Suggestion On Precaution during Mas

[Konrad Knox]

Hello fellow citizens.
I was wondering if I can make a public suggestion that might potentially save us some trouble this month.
As we all know, in our calendar each god has a place and a time to be respected. And as long as the month exists, that particular diety likes to be paid attention to.
In month of Bragon, we celebrate with dances and fires, in times of draught we bring gifts to Tanora to grant us rain, we praise Earth when it's Ushos, and cherrish the dead when it's Chos.
So, I was thinking, maybe we always have trouble in Mas because Troll's Bane always forgets the Blood God? Maybe he is just angry all the time because we don't respect him?
I mean, if any other God punishes us for disrespect, so could He. If you anger Tanora, she sends a flood, if you anger Ushara, our farms die, Bragon can punish us with draughts and forest fires.
It's reasonable to believe that the Blood God simply punishes us for neglect with demon attacks and misfortunes.

I have an alternative suggestion, that may work. And please, please don't take my words as words of a maniac, I am not a follower or a devotee of His myself, but i do respect them all. So, what if all of us, either organized or each in private, donate a little bit of blood, just like the Blood God likes, maybe cut a finger or slay an animal - so that He sees that we remember him like we remember others, maybe it could alleviate the month and increase our safety a bit? A bit of ritual respect to mellow the God's temper.
Maybe a trip to the Temple to pay respects, as an organized group sometime. And i don't mean in grand celebratory manner, like orcs do it, but with enough respect to satisfy him.

After all, cutting a hand is better than getting another demon attack, where people may die.
Especially since we got a lunatic maniac Prophetking fella arriving to try and "conquer" us, maybe we could use some of the Blood God's protection, patronage, power, and strength, which he blesses his followers with, if he is in good mood.

What does everyone think?

Konrad~>

[Jaren]

When good appeases evil it is always good who gives ground.

Jeran son of Jeron

[Korwin]

It is certainly madness to concede to the most bloodthirsty and ruthless of the younger gods. Attempting to pay homage to such a cruel diety is no better than bending the knee to a mortal tyrant out of fear.

[Konrad Knox]

Would you rather see another demon wave devour our home?

The Blood God wasn't always cruel, in fact he has a legendary history as a warrior in the ancient wars. A diety is a diety, he once fought for our world as well.

[Gwendolin Cad'ell]

That's very correct, Mister Konrad. But it's not the past, nor the future that tells who we are. It's the presence. And the bloodlord is not a noble warrior anymore, but a deity who does not care if or if not you follow him. There is nothing good you can achieve in walking his path or praying to him, apart from drawing his attention. And let me tell you, that even the most loyal of his followers, in the end get tortured in his realm.

If you seek protection, turn to the god you follow and pray. There is no need in drawing Moshrans attention on us, more than usually anyway. He would just show us, that he does not care. Or he would use you til the point he grows bored of you and once you think you are in his favour, he drops you and will make sure your suffer pleases him. Because this is simply his nature.


Lady Gwendolin Cad'ell
Priestess of Zhambra

[Konrad Knox]

Then why do we even have the month? Why not just write it out?

Why even consider him a god if we don't want to believe in him, acknowledge his existance, or follow him? Gods have power only when someone believes in them. If we do not need Blood Lord, why do we even worry about him?

[Korm Kormsen]

konrad,

here, up north, we respect neighbours and gnolls or other worthy enemies, but our gods we do fear and love.

don't worship the wrong god! you will loose the goodwill of your own gods!

tjalf kormson

[Gwendolin Cad'ell]

It might be your opinion, but I highly doubt that our gods will just cease to exist, just because we don't want to believe in them anymore.


Lady Gwendolin Cad'ell
Priestess of Zhambra

[Konrad Knox]

I understand. But we are the ones who make the calendar. We count the months. The gods don't count them for us. We invented time.
Dwarves measure time in dwarven days, elves in elven. It's us, mortals, who choose to have Mas as a month.

Would you rather keep fighting a God you fear every year instead of either coming to peace with him or eliminating his month at all?
He is a troubled god. Nobody is evil without a reason.
We thought dragons were evil, until they negotiated their trouble. Now we made peace with them.

