Of Cultural Importance -[Rrah]-

[Amur]

“You assume correctly, ‘Charming’ is a technique that cannot be practiced by either Hydromancers or Pyromancers due to the nature of their specialisations.”
He answered calmly, though; he was unsure why Okena had felt the need to ask such a question. The answer should have been obvious to her before she asked. Then again, he couldn’t really fault her for her curiosity, what he had been telling her so far was likely the most she had ever learned about her homeland.

Her curiosity was to be expected.

He allowed himself another controlled smile as she asked how The Human Alliance avenged their comrades. This was such a nice change of pace from trying to teach Ace anything, he loved his brother without question, of course. But Ace rarely listened to anything Baldur tried to teach him, Hell, more than half of the time he largely failed to take Josk’s lessons seriously... Perhaps, he would make an effort to travel more, at least Okena actually paid attention to what he was teaching her. Maybe, some time alone was exactly what Ace needed to improve his focus.

Though, given that Varden visited Ace frequently Baldur did not have high hopes for the success of such a tactic.

“Their act of vengeance became The Empire that stands today, Okena. But we still have a great many topics to cover before we get that far, the first of which being the death of False God Baal.”
He paused as Okena spoke again and then asked him if he was Charming her. Baldur simply gave her an incredulous look.

“N- ... No. ‘Charming’ is a technique that requires the victim to be-”
He blinked upon realising that she had been joking. Suddenly feeling foolish Baldur remained silent for a long while, trying to think of a way to make it seem as though her joke hadn’t gone over his head.

When a solution failed to present itself to him, Baldur simply shrugged inwardly and opted not to address his response. It would be better for him if he were to just continue with the lesson and act as though he had opted not to respond to the joke.

“After capturing the two strong-holds, The Human alliance took several days to cremate their former comrades before devising a plan of attack. As you can imagine, the armies of False God Baal were at their thickest within his capital, so their plan was send in an assault wave to clear the initial way to False God Baal, and have a specialist group follow closely behind them in order to get at least a small group before him to confront him as quickly as possible.

As it turned out, the specialisation team turned out to be formed by Sir Oskar, Morona, and the man whom would become The Emperor.

However, when the assault wave doubled back to rejoin their comrades holding back the army of False God Baal, the remaining ‘Charmed’ Humans began their attack on the three aiming to kill their new God. Sir Oskar, being the most well-known face of The Human Alliance remained behind to prevent further interruption, leaving Morona and his comrade to face False God Baal alone.

Unfortunately, I am unable to go into any further depth other than, ‘False God Baal died’, since that is all that history tells us about that death in particular. It is at this point that the title of “False God” is given to the remaining beings of similar positions, and I will tell you why as soon as you answer me this question.

Okena, if a being makes claims of Godhood, do you believe that they are able to die?”

[Mali]

Nodding her head, she already knew that Charming couldn’t be performed by a hydro or pyromancer. For some reason though, it didn’t put her at ease. She knew that her father had lied to her now, but she had wanted to know that it was possible for him to have charmed her. It wouldn’t make a difference whether he had or not since she followed his beliefs already. However, she wanted to know why he had lied to her. If he had charmed her, then it wouldn’t matter since Baldur said it was irreversible. But he hadn’t charmed her, meaning that she would have to personally try to reverse what her father had told her and made her believe and that was harder than ignoring it.

Okena noticed the controlled smile that Baldur showed her and wondered why he was so controlled. She wouldn’t call him uptight since she didn’t know Baldur enough to judge him, but it was okay to let loose, wasn’t it? He didn’t need to be so controlled around her. Maybe it was the reaction that the others had had to his eyes that made him so controlled right now. Maybe he was afraid to show emotion, real emotion. But what was there to be afraid of? However, she should really be paying attention to what he said. Although, she had to admit that she liked when he smiled. It made him seem more human than when he was all composed. She couldn’t help but laugh internally at that, since; he was a non-human and not even as close to being human as she was.

Smiling wide, Okena found it funny as Baldur gave her an incredulous look before stuttering out a ‘no’ before giving her a longer answer. She waited for him to realise it was a joke and when he was silent for the longest while, she knew that he had gotten it.

