Treatise of Oblivion
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: Treatise of Oblivion
Author: Izrem Verin'Vlos
Foreword:
Those who would read from these pages, be forewarned. The teachings of Oblivion are much maligned in the current era. Too many know too little about it, and this lack of knowledge has lead them to fear it. And in that fear, that have come to hate it. From that hate, they seek to destroy it. Although there is no one that could ever stop the inevitablitity that is Oblivion, they still try. Suppression of knowledge is the best they can do and they have learned to do it well. Keep these books only to the faithful. All others shall seek to cast it into the very nothingness it speaks of.
"The darkness of Oblivion is the only true light. While other's stumble blindly looking for meaning in life, we know that true meaning comes after."
-Lich Lord Azalin of the Order of the Ebon Skull
The teachings of Oblivion are simple in their precepts, though difficult in their tenants.
The simplest mind can grasp the basics, but it requires a man or woman of wisdom to know how to follow them. The precepts are three in number: Entropy, Equalization and Realization. The tenants are two fold: Embrace and Peace.
Entropy:
If history has taught us anything, it is that those who follow the same path of those that went before them, they are doomed to make the same mistakes. All of history has been a sudden brilliant moment of order and justice followed by an unorderly decay towards corruption and chaos. For some, that one moment of bliss makes up for the years of suffering that follow.
These people are the same ones that define the systems that inevitably fail. These people are the leaders of old and now the new.
While their names may have changed, their purposes have not.
Entropy is the natural result of a mortal's drive to control everything, while he understands nothing. Power without knowledge is destructive instinct. And that is all these leaders have ever brought. Entropy is present in the sins of mortals. And it is entropy that cleanses the reminders of that sin away.
Equalization:
Entropy teaches us that nations see a rapid rise and then will inevitably fall by its own failings. Equalization is what drives the leaders of the world to do as they do.
Whether you be human or orc, elf or drow, demon or god, one day you will die. One day you will pass from this realm forever more. It is this truth that places a sense of hopelessness in the hearts of many. Some attempt to fill their hearts with "Virtues" others with a life of excess. No matter what path they take, they all end up under the same patch of dirt and their spirits off to become the clay of another creatures work.
Equalization is the simple fact that everything and everyone eventually returns back to point zero. Some might see this as a sad and terrible inevitability. But there is an old riddle that comes to mind. "What do you say to a happy man to make him sad and to a sad man to make him happy?" One simple phrase. "This too shall pass." For those in power, they fear this day and they seek to suppress the idea that anything can change. To those who are castrated of their power and their sight, this truth is their call to freedom.
Equalization need not be only in death. It can be achieved in life.
Realization:
Once someone understands these two things, there are two choices to be made. Either surrender to inevitablity or seek a new route to avoid such suffering. To those that surrender, they become both the oppressor and the oppressed. The oppressor becomes an empire builder and wrecker, while the oppressed huddle and watches the world go by them, waiting for their misery to end. To those that choose to fight, there is a problem of their own. How do you fight what seems so natural? How do you fight the desire to build a new life and just start anew? As exciting as "blazing a new path" might seem, it usually ends on the same path as other mortal endevors and fails all the same.
Embrace:
When the necromancer that would one day be known as Lich Lord Azalin stepped out of the Mage Academy of Moonglow, he found that his research taught him the things the three precepts and left a hole within him. What could humans do, if history was a circle that all who entered were damned to follow in forever? Escaping to the cold northern island of Dagger Isle, Azalin trudged through the wastelands, hoping to find answers within himself.
Traveling to the deepest part of Deceit, he found a shrine on which he chose to lay. In his dream he found himself in utter darkness. At first he was afraid, but soon after he felt peace.
His dreams showed him how to leave the worries of the world behind him.
Rather than live in fear of what the foolish will do with Sosoria or the damage that ignorance does to the world, someone could choose to empty themselves of the same desires that drive them and start in a different way. Lord Azalin called this Embrace. When one chooses to forsake the worldly governments and their short term goals and seek the path to enlightenment that transcends the goals of the small minded and transient mortals of the un-Embraced.
Peace:
Once one has accepted the desire to change from the path of the un-Embraced, they are ready to find something that few others have been able to discover. As long as one fears for their personal legacy or what they can achieve for themselves in their lifetime, they can never know peace. All they will ever know is the suffering first to gain and then suffering that comes with loss. But to those that seek a higher cause than themselves, then the scourage of Entropy does not so easily destroy them. When all seek this cause, whatever they build becomes not a decaying achievement of the flesh, but a timeless emblem to the true power of the unity of those who have gone beyond themselves.
Why then, Oblivion? Why not the Virtues? Why not for the will of a god? The Virtues demand compliance, yet they also demand differentiating acceptance. How can one show true Justice yet also true Compassion?
The Virtues, though admirable in their aim, leave mortals feeling as if they can never reach true enlighenment. The truth is, the Virtues do not provide true enlightenment and never claim to. While equally impressive that they admit this, it is a flaw that leads men to choose
one aspect over another. When they do this, they lose balance of all the truths. And when this happens, they fall to preference and excess, and thus fall from the very virtues they claim to protect.
A god that demands a mortals obedience in world affairs seeks to make slaves of the world. They are already caught in Entropy and are unworthy of a following.
Only Oblivion promises one simple ideal and it is unadultered. Oblivion is Peace. Free and simple.