Postulations 1
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: Postulations I
Author: Archae Titus
Contained within are a series of postulative exercises by Professor Archae Titus of the Lycaeum with a series of possibilities of how things can go wrong.
Adventurers' knowledge of Britannia, it can be fairly stated, was often wide, but not often deep. Adventurers saw a lot of this land. They saw something of the local color, they even occasionally could learn the local dialects, local patterns of dress, and could fit in if they wished to.
But, that's a lot different than living on the ground with the common folk. Many of these people who fretted about artifact prices and the size of the plots for their fancy houses may have once upon a time had to worry about where the next meal was coming from, but some never did at all, and even those who once had to, had to no longer.
But, for some Britannians, those worries never left.
And it was those people who truly suffer without a strong central government. To the adventurers, whose stories we read and celebrate, those were the people at the margins. But even those at the margins have their own stories, their own cares, their own responsibilities.
In Vesper Take, for example, Jared, the Bank Guard of Vesper.
Day in, day out, he watched the adventurers fill million gold checks, so casually. They would complain about how little a million gold was these days. “Give some to me,” he'd think to himself. “That's still enough to feed my family for years! It's about 5 years' pay! And a Bank Guard is skilled work!” He'd think this, but he'd never say it. And he'd surely never do anything about it, or so he thought.
But Jared's old friend, Jasper, wasn't like Jared. Jasper did stuff. Bad stuff. And it'd been getting worse. Jasper fancied himself a criminal, but he was none-too-successful at it.
Fortunately he was a better at running away than he was at the actual crime. Jasper hadn't hurt anyone yet but it was only a matter of time. The other day he'd robbed a family near the bank and the family's young son was nearly cut down in the ensuing struggle with the Town Guards.
“Hey, Jared!” Jasper whispered to his friend from the shadows.
Jared's shift had just ended. He wanted to get home; his wife was baking pie. His armor, which sometimes the adventurers found it necessary to laugh at, felt heavy.
“What is it, Jasper.” Jared sounded, and was, tired. Tired from working, and tired of Jasper's increasingly dangerous antics. Sooner or later, Jared knew, Jared's friendship with Jasper would be discovered, Jared'd be in trouble. “Not out there!” Jared sighed and followed his friend into shadows of Vesper. Under a bridge, Jasper emerged from the shadows. “This better be good, Jasper.” “Oh, it is. I guess they don't value these things as much as they used to,” said Jasper, and he showed his wrist to Jared. On that Jasper's wrist was a bracelet, the distinctive blue of an un-dyed Ornament of the Magician.
“Jasper! That's millions! At least a dozen of them, even now! They'll notice that.”
“Oh, hush, Jared. This was a rich fellow, he could replace it, or better it, easily. You should see some of the stuff they're pulling out of the Dungeon Shame!” Neither Jasper nor Jared knew that this Ornament was the only significant possession of the wearer; he had been intending on selling it to buy a good suit of armor, which he needed infinitely more than any specific bracelet. “But it's still wrong!” Isn't it funny how easily people fall back onto false moral questions when they don't know the right answers to the practical questions they should be asking? Jasper laughed at his old friend. “Oh come on Jared. Haven't you figured it out yet?”
“Figured what out!” “The Virtues are dead. They died a long time ago and the government made it seem like they were alive when they weren't. Like....Like a fake necromancy. They didn't keep the Virtues alive, just kept their image up. Sure, Dawn believed the lie where Casca didn't. But it's the same thing. Both just kept up the lie. But now, guess what?
No government, no Virtue, no illusion. Now we can see things how they really are. Honesty's one of the Virtues, isn't it?” What frightened Jared was that he didn't know how to respond. He felt there was no refutation to his friend's words. Jasper continued. “All that matters how is us. Us here on the ground and how we're going to survive. That's Honesty, right there. Honesty to admit that. A bunch of us have been talking.” “Who? And talking about what?”
Jared suddenly seemed all guard-like again to Jasper, he'd sounded almost human for a few minutes, and Jasper laughed again. “You sure you want to hear about this old friend?”
“Yes!” “A bunch of us have been talking.....About a new way to be. A new way to survive. A new way to prosper. A new way to get what we need, what we want.” Jared didn't know the specifics yet, but he knew he wanted to know more, and he knew that in the wanting, he'd already made his choice. Jared came home very late and ate his pie cold.