After reviewing the recent string of various posts, I have come to a
rather interesting observation. It appears that all the debaters on all
the various subjects are attempting to appeal to emotion, whether of a
wider audience or a single person. Why would this amuse me so? Mainly
because emotions, as well as preconceptions such as 'honour', 'faith',
'corruption', 'justice', are all being thrown around without having been
clearly defined for any speaker.

What is the result? Merely a contest of viewpoints skewed and mangled
horribly, as to lose any chance of carrying factual or pertinent
information. In the political world, this is commonly known as mud
slinging.

But oh! What glorious examples we have had of late. Corrupt
guildmistresses, wounded old geezers, fanatic apostates (rather a
paradox, that one), and of course the chest-beating,
testosterone-inflated ...ah... warriors.

Now, let me see, what could possibly be the result of these exercises?
Step on the toes of a God, and voila! You get a personal war that you've
been dying for since you can't find enough people to hunt. Who cares
about level? It's all about the bloodlust. You can even FEEL righteous
and avenged, and engage in mindless slaughter... after all, you're
protecting your wounded pride. Or perhaps 'reveal' the corruption that
is not only obvious, but absolutely inseperable from most guild
structures? I say most, for I do not want to overgeneralize. Perhaps
somewhere in this world there exists a guild utterly devoid of
discrimination, with leadership above emotional consideration. Perhaps
somewhere in this world is an organization that operates primarily on
reason.

Well, there IS one, but reason is so outdated these days that anything
said organization might venture to propose is immediately taken for a
deception. *cough*

But I digress. To continue with my commentary, as I am extremely bored.

Naturally, the world is a system of varying forces. Some of them are
aspected, such as good and evil. It would be absolutely idiotic to
expect these forces to act as anything but what they are. If you allow
something to wound your ego by virtue of being itself, then you are
losing track of your own identity, for the only force truly effecting
your life should be your own.

A guild is a microcosm of this structure. There, the personal forces
strive for position. The dynamic is similar to 'king of the hill'. After
all, who'd want to give up a cushy seat of power? Doing so would involve
recognizing the nature of power, and whoever has the time to sit down
and do that? It's much more fun to pretend you have the power invested
in a symbol - a Guildmaster position, or an Archon position, perhaps.
Then you have something physical and external that you can fight for,
thus twisting your inner integrity and externalizing it to a point where
reason disappears and mudslinging becomes a way of life.

I have to thank Llewellyn for bringing to light the lovely
Ralph-Llew-Callianessa triangle. It is such a perfect depiction of three
differently aligned forces. I will rather enjoy seeing the future power
struggles between the two remaining poles, now that one of the centers
has been voted off the island... Delos, of course.

And while I'm at it, let me give a bit of a hint to those of you out
there who enjoy dabbling in political machinations.

The best weapon you have in this world is objective truth. You see, no
one expects it. People will either die of shock if they believe it, or
disable themselves trying to find the nonexisting loopholes...

The above statement is the internal core of the entire analysis. But I
doubt, somehow, that many of you will appreciate its usage... Although
if you do wish to learn, you might want to begin in small steps.
Literacy would be a good beginning. Or perhaps a spelling lesson?

-SS

Penned by my hand on the 21st of Ero, in the year 322 AF.