No stronger than yours have been.
And that, too, is fine.
Happy hypotheticaling.
(Hypotheticalizing? Hypothesizing? ā¦ ā¦ language is hard.)
The empire is too vast for any one person to know what its problems are. I bear a significant responsibilities for a modest holding supporting just over 85 million people, even for my share of those obligations I depend heavily upon subordinates.
How much of the empire should I attempt to grasp? Or is it enough to improve that for which I am responsible?
Only what you feel you can.
Never. That turns us toward insularism, and down the road to avarice, callousness, and cruelty. āLook, donāt blame me, Iām just working to make things better for my people. Itās not my problem if your children were in that building when I knocked it down to make my yard bigger.ā
First there must come the drive to not make things worse for other people.
Which is why those questions remain:
I have tortured none, killed many. I think such things might be easier, were the decision not your own. They are not moral actions, they are a cost. One by which you should be sure in what you buy.
But the decision is your own: do you kill them, or donāt you?
If, for example, Vaari were to offend the Empress, do you think it would be ok for her to decide that she needs to display her strength over capsuleers by ordering Mitara or Luna taken to the breeding facilities? If she ordered you to do it?
Without further context. No I dont anyone should be punished for Lord Vaari.
Then why is it ok for an entire planet of non-combatants to be punished for the offenses of a small number of Amarr capsuleers?
I mean, letās dispense with the bull on that issue: Floseswin isnāt about sanctions. I know thatās what the Empireās decided to claim in the CONCORD inner council more than a year after the sanctions began, but letās set all the lies aside:
There it is. Sarum gave the order in response to having a deal between capsuleers in his part of the warzone brought to his attention. Itās about saving face.
So if an immoral order isnāt ok when itās people you know, why is it ok when itās people you donāt?
Guess what, Aria. It was never hypothetical. It was always just steps on the path to that.
ā¦ K.
1 Like
I wonder if @Red_Roman_Joringer is capable of dropping āMy vocabulary consists entirely of profanities and Iām an edgy teenagerā schtick. I know a few people who became capsuleers at a fairly young age, even they had outgrown it by the time that they became capsuleers.
Often, yes, though people who know me also claim I have a pretty terrible sense of humor.
But if everything is, in the end, insignificant in the face of the vastness of the universe, then the question is only not why take these things seriously, but also why not.
If all that I have is this subjective moment, these insignificant associations, these passing loyalties, these people that will be forgotten, and everything is largely irrelevant because time is so vast, why not care about the āme-sizedā issues, as Arrendis put it? What greatness is there that I should put them aside for? If there is no reason to take things seriously, what reason is there not to?
Aria, goodness is not less good or suffering less miserable or kinship less meaningful because they are temporary and small compared to the universe; if anything they are more so, when they are unique and stand on their own, instead of as parts of some Godās greater plan. They are all we have, but we have them. And people are real, even if they do not last.
My clan, my tribe, my Republic is not important, on an objective scale, obviously. You are absolutely correct that the universe does not give a ā ā ā ā about whether we live or when we die.
But I do. And why should I not? If everything is equally unimportant, then everything is equally important, too, and there is nothing wrong or shameful or ridiculous in believing in my cause just because it is mine.
Your ājokeā, indeed your cynicism, is not wisdom. It is seeing one fact on one scale and losing heart because you are not the center of the universe.
4 Likes
Perhaps heāll grow in to becoming like me, where I threaten to send fleets of caps against various entities, all off of things that mildly annoy me. Or maybe itās just because I find it all entertaining as well. You end up with a strange worldview when youāve been killed over and over by people running ops for some no name corp like Perkone.
Achurans are a foreboding, mysterious people indeed. Do all of you learn to do this?
There is not much mistery to it Nauplius.
Some Monks developed certain martial arts and rhere are monasteries that teach them for the internal and external public.
Every armed forced train hand to hand combat, heck capsuleers do it at the academy.
Quite. When you think about it, thereās really no other way to do it. Iāve certainly tried to kill people by just hating them very intensely, when I was younger. But, turns out that doesnāt work.
1 Like
There are plenty of ways to kill people without using their own bodies, firearms, drones spaceships.
While some people may consider fighting something old fashioned or obsolete, i like it.
Turns out, you still have to use your brain with those, and your brain is part of your body! 
2 Likes
Ah ā¦ but I donāt necessarily disagree, Else. Iām not quite saying itās bad that you canāt smile at all of this. Itās more than understandable; someone like you is often admirable, and there are a lot of you on various different sides.
Ms. Tsukiyo often seems like sheās trying to live the cosmic perspective, a blithe ātralala, nothing matters!ā You might assume thatās me, as well, but thatās not quite true. ā¦ Really, that doesnāt seem like anything to smile about, even.
And the one I serve is someone more like you.
I dislike you because I think you usually limit your kindness to those close to you, that you consider me and those close to me acceptable people to be cruel to, for your cause. And yet you didnāt seem to like me returning the favor. You were perfectly happy to watch Mizhara DelāThul dog me relentlessly for a year, but you couldnāt take more than a month of what I had to take from her.
I donāt think that makes you bad or even weak. I do think you should consider the contagious qualities of hatred. I reflected what I receive from you and yours back at you for just a little while. Did it feel good?
Itās poison, and it infects those it harms.
I take my ācynicismā as a reason to be friendly with anyone, even if Iāll have to trade fire with them if we meet in person. I get along especially well with those on all sides who can do the same. Even in war, what we have in common, what we can learn from each other, is so much more important than our differences.
I wonāt claim to be an especially good person, Else. But youāll notice I do call you by the names you prefer, instead of following the customs of those closer to me or the deed-nicknames I thought up for you. I donāt believe in limiting kindness to those Iām closest to, I donāt believe in punishing people just for opposing me, and I donāt whine about having to change or limit my language to be polite. EVERYONE has to do that in mixed company.
We all do that mostly for our own sake, so we can talk without outstanding issues getting in the way.
This world is a wonder. Itās a shame, even a sin, to get bogged down in our own little corners and not explore it. What I want from talking to you isnāt āentertainment,ā Else. Itās fulfillment of a sacred duty.
AND itās fun.
Did you? Or did you reflect what you felt you received? I mean, itās long been established that this medium isnāt the best for conveying subtlety of tone, and that people have said more than once that they feel you make assumptions about intent that lead you to grossly mischaracterize their words and draw entirely wrong conclusions.
Just something to consider.
1 Like
It was mostly Miz, Arrendis. Pretty sure it was heartfelt and sincere. She thought I was weak, among a whooooooole lot of other things. Giving Else a taste of what I got felt a little like justice at the time.
But thatās how hate works, after all.
(It hasnāt stopped cold just because Miz is gone, of course. She was just a very ā¦ dedicated? Source.)