To you and to many in the realms:

The only reason I spent gold and time to write this is that sometimes things become so much of a problem that things just have to be said. And, quite frankly, I've become quite tired of restraining myself from saying them.

Your post shows that you, like many, have a bitterly horrifying problem, and, while I could make some kind of assumptions about why, I won't because petty insults are unnecessary and send the wrong message.

You see, in your apologies, you noted that you had failed to express your opinions diplomatically enough or that you wondered how people could suppress opinions.

And therein lies the problem.

You did not express opinions. You asserted something about the nature of the realms and the Divine.

An opinion is that I don't like tea. The opposing response to that is that yes, I do like tea. Notice that the response is about me and not the tea.

But in your original post, you wrote, "Gods once inspired awe. Now they terrupt conversations. Desperate to participate in mortal life...to the point they have forgotten the distinction between us entirely...Reverence is dead. Mystery is dead. Grandeur is dead...It's because Gods stopped acting like Gods."

That is not an opinion. That is an assertion. The opposite to that assertion is that Gods inspire awe. They have not forgotten the distinction between mortals and Them. Reverence is not dead. Mystery is not dead. Grandeur is not dead. And Gods have not stopped acting like Gods.

None of that is about you. It is about the Gods.

And that is why you have a problem. Your opinions are indeed, yours. You are entitled to them. You are also entitled to the consequences of your opinions, but suppressing them would be a problem to free thinkers.

The problem is that you did not express an opinion. You asserted something about the nature of Gods and the realms. And when that happens, there are two responses possible: either someone will assert the opposite as you, as Taelle and Laras did, or the Gods and the realms will assert the opposite to you.

And that is what They did. They asserted that They can act beyond what you can act and demanded that you confront the assertion that you made. Your apology should take note that your assertion was wrong. The Gods can, in fact, act distinctly from mortals as mortals could not do what the Gods have done to you.

Therefore, you were wrong in your assertion. Nothing happened to your opinions. I assume you have them, and from the tone of your posts, you continue to hold them, rather ironically.

No one, including me, cares about the opinions you hold. I respect your right to have them. I hope you continue to, and, should you wish, you have every right to espouse them, as long as you wish to bear the consequences of your opinions, as I am sure I will be receiving nasty stares from teadrinkers everywhere for mine.

But when you assert something about the nature of the realms or the Gods, you are no longer in a place where you can complain about how your opinions are received because you did not express any.

And the realms should take note about the difference between opinions and assertions, as every time someone asserts something on these boards and then becomes horribly offended by people asserting things right back at them, the defense always ends up back at "Well, I just wanted to express my opinion."

Stop posting anywhere, in any place, asserting something about reality if you can't handle reality asserting itself right back.

And in a realm where violence is the language of many, though words should never be met with violence, violence is sometimes the language of reality's assertion, as much as one who foolishly asserts that gravity has no power over them will find themselves dealing with the violence of crashing to the ground.

Hoping that people will start expecting better of themselves and each other,

Adrac Rousseau

Penned by my hand on the 22nd of Valnuary, in the year 1007 AF.