The Reign of Istar / The Reversal of Roles

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="376cdb13.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="29f899a0.jpg" border=0 width="137" height="154" ALT="A white dragon" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#99CC00" FACE="Arial" ><B>Final Fantasy Genesis</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFCC99" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT>|   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Final Fantasy Genesis"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>The Reign of Istar / The Reversal of Roles</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="2bdf4010.gif" border=0 width="500" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Reign of Istar / The Reversal of Roles</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="2985e620.jpg" border=0 width="350" height="354" ALT="Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, in her infernal glory! DEVOUR that wretched Laurana! MWAAAAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >There is an interesting series of books in print called 'the DragonLance Saga'. Set in a world called Krynn, there are many races, the elves, created by the chief of the good gods, Paladine, the dwarves, gnomes, kender, and humans, made by Gilean, the main god of neutrality, and the ogres and minotaurs, made by Takhisis, the dark goddess. There are also the dragons, two kinds.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >The chromatic dragons of evil are red, blue, green, black, and white, while the metallic dragons of good are copper, brass, bronze, silver, and gold. Paladine rules the metallic dragons in the form of a great platinum dragon, while Takhisis rules her children in the form of a great dragon with five heads, one red, one blue, one green, one black, and one white (See the picture above). The neutral god takes the form of a great book, and he lies between Takhisis and Paladine as they endlessly circle and watch each other.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >Once on Krynn, there was a great and powerful empire known as Istar. This empire was ruled by the Kingpriest, and he lived in the Temple of the Kingpriest in Istar's capital city. He wanted all of Krynn to be under the rule of the gods of the good pantheon, and to exterminate all of the evil influences on the world.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >Over time, he started to jump at shadows. He decided that the races that Gilean created were as evil as Takhisis' creations, and he commanded mass genocide. The minotaurs, ogres, dwarves, gnomes, and kender were all hunted. He started a philosophy that the gods of evil and neutrality had marked their children with horns, height, or smallness, so that Paladine's hunters could eliminate them. The Kingpriest forgot that humans had been created by Gilean, and he only barely tolerated the presence of elves in his city, even though elves were Paladine's creations. Try as he might, no matter how many non-humans were killed, evil refused to depart. He then decided that magic-users were also evil, and he ignored the fact that the wizards drew their power from the children of the gods themselves. The evil wizards took power from Nuitari, Takhisis' son, and wore black robes. The good sorcerors drew from Solinari, Paladine's son, and they wore robes of white. Mages of neutrality wore red robes and took power from Lunitari, Gilean's daughter. He ordered that the wizards be removed, and some of his hunters started after them, almost to the point of going into the five Towers of High Sorcery where the wizards dwelt. To stop artifacts of great power from falling into the Kingpriest's hands, the wizards destroyed one tower in a magical explosion that devestated the city around it as a warning to the Kingpriest. Since two more Towers were located in major urban areas, the city of Palanthas and in Istar itself, the Kingpriest allowed the mages to go to one other Tower in far Wayreth. He moved in to the Tower in Istar, and the Lord of Palanthas intended to do the same, but was stopped by a sudden curse upon the Tower.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >The Kingpriest now could turn his paranoia inward. Just before the annual celebration of his birthday, there was a mysterious theft of sacred wine from one of the nine ritual vats deep beneath the Temple of the Kingpriest. At the time, the head clerics of the nine realms of Istar had to be present, and one of the priests was delayed. The Kingpriest began to think that the theft had something to do with the 'Dark One' (his name for Takhisis) and the priest's absence.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >Unbeknownst to the residents of the Temple, there was a large clan of gully dwarves that had literally fallen into a series of caverns below the temple. The tiny-brained creatures accidentally tunneled into the wine vat when the gully dwarf miners were searching for pyrite. The hole in the vat naturally made the wine leak out, and soon more Aghar (what gully dwarves called themselves) were merrily chipping away at the sides of what they thought was a gusher of wine. Reaching more of the vats, they drained a few more. Soon the caverns were flooded with the sacred wines, and the Aghar moved.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >The Kingpriest, horrified at what he thought was the Dark Queen's infiltration of his Temple, ordered that the one magical item in the edifice be used. This was the 'Scroll of the Ancients', a spell that would allow him to read and control the thoughts of everyone in Istar. Only then, he thought, could he remove this spreading evil. The Edict of Thought Control, as it came to be called, was passed.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >The scroll would never be read.</FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >Before it could be used, all the gods, furious at the Kingpriest's presumption that he could control everyone's minds, hurled a mountain of fire at Istar, making it land on the Temple of the Kingpriest, as he shouted his demands to Paladine:</FONT></div> <bR> <div>      <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"Paladine, you see the evil that surrounds me! You have been witness to the calamities that have been the scourge of Krynn...You must see now that this doctrine of balance will not work!</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>     ...I can sweep the evil from this world! Destroy the ogre races! Bring the wayward humans into line! Find new homelands far away for the dwarves and the kender and the gnomes, those races not of your creation...</I></div> <div> <I>     I demand that you give me, too, the power to drive away the shadows of evil that darken the land!"</I></div> <div> <I> </I><I>                     ~ The Kingpriest of Istar, Introduction to '</I><I><B>The Reign of Istar</B></I><I>'</I></div> <bR> <div>       The whole plain that the Istar Empire rested on sank beneath the sea, splitting the main landmass of Krynn into fragments, nearly destroying the other landmass, and creating an ocean where once was fertile land. Where the temple once stood, at the bottom of the Blood Sea, as it was named, twisted a gigantic whirlpool, called the Maelstrom. Below this...there was a black hole that was cold, lifeless. None know where it leads. The people of Krynn later called this retriubitive strike the Cataclysm.