Unto Simmon Lavendale, a.k.a. The Author

Unto Simmon Lavendale,

Although I accept the inevitability of your selected path, it is my hope that you will see the error of your steps and stand down from this madness you threaten so many others with. I understand the desire to stand out and be acknowledged in skill and prowess no matter the cost. No one can argue against such a desire. Instead, I counter that you were already a hero who has now cursed himself with obscurity. I shall explain as it may be enough for you to have a moment of realization.

You were an author of repute, a hero of literature even. Your books sold well and were cherished by those that found inspiration within their pages. That inspiration creates adventurers and heroes as readers take the morality lessons stories provide and shape the world around them to be better a bit at a time. That is what heroes do in creating the next generation; they amaze with a story that teaches a lesson. Before books and the written word, the stories were told and the lessons taught by word and song. Even then, the formula and purpose was the same as it is now.

You were a hero of discovery. The Kullan Tarina is a legendary artifact and unearthing it would have made you famous in academia and among adventurers. Its study and protection would have been a life long calling that would have tied your name to something likely as old as Fortannis itself. Your name would have stayed with it long after you were gone. Keeping the book from capturing and using the spirits of the living as a power source would have made you a hero of defense.

So many heroes and legends you could have been. Yet, you’ve thrown it away. You’ve taken a legend and turned it into a mockery. You’ve stolen the spirits of the living from other realms and twisted them into nothing more than a light show of ham-fisted, overly cliché villainy that isn’t even worth the monolog. You broke the cardinal rule of story writing when you added yourself as a primary character and it shows. After all, even biographies are written by people other than the subject. As any play of sound and fury can signify nothing, here is what the final curtain call will look like.

The gather approaching as the mists align isn’t this magnitude of adventurers and heroes to battle within the pages of an epic tome. It isn’t some big crucible that will make new heroes as everyone attending has been on that road for a while now. It’s a few days of meetings and diplomacy with a healthy dose of business and trading on the backdrop of a child screaming ‘look at me’ to anyone who might listen.

Don’t get me wrong, we will fight and drag you down one failure of a story at a time. But it won’t be done for justice or wrath or nobility or any lofty emotion that you demand we provide. There is no high horse that comes at your call for you to stare wistfully at. Some will be there to play while some will be there for the coin and prizes. Most will be there because of your brother. He gave the calling that every hero through all of history has always answered by simply asking for help.

For yourself, your grand prize is obscurity. You won’t be remembered as a person or even a villain. When asked about the adventures, the heroes you so cherish will tell of the book and its power. They will tell of the individual threats they faced and the good times they had with others. When asked who the villain was, you will be laughed off and described only as a madman or a fool who made threats and found out how bad of an idea that was. In the end, your story will disappear.

I do so hope you are prepared for the worst group critique of your existence.

I know I am.

With delightful regard,
Lucian
A humble storyteller
 
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