Atlantic and Mr Clean...

[MR_CLEAN]

We fought our way through Doom...and approached the ferryman.

He held up his hand to us, and spoke...

"Only the Souless One may approach"

Like some kind of school prank, the rest of the guild all took one step backward...leaving me standing in front. (these people really didn't know when to take things seriously)

I stepped up to him...and he asked me if I was ready for my journey. I told him that I had already been.

"Not like this" he said to me.

And he motioned to his raft...and a black gate opened on the other side of lake Mortis.

We boarded raft together...and when we reached the other side, he bid me farewell, and started back to the other side.

I stepped through the gate...and I have never felt more fear in my life.

I simply could not go back through what I had already endured.

The darkness swallowed me, but somehow...it was different. I walked ahead with my sword drawn, and I saw the faint red glow up ahead. I approached.

I recognized that foul smell, and already, I could hear the screaming.

I rushed forward, and I reached the edge...and laid out before my eyes was the whole of the great Abyss. Around its rim, I could see similar passages, like the one that I had come through...and I wondered then where they went, but if I had given any thought to it...I would have figured it out.

They each went to the other Great Shards.

And above me, was the Void. And far below me, was the Abyss...hell...my home for many years.

Before I could begin to find a way to descend, I heard a deep growl...and then I saw the Collector of Souls before me. This time, I was not unarmed. He seemed to not notice me, and flew by me, down the passage. There was no way he didn't see me...

...but then again, he collects souls...and I don't have one.

Now I understood.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

It had been a very long time since I had cast a spell, but I remembered the words Rel Por.

I figured it was worth a shot...and I was amazed that it worked.

I was at the bottom of the Abyss...with the demons, and their victims. I walked, and I walked...and I was ignored by all. The demons did not notice me, the devourers did not notice me, the Wanderers of the Voids did not notice me, nor did the imps or the small demons. They were completely disinterested in me.

And the victims did not seem to notice me either...but, as I remember, when you are being sliced piece by piece, or set ablaze on the end of a pike, or having your head crushed by the hoof of a Slayer, you really didn't notice much else anyway.

These poor souls. They would endure this over and over again. Their bodies would just take the abuse, heal, and take it again. The demons could slice your legs off, set them on fire, and beat you with them...then pick you up to throw you against a sharp rock, and your legs were back. Or they could burn you for hours, and you would never turn to ash. The only thing that didn't return once they took them was your eyes.

I was lucky when I was here, because they took mine early...and I didn't have to see as many of the horrible things as some do. Or maybe that was just what they did to me...I don't know.

I searched in vain for days like this. Somehow, here, time really didn't matter, as you never needed food, or sleep, or air, or water...you just existed. Finding Morgana here was going to be impossible. There had to be millions of souls here. And let's just say, the place is large...I mean, huge...you could fit all of Sosaria in there, as many times as it exists in each shard.

I needed some way of contacting her...some way of locating her.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

That is when it hit me.

Magic worked here, just like it did in the Great Shards.

So I pulled out my rune book...and I found the rune that I had marked for Morgana's Grave.

And I recalled upon it.

There she was...impailed on a metal shaft, with her feet missing...freshly chopped off, and her hair was being set on fire by two small demons.

I attacked them. I killed the first one with my sword, and the other barely seemed to notice me at all, so I cast strangle on him, and he dropped as well. I tried to put Morgana's hair out, but you cannot extinquish these flames so I pushed her body so that she slid off the metal shaft and on to the ground. When I did this, she cried out, and began screaming instead of moaning, I knew that the flames were burning her. I could not help but weep.

I tried to gather her up in my arms, but she was flailing around...so I did something drastic. I cut her head off with my sword. I gathered up her parts, and began to make my way toward the passage I had entered through. If only I had tried to mark a rune there!

This was slow going, and along the way, a couple of demons took notice of what I was doing, and tried to take Morgana's parts from me. This was not going to happen. I slayed a few demons, and that drew the notice of a Slayer.

As any adventurer in Sosaria knows, if you venture too deep into the world, you will occassionally find these there. They are not an easy foe there, and they are worse in the Abyss. But I discovered something interesting as it attacked me...I couldn't die here. Just like when I was a "guest" here...I was bound by the same rules as they were, and because the things they do to you there are done to your soul, his attacks had no affect on me...

