dreadpiratebill
Fighter
I asked a question Saturday night, that I still can not answer. For those who were just at the adventurers gather in Fairdale, you know that a Sunday was a day to be remembered. A great day for the goodly folk of the world. A great and powerful evil has been vanquished, and a war which has already cost thousands of lives, and would surely have cost thousands more has been ended. People who have been hurt, who have lost loved ones, and who have been displaced from their homes will soon start the long proccess of rebuilding what they had. This victory, this end to the war came at a price tho, and a steep price it was.
In what used to be the Plains of Rage is a large city, build tall and strong where a great mountain once stood. In that city, were many thousands of people. Tradesmen. Blacksmiths. Engineers. Farmers. Solders. Senators. Common folk who went about their lives in loyal service to the land of their birth. There is a problem with this city tho. This city is the capital of the Rotes Getragen. It is the heart of the Rotes empire Starkenstine, the City of Strength (translation). It is a place where a man may own another man so long as he is treated well and alowed to earn his "freedom". It is a place where those who will not join the empire, are subjugated by it, and indoctrinated into beliving that there is no other succesful way of life. It is from this place that their "doctrine of total order" was sent forth to their vast and very powerful armies. It is here that much of their power and all of their leadership, less their feild Isenvervectors (generals) would maintain their power.
Genocide is wrong. That is a simple statement that I belive most good folk would agree to. When The One tried to wipe out the Biata people, we rose up and stoped his Frejan Hordes. When the Kenhordil tried to spread their vile ideas and power we rose up and stoped them (tho I admit that was before I picked up the sword). Those who would seek the complete anihilation of another have and will continue to be our enemies. The Ordonkorps, (the Rotes Millitary) was a vile and evil force. They use necromancy and the undead to bolster their power. They use torture, pain, and suffering to achive their goals, which were no less then total world domination, for only in that goal could ther prophesy of total order be acheived. They would have used any means nessesary to destroy us, or indoctrinate us. They were trying to wipe us out.
There is no easy way to say this. Genocide is a tool of our enemies. As good people, who belive in the rule of law, and the riteousness of good over evil, can we ever find a time when such an act would be acceptable? When do we find it acceptable to put aside what we know as right and wrong, becasue our enemy is great, or our sacrifices becoming many? If such a time exists, where do we draw the line at what moral principals we are willing to turn a blind eye to, and which we are not? At what point do we become that which we have sword to defeat, for the sake of defeating it, or saving ourselves or even to save others?
Those are the questions I asked, and to which I ask of every man and woman who fought alongside me this past gather. I am no fool. I know what we did was genocide, and I heard the thousands of voices scream as they died painful permanant deaths only to be abruptly silenced by the grave. That city is a tomb now, filled with just as many non combatants as it is filled with troops. We killed them all at once in one great act of destruction that cared not who it killed. We will never know if the common Rotes man could be turned away from the path of their leaders. It is very possible that they could not, and that they would have restisted us and forced us to destroy them too. We will never know, becasue we never gave them the chance to know any path but the wrong one they were born to.
We did what we felt we had to do. I have walked a road darker than most. The argument that we had to, that it served the greater good, is a dangerous road to start upon. I know becasue I have walked it, and I have seen where it goes. I think these things here in the relm becasue I can not sleep. I can not silence the screams of those who died when we destroyed their Homestone. I am not condeming the Nobility, for they were given an imposible choice. Save the lives of their own people, at the cost of a people who might be beyond redemption, or sacrifice their own people trying to redeem the ones who can be saved, and very possibly loose their people enterly to war and death. I only put this forth to hear what we all have to say, for maybe someone out there can answer my question.
As a people, who champion the cause of good, who swear to be everywhere and always the champions of what is good and just against injustice and evil, can actions like ours be justified? Can the deaths of thousands truly be justified by the saving of hundreds of thousands? I have spent months trying to recover my sence of right and wrong, to live by the Code, and to reafirm my place amoung good men. Our actions may have been nessesary, but can we afford the cost? His Grace honored me this gather by stating he feared for my spirit but would reclaim me for the side of good. I fear for us all for what we have done.
