From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Darkeye looks at Chaele closely again. "Many seek solitude in it, however, as you seem to do. Trying to live in the harmony of nature. But if the war hits this forest, you will be able to defend it. I think that we can't just ignore the war. We must prepare for it as for winter..." He looked at the sky and the leafy canopy. Hoping to find an answer to it. The war can no longer be prevented in the eyes of Darkeye. Too much has happened and he doubts the words of Voice.
He took a closer look at his interlocutor and thought a little longer before answering. There was no point in saying what you think here. This had already caused him too many problems, it was time to calm down and heed the advice of Deimos. "Not everyone is able to live this life. Many are too used to living in the city but fear war. This should make it easier for them, not harder. Many know only fieldwork and I do not know many people will come. I can't teach a hundred people to live in harmony with nature. Ten are possible but I can't tell you how many will come because I don't know myself. Maybe I'm the only one who's building a hut here and you're worrying too much for nothing." Said with a friendly tone.
“Build your hut, then. Find your corner of the Undergrove, or pitch your tent at the Leap. But do not clear land for farming. Do not cut stone for walls. The traditions of civilization are not welcome here. If you and your people are to survive in this place, it will be as hunters and gatherers. It will be in communion with nature, not despite it.”
There is no more anger in their tone, but nonetheless persistence. The insinuation is that Chaele will do everything in their power to prevent injury to the forest, no matter what it means for refugees from war. Still, the shaman takes pity on them. “You think they cannot live this way, but in truth it is the settlements that have it wrong. It is in our blood, our instinct to survive in the wild.” With a relenting sigh she adds, “I am certain that I could simply build a waystation, instructing wanderers how to survive and providing basic materials to do so, and that would be enough.”
05-10-2022, 06:12 AM (This post was last modified: 05-10-2022, 06:13 AM by Darkeye.)
DARKEYE
Not the strongest win the battle —
Darkeye wrote it down, but then looked up. "I don't know how many people will come, but I think a field will be necessary. Because if more than 30 people come, I think the balance of the forest will be disturbed, so I'd better prepare something like this, I need to know if there is enough grain for flour." He said honestly.
He looked at her. If she went after the innocent ones he would have to take care of her. "But we can't force them to accept this life still. They are already afraid and I don't want to make them more afraid. We will find a healthy compromise. I have spoken with the rulers and most of them have assured me that they will leave the place alone. If there are only a few, yes, but as I said, if there are more, I'll have to find a clearing or clear part of it to make a solid ground." He said to emphasize his previous words.
“Let me be clear.” Their voice adopts the grave pitch of a threat. “You may have appeased the leaders of faraway settlements, and you may have convinced a village’s worth of people to uproot themselves in refuge from war. But if you destroy the forest to plant wheat in poor soil, if you insist on bringing people without teaching them to live here properly, you will have made an enemy of me.”
A person’s innocence means little to Chaele if they are guilty of ecological crimes. To the shaman, the land alone is innocent, and they would not hesitate to sabotage and kill in the name of its protection. However reasonable or unreasonable this might seem to Darkeye, Chaele attempts reason still. “The soil is better in King’s End. The fauna will be less disturbed by cropland there. What is so important about settling here?”
Darkeye nodded and tried not to let anything get to him. But this threat made him angry. He drew a long breath. "I understand you, people of the forest, druid witches or hermits, I find your way of life remarkable. I have only convinced the leaders so far, I don't know how many will follow me. But I cannot force your way of life on them, I am not a tyrant. They want to escape and they are innocent. When war comes, nature will suffer one way or another. The war will also come over this forest - I have no doubt about that. I don't want to make an enemy out of you, but I don't like threats, so I ask you politely to continue talking to me normally. Otherwise, I'll go through with this, with or without your consent." he says in a calm tone of voice. Forest people always have the same nature about everything.
He pondered for a moment, thinking about how to put it into words."It is said to be a burial mound for demons and gods or similar creatures. Of course, the earth would be fertile. But the trees there could be the burial place of such a being. And it is too close to the ground, of course, it would be an option, but one that I would take last. You do not disturb the dead. What's the good here? A good question. The seclusion and the flora and fauna are here. Where such flora and fauna flourish, there must be plenty of raw materials in the ground. And the mystery of the underground. In my world, my people lived underground." Said the old dwarf and found his conclusion conclusive.
Chaele is less diplomatic than Darkeye, their passions seething behind clenched teeth. “You have already made it clear that you will do what you please, no matter what I say about it. I find it strange that you would honor the dead before the living, if only because those that live here do not have divine flesh.”
They lace their fingers together, tense knuckles pinched against the instinct to lash out. Then they indulge in a deep breath: an attempt to find calm. “I am not cruel. I intend to build these waystations to help teach those who desire to learn. Cruel is the person who thinks they deserve to cut trees and destroy wild homes in the name of their own backwards lifestyles, their own petty comforts. How would your people have felt, if their underground homes were invaded by those who would replace them?”
Darkeye shakes his head. "That's not the case, Chaele, or this conversation would have ended a long time ago. But don't threaten me, there are few things I like less. Understandably, I've beaten you to death with my suggestions, but I'm trying to find a compromise. That the dead there could be divine doesn't interest me a bit. They are not my gods. But burial mounds should be opened only in an absolute emergency. Every life is precious in my eyes, but sometimes you have to take another life to survive. The law of nature is very clear about this. The stronger survives." He continued to try to argue. Darkeye was sure that he had explained his point of view well.