...I don't have one.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

This got me thinking as I dropped the Slayer. There was only one way I was taking Morgana out of here in any condition that it would be possible that she return to Sosaria...and that was if the Lord of the Abyss himself granted it.

So I left Morgana's body parts there...and I began killing every demon, every Slayer, every Devourer, every Wanderer of the Void that I could find.

And let me tell you...this felt so good. It was the ultimate revenge! My rage was so great, that I had slain over a thousand in a very short period of time...and then he appeared.

The Lord of the Abyss.

He looked at me for a moment, and seemed puzzled.

"Forgive me for the intrusion Lord, but you have something that I need to take with me here" I said to him.

"And what is that Souless One?" he responded.

"The soul of my Guildmistress, and the love of my life, Morgana LeFay" I said to him.

He laughed..."What makes you think I would give up any soul to you?"

"Because we both know that you have no power over me here, and we both know that neither of us can die here. So unless you plan to spead the next 4000 years with me slicing your wings off every day...I think you will cooperate." I responded.

He considered it for a moment...and then with a wave of his hand, Morgana appeared beside me in a somewhat dazed and half conscious state.

"Go...but know this Souless One...soul or not, if I detect your presence here again, I will bestow upon you a pain that will make what you endured here seem like a stroll through a flowered meadow."

I could somehow sense that he meant it.

And with that, we were on the shore of lake Mortis, and Cyloth was on his way.

As the raft arrived, I hefted Morgana onto my shoulder, and I carried her on to the raft where I laid her down on her back. I removed my helm, and looked at her beautiful face. And her blue eyes opened, and she said to me...

"I knew you would come for me...I never gave up hope".

And with that, she passed out...and I gathered her in my arms and held her all the way back to the other side of the lake.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

The PoV were waiting for us...and when they saw Morgana, they were stunned.

"By the gods it worked!!" Sheol shouted.

"The gods had nothing to do with this" I responded, as I scooped her up into my arms. I told Anasazi to open a gate...and he did so.

We were back in Trammel, at Anasazi's house. There was much explaining to do, and I just didn't have the energy...so I laid Morgana down on a bed, then I laid down beside her...and I slept.


The morning came, and Morgana was stirring, so I got up. Jade came in, and had brought tea. Morgana woke with a start, as I had...looking around in a panic. I went to her, and I held her shoulders, and looked deep into her eyes, and I told her "You are safe, you are out of there. We are here with you. You are safe."

Of course she started screaming and went into shock and blacked out. There is no way to let all of that out of your mind that quickly. It never leaves you really. I often wake in the middle of the night screaming in a cold sweat. It is not something you forget, believe me, I have tried.

She slept for the better part of the day...and that night, I went outside, on the beach, and I saw Abigail standing there staring across the water. I called to her, and asked her if I could speak with her. She consented, and I approached. I began to explain that I did what I did in order to save Morgana, but before I could get the words out, she turned and embraced me, crying, and thanking me. She sobbed for a while, and I told Abigail it was okay...that I understood why she felt the way she did.

But she told me that I didn't understand, and that there was something she needed to tell me.

As I said earlier, Abigail had become a devout follower of the light. And she had always been virtuous. She looked up at me, and said "Clean, I did something horrible." I asked her what she had done, and she told me...


The night that I visited Morgana's grave, she had followed me. And she had stayed hidden in the shadows, and watched what transpired between MoonlightMyst and I. She said that she saw me forgive...but that her heart was too filled with rage to do the same. So I had walked away, leaving MoonlightMyst crying at Morgana's grave...and once I was out of sight, Abigail stepped out of the shadows, and killed MoonlightMyst.

I told Abigail that it was understandable, that I almost did the same...but she was inconsolable. MoonlightMyst was unarmed, and never saw it coming. For Abigail, that was murder...and what is worse, Abigail had heard that MoonlightMyst had chosen not to be resurrected, and therefore had passed into the afterlife...no doubt into the Abyss.

Not even MoonlightMyst deserved that fate.

