Morning rant and a thought exercise:
It's easier for people to lazily see each other as these simplified models lacking rational impulses and reasoning because then you don't have to feel bad about killing them.That's the kind of people we core natives and the offworlders are. Not a pleasant truth.
We will use religions to rationalize and justify this. Bloody violent and terrible witch hunts happen because simpleminded villagers most of whom can't even read are terrified of that magic exists around them and even the inkling that some of their neighbors or family members might have preternatural gifts, talents above and beyond the five basic physical senses is something they cannot handle.
Oh. Well! I hear the other side arguing... Some mages are evil. Therefore killing them all just to be on the safe side is the only sane approach. Hmm, and I wonder then if you (these very same people) wouldn't find it inhumane to experience the opposite, a situation of the opposite where those lacking skill in
the Art are treated as lessers to those who are versed in it, as is the case in my country?
The hypocrisy sickens me.
They are so egocentric!
If you're worried about terrible curses and magically induced misfortune then wouldn't it make more sense to go out of your way
NOT to antagonize arcanists or any of those whom you suspect of having awesome and terrible abilities?
You really think we're mostly all concerned with such minor goals as souring the milk, killing off your crops, inducing miscarriages and generating Caliban?
How quaint.It's very easy to start the downward spiral using the tool of gossip to lay low somebody educated in mysterious things a layperson finds esoteric. All a peon peasant has to do is howl to an authority figure they think somebody is an evil witch or wizard, whinge about alleged necromancy or they'll claim your pet is a fiendish familiar. Ooh! Scary!
What the bloody Mytteri...
It's the same story and tactic over and over. The peasant claims an elderly sage or exotic foreigner's guide animal or clever pet did something to them in a dream, has "witched" or entranced a neighbor's child, they saw it eat a soul (though isn't admitting you witnessed such tantamount to admitting you can see supernatural things in the first place which can also be called witchery since it is a supernatural gift, hmm!?). There's holes in this oft endlessly prattled and pathetic narrative which would become apparent to any with a modicum of sufficient formal education in their upbringing.
In an earlier entry I admitted to being a wizard. Know that I have never used my magics to cause anyone harm and have never attacked a lawman. It is against my nature even when they are attacking me. If it is considered wrong to even defend yourself or evade capture then that is quite the stacked deck, isn't it? Always being right, not needing to think about your actions at all. It must be comforting to these Mytteri loving idiots...
... A simple view for simple people. Oh how I despise them.I tried to be their friend and a good member of their community.
I gave free healthcare and consultations to allay their fears of curses. I was the friendly physician and wise man you could turn to if you had worries a witch was after you.
They repaid me by hunting me like I was some sort of animal and insistently claiming all the harder how all of my race needed to be wicked. It was not right for them to do.
I had taken precautions to never be overly conspicuous in my use of the Art during the day and was hesitant, tentative and would ask a local if they were alright with magics first before using it to help in a manhunt of a criminal or when defending against monster attack whether at night or in some crypt, generally as my rule. If other people casted their wards first I worked from the assumption that fellow casters and priests would not tell on one another simply for having a gift they used to help people (such a mistaken assumption im retrospect!).
For a long time though things were tense the Vallakians and I more or less got along decently.
I thought they understood that not every single Hazlani is an evil wizard. I was mistaken in my assumptions.
I wore the red and stopped covering my head because I was proud of my heritage and inherited a title of some importance. I wanted to show these people some of the ways of my culture but not in a hostile way nor to force them to adopt our lifestyle.
I never was a proponent of telling a free city what it really needed was a slave labor workforce. I also never told anybody to join the church of the Lawgiver. I was a good neighbor.
They jumped to the worst possible conclusions time and time again, for the most part. It didn't matter what I did for them.
Such is the ingrained prejudice of most people in that rotten city near the "Outlander's Gate" one way mist portal.
One may surmise this is pushback against the endless stream of offworlders who are transported into their backyard... An attempt by the native Barovians to preserve their culture through harshness as a buffer.
I am supposing were the Outlander's Gate in a different country...
Probably the Dementlieuse would try and quarantine the mouth of it, strongly encouraging these extradimensional foreigners to wear more formal attire and at least acquire some rudimentary working Mordentish that they might assimilate more readily into Dementlieuse society.