He looked at Chaele for a long time, wondering if this was really serious. "You can't compare a blade of grass to human life, or you wouldn't be able to walk. Or hunt. As for cruelty. Yes, you like to build such stations, but they have to be made with wood. There is also a middle way to the whole you can still build houses of wood or stone and still live in harmony with nature. You can also promote the forest in its being and support it". Darkeye held back old wise Chaele could not know what happened to his people. It cost him a lot of effort to implement the advice of Deimos.
“Do not put words into my mouth. It does not harm the forest to selectively cut a few old-growth trees. It does not offend me that humans seek to escape war. I have not objected to hut-building, or hunting, or settling in harmony with the forest. But you continue to speak of crop fields, and the politics of faraway settlements, and people who will not change their way of life.” Frustration is evident in their gesticulating hands, but the hunting knife at their side is long abandoned. However poor their people skills, Chaele has picked up on Darkeye’s attempts at tact and is attempting to teach him what they know.
“And do not speak to me of ridiculous notions of strength and survival. Every predator and herbivore and scavenger and plant exists because of their interactions with each other, not some misguided sense of domination. That is a human idea, with no basis in ecology.”
Their next words do inspire a moment’s hesitation, not to spare his feelings but to wonder if it would make their disagreement irreconcilable. But ultimately they cannot hold their tongue. “I can and I do consider human life to be equal to grasses and everything else. It is vanity to suggest otherwise, to settle inside of crumbling walls and describe oneself as better or more worthy of survival. And just as deer must be culled when their population rises, so too will be humans who take more than they give from the forest.”
Darkeye listened to it all and tried to take it all very seriously he tried to understand Chaele. "I think it's good that you agree with me on some points, and yes, some trees can be selectively cut down. I just don't know if I'll be able to get 30 people to survive just by gathering and hunting without upsetting nature, so I was thinking of fields. I really don't know why these bother you so much. I would be grateful if you could explain it to me in more detail." He said calmly.
He nods, "That's right, that's a human idea, I'm not going to disagree with you. But in every forest, there is a dominant species. Of course, this is a system that works as long as humans don't interfere. But a tiger will tear exactly as much as he needs. A cow will always eat grass. All destroy something to survive. Or would you like to represent now the cow as a murderer because it eats grass? " Darkeye tried to look friendly.
Balance was the first word that came to his mind. "I never said that life behind the wall is better or worse. Life is precious, even that of nature, I understand that point. But you can't force your way of life on anyone because you are not the owner of this forest. You said it yourself you are trying to protect it. But everyone has a right to it. Now when I go to King End to build the village, someone comes and says that the burial mounds should not be desecrated. What do I do then? I don't have much time left and I need a solution. I'd be happy to help you build these posts, but then I'll need your help in founding the village, okay? Not here but in Kings End." Darkeye said, hoping that his counterpart would agree. The place didn't matter where the village would be founded, he needed help and material.
“The cow does murder the grass, as the tiger murders its prey. Death is a requirement of life, not a domination of it.” A wry smile colors their words, humor found in the equivalence. “Both do so because the generations before them have done so, because they have evolved in balance with the other forms of life around them. Humans did not evolve here, and so they are visitors to this world. The crops they eat did not evolve here, and so clearing the land to make room for them is a form of war itself, of domination and destruction.”
Their hands have gestured in emphasis, clenching from one side to another as they illustrate these distinct groups of information. It is almost as if she is putting weights on either side of a scale, agreeing with his notions of balance but not on their details. “King’s End has its own ecology, which will need to be cherished and respected all the same. But it will not need to be changed as much as the Oerwoud would need to be, and so it will not suffer as much if humans were to continue their usual way of life. That said, if you decide to bring your people here, I will help to teach them how to survive as the native animals do. So that they can claim an equal right to the land and its bounty.”
Darkeye will abruptly shake her head at these words. "I suppose you haven't seen many wars. I suppose you haven't had to take many lives to avoid being killed. I don't know what you've done in your life so far, but comparing it to war is a bad joke. I have seen many wars, I serve a God who has war in his blood. It is different when I hunt at least for me. I would not call it war. It's not destruction either but I don't want to mess up the balance here but I disagree with you on this one." He says with an almost piercing look.
He nods and smiles slightly. "I think this is a good compromise and we can help each other this way. I hope you can also show me some tricks that will help me get along better in nature. I think it will be King's end but I will try to build the village near this forest maybe with the mountains in the back... We'll see how well that works." Says Darkeye with a big grin and hopes that he can leave soon.
05-14-2022, 06:22 PM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2022, 06:24 PM by Chaele.)
in tenebris est veritas.
Their eyes squint with the pressure of a hidden smile, more impressed by the passion in Darkeye’s argument than by any of his attempts at friendliness. Their head lowers in a nod that is almost a bow, capitulating the point. “Habitat destruction is not war. But it is something I cannot abide.” Perhaps it did not need to be said, but the words are spoken all the same.
“The mountains are difficult to traverse, but so are they defensible. You may trust that you have my aid in any of your endeavors, wherever you choose to settle.” Or, at least, their supervision. “It is not as difficult as it might seem to live in harmony with nature.”
Chaele remains seated even as the dwarf seems restless to leave, content to stay where they are for a long time to come.
