Swamp: What is the inherent nature of kin? Good? Evil? Something else? Mountain: What makes a kin fit to lead or to rule over others? Fire: Why is there sadness, evil, and fear in the world? Water: What are the greatest mysteries of life? Should kin seek answers to these mysteries? Thunder: How does a kin live a "good" life? What is required of him or her? Wind: Heaven: When, if ever, is it acceptable to lie? Earth: What happens after death?
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:54 am
The maze was simple for it wasn't much of a maze at all. Any kin or creature could make their way from the starting point to the center, but it was the journey that mattered the most after all. Labyrinths were designs of meditation, often created with one path, that let ones mind breathe as one walked to the center.
Farewell Smile was anxious and uptight as she entered the maze, unsure of what she was even doing here as a new member of the tribe. She felt unwelcome, out of place, and more uncomfortable in her own skin than she usually was. She had been told that her participation wasn't mandatory, but she felt obliged to compete anyways, to prove that she had some merit.
She almost froze in place when the first question was posed; these had not been the type questions that she had expected to answer. Still, she took a few quick, gasping gulps of air, before beginning, launching into her answer before she became to trapped in her thoughts to do so. Her voice was flat and slow as her anxiousness translated into a desire to keep her voice perfectly controlled, almost without inflection except for the strain of panic, "Kin are neither good nor evil, they are as the MotherFather made them. If all were good, then we wouldn't be able to appreciate their goodness. We are born capable of both good and evil and some may be born more inclined towards one or the other, but through the course of our lives, we are unlikely to escape one or the other completely. Neither are we capable of escaping the labels of morality that have been chosen long before we were born."
"Actions, in and of themselves, as we do them, are not given morality unless we choose to imbue them with meaning and intention. To kill another creature in the hunt is not evil for we hunt to live, but creating pain has been ordained to be evil. Still, the hunt is not evil because the intention, usually, is not to create pain, but to allow for survival. To do 'evil' does not make one evil, just like doing 'good' does not make one good. To assume that we are meant for one or the other is folly because it is a lie and it also limits our thinking and our actions." It seemed, for a short moment, that she might go on, but she fell silent and did not speak up again. She turned, eyes carefully guarded, to her teammates. She hoped that what she had done was enough.
Samuel Carlin
Time to start responding to the IC prompts I think! Let's start with the Swamp question!
Blinded by Silence
We each have to answer all the questions! So we should all do Swamp then all move on to Mountain, etc, etc, etc.
Watch had wandered into the maze after his clanmate without a touch of fear. It was a challenge, the beginnings of another story, and he welcomed it with his ever-open heart. Red eyes blazing, he watched his Smile proceed, nodding to her when she looked back at him. They could do it, easily, he thought. But, he stopped when the next question hit him, pondering.
"Neither, I'd say. We are inherently selfish, but I would no go as far as to say good nor evil. We help others because it makes us feel whole as a person. We manipulate others to get our way. We do what we do to illicit some reaction or response, not because we are good or evil, but because we are individuals who, whether you admit it or not, always try and find the best thing for us, or our friends, or our loved ones." He gave a shrug and looked back to his next team mate.
Amorpheous
Sorry, didn't know! Fixed~ Sorry if it's terrible, I'm having trouble slipping into his character..
Samuel Carlin
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 12:14 pm
Wandering into the maze and finding his way through? Storm Warning wasn't a soft-minded buck. He didn't have a hard time making it around the twists and corners that had been set up as a challenge. It was the question that waited at the center that gave him pause and made him think.
And speak. "Inherent nature?" Storm flicked an ear, then shook his head a little, his mane wavering the way his thoughts wandered. "Who says there's an inherent nature? That makes it sound like we all come out of the sac the same. Like we all dream the same dream and only start to change after we open our eyes." Another mane toss. "I don't believe that. I've seen foals who want to fight the minute they can stand, and others who wouldn't unless you backed them up against the hardest rock, and maybe not even then. If there's anything that's the same in all of us, it's simpler than good or evil. It's the push to stand up in the first place. To take a breath and get on our feet. What happens after that is anyone's guess."
Though she continued her slow walk through the maze, Farewell Smile remained quiet, reticent even. She felt uptight and anxious and she was afraid to speak lest her discomfort translate into her snapping at her teammates, lashing out because she was uncomfortable with herself. Then again, she didn't feel too out of place since it seemed her teammates, though she was well aware that they were brothers, did not seem very much inclined to speak to each other either.
When the next question came, it was almost a relief. She slowed to an easy stop and tilted her head. She supposed that she would be speaking first again because she had spoken first the last time. She considered her answer to the question before speaking out, careful not to let the strain she was feeling enter her voice, "For a kin to lead, there must be kin willing to follow. That is all that is needed for a leader to be born. Perhaps there are other traits that one should possess to be a good leader, but so long as one can command a following, one is a leader."
"I do not believe that any kin should rule though. Ruling implies infallibility and unlimited power, while leadership implies consent. All kin should, in the end, be considered equal, though some may choose to follow and others may choose to lead. Ruling is not this, ruling is the creation of inequality that does not belong in the Swamp."
