In that case, [he pauses to consider; there is a sound from the other side as he gets to his feet,] if they hadn't the option, they'd be more like wyverns or dragons. Dangerous without real malice--and that would be pitiable, for all they've been maligned for doing no more than they'd been Made to.
But so far as we know, they did make the choice to turn predatory when the Maker turned His attention from them and to us--to men. In blackest envy were the demons born, it's said; they had the power of gods in the Fade but weren't content with it.
I s'pose that's touching on your Bonded, isn't it? The idea you can't hold something accountable for deliberate evil if it hasn't got free will of its own.
[It's stepping out of the character of the argument, a little, to address things so directly. But he is both curious and worried about Linden's arrangement with the SQUIP, and so he presses.
And then laughs, softly.]
No, without anyone else around from Thedas I know I'm perfectly safe to speak of it however I would--simply framing my reticence, as it were.
Having thought about it--I don't feel much sympathy for them. It's their avarice for our world that drives them; they've wanted to despoil the Maker's creation from the start. They prey on mages without any remorse, and we're the ones who take the blame in the eyes of the world for it. However we struggle, however we strive, however many of us submit meekly to chains, to Circles, to the brand--to most folk a mage is fire made flesh and a demon asleep, nothing more than a conduit for them to break into the world.
Demons don't care about that except as it gives them leverage to convince the most desperate to take their offers, and so the whole bloody cycle turns 'round again. [He'd been calm to start, but passion gradually creeps into his voice as he goes on...and as he's honest with himself, that passion frightens him a little. These are almost a Libertarian's words; they run parallel to the things Vandelin had long argued, even if Myr's still holding back from his cousin's conclusion--that the whole world supporting the Circles, the chain, and the brand should be overturned, and the Chantry with it.]
no subject
But so far as we know, they did make the choice to turn predatory when the Maker turned His attention from them and to us--to men. In blackest envy were the demons born, it's said; they had the power of gods in the Fade but weren't content with it.
I s'pose that's touching on your Bonded, isn't it? The idea you can't hold something accountable for deliberate evil if it hasn't got free will of its own.
[It's stepping out of the character of the argument, a little, to address things so directly. But he is both curious and worried about Linden's arrangement with the SQUIP, and so he presses.
And then laughs, softly.]
No, without anyone else around from Thedas I know I'm perfectly safe to speak of it however I would--simply framing my reticence, as it were.
Having thought about it--I don't feel much sympathy for them. It's their avarice for our world that drives them; they've wanted to despoil the Maker's creation from the start. They prey on mages without any remorse, and we're the ones who take the blame in the eyes of the world for it. However we struggle, however we strive, however many of us submit meekly to chains, to Circles, to the brand--to most folk a mage is fire made flesh and a demon asleep, nothing more than a conduit for them to break into the world.
Demons don't care about that except as it gives them leverage to convince the most desperate to take their offers, and so the whole bloody cycle turns 'round again. [He'd been calm to start, but passion gradually creeps into his voice as he goes on...and as he's honest with himself, that passion frightens him a little. These are almost a Libertarian's words; they run parallel to the things Vandelin had long argued, even if Myr's still holding back from his cousin's conclusion--that the whole world supporting the Circles, the chain, and the brand should be overturned, and the Chantry with it.]