RE: The Ballad of Adler Young, Canto 2.5
10-26-2021, 09:50 PM
>Adler: While Ash catches his breath from his borderline fanatical rant, think for a moment. There is a germ of a point in what he said. What little you saw while you were exploring the lowfolk world with the scry tower was enough to disturb you. Frankly, you preferred it when the lowfolk were a pale imitation of elven culture. This path that hey're on now, you don't like it. Still, is it any of your an any other elf's business what the lowfolk do? As long as the lowfolk aren't a danger to elven society, with their guns and industry and the duchess running around... Oh.
>Burnside: Consarnit! These leather gloves are preventing you from getting a grip on the strings keeping your gloves and boots on. You demand that the ixies swarming around you help you get them off. Instead of helping, they all begin placing bets.
>Adler: Alright then, if Ash is so bound and determined that you should be a good emperor, why is he trying so hard too convert you into being unseelie? A Good Unseelie elf is an oxymoron.
>Ash: Good as in effective, not good as in moral. And the reason for the preaching; is is your belief that to be a good leader, one must be unseelie. Politics and leadership are filled with skulduggery, under the table dealings, wars, and assassinations. The only emperors that last long enough to be anything more than a puppet are the ones that not only embrace it, but master it. An emperor must forget petty things like morality and seeliness and focus only on what's good for the state as a whole. If you can use an example. One of the only lowfolk kings you've heard about you could halfway respect, his name was Vlad something-or-other. His smaller kingdom in the mountains was at war with a much larger empire that had been harassing them for years, the Otto-whoevers. They live in the desert and wear silly hats. When Vlad had decided to finally go on the offensive in the war he conquered on of their cities, but failed to push any farther into their territory. He did not have the men and resources to hold the city, but didn't want to go on the defensive and fight the war on his own borders. So, want to know what he did? He had every man, woman, and child in that city impaled while still alive. All of them. Every last one. When the empire's troops came through and found the city turned into a forest of impaled corpses, they were so terrified they turned and ran. Vlad's kingdom was never invaded by that empire again. That is the power of unseelieness. Doing whatever it takes to succeed and turn defeat into victory. When nothing is restricted, when nothing is off the table. Everything becomes so much easier. That is the only way to run an empire.
>Burnside: Consarnit! These leather gloves are preventing you from getting a grip on the strings keeping your gloves and boots on. You demand that the ixies swarming around you help you get them off. Instead of helping, they all begin placing bets.
>Adler: Alright then, if Ash is so bound and determined that you should be a good emperor, why is he trying so hard too convert you into being unseelie? A Good Unseelie elf is an oxymoron.
>Ash: Good as in effective, not good as in moral. And the reason for the preaching; is is your belief that to be a good leader, one must be unseelie. Politics and leadership are filled with skulduggery, under the table dealings, wars, and assassinations. The only emperors that last long enough to be anything more than a puppet are the ones that not only embrace it, but master it. An emperor must forget petty things like morality and seeliness and focus only on what's good for the state as a whole. If you can use an example. One of the only lowfolk kings you've heard about you could halfway respect, his name was Vlad something-or-other. His smaller kingdom in the mountains was at war with a much larger empire that had been harassing them for years, the Otto-whoevers. They live in the desert and wear silly hats. When Vlad had decided to finally go on the offensive in the war he conquered on of their cities, but failed to push any farther into their territory. He did not have the men and resources to hold the city, but didn't want to go on the defensive and fight the war on his own borders. So, want to know what he did? He had every man, woman, and child in that city impaled while still alive. All of them. Every last one. When the empire's troops came through and found the city turned into a forest of impaled corpses, they were so terrified they turned and ran. Vlad's kingdom was never invaded by that empire again. That is the power of unseelieness. Doing whatever it takes to succeed and turn defeat into victory. When nothing is restricted, when nothing is off the table. Everything becomes so much easier. That is the only way to run an empire.