I asked Abi why she was telling me this, and she said that she was concerned that Morgana would try to do what I did, and go after her. I told Abigail, that if Morgana was willing to go back to the Abyss to save MoonlightMyst, the person that had betrayed her so badly that she took her own life, that she must love her more than anything in this world.

And she asked me..."Like you feel about my sister?"

"Yeah..." I said.

"You are not souless. I don't care what anyone says." she gave me a kiss on the cheek, and wandered off.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

Morgana did not make as quick of a recovery as I did. She had been in the abyss much longer than I was. For her, as best Sheol and I could figure it, it was more like 100 or 200 years she was there...several lifetimes. She was completely withdrawn, spend a lot of time near the water, just sitting, crying. Everyone was worried about her. Anasazi had come to me and asked me if I thought we needed to get help for her, but I told him...there really was no one that could help. If you haven't been there, you couldn't know.

In that time, I began to discover what I had become. Being a Souless One was not all it was cracked up to be. Food no longer satiated my hunger, and wine no longer provided any effect. I was growing weary, and I was feeling tired more and more. The only time I felt alive is when I was near Abigail...and my presence seemed to have the opposite effect on her. So much so, that she stopped by less and less.

I decided it was time for me to visit the Necromancers in Umbra, to see if I could find some answers.

I arrived in Umbra that day, and there were Necromancers studying the black arts in every alcove (imagine how much easier things would have been if Necromancers were this prolific a while back I thought). As I passed by them, they seemed to take notice, and sort of gawked. Horses would recoil from me, even Nightmares...which was irratating, because it meant I pretty much had to walk everywhere I went. I could kill a horse, and animate the corpse...but for me, the skeletal steed that would rise from the corpse would panic, flee, and usually kill itself against a tree as soon as it saw me.

I asked around Umbra, I was looking for an Elder Necromancer. I was told to meet with a man named Alhalzred, and told that he had a temple just outside of Umbra, to the south. When I arrived at his temple, his familiar allowed me to enter. He was in the middle of his magick circle when I arrived. He looked up at me, and welcomed me (of course he called me Souless One...I did have a name before all this souless crap). I asked him how he knew, and he told me that it was his purpose to know. I asked him what he knew about one such as I, and he stood, and motioned for me to approach. He did not leave his circle though, and remained in it the entire time we talked. He looked at me, and said "You need to feed."

"No thanks", I told him..."I just ate breakfast", I responded...and I really was not hungry.

"No, Souless One...you need to feed your being. When you gave up your soul, you gave up your ability to generate spiritual energy of your own. You will have to absord the spiritual energy of other living things. The more virtuous the being, the more energy you will absorb. Certainly you have sensed some of this since you have risen."

I told him about being around Abigail, and feel more energetic, and he explained that this was passive feeding...that it would sustain me as long as I did not exert myself...but that eventually, I would need to feed actively. I asked him what that meant, and he told me that I would need to kill in order to survive...and that the freshly slain corpse would briefly hold spiritual energy.

Now I had studied the black arts, I knew of a technique involving Spirit Speak...but what he was talking about was something different. This could only be humans, and I had to be the one to slay them. And what is worse, by draining their spiritual energy before they could be resurrected, I put them at risk of permanent death.

How could I do it? How could send anyone to the Abyss?

I had given up my soul to save the woman I love, but I had become something worse than any murderer the land had ever known.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

I turned to leave his temple...but I stopped to ask...

"And what happens if I do not feed?"

"Where was you soul when you were last in possession of it?" he asked.

That's what I was afraid of. My soul had been taken by the Collector, so my choices were, feed upon the lives of Sosarians...and doom them to a possible eternity in the Abyss, or return to the Abyss for eternity myself...and face the threat that the Lord of the Abyss had spoken to me.

Had I endured the Abyss for so long for nothing? No, Morgana's soul was free, and that was all that mattered. I knew what I had to do. I had to go back to the Abyss...and face what I had coming to me. I left the temple.

That day, I came home...and I saw Morgana rocking herself on the beach, wrapped in a blanket. I sat down beside her. She leaned against me, and said "Isn't it so beautiful?"

