ALERT: Recent Paladin Aggression

[Azara]

i c u discovered how to quote ppl

congrats? idk what point u were trying to make tho

[Ohana]

In Varietate Concordia means to be united in diversity. I do not condone the prejudice and lack of good faith of the paladins, but intolerance breeds intolerance. It's particularly uncomfortable that someone claiming to be a peacekeeper chooses violence when the option to walk away is valid and open. If you walk away, they do not follow.

So united in diversity, but only the diversity you accept?

And I repeat: safety for whom?

Intolerance breeds intolerance. I appreciate your lofty ideals wholeheartedly. Truly, I do. It's more than respectable to not condone another's actions while also seeking to tolerate them, if not understand them.

You'll find that we share that in common if nothing else. I am a Peacekeeper who does not choose violence when the option not to engage is open to me. If you have access to the Sight, you should be able to sense a lack of blood on my hands, with the exception of the hunters I engaged for the training of Perception 1 and Perception 2.

Yet, my oath not to engage in violence is my own. As you know, one doesn't have to be a member of the Peacekeepers' Guild to embody those ideals. But I do, and I am. Our motto means united in diversity because regardless of how others choose to engage with their enemies, I understand that it isn't a choice I can make for them or anyone.

Zealotry is a disease of the mind and the heart. If I lent my time, energy, and spirit to rooting it out, it would disrupt my sense of peace, and then where would I be? What would I have to give to others if I surrounded myself with turmoil and it ate away at me until I was nothing? I choose nonviolence. Should the next person they attack offer them no such mercy, that is not my concern. I am not a friend to hunters or paladins, just as I am not a friend to you or a friend to Councilor Matsuda.

What is my concern is that I posted a notice to all members of the Peacekeeper's Guild announcing the reveal of a piece of jewelry I designed and, shortly after, a faction of paladins started stalking that area and that I must accept some responsibility. Whether it's believed that they can ultimately do no harm is irrelevant. Your interactions with them are not the same as Rubi's interactions, which are not the same as my interactions, and so on, ad infinitum. "They blew up my building." "They are no threat to this city." It's a matter of perspective.

I'm genuinely curious. Does your tolerance extend to hunters as well? Werewolves? Other supernaturals? Humans? All? If not, why?

You know, I don't know. I want to know. I'd like to know. I want to know what a guild is and how it's different from a clan. I want to know why the Peacekeepers designed these "tools" and for what purpose. Right now the cloaks seem to me to do nothing but divide us—make us untouchable to each other—make vampires blind to their true potential and power, yadda yadda. But then again, I don't know exactly what you believe in, so I guess, forgive me for the interpretation. Mea culpa?

I want to know what "neutrality" means. I keep asking what the hell it means and nobody seems to be able to answer me other than to say, "Well, I don't fight [other vampires]" (I use "vampires" as a catch-all term for supernaturals because it sounds cooler. Sue me).

I want to know what all this fear is about.

I'm starting to see you.

I see the parts of you that you reveal to others in the richness of your words. You fiend. I'm intrigued by the chaos brimming under the surface of your attention span, and I respect the screaming thing you contain between conflict and conflict.

That chaos calls to me and demands recognition and I have forced myself to reflect on it.

I have found myself struggling for months to contend with the idea that we the Peacekeepers are a part of something that was already defined twenty-one years ago when it was established, but that definition has been lost to me from the mouths and hands of those that were the first to live it. While I follow the leads of what I have and while I turn to any that wants to help establish and answer the questions you and I ask aloud, I keep thinking: how regrettable that we don't readily have more. But I am not the first, and I continue to scour the archives for voices of the past while awaiting voices of the present to continue expanding the definition of what neutrality means to them.

But this isn't about collecting as much information as I can, compiling it, discussing it, devouring it until it's picked dry between you and me and all that remains are the bones of the word.

This is about me and about what I believe in. Indulge my vanity for my official introduction to you, bloodthirsty one.

You asked what the difference was between a guild and a clan, and I've reflected on this as well. I believe being a member of this Guild means seeking peace with the nature which compels me. The writhing thing inside of you that craves violence is the same that once choked me to the point of ruin. You celebrate it. You control it, even, and control it well. You are remarkable. But I require the calm. I enforce this peace where and how I can around myself, by not taking up arms against other vampires, hunters, paladins, or werewolves, and by seeking to understand when others don't agree. I don't seek punishment as retribution, because the hurt caused to my emotions could just as easily be a shortcoming of my own as it could be the intention of others, and because it could ultimately be more damaging.

