Why Tommas Died: First of Eleint, 1381 DR

[The Pathfinder]

[This leather-bound tome has an illustration on the front cover: a man haloed by light, hands empty, he does not reach for the scythe strapped to his back. His armor glitters with the green of spring life, hair and beard earthy and brown. His expression is one of deep sadness as a helmed Orderman lofts his sword in both his hands to strike. Some may recognize it as a copy of this painting, seen about the village after the First of Eleint.]

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This work is dedicated to the memory of Micheal Tommas,
whose moral life was a gift to all of Ymph.

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Why Tommas Died
A History of the First of Eleint 1381 DR
and
A Refutation of Excuses Made by the Numinous Order

by Entoni Zagan

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On the first of Eleint, posters were distributed and sendings were made announcing two events on the Ziggurat. The first was an intended raid on Murdertown by freedom fighters. The second was a warning that Murdertown citizens intended to kill and eat captured new arrivals from the portal.
 
In response, the Numinous Order posted a couple dozen men in the Webbed Wood and in front of Nebezzdos itself. They refused to let any pass, in fear that "reinforcements" of the Black Sun would join in the cannibalistic revelry. A warrior of Mistlocke named Dan, along with many scouts unseen, travelled in the direction of the Ziggurat to prevent the murder of the portal rats. However, Dan, by his own account, later confirmed by an Order Knight posted in the Webbed Woods, was stopped by the Order, beaten, robbed of his armor, and dumped in the sewers of Nebezzdos.
 
Dan returned to the village. Some scouts who had snuck past the Nebezzdos patrols also returned, to inform others that all was not as it seemed. Statements by those that had been to Nebezzdos supported the theory held by some that one or both announcements were merely an attempt to lure adventurers to Murdertown for any number of nefarious purposes.
 
A score of adventurers and one Footman of the Order marched on Nebezzdos for two purposes: One, to retrieve that which was stolen from Dan by the Ordermen; Two, to prevent the abuse of new arrivals in Murdertown, if any was indeed occurring. Neither event came to pass. Instead, armed conflict initiated by members of the village (notably the warrior Uthor who struck the first blows) resulted in the wholesale attack of the Numinous Order on anyone and everyone in the Webbed Wood.
 
Some may claim that the Numinous Order has the right, granted by Lord Blackhearth, to lock down passage to Nebezzdos. Some argue that the Order was only responding to violence and were right to defend themselves. Some go further to say that following orders granted by Lord Blackhearth to give "no quarter" are the reason for the events that transpired.
 
Regardless of the truth of these claims, some facts are absolutely true:
 
- The majority of those who marched to Nebezzdos did not participate in the assault on the Order blockade.
 
- Those who did participate struck the first blow against a Knight of the Order.
 
- That same Knight of the Order refused to return goods stolen from Dan, refused to negotiate, and threatened the group indiscriminately: "Leave or die."
 
- When the battle was joined, many of the crowd dispersed. Those who did not do so immediately, including those attacking the Order, fled when the full number of Footmen charged forward.
 
- The Order attacked unarmed, fleeing men who made no hostile motions against them.
 
The Numinous Order operates on Ymph to fight back the forces of H'bala. Yet their claim of apocalypse is proof that they do so for their own reasons. In truth, they have doomed the rest of us in their minds already. This negligence breeds good acts, such as their war against H'bala, and evil acts, such as the Webbed Wood Massacre, in equal measure. Through this text, I condemn the actions of the Numinous Order. A critical examination of their actions, their arguments, and their history will show that they deliberately seek conflict and care not for the lives, rights, or beliefs of any man or woman not of their Order. As a result, we must force them to answer for their actions without excuses or threats of violence.
 
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Things started with orc attacks, small ambushes it's said and then the Battle of the Webbed Wood, which lead to the possible first use of the name Red Eleint, as the colony suffered many loses then, and it was a right bloody affair.

By the admission of a Footman of the Order, Castle Blackhearth gave explicit orders of "no quarter" to the men assigned to the Webbed Wood. Let us examine exactly why: it is known that Cyricists in the Ziggurat intended to consume the flesh of new arrivals to the island. If that stirs your heart, do not be ashamed; it only means you still have a soul, and not a Grey Dragon in its place. Castle Blackhearth drew a line across the Webbed Wood and proclaimed death for any who would pass. Why? They have been unclear. They are content to say that because they were attacked first, they had the right to bring death to everyone in sight. But what was their reason for starting this? One Order sending I heard claimed that it was possible Cyricists from Mistlocke would travel to the Ziggurat to aid Father Michael in his horrible acts.
 
If you accept it as a possibility that Slaves of the Black Sun, infiltrating Mistlocke, would travel in company twenty strong in order to feast on flesh, that is one stretch of the imagination within reason. But how, then, do you justify a Cyricist who draws no weapon in that march, who watches from the back of a crowd, who makes no hostile action and flees when approached, who is known to the Order, and who wears an Order ring of commendation for his deeds during the Comital War? The answer is that Tommas was not a Cyricist. He was a Chauntean; a farmer. You cannot justify such acts against him.
 
