Albonium

Volume V - Mageor

Book X - The Darkest Nights

I - Objectivity, Subjectivity, and Faith

Senators Aelius and Diagoras stayed in the Curia after the meeting had passed, for Aelius desired a place to think, and Diagoras approached him with an uncertain expression on his face, which had been supportive of one thing, which had been proven to be false, and so lay confused, as an old man noticed the coming and falling of many things, and so felt difficulty in supporting them, unlike who he once was.

"You have enjoyed your new titles, I see.", said Diagoras.

"I have."

"Censor, and practical Magister equitum. I should bow to you."

Aelius looked at him, and saw the man of a great many years, who wore a toga as the suit had finally fallen out of favor, but wore it wrongly so that it seemed to drag slightly over the floor, as if he no longer cared much, as it seemed his power as a Senator, and his wealth as a former Legate and businessman were enough. Yet, he seemed to be intentional and broken with his actions, and with his steps, and had a tired brow, which had seen many fights, and many revolutions.

"What is this, Aelius? What is this, these walls of marble, which we so keenly prize, which could be seen as an artistic abomination by what we call barbarians, who would prefer wooden poles with carvings of red and purple, stained with great colored murals as opposed to our carved plainness? What makes us different from them, and what makes us above them?"

Aelius started, but was interrupted.

"Why, the glory of the Empire, and of our gods, of course, who dictate that we are of the right, and that the remaining Jews and Catholics are in the wrong, as did they think so long ago, when Constantine lifted the law that blockaded the Christians. And so, after the war, they turned to us, or our ancestors became them, because they or we had Caesar, Caesar who was strong, and defeated the nationalism within the sole surviving continent."

"You mean... we only appear righteous because we are strong, and because Polonius creates the effects of victory over the Elven?"

Diagoras rested on a marble bench, and said, "One day, friend, everything we stand for, everything we believe to be true, to be indisputably true will be proven wrong, as Christianity saw our current faith as the product of useless paganism, and so there is no right, and no wrong, except for one truth, and that there really is none.

"The lies of Polonius which you support, and the status of the Roman Empire... yet we could have abolished Rome, and split it into nation-states, for the Elven only rose against Rome as Rome needed a common enemy to unite it when the Fell seem starved, and so Rome had an excuse to starve herself to fight a foe, and so suffering allowed it to exist, for suffering is equated to a golden path by all kinds of scriptures dedicated to making one follow them... what sort of clear morality, some angel of absolute purity is this, then? The French think the Englishman ruled by the Devil, evil, corrupt, and soulless, and the Englishman does the same. One day, I know, one day there shall be a crusading force that shall overthrow these values, and that force shall prove you wrong and barbaric by proofs formulated by itself, and then another force shall come and do the same, and so there is nothing but evil in this Earth as all else classifies it as evil, or good for it believes itself to be good, and that is it, that is all, and that is all there is."

And so he, tired of lies and of the cycles of history, left with his bags and left Aelius, who stayed there. And then, Diagoras's corpse was found in his own home, and afterwards rumors were spread that he had used fraud and illegitimacy to achieve power within the Senate, so as to tarnish his legacy. Thus evil was established to give a common enemy, and so faith counteracted the first truth, nihilism, which ended all others, for the one truth led to Man's, Tharizdun's, or the Elven's cynical darkness within a cave, and so faith had to disbelieve that and create a basis for morality, and hence, motivate the cause of Rome.