The hell is this?

No demons here, either. Just a dwarf who found a book in the Deep Roads.

Hedge Your Bets wrote:Ridiculous. I just watched these letters scrawl themselves. You cannot convince me that does not scream Veil piercing. All this talk of identical books is a horribly transparent ploy to deceive me into lowering my guard. If I see the slightest suggestion that repeating some impenetrable gibberish phrase will allow me to meet you in person, I'm putting a dirk through this ratty tome.

This soggy country is full of woods. I'm looking at the fringe of one right now. Why don't you step out and show me how you dance. Better yet, show me your innards and we'll work out good and proper what is demon and what isn't.

As for you, 'Saarebas', I know little of the Tal-Vasoth but I do know I should draw steel on you almost as soon as any abomination.

So you're writing in blue ink, talking to things you deem as demons. If we were demons, would we not do something far more subtle?

I am Saarebas of the Tal-Vashoth.

Hmph. Theology.

Does it truly matter if this Maker exists or if his vaunted cruelty and pettiness brought the Blights upon this world?

The Darkspawn exist.

These so called "Old Ones" lead the Blights.

To end a Blight, they must be killed.

It is of no consequence of who or what started them in the first place. They are a threat to your land of Thedas, and it should not matter if mages turned a gold city into a black one and brought the Blights with them, or if these dragons used to be gods and are responsible in some way either.

What is done is done. Focus upon the utter destruction of the Darkspawn.

Even I recognize the threat, and I am from a different land entirely.

Sometimes being an outsider gives you unbiased perspective. I agree that the focus should be on the Darkspawn rather than the petty squabbles between nations, mages, templars, elves, humans, and on and on and on. But then, I am also biased.

That is why I and people like me exist Isen.

Isen wrote:What do you mean?

I mean that there are people whose job it is to fight darkspawn, to make sure that people like you do not have to flee them.

Hedge Your Bets wrote:Oh yes, and those people did such a wonderful job last time.

So many spared the harsh life of the refugee. Of course, that is because the darkspawn butchered them in their homes before they were given the chance, but these are just technicalities, no?

And it was also the shortest Blight ever seen. Every previous Blight has lasted ten years or longer and has required a coalition of at least a half dozen nations to defeat. We got off easy. You can be certain that if the Fifth Blight had gone according to pattern that there would be no Fereldan now.

For your benefit I shall teach some history and contrast.

Dumat rose up as the Archdemon of the First Blight. Nearly the entirety of Thedas was overrun, the Dwarves nearly exterminated in a rampage that left only Orzammar and Kal-Sharok intact. Dumat ravaged the length and breadth of Thedas for two hundred years before he was overcome. And though the Tevinter Imperium survived, it was weakened by two centuries of constant slaughter and set up for the rebellion of Andraste.

The second blight occurred with the rise of the Archdemon Zazikel. The horde tore through the Anderfels and well into the Orlesian Empire and the Free Marches. The blight lasted ninety years before the combined forces of the Grey Wardens, the Orlesians, and the Tevinters finally defeated and killed the Archdemon at Starkhaven. The blight ended there, but the Orlesian Empire was severely weakened and the Anderfels broke off to form a new nation. Vast portions of the Anderfels were rendered entirely barren, so blasted that not even the dead would rot. No insect would live long enough to touch the corpses.

The Third Blight came with Toth, and it erupted in the heart of Thedas assaulting four cities in Orlais and the Tevinter Imperium. Though they were turned back, the darkspawn continued to rampage through Nevarra and the Free Marches for fifteen years before Toth was put down by a coalition of Wardens, Orlesians, and Tevinters.

Finally the Fourth Blight comes with the Archdemon Andoral. They overrun Antiva in short order before pouring into Rivain and the Free Marches. The blight also rises once more in the Anderfels, darkspawn laying siege to the capital, Hossberg. Once again the Orlesians and Tevinters drive the darkspawn from their borders and into the Deep Roads but this time send no aid to their devastated neighbors. Eight years after the rise of Andoral the Wardens raise an army of Anders and break the siege of Hossberg. From there the army marches north and four years later the Blight ends at the Battle of Ayesleigh.

Compare these world shattering wars to the Fifth Blight. The Fifth Blight lasted two years and remained confined to a single nation. A nation that now, after all that, still stands strong. It is regrettable that so many died. But in the end this Blight was cut short before it hit its stride, and the blood shed was a drop beside the oceans shed in the Blights of days past.

Did I say that the Wardens would make sure no poor family would ever have to flee their homes? I did not. That tends to be what happens during wars. Would I use this to comfort some woman widowed in the last Blight? No. But since you have not started shouting that we failed to save your wife, or husband, or child I assumed that you are simply one more person angered by our inability to save everyone.

No we cannot save everyone. No we cannot make sure that nobody will need to flee their homes. But I did not speak falsely, I said that it is our job to keep people, all people, safe from the darkspawn. We do that job to the best of our abilities, given the tools, the knowledge, and the people we have.

To strive for perfection is admirable. To expect it is foolishness. People will die and flee their homes in Blights and we cannot be everywhere at once. We are the protectors of all people, not a person. We would like to protect everyone, but there are no perfect choices in war. One must save what one can.

Regardless, I was attempting to give the girl some sense of security. That you need deny her that to salve your own bitterness says much. If you do not wish to rehash old tales of death perhaps you should not have brought it up in the first place?