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Book Exerts

"Truly, that which makes me believe there is no inhabitant on this sphere, is
that it seems to me that no sensible being would be willing to live here."
"Well, then!" said Micromegas, "perhaps the beings that inhabit it do not possess good sense."

- one alien to another, on approaching the Earth, in Voltaire's Micromegas: A Philosophical History

The sentient may perceive and love the universe, but the universe
Cannot perceive and love the sentient. The universe sees no distinction between
The multitude of creatures and elements which comprise it. All are equal.
None are favored. The universe, equipped with nothing but the materials and the
Power of creation, continues to create: something of this, something of that.
It cannot control what it creates, and it cannot, it seems, be controlled by it's
Creations (although few might deceive themselves otherwise). Those who curse the
Workings of the universe curse that which is deaf. Those that strike out at those
Workings fight that which is inviolate. Those who shake their fists, shake their
Fists at the blind stars

But this does not mean that there are some who will not try to do battle with
And destroy the invulnerable

There will always be such beings, sometimes beings of great wisdom, who cannot
Bear to believe in an insouciant universe

- The Six Chronicles Of Corum

"Courageous people do not surrender hope."

- R.A. Salvatore, Drizzt Do'Urdens essays(On Courage)


Forever after, the bards of the Realms called it the Time of Troubles, the time when the gods were kicked out of the heavens, their avatars walking among the mortals. The time when the Tablets of Fate were stolen, invoking the wrath of Ao, Overlord of the Gods, when magic went awry, and when, as a consequence, social and religious hierarchies, so often based on magical strength, fell into chaos.
I have heard many tales from fanatical priests of their encounters with their particular avatars, frenzied stories from men and women who claim to have looked upon their deities. So many others came to convert to a religion during this troubled time, likewise claiming they had seen the light and truth, however convoluted it might be.

I do not disagree with the claims, and would not openly attack the premise of their encounters. I am glad for those who have found enrichment amidst the chaos; I am glad whenever another person finds the contentment of spiritual guidance.

But what of faith?

What of fidelity and loyalty? Complete trust? Faith is not granted by tangible proof. It comes from the heart and the soul. If a person needs proof of a god's existence, then the very notion of spirituality is diminished into a sensuality and we have reduced what is holy into what is logical.

I have touched the unicorn, so rare and so precious, the symbol of the goddess Mielikki, who holds my heart and soul. This was before the onset of the Time of Troubles, yet were I of a like mind to those who make the claims of viewing avatars, I could say the same. I could say that I have touched Mielikki, that she came to me in a magical glade in the mountains near Dead Orc Pass.

The unicorn was not Mielikki, and yet it was, as is the sunrise and the seasons, as are the birds and the squirrels and the strength of a tree that has lived through the dawn and death of centuries. As are the leaves, blowing on autumn winds and the snow piling deep in cold mountain vales. As are the smell of a crisp night, the twinkle of the starry canopy, and the howl of a distant wolf.

No, I'll not argue openly against one who has claimed to have seen an avatar, because that person will not understand that the mere presence of such a being undermines the very purpose of, and value of, faith. Because if the true gods were so tangible and so accessible, then we would no longer be independent creatures set on a journey to find the truth, but merely a herd of sheep needing the guidance of a shepherd and his dogs, unthinking and without the essence of faith.

The guidance is there, I know. Not in such a tangible form, but in what we know to be good and just. It is our own reactions to the acts of others that show us the value of our own actions, and if we have fallen so far as to need an avatar, an undeniable manifestation of a god, to show us our way, then we are pitiful creatures indeed.

The Time of Troubles? Yes. And even more so if we are to believe the suggestion of avatars, because truth is singular and cannot, by definition support so many varied, even opposing manifestations.

The unicorn was not Mielikki, and yet it was, for I have touched Mielikki. Not as an avatar, or as a unicorn, but as a way of viewing my place in the world. Mielikki is my heart. I follow her precepts because, were I to write precepts based on my own conscience, they would be the same. I follow Mielikki because she represents what I call truth.

Such is the case for most of the followers of most of the various gods, and if we looked more closely at the pantheon of the Realms, we would realize that the precepts of the "goodly" gods are not so different; it is the worldly interpretations of those precepts that vary from faith to faith.

As for the other gods, the gods of strife and chaos, such as Lloth, the Spider Queen, who possesses the hearts of those priestesses who rule Menzoberranzan...

They are not worth mentioning. There is no truth, only worldly gain, and any religion based on such principles is, in fact, no more than a practice of self-indulgence and in no way a measure of spirituality. In worldly terms, the priestesses of the Spider Queen are quite formidable; in spiritual terms, they are empty. Thus, their lives are without love and without joy.

So tell me not of avatars. Show me not your proof that yours is the true god. I grant you your beliefs without question and without judgement, but if you grant me what is in my heart, then such tangible evidence is irrelevant.

- Drizzt Do'Urden, R.A. Salvatore

I am a very important person, young man. And I'm not accustomed to being treated with such impertinence. Now get out of my way before you force me to do something I'll regret. I mean you'll regret. Well, one of us will regret it.

- Fizban, Test of the Twins


In any language, the word has a special ring to it, as much, I suspect, from the reverent way in which it is spoken as from the actual sounds of the letters. Courage. The word evokes images of great deeds and great character: the grim set of the faces of men defending
their town's walls from raiding goblins; the resilience of a mother caring for young children when all the world has seemingly turned
hostile. In many of the larger cities of the Realms, young waifs stalk the streets, without parents, without homes. Theirs is a unique
courage, a braving of hardships both physical and emotional.

