Light & Dark Discourses - Oathes
Jul. 31st, 2005 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessThe Sidhe must be getting jealous of Sparkindarkness' attention. They're being vocal - and Sparky hasn't finished being vocal yet. *sigh*
“So, Sith, tell me something.”
Sitharensor looked up from the large accounts tome he was perusing with a look of saintly patience. “Of course, Ilatheril, there are a great many things you need to be told and taught - it was remiss of me to think I could take so much as a second’s peace from your incessant questions.”
“You’d prefer reading that boring thing? Doesn’t your father do that stuff? Or one of the lackies, anyway?”
“Father does indeed look over the accounts periodically, but it is a job I care to repeat more frequently and to get into the practice - many a prince has failed as a ruler because he was not adequately prepared.”
“Brionachan’s immortal. You’ll be prince for centuries yet - maybe millennia. That’s no reason to read books even more boring than you are.”
“Am I to presume from this that your oh-so-important question was about accountancy literature? Or can I safely assume you have allowed yourself to be side tracked. Honestly Ilatheril, you’re the first Sidhe over the age of three I’ve ever heard of who can not only be distracted but is also perfectly capable of distracting themselves. I pray you never have to lead your forces into battle you might stop half way through a charge to change tactics.”
“That’d be good for you, Seelie, since you lot’d be the one I would be charging.”
Sitharensor closed his book with a delicate snap. “Our people are at peace - our marriage assures it. Even should politics change, our Houses would be hard pressed to fight each other because of our promises.”
“Aha! That was it.”
“What? Our marriage? Correct, we are married, husband. Did it slip your mind? Perhaps you should seek out more mentally stimulating pastimes if senility is setting in so early.”
“Like reading accountancy books?”
“Well, reading anything would be a good start. I assume you can read - though I make this assumption with all due trepidation and doubt.”
“A funny Seelie! Ye gods, Sith, I must contact the museum, we must preserve you under glass. Well, not actually funny, I suppose, but the effort’s there - that’s got to be worth something.”
“There are any number of Seelie who spend considerable effort at being amusing - you will find no end of amusement at any of our social functions. As you would no doubt know if you ever actually attended any. And my name is Sith-a-ren-sor. Repeat after me, slowly and carefully, you should get it right eventually.”
“They do try to be funny? Darkness consume me! Has there ever been so much wasted effort?”
“I despair of us ever actually reaching the end of this conversation - you did have a point at some point I’m sure. Can you reach it before we both die of old age?”
“We’re immortal, remember? Oh dear, you‘ve spent so long being a sheltered Seelie you‘re beginning to forget you‘re fae at all! Pretty soon the whole court will be stripped of your silks and will dress in pin striped suits! There will be no more balls, only business meetings and everyone will change their name to Brian or Susan and finally finish your epic quest to become the epitome of boredom.”
“Have you quite finished? We are indeed immortal, but I think this conversation is shaping up to be an epic test of even our longevity. Please get to the point Ilatheril.”
“Ah yes, it was about oaths and promises.”
“Really? I suppose such rudimentary education is sadly necessary. A promise means you say you will do something and you will do it. An oath is much the same but more solemn usually setting something explicitly at stake and may be honoured by your kith or kin.”
“Why, at this rate you may develop a full sense of humour. I know what an oath is, I want to know why Seelie think they’re so important.”
“There, was that so difficult? A simple, succinct question. If you had asked that originally I could have answered it by now and have returned to my reading.”
“Yes, if it weren’t for me you’d be reading that boring book. You haven’t said thank you.”
“Why Ilatheril, forgive me. Please accept my deepest gratitude for making sure that even the most trivial task I embark upon is bogged down with your inanities.”
“You are quite welcome.”
“So kind. Now to your question - well, do not the Unseelie court, especially the Unseelie Sidhe, also revere oaths? It‘s one thing even humans know about the fae - we do not break oath and breaking oath to us is dangerous.”
“Yes, we keep oaths - but we keep them because an oath is a personal guarantee. Your own worth - if you break it you aren’t worth anything. You are saying - freely - that you stake yourself that something is true and will happen. If you break it, well, you‘ve just thrown away everything you are and everything you‘re worth - because that‘s what you invoke when you make an oath.”
“Interesting. Our courts seem to agree on this. Among the Seelie, you are setting your word, honour and integrity on a pledge. If you have no word, honour and integrity then you are nothing. In effect, you pledge all that you are on the oath.”
Ilatheril made a face, but nodded. “Sounds the same. You just have to throw in extra unnecessary concepts tom try and justify your rules, but the foundation’s still the same.”
