from the Journals of Morningstar, Warforged Wizard

by rsmyth

An account of the wanderings of Morningstar 776 Series C, Warforged Wizard, in the time after the Treaty of Thronehold in the D&D setting of Eberron.

13. Chapter 13

from the Journals of Morningstar 776 Series C, Warforged Wizard

by Richard Smyth

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Date: 7 Olarune 997YK

We return to the base camp in the evening, and immediately upon our arrival the Lord of Blades orders that the entire army be assembled at parade rest. After they have all fallen into place--a feat undertaken in complete silence, aside from the characteristic clanking of warforged plating scratching and the thumping of bootprints--the Lord of Blades addressed the assembled army.

"You will see upon my shoulder blades the heads of two humans. These two attacked us while we toured the Field of Ruins, scouting armor and weaponry for the glorious battles to come, when we achieve the Promised Time, when warforged reign over all of Khorvaire and humanoids bow to our power!"

With that a shout rose up from the ranks, and row upon row of soldier stamped their feet, creating a thunderous din.

As the Lord of Blades continued with his rousing rhetoric, my mind drifted off as I thought on why he would lie about killing the humans. I then had a revelation: it was all about fear. Fear was the lever that he used to pull in disaffected warforged throughout the Five Nations. Fear it is that he used now by lying about humans attacking us. By feeding our fear of slavery, by turning us against the humanoid races, the Lord of Blades secures our loyalty and simplifies the patterns of behavior that humans manifest.

I then remembered my first friend, the orphan boy Elmiri from Cragwar. His life, too, was filled with fear: fear of rejection from his peers, fear of being harrassed and alone. And the warfare among the nations: all of it, driven by fear. My own anger, too, when attacked and ridiculed on New Year's Eve: it too a result of fear, the grand pattern of all feeling beings.

It was then I knew that I could no longer be part of this. If fear motivates both sides in a struggle, then we are nothing but machines driven by our emotions, each side distorting the perspective of the other, oversimplifying their true motivations in order to demonize them and justify acts of cruelty and destruction. Once one comes to such a realization, it is impossible to lose oneself to it enough to participate as a true believer.

It was then I knew I had to leave.