|
Watcher -> =AQ= An olive branch (6/2/2019 12:14:26)
|
It has been made clear to me, and repeatedly at that, that I have underestimated all of you. If you would pardon an understatement, I simply failed to give the people of Lore enough credit. I thought you entirely passive about the directions your world hurtles toward.
But even collectively, you are not quite resigned to that fate — or any fate, for that matter. You do take change into your own hands, albeit largely only in self-preservation.
I apologize for my conceit. Perhaps I should have come to you sooner, and it would absolutely be foolish to extend an olive branch any later than this.
You doubtless want to know who I am. I have been called the Watcher, and find that name to be good enough. Take no offense in my reticence, please. There is little I can do on Lore, and I am willing to go to great extremes to not make it about myself. The moment I did, my ego would be inseparable from my plans. My bias would be that much harder to notice.
What I do matters more than my identity for my plans, and so I am here to discuss just that. I do not ask that you trust me, only that you consider what I have to say before we go our different ways.
Choice is a burden worth carrying, but a burden nonetheless, especially when it often seems you have none. And most importantly, the burden is greatest and most imperative to carry when there is comfort in believing you have no choice.
I repeat these words deliberately: Change and choice. These are the crux of what I do. I seek agents of change, people with a particular untapped potential. Be they in the right place at an opportune time, or poised to cause great good or harm, I try to find those whose actions can collectively nudge the world in a direction that will preserve it from the ravages that await far beyond the horizon.
Some single individuals have the potential to tilt the world, whether by performing great deeds, turning away from fell ones, or in the case of those determined to do harm... Accomplishing some good in the process, even if indirectly or without notice.
Such is the value of an informed choice. I offer such agents the knowledge to follow through with their choice, without duplicity. I make my intent clear to all, and they are free to believe or reject me. I am not infallible, of course. I have chosen poorly before - Carnel, in particular, achieved his purpose but became an utter zealot for my ambition. His competence was a boon, his devotion a curse.
Just what is this ambition, then?
I offer you a vision. A new Lore, changed by your own hands and choices. Wilder, untamed. Where nature and power are so much more difficult, yet all the more rewarding, to tame. A world where less of the world’s own power rests on the shoulders of individuals who can prove (and have proven) corruptible.
That is the crux of the matter. Corruption is a survival tactic that produces large odds of success. It’s a predation tactic, and one with plentiful prey. There are consequences, of course. There always are. You know well how final the punishment has been before. But the corrupt do their best to delay them by generations, often caring not for what happens beyond their lifespan... Or ambitious enough to intend to combat said consequences.
I would see Lore not merely uproot corruption, as you have done before, but make it unsustainable as a survival tactic, and large scale exploitation easier to expose. Where Unity isn’t chosen out of fear, but because all know that working together is the optimal way to reach Lore’s brightest future, and protect the world from all who covet its infinite potential.
Consider this as you face the trials yet to come. For while you have united before, strife grows in the west while treachery has left a bitter taste across the west. You have held off the Devourer, shown him your worth and a future worth preserving. But have you guaranteed that there will never be a need for him to act again?
|
|
|
|