</div> <bR> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><I> </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"You ask where the temple stands. It stands no longer. In the place where the Kingpriest stood, shouting his arrogant demands to the gods, there is a dark pit. Although it is filled with sea water, nothing lives within it. None know its depth, for the sea elves will not venture near it. I have looked into its dark, still waters as long as I could bear the terror, and I do not believe there is an end to its darkness. It is as deep as the heart of evil itself."</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>                     ~ Zebulah, '</I><I><B>Dragons of Spring Dawning'</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"So this is the end," Tanis said. "Good has triumphed."</I></FONT></div> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"Good? Truimph?" Fizban repeated, turning to stare at the half-elf shrewdly. "Not so, Half-Elven. The balance is restored. The evil dragons will not be banished. They remain here, as do the good dragons. One again the pendulum swings freely."</I></FONT></div> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"All this suffering, just for that?"Laurana asked, coming to stand beside Tanis. "Why shouldn't good win, drive the darkness away forever?"</I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Verdana" ><I> </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><I>"Haven't you learned anything, young lady?" Fizban scolded, shaking a bony finger at her. "There </I><I>was</I><I> a time when good held sway. Do you know when that was? Right before the Cataclysm!"</I></div> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"Yes" - he continued, seeing their astonishment - "the Kingpriest of Istar was a good man. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't, because both you have seen what goodness like that can do. You've seen it in the elves, the ancient of embodiment of good! It breeds intolerance, rigidity, a belief that because I am right, those who don't believe as I do are wrong.</I></FONT></div> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"We gods saw the danger this complacency was bringing upon the world. We saw that much good was being destroyed, simply because it wasn't understood. And we saw the Queen of Darkness, lying in wait, biding her time; for this could not last, of course. The overweighted scales must tip and fall, and then she would return. Darkness would descend on the world very fast."</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>                                             ~ Fizban, '</I><I><B>Dragons of Spring Dawning' </B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <bR> <div> The sea came to be called the Blood Sea of Istar. Its waters are blood red, said to be the blood of all those who died in the Cataclysm. In truth, they are red due to the fertile soil of the plain of Istar, thrown up by the Maelstrom, eternally agitated.</div> <bR> <div> The moral of this whole story? There must be good as well as evil. Look at the Spanish Inquisition, the Burning Times (the witch hunts) , the Nazis. All thought they were doing God's work. If the balance is tilted too much in either direction, then great harm will befall. But still, the Cataclysm alone was not enough to set the balance right. Paladine gave Takhisis free run over Krynn for sixty days after the gods threw down the firey mountain, and during that time the stars shone ever brighter for his tears during that time. And the balance was righted.</div> <div> And Paladine and Takhisis circle each other for eternity, watching the other with the hate borne from the slaying of their children, fighting for control. And Gilean the Book stands ever between them.</div> <div> It's about point of view, <I>from which side you are on </I>! In Star Wars, do you think that the Empire thinks they are evil? Of course not! The goal of the Empire was a tidy society. But the Emperor ruined it. Look at the whole trilogy from the Empire's eyes! Yes, they DID destroy Alderaan! But guess what? Alderaan was very sparsely populated. How many people with families died when the Death Star was destroyed? When the <I>Executor</I> had an A-Wing crash into the bridge, it lost control and plunged into the second Death Star, exploding. How many people died in that fireball? Look at it in perspective, and far more Imperials died than any amount of Rebels. The same is true in Krynn.</div> <bR> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"I was in the War of the Lance," Sister Hana said, more to herself than to them.</I></FONT></div> <div> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>    </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33FF99" FACE="Arial" ><I>"As were we, ma'am," said Kang, adding politely, "on different sides, I believe."</I></FONT></div> <div> <I> </I><I>    She cast him a grim and dour glance. "The side of evil!"</I></div> <div> <I>     "No, ma'am," said Kang. "It was you who were on the side of evil."</I></div> <div> <I>     She drew herself up straight. "I fought in the name of Paladine!"</I></div> <div> <I>     "And we fought in the name of our goddess. It all depends on your vantage point, dosen't it, ma'am?" Kang said.</I></div> <div> <I>                            ~ Kang, a 'draconian', and Sister Hana, a priestess of Paladine, in </I><I>'</I><I><B>To Convince the Righteous of the Right'</B></I><I><B>, </B></I><I><B>'Heroes and Fools'</B></I></div> <bR> <div> What would you say to that? How do you conservative Christians who throw around your 'Satanists!' and your 'Evils!' all over without caring about the feelings of others. Have you ever heard of Matthew Shepherd? He was a known homosexual who was in a college. And know what happened to him? A whole bunch of conservative Christians assaulted him, beat him, and tied him to a chain link fence in the middle of a storm. He died. At his funeral, a bunch of Christians picketed carrying signs saying things like 'AIDS Cures Fags', 'God Hates Fags', and 'Fags Die Good Laughs'. At this poor person's <I>funeral.</I> His family was there, and they had to see people walking around with signs like that. The picketers explained that they were trying to 'console' the family. How loving is that? When someone explains that to me, maybe I'll start being nice to filthy dogs the like of those picketers.</div> <div>      Take a sec and reverse those roles, or something to the like. If there was a world dominated by Wiccans, and Christians were treated as something evil (although Wiccans HAVE no evil deity, or Hell, in fact, a common saying is 'Everyone goes to Summerland'. How nice!) or something like that. What if heterosexuals were thought to be Satanic? THEN what would you do? HUNH? In-ter-esting thought, ain't it? Chew on that fer a while.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <IMG SRC="https://members.tripod.com/bin/counter/id60.htm?00FF00" ALT="[Tripod Counter]">  </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>