Serpentis Family/Erik Eyolf/Open Letter
Sir Neji,
I can tell you. I received the Revelations from Elune long time ago. I was elected as Her Great Warrior. She gave me Her armour. I was Her sword. I have Nesrah under my command, an old Sorcerer. He knows the secrets about the Gods. He knows much about everything. And I was educated by him in the secrets. Some people thinks that I am just pompous, promiscuous and drunk. And I can tell you that we have many ways. I just see that I don't need to follow some banal ways anymore. Elune is respecting me, letting me write these words to you. But I know that in the exact moment I left the quill, She will possess me once again. I know that many people are thinking I'm crazy. And now it's hard to decide which path I should take. If I must continue being the Judge of Sirion or just embrace the religion and let the Gods speak through me. Maybe I'm really crazy. The Gods enjoy the madness and chaos. And I was exercised just justice and order. Maybe that's why She's charging now all She offered me.
The law of men is not the same laws of the Gods. When everything is in order, the humankind... or elvish kind, don't need to have faith. He needed only to believe they were safe under the laws. And I'm just an elf. I am not a God. And the Gods must resent the days when I closed my eyes to Their laws. The people want the Order and Justice. And so they protest and cry. Obviously, they do it when they are criminals as well. And in those chaotic times I realized that the people need more than just the laws of a realm. They need faith. The same faith we have in our swords. The faith we have in our Gods. But the gods don't care who will win the wars. We're just here to entertain the Gods. And they love the chaos. They act mysteriously.
Many people assume that we are here to protect the Gods. But that's a lie. Maybe they're here to protect religions. But who creates religions are men, not the Gods. The men believe they can serve the Gods just building or destroying temples. Destroying other religions and other temples or the believer that they see like an oppression. But this is all a big lie. The men have used religion and the name of their Gods just to cause destruction in their own purposes. And that is why I am against using religion as sword and a shield of a realm. And that's why I am against the destruction of temples and religions. Common people need that. And we all know that the common people don't have education like a Lord, a Priest or even a Knight. The people have faith because they need the faith. So, the common people should not be punished. When faith collapses, the power of the Gods is obscured by ignorance. A Lord don't need faith. He have Knights, gold, lands and a sword. Then, they used religion like they use everything. Just a tool to guarantee more power. They must suffer, not the innocent people preaching in a temple.
And so I received a visit from Ora. And She made me banish the usurpers. The Lords who used religion just to gain more power. Now, Sirion is following the same path. A small minority. And I don't like to know that this small minority is also led by a member of OR that is also a guest here. The religion in Fontan can be considered only a faction. But all religions, at some point, do the same thing. Not because this is the wish of the common people or the will of the Gods, but because it's the desire of the Nobles who use religion to gain more power... or just to survive.
And that is why the older elves in Sirion don't want to accept these military excuses. And that is why I am not against arresting Priest and Lords. But I am against destroying temples. We caused a lot of suffer to the people. We burn farms, we invaded their homes. We hang rebels. This is the price of war. Unfortunately. But it is also correct to go against their faith? A man may be hungry and may lose all their lands. But he still has faith. And it will help him to rebuild his life. Steal their faith and they will be just miserable without hope. Is this what we really want? We want to act like monsters? I don't think so. I am not a monster.
Then, if you want to rebuild your religion, do it for your people. People like us use the religion in ignoble ways. For that we have swords and laws. And we need to learn to separate a realm of religion, even when a realm uses religion to enforce the war. And try to remember: the Gods want just the chaos. They were born of Chaos. So never try to use religion to create paradigms to hold the Gods in our limited vision.
And that is why I can see and talk with the Gods even when I was a guardian of our laws. Because I've always been unstable and chaotic. And because I never assured that the criminal selfishness of a privileged class was over real rights of those who serve us. And who serve the Gods.
Yours,
In Faith!
Erik Eyolf Serpentis
Judge of Sirion, Marquis of Trinbar