“We clarify WHY you loose all personal worth, rather than just saying that you’ve lost it. Of course, there are also practical considerations - our society is based on oaths. Oaths to lieges, oaths to underlings, oaths of service, oaths of vassals, oaths of duty, bonding, understanding, friendship - everything in the Seelie court is built on a framework of oaths. Without those oaths, the Seelie court would fall.”
“Let me guess, someone who can’t be trusted to keep oaths can’t really play with the rest of you?”
“Well done, an actual thought process and reasoned conclusion. I applaud, I must ring down to the kitchens to arrange a special treat for the clever little Unseelie..”
“Whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a length of rope? Oh and a whisk.”
“ Whipped cream and chocolate have possibilities. I can even understand what you have planned with the rope. But a whisk? No, do not answer that, I really would rather not know.”
“Wow, you Seelie princes are spoilt rotten. A whisk is a kitchen utensil used to vigorously stir mixtures in such away that it allows air into the food. Probably so it will rise or something.”
“Thank you for that enlightening insight. Allow me to return the favour. This is a book. We use it to store information so that other people might read and do something we call ‘learn.’ And alien concept I’m sure…”
“Whoa! Since when has information and learning been alien to the Unseelie? You’re the ones who think that just because your great grandfather did it in the 12th century…”
“3rd century…”
“Whatever. Just because some hoary old ancestor did it that way means that you should do it like that as well. Which reminds me, that’s also why we keep oaths.”
“Because of my hoary old ancestor? Ah, I may rejoice then I continue a family tradition of educating ignorant Unseelie.”
“Your hoary old ancestors and my hoary old ancestors spent most of their time cutting bits off each other.”
“I am glad that my ancestors did so in an educational fashion, at least.”
“Are you done fantasising about your ancestors yet? What I meant was, we keep oaths because of information.”
“Because of information? Information received? Because a wise soul (quite possibly my hoary old ancestor) informed you you should? Really, Ilatheril, is a complete sentence really too much to ask for?”
“I’m sorry you need everything spelled out to you like a child. I’ll try talking slower and use more words of one syllable.”
“Merely speaking the language correctly and coherently would be a great help.”
“What I mean is information is freedom, we covered this if you can stretch your fossilised mind back?”
“Yes, I remember your… peculiar notions regarding information. We disagreed, I believe.”
“As ever. Anyway, information is freedom. To know - or to be able to learn, is true freedom. Ignorance is a prison. Well, an oath is the ultimate knowledge - because it is something you have utterly guaranteed is true. You have guaranteed that this thing will happen. It is known. It is a fact, right?”
“Correct.”
“Well, if you break that oath then you are taking that absolute truth - that ultimate key to freedom, and debasing it. You are damaging and inhibiting the freedom of everyone you have sworn to. Unseelie society is based on freedom - freedom stemming from being informed - and that freedom, and therefore society itself, is damaged by a broken oath. Understand?”
“After a fashion. I think it’s a little convoluted, personally. When it comes down to it, oaths have been an important part of both of our societies for so long that there is no longer any real need to say why they are important - they are important simply because they are oaths.”
“Hah, you know exactly what I think to that kind of idiocy.”
“Yes. You are quite repetitively obsessive about it. May I return to my reading now?”
“Sure. I’m going to the kitchen to find that whisk.”
“So, Sith, tell me something.”
Sitharensor looked up from the large accounts tome he was perusing with a look of saintly patience. “Of course, Ilatheril, there are a great many things you need to be told and taught - it was remiss of me to think I could take so much as a second’s peace from your incessant questions.”
“You’d prefer reading that boring thing? Doesn’t your father do that stuff? Or one of the lackies, anyway?”
“Father does indeed look over the accounts periodically, but it is a job I care to repeat more frequently and to get into the practice - many a prince has failed as a ruler because he was not adequately prepared.”
“Brionachan’s immortal. You’ll be prince for centuries yet - maybe millennia. That’s no reason to read books even more boring than you are.”
“Am I to presume from this that your oh-so-important question was about accountancy literature? Or can I safely assume you have allowed yourself to be side tracked. Honestly Ilatheril, you’re the first Sidhe over the age of three I’ve ever heard of who can not only be distracted but is also perfectly capable of distracting themselves. I pray you never have to lead your forces into battle you might stop half way through a charge to change tactics.”
“That’d be good for you, Seelie, since you lot’d be the one I would be charging.”
Sitharensor closed his book with a delicate snap. “Our people are at peace - our marriage assures it. Even should politics change, our Houses would be hard pressed to fight each other because of our promises.”
