- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 2 months, 1 week ago by .
-
Posts
-
You wake up the morning to find Hocho’s possessions piled neatly where he slept, along with a scroll perched on top.
You all noticed Hocho’s odd behavior. He was withdrawn and unwilling to talk, as if he was waging some war with himself. He may even have snapped at you if you tried to draw him out to determine his affliction.
Written upon the scroll are these words:
What does it say about us that we impute ill intent upon people because they stand between us and a goal we heard about and thought might be our next best move? We killed people because they were inconvenient without trying to use diplomacy. It could as easily have been us hired to protect a building against a potential attack. What we did was evil. We are all guilty of this thing, but I am chief among sinners. I have assigned myself the task of trying to gentle our worst impulses, but I was the worst impulse.
There is a law, not created by men, that is immutable and fundamental to existence. If one disturbs a thing, the cost of that disturbance is weighed against the benefit derived from it. If the cost is greater than the benefit, the world and all of us are lessened by the act. If you remove a stone from a riverbed, and using hammer and chisel, you reduce it to dust and shards, you have created no benefit at the cost of removing the stone from its place and purpose. That purpose may have been tangible or aesthetic, but the river put it there for a reason, and that purpose is no longer served.
This is not a binary equation of black and white. While a stone is often of small consequence and disturbing its purpose of little impact, a man is of great consequence, and disturbing his purpose will always have impact. In the laws of men, we talk of justification. While it is sometimes just to alter or end the purpose of a man bent on evil under the premise that his purpose is negative and therefore frustrating it results in a positive outcome, it’s usually not as simple as that.
The laws of men are an artifice, but one that codifies our world such that we needn’t speculate as to what acts may constitute a net evil. The taking of a thing without recompense is a disincentive to production. When production is disincentivized, you get less of it. This causes deprivation and suffering. Thus we make a law against stealing so that a man need not calculate whether the benefit of stealing a thing is of greater benefit to him than it is harm to the rightful owner. By contract, we add the cost of imprisonment and punishment and moral disapproval to the balance, swinging it back in favor of not stealing. Thus we disincentivize stealing and thereby incentivize production.
I have purposefully used relatively diminutive examples like a stone and theft in order to demonstrate the point that the life of a man is of far greater consequence than either of these. All negative deeds are undesirable, but there are degrees. Some are so small in impact that we don’t bother with them, such as stepping upon an ant. But killing a man has a dramatic impact that we cannot even hope to understand. It impacts his life with finality, but also his wife, his family, his friends and his cohort and those impacts do nothing but ripple out over time. Perhaps as importantly, it erodes the confidence of all in the rule of law, unless the killing is deemed justifiable.
We have killed men without justification. These were not villains or brigands, preying upon others. They were men with a job, and lives that are now irrevocably altered. What we did was murder, and nothing can soften that blow, nor should it.
I hereby tender my resignation and will seek justice for the act that we have all contributed to. A debt to the world has been incurred and I intend to pay it. I believe that you, my beloved companions, can be better, and I am taking it upon myself as the eldest and most responsible to give you that chance–in effect to buy your redemption. Please make sure that my replacement is a better man than I, and that you all endeavor to be so as well. Our purpose is great, but not so great that we can afford to become like those we seek to overthrow.
*Tippy reads the note for a second time, shaking his head slowly as he does so*
Hmmm, I have the feeling I should be doing something introspective. You know, checking my past actions against what’s ‘right’. But, when I do, all I can do is shrug. Seems to me that everything we have done and how we have done it, make total sense.
There are only two sides to this thing. The right side and the wrong. Since we are obviously on the right side, that makes those against us and our mission on the wrong side. Simple. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to determine good versus evil. Too difficult.
Hocho was a good man and I will miss him. Might have been better for him were he not so ‘good’. But I respect him for who he is. I will always consider him my friend.
Anyone who fought, bled, and was healed by the grace and cup of Cayden will always be an ally of indispensable value. But flambeing the evil that is within the house of Pelor is something I will never regret or question the morality thereof.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.