by Glenn » Wed Aug 28, 2019 2:28 pm
Sylvius,
I cannot foresee a time in the near future where boredom will be the chief of my worries, or even some fell lieutenant of that chief. That said, it is nighttime now, and sleep eludes me, or perhaps, more accurately, I elude it for reasons I should explain but that will have to wait until a later letter. It is horrific and fantastic and would distract us overmuch.
There is a difficulty in these letters for all of the reasons you have mentioned. Our relationship up until now was sporadic, clipped and incremental, at best. At worst, it was mired by distraction and mutual ailment of both the body and the spirit. Most accurately, as things are rarely either the best or the worst, it was primarily second hand. We were opposing poles (temporally and not philosophically, you must understand) that presided over a swordswoman's day. Therefore, as we have had a relationship at all, up until now, it was wholly as supporting players in the story of another. This I think, is a remarkable thing, and combined with the shared (and yes, differing) experiences that allowed that to be possible in the first place and certain shared experience that would come from such a thing, should provide us with a solid foundation moving forward.
It is on us to look past all other constraints and concerns and enact that forward motion. Chief (for there is a chief to be found somewhere) of these, I think, is a lack of information. This has always been one of my greatest difficulties here in Myrken Wood. I have lived these experiences. When I arrived twelve years ago, it was immediately after the destruction of the meeting house. Records had been scattered, obliterated, but even more than that, they had never existed. This felt like a betrayal of sorts, and this, more than anything else during my time in power in the province, was something I meant to rectify. It, more than anything else, explained the cycle of victimization that the people of Myrken Wood experienced. There was no desire to record the past, let alone learn from it.
Know that I learned of you what I could. Why? It is because I tried to learn everything worth learning and you were certainly that. It was because of our shared companion. It was because of our shared predilections and overlapping occupation. I do not mean to have you at a disadvantage, and in truth, it is a meager one. To know an outline is not to know an entirety. To assume as such is the height of arrogance and a quick and sudden path to disaster. Nuance is everything, and as your letter as shown, you are full of much of it, enough to compound this equation dramatically. Nuance, as you so aptly put it, is often best found in what is shared (and equally what is not), so through these letters, while engaging in specifics, we will also sling rocks of great girth at one another, ever calculating and recalculating the prper angles and trajectories to discover one another's position. Hopefully, we will be able to manage this without too much destruction of the landscape around us.
There is such ground to cover. The popularity of necessity then. Myrken Wood is a unique place. Survival holds primacy, often over general societal norms that might exist in a more stable place. Yet, at the same time, because of that, it creates a rampant xenophobia. Wherein lies the unique distinction is in what constitutes as "Myrken." All manners of creatures and peoples, all colors and creeds, may eventually be welcome, so long as they pay the cost in blood and shared suffering. Foreigners often serve on the Council or in positions of power, even military power. Often times, this is due to a high rate of mortality, underdeveloped noble stock, and the aforementioned instability. Often times the strange and outlandish are assimilated into the center, thought of as being Myrkener themselves. That said, an entity that has not paid the price, or that represents a larger foreign power, will be looked at with suspicion, fairly or unfairly. The more different this entity is to the traditional core of Myrken, the higher the price or the stronger the barrier might be.
In short, what we have to offer conventional powers relative to what they have and what they need is quite minimal. Unconventional powers, less apt to trade with humans, on the other hand, may need a great many things that are less of a sacrifice to us. There and only there might we have some bargaining leverage, and only if we are the first to suggest such a trade and then immediately capitalize upon the gains to raise our overall standing. The trick in this is to ask for things of equal value to them as those that we offer are ot us, that is, inexpensive relatively but also of great value to the opposing party. What we ask for and what we offer, however, cannot be so valuable and so outlandish as to destabilize the society completely. That is the risk in dealing with any true power, especially the preternatural. Were every person in Myrken to be able to spin gold, it would be chaos. Here, and only here, do I attempt to elevate boredom to a lofty rank. My ultimate goal is to utilize this sort of exchange to ensure the stability necessary to enact more grueling spiritual advancements. Only with the barest of luxuries, the reassurance that basic survival can be more substantially taken for granted, will any further growth be possible.