“Sorry if the joke wasn’t that funny...” he didn’t seem to address the joke at all after he realised it was a joke. Maybe he wasn’t one to laugh. But then again, who didn’t laugh at some point in their lives? Laughing supposedly lengthened your life by five minutes. But she had thought that he would see the similarities in what he was doing and what happened when someone was charmed and would find it funny. Guess he didn’t.

Okena listened as he spoke about how they got to the point of being able to kill God Baal. She was genuinely interested in how God Baal had died. Her father had never told her how the gods had died. He had told her very little about the war.

Her face almost fell as he told her that there was nothing to tell of how God Baal died. That was disappointing. She wanted to know how it happened. Even though she prayed to the gods whenever she was in a bad place or just feeling down, she had wanted to know what exactly happened to them. Even though she was a partial believer, she was still curious.

“I’m not sure. Gods are supposed to be eternal, that’s why my father and I sometimes still pray to them, but I guess not. That they aren’t able to die, but... they did die... I’m confused now,” she smiled sheepishly to Baldur, fidgeting in her seat a bit. She had another question about how God Baal died, but she’d wait until he finished his point before asking.

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[Amur]

Okena seemed to find Baldur missing her joke amusing, however, her obvious amusement simply made him feel worse for missing the joke in the first place... Best to avoid talking about it, at least that way he could avoid humiliating himself to any degree. She even apologised, though, it had been meant for if he had not found the joke funny. Nevertheless, Baldur saw no reason to further address his failure to identify Okena’s joke.

“That’s exactly the point, Okena.” He began after she answered his question. “If you look at any interpretation of Gods, any writings, scriptures or other similar things containing their teachings or describing them or their presences then one thing quickly becomes clear. Gods are, indeed, seen as eternal, incomprehensible beings of limitless power. Any being can simply claim God-hood, however, when said being is eventually killed by two humans and the body decomposes like that of any slain creature, then any validity that claim may have had is suddenly cast aside.

The corpse of False God Baal was left for the scavengers, and to rot. If only to send a message to the remaining False Gods, they could be killed. This fact is what gave them the title of ‘False Gods’, for, if they could be killed by the hands of ‘mortals’ or, other lesser beings, then they too, had a measure of mortality.”
Baldur explained calmly, now, he was getting to the end of the lesson for today. There were just a small number of little things he needed to work his way through before he explained exactly why the death of False God Baal was considered the turning point of The Preclusion War.

“Of course, many of their loyal followers claim that their Gods ascended beyond flesh, which raises the question. How can they prove it? If the corpse rots like any other, how do their followers know that their Gods have ascended?”
He put the question forward rhetorically, believing Okena to be intelligent enough to see where his point on that front was leading. He remained silent for a few moments more, allowing Okena some time to think through what he had just said before he continued.

“These reasons prompted an incredibly rare occurrence, a neutral meeting between every known Warlord at the time. As they discussed this, they gradually came to the same conclusion. If False God Baal –the one widely considered to be the most powerful of The False Gods- had been killed by two humans, then the rest were surely just as weak.

A temporary truce was forged between The Warlords, halting all feuds and rivalries The Warlords signed the document known as ‘The God-Slayer Pact’. From that point onwards, until every False God lie dead, The Warlords were allies. Under oath to abide by The God-Slayer Pact, The Warlords entered The Preclusion War with full force.”

[Mali]

Okena had a lot to think about now. Since the Gods were supposed to be eternal, how is it that they could be killed in the first place? And the way the bodies were left to rot. She thought that the believers would at least find the body and give it a decent burial instead of leaving their Gods’ corpses to rot for scavengers to find. Why wouldn’t they give their gods burials?

Looking down to her lap, mixed feelings floated around in her stomach. She didn’t know how she should feel about this information, but it made her sick. If the believers were so devoted to their gods, they should have given them a proper burial, it only made sense. Obviously, she can understand that they might be in shock that their God had been killed, but that was no excuse.

Gasping, Okena was shocked. Every Warlord at the time came together? Were the Gods really that much of a threat to them? Even though they had waged war against the humans and non-humans, did they pose any potential threat to the warlords? It was amazing to think that all the warlords signed a pact keeping them together, but had the gods been a threat to them at all?

