My Speech at the Kami Meeting

[grimjim]

Posted by request, includes a short segment I had to cut for time.

***

I am a mercenary. I live with battle every day but, just like the rest of you, I have never seen a true war.

We hear stories of The Great Swarming of course, the older of us may remember it. The slaughter, the danger, the retreat to the Prime Roots. That war almost destroyed the homin people, it almost destroyed them when they were united as one people, when Kami, Karavan and Tryton ALL aided us.

We have hauled ourselves back from the abyss, forged friendships and fought off the kitin once more and for what? To be pawns in a war between forces we cannot fully understand?

A kitin comes at you with tooth a claw. The Kami and Karavan command powers that were strong enough to cleanse The Great Swarming from the land and now they wish to turn those powers against each other! You have seen the power of light the Karavan wield, you have seen the meh-tahl that flies, you have seen the powerful magic that the Kami can hurl and felt their wrath when we harm Atys with our picks.

How can we survive such power and why do gods need to expend the lives of homin for their wars in the first place?

I will fight to DEFEND homin of all peoples, I will fight for my friends and family, whatever their faction. I do this as a signatory to the first hominist conference, a meeting whose communications I hope have now been recieved by each leader in each land and will be addressed before too long.

I will NOT fight for faith. Faith knows no reason, faith knows no defeat, faith knows no compromise or cease. Faith is a madness, a fire that consumes and devours more than even the fires of Coriolis did. Of all the peoples, we of the blasted desert of our own creation should have learned, by now, the value of caution.

Twice we have unleashed terrible things upon the land by our hasty actions and now we are being asked to be hasty again by those who should know better.

We can live side by side in peace as we have for many years and as we did in the Prime Roots. The Force of Fraternity, the legendary fighters, gained their strength and battle prowess from shared knowledge between the homin peoples. Imagine what homin could accomplish as a single people in that model!

Our sword arm has aided the Tryker in preserving their freedom, it has aided the Zorai in turning back the goo, it helped secure Yrkanis his throne from Jintovich. We, the Fyros, are the ties that bind, the agents of homin freedom on Atys. That is a powerful history to live up to and the mark of the greatest warriors is when knowing when NOT to fight.

I ask that we stop, we think and we remember our glorious past before we lose ourselves to a crusade that NOBODY can win.

To the Karavan who have people here, loyal to them, seeing what we are saying. You speak of freedom? What freedom? Jena comes with an army to Atys, not with grace or peace. Would the goddess of the homin sacrifice so many of them?

Is freedom preserved by Yrkanis' words of dominion over the peoples of Atys, even the Tryker who they claim are now their allies?

Is freedom preserved by a force that preserves and protects the slavers in Bounty Beaches?

Is freedom preserved by being sealed off and away from knowledge? Denied their technology? Denied exploration of the roots?

The Kami when they act, act to preserve Atys. This living world is home to all of us. Is the freedom you seek that to dig and dig and dig until Atys dies and you curl like a fat maggot at its core while it rots around you?

Visit the desert, see the bleakness, see the sacrifices we make to live there and how hardy a people we must be to endure it. Would you make ALL of Atys a desert?

To warmongers on both sides, will you fight simply because you are told to? Will you fight because you are bored? Will you fight without knowing the reason why?

Will you spend your strength fighting former friends and erstwhile allies when the Kitin have not yet gone as a threat?

This war is unnecessary, our future lies as one people. Something our leaders USED to know.

A cause is a great thing to fight for, just be sure it is a JUST cause.

Thank you.

[magick1]

Awesome speech!

To the curious, this is what I said at the spur of the moment at the event.

Homins are but twigs in the stream of life
the path ahead hold many dangers and wonders
if not careful one can be broken by an unnoticed rock
one might attempt to plan ahead
but a turbulent wave can throw all in disarray
with skill one can stear the course towards the sea of tranquility
the thunder ahead is the waterfall of destruction
choose wisely before the direction is unchangeable

[katriell]

Impressive speech.

The Kami when they act, act to preserve Atys. This living world is home to all of us. Is the freedom you seek that to dig and dig and dig until Atys dies and you curl like a fat maggot at its core while it rots around you?

Visit the desert, see the bleakness, see the sacrifices we make to live there and how hardy a people we must be to endure it. Would you make ALL of Atys a desert?

^ Exactly why Jelathnia follows the Kami.

[tylarth]

Some reaction.

When i see the desert i do not see bleakness, i see it teaming with life, adapted to an environment largely devoid primarily of water. If The desert is the only example you can give of 'bleakness' then the rather rude example of life their in abundance embaresses your claim.

It is homin faith, adherence to the principles of either faith that perpetuates our civilisations in the face of a hostile world. The Cutthroats who attacked not many months ago have neither faith, they died, we homin defenders, fewer in number lived due to the powers vested in us by the faiths to ressurect and teleport. Yet the Homins attacking are all dead. I heard no Hominist cries to save them, no all were happy to slaughter them in the secure knowledge that we, due to our somewhat taken for granted, faiths render us beyond death. To forget this to turn your back on the faith is to ultimatly lose this privilage, a privilage that has held the Kitin at bay thus far.

Both faiths have imposed little condition to ressurction or teleportation. When they clash such liberties granted by the faiths will lessen, perhaps even to the extent of denial to those not of a faith. There is the survivability of homin destiny and future at stake. There is only really the choice of choosing the 'right' side, or watching, powerless as others decide your fate.

[riveit]

***

I am a mercenary. I live with battle every day but, just like the rest of you, I have never seen a true war. ...