Ego will say, "She thinks she's better than you." I'm not. I don't. I'm capable of failing and I know when I have before. I'm incapable of pulling myself out of the temptation to destroy everything around me if I entertain it. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you know others who know that struggle too. I'm capable of being full of contradictions.

I require no one to believe as I do. I just believe there is another way.

I seek peace because conflict abounds here, and there must be balance. The most direct way I can do that is by vowing to Neutrality. This vow pushes my neutrality beyond just being non-violent and non-combative. It demands political objectivity. Tensions are prevalent in every disagreement, in any contact with something unfamiliar, and through incensed emotions pushed to action. This city is stained a rotten, beautiful red. Historically, the wounds inflicted have been bled to promote healing, yet this sacred act has been corrupted by untended indignation.

It seems the result of the surplus of unresolved conflict is the stark absence of a meaningful pause. I believe in the quiet after your fight is done, sweet demon. The body can recover, but so can the soul. Clarity and perspective can be just as healing as the magic and alchemy offered by the shops. I believe it prevents the hoarding of resources, which ultimately enables greed, which enables stagnation. I have been inspired. Perhaps, those who take to the order of Battle Cloak believe this too, and that's why they respect Torpor as much as they do. As above, one doesn't have to be a member of the Peacekeepers to uphold that, but those that do have done so vocally.

I am a Peacekeeper. This vow hasn't been taken lightly, and it isn't a cover or ploy to protect myself from the consequences of my actions.

But, how can you know that, when so many others have paid their way into the Guild and taken oaths to escape? I understand there have also been those who have used their bonds to provide aid through scrolls during an active conflict if their loved ones are involved. Such actions diminish the sincerity of the vow that I hold, but I've not spoken with them myself to know their reasoning and it isn't my place to judge. However, I understand why you might. I understand why you feel cheated, deceived, and untrusting.

Regardless, there's a place for them as well as a Peacekeeper. That is what makes a guild. Because when the last vampire contradicts the vows they claim to maintain, when a member feels the need to take up arms again, or when we all fall to the shadows indefinitely, the Peacekeepers' Guild will endure. Unlike a clan, it's an institute that doesn't require much of anything from its members for its legacy to remain intact.

It also requires no thoughtful organization beyond what already exists in the symbiotic relationship long established between the Guildmasters and RavenBlack. Anything more detailed than that is a herculean attempt strictly on the shoulders of those who buy into it.

Fools like me.

It was implied that I do so for vanity and ego. While I allow myself a pretty piece of jewelry, one worthy of theft, I don't cling to my title like a precious thing that will never be replaced when I decide so. Councilor suited the hope that there could be a high council for active members to discuss ongoing relations between the Guild and the community, to help guide thoughtful discussions, and what we could do to give back to those who remain with the Guild.

Truthfully, Counselor is more fitting to what I do daily. I meet with members or anyone considering joining the Peacekeepers and discuss the vows they're taking if they're considering Neutrality. Whatever their reason, hopes, needs, biases, and judgments, one thing is universal across us all: we cannot participate in conflicts when tensions have boiled over to action. We also cannot provide monetary or financial aid to our warring families or clans. I counsel that this is something they have to be willing to sacrifice, and I counsel others to redefine their beliefs in their neutrality if they align more with being a non-combatant instead.

The need to stand up in defense of those we love is not something that vanishes when we join with the Peacekeepers. A readiness to try and find diplomatic resolutions is not innate with membership and can take many years to perfect. And to do so successfully is an ongoing struggle. I continue to work on it. We all seek to be understood, even the loudest and most belligerent in the room. This I counsel and discuss with others so that we both become closer to attaining what we wish to be.

I've abandoned my attempt, at this time, to bullet point in neat rows what the Peacekeepers' Guild offers. The expectations I hold for myself are not and will not be the same for any other member, and it's not for me to say who is and isn't worthy. I leave that for them to answer, should they ever wish to. There is space for them to carve their own place into Peacekeeper history.

Even without this declaration, The Peacekeepers Guild persists.

[Carrot]

Tonight I answered a distress call for another Paladin attack. This plea for help came from a non-member near the Halls of Binding and Severing. The Paladin has been dealt with. I have yet to spot any rabbit markings on the skin or armor. Be vigilant, be alert.