“Why were the Gods a threat to the Warlords? Or was it just part of their power lust that many warlords have? That now that they knew that the gods could be killed, they wanted in on it? Because as far as I can tell, the warlords weren’t included in the war between the Gods, the humans and the non-humans... Unless I’m wrong?” Okena was confused by that. As far as she could see, the warlords just wanted their part in the war now that they knew the war could be won. They weren’t mentioned at all as having received negative effects due to the war, and all of the sudden they come together and sign a pact to help win the war, it didn’t quite make sense.

Sighing, Okena lifted her head from her palms and rested her forearms against the table. “I want to know more about how God Baal died. It’s too bad no one knows what really happened there...” Well, no one except Nemesis Morona and the Emperor.

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[Amur]

Okena’s questions once more simply outlined to Baldur everything that Wynn had with-held from Okena during her upbringing. Though, these questions in particular had answers to them that very few alive today would know. After all, The Warlords had been around since before the arrival of The False Gods. There was no doubt in Baldur’s mind that Wynn had known this, but, as a true servant of The False Gods it was completely unsurprising that he had told Okena nothing regarding that particular piece of history.

After all, the servants of The False Gods that still remained often refused to acknowledge such historical facts.

“Don’t allow yourself to be more acquainted by the myths surrounding The False Gods than the facts, Okena. The fact of the matter is that The False Gods were always considered a threat by The Warlords. However, they had displayed incredible power upon their making their claims of Godhood. Having no way to disprove such claims caused The Warlords to be wary toward The False Gods.

You see, Okena, The Warlords have history that pre-date The False Gods. My family, Vauxx has history dating back over ten-thousand years ago. While it is difficult to place an exact date on the arrival of the first of The False Gods, there are some several thousand years of history recorded somewhere in our family archives that The False Gods are not mentioned in.”
Baldur explained. He allowed himself another short pause, he wasn’t going to leave Okena to fill in the blanks this time; since history that now only The Warlords had access to, were very clearly not common knowledge among the everyday crowds within Empire Nirvana.

“This is not common knowledge throughout Empire Nirvana. Much of the history predating The False Gods was destroyed long before The Preclusion War, and, of course, the loyal servants of The False Gods deny that an era without their Gods ever existed, even when they know otherwise. As for why The Warlords chose to get involved.

They finally had all the proof they needed that the beings claiming Godhood were false in their claims. So they took the opportunity to eliminate the threat. Only two of The False Gods were killed by the Human Alliance, the rest were taken out by The Warlords, False Gods Baal and Lautrec, of course being the two I speak of.”
He stated calmly. He nodded gently in response to Okena’s last statement, and remained silent for several long moments before opting to speak again.

“Indeed, many people want those details, Okena. Such knowledge may not be forever out of our grasp, but knowing where to start looking is an almost insurmountable task in itself.”
He concluded; that about covered everything Okena had just asked and perhaps just that little bit more. However, Baldur remained silent once more. If Okena had any further questions for him, he would give her the chance to ask them.

[Mali]

As Okena listened, she became enlightened. So the warlords had always seen the Gods as a threat. Now that she knew the truth about the Gods, maybe it was time for her to start referring to them properly. It wasn’t right now that she knew the truth to speak of the Gods in ignorance. “I should probably start calling them ‘false’ now that I know the truth, huh...” Blushing lightly, Okena felt a little embarrassed. It was hard to just suddenly refer to her Gods as false and something different.

Baldur soon said something that caught her attention. Leaning in a bit, Okena listened with eager ears. She was going to learn something about warlord culture and history that no one else knew. She was amazed for one thing. That Baldur’s family could trace its lineage back that far. But what caught her attention was how short a time span that the Gods had been around. They hadn’t been around long enough to warrant so many followers. It made sense that when they were killed, they lost most of their followers; at least, she assumed that they lost followers.

Nodding her head, she knew where to start looking but knew of no way to be able to search for that information. It was all back in Empire Nirvana with the two that had killed God Baal. “It’s too bad though. Even knowing where to look for answers won’t do anything since all the answers are back in Empire Nirvana, so.” She moved to rest her chin against the top of the table, feeling defeated. She would never find out what happened and yet she was so curious about it.