And it really was. The crystal blue waters of the sea in Trammel were heavenly. It took me back to those days of watching Morgana frolick in the surf, playing with the dolphins as Evets and I fished on shore. The nights we spent there, with Silverthorne and Gwendamere visiting. Bill Blas would drop by with some exotic wines he had purchased on his travels. And we would sit out on the beach until it was so dark that we could not see with out nightsight potions. We were so young, and the world was so wonderful...even with the people that had strayed from virtue. We had gone so far from those simple days of chopping wood to make our own furniture...but was it all worth it?

Knowing what lie ahead of me, I would have gladly gone back in time, to those days that we thought were so bad. How I longed to see the Trinsic Borrowers harrassing a new citizen...how I longed to fight Dr Deth and his crew on the road to Britain. But I am not so sure I would fight them anymore. And if they ended up where I suspected they ended up, they would wish for the same.

I put my arm around Morgana, and just responded..."It is incredibly beautiful."

She began to weep.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

I woke up early the next morning, and I felt like I had a severe hang over. I knew why. My spiritual energy was running out.

I went down the stairs, and drank some water. I wasn't thirsty, but I figured I should get as much as I could now...there was no water in the Abyss. I walked outside, and the sun was begining to rise over the sea. No one else was around, so I figured now would be the time to set out for Doom. I decided that it would best to have Cyloth just ferry me back over, and I would just go and hand myself over to the Lord of the Abyss. I expected no mercy from the Lord of Cruelty...but I could not become what I had to become in order to survive. As I was walking away, Anasazi called out to me...

"Hey! Where are you off to this early?" he said.

I could not muster the words to respond. And I kept walking. I heard him utter Rel Por, and he was standing in front of me. I could not look him in the eye. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and asked me what the matter was. I met his gaze, and I could see the dread in his eyes. No words were needed, he knew I was in the worst kind of distress.

"Okay, I have remained pretty quiet through most of this, but its time for you and me to talk" he said. "What you did for Morgana is the most amazing thing I have ever known any person to do for another. And you are probably the only one that she can turn to. If you go, who will she rely on then? What will happen to her?"

He knew how to pull the right strings. I could feel my heart sink as I remembered seeing her impailed with her hair on fire. I just screamed, as loudly as I could and threw my hands up to the sky, and I fell to my knees and began sobbing. Anasazi was there for me through all of it.

I explained what the Alhalzred had told me, and how I was feeling. I told him all about the Abyss, and the horrors I had witnessed, and the way that I found Morgana there. He just listened. And when I done...he drew his sword, handed it to me, and said "Kill me."

Anasazi was an incredible friend, and I did not want to risk losing him to the Abyss. So I dropped the sword. He picked it up, and handed it back to me, and slapped me in the face. "I said KILL ME GODS DAMNIT!!" and he punched me.

I knew what he was doing. This went on for some time, and he kept becoming more and more insistant. But in the end, I just walked away. I could not kill Anasazi, not with there being any chance that he could end up not being resurrected. Anasazi was a virtuous soul, but he was not without sin. If he died, and could not be resurrected...he would end up in the Abyss. If only I knew he would not end up there, I would not hesitate to take him up on his offer...I was slipping away.

I suddenly had the urge to die on the spot that our old Guild Tower stood on, so I recalled to there. And I sat in the grass, amdist the burned rubble...and I stared at the ruins of our old guild stone, and I laid my head upon a rock...and I began to drift away.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

I was awakened by the sound of someone recalling in.

I looked up, and it was Morgana. She was standing there, in her full armor. And she walked up to me...and reached out to me, and pulled me close to her, and she kissed me...and I suddenly realized that the time moved more slowly in this embrace than it ever did in the Abyss.

We stood there holding one another, kissing, and no words were said, for what seemed like ages.

Finally, she spoke "You are not leaving me now. I do not care what it takes, you are not going back there. And if you do, I will follow you. Do you want that?"

I began to cry, and held her closer to me...and for the very first time...I looked deep into her mysterious blue eyes, and uttered the words that I had waited so many years to say ... "I love you...more than anything."

"I know. And I love you as well. I am so sorry for what I did to you", she replied with tears in her eyes.

"All is forgiven" I said to her. And I held her close.

She never really talked about the Abyss. Anasazi had gone to her, and told her that I was going back there, and somehow, that had snapped her out of her depression.

"I want to help you" she said. "The two of us can do anything, we have proven that. We can beat this thing."