If it were in Darkon, no doubt their King Azalin's government would come up with some sort of program to deal with the newly misted. Maybe find them low paying government jobs in an on the surface gesture of goodwill but with the added benefit of it being the perfect vehicle to spy on these outsiders during while they are trying to integrate.
Falkovnia would joyfully conscript the offworlders into front line infantry suicide missions.
Hazlan we would probably try to study the gate to find a way to close it... And this would likely involve vivisection of some unfortunate newly misted and dissection of their dead. Perhaps many of them. Who can say?
If it was on an island nation...
Blaustein would likely find any of a number reasons to hang as many of these strange outsiders as possible in a woefully inadequate attempt to stem the flow of cosmic immigration.
Ghastria there would be pickpockets riffling through each offworlder's belongings in the hopes there was even a crumb of flavorful foodstuffs.
Lamordia would likely attribute the portal to something not supernatural or claim the newly misted were delusional since there would be little for the standard observer to go off of definitively proving the existence of other worlds beyond our own... Sending the majority of them who could not be properly "re-educated" into increasingly overcrowded sanitariums, I think.
Such speculations are darkly humorous, yes?If you make any mistakes at all, people will not hesitate to use it as a potent weapon in their quest to undo and undermine you.
Do not despair future apprentice or gentle reader.
Worrying all the time you might make a mistake and jeopardize your standing in such primitive societies is the best way to increase your guaranteed chances of making such mistakes. You want to come across as natural and not artificial. This is difficult but I maintain belief that it is doable.
My critics would tell me I am in no position to feel bitter or complain.
They would tell you lots of things to invalidate me and to discredit my statements. This is what impassioned opponents do.
Unlike them I am not so certain I must be right but do think that my experiences are valid or at least of enough import to bear being penned in this journal.
Yes, how dare I think in a way that they do not tacitly approve of, which does not fit their subjective world narrative view they tell everyone to have. Repeat the same lie enough, have enough people say it and the idea of it being falsehood... There isn't room for the people to consider that. It's all taken up by repetition for emphasis.
No, I am not a victim. I am Hazlani and an explorer and it makes me strong.
Afternoon: Gratitude:
I am grateful to my friends William Blackwood, Sir Lexington and Caporal Schrotter.
They are... Not your typical priests and holy knights. The former two worship "overgods" I am unfamiliar with and come from worlds I have not heard of before but are staunch humanitarians, while the latter is a model citizen in Port A Lucine. Originally he was a Falkovnian defector but he worked his way up serving the Dementliuese government and is an example to all that your country of origin doesn't entirely sum up who you are (forever). To write him off as being still a slave to Vlad Dracov is profound idiocy. He serves his beloved Republique to his utmost ability and hearing any ill-bred, low born social climbing fool claim he might be a spy is something I will not stand for. Such disgusting and obvious attempts to jealously tear down another's success are... Evidence of being the product of a weak mind.
To the best of my knowledge these three paragon exemplars don't resort to the lowly game of backstabbing and disseminating foul rumors to gain unfair advantage over others. They are honest and arguably good men whom you could trust with your life.
Note to the reader: Your feelings can be wrong and lead to the wrong people getting killed as collateral. Never forget that.
Evening penance:
Lawgiver, I am imperfect. You give us each day we live as the opportunity to work at serving you better. Our hearts and minds are to be forged in iron though our bodies are of softer stuff like clay.
We must temper our temperament.
We will be punished accordingly for our shortcomings under your watchful judgment.
Looking back on it I find the red peril sensationalism on the front page of the first issue of L'Jaseur again amusing more than infuriating and have put a copy of it in a frame. I am incensed that all people see when they look at a Hazlani is oh, probably a despicable tyrant though... Just because some of us do things which aren't nice doesn't make us all bad eggs. You don't see Falkovnians getting handed this drivel nearly as much despite the personal hands on approach to torture their kings and standing armies are well known for; Singling mages out is a low blow. I have discussed this ad nauseum however.
I will keep it so I may show other young Hazlani the way we are thought of as monsters under the bed by overly easily frightened yokels abroad. The second edition was much better than the first. Perhaps I will start subscribing to it to see what is on the mind of the rabble and "man on the street" in Port A Lucine. It is quite the amusing read at times.