Here is my third sermon, May Hope and Renewal surround you.

The naked place
For Vermillion
They are absolutes, the pantheon of ideals, the goodly gods and the evil
fiends, forever locked in the struggle for the souls of the mortals. The
concept that is vampires are purely evil and that of Rahn purely good.
As opposite as black and white, with no shades of gray in between,
Thus are the concepts, good and evil. Absolute, rigid. There can be no
justification for a truly evil act
there is no shade of gray. While an act of good often brings personal
gain, the act itself is absolute as its measure is based on intent. This
is epitomized by our beliefs in the Divine, but what of the mortal
races, the rational beings, the humans and the races of dwarvenkind and
rajamalas, the mhuns and the xorani? Here the question muddles, the
absolutions blend.
To many the equation is simple. He is vampire. Vampires are evil,
therefore, he is evil.
They are wrong. For what is a rational being if not a choice? And there
can be no evil, nor any good, without intent. It is true that in the
Realms there are races and cultures, particularly the goblinkind, which
show a general weal of evil, and those, such as the mhun, which lean
toward the concept of good. But even in these, which many consider
personifications of an absolute, it is the individual's intents and
actions that ultimately decide. I have known a vampire who was not evil.
She was an outsider who did not succumb to the ways of her culture.
Still, few vampires can make such claims, and so the generalities hold.

But good is not a thing of perception. What is "good" in one culture
cannot be "evil" in another. This might be true of mores and minor
practices, but not of virtue. Virtue is absolute.
It must be. Virtue is the celebration of life and of love, the
acceptance of others and the desire to grow toward goodness, toward a
better place. It is the absence of pride and envy, the willingness to
share our joys and bask in the accomplishments of others. It is above
justification because it is what truly lies in each and every heart. If
a person does an evil act, then let him weave his mask, but it will not
hide the truth, the absolute, from what is naked within his own heart.
There is a place within each of us where we cannot hide from the Truth,
where virtue sits as judge. To admit the truth of our actions is to go
before that court, where process is irrelevant. Good and evil are
intents, and intent is without excuse.

Sahmie Rahshye went to that place as willingly and completely as any
person I have ever known. I recognize that growth within her, and see
the result, the Luminaries, most magnificent warriors of Light.
Vermillion will go to that place. Perhaps not until the moment of his
final death, but he will go as we all must eventually go, and what agony
he will realize when the truth of his evil existence is laid bare before
him. I pray the he goes soon, and my hope is not born of vengeance, for
vengeance is an empty prayer. May Vermillion go of his own volition to
that most private place within his heart to see the Truth and, thus, to
correct his ways. He will find joy in his penance, true harmony that he
can never know along his present course.
I go to that place within my heart as often as I am able in order to
escape the trap of easy justification. It is a painful place, a naked
place, but only there might we grow toward goodness- only there, where
no mask can justify, might we recognize the truth of our intents, and
thus, the truth of our actions. Only there, where virtue sits as judge,
are heroes born.

In service
Schmendrick, Essence of Hope
quit

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Midautumn, in the year 102 MA.