Role

Chapter 1

It is my goal to live fully.

When my mortal days are gone and my soul slips down the river of eternity, I
wish to be able to say I drank deeply of everything Life had to offer. I want
my face to have known the warm sun, my feet the soft grass, my ears the songs
of birds and men, my eyes the glory of the wilds. I wish my mind to have
stretched and grown, to have known the philosophies and ideas of many
cultures and to have sought truth. I wish my heart to know joy, friendship,
and love. I wish to experience all the many gifts Life offers.

It is my goal to live rightly.

Of what worth would it be to sate your hunger while another starves? It is
said that happiness is not real unless it is shared. So let me live a life
that does good, not harm. Let me ease the suffering of others. Let me
preserve Life, and help others to grow under the light of the Sun.

But how is one to live fully and rightly?

The world is a place of few absolutes. In fact, I would venture to say that
to leave room in your heart for ambiguity and nuance is to leave the
necessary room for Light and Life. I am wary of anyone who speaks with too
much certainty. After all, day does not fall straight to night without the
twilight of evening.

If certainties lead to darkness, then it is Judgment that leads to light. We
must question everything, always careful to choose the best path we can.

What lead me to this path?

I was born to the Ar'dan Sulensulu people. We struck a deal. For decades we
fought the unholy legions of an anti-paladin general. Much life was lost on
both sides, and it was decided by our elders that, "for the greater good" our
most accomplished warrior would be sacrificed to the unholy weapon of the
anti-paladin upon the winter solstice each year. In trade for this, there
would be no further bloodshed. To my eternal heartbreak, my father was among
the sacrifices. He was lost to me, and to the world - his Life snuffed by
cruelty and fear.

When time ameliorated the blinding pain in my heart, I found I had many
questions. It was true that, on balance, more lives were saved by the deal
between our people and the general. It was also true that the general grew in
dark, unholy power in a manner free of any risk. Both good and evil were left
to realize whatever potentials they may, both sides gained and lost something
from the arrangement.

So was the deal right or wrong?

First, I must confess that my judgment is clouded by my grief. It is easy to
make peace with sacrificing one life for the "greater good" when you don't
know the person. Likewise, it is hard to understand the benefit when it is
your father's soul trapped in the unholy weapon of an anti-paladin. I think
though that in this case it would have been better that more of us met our
inevitable doom in combat, living free, than that we were bound in such a
dark pact.