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Public News Post #19932

An assessment of your question.

Written by: Aodfionn Wintermourne, Troll of the Aarash Kheyr
Date: Friday, January 27th, 2017
Addressed to: Knot Coamenel Ardashyr


Hail, Eleusian.

I must reluctantly commend you and yours for the recent attempts to bring your message to the rank and file of mortalkind. Eleusis has largely failed in this arena for several centuries, and it is my genuine hope that this improvement is a precursor to further growth.

Upon considering your question, I confess that my first reaction was to laugh. This was certainly not meant out of insult or incredulity, but of great irony.

"What if I told you you're casting carelessly aside the generous gift of your life?"

Trust me, Eleusian, when I say that Targossians have been asking the same of you and yours for longer than the Dawnspear has even existed.

There are only a handful of Easterners who are thoroughly familiar with the teachings of the Village, of the Charter, and of Nature. Having grown up in the Anachaine, I would like to think I might be bold enough to consider myself among those ranks.

Indeed, Naturalism celebrates the gift of life - as well it should! Life at all levels is what truly enables existence to experience growth. Life -enables- this. But it does not guarantee it.

Naturalism holds sacred the perceived balance of forces within our world. Perhaps most naively, the teachings of the Charter seem to be under the impression that for life to simply exist is enough, that mortalkind ought to bend to meet the needs of Nature. This is nonsense.

Each mortal should probably be grateful that they are alive; but where Eleusis seems content to sit on the laurels of the world as it once was, the civilized peoples of this world correctly see that it is our duty to ensure that mortalkind advances and grows.

The lives of people are enriched and strengthened when they finally reject the ideals of living in communal harmony with Nature. Through the basic social union that forms the basis of life in villages and towns across the world, we are better able to seek growth in all its forms.

In essence, you ask people to sacrifice their opportunities to grow, for the sake of something that will be able to endure and survive regardless of mortal involvement. This, too, is nonsense. My people, the trolls of Sapience, have benefitted enormously since our reintegration into society at large. Had we remained as you suggested, we would have never had the chance to find out what we could achieve!

Growth, and the natural inclination to seek it - THESE are the things that make life truly wondrous and magnificent. THESE are the things that must be held in highest regard, higher then the well-being of each individual fern or fungi in the Ithmias. For after all, as you and I both learned living in the village, Nature is strong enough to adapt and advance its own interests.

In parting, I would urge you to have more faith in Nature's ability to survive. In the mean time, I pray you manage to choose the path of civilization and growth, not the realm of stagnancy via grove-tending.

In service to Them,

Aodfionn Wintermourne

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Lupar, in the year 733 AF.


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