The Word/Enri's Writings

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Roleplay from Enri Kinsey (4 days, 20 hours ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (58 recipients) The Word was not widely followed in the land where legends claims it originated. Most of the peasantry in Eagle's Glen followed The Order or The Way of the Warrior Saints. The Mapaxilists have managed to construct a temple here, despite having no local representation.

And that was fine. All religions and faiths were but aspects and facets of The Word.

Enri had his troops encamped in a small mining village not very far away from the local lord's mansion. The village was not very high up the mountain. Nevertheless, it offered a beautifully green view of the fertile farmlands spreading outward from the base of the mountain by day, and at night, the city of Eaglin would light up like a brilliant, shining, orange jewel resting at the mountain's foot.

There was a Wordist shrine here, small and only occasionally swept and cleaned by the few Wordists living in the village.

While Enri conducted his scouting mission here, this was his rountine:

During the day, Enri would avail himself to the home of the village elder, where he coordinated the scouts being sent to the other side of the mountain, into enemy lands. His retinue and troops would hold training drills in the village's small square (more accurately described as an unused patch of land by the village well).

And every night, while his men sang and drank and slept under the stars, Enri would take the short walk to the Wordist shrine. There he would sit, and meditate. Some nights he would become agitated. Other nights he remained calm, almost serene. And some time in the middle of the night, he would stand back up with the requisite amount of effort demanded by his age, blow the city of Eaglin a kiss, and return to his tent to sleep.

Roleplay from Enri Kinsey (3 days, 17 hours ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (58 recipients) Enri read the invitation, and then showed it to his squire. “I'm meeting the Kargnchha a little higher up the mountain. It's several hours away. Stay here with the men, and tell them that I'll be back in a day or two at most.”

Armed guards hailed Enri as he rode up to Torsaan's encampment. The fact that the camp was under heavy guard was not unusual. The Kargnchha of The Word and the Banker of the Cagilan Empire would have enemies simply because he carried those two titles.

Enri dismounted his horse near the entrance, and handed the reins to one of the guards.

Another guard, visibly nervous, walked up to Enri and saluted. “May I see the Kargnchha's seal, please, sir?”

Enri returned the salute, but then crossed his arms. “Can the General not see the Banker without security checks?”

The guard stammered, but then immediately recovered. “I must insist, sir. I have my orders.”

Enri laughed. “Good man. I am here as a Hab-b, not the General.” He presented the lump of wax that bore the impression of the seal.

The guard saluted again. “Welcome, sir. You may enter the camp.”

After he entered the camp, Enri looked for a priest so that he may receive his blessings, as the invitation instructed him to do.

There were several large tents within the camp. In some tents, Wordist priests who studied at the feet of Torsaan the Kargnchha were praying, reading, or in quiet discussions. In other tents, minor nobles who were assistants to Torsaan the Banker were eating, drinking, or carousing. One tent near the entrance of the camp served as the barracks for the guards. The off-duty guards were sleeping, resting, or sparring.

Many heads turned toward Enri's general direction as he entered the camp. A few salutes and nods were given or exchanged. Only two people, however, approached Enri directly: a priest of The Word, and a young Cagilan nobleman dressed in a clerk's uniform. Enri's visit was an expected one, and to a certain extent, already choreographed.

“Blessings of the Creator upon you,” intoned the priest.

“And also on you,” replied Enri.

“Blessings of the Gods upon you,” intoned the priest.

“And also on you,” came the reply.

“Accept the Blessings of His Holiness and His agent,” intoned the priest.

Enri bowed his head.

“Blessed be your Spirit,” said the priest, with a smile.

“And also your own,” said Enri.

“My small part in this is done, Brother Enri. I wish you good luck on your test.”

“Thank you, Brother.”

As the priest left for his tent, the young nobleman walked up to Enri. “I'm not sure what this test is all about, General Enri, but I have orders to safeguard your belongings while you see Banker Torsaan.”

“Of course, young sir. Could I trouble you to make a receipt for me? It's not that I don't trust you, but my memory is not what it was, and I'm liable to forget my own sword if I don't have it written down on a list somewhere.”

“I am happy to oblige, sir. Just let me call my scribe over.”

And so Enri began handing his belongings to the nobleman clerk, who in turn instructed his scribe.