Now then, you ask me about the current conditions in Myrken. I do have some meaningful information here, though it is second-hand. I left Myrken with no power but with some funds. In Razasan, I raised even more, while keeping my expenses quite minimal. I am a man who wanted for nothing but information, and at first, as I began my recovery, of which again, I must document later, I shunned even that. Myrken has known a few years of, if not prosperity, then at least, tranquil mundanity. I am not so arrogant to think this is correlated with my absence.
I have seen more bad harvests than good in Myrken over my twelve years on this continent. As I said before, we lack records save since the birth of the Inquisitory. Certainly we have nothing more than ten years old. Anecdotal information varies from one farm to the next. Myrkeners are willful planters so focused on immediate survival that they are reluctant to vary their crops. Exports are short-sighted as well, tending to move in spurts when a nearby province (so often Heath) suffers either famine or war. Stores are kept for winter, but generally on a family-by-family basis, though for the city itself, Cinnabar was able to institute some safeguards. Myrken did overproduce for many years (decades or more, in the foggy past) from Vanidor(Did you ever meet the man?)'s largese and frankly, manipulations, which created a paternalistic dependency which caused nothing but harm as he retreated more and more from social life. I do hope, however, the recent relative prosperity of a few good years might allow for small but substantial development and the introduction of a few new, even outlandish crops. Regardless, Darkenhold was a significant exception, and if its successes could be replicated, that would be a boon to Myrken. If.
As for education, yes, an attempt or two was made. Most recently, my late wife attempted, succeeded, and made obscene attempts at mass education. Genevieve, who travels with me, has aspirations of educating both young and old. I will support her in this endeavor as best I can without actually teaching, a prospect I regret to say I find mortifying despite her wishes. Note that I made it a policy to snatch up those who had promise, rich or poor, men or women, local or foreign, as I built up the Inquisitory. Though Rhaena withered many of those minds, it is a self-replenishing system, as opportunity is so rare for many of these. Some might say I preyed upon the endemic deficiencies.
A note on physicians. You benefited greatly from unnatural arts. I know this. I cannot believe you are ignorant of it. I have benefitted from such things as well as well as suffering from the same, as counter-inituitive as that might sound. They have left my body in a peculiar state and I wonder if you're not the same. Savoy was an early friend, one whose confidence I shared. I do think there are many tinctures and herbs, things that are wholly natural and that do not carry with them the same high cost of the eldritch that we are, as of yet, unaware of. This would be a distinct and immediate benefit of the exchange I have in mind.
In both education and medicine, and, might I add, culture as well, creating an academic environment will be difficult. There is a distinct anti-intellectualism to Myrken and my snatching up the best prospects did not help. The gilded summer, however, soured things for a generation, perhaps. Things move more quickly in Myrken when there is upheaval and devastation but here has not been that to provide the shock that creates such renewal. I am glad for that for both sympathetic reasons and because of the opportunities it might provide, but the indirect failings of my life up until now will make certain inroads difficult. It is why we much look for other, more indirect ones. If i am wrong in this, no one will be gladder than I.
There is room for lower culture, of course. The Gilded Lily still exists, but it's proprietor dabbles with the macabre. I mean to prove this upon my return, to correct one oversight of my reign, at the least.
I feel strongly about agency, though I frame it more as purpose. The contrast between living and surviving. I think we have touched upon this. I am less convinced people need to truly make the choice so much as they feel like they are vested in its end result, that they are making a difference, that the world is different for their presence and labor. Reading that back, I am not unaware of how it sounds. Moreover, I feel very strongly about my own agency. The dissonance is concerning only so far as it affects results. Sympathy aside, in endeavors such as this, there is a worry of seeing people in the aggregrate. I have been guilty of this. Now it gives me pause. I note it here.
If things continue on the path they are on, nothing will change. The cycle is framed by the political and environmental map of myrken and perpeturated by our own nature and understandable failings. Intervention is necessary. The allowance for agency must be balanced or else the point of all of it is entirely lost. It is, however, Sylvius, an infinitely difficult balance to strike.
The failings of simplicity in the grand scheme, perhaps. It will only get us so far, but then we are nowhere as of yet, so let us get somewhere, but not complacent? I fear I will never be satisfied. I fear for a day where I might be.
Glenn