Based on the facts of this situation, one of two things must be true:
 
It is either true that Lord Blackhearth who claims dominion over all of Ymph (a dominion I do not recognize) is unfit to command his forces to be anything less than thoughtless mercenaries paid with the lies of a heretical cult;
 
Or it is true that every single member of the Numinous Order would rather chase down and kill unarmed and fleeing men, for reasons they have contrived in full, then to exercise judgement as to who attacked them and what their response to that should be.
 
Castle Blackhearth, through willful negligence, and the Knights who served on the barricade, through blindness and bloodlust, did knowingly kill Wyrm Watcher and Farmer Micheal Tommas on the First of Eleint, 1381 Dale Reckoning, in the Webbed Woods of Ymph.
 
That the Order continues to claim they were attacked first as their only justification in many postings and sendings either shows that they consider hostility by one man to be the justification for the slaying of another, or that they have become so cowardly in their years on Ymph that they would rather attempt to slaughter a group of twenty to a man than to permit that one of them may, without evidence, be a Cyricist.
 
Understand that I do not call them cowardly for their unwillingness to swing a blade. I myself was attacked by four men in armor when I retrieved Micheal Tommas' body for return to the Wyrm Watchers. I call them cowards because they are unwilling to look at the reasons for their actions, to exercise judgement in a dilemma, to exercise diplomacy with a crowd, and to admit the possibility of a mistake in the face of clear evidence.
 
There was a text written several years ago by Roland Hyrenex called A Dialogue of War. In it, Roland passionately discusses the definition of courage. The entire text is worth reading, but one section in particular is vital to understanding why we should not consider the Order our brave defenders:
 

”Courage is not charging into battle, is assuredly not marching off to war, and entering the fray of battle. A dog can do this, and it takes a doglike mind to be a soldier, physical aggression coupled with mental docility. This has always been the formula that generals ask the gods for in their prayers, men who will do as commanded despite the risks, or opportunities they see...
 
...It is not the paladin standing before the demon lord. Courage is the soldier who writes home to his family each night, and only fights to return home. Courage is taking a stand, to better one’s lot in life, not taking another man’s life. Courage cannot be confused with duty; courage is the subtle thing that allows those dear to you to know that you are alive.”

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I presented a Footman of the Order with my first-hand account in the village square, and asked him for an explanation of the Order's actions. He made the same excuses I have restated above in the first section. He was unable to answer when each excuse he made I refuted with reason and facts. He then challenged me, half his height and clad in clothes, to a duel over the argument. I called him a coward for that, and rightly so: he is confident in his mace and his steel, but terrified of admitting the wrongness of his Order or defending them with reason. The truth is that he could not refute what I accused him of because he has not thought about his actions; his blind following of the Grey Dragon Cult does not require him to think. Instead, he thought to draw blood; the only thing he could do.
 
That is an indication that they are, to a man, bloodthirsty. It weakens the excuse that they were simply following orders. If our Mayor were to order you to stand between him and the Agony of the Hunt, would you do it? Only if you already wanted to. Otherwise, you would have to be mad. The Footman cursed me for refusing to fight him. I told him that I had been fighting him for ten minutes, that ours was a battle of minds, and he had not yet drawn his weapon.
 
Blind following of orders is not a justification for any act. Even a Paladin must carefully weigh the dilemma of performing his duty to eradicate evil wherever it sits, and obeying and supporting the law of the land. Deciding how to act when lives are on the line can be challenging indeed. Does that permit a man to ignore his responsibility to think, simply because it is hard? That is weakness of character. However, based on the evidence presented for the character and nature of the Footmen I have encountered, what we are witnessing is not only the blind following of orders: it is orders of "no quarter" being carried out by men already committed to a "no quarter" mind-set.
 
Even if one does not refute Castle Blackhearth's dominion over Ymph, which I do refute, it does not permit anyone by the tyranny of "Lordship" to murder indiscriminately. If the Lord slays his serfs, there is no-one to tend his fields; this is the most basic, pragmatic ethics. Does it not terrify you that the Numinous Order believe that we are all living on borrowed time? They do not care about the fields or the people that tend them. Apocalypse is foremost in what is left of their minds, and as such they are actively seeking to bring it upon us, one innocent life at a time.
 
I will leave you with an examination of the reason why I can lawfully refute the claim of Blackhearth and declare the Order unlawful, unreasonable killers. The truth is that the Numinous Order's claim to Ymph is based on ancient bloodright and the willful permission of Count Zarono Senuspur. Mistlocke, that rejected the Count and fought the Comital War against invasion, have a responsibility to look closely at the legality of Blackhearth's "dominion" in this modern time, especially when the events of the First of Eleint are what he does with it.
 
For more information, visit your local library and pick up a copy of Blackhearth's Rebellion, written four years ago by Caliphar Delisse Iltazyara of the Conclave, before they became a maddened and selfish Theocracy. Emphasis is my own:
 

...the Count had recognized Lord Blackhearth’s claim to the castle and surrounding lands. Furthermore, Lord Blackhearth was declared to be a vassal of the Count himself, bypassing the Duke’s claim to the whole of Ymph. In return, Blackhearth agreed to export his produce to Old Port to staunch the famine that gripped it in its unrest (said to have finally been quelled that night).
 
In the final measure, Lord Blackhearth and his Numinous Order can be said to have succeeded in the rebellion against Count Zarono Senuspur in that Blackhearth’s ancestral lands are his sovereign territory. But for all of the Lord’s charges against the Protector of Old Port, he and his men serve him still.