“One riding crop, leather.”

“One coin pouch, leather.”

“One two-handed sword, steel... Wait, what are these scratches, sir?” The young man pointed at a series of scratch marks on the sword.

“Wounds or captures dealt to the enemy,” replied Enri as he inspected his sidearms.

The young man was skeptical. “I know that we nobles fight from the back, sir, but I thought that you had a long career than this.”

“Allow me to clarify then,” said Enri as he handed over the rest of his weapons. “Wounds or captures dealt to enemy nobles.”

The young clerk stared again at the array of marks and gulped. “One flanged mace, steel. One dagger, steel. Another dagger, steel.”

“One I use on food, one I use on people,” quipped Enri as he shrugged off his armor.

“One brigandine torso armor, leather. One pair of riding gloves, leather. Is that all, sir?” asked the clerk.

By now, Enri was stripped down to his tunic, trousers, and leather riding boots. He patted his empty pockets. “The rest of my gear is with my horse, so, yes.”

The nobleman presented Enri with his receipt, which Enri folded and tucked into a small pocket on his tunic. “You will find Banker Torsaan if you follow that path over there, General Enri,” said the young clerk.

“Thank you, young sir.”

It did not take long for Enri to find Torsaan on the small crag. After taking a brief moment to enjoy the view, Enri sat down on the stool provided for him, and said nothing. Instead, as the invitation instructed, he prayed.

Roleplay from Torsaan ka Habb (3 days, 11 hours ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (58 recipients) Torsaan looks out at the waving fields. Though his eyesight is not what it used to be, he fills in the blanks with his mind. Sometimes with his eyes open, other times eyes closed. And he thinks. And ponders. And sometimes he listens, but not frequently. Xanio could correspond with the Gods over breakfast, Torsaan must enter a deep trance and forget his earthly presence. Many hours he has been here admiring the horizon with eyes either closed or open. He hears the flickers and the whispers. And when he speaks, they pause. And then they answer. They are telling him what he has thought for a while now.

And then he notices the other old man sitting beside him. A great and reknowned warrior.. Even without his arms or reputation one knows that Brother Enri is intimately acquainted with war. Not looking over Torsaan speaks, "When I first could not stand after sitting here, I vowed to always bring a stool with me in future. I hope you are thankful. I sat here for a few hours extra and had to crawl to this walking stick before I escaped." Torsaan then lifts up the stick in his lap and smiles.

"Now tell me. What have you learned about the nature of the Creator?"

Roleplay from Enri Kinsey (2 days, 21 hours ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (59 recipients) “I am indeed thankful for the stool, Kargnchha,” replied Enri. “I am not a young buck anymore.”

“When you first asked me to learn about the nature of the Creator, and our duties to Him, I first turned to our holy texts. There was ample explanation there for how the world was made, how one should behave in life, what happens to us after we die, and so on. However, almost nothing was said about the question of “why”. Why did the Creator create this world? Why did He create man? How can we claim to know the nature of the Creator, and what duties we owe to Him, if we do not even understand the purpose of Creation?”

“One would think that this would be important information, but the holy texts simply do not raise the subject. Then I looked into the holy texts of other faiths, and none of them dwell on the subject either. I can only assume that when the Creator inspired his prophets, the question of “why” was glossed over entirely.”

“However, I do not believe that this was done to keep us in ignorance. The Creator also gifted us with Reason. Perhaps “why” was an exercise left for us to work out. So let us examine the facts.”

“We are born. We experience both joy and suffering in this world, although not always in equal measure. We can choose to be generous or selfish, courageous or cowardly, trustworthy or treacherous, kind or wrathful, ambitious or satisfied. Then we die. There is a settling of accounts of sorts, but I cannot imagine that taking more than a lifetime's worth of time. Then we are left on the infinite plain of grass and have to wait for the next Cycle. I can only pray that there is good reading material.”

“But I digress. Despite the claims of certain charlatans, which have been disproven, there has been no documented cases of anyone remembering a past life. So I must assume that the holy texts are correct in that, each of us only gets one shot at life. There is no reincarnation. Some faiths claim that our souls are “re-cycled” into the next life, but if one cannot keep his memories, I do not consider that a true re-birth. And other faiths, like The Word, claim that there is a Grand Cycle, that after all souls have had a chance at life, there will be a Second Coming when the world is reset. However, I see no guarantee that I'll “return” to life in any sense of the word. Perhaps in the next Cycle, my parents never met. Perhaps my grandfather was never born.”

