Title Author Published Why Peace? Aztice Ethertone September 23, 2001 Humans vs. Elves Aztice Ethertone September 25, 2001 Dreams Aztice Ethertone September 25, 2001 Greatest Children Aztice Ethertone October 2, 2001 What is the Temple? Aztice Ethertone October 2, 2001
People should learn when not to fight.
Every once in a long while, a truly great enemy invades Aerynth, intent on causing real damage. The Dragon, that Terror of Terrors, seemed ready to destroy the world in the Age of Twilight. In the Age of Days, we were invaded by hordes of Chaos-spawned demons, similarly intent on utter destruction.
Although these events are terrible, there is one amazing thing about them: no one disagreed on how to react. When we are exposed to utter evil, suddenly the contrast between evil and good is stark and clear for everyone to see. Possibilities narrow, until you side with either one or the other. Dissenters are not merely not tolerated; they are nonexistent. There is no room for equivocation, ambiguity, or justification: black and white.
Apparently, the world has a poor memory. During these conflicts, all of Aerynth is united, and we know what is right. The moment the danger recedes, politicians resume their disputes. When the Dragon fled, the Elves began to turn against the All-Father. The very day Shadowbane turned the tide of the War of the Scourge against Chaos, Ithriana was not content to win the war, she had to be the one holding the sword, and Humans broke off the alliance with the Elves.
Immediately before the War of the Scourge, Elves and Humans had been locked in a blood feud, each trying to destroy the other. What if, Father forbid, someone had won that war? With either side wiped out, how long could the other have single-handedly held off Chaos? They were allies of necessity; but it did not occur to anyone either before or after the alliance that such a necessity might arise, so they fought, depleting Aerynth's defenses against another invasion.
And what for? Do the powers of Aerynth fight for survival, or freedom, or even prosperity? NO! They fight to destroy! Anyone with even a tiny knowledge of the War of Tears knows that both the Elves and Humans were given a chance to end the conflict with both societies in tact, and each failed to use it. When evil attacks, the stakes are clear: victory or death. When we are the invaders, we can hardly claim such nobility. Then the choice lies between defeat and death: not our deaths, but the deaths of our countrymen.
Only when we near the brink of destruction do people realize how they ought to live: united, at peace with one another, our swords facing ever outward and looking forward to a greater future. If we needed any further evidence that this is how we ought to live, witness the Elves: they started with the most, they pursued peace the least, and declined the most. Friends, this is not theory, fantasy or wishful thinking: it is how the world operates. Peace prospers, war destroys.
Therefore, fight only in defense. Never attack, never invade, never make yourself a conqueror. Be a defender, a liberator, a healer. This is the first lesson of history.
A little additional analysis . . .
For the sake of discussion, let us divide recorded history into five ages, and call them Twilight, Dawn, Days, Kings, and Strife.
The transition from Twilight to Dawn was marked by the awakening of the Dragon and the ignition of the sun. A malicious force from outside Aerynth attacked.
The transition from Dawn to Days was marked by the starting of time. While no less cataclysmic than the previous transition, this was a purely internal matter: the joten smashed the cliffs of fate in rebellion against the All-Father, according to His plan.
The transition from Days to Kings was marked by the War of the Scourge. Here, once again, Aerynth was invaded by an external force, and we warred against it.
The transition from Kings to Strife was the Turning, arguably the most disastrous event in the history of Aerynth, but once again, purely internal -- an affair of elves and men, having nothing directly to do with any outside force.
If the pattern continues, we can look forward to battling an external threat for our very survival in a little over one thousand years. By the nature of the age we now live in, we'll all be here to see that day.
But there is something more grim than that we can learn from this history. In the first brush with outside evil, the awakening of the Dragon, the Elves fought -- but failed quickly and totally. The All-Father, with the aid of Kenaryn and Thruin, needed to directly intervene to prevent Aerynth's destruction. Shadowbane was forged in response.
In the War of the Scourge, we almost beat back the forces of Chaos ourselves using Shadowbane, but it required an alliance unprecedented before or since. Our unity faltered just when we might have won, and as a result the All-Father was forced to directly intervene once again, driving back Chaos with His archons.
