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[Galapagos James]

Darken blinked. "Battalions do not come that small, Mother Confessor. I could send but one company if that is your wish, but the men grow restless. After the Midlands were finally cleared of resistance, there's been little to do but training the new influx of D'haran soldiers. Lots of men, but little real work to be done."

Darken turned, saluting Lophus. "Lord Rahl, I humbly request leave to send a full battalion to the area, backed by a number of the veteren sorceresses we acquired from the Old World during the War."  

[[.Notebook_Paper.]]

((I had Nora outside the door so the people inside would be able to talk more freely without having to worry about an unwanted presence coming through the door, that being Calintz or another visitor that was not D'Haran, but I'll go with this. Perhaps she slipped in when the Boundary Warden did to see what was happening.))

Seeming disinterested after hearing the account of what had happened in southern D'Hara, Nora remained quiet by the door with her arms crossed, her weight shifted to one leg. It seemed that turmoil would begin anew. Even though twenty some years had passed since the war with the Imperial order, a time when she had been a child, Nora still understood the implications all too sharply. Aside from Zedd, and possibly Hack, she was the only one in the room that had seen real battle, unadulterated bloodshed, the rape of towns and other things her child eyes of the time should not have. Perhaps it was her training as Mord Sith that kept her from breaking. She hoped against hope, somewhere deep inside, that this battle was not the prelude to a another war.

Either way, the thoughts made her head snap up at the mention of her Mother Confessor offering to go do battler herself. She clenched her teeth, and her fists, to keep herself from making a protest that was not her duty to make. Thank the Creator Zedd had a level head about him. Soon enough the Mord Sith's posture relaxed, but her eyes remained loosely fixed on her charge as she commanded Darken. The command brough a twitch of a humorous smile to her face before it melted back to normal for the sobriety of the atmosphere.

As Amara made her way towards her, Nora's eyes passed the understanding that she had not liked the idea of her going off to do battle with such a small force. The red-head did not doubt the Mother Confessor's skill, as her parents would have seen to training in the fighting arts, but more so it was the fact that she viewed the younger woman as a friend. In the past two years they had become close enough to earn the title. She was afraid of losing her, and that fear did not make her weak. Anything that threatened Amara's life, or anyone in the room, or all of D'Hara for that matter, would feel the wrath of this Mord Sith.

She nodded to Amara as the hand moved back to her side, her blue eyes blazing with a certain fondness mixed with a now amiable reprimand.  

[WEEB_QUEEN]

(( I'm so sorry Nora m'dear, I must have forgotten...*sighes* Me and my scatter brain >.> ))


Amara smiled reassuringly in repsonse to Nora's nod, but she did not miss the very amiable reprimand written within the woman's eyes. Amara found it at that point, very hard to hide a playful smile. In the silence, Amara silently stood by Nora, her hands clasped before her as she awaited her brother's response to Darken. Findind the silence a bit uncomfortable, Amara silently slipped from Nora's side and went across the room to her brother's side, placing a firm but gentle hand upon his arm as she faced Darken, prepared to give him her own full permission.
" Surely, if you have my permission, you have his as well,"Amara spoke in a stern tone, a tone laced with a bit more authority than usual. Amara would not have her brother not giving the man permission to as planned, if he did not, what else could they do?.
 

[Lophus Rahl]

Lophus sighed as he steeled himself to take care of the task that laid ahead of them.
"Darken, I want you to gather a hundred of your best scouters. Those who are experienced in finding an enemy without being seen themselves. Have them take four sorceressess with them, two from the Keep and two from the People's Palace."
He then leaned forward to show how serious the matter was.
"Look into my eyes Darken. Each of those soldiers that are ready to go I want you to make sure that you hand pick them yourself. Once you do. I want you to stare at each one of them in the eyes and speak their names."
More than likely only Zedd would know what Lophus just did, but upon Darken he had placed a spell that would transfer to those soldiers and sorceressess that would do it's best to hide them from being discovered by magic. He had chosen to use a bit of both his additive and subtractive magic to ensure the spell web would work. He then turned to Amara and gave her a slight frown that said he would not allow her to go on this mission.

 

[Galapagos James]

Darken saluted Lord Rahl with a fist to his chest once his speech was done, and bowed. "By the Lord Rahl's command, it shall be done."

Darken turned, and left the room, chewing on his lip as he thought about those who would be best suitted for the task. He turned down a different hallway then he had originally planned, and ended up at the door of one of the older officers in Aydindril. Officially, the man trainned the troops, and enjoyed most of his retirement besides that. It was a few minutes before he answered Darken's knock.

