[OPEN] The black-clothed monk

[harmonian]

WHO: Sasarai and OPEN
WHAT: Sasarai decides to explore the Horizon
WHERE: Horizon
WHEN: After Eifstide


Sasarai sets out from the pale shrine at the center of the Mirrored Valley that makes up the surface of his domain.

He has dressed himself in black leather with a heavy dark cloak and hood obscuring his face. What he is protecting his identity from he isn't sure. Nobody out there is so hostile to him that they'd kill him for roaming into their territory, surely... Not yet, anyway.

After the surge of spirits during Eifstide he's been waiting to hear information from the King and Queen or from the Mages or from...anyone. Anyone who could adequately explain what had happened... Nobody has said a thing.

Someone has to know something and he intends to find them. If only he could spend all night exploring the Horizon, chasing people for answers...

But he knows he realistically can't spend too long here. He's enough of a busy body in the castle that his prolonged absence would be noticed. Gossipy castle staff would start wondering why he spent so long in meditation.

No, at best he has a couple of hours...

So he tries to quicken his stride as he passes through the mountains clustered around his domain.


[OOC: If you want Sasarai to enter your character's Domain leave a tag! If not don't worry I will only assume he's visited people who explicitly opt into the log. He will leave if someone isn't in their Domain and able to answer since he's in a hurry.

When answering please let me know what your domain is like and who/what might greet him upon entering.]

Comments

[harmonian]

"There are better ways to topple a tyrant," Sasarai says evenly. "Changing systems from within can prevent seeds of conflict from ever taking root."

He looks around at the sheep.

"I saved the High Mage to prevent any unnecessary loss of life. Maybe you're right that his death could have saved people but it was more likely to hurt them. At least now there is time to think about it. Now we can find the best path forward for everyone."

[coerthantorment]

"The seeds of conflict have already taken root. That much should be clear."

Estinien takes another step forward, almost as if he doesn't like Sasarai looking at his sheep. Or maybe it just looks that way.

"What best path forward would you imagine, then? You are currently in service of the kingdom that would condone gifting themself a godlike power to control the universe... and I've seen better men than the High Mage try and fail to wield such strength. Do you imagine you will dissuade them, when they are more likely to adhere to the words of a magic book than their own humanity?"

[harmonian]

"I don't know what the best path is," he admits and feels his expression settle into a light scowl.

"Not yet. I just know it will be the one that saves the most lives and prevents all out war."

His gaze drifts from the sheep back to Estinien.

"Do you think conflict is that inevitable?"

If he's honest with himself, Sasarai has to admit it probably is. Tensions feel too high among the different territories for peace to be a reasonable expectation. But that doesn't mean they have to all clash in open warfare that could kill tens of thousands and irreparably destabilize the world.

[coerthantorment]

"I do," he says. "What's more, I think the conflict has already begun. If the nations of this world were amenable to talking out their differences, to compromising, they have had thousands of years of history during which they might have done so."

Thorne itself has been around for an impossibly long time, he's learned.

[harmonian]

"They would also have had thousands of years to enter open warfare," Sasarai sighs as he adjusts his leather gloves.

"But the way you speak they are even now mobilizing against each other...Why now?"

If the nations are mobilizing it will mean he has to do something to preserve the peace. Simply speaking to the leaders of each nation won't do it, not with the world in its current state. As Estinien pointed out, if they were amenable to compromise a compromise would have happened by now...

But there are other ways to prevent open warfare. An overwhelming display of power might be in order to bring the other nations to heel.

He will have to think about this.

[coerthantorment]

"Mobilization is another matter," Estinien says. If he had specifics he wouldn't tell Sasarai, but he also doesn't want to give the impression that there is any actual military movement happening. "What I mean to say is that the seeds of conflict have been sewn. To my eyes, the arrivals of the 'summoned' are a catalyst - as our presence means the issue of the Singularity is no longer but a distant ideal."

It becomes a lot more pressing when it seems as if a faction may actually become capable of affecting it sometime in the foreseeable future.

[harmonian]

"That's true, isn't it?"

Sasarai thinks back on his salt flats and the crystal tower beneath them...or above them. He'd been searching for himself when he'd created his Horizon, had been trying to determine why he existed.

That search had led him in confusing directions, all of them reflected in his Domain.

"...Our ability to even create this space and connect with the Singularity makes us unique in this world. What do you think about that? Us and the Singularity?"

[coerthantorment]

"Hmph."

Estinien crosses his arms, starring Sasarai down. At first, it seems like that is going to be his only response, as if not deigning to share such thoughts with an outsider. After a few long moments, however, he glances to the side, exhaling.

"I think it makes the leadership of Thorne fools, to behave as they have," he says. "But, more importantly, I think that it falls to us and our kind to act with care. Though it has not yet been quantified, there is much at stake."