The Brotherhood Lesson in Review

[144] Reklah: The Brotherhood Lesson in Review

Tue Oct  4 16:02:51 2011

To: Beydalar Shadow ( Cahlizna Kyri Imm RP )

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During the early Age, Humanity was composed of indigenous barbaric tribes

and we were once a barbarian horde without principle until Ser Pahn united

the clans.  

The unity of Ser Pahn begets culture.  We become the vast empire Serpantol.

During this time a council of nobles is established.  One such noble is

Tesalon Gareth, the man who would go on to become the Founding Father of

Gareth.  

It was Gareth's belief -- and we agree -- that in order to maintain its

structural integrity there must be a knighthood of men who adhere to higher

principles than those of our progenitors.  

The men instate a "means justify the ends" policy.  Gareth Keep is founded

and Serpantol endures prosperous reign.  But as with all things war daeTok

looms as an impending threat to the golden city.  

Ere dae'Tok's fall it was a venerable empire.  The yaenni were not to be

trifled with and indeed their hostilities against Serpantol represented a

valid threat despite the prodigious power of Serpantol in this era. 

Serpantol was once the epitome of human evolution.  Imagine Althainia during

Serak S'a Vinitta's reign and then quadruple its military power and

resources and number of men therein.  We owe much of what are today to its

early establishment and subsequent reign. 

Despite the valiant aspirations of men like Gareth and perhaps even Ser'Pahn

-- who endorsed Gareth -- Serpantol as an empire was victim to vice.  They

grew arrogant in their absolute hubris and accompanying that hubris was

laxity.  Serpantol's judgments were dictated by a council, who history

dictates never could seem to agree on anything. 

Enter Gohdam. 

Around all the world Gohdam was known as a warrior of legend living in that

age and by all accounts a harbinger of justice.  The principal difference is

that Gohdam did perceive daeTok as a threat and petitioned the Council to

permit him to defend them.  The original intent is to provide Serpantol

sanctuary regardless of Council judgment.  Gohdam was successor to Gareth

and when the old man died through nonviolent illness -- ancient in age and

reputation -- Gohdam succeeded him and took up the coveted Crown General

office.  Gohdam was not a politican and represented the archetype of a

soldier.  He was more like Abram MacNeil than any ambassadorial paradigm. 

Repeatedly the Council refused his petitions until such time as Gohdam grew

angry with them and at this time Gohdam forms the splinter faction Eclipse

from frustrations with the council.  Several knights went with him and to

the original intent is to provide Serpantol sanctuary regardless of the

Council dictation. 

This is the critical point in history where the "ends justify the means"

theory would be founded.  Gohdam believed that Serpantol had not only been

infected by hubris but also that their code prohibited them dangerously. 

He felt that in order to accomplish anything a man would have to be willing

to set aside the regulations that bound him.  Especially if that man were

presented with the possibility of his own destruction. 

It was often argued by Gaar Volen that if the ends justify the means why

practice the virtue of honor?  Why not just pillage and rape and kill?

All things can be misinterpreted.  What we do know is that Gohdam's

knighthood was tremendously successful and it became a brotherhood in

and of itself.

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[117] Reklah: The Brotherhood Lesson in Review

Tue Oct 18 03:59:35 2011

To: Beydalar Shadow ( Cahlizna Kyri Imm RP )

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There are many tales which attest to history that cannot be substantiated

one way or another.  The most famous of these works is called the Sunset

Dawn.  It recites the tale of San Gohdam and Targetter and the Eclipsian

rise.  

The Sunset Dawn must be considered a fictional work because of our inability

to confirm or deny the claims within it.  Nonetheless the story does serve

us a valuable moral -- that is to say, the imperative of Brotherhood.  

What we're going to go over tonight is what can be substantiated not only

due to the Sunset Dawn but excavated documents from the cities of Althainia

and Arkane and Verminasia.  

San Gohdam successfully left the Serpantol Empire with units of knights who

aspired to his same dream and with Targetter, or so it would seem.  His name

is given as Dar Getter in the Kayen texts.  The knights of Eclipse traversed

across the continent and similar to Storm's own action they built a stone

foundation southeast of the Verminasian city and fortified. 

There is an absence of historical text but San Gohdam did not immediately

declare war on Serpantol or Gareth and in all likelihood he had to reserve

time to prepare.  His revolution was in its early productivity and needed

time to manifest. 

During this time Serpantol already had their hands full with the yaenni

empire of dae'Tok and might not have pursued because of this.  It is also a

fact that at some point in the early Eclipsian history Gohdam endured a

religious conversion and his knights followed him into Necrucifer's service.

This might appear initially surprising to some, like Azheri converting to

Necrucifer in modernity -- but on thorough inspection it would have been

sensible.  Gohdam was a young revolutionary, brilliantly gifted in military

strategy, but he found Austinian and Serpantol's methods too passive. 

An example of this was Serpantol's inability to defend themselves from the

dae'Tok empire.  The yaenni were fierce fighters and Serpantol had time to

establish a prodigious empire that might have gotten lax in its hubris. 

As it turns out, Gohdam and Necrucifer were a perfect fit.  Tailored even.

Necrucifer was a god who by historical action confirms the "ends justify the

means" theory that Gohdam developed while Austinian was viewed as "weak and

ineffectual."  Those were the words of Shay's "What is Shadow?"  But the

similarities are there.  Shay planted the idealistic seed that Gohdam

created and now here we are. 

During his time living Gohdam did one incredibly important thing.  He

borrowed Gareth's concepts of honor and respect and the prime virtue of

Brotherhood.  For Gareth that is all it is: honor is their god either

directly or indirectly through Nadrik. 

Brotherhood is one of Storm's prime virtues even today.  We will not bring

the Prophecy to fruition without Brotherhood.  But what Gareth and Serpantol

was missing is that Brotherhood will not suffice as the only thing.  In

order to merge the world into One united land under One united deity, the

ends must justify the means.  They must.  What else is it all for?  And for

us the end is Finality.  The Prophecy fulfilled and the unity of worlds

under one god. 

I believe it was fate that Gohdam found Necrucifer.  Like threads woven and

predestined it was the alpha seed of the Prophecy.  Some beginnings take

centuries to get to the middle and this is one such incident. 

Gohdam would have succeeded and likely become a profound general but it was

not to be.  The same innovation he made was wrought with his doom and by

recruiting the Malicians who misinterpreted the "ends justify the means" as

anarchy, he was murdered in his tent by his perfidious brothers. 

Had he time he might have seen the flaw, but his brotherhood was in its

early stages and he did not have the advantage of time that Shay did.  Our

principles are complex and some would even say contradictions, but it is the

only way to divine providence. 

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[118] Reklah: The Brotherhood Lesson in Review

Tue Oct 18 04:00:38 2011

To: Beydalar Shadow ( Cahlizna Kyri Imm RP )

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In the end and despite Gohdam's assassination, he was able to found the

Eclipse and fortify the keep prior to his death and the knighthood endured

for centuries until the Cataclysm even after its concepts had been

bastardized.  

After the Malicians formed yet another splinter faction, and after Gohdam's

assassination, it set loose the proverbial hounds of war.  These were

barbaric men who saw no value in knighthood and saw every value in the

material loot they could procure.  

Gaar Volen, or Malice, staged its war against Serpantol and against Gareth

and were able to weaken Serpantol considerably.  All the while the impending

threat of dae'Tok loomed overhead until it finally culminated in dae'Tok

sacking the Thalosian capital and Old Gareth under Croyden Vesuvias's reign.

 

 

RK