"How?" I said.

"I do not know...but if you could rescue me from the very heart of hell itself, then I know we can find a way to make this work. In the meantime, we will do what we have to do...no matter what that means" she said...and I saw a look in those sky blue eyes that I had not seen in many years.

She handed me something. It was a small horse statue. I was puzzled.

"Sheol gave it to me. He heard that you were having trouble finding a mount" she said.

As I handled the statue, the spirit of a horse appeared...and it did not run away from me. This ethereal steed was a wraith...and wraiths don't fear Souless Ones. I guess that is a good thing?

"What about you...what are you going to ride?" I asked.

"Don't worry, we are going to take care of that" she said...and she walked over to a mound near the front of the remains of the tower. She began to dig...and there, covered by a shallow layer of muck and rubble, was the corpse of Rayder...the steed Morgana had kept all those years.

It was the only time I was ever really in awe of something I had seen a mage do, but somehow, she raised that years dead corpse...and a powerful Nightmare was the result. Something about all the time that she had spent in the Abyss, together with her natural ability with animals and creatures, had given her some kind of power over the creatures of Sosaria. I never found an explanation for it...and I never tried.

"Rayder...come!" she said, and the pitch black horse of Death snorted fire, and obeyed her command. She climbed atop, and together we were prepared to ride.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

As we rode along in Felucca, she told me her plan.

She had decided, that if we could find the most virtuous citizens in the land, and have me kill them, that even if they were not resurrected, that they would be spared the Abyss.

I was not sure I could go along with it. My soul was already lost. When I finally left this world, I knew where I was going...for sure. But I did not want Morgana putting her soul back in jeopardy.

I will never forget what she said to me..."You went to hell for me, and I will be damned if I cannot do the same for you."

And with that, our dark pact was made.

We rode toward Yew.

After spending so long in the Abyss, Felucca didn't seem so bad. Sure, the trees were dead, there was litter and bodies all around, there was a smell of decay...but it is amazing how your perception changes when you have fallen as far as you can fall. I was begining to understand that more and more with every passing day.

We hid behind the remains of an old brick structure, and we saw two murderers riding north. We didn't want to kill them...we knew where they might end up. So we waited...until we saw an innocent shop keeper that had come to collect gold from her vendor. I struck first, thrusting my sword through her chest...and she looked at me with a look of horror I had not seen. And as she died, I slowly felt myself becoming more...alive. I don't know a better way to describe it. This was the first of many such killings.

Morgana and I had to keep this from the others.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

We were in the process of killing a traveler near the moongate near Trinsic...and it dawned on me.

Dr Deth, Vader, MastaKilla...I was no different than they were. What if they were Souless Ones as well? Was that what happened to them? They killed, and killed, and killed...until they could no longer take it, and wound up back in the Abyss? Is that why MoonlightMyst had decided not to be resurrected? She was tired of the killing?

Was I the first to become a Souless One? Or were the murderers that I once hated with every fiber of my being the same thing that I had become?

I remembered my killing sprees after Morgana's death. I remembered Zodiac, and the way he killed so many that I thought were so innocent. I remembered the lumberjack, and I remembered wondering why anyone would kill for 60 logs and a pair of worn out pants. And more than all of that, I remembered my pius attitude...the way I held myself to be so Virtuous.

The Virtues.

Honesty - Was anyone really ever honest? Was anyone really ever honest with themselves? I killed murderers because they were killing the innocent, but I never bothered to understand why. Was this really honesty?

Justice - What Justice was there in punishing someone that was forced by hunger, love, disease, or in my case...loss of soul...for doing what they had to do?

Spirituality - It turned out, at least for me, that the spirit was my greatest liability.

Compassion - I spent my life showing my compassion for those less fortunate than I, only to become a slave to the Lord of Cruelty himself, the Lord of the Abyss.

Honor - What Honor is there in slaying an enemy...even in a fair fight...when in the end, that person is seeking the same things you are?

Humility - I think that realizing that you wasted your life protecting virtues that were now juxtopposed to everything you had to do in order to survive is one of the most humiliating experiences one can endure.