Darken started over right away explaining he had to leave the city, and relinquishing command of the D'haran forces within the city to him. After that, he moved to the stables, and ordered a few running horses ready. He would have to leave tonight in order to make any time. Her'd decided which men to use: The Ear Harvesters. But they were stationed in D'hara proper.

First though would be the Gifted. He could send them to the People's Palace at a more leisurely pace, since Darken's goal was in the outlying countryside.  

[WEEB_QUEEN]

Amara heaved a sigh as she silently watched Darken retreat from the room after he was given his orders. Amara turned to face her brother, a mixture of emotions within her emerald orbs. Amara wondered what was to be done next, what their next course of action would be. Her brother seemed to be agonizing over every little bit of information they knew, trying to come up with a way to effectively destroy the enemy and save the lives of so many more who depended upon the Lord Rahl to protect them. Amara's emerald optics flickered from her brother, to her great-grandfather. She smiled warmly at him briefly, before turning from her brother's side and retreating to the other side of the long desk, where she plopped herself down in the large chair. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed in frustration.  

[First Wizard Zorander]

Hack continued to stand at attention as he waited. He felt like saying something, but realized it wouldn't do any good. The Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor were sending over 100 good men to their deaths. They didn't truly understand the enemy that he had just gruesomely described to them in detail. These were not common soldiers, they had slaughtered in entire town and every last of its inhabitants in a matter of minutes. He knew well General Meiffert's eagerness to get his softened soldiers some real experience. Hack himself could feel the hardness of war slipping from him, but to send a hundred men to imminent doom was not the way to react.

His gaze slid to the First Wizard. He stood there, seeming unable to persuade the Lord Rahl and Mother Confessor otherwise. Atleast someone else in here was thinking rationally. Zedd and Chase, as he remembered, were very good friends. Zedd was well-known and well-liked in Westland. He supposed he would make better progress with the First Wizard, who knew well the ways of war, who had seen real combat, who was probably the only person here who would be able to react rationally and effectively.

He didn't know whether or not the soldiers that attacked the town were just another group of soldier renegades left over from the Imperial Order, who sometimes they came across every now and then, or if there was some knew threat to the New World. If only they hadn't been so . . . perfect, he could rule them out as part of some army. They were just too coordinated and skilled to have been leftovers from the wars years ago.  

[First Wizard Zorander]

Zedd sighed in dismay. Lophus may be the new Lord Rahl, but he just isn't Richard. He hasn't seen or experienced real warfare, and his actions reflect it. And Amara, she's just too quick make a decision. Already she has sent over 100 good men and some valuable gifted chasing after phantoms. It just wasn't reasonable.

But there were other things on Zedd's mind too.

First of all, the boy that was captured. The more Zedd thought about it, the more it worried him. The Doppelganger was a very old technique designed towards the end of the Great War. As wizards got fewer and fewer, this technique was designed to make up for the loss of numbers on one side. But that, like so many other spells, webs, and other magics were lost and have remained missing for thousands of years. It was suprising that one of these lost magics would suddenly appear thousands of years later within a small tribe hidden in the Wilds. Zedd knew many of the magics used by the people that lived in the Wilds, but nothing from the times of the great War.

The Doppelganger troubled him greatly. And on top of that, Zedd had found an alternate perspective that he could view the world of magic in a different form. This form had many dimensions beyond the 3-ddimensional world they live in. This made it very difficult to understand, or calculate for that matter, what he was seeing and how to make it useful. Fortunately, Richard had given him a new view of the way of magic--symbolism. Using this, he had been able to understand what he was seeing in a more understandable way.

A thought struck him.

The person that had cast the magic that had killed Richard and the others had probably found their way into this new perspective and been able to calculate the complexity of his intent through magic and thus had been able to cast such a simple, yet unrealistically complex and powerful spell so that it could never have been predicted of stopped.

"Dear spirits, I have to get back to the Keep." Without another word, he motioned for Hack to follow and strode out the door. Hack, bewildered by the sudden turn of events quickly followed.  