Look at the root of all evil. Greed and corruption. Why do people like mages become liches after death? Because they devote themselves to power and accumulation of force. The root of it is not in their soul. They sell their souls because their mortal lives were not happy. Either they didnt get enough money or respect, or perhaps even a tragically lost love. They're not some outcasts, they're us, among us. It happens every day, and can happen to anyone of us. Every person has a breaking point and a potential to get angry at life. Mortal or immortal, human or god, we all have a soul, a core, an essense. Some are more fragile than others, but everyone has a chance of feeling enough pain to break. Every villain is a troubled soul, coming from some unsatisfied need that has to meet its end.
The evil god may just be a troubled one.
Should we maybe try to understand why he is what he is? Understand it, and challenge it some other way than swords.

I sense a feeling of hopelessness coming from your replies, fellows.
Nobody sees sense in my logic, huh?

Well, this would be my third and last attempt to relate the idea. If I keep insisting, people will look at me oddly and it will lead to argument.

So, you know, just something to think about.

[Gwendolin Cad'ell]

I understand your reason, Konrad and I find your opinion interesting or else I wouldn't reply. It's a very philosophical view you have and maybe not a wrong one, but in the end it it's only the gods who know what is true of what we believe and what is not.
But so far I would like to try to share my opinion with you, since you seem open-minded enough to consider, understand and respect. And also don’t consider your words as a waste, because I’ve been reading them throughoughly and they made me contemplate.


Although the mortal kind invented the word and the language, we did not invent time and nature. We saw that there was a time where the leaves fall of the trees and we gave it the name “autumn”. We didn’t invent the seasons, we just observed nature and gave it a name, because that’s what we people do. We observed how this season changed, came back and changed again and then we understood that everything in life is a circulation. And then we observed that there is a time where the corn on the field grows best, that there is a time where it is most likely to rain, there is a time where the sun stands so high and hot in the sky that it seems to burn everything down below, we noticed that there is a time where everything seems to go wrong and a time were people fall more in love than usually. And we connected it to the gods. We did not invent time because it was not our decision how long it takes for the sand to run through an hourglass and we didn’t decide how long it takes from the sun rising til the sun setting. All we did is observing, giving it names and try to understand. That there is a month that only lasts mere 5 days and seems to attract trouble and evil more than any other, is not something we decided to happen. It just happens and we began to understood that circulation is not only a thing that affects nature and us, but also the gods.
That the dwarfs consider 3 days as 1 dwarven day, that’s because that somewhere down the line, for a reason that I do not understand, they decided it that way. But that doesn’t mean that the sun rises and sets differently for them. Or that the sand in the hourglass falls slower.


Don’t worry, I understand your thoughts you have about Moshran very well and I’m sure we aren’t the only mortal persons who have thought them. Moshran has a tragic history and maybe we learn to understand why he is the way he is now, when we consider what has happened to him. If Moshran would stand infront of me, I would forgive him, Konrad, but reality is that he doesn’t care. And there lies the whole problem. If there would be a way to ‘help’ him out of his misery, I’m assured that many would try it this way. But as time shows, there is no such thing. Maybe his pain lies still too deep. Maybe the wounds of an immortal take longer to heal than ours. Maybe they will never.
But what I want to say is, that I doubt that any of us mortal could offer him any kind of comfort. Especially because I do not think that he wants it.

I do consider the blood lord as a god and I even respect him in one or the other way. And even if I would dismiss him, that would not change anything, apart from maybe the peace of my own mind. But the fact is that he does exist and he does act. That many of us do not even wish to speak his name, is a very healthy thing. Because nothing ever good came from following the blood lord.

We can’t ask and try to be in peace with him, because he doesn’t want to be in peace with us. All we can do is be aware his existance and brace ourselves. And as a few of us do, maybe even fight his influence.


Either way, this is what I chose to believe and I would tell anyone who would ask me. It was indeed a pleasure to read your words, Konrad and I’m glad to see that not everyones mind is set up for fighting, but for being compassionate. Even towards a god.

May Zhambra bless you,

Lady Gwendolin Cad’ell
Priestess of Zhambra