Sacrifice - I once thought that sacrifice was not keeping the things we took from a murderer...then later I thought it was the sacrifice of protecting the innocent. Now, I see sacrifice as hypocrisy...because one man's sacrifice is another man's woe.

and finally...

Valor - Is it Valor when you show bravery in the face of evil? If you knew why that "evil" was doing what it was doing, would you show Valor...or Compassion? And if you show Compassion, is this true Valor?

 

[MR_CLEAN]

Years went by...and Morgana and I spent more and more time apart from the others. It turned out that killing was like any other habit. The Gulton must eat more and more. The alcoholic has to drink more and more...and the Souless killer has to kill more and more, in order to keep the spiritual energy levels the same.

By this time, Morgana had become an extremely powerful wielder of creatures(the relationship she has with her "pets" is astounding. Apparently, my willingness to die for her was not as unique as I once thought). She had befriended the incredibly powerful dragon...Tiamat. And together with Rayder and Morgana, there were few foes that could stand up to them.

Anasazi, Abigail, Jade, and Sheol had begun to explore the new islands that had been discovered, and they were bringing back exotic treasures.

Bill Blas and Sir Robin had taken to riding in Felucca with Morgana and I. Those two had never quite shaken off the taint of Doom, and I hate to use the expression, because to me...now, it was so meaningless...but they had become what we once would have called "evil".

I was learning a new fighting style...something from the new lands called Bushido. I was already as skilled with a sword as anyone that lived, but these new fighters that they called Samurai knew some techniques that I had found interesting.

We had constructed a new Guild Tower in Malas...and we even went back to Felucca to the site of the old Tower, and had taken the remains of our Guild Stone to build what we would call the Unity Arch...

...and we would continue to search for a better way...and to find the true meaning of the Virtues that we had fought so long to protect.

And even now, today...as I relate this story to you...we travel the lands, the facets, and the Great Shards, looking for a way to recover my lost soul.

From here...we do not know where events will lead us...

...and that is why we remain.

 

[MR_CLEAN]

Thank you for listening to my tale.

I hope that I have presented it well enough, and I have done so as accurately as possible.

If I made some mistakes in its telling, it is only because my memory is failing me.

I hope the next time you see a member of PoV in Luna, or Britain...that you will take the time to speak to them, because they truly are the greatest citizens of Sosaria that I have had the pleasure of knowing.

As I said before, they are my family.

And I would not trade one memory for anything in this world, or the next.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

The Virtues.

Honesty - Was anyone really ever honest? Was anyone really ever honest with themselves? I killed murderers because they were killing the innocent, but I never bothered to understand why. Was this really honesty?

Justice - What Justice was there in punishing someone that was forced by hunger, love, disease, or in my case...loss of soul...for doing what they had to do?

Spirituality - It turned out, at least for me, that the spirit was my greatest liability.

Compassion - I spent my life showing my compassion for those less fortunate than I, only to become a slave to the Lord of Cruelty himself, the Lord of the Abyss.

Honor - What Honor is there in slaying an enemy...even in a fair fight...when in the end, that person is seeking the same things you are?

Humility - I think that realizing that you wasted your life protecting virtues that were now juxtopposed to everything you had to do in order to survive is one of the most humiliating experiences one can endure.

Sacrifice - I once thought that sacrifice was not keeping the things we took from a murderer...then later I thought it was the sacrifice of protecting the innocent. Now, I see sacrifice as hypocrisy...because one man's sacrifice is another man's woe.

and finally...

Valor - Is it Valor when you show bravery in the face of evil? If you knew why that "evil" was doing what it was doing, would you show Valor...or Compassion? And if you show Compassion, is this true Valor?

Here a few simple answers provided for your peace of mind :

Honesty is scrupulous respect for truth - the willingness never to deceive oneself or another. Honesty is of a very active nature, it is the force that bind all truth sharers. Honesty joins truth as to expand the realm of possibility so that new creations are always an option, blending and sharing truths expands the room for more truth and therefore evolves it !

So in a way noone was every perfect about being honest with oneself or others, because keeping a truth from someone who might wish you harm ; in that case you do not try to tell a murderer that we're all human and that this greater truth precludes us from engaging in combat, he would probably seize the opportunity to harm you.