- R.A. Salvatore, Drizzt Do'Urdens essays(On Courage)

It came to me each day in a paradoxical way. The string could not be denied, but neither could I deny the beauty of the spectacle. The colors just before the sun's apperance grabbed my soul in a way that no patterns of heat emanations in the Underdark ever could. At first, I thought my entrancement a result of the strangeness of the scene, but even now, many years later, I feel my heart leap at the subtle brightening that heralds the dawn.

- Drizzt Do'Urdens, R.A. Salvatore

He looked straight into her eyes, holding her with his intensity. "You have renewed my hope, Lady of Silverymoon. You have reminded me that there is indeed reward for those who follow the path of conscience, a treasure far greater than the material baubles that too often come to unjust men."

- R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver

Wulfgar was not so forgiving. "You have wronged him," he said to the guard when Drizzt moved away. "Never has he raised sword against any who did not deserve it, and this world, yours and mine, is better off for having Drizzt Do'Urden about!"

- R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver

Return this man to Huma's breast beyond the wild impartial skies,
Grant to him a warrior's rest and set the last spark of his eyes.
Free from the smothering clouds of war,
Upon the torches of the stars.
Let the last surge of his breath take refuge in the cradling air.
Above the dreams of ravens where,
only the hawk remembers death.
Then let his shade to Huma rise,
Beyond the wild impartial skies.

- Dragonlance, Solamnic Prayer of Mourning

"I am a man, therfore I talk nonsense. Nobody ever got to a single truth without talking nonsense fourteen times first."

- Razumikhin, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyesky

Your misguided insults, I accept, even expect but I'll brook no attempt to injure my friends, and I will defend myself. Be warned, and only once warned: If you make another move against us, you will die.

- R.A. Salvatore

"There is nothing that exists that has only one side. Even a piece of paper, thin as it is, has two sides. Magic is not one dimensional either. You have been looking at only one side of it; most people do. Look at the whole."

- Darken Rahl, Wizards First Rule, Terry Goodkind

Some of the columns hung like broken teeth, now. And Ba'Alzamon backed away from him, eyes burning, shadow cloaking him. Black lines like steel wires seemed to run off from Ba'Alzamon into the darkness mounding around him, vanishing into the unimaginable heights and distances within the blackness.

"I will not be undone!" Ba'Alzamon cried. His mouth was fire; his shriek echoed among the columns. "I cannot be defeated! Aid me!" Some of the darkness shrouding him drifted into his hand, formed into a ball so black it seemed to soak up even the light of Callandor. Sudden triumph blazed in the flame of his eyes.

"You are destroyed!" Rand shouted.  Callandor spun in his hands.  Its
light roiled the darkness, severed the steel-black lines around Ba'Alzamon
and Ba'Alzamon convulsed.  As if there were two of him he seemed to dwindle
and grow larger at the same time.  "You are undone!" Rand plunged the
shining blade into Ba'Alzamons chest.

    Ba'Alzamon screamed, and the fires from his face flared wildly.   "Fool!"
he howled.  "The Great Lord of the Dark can never be defeated!"

    Rand pulled Callandor's blade free as Ba'Alzamon's body sagged and began
to fall, the shadow around him vanishing.

    And suddenly Rand was in another Heart of the Stone, surrounded by
columns still whole, and fighting men screaming and dying, veiled men and
men in breastplates and helmets.  Moiraine still lay crumpled at the base of
a redstone column.  And at Rand's feet lay the body of a man, sprawled on
its back with a hole burned through its chest.  He might have been a
handsome man in his middle years, except where his eyes and mouth should
have been were only pits from which rose tendrils of black smoke.

    I then skip two paragraphs in which Rand thinks to himself that he won the
last battle (at book 3?  he has many more to go) and he shouts out to stop
the fighting, for he holds callandor....

    "One by one, veiled men and helmeted, they knelt to him, crying, "The Dragon
is Reborn!  The Dragon is Reborn!"

- The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan

The physical powers of the body cannot be separated from the rationale of the mind and the emotions of the heart. They are one and the same, a compilation of a singular being. It is in the harmony of these three -body,mind,and heart- that we find spirit.
  
- R.A. Salvatore

And it was written that no hand but his should wield the sword held in the
stone, but he did draw it out, like fire in his hand, and his glory did burn
the world.  Thus did it begin.  Thus do we sing his rebirth.  Thus do we
sing the beginning.
  
- Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan

"Guilt, the consequence of conscience, is what separates the goodly persons from the evil."

- Drizzt Do'Urden Essays, R.A. Salvatore

"Till shade is gone, till water gone, into the shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in the Sightblinders eye on the last day."

- Aeil saying, Robert Jordan

And it shall come to pass that what men made shall be shattered, and the shadow shall lie across the pattern of the Age, and the Dark One shall once more lay his hands upon the world of man. Woman shall weep and men quail as the nations of the earth are rent like rotting cloth. Neither shall anything stand or abide…

Yet one shall be born to face the shadow, born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be reborn, and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people, and he shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation.

- Dragon Reborn Prophecy, Robert Jordan

"Death is lighter then a feather, Duty is as heavy as a mountain."

- Lan Al'Mandragon, Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go.
What was, what will be, and what is,
may yet fall under the Shadow."

- Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time Series