Where Are We Headed?
by Seronia Merritt
We live in what may be described as the most significant time in history. The
history of Tyrra has been filled with epic heroes battling epic villains, but
never before has the war reached the scale it has in the past ten years or so.
Why is this? Such a question bears investigation.
You see, over the past thousands of years, as civilization has developed, Tyrrans
have evolved in their ability to affect the world around them. One can assume
that when the first intelligent beings came to Tyrra, they were probably not
very advanced. They did not understand the high magicks that we do now, nor
did they probably have knowledge of advanced weapon-making or advanced alchemy.
Back then, our environment controlled us as much as we controlled it. And to
some degree, that is still the case. However, over time we have grown tremendously
in our ability to affect the world around us. We have learned to harness the
power of magic and the force of the elements, and use it to better our own ends.
And it seems that the more advanced we get, the more problems we have. The more
we learn, the more that knowledge can drive us mad.
I use as an example Tarlov Ghosthand. No one would deny that Tarlov was one
of the most brilliant mages who ever lived. The amount of power he was able
to attain was almost limitless. He could bring death to those around him with
but a thought. However, most everyone would likely agree that Tarlov was also
insane. The sheer amount of knowledge that he had gained drove him to the edge
of madness. And the story of Tarlov is a miniature version of the story of the
civilized races as a whole. The more we learn, the more capability for destruction
we obtain.
Now, I myself am an adventurer. And adventurers tend to be those who are out
there trying to fight for that which is "good and right." However,
that task seems to become more difficult every day. The adventurers constantly
become more powerful; yet as they do, so do their enemies. For every liche that
is killed, three more seem to pop up in its place. After a while, one begins
to wonder where all the evil power is coming from.
One popular theory holds that the adventurers bring it upon themselves. Under
this theory, the adventurers go into ancient tombs and awaken ancient undead
and other monstrosities, and then have to fight to deal with the problems that
they have created. This view, however appealing, is too simplistic to possibly
be correct. The simple truth is that there aren’t enough adventurers in
the world to unleash all the evil that seems to exist today.
Our world has become filled with hate, greed, and outright evil. It’s a
symbiotic process. The more that we feed evil into the world, the more the world
feeds evil right back into us. For example, take the concept of war. Let us
assume that a war begins because Kingdom A gets greedy and steals some land
from Kingdom B. Kingdom B sends people out to reclaim the land, a battle ensues,
and soldiers from both kingdoms die. Now there is grief in the families of those
soldiers who were killed, and soon that grief turns into hatred. At this point,
the war is no longer about war, but instead about revenge. Evil keeps growing
stronger on each side. Each side is willing to take further and further measures
in order to achieve their goals. Pretty soon, any sense of right and wrong is
thrown out the window, and evil is all that remains.
Now, imagine such an incident taking place on a planar scale. That is what we
are currently dealing with on Tyrra, I believe. As we become more technologically
advanced, we also become more needy. We fill those needs by becoming greedier.
We consume more and more resources. Once, only the very mightiest of adventurers
had use for formal magic components. Now, most every adventurer hoards them.
Once, a single magic item was considered to be excellent to have. Now, most
adventurers carry around at least five, sometimes more.
The most amazing thing is that most of these changes have only come in the past
ten years or so. What does this mean? I have heard a theory advanced recently
that I think may be responsible for some of the recent problems we have had.
Prince Alejandro Sparras of Ni’Wrad and the traveler Algorian have both
told me that void is beginning to have a corruptive influence on Tyrra.
Of course, this presents us a classic chicken and egg problem. Are we behaving
badly because void is corrupting us, or is our bad behavior strengthening void?
In truth, both are probably happening. The more evil we act, the stronger void
becomes. The stronger void becomes, the more it is able to coax us into acting
evil. It can potentially create a never-ending spiral that would spin us off
into oblivion.
That seems pessimistic and panicky, though. I believe that we can still turn
things around, and I believe that the adventuring class must lead this reversal.
We can use our advance as a civilization in order to strength ourselves instead
of succumbing to the lesser part of ourselves. It will not be easy, but we have
no choice. We can make a stand, or we can let the void overwhelm us. I, for
one, know what my choice will be.