[WEEB_QUEEN]

Amara rose from the chair when Zedd suddenly announced he had to return to the keep and turned on his heels to leave, motioning Hack to follow. Amara worried that the men Lophus had sent Darken to gather as well as the the few gifted, may all be being sent to meaningless deaths. Amara wondered if those same thoughts ran through Zedd's mind as he turned to go. " Is something the matter Zedd?,"Amara spoke in a firm but worried tone as her emerald orbs watched him from where she stood behind the desk. Amara wondered silently why Zedd felt the need to take Hack along with him, but noticed that Hack unhaltingly followed Zedd. Amara sighed in frustraion as her gaze flickered to her brother. " Perhaps you should go with him...just in case....,"Amara announced, her intense emerald gaze searching her brother's face. Amara's gaze flickered back to her great-grandfather. Judging by the way he had said" Dear Spirits,"Amara knew something must be wrong. Either that, or he had just realized something very important. It worried her to no end. If there was one thing Amara knew about her great-grandfather it was that he was very knowledgeable in many things concerning magic, and ever since the day of her parent's and so many others death's, he had been attempting to figure out everything there was to find out about lethal magic that had swept through the city that day.

Amara leaned foreward on the desk, placing her hands on the edge of the desk as she watched her great-grandfather, and then her brother. Before her great-grandfather left, Amara removed her hands from the desk and straightened, her hands at her sides as her gaze came to rest upon Hack who was following Zedd.
" May the Good Spirits be with you, Hack,"Amara called out.  

[Lophus Rahl]

Lophus gave her Amara a reassuring smile as he started off after Zedd, desperately he wished he knew some of the things that his great-grandfather knew but could never voice his desire fully. It was all he could do to keep up sometimes with things of the army and trying to be the magic against magic for all the New World.
"Father show me what needs to be done."
He spoke quietly to himself as he caught up to Zedd and Hack on their way to the keep.

 

[[.Notebook_Paper.]]

"See you soon."

Nora stood at the door and watched after the men that filed out of the room with a grin, her head tilting for a bit so she could watch their backs a little bit longer. Satisfied that everyone that left was well in hand, and that no one else was coming back up the hall she turned abruptly to the Mother Confessor and crossed her arms defiantly for a moment as she observed her. What a pain it must be to lead at times even when you only had the best interest of people at heart and everyone else had yours. Nora wouldn't complain about what had been decided since she was against Amara going to battle just yet, but she had to admit that it seemed a daunting task to have to send others while you were safe at home.

The thoughts didn't register too openly on her face, but when she realized she had been thinking a second too long she raised an eyebrow as a humorous smirk returned to her face.

She dropped her arms to her sides with a sigh, shaking her head as if hopeless as she closed the distance between herself and the desk the Mother Confessor stood behind. When at the desk she set her palms on the smooth wooden surface and leaned a tad closer to the younger woman.

"Well I hope you don't plan on doing something like that again without warning me, making it so hard for me to keep harm having a look at you like that. I might have lost my composure." To mimick Amara she pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled. As she brought the hand back down she smiled to the Mother Confessor, a smile that was both meant to be friendly and sympathetic.

Of course, if it had been decided against her judgement that this was a time the woman needed to go to battle Nora would have followed unwaveringly, but for now one attack on a place so far south seemed little reason for one of the leaders of all the Midlands and D'Hara to run out and fight. As lamentable as it was, it did not seem worth Amara, Lophus, or even Darken's life, not to say that those who did die weren't worthy enough to live. There was always a chance that it was a declaration of war, a thought she did not wish to entertain, but would have to in light of what Hack had told them about the perfect soldiers. In times of war, they needed leaders that weren't on their way to the grave. She was sure Zedd and Lophus and everyone else knew that, and Amara should too.  

[[.Notebook_Paper.]]

((Okay, Paper is somewhat mortified at the moment. I sort of knew all along that Terry Goodkind harbored a dislike for fanfiction and other uses of his works, but I never took it terribly serious because I had only ever heard it from other people in passing and I thought that it was just a certain love for what was his creation that would make him a bit protective of his works.

However, when I went through prophets-inc.com I realized that while what I thought is true, it's a bit deeper seeded than a mere protective attitude. Mayhaps this will put it into better perspective than my own words can ((To see the whole interview go here.)):

Alexander Q: Hello Terry, Josh McDaniel here smile I was just wondering how you feel exactly about Role playing sites not necessarily using your characters but the basic idea's from your books, such as Subtractive magic and War Wizards. Does this violate copyright?

A: It is strictly not allowed. While I can understand the desire to do this, I would like you to know in the strongest possible terms that it violates my intent. It is a corruption of the books.


And a little afterwards...


Unknown Q: Mr. Goodkind why is it such a violation to use these ideas in our own table-top PPG's?