If the third battle is indeed coming, it appears we don't have the option of letting the All-Father win it for us. If history is any indication, we need to amass significant military force -- more than we have now -- and not use it against each other. We also need to recover Shadowbane, and not fight over who uses it to protect Aerynth.
Unfortunately, this currently seems an unlikely possibility. We'll all still be here, though, a thousand years or more from now, when the crisis comes -- and Aerynth's fate lies, Gods save us, in our own hands.
Aztice Ethertone
There is a long-standing rivalry and hostility between the firstborn and the sons of men. Manifold are the historical reasons for these two races to distrust one another, but philosophy concerns itself not with what is but rather what ought to be, so we must ask the questions, "why did they become enemies?" and "should they be enemies?"
The first question is easily answered by a cursory historical analysis. Immediately before and after the Taming, hostility of the elves towards the All-Father ran high. Since it was shortly thereafter that the Father created the humans, the anger against the Father was transferred directly to His actions at the time, and consequently onto the humans. Additionally, the elves could be said to have experienced something akin to sibling rivalry, wishing to be unique and resentful of a competitor.
But should they fight? The All-Father clearly wishes both races, since He created both. Even if it is disputed whether He actually created the elves or merely the humans, He certainly had an opportunity to destroy the elves at the end of the Taming, so we may safely say it was His preference that both survive. Therefore, any servant of the All-Father must realize that neither race ought to perish.
Additionally, whatever the claims each of these races makes about superiority, they are not borne out by history. Though the two races were locked almost constantly in deadly conflict, neither ever succeeded in gaining decisive victory (except in one case, which will shortly be discussed in detail). Circumstances arranged themselves such that, though both sides came very close to defeat at various times, both races survived. This suggests either that both races have very precisely balanced power (or allies that cause the balance of power to become exactly even), or some force much stronger than either of them is working to preserve both. In the former case, anyone who enters the conflict faces as good a chance of defeat as victory; in the later, by joining the fight, you are opposing a power great enough to orchestrate historical events.
Which of the two possibilities is actually the case? History, again, provides keen insight into this issue, because as was parenthetically mentioned, there was one time in history in which one side did achieve victory of a sort: specifically, when elves unleashed the blood curse upon men and enslaved them.
The intent of the elves, originally, was to completely wipe out the race. They clearly could have done so, not only then, but at any time while men were in captivity. Instead, they kept men as servants, but they eventually escaped.
Consider: this has happened only once in over 5000 years of history; at all other times, the two races seem to be closely matched, but in this one case elves gained a sudden and decisive advantage. I propose that either (A) this was a fluke, or (B) elves have drastically declined in power since this time.
In case A, why weren't the humans wiped out? Elves, while arrogant, have consistently displayed an excellent ability to manage resources and organize themselves, and no one who is knowledgeable of history could claim that elves would not have known it was a fluke if it truly was. If it was a fluke and they knew it, they should have been swift to complete their attack, knowing that they could not duplicate it if they ever needed to. Yet they did not. This suggests that some force acting in the interest of humans intervened directly in elvish politics to save them, which would require that it be very powerful and very subtle indeed.
The second and more likely case (B) is that elves have declined in power, and while they could have duplicated their offensive at the time (thereby securing their power, even if humans escaped or rose in rebellion); however, that their power dramatically decreased between the time they enslaved the humans and the time the humans escaped. However, the chances that they could have declined so far - from having the power to level the humans at a stroke to being unable to crush a cursed, ragtag human army - and yet stop their decline exactly when their power drew even with that of humans is unbelievable unless it was deliberately arranged, again, by some outside force acting in the interest of preserving both races. We may therefore conclude that some power holding inalterable sway over the course of history wishes the survival of both humans and elves.
There are innumerable examples of ridiculously improbable events triggered at just the right time to keep the two races approximately in balance. The chaos gate was opened at just the right time to prevent all-out war of elves on the humans before the humans were ready for a prolonged fight. It was necessary to release Shadowbane into the world to save all the races from Chaos, but it would have given a decisive advantage to whichever side held it if the human-elf war resumed afterwards - so, conveniently, it had disappeared by the time the Chaos gate was shut.