“Aha! That was it.”
“What? Our marriage? Correct, we are married, husband. Did it slip your mind? Perhaps you should seek out more mentally stimulating pastimes if senility is setting in so early.”
“Like reading accountancy books?”
“Well, reading anything would be a good start. I assume you can read - though I make this assumption with all due trepidation and doubt.”
“A funny Seelie! Ye gods, Sith, I must contact the museum, we must preserve you under glass. Well, not actually funny, I suppose, but the effort’s there - that’s got to be worth something.”
“There are any number of Seelie who spend considerable effort at being amusing - you will find no end of amusement at any of our social functions. As you would no doubt know if you ever actually attended any. And my name is Sith-a-ren-sor. Repeat after me, slowly and carefully, you should get it right eventually.”
“They do try to be funny? Darkness consume me! Has there ever been so much wasted effort?”
“I despair of us ever actually reaching the end of this conversation - you did have a point at some point I’m sure. Can you reach it before we both die of old age?”
“We’re immortal, remember? Oh dear, you‘ve spent so long being a sheltered Seelie you‘re beginning to forget you‘re fae at all! Pretty soon the whole court will be stripped of your silks and will dress in pin striped suits! There will be no more balls, only business meetings and everyone will change their name to Brian or Susan and finally finish your epic quest to become the epitome of boredom.”
“Have you quite finished? We are indeed immortal, but I think this conversation is shaping up to be an epic test of even our longevity. Please get to the point Ilatheril.”
“Ah yes, it was about oaths and promises.”
“Really? I suppose such rudimentary education is sadly necessary. A promise means you say you will do something and you will do it. An oath is much the same but more solemn usually setting something explicitly at stake and may be honoured by your kith or kin.”
“Why, at this rate you may develop a full sense of humour. I know what an oath is, I want to know why Seelie think they’re so important.”
“There, was that so difficult? A simple, succinct question. If you had asked that originally I could have answered it by now and have returned to my reading.”
“Yes, if it weren’t for me you’d be reading that boring book. You haven’t said thank you.”
“Why Ilatheril, forgive me. Please accept my deepest gratitude for making sure that even the most trivial task I embark upon is bogged down with your inanities.”
“You are quite welcome.”
“So kind. Now to your question - well, do not the Unseelie court, especially the Unseelie Sidhe, also revere oaths? It‘s one thing even humans know about the fae - we do not break oath and breaking oath to us is dangerous.”
“Yes, we keep oaths - but we keep them because an oath is a personal guarantee. Your own worth - if you break it you aren’t worth anything. You are saying - freely - that you stake yourself that something is true and will happen. If you break it, well, you‘ve just thrown away everything you are and everything you‘re worth - because that‘s what you invoke when you make an oath.”
“Interesting. Our courts seem to agree on this. Among the Seelie, you are setting your word, honour and integrity on a pledge. If you have no word, honour and integrity then you are nothing. In effect, you pledge all that you are on the oath.”
Ilatheril made a face, but nodded. “Sounds the same. You just have to throw in extra unnecessary concepts tom try and justify your rules, but the foundation’s still the same.”
“We clarify WHY you loose all personal worth, rather than just saying that you’ve lost it. Of course, there are also practical considerations - our society is based on oaths. Oaths to lieges, oaths to underlings, oaths of service, oaths of vassals, oaths of duty, bonding, understanding, friendship - everything in the Seelie court is built on a framework of oaths. Without those oaths, the Seelie court would fall.”
“Let me guess, someone who can’t be trusted to keep oaths can’t really play with the rest of you?”
“Well done, an actual thought process and reasoned conclusion. I applaud, I must ring down to the kitchens to arrange a special treat for the clever little Unseelie..”
“Whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a length of rope? Oh and a whisk.”
“ Whipped cream and chocolate have possibilities. I can even understand what you have planned with the rope. But a whisk? No, do not answer that, I really would rather not know.”
“Wow, you Seelie princes are spoilt rotten. A whisk is a kitchen utensil used to vigorously stir mixtures in such away that it allows air into the food. Probably so it will rise or something.”
“Thank you for that enlightening insight. Allow me to return the favour. This is a book. We use it to store information so that other people might read and do something we call ‘learn.’ And alien concept I’m sure…”
“Whoa! Since when has information and learning been alien to the Unseelie? You’re the ones who think that just because your great grandfather did it in the 12th century…”
“3rd century…”
“Whatever. Just because some hoary old ancestor did it that way means that you should do it like that as well. