I don't want to go into who cheated to do what, or which side had more
or better fighters, etc. It came down to us "losing". I find it a bit
unusual though that we could have outnumbered the Haernites, considering
we had two gods against us, and thus two orders, not to mention the
number of outsiders who aided them. We had no outside support, the
Haernites had a great deal of it. This isn't what I want to discuss
though.
I am someone who few of you can claim to really know. When I speak, it
is usually for others, and when I work, I surround myself with
deliberate chaos. I often express opinions held by others, or opinions I
do not hold myself, but for once I feel like stating my own.
To me what stands out is not -how- we were destroyed, or the results
thereof, but rather the intentions of those who did this. Tasur'ke was
causing little real harm. I have never seen a Tasur go out of his or her
way to hurt someone, nor do I see how expanding the village into a city
would kill many trees, considering that much of the area surrounding
Tasur'ke is not Ithmia, but rather plains. Yet, many of our opposition
were "protecting the forest", though it didn't seem to be in great
danger considering we had room to expand into without even reaching the
forest. However, what makes the forest (a natural creation) more
important than our own mortal creation, which requires a different kind
of creativity than that of the Divine? What makes the destruction of
mortal creations any less wrong than the destruction of natural ones?
Indeed, why have we been treated as though we are not a part of Nature
ourselves, and have been placed below it so that "Nature" may reclaim
the world? Am I not a natural being? If I am, then why are the interests
of the forest or other "natural settings" placed above my own by so
much? My enemies said they destroy to renew. I believe them. But Haern
Himself told me it was the renewal of the wilderness they spoke of. So,
that doesn't really make me feel any better.
So what was going on here? I see this: A group of individuals banded
together, a rather large group, with a common interest. We wanted a
home, we wanted our freedom. Many look at us and see alterior motives.
And certainly, those may have existed, and may still, but that is no
different from any other organization. However, I know very well that
many of these people simply wanted what they could not find elsewhere--a
place to call their own. I am one of those people.
Haern and His followers worked towards the destruction of this: The new
freedom and home of many individuals. Our city is not like Eleusis, it
looks and feels more like Hashan (I was earlier told it would not be
like Eleusis by Haern, but His Order still claimed it would). We have
fought for this dream for years, we have worked and planned and suffered
for it. And then, after beating all odds against us, a god would destroy
us? We were too revolutionary perhaps ... but what else were we mortals
created for, but to grow?
However, a dream is an intangible thing that cannot be destroyed by
trees and vines. A city is not just walls and cobblestones, and though
that might be destroyed, the union of souls that built a dream of
freedom and a home before trying to build streets and roofs cannot be.
Freedom lives on, as do we, through that dream which survived the war.
No mortal, no god, can ever destroy that.

-Fayea Cardinalis

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Slyphian, in the year 75 MA.