There was a massive error in the continuity of your play, however, when you claimed to give the Kingdom of Curon Ester’s body for the last rites.

And also, this passage,

From Concerning a Rose, 1745

You can’t try and make a brutal and heinous character but then have him pretend to be honorable, noble and sympathetic when it suits the author. First, you claim you delivered her body to be properly laid to rest, and then you put on the mask of the honorable man who allows his enemy to grieve. You do this because it benefits you, because you did not know the Curonian Prince would see straight through it. Once your character discovered he was indeed not going to sugar the Prince into submission, you returned to your ways.

From A Request for Godric, 1746.

How can a man who cared for last rites ransom the head of a woman he claims to respect back to her family? Is this honor, or goodness? I think not.

ACT III. The Bandit King

Godric, telling his men, ‘You idiots, if you keep killing everyone on the road I’ll have to pretend you’re not my friends!”

Our most recent installment is a short act thus far. You will, and have done everything you can to ensure you have as many allies as you can possibly have. You have galvanized a world seeped in anarchy to destroy civilization, and no better example is there than your bandit allies.

In the promulgation of this conflict, we have seen two contributing members of the Alliance of Independent States commit heinous acts against both their allies and the neutral dwed. The characters here interact in an almost unbelievable way. How could this happen? Why?

First, let us examine the nature of this Alliance. It was created in order to fight the Empire, and it's only goal was to gather as many different people as possible. This is strange behavior from a character, the Duke, which seeks to do the righteous good of all sovereign people. Include even bandits and vagabonds from a righteous crusade for justice.

The Bandits of Ruswick are the first of those who crawled into the AIS knowing it would protect them so they could freely practice banditry and killing. This Saint’s Week, they captured and killed a dwed in good standing with the Underking, forcing the dwedmer to issue demands that everyone break off their alliance with the Ruswickian vagabonds.

Now, the Bandits of Lorraine. Their part in this is not surprising, it’s a scene we’ve seen before. They have captured, ransomed and perhaps even killed children, both human and high elven. They have no regard for rule of law or the favor for the goodness of GOD and our fellow men. 

If the Morsgradi alliance had not been threatened by the dwed, they would not have expelled Ruswick from their alliance. They care not for the morality or honor of the thing, they care only if it affects their ability to cause havoc and win fights. They will use anyone, even bandits and murderers, to achieve their anarchy. This does not align with the traditional ideals of honor and justice that the characters in this act seem to wish to display.

These characters did not say to themselves ‘Oh, there are bandits in my alliance, I must do something about that!’. 

They said, ‘Drat, those bandits I have in my alliance are starting to cause trouble. I better throw them away so the dwed don’t tip the scales in my enemy’s favor.’

I wonder what vagabonds will next reveal themselves from within the ranks of this Bandit King. What nation will make demands of Duke Godric after one of his comrades kills a child or a member of a neutral party. If we’re following the story correctly, and I think we are, the recurring themes are doomed to return.

IN SUMMARY

Godric is peaceful, but hunts for reasons to launch full scale invasions and end countless lives.

Godric is honorable, but kills women he claims that he honors in cold blood and drops their headless bodies as a warning.

Godric is just, but hires bandits to do his bidding until they cause too much trouble for him to handle.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

Published by the Syndicated Press.

THE DEMONIC PACT

between

THE GREAT DECEIVER

and

HIS SERVANTS et al.

From the compiled works of J.H Hippolit & A. Callahan (1745)

IN THE CONVENTIONAL UNDERSTANDING, Iblees, whomst has faces so manifold as to be practically unknowable, has not been understood to have impacted the realms of the descendants for centuries. There are some that proliferate the idea that Iblees is dead, or even that he never existed in the first place. Those descendants practically a millennia old, who lived through his destruction of Aegis and more of the horrors he wrought, may have been lulled into a false sense of security since last he was vanquished. They are wrong-headed in this interpretation.

Iblees lives among us, and has taken, for over a century now, another face: that of the Great Deceiver. In a far cry to the fire-and-brimstone conquest and naked cruelty of Iblees’ past guise, the Great Deceiver’s primary tool is subtlety and manipulation. This makes him far more dangerous, turning descendants against one another to sate his bloodlust. 