A: Using it for your own private purposes is not so much a violation of copyrights as it is a violation of my intent and my trust. Imagine if you can coming home form vacation to discover that someone has been living in your house, eating your food, sleeping in your bed and driving your car. And as their excuse they say, "but I like your things" as if this will make it ok. There is also a difference between an RPG done in the privacy of your home and one that is used online There is a difference in the legal copyright issue, but not the moral issue


I can't say this will still keep me from roleplaying because I truly am enjoying what we are doing here, but I have to say that after I read these parts of the interview I was shaken. I just felt the need to share this in case it ended up affecting future posts, and perhaps for my own reasons of wanting to know if anyone was made to feel as guilty as I feel now. I have to say that I thought the roleplaying was innocent, and I still kind of do, but knowing that Mr. Goodkind would condemn me on some level for it I feel very, very odd about it now. ;-; I thought it was fair to let you know.))  

[Galapagos James]

((In response: I can certainly see why he feels that way. Once, in a different game on a different site, I created an entire society with an intricate culture, past, and way of life so I could play one as a character. Later, other players would make reference as to having dealt with other members of that society, because they liked the idea. But every reference they did broke rules i had set up, and it meade me upset. It is like someone's been living in your house, because it's a feirce invasion of your private space and ideas by other people who have no respect for what you're doing or want, but want to enjoy themselves.

However, that said...

He released information to us, and we take it in, and enjoy it. This gets our imagination to work, especially between books, when we wonder what will happen next. Fact of life: No story stays the same through retelling. Quite frankly, when I joined this, I saw things in the setting and characters that I found wrong and annoying, but we're playing a game. We enjoy the world he built, and so we want to play in it.

I respect his feeling of violation enough not to play one of his characters, just like I respect the people I play with enough not to force actions or words on your characters.

Calling what we do a violation of trust is saying that it's a violation to imagine, to dream. We heard a story we liked, and imagined ourselves in it, having fantastic adventures along with the characters, which is a lot like what you think a child does when you read them a bedtime story. There's no violation of trust there, nor is there in our imagining together as a group. No say there is is to try and restrict thought, and that goes against all the philosophy shown in Mr. Goodkind's books. I can only imagine that such a strong reaction is emotional, created from his close and loving involvement with the material he created, and seeing us as outsiders ruining his creation rather than children playing with the minature constructs he gave us: Because that's what we are.))  

[First Wizard Zorander]

((I am 100% in accordance with Gal's explanation. I almost felt like it was being told by Zedd. Yes, I can see both sides of the arguement clearly, but RPing based on existing fantasies are everywhere. Whether it's SOT, Naruto, DBZ, or even Kingdom Hearts, it's just a bit of harmless fun.

No, it's not like someone living in your house, Terry built his world of SOT and he lives there. But we, as builders, see what he has done and built it with our own modifications for ourselves so we can enjoy it too. That's why there is competition in today's world--McDonald's vs Burger King, Tylenol vs Advil, Microsoft vs Macintosh-- is there a copyright violation there? No, because they are all basically the exact same thing, but they have there own little touches that make them, however slightly, different from eachother. It's just something he will have to accept, that it will happen.))  

[First Wizard Zorander]

As Zedd approached the double-doors, he stopped and turned to Hack and Lophus.

"Now, there are things in here that will literally burn the flesh off your bones in a second should you mishandle them." He looked back and forth between the two, letting the warning soak in before continuing."This room has been left undisturbed like many other rooms for thousands of years and the things here are extremely powerful, dangerous, and valuable. We are many hundreds of feet deep inside the Keep, below sealevel where the goings on of the world outside could not effect what happened down here. This room is very special and unique." Again he paused to let them grasp the seriousness of the situation. There could be absolutely no room for 'accidents' or 'mishaps' inside or they might all be obliterated.

Zedd turned and traced his index finger along the length of the snake on either door. Once his finger reached the head, the eyes glowed yellow. He then put a finger to each of the eyes and pushed them in until he heard the click. The door handles turned and the doors swung open.

A black and white carpet led from the door to the large circular carpet in the middle. The ceiling was only 10 or 15 feet high and dome-shaped. Some black and white drapes hung from the walls. The walls were completely lined with bookshelves holding both books and all kinds of mysterious-looking objects. The chairs and tables were set to the side, not on the circular black and white carpet in the center that was obviously where the spells and enchantments took place. Everuthing about the room was black and white yet elegant in a simple way. The room just seemed to pulse with the powerful spells that kept it intact and protected.

"This is what ancient wizards referred to as 'The Heart.' "