My my Dingo, what an immagination you have.
I have refrained as of yet, on commenting on the recent topic of
saccrificing the creatures of the forest to the shrines of the city.
However i can stay my toungue no longer. Dingo, i have known you
long to be a person of level headedness, however now i fear you
have partaken a bit too much of the cactus weed.

The cave bear of which you speak never told you such lies. For
the Druids are hardly plaguing him with hugs and hails. And never
once have i seen a Druid complain about any creature traipsing their
grove. Personally whenever one enters mine i great them and say a
polite how do you do.

Now, this cave bear who calls the forests of Azduhn his home i have
had the opprotunity of meating on many occaisions. In the past, i
would talk with him, and ask him if all was well and if people where
respecting his domain. However, as of late, he has never been the
same. I remember when he was full of life, rushing to defend his
territory from any intruder, ripping them limb from limb. However,
lately he has allowed people to tramp through his domain unchecked.
I thought this odd, so i sat down with him one day and delved deep
into his soul. I recoiled in horror at what i found.

He was no longer alive. Yae i tell you, his soul was dead, yet his
body lived on, if such an existance can be called living. His soul
had been touched by a priest, and he was no longer the mighty
protector of his domain, he was mearly a shadow of his former self.
Truly told, this saddened me, and I enacted a ritual to find out
the once-mighty creatres will.
I learned that he had been fooled into thinking he was once going
to be part of something grand. I learned that his eyes where shrouded
and he was led, like a lamb, to be made fuel for a towering monolith
that made even he afraid. His soul, what i could manage to revive,
spoke to me of the increadable torture and pain he went through.
He being the guardian of the forest in which he called home, his
body returned, filled with his once again refreshed soul. He related
to me of the short time he spent as himself again, untill one day
another Priest returned and destroyed his soul again, leaving him
to wander untill he was once again led to the slaughter. He showed
me how this torture was repeated endlessly.

I asked him what it was i could do to help him, he told me he
wanted one thing and one thing only, to have his spirit returned
to him one last time, to be able to fight again, and then join
the Earthmother, having been slain nobly.

I obliged him, i took no pleasure in it, but i used the last of
my will to return his soul to him, giving him a part of mine.
I then bared my chest to him, allowing him to strike first, and then
rose up to strike back. We battled there in the burried forests
of Azduhn untill he uttered, in his last living breath, "thank you,
brother of the forest" He died there, in my arms and i wept for him.
get bucket
butcher rat i knew his soul to be free, and so i honored the last of his
wishes, and offered him to Gaia, the Earthmother.

Sadly, when his body and soul returned to the world again, he
was subjected to the same torchures. He bade me, to whenever i see
any creature whose mind has been blinded, to set their souls free
and that is what i intend to do. I will not let any creature
be tormented such, i -will- set them free.

The creatures of nature, be it forest, desert, cave or what have you
are quite sentient. But they do not accept what is done to them, and
what the church is doing, and has been doing for ages.
I have no quarrel with the Church, and hope that i never do. However,
perhaps they should think of this.

Has anyone asked Gaia what she thinks of her creatures being
led, like cattle to the slaughterhosue, for what are hardly
benign reasons?

I leave you with that.
Rahl

Penned by my hand on the 16th of Aeguary, in the year 226 AF.