“So, Enri Kinsey will someday die and stay dead. Perhaps his soul comes back in the next life or the next Cycle as a fishmonger or some vapid peasant girl. I can only be thankful that I won't be around to find out.”

“Some mystics would claim that the Creator is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, that He made the world so that we can be happy, and be good to each other. The first two traits make sense to me. After all, even us mortals have control over and knowledge of our pale imitations at creation. However, the Creator is obviously not benevolent to us as individuals. As a Warrior, I've witness more suffering than most, and have inflicted my share of pain as well. A Creator that simply wanted us to be happy, would have made a kinder, gentler world. A Creator that simply wanted us to be nice to each other, would have populated that world with a kinder, gentler people. Contrariwise, if the Creator made the world to watch us suffer, the world should be much harsher than it is, and men be of less sturdy stock and more prone to folly.”

“Some would claim that the Creator created man so that He can demand worship from us. This does not make sense to me either. If He simply wanted blind worship, he would have stopped after creating dogs, cows, pigs, and other easily domesticated animals. And even if it had to be men worshiping him, given the number of pagans and heathens walking around these days, I would think that there would be more thunder and lightning and indignant shouting from the Heavens.”

“Some would say that this world is a test, that we are here to learn a lesson of some sort, I believe this is on the right path to the solution, but again, the Creator does not care for us as individuals. If He wished to teach us anything, I would like to think that we would be reborn again and again, keeping at least some memories of our past lives each time. It is completely pointless to teach a student who forgets everything by the next dawn.”

“And so, this leads me to one conclusion. Perhaps it is as wrong as the others. Perhaps it is pointless for us to guess at the question “why”, just as an ant will never grasp the true motivations of a giant. However, it is the only solution that I've found that does not quickly tangle itself up in numerous contradictions.”

“The Creator created man and considers us a single entity. We are here on this world to learn and to improve, not as individuals, but as a species. Perhaps the Creator sees man as a parent sees a child, or a teacher sees a student. Perhaps the Creator just sees man as nothing more than an amusing pet, and that He plans to teach us to do tricks for His amusement. What His true motivations are, I doubt that I will find out until my body is dust. Perhaps it would be possible to get an audience with Him when I'm on the finite grassland. Perhaps not even then. But this, I believe: The world was created for the benefit of man, but not for man to enjoy or to suffer, nor for man to blindly worship the Creator. Man was placed here to learn.”

“My argument can be further bolstered by the fact that the Creator gave us more than the gift of Reason. He also gave us Symbols.” Enri took out the receipt in his pocket and looked at it. “Scratches on paper, or wood bark, or stone, representing objects in reality. What a brilliant concept. It must be divinely inspired, or perhaps the gift was within us all along. Maybe we are nothing but symbols and glyphs being written by the Creator in His divine language.”

“The important thing is, this divine gift, the art of writing, allows our knowledge to survive the death of the original thinker, and to transcend Death itself. A man, as an individual, may be useless to the Creator as a student, but as a species, we have limitless potential. Think about it: Our ancestors lived in simple huts, farmed with sticks, and hunted by throwing sharper sticks. Now we can build grand structures of stone and iron. We can develop vast farmlands with animal-driven plows and irrigation canals. We can wage war with steel weapons and armored cavalry and alchemical black powder. What wonders will our descendants be capable of?”

“That is my answer to your question, Kargnchha. The nature of the Creator is our Teacher. And our duties to Him are many. First, we must learn all we can from our parents and the writings of those who came before us. Then, we must live, laugh and cry, love and hate, wage war and make peace, and most importantly, observe and think, for that is how new knowledge is made. Finally, before we die, we must teach what we have learned to our children, and write them down for the benefit of those who will come after us. I do not know if the Creator sees man as child or pet, Kargnchha, but even if we are but mere pets to Him, I believe we owe Him some good tricks... What do you think?”

Having finished his answer, Enri fell silent, and waited for Torsaan's evaluation.