The true name of the Great Deceiver is unpronounceable, originally finding its genesis in a blood-god secretly worshipped by the Daelish travellers who established themselves in caravans in Lorraine in the early 17th century. The pact that their chieftain, Gromach, made with this pagan entity ensured his rise through civil society. Eventually, Gromach achieved the rank of finance minister to Emperor Peter II, becoming his chief-most advisor. The Great Deceiver’s price? He would spread the secret tenets of his worship, furthering his cause throughout the realms of mortal beings in exchange for favours, promises, and rewards. In a desperate bid to save his rule, Peter II adopted the worship of the Great Deceiver in private, under the whispered counsel of his cultist advisor. Stability, however, never serves the interest of this blood god. Only anarchy and war appease him, and so the bumbling emperor was betrayed by him. This desire for bloodshed drew a natural ally to worship him - the Pertinaxi and Johannian dynasts of the Seventh Empire.

ᛞ ᚹ ᛈ ᚻ

(Inset: the true name of the Great Deceiver, written in the Daelish traveller script.)

War is hell. War without purpose is hell indeed, for men shall die without a higher cause. Yet death itself is the higher cause for the Great Deceiver, who feeds on the souls of those killed in war from his position in the void, unable to manifest physically except through limited hosts. His influence and his vile whispers pit descendant against descendant, starting catastrophic wars to sate his bloodlust. It makes sense, then, that the Pertinaxi, who devoted their dominion of humanity to bloodshed for its sake alone, adopted worship of him.

And now the Great Deceiver, as he did before the Pertinaxi and as he shall do after them, controls the other side, filling their minds with lies and promises, adeptly maneuvering from his position in the shadows like a puppeteer with a marionette. Those leaders of coalitions have made a pact with him - they shall do his bidding, causing as much anarchy and conflict as they can, in exchange for the rewards he promises them. He boasts to them that he has never lost such a conflict. In a way, he is right, because he always profits off of war and bloodshed no matter who is killed or who is the killer. He has no loyalty to his pawns, and will cast them aside the moment they are no longer useful to him. For that is his way. 

Why did this war start? Does anybody even remember? Morsgradie disciples of He Who Does Not Bleed can mumble a few words about some merchant slain by a Haenseman. Does anybody even believe this pretext? What business is a slain Morsgradie merchant (If he even existed in the first place) of the Irrinites, the Haelun’ori, the Renelians or even the Suffonians? It has been six years, and Reza still stands, undaunted. 

The truth is that these thinly-veiled pretexts of a casus belli are elements of propaganda to cover for his ambitions for a divided, weak humanity. A united humanity, if it is peaceable and not in the business of killing wantonly, is at odds with the desires of the Great Deceiver - as he lusts chiefly for as much chaos and anarchy as possible to feed him. In this way, Godric of Morsgrad, the Maheral of Haelun’or are but marionettes on strings, enslaved by the pact they have made with him and his dark will. 

(Inset: an idol of the Great Deceiver, constructed by the Johannians of the late 17th century.)

The faceless god is seductive and enticing. He will promise rewards beyond compare, the foremost of which are titles and respect. The greedy and the avaricious fall to him with ease, as he plays upon their desire for more to enthrall them under his spell. Nevermind that true respect must be earned - the Great Deceiver’s short-cut has appeal to many and more. By working these entities against each other, sometimes taking a goodly form when interacting with them and telling each and every one of them the same thing - that he will facilitate their greatness - he generates his pawns. 

It is this greed and avarice, ingrained into the ambition of humanity, that has allowed him so much sway there. Through his proxies, he offers titles, respect, greatness and sainthood, anything that they desire, all in exchange for being his leal servant, and sowing more chaos on his behalf. They are fools for falling for his tricks. He plays on doubts and insecurities, stoking pride and envy so he might claim them as his.

But it is our ethical duty, as free descendants who govern our own destinies, to try to aid them, to help them break free from his spell and his manipulation. We must pray for them, and endeavour with every effort to rescue them.

In the end, it is they who are deceived into being his puppets, and they who shall end up discarded.

CURSED be HE, and DAMNED be YE who serve HIM.

The opinions expressed in this document are solely those of the author.

Published by the Syndicated Press.