***Riveit is drinking in a Fairhaven bar with some of his Aedan Artisan guildmates.***

Now, you know I'm no warmonger, but I have to say that Jyudas is a curious mercenary. He should just say that he is a Fyrosian peacenik and have done with it. My grandfather was a TRUE mercenary ... Jena bless his soul, he died in a barfight and got no rez ... he woulda died for an opportunity like this war. Kamis and Karavans fighting one another and rezzing everyone up to fight again, paying the best wages and with better toys as spoil than homins have ever seen before. Maybe there will be no harm in it, if the Karavan and Kamis fight to a draw, rezzed everyone back, it might all be a wash, with nothing changed but loads of rich mercenaries afterwards ...

***Riveit's conversation was then interrupted by a long bout of hiccuping***

[mrshad]

Impressive speech.

^ Exactly why Jelathnia follows the Kami.

Remeber, please, that it was not the Karavan that made the desert.

It was not the Karavan that spread living fire across Atys.

It was not the Karavan the provoked the kitin to a swarming war against all homin life.

Every great calamity that has fallen upon hominkind is a direct result of Fyros indescretion. And who now do the Kami decieve into being pawns in thier devastating holy war?

Again, the Fyros.

I have spent much time in Pyr, trying to guide the Fyros youth away from the spiritual enslavement that the Kami peddle. I have had some small measure of success, and every Fyros that is spared is a testament to the power of our common homin good, and the mercies of our goddess, Jena.

We do not want this war. Ma-duk is bringing it to us with his soul devouring goo. Jena is comming to stop him. We will defend ourselves against the misguided footsoldiers in the Kami war of lies.

[grimjim]

Remeber, please, that it was not the Karavan that made the desert.

Nor the Karavan who helped liberate the Tryker from their slavery.

It was not the Karavan that spread living fire across Atys.

Nor the Karavan who fought the goo with flame and fire.

It was not the Karavan the provoked the kitin to a swarming war against all homin life.

Nor was it the Karavan who fought alongside Yrkanis to restore him to his throne.

Every great calamity that has fallen upon hominkind is a direct result of Fyros indescretion. And who now do the Kami decieve into being pawns in thier devastating holy war?

And unlike some, we learn from our mistakes.

I have spent much time in Pyr, trying to guide the Fyros youth away from the spiritual enslavement that the Kami peddle. I have had some small measure of success, and every Fyros that is spared is a testament to the power of our common homin good, and the mercies of our goddess, Jena.

We do not want this war. Ma-duk is bringing it to us with his soul devouring goo. Jena is comming to stop him. We will defend ourselves against the misguided footsoldiers in the Kami war of lies.

If the goo was such a wonderful weapon why would it not be turned upon the lands of the other people to devour them? The land it harms is the land where the most faithful to the kami have settled, to FIGHT the goo.

This propagandising is foolishness. We have lived, fought and died alongside each other in peace for many years. All that has changed is that Jena is coming, throwing off the equilibrium and peace.

[mrshad]

If the goo was such a wonderful weapon why would it not be turned upon the lands of the other people to devour them? The land it harms is the land where the most faithful to the kami have settled, to FIGHT the goo.

You know the answer to that, Jyudas. The goo has escaped Ma-Duk's control. He is a victim of it as much as Atys is. Those of Ma-Duk's fanatics that fight the goo activly (and they are very few) are only commanded to do so in a loosing battle to save MA-Duk from his own creation.

Left alone, the goo would finish Ma-Duk off. But the dammage to hominkind and Atys itself would be staggering.

This propagandising is foolishness. We have lived, fought and died alongside each other in peace for many years. All that has changed is that Jena is coming, throwing off the equilibrium and peace.

Jena is comming, to be sure. Her arrival only speeds up Ma-Duk's timetable. He had sought to decieve us more slowly. To feast on our souls...that eternal part of us that survives even the destruciton of our bodies. He had hoped to use that part of us to save himself from the goo he unleashed.

Those who fight in his name have been calling for open war for years now.

The only thing Her arrival changes is our resolve to act together in our own defense.

It is not too late, of course, for this to be avoided. Those who have been decieved can still find shelter with those loyal to Jena. When Ma-Duk stands alone, or at least, alone with only a handful of his most brutal murderers to fight for him; Jena will destroy him quickly, and Atys will have peace.

[ozric]

Just as homins are at a stage to be able to start re-building their past, starting with outposts, an enforced, meaningless war is thrust upon them.

Can anyone really say that they trust either side of the conflict above hominkind ?

[bobturke]

***Riveit is drinking in a Fairhaven bar with some of his Aedan Artisan guildmates.***

Now, you know I'm no warmonger, but I have to say that Jyudas is a curious mercenary. He should just say that he is a Fyrosian peacenik and have done with it. My grandfather was a TRUE mercenary ... Jena bless his soul, he died in a barfight and got no rez ... he woulda died for an opportunity like this war. Kamis and Karavans fighting one another and rezzing everyone up to fight again, paying the best wages and with better toys as spoil than homins have ever seen before. Maybe there will be no harm in it, if the Karavan and Kamis fight to a draw, rezzed everyone back, it might all be a wash, with nothing changed but loads of rich mercenaries afterwards ...

***Riveit's conversation was then interrupted by a long bout of hiccuping***

*Sneaks up behind Riv and scares the yubo out of him!*

How's the hiccups?

*Buys the next round*

Well I don't know. All this fighting and word making. I don't see the attraction. Why start another war when we could be here or strolling the lakelands and enjoying ourselves? This is a dangerous enough place already without antagonising each other, what with the Kitin and Cutes and all. Not to mention them nasty Torbs and Zerx.

I reckon we should have a big beach party where all the Kami-homin and Karavan-homin have a good time and forget all this wars and stuff. Plenty of dancing and drinking and swimming. Imagine the fun!?!

*Stares glassy eyed at the barmaid and wonders where Nine is*