Roleplay from Torsaan ka Habb (2 days, 7 hours ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (59 recipients) Torsaan continues looking out at the horizon.

"Interesting. We are here to learn. That's a way of looking at it. We are here to live. That is what pleases Him. And if by learning we can live greater lives... why yes. That is something."

Torsaan is quiet for a few moments.

"Now ponder this. You spoke of us as a pet or children of the Creator. But where do we end? Where does your body end? The spirit is tied to the body intrinsically and on the decay of the body the Spirit ascends past our material world. But... where is your body in relation to all things? When I breathe out, when does my breath stop being my breath and become your own? When are you separate of your mother and father? When does your decaying body stop being you and become earth? When does the acorn stop being an acorn and become a sapling, and when does the sapling stop being a sapling and become an oak tree? Similarly, if our body is of the earth and air and water which is all of Esaneon and Esaneon is but a facet of the Creator, when did we stop being a part of the Creator? When our spirit ascends to the heavenly realm, when separates us from the Gods when they too are spirits, albeit powerful ones? If the Gods are facets of the Creator and our bodies are facets of the Gods and our spirit is that which is of the Gods... what separates us from Him?"

Torsaan sighs.

"And now, for what I have been pondering, what is That-Which-Is-Not-His-Own? Anstorkos, one of the figments of the time before the Creator. How does Anstorkos influence our world; where is it present if it is at all? We have held the sands to be one that is ruled by Anstorkos for it is truly unknowable but... that is a deep topic. That is the subject of my meditation currently but pondering the unknown is a trying task." Torsaan nudges Enri. "Feel enlightened yet?"

Roleplay from Enri Kinsey (22 hours, 8 minutes ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (60 recipients) Enri chuckled. “Speaking with an old friend is always enlightening to me, Kargnchha.”

“What you have said reminded me of some of my ideas. I have always thought that we are mortal because our souls have some fundamental incompatibility with earthly flesh. This incompatibility causes a violent reaction within our bodies that we cannot see. Perhaps some mystics claim to be able to see people's auras precisely because our bodies are literally afire in the spiritual realm. Eventually the body decays because whatever fuels these spiritual fires cannot be replaced quickly enough, if they can be replaced at all, and we die of old age. A violent death would be analogous to snuffing out the fire.”

“And perhaps the Gods are immortal because their souls have no incompatibility with flesh. I've always assumed that they can disguise themselves as mortals as easily as we put on hats. What if they are really cloaking themselves in blood and flesh like we are? It would be easy for a God to make a body if He wished. Perhaps their souls light a fire that does not consume and cannot be put out, or perhaps their souls do not ignite flesh at all, and there is only union and harmony when a God's soul touches flesh.”

“Well, it is only an idea, from an old warrior who's seen his fair share of fires. I hope I've managed to entertain you for a while at least, Kargnchha.”

Roleplay from Torsaan ka Habb (25 minutes ago) Message sent to everyone in your realm (60 recipients) "Entertain me? Or course. It is always nice to listen, and it is always nice to broaden one's perspective. The soul is immortal, the flesh is not. Perhaps that is true, and that is why the flesh ages. But the issue now is that flesh and spirit are of the same creator, though different parts. I think that the flesh is incapable of holding onto the spirit which is simple and pure, for flesh is a complex and convoluted mix of earth, wind, and air. The presence of our spirit causes it to simplify? Perhaps the spirit is as fire, for fire takes complex things and makes them simple as well. Perhaps fire is a mimic of ourselves." Torsaan chews his cheek for a moment, "The gods can take mortal bodies yes, it is said I will ascend as a god when I die. But I believe the gods can take truly mortal flesh from the body of Esaneon: bodies of earth, water, and air or they may create their own imitations of it, the perfection of it being dependant on the power of said god."

"Remember, when you die your spirit ascends to the plane of the gods. We are of the same Creation, but have different power." Torsaan shakes his head. "Perhaps you would like to meditate on that topic and one day your words become accepted scripture. I am seeing your point of view but I believe you need to fully flesh it out."

Torsaan stands slowly, using his walking stick. "And now I must bid you farewell. I will contact you soon regarding your performance in this test." Torsaan smiles, "Blessings of the Creator upon you. But you don't quite need them, do you?" And before Enri can respond Torsaan is walking down the path.