“Anything else about the war I should particularly know about?” She wanted to make sure that they were through with their discussion of the war before she was to head over to the innkeeper and request a room. She assumed that Baldur already had his room key for the night but she had yet to get hers and the sun was setting outside already.

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[Amur]

She certainly picked things up quickly. That much Baldur was appreciative of, it made teaching run at a much smoother pace, At this kind of rate he could most probably cover the entirety of The Preclusion War in perhaps another two, maybe three meetings. There wasn’t much to explain about it, after all. It was a war, the most historically significant war in Nirvanian history, but still a war all the same. Other than a few key events there wasn’t all that much more for him to explain. As there were only so many ways he could say “and people died”, though, he probably could have detailed the fall of the other False Gods in more detail than any scholar could.

“Perhaps” He answered simply in response to Okena’s first question. “The intention is to educate you, I have no expectations on how fast you’ll adapt to what you learn from me. I don’t expect you to simply drop everything you’ve already learned, and have been raised to believe overnight. It is good, however, to know that despite everything you’re still willing to keep an open mind and actually listen to history as it really happened.”
He stated, if Wynn hadn’t raised Okena to be some kind of ignorant bigot then maybe the man had really changed somewhere down the line... Not that Baldur could have made any guesses as to why that would have happened, not when he had details on Wynn from Morona themselves. He shrugged inwardly, while the question was interesting there was no way for Baldur to find an answer to it, and he had better things to do with his time than to ponder questions that he could not answer.

“Indeed, we’re clearly incapable of finding such knowledge at present. So, while it would be interesting to learn exactly what occurred during the fight that ended the life of False God Baal, it’s worthless to commit too many resources to trying to learn it.”
He said. Much like everyone else Baldur only knew that the fight had occurred and that it had cost False God Baal his life. He was one of the very small numbers of people whom knew exactly what False God Baal looked like, but Morona had flat-out refused to divulge in depth details of the encounter itself. Not that Baldur could blame them, he was a Nirvanian as well after all, history like that was never told lightly.

“For the time being, I should think we’ve covered enough. I’ve educated you of some the most important events that took place during the first half of The Preclusion War, so I think ten years of history is enough to start with. I’ve even given you some insight into the full scale of the history of our homeland overall, so I would say I’ve given you enough to think about for the time being.”
He answered her last question calmly and then reached into one of his pockets, withdrawing the key to the room he had been staying in he placed it on the table and slid it over to Okena.

“The key to the room I was staying in while I waited for you. Since we’ve had our meeting I’ll be leaving before nightfall, I think you’ll get some use out of the remaining several nights I have the room reserved for. So, if you have any further questions regarding what you’ve learned here today, or wish for me to further clarify something you did not fully understand; say so now.”
He stated, moving Findinokhind off of his lap Baldur stood and rolled his shoulders gently. As far as he was concerned, he was finished here the moment Okena told him that she had no further questions for him.

[Mali]

Okena nodded her head. She knew that the chances of her being able to just drop everything that she had been taught since childhood was slim. She probably wouldn’t be able to do it for a long time. It would be hard for her to try to get used to it in the first place.

“An open mind but nasty comments, like what I said about your brother being soulless, I’m sorry,” and she was sorry. She hadn’t meant to offend Baldur if she had done so. She had been speaking what she had been taught and she could have possibly offended him in some way. She didn’t want that.

Okena couldn’t help but giggle and soon covered her mouth after the sound escaped her lips. This wasn’t a time to giggle! This was no laughing matter either, they were discussing war! Mumbling a quiet ‘sorry’, she nodded her head. That was ten years of fighting in just forty minutes. Wow, how history could be summed up so quickly. It was something to think about.

Watching, Okena was confused when Baldur removed his room key and pushed it toward her. He didn’t seem like the type to suggest or ask such things from someone he barely knew so she tried to push that thought from her mind. There was no way that he could be suggesting that and with her!

Sighing, she didn’t realise that she had been holding a breath in. Smiling to Baldur, she took the key before a frown crossed her features. “I can’t just take your room, even if you do have to leave.” she paused, looking down to the key. She should at least offer to pay for the rest of the rooms’ nights but the words couldn’t seem to make its way past her lips.

“No further questions. Thank you Baldur,” she smiled to him. If he were offering her the room, it would be rude to turn it down without a just reason.

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