Teciann and the four tenets - Summer 1518
Some of you may have visited the obelisk in the eastern forest, and some
of you might have seen the sad truth it reveals. If you haven't, well,
you really should ask one of us druids to show you. For those who don't
know the story, it is about a planet which was destroyed a long time
ago. It was a world like ours, with people like ours, with all their
hopes and dreams. It's name was Teciann.
Teciann was conqzered by the dread, creatures from another plane of
existence. The people of Teciann had weakened their own planet that much
that the dread could break through. The druids of Teciann got involved
in the conflict of light and dark, and they misused the powers given by
their planet for other people's wars instead protecting their world. The
story is very important for the faith of nature, because it teaches us
about one of our tenets - the tenet of focus, the tenet which keeps us
on our path. Never to loose the focus on the protection of Ateraan,
never to involve in other fights than to fight the threats for our
beloved planet. As only Ateraan lives forever, and we all couldn't live
without Ateraan.
Knowing about the past can prevent us from repeating the same mistakes.
We druids have expressed this process of learning about our world in the
tenet of knowledge. But even more important than historical events is
our present. We always have to keep both eyes open to learn from our
world. It is not the learning from books, it's the learning from
everything around us, the animals, the plants, even the sea and the
clouds. The wise man can learn even from the biggest fool. And
everything we learn can make us stronger.
Knowledge can be a matter of life and death. We have to understand what
we are doing, what consequences our actions have. To act responsible
towards our planet. Many people seems to have forgotten this. The dread
are far away, we can do what we want. We don't need to replant the
forests anymore. We can raise hordes of undeads in the grasslands
without consequences. But this is not true. The dread are not gone. They
will come back, rather sooner than later.
We are on a razor's edge. Little things disturbing the balance,
weakening the protection of our world just at single spots, can give the
dread a chance to attack and lead to a catastrophe. Our planet was
already close to share the fate of Teciann. You surely heard about the
fall of the guardians - the dread attacked just a few furlongs from our
here, from our homes, in the eastern forest. Many brave men and women
died to fight them back, and the world was never the same after it.
Most people don't spend much thought on the reason for this battle. For
them it was a battle, and though it was a big one, it was nothing else
than an orc attack or a rat invasion. But everything in this world has
its cause. The dread had mighty allies - the endless conflicts between
north and south, the conflicts between the three faiths, even the lack
of unity within our faith. But what stopped them after all - and what
gives us hope - people came to reason in the end and fought hand in hand
for Ateraan, Nordens and Sudens, Waylumi, Dahkoar and Nature faith. And
this unity made them defeat our enemy and save our world.
And this we should keep in mind. Each of us is different. We belong to
different guilds, have a different kind of living, we worship different
gods. But everyone of us is important, be it a merchant or a warrior, a
noble or a slave. We druids call this wisdom the tenet of unity, and
though it is primarily related to the people in our faith, it is valid
for everyone in this world. We all have a common interest. To protect
the world we live in. And we all can contribute with our different
abilities, our different culture, our different approaches to the world.
Teciann, which weakened itself with a senseless war between brothers and
sisters, teaches us what happens if this tenet should fail. We know this
story, this last warning for us, because the druids of Teciann in their
last hours sent us a messenger. In their failure, they realised there
was no hope for their world, and they sacrificed their lives and their
world in order to protect others. We owe them our lives. Can you imagine
what it must have meant to to them to sacrifice everything, their whole
culture, the people they loved? They did their duty, and duty was the
tenet which finally made them do the right thing, after they had failed
so badly before.
If they had remembered their duty earlier, their story wouldn't have
such a sad end. So let's do better than them. If we remember our duty,
always to do what is necessary, regardless what it means for us, we can
prevent to follow in their footsteps.
Transform your knowledge into wisdom, instead of writing it into books.
Remember that unity is cooperation, not separation. Focus is dedication,
not stubbornness, Duty is acting, not obedience. The road you're on is
only made for you, and only you can walk it.