Well Arithorn,

I must say, you've managed to impress me. Rarely have I seen anyone with
the ability to irritate such a wide-spread and diverse group of people
to the degree which you possess, simply by writing an article on the
public board. Normally, I ignore these posts, but I felt some things
needed clearing up. Now, I just want to make sure I understand you,
after all, this could be just another joke. So let me take an excerpt
from public post 13013 while (I hope) keeping your statements in the
context in which they were given.

You stated:

"...Calling for a new brand of freedom, not Ashtan's but a Good freedom
where the villagers and adventurers alike can spend their time without
fear, where slavery and murder do not exist."

I have a few questions for you.

o Is freedom only for good?
o Is freedom conditional? Can you put limits on behaviour and say you
are free to be good, but not evil?
o Are you really calling for freedom? Or are you calling for peace or
justice or good? (Apologies to the Divine for any infringement to Their
respective realms, I am trying to get Arithorn's perspective).
o Exactly what do you mean by freedom?

Furthermore you make a distinction as to Ashtan's brand of freedom, so
what do you think, exactly, Ashtan's brand of freedom is? I have lived
in Ashtan for over a century, and have spent time serving in various
leadership positions in just about every ministry as well as having the
honor of serving as both Archon and Overseer in the past. The most
definitive, but by no means exhaustive, statement of "Ashtani" freedom I
know of is Ashtan's creed:

"We, the citizens of Ashtan, dedicate ourselves to the ideals of
freedom. We declare our liberty to live as we choose, with the
foreknowledge that choice begets consequence. We recognize each person's
unique vision, and affirm the value thereof. We embrace the paradox of
freedom, unity through individuality; strength through diversity. We
acknowledge our debt to the past, turn a resolute gaze to the future,
and seize our destiny."

A few things I'd like to point out here. "Ashtani freedom" doesn't
promote killing anyone, it promotes choice. It is true that the
connotations of the word freedom imply a certain altruism, I would point
out though, that the freedom you espouse doesn't seem to promote choice
at all.

So to prevent any confusion, and perhaps save you another apology, I
just want to be clear on what, exactly, you're trying to promote.
Because your statements seem to sound much more like principles I've
read in the Church Codex then to anything related to freedom. I,
personally, believe that freedom is choice. I also believe that you
cannot make a choice for someone, whether in word, deed, ethos or
philosophy, and say that you are doing it in the name of freedom.

As an aside, freedom isn't the only guiding principle in Ashtan
government, when I served as Overseer, there were certain choices that I
had made or not made, based on things like the welfare (of Ashtan),
political independence, alliances, expansion of power and influence,
etc. I say this to forestall any tiring responses crying inconsistency.

And just to be clear, in case anyone actually reads this far down, what
Im basically saying is, you, Arithorn, have an odd way of apologizing.
You have a very odd way of promoting your agendas, but at least you're
amusing.

-Skarash

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Lupar, in the year 370 AF.