This is what I call a redundant virtue, it's rather a subtle principle that guides the sharing of truth. Just like you wouldn't spend hours trying to convince an inhabitant of ice island that an insulated house is better than an igloo, you have to see that if you were honest with yourself, you would know that the inuit is completely content with his habitation. As for the killing of murderers ; you'd have to weight the pleasure of killing one against the gut feeling you have that you are rendering a service by taking one out of service for so long. That is honesty, and you will realise that it does not apply the same in sosaria than in its mirror world ; earth. Earth is where sosarians dream at night, if you were to kill a murderer on earth, it would be like saying you are deified enough to judge the spirit, which would be deceit. If you put up a magic trick to entertain people with a clever trick in sosaria you will be honest with your drive to please others, but if you pull out the same trick on earth, it will be deceitfull.

Now you have to put into perspective that on the earth realm, everytime you use deceit to create pleasure in such an inverted way it is like you loan part of your soul in exchange for direct gratification by the demonic forces, this makes it a virtue that is one of the most difficult to bear for the commoner.

---

Justice is the devotion to truth, tempered by love. So if in truth you have wronged, you are punished, then if you also loved, your punishment will come quite half-way, thats how justice works and is always subjective. Now as to who is in a good enviroment to provide justice and enforce it is another broader question. There is many ways to wrong, and since this is a unique virtue, to wrong in sosaria is also to wrong on earth. We often hear that the end might justify the means, but I do not agree. Justice is a concept out of time, it will always remain the same because any open heart, touched at least once by love will feel without a doubt how wrong desecrates truth. To be honest, since without soul you cannot feel love, you cannot serve justice, or deserve it ; thus you are bound to release your freewill to find justice and peace of mind, and let those who feel love guide your actions. This is how love even binds the soulless, because they derive a unique pleasure from witnessing the love in others. Of course this has different implications on earth and sosaria, but since we all dream, it makes it an universal communication tool.

---

Spirituality is the concern with one's inner being and how one deals with truth, love, and courage. As far as my observation goes, you have followed this virtue to the letter. You do not look at your actions to find the best way ; you simply stop all your doings, all your thinking... you meditate and feel, thus you know that feeling a rush of adrenaline while not being submitted to eminent danger is a sign that your spirituality is at risk, this is even more true as you dream upon the earth plane. Of course spirituality if that finding the right balance between love, truth and courage allows you to see that there must be no extremes in action and toughtform to promote magnitudinal spirituality. It is a the root of all the virtues and feeds them with a hint of skill.

---

Compassion is nonjudgmental empathy for one's fellow creatures. It is also a very active virtue, it is always in perspective with yourself. By being judgemental of your own spiritual slavery, you cannot show compassion for others anymore, thus you render it a passive virtue that is fused with your past. In truth you have to see that with compassion there is no right or wrong, there dosen't exist a victim or a persecutor, there is only the passion you share with others, which is dynamic. So you kill people who walk feluuca out of compassion for your family, because without you they would be so very sad and unhappy, you also must feel empathy towards the one you kill. If it is someone who is chopping wood, you have to judge the life force he will give you compared to the time you'll make him loose and what that means to him. If you kill a warrior that is looking to get rid of murderers, by exposing yourself, you are also being compassionate towards this being who seeks to be challenged. As you can see with empathy you feel, if it makes you or the other feel despiseful, then you can be quite sure you are not following the virtue. Of course when you are dreaming on the earth plane, compassion includes total non-violence since all humans feel despise towards harming another lifeform, numbness does not excuse from responsibility.

---

Honor is the courage to stand for the truth, against any odds. If your truth is that you have been wronged by the gods, and that you must stay alive to elucidate the mystery of who is responsible, then that duty to truth forces you to stand against any odds. The honor is not in the perception, it's in the standing and perseverance, because it is also an active virtue. Of course when you dream on the earth plane you must be aware that honor is also the basis of relationship in all dimentions, also of interation and communion. Honor allows each truth in equality as modes of expression, and communion as the fulfillment of expression. Today we have to realise that the earth plane is no longer just a dream, and that we must take responsibility for our actions there since like musical note harmonics from the crystal faces will also resound the entire mass of experience from an alchemical perspective.

