What is the one thing that most defines a Daru? That is a question that
I have been asking myself for some time now. They are keepers of the
light, it is said, as are the Luminaries. Untill today I really have not
been able to comprehend what that light is. Over and over again I have
heard it said, by the honorable and zealous Grand Master Searoth, that
it not evil that the Daru fight but, rather, darkness. Darkness? Isn't
this but a metaphor for evil. To many in Sapience, yes, but not to
Master Searoth, and I will take the liberty of assuming that this is
Daru doctrine. (Of which I have had the fortune of experiencing as a
novice in the Daru, but for personal and immaterial reasons I am no
longer inguilded.) Again, to a Daru, Light and Darkness are NOT
interchangable with good and evil.

So again what is the Light? Since it is primarily the Daru and
Luminaries that concern themselves with it, I must look to Lord Rahn and
his sufferings to answer that question.

The Light is the Flame. The same Flame which had burned in the Tree for
so long, the same Flame with which Lord Rahn was tortured, and the same
Zealous Flame that killed my parents when I was but fifteen. The Flame
is many things. It is the power that keeps the sun burning and gives us
days of delight should we bask in it's radiance. I love the Flame,
because it keeps me warm when I am cold. I hate the Flame when I
remember having to find sustenance for my younger brother on the streets
of Ashtan, simultaneously looking out for folks who would take my orphan
sibling away to recycle him.

The Light is good and bad. The Flame is the Light. Misused it can turn a
respectable guild of visionaries into a cult of fire and reckless band
of flame weilding ruffians.

But perhaps the Daru are after all inherently predators. I hope not and
I will always love my former guildmates, all of you.


Penned by my hand on the 15th of Khepary, in the year 131 MA.