A Mental Chat with Valadain
Valadain I thought I should let you know what is going on down south. I have called a Dragonmoot, as you hear me they gather from all round Grayhawk. My day of awakening is closing, only three days hence at the height of the Dragonmoot my transformation will be complete. I suspect I will see little of you and speak less to you over the next three days, but we will see. I certainly will not leave here until it is complete – I am committed.
But the reason I am communicating is to reveal some of the ideas that I have gleaned from the Lord of the Glaennyn, (L o G) he is very talkative, but then he has been imprisoned for millennia. I have also considered all that past between us, especially our spiritual trip to the Olshay range when we heard a Song for the Dead.
The first thing I can confirm is that the Glaennyn are ancient beyond common reasoning. 20 universes – 400,000 of our years! During this time Prometheus and the Unmaker pursued them remorselessly their numbers have declined from thousands. However, what remain are true survivors. Some universes were created specifically as traps to kill them; at best Prometheus and the Unmaker ignored them. The Glaennyn have studied the Maelstrom for much of this, yet there is little that they know for certain. However, some strong theories exist. One sees the Maelstrom as pure resonant energy; far from chaotic, the Maelstrom pulses in a regular fashion. Strangely, neither, Prometheus, nor the Unmaker utilised the power of the Maelstrom at any time in any universe, save for the idea that Prometheus might have used it as a metronome.
Council at present suggests that there is no way of understanding the impact of sending the souls of the dead to the Maelstrom. The sagely Glaennyn believes that it might alter the balance of the universe, enough said, I am taking no risks with either the souls of the dead or the universe for that matter. L o G suggests that we would be best to understand the function of Limbo and why Nature felt it so important that the souls go there. He suggests, that Malkar may hold answers here, after all he was once Nature’s protégé. At some stage we may have to visit Limbo and study its function. If you can discuss such things with Malkar I suggest you do. If you have then, if possible, tell me his council.
Meanwhile, I had forgotten how much faith Nature put in us. Reflecting on the Song for the Dead I realised to what extent we might be bound up with a successful outcome, we best look after each other. Which brings me to your parentage. Although you have not exactly hidden it, is there not an element of hypocrisy in an absolute anti-demonic stance, after all was not your father Raikos an ‘adept’ of the mixing of demon blood? Nature has always known of this mixing and yet only dealt with the extremes – often by using the products of such unions. Dr. X was a classic example, despite his horribly demonic origin and a master of three primal magics, the songs tell that he escaped from limbo, and ended up fighting Lorimas’s demonic infection with chaos, by creating a mass infection. Some songs claim Lorimas hunted them all down, others tell he bred so often you have to destroy the universe to cleanse it of his spawn.
The point here is that we must accept the inevitability of a demonic presence on Grayhawk, some of our noble lines are likely to be contaminated already. The L o G would likely concur with this thinking. We need to think in terms of containment and eventually integration, not annihilation. There is something complete about Grayhawk now, I do not understand it but I feel the demons must stay. That said we couldn’t allow a demonic free for all. I favour a carrot and stick approach. I will provide deadly force, if necessary, to protect Grayhawk, but I will not deploy it unless the scale of the problem demands it.
Once I was deliberately antagonistic toward you, mainly because I needed a veil of neutrality for Malador’s benefit, but Malkar, your God, calls me "dear friend". It is hard to be neutral faced with such friendship. That said, if a religious war started I would find it difficult to fight on one side or the other, unless a clear intension to damage Grayhawk was evident in the war aims of either party. But as I understand it Malkar would have you ‘above’ and detached any such conflict. Eventually, I will have to talk to Willow Star but not yet.
As for destroying the gate, I am no closer to working out if it is, or is not, a good idea. My guess would be that its function might be important with regards the souls of the dead
This is much more serious than I originally thought, this Staff is the Maelstrom and Malkar trusts me with it. He said to me "The true measure of power is the ability not to wield it. Jarik, you display wisdom beyond your years…I feel that Grayhawk, and the plight of the Glaennyn, could not be in safer hands. Be at peace, dear friend." You understand, therefore, if sometimes I refuse to unleash power. That said I do not think of you as someone to be remembered for slaughter. Remember whatever demons may be, they have souls, if they have souls then they can worship, if they can worship they can be priests or even disciples. Gods can be demons. Your God, however, was a man if I understand sources correctly. So what next, as I said, I will be relatively inaccessible for a period but will stay in contact.
Jarik Saal