---

Humility is perceiving one's place in the world, not according to one's own accomplishments, but according to the intrinsic value of all individuals. There I am glad to have you notice that humility as a virtue has nothing to do with the toughtform opposite to pride. You have to see that having being forced to endure so much to preserve the humanity upon the land, killing a few adventurers that might have as well died from denizens of the gulf is nothing that should weight against your conscience. Humility is a passive virtue that allows you to remain humane in your endeavors, even if they compromise your spirit, body or soul. What you did for the sake of necessity is yours to realise how it weights against your other virtues, noone can judge you exept yourself.

---

Sacrifice is the courage to give of oneself in the name of love. So you have to notice this pretty clear adress here, sacrifice has nothing to do with giving away posessions or even protecting a human life. Giving your soul away to save another, but not by principle, but in the name of love ; that is sacrifice. Letting your pride melt in front of a murderer that deserves to die or even be tortured, to forgive her ; that is sacrifice. Throwing yourself in front of a demon to save another without anyone witnessing your heroism ; that is sacrifice. You have to see that this virtue is also passive, and intimately linked with the ego ; ego which is a mental tool to merely organise information in polarity according to toughtform. When this tool is influenced by angel or serpant souls it will be affected by the events you live. Heroism even if deadly is not sacrifice if the heroism was anticipated, if the witness is anticipated, but if it comes as an accident, then the virtue is clear in your spirit. You have to understand that in balance to your intention , being witnessed as a hero for 1000 people is much worse than being witnessed by your family. There is thus no extremes in the tought form of the virtues, which is why it can never become religion.

---

Valor is the courage to take actions in support of one's convictions. Like one good sir from the earth realm put it so well : "It is a brave act of valour to condemn death; but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valour to dare to live." So we logically should explain what a conviction is : it is a subjective perception, feeling, or suspicion regarding the validity of a concept or hypothesis. So you can well see how valor is dynamic in your context, your conviction might be a bad feeling about how those people who still expose themselves to felucca conceptualise the world they live in, and your challenging of their concept by having the courage to act is virtuous. It is interesting to notice how differently it would be ruled in the earth realm, where valor could have nothing to do with violent actions.

---

So I hope my opinion is helpful somehow, even if this was written on a faint heart, the sickness is bothering me much these days. When life challenges itself and siri-ous surrounds oneself, it is wise to observe the relation to the dream, the human specie and god/godess of all that is.

Namase !

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Everything Clean says here is the truth.

I would like to present my side of the events, but I will do that in another tale.

I have let the other PoV members know what Clean has started here, and hopefully, they will all present their stories.

I read everything he has written, and with a few exceptions, it is pretty much spot on!

Thank you Clean! It's about time someone made the citizens of Sosaria aware of what we did, and what we went through.

 

[Andrasta]

Welcome Lady Morgana

We look forward to your story with anticipation...

Andra
GRL

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Just because it was so funny !!!

This is the moment in Beta where a server save inadvertantly turned off LB's invincibility and he was killed by a friend... however the other staff members didn't seem to be affected at all. Even then wierd was magik...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UO_LB_assasination.jpg

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

So where are you guys from ? I know Avenhar is from Germany...

 

[MR_CLEAN]

I am originally from the US Virgin Islands...St. John to be exact.

I now live in North Carolina.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

I don't live very far !

If I step outside in the field I have snow to my waist, can you guess where I am ?

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Buffalo NY?

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

We are not alone in the world

I'm in Quebec !

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I grew up just outside of Ottawa IRL. I moved to North Carolina several years ago...like Clean.

 

[MoonlightMyst]

I am also from North Carolina!

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

*laughs in his beard*

I'm not surprised... I saw this coming. We're all in the same boat now !

 

[Mirage]

I'm also from North Carolina..

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

We should meet in quebec sometime ! Why Quebec, no not because I love close... but because the great north is where we usually find redemption

Love yall !

 

[KibbyCC]

You're still being watched from the shadows

,with love
Covetous Crew

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

So are you.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Since I am adding music to the stories of PoV...

YouTube - Black Sabbath - Dying for Love

I can't let Clean off so easliy, even thought he left years ago.

Hey buddy!

 

[Tazar]

Your skill in Thread Necromancy has increased by +0.1.