When the War of Tears first began, humans were fighting amongst themselves and unable to mount any serious attack against the elves; however, Valdimanthor was somehow unable to use this window of opportunity to defeat them. Instead, he was able to advance much later, after humans were united under Cambruin, by utilizing minotaurs. The elves almost won the war, when the sudden and obviously deliberately arranged return of Shadowbane turned the tide of war, and the humans held the advantage. Then, of course, just when humans were about to gain dominion over the elves, the most absurd and unlikely event yet - the Turning - puts a stop to the conflict and removes Shadowbane from the picture once again.
Come, now, common sense demands that there is a plan at work here.
Aztice Ethertone
Some people seem to labor under the misconception that only people who do good understand goodness and only people who do evil understand evil.
However, the natural state of the universe is a good one, and evil is more like a dream (or a nightmare). But you don’t understand a dream while you’re asleep, you understand dreams while you’re awake. In your dream, bizarre things happen and you make absurd logical connections, but it all makes sense to you because you’re not thinking lucidly. When you wake up, you can see things as they really are.
In the same way, people doing good understand both good and evil, and people doing evil understand neither. People doing evil think good doesn’t make sense because they’re not thinking straight. People doing good think evil doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t.
Aztice Ethertone
It is, of course, both the singular difficulty and the unique purpose of philosophy that it is responsible for answering those questions which are difficult to answer, and those whose answer may be disliked. For this reason, we must pause to ask what, exactly, the relationship is between the All-Father, the humans, and the other races of Aerynth.
Few followers of the All-Father will contest anything written in the Book of Staves, and many prelates - particularly human ones, for obvious reasons - are fond of quoting its twelfth chapter, where it describes the creation of humans, and in particular the sixteenth verse: "And thus the Giants quaked and wept with fear, and the Elves were afraid, and only the Centaurs of the Vast Plains rejoiced, for they knew that the birth of the All-Father's greatest children was at hand."
Some have advocated that the phrase "greatest children" is referring to the perspective of the aforementioned Centaurs, and should not be interpreted as an objectively accurate description. While this could conceivably be true, I think we must assume that it is not, on the basis, first, that it seems too simplistic to assume only the few statements in the book with which we do not agree are subjective when the rest of the book is clearly not, and second, that it is counterintuitive, for the same reason, and the Book was clearly be written to be accessible to the majority of readers, who will attribute obvious meanings rather than abstruse ones to the text.
Others - again, notably humans - have used this to support a policy of human spiritual supremacy and the doctrine that other races ought to service the humans. While this, also, could conceivably be an accurate interpretation, we must reject it for even better reasons. Firstly, because this, also, is too simple an interpretation; and second, because it attributes to the word great a meaning which has become common of late but which is not technically correct, nor was it even used in that sense by the enlightened at the time of its writing.
It has always been generally accepted, particularly within the Church, that greatness is not an intrinsic quality, but rather a result of actions. The most straightforward, accessible, and logical interpretation, then, is that humans are destined to perform the greatest deeds to the glory of the All-Father. While this certainly confers honor upon them, it does not remotely confer any sort of superiority, spiritual or otherwise, and certainly does not imply that they should be serviced - rather, it implies that they will service the rest of Aerynth. This is the most probable meaning of this passage from the Book of Staves, and makes it a prophecy rather than a pure statement of present fact.
However, let us also examine the possibility that there really is some sort of intrinsic greatness conferred upon the human race. First, we should expect that it is not universally manifested - that is, all humans are not greater than all members of other races, but rather the average human is greater than the average member of another race. For this reason, it would be terribly dangerous for any particular human to assume that they were greater than a non-human - it is much better to underestimate yourself, and allow the Father to raise you up, than to take more than your share of honor, and allow the Father to humble and humiliate you.
We must also ask what some sort of intrinsic greatness would mean, or how we ought to react to it. First and foremost, and quite obviously, it would mean that humans had a greater responsibility to act on the All-Father's behalf than did any other race, and as a corollary, that they had a greater responsibility to render service to the other races who, through a lesser measure of greatness, are less able to help themselves. This would actually imply that humans owe service to other races - not as lesser or slaves, certainly, but owing service nonetheless (as opposed to the previous interpretation, wherein they will render service, but do not owe it, and are therefore more deserving of honor for exceeding their obligations).
