Colin Mor post on UO board

[Borg]

Below is cut out from Colin Mor post on UO

Felix Fethwin sought advice from the old sage Colin Mor about the future of UO and/or the Empire

Twas the age of Expansion….it was the years after the ascension of Emperor Borg to Olympus.  Emperor Greg had risen and continued the fight against the hoards of evil; defeating them at nearly every battlefield.  The provinces had flourished and the Senate was strong with economic power.  The Legion was fully supplied and the Council of Honor had just approved measures to build an Imperial Navy.  The clans of Orcs were decimated and the resulting arrival of Savages was met by the Alliance.  The Alliance, which was formed of the great realm Empires and Kingdoms of PGoH, GoL, KoJ, LER and VK, stood as the supreme force of good throughout the realm.  No one would have expected that this was the beginning of  the darkest of ages…the age of Excess.

Fade  to memories

It was a glorious morning and though we had lost many a soul and the lines had not slept for a week, we marched back to Trinsic to the bards songs of victory.  All of the Orc strongholds had been destroyed and the Shadowriders now hunted down the scattered Orcs.  Provincial citizens traveled homeward past the Legion lines, back toward their homes they had abandoned during the campaign.  The sunrise was different today and as I looked up at it, I bathed in its brilliance and its warmth.  The sun had been there all along but its warmth never was enough to overcome the coldness of death the wars had brought.

The cities, each of them in kind, welcomed home their protectors and celebrations seemed to last for weeks.  City merchants thrived on the new resources, wares and gold brought back from conquest and through the reopening of trade routes once lost to Orc raiders.  When news of the a primitive culture was reported replacing the Orcs in the provinces; mercenary forces met them and a cohort of the Legion was dispatched.  The savages, though cunning and resourceful, also failed to be victorious against the mercenary forces that fought them…let alone the Alliance.  The cities of the land slept secure and with no threat to their gates for months.

Shadowriders reported that Orcs and Savages were found in great pitched battles over the ruins of the Orc Strongholds that the Alliance had decimated and in odd twists the greed of mankind took over many minds as mercenaries chose sides in this battle over debris and ruins.  New Orcs of great power and strength appeared and so did Savages of unparalleled skill appear on mounts of hideous appearance.  The Alliance members discussed which side should they stand for and Pater Imperium Borg was summoned for guidance to this end.

“Do not stand for what you would sooner slay but support what you know to be evil”; Borg instructed.

This was an uneasy and uncomfortable command to enact.  The sage Magistrate Balandar explained that he had instructed us to stand for neither but to aid what was once our oldest foe.  This was difficult for many to accept because Orcs always were the enemy.  The Phalynx Marcos the Black was captured by Orcs and our retribution for the loss of Cove to Orcs brought the end of Orc oppression everywhere.  How could the Pater tell us to aid these beasts that still held Marcos.  Furthermore, when the followers of Mercury, God of Mischief, found the new Orc strongholds evidence of Marcos training Orcs in the arts of war was found.  Many in the Alliance and within the Legion itself began to speak of treason and fractures in the minds of men formed, like cracks in armor yield a weakness.

 

“Trust each in each other and trust in the Honor that binds thee”; Borg said in a dream to everyone in the Empire on the same night.

When Marcos was found on a battlefield with Orcs against Savages he was imprisoned and put on trial.  His acquittal was shocking to some but his support of the Orcs was determined to be in the best interest of the Empire and realm itself.  Still, some men and women left the Empire to continue to hunt down the Orcs and to also fight against the Savages.  For the rest of the Empire the following months were difficult at best and surreal consistently.  Conversations and debates were filled with anger and uneasiness at what should be done.  Emperor Greg kept the Legion in check and the Empire out of the political and faction wars that began across the realm.

It was only until we realized Borg meant not to become their ally but to fight against this new threat along side the Orcs…for the Orcs knew what mankind would not accept.  The Savages were the first from evil never seen before…the edge of a great dark shadow that now crept into the realm from beyond the edge of existence itself.  This new evil was breaking against the realm like a great tide, spilling evil bit by bit into the realm.

“Evil knows Evil”; Borg told Emperor Greg and Senator of War Wolf.

“Mankind never accepts anything as real until it affects them directly”; Borg reminded them.

Pater Imperium Borg and the GODS of Olympus had tried to warn us that the evil that was coming would become real…if we allowed it to be.  Through our complacency and satisfaction this evil did grow and through the greed of mankind the evil did prosper and become reality.  Its foothold now was solid and the evil now has a full open gate into our realm.  If we had only remembered what he had said…if we had only remained vigilant.

New lands have been found and the plunder and riches it holds are irresistible to the mercenary and merchants abroad.  Even as the days pass, many do not realize the sun is not shining light and warmth; only the glow of greed is what they see with and what fuels their hearths fire.  This greed is strong and with it has come overconfidence.  This overconfidence now determines participation against evil when is appears.  The rich see the battlegrounds as places beneath them and that they are untouchable in their personal fortresses or cities built by their ancestors and kin.  This is the end of their age of Excess, the end of what they know to be true and real.  This is the end of the age of Excess and the beginning of darkness that has existed for quite some time.

Colin Mor….I ask of you what shall we do now?

What day will break after this darkness has been overcome?  

Will we even realize it is even dark at all?

Felix Felthwin, Gladiator PGoH Legion

I sent this reply to Felix as well as the Council of Honor

Sharpen your sword, supply your satchel and rally recruits

The Age of Twilight has begun.

Colin Mor