I remain and shall always be a loyal servant of Icenia,
Councilman Amaranthus Landcharmer
In what used to be the Plains of Rage is a large city, build tall and strong where a great mountain once stood. In that city, were many thousands of people. Tradesmen. Blacksmiths. Engineers. Farmers. Solders. Senators. Common folk who went about their lives in loyal service to the land of their birth. There is a problem with this city tho. This city is the capital of the Rotes Getragen. It is the heart of the Rotes empire Starkenstine, the City of Strength (translation). It is a place where a man may own another man so long as he is treated well and alowed to earn his "freedom". It is a place where those who will not join the empire, are subjugated by it, and indoctrinated into beliving that there is no other succesful way of life. It is from this place that their "doctrine of total order" was sent forth to their vast and very powerful armies. It is here that much of their power and all of their leadership, less their feild Isenvervectors (generals) would maintain their power.
Genocide is wrong. That is a simple statement that I belive most good folk would agree to. When The One tried to wipe out the Biata people, we rose up and stoped his Frejan Hordes. When the Kenhordil tried to spread their vile ideas and power we rose up and stoped them (tho I admit that was before I picked up the sword). Those who would seek the complete anihilation of another have and will continue to be our enemies. The Ordonkorps, (the Rotes Millitary) was a vile and evil force. They use necromancy and the undead to bolster their power. They use torture, pain, and suffering to achive their goals, which were no less then total world domination, for only in that goal could ther prophesy of total order be acheived. They would have used any means nessesary to destroy us, or indoctrinate us. They were trying to wipe us out.
There is no easy way to say this. Genocide is a tool of our enemies. As good people, who belive in the rule of law, and the riteousness of good over evil, can we ever find a time when such an act would be acceptable? When do we find it acceptable to put aside what we know as right and wrong, becasue our enemy is great, or our sacrifices becoming many? If such a time exists, where do we draw the line at what moral principals we are willing to turn a blind eye to, and which we are not? At what point do we become that which we have sword to defeat, for the sake of defeating it, or saving ourselves or even to save others?
Those are the questions I asked, and to which I ask of every man and woman who fought alongside me this past gather. I am no fool. I know what we did was genocide, and I heard the thousands of voices scream as they died painful permanant deaths only to be abruptly silenced by the grave. That city is a tomb now, filled with just as many non combatants as it is filled with troops. We killed them all at once in one great act of destruction that cared not who it killed. We will never know if the common Rotes man could be turned away from the path of their leaders. It is very possible that they could not, and that they would have restisted us and forced us to destroy them too. We will never know, becasue we never gave them the chance to know any path but the wrong one they were born to.
We did what we felt we had to do. I have walked a road darker than most. The argument that we had to, that it served the greater good, is a dangerous road to start upon. I know becasue I have walked it, and I have seen where it goes. I think these things here in the relm becasue I can not sleep. I can not silence the screams of those who died when we destroyed their Homestone. I am not condeming the Nobility, for they were given an imposible choice. Save the lives of their own people, at the cost of a people who might be beyond redemption, or sacrifice their own people trying to redeem the ones who can be saved, and very possibly loose their people enterly to war and death. I only put this forth to hear what we all have to say, for maybe someone out there can answer my question.
As a people, who champion the cause of good, who swear to be everywhere and always the champions of what is good and just against injustice and evil, can actions like ours be justified? Can the deaths of thousands truly be justified by the saving of hundreds of thousands? I have spent months trying to recover my sence of right and wrong, to live by the Code, and to reafirm my place amoung good men. Our actions may have been nessesary, but can we afford the cost? His Grace honored me this gather by stating he feared for my spirit but would reclaim me for the side of good. I fear for us all for what we have done.
I remain and shall always be a loyal servant of Icenia,
Councilman Amaranthus Landcharmer