Any abstract philosophical discussion must ultimately ask the question "how then shall we live?"
The answer is - no differently, except to watch for these great acts the humans are either destined to or capable of performing in service to the All-Father, and be sure not to hinder these accomplishments. In some sense, humans always have been, and still remain, a special case - latecomers to Aerynth, of a strange form and a stranger fate. They have much to learn, and much to teach.
Aztice Ethertone
I have seen enough to be certain that the doctrines preached by the Temple of the Cleansing Flame are false. Whether that falsehood is a lie from Malorn's own mind, a whisper from some spiritual rival of the All-Father, or merely a gross misinterpretation of Malorn's original writings, I cannot be certain, but it is certainly not true.
However, like all deceptions, in order to be convincing, it is not really an absence of truth - rather, it is a twisted, perverted truth, one with that hallmark of the Trickster's work: it is both lucrative and repulsive at the same time. They preach a painful destruction of the body, claiming that it can bring about the restoration of the soul. This, of course, is pure poison, but in many ways a very sweet poison.
I say it is a twisted version of the truth, and by that I mean that the basic idea behind it - that what affects the body also affects the spirit - is completely true. Though we are not dumb beasts, all the peoples of Aerynth are (in the broadest sense of the word) animals. We have not been given bodies to neglect them in favor of our spirits; rather the flesh and the soul are tightly bound together. This is not to say that they are inseparable - certainly, they seem to separate when we die - but that is an extreme case. The spirit is only freed from the body by killing the body; any measure short of this cannot rip the two apart.
We can see numerous examples of this theological principle in action in the church. If it were only the spirit that mattered, why would we need to kneel and bow our heads in reverence? Of course, humbling our bodies also humbles our spirits. Similarly, all the spiritual work people claim to do requires physical action - from the minimalist case of speech or writing to the extreme of physical combat (in defense of self or others, of course).
The fallacy of the Temple's theology is that the effects are unrelated - this, of course, is ridiculous. We do not humble our spirits by taking a proud posture. We do not teach theology by making our bodies silent and unresponsive. Yet, the Temple would somehow have us believe that we purify our spirits by torturing our bodies.
This is simply untrue. Torturing our bodies does to our spirits exactly what you'd expect - it causes pain, incomprehension by sensory overload, destruction of higher functions. It reduces the soul to a hollow, desperate shell - and, the greatest evil, it deprives us of spiritual sustenance by prolonged exposure, until the confessors' victims are forced to throw themselves upon the faith of their torturers to escape utter destruction.
The sad thing is that, if these ludicrous rituals are removed from the Temple, it might become a great instrument for good. If only the confessors could be convinced that the purifying flame they speak of is spiritual or metaphorical - such a concept has been accepted by the church for ages, but prior to the Age of Strife a literal flame would have required a more obvious insanity to gain acceptance and so was crushed - then they would be functionally equivalent (more or less) to the church.
This, once again, is a classic strategy of the All-Father's enemies - change one fundamental of doctrine, leaving everything else in place, so that you may convert religious zealots of great faith to the work of evil. It takes incredible virtues - faith, zeal, loyalty, perseverance, strength, even the ability to detect truth from their victims - and perverts them into tools of evil.
The cure is education, intelligence, analysis. The Temple will fall apart if its members begin to believe in what they have reason to believe, instead of believing blindly. When templar of the Tribunal burst into the elven high courts, seeking to cleanse us, I took the opportunity to question them about their goals. It turns out that the templar sent to cleanse the elves didn't consider himself fit to judge, and merely took instructions from a confessor - who failed to appear - regarding who was in need of cleansing. This confessor apparently has the exacting job requirement of clairvoyance, to tell a templar that when they enter a building, that everyone there will be in need of cleansing. They did not even ask whether any elves there had already been cleansed.
Can this possibly be any more obvious? This blind faith, totally devoid of reason, the policy of teaching initiates that they should not understand - this is the method by which the purposes of evil are manipulating the Temple. If they could ever be given eyes, and trained to look at their own faith, to question why they do what they do, the entire Temple could be converted into a powerful weapon against evil. Until then, however, they seem determined to wipe out the devotees of the All-Father who are most willing and most able to consider what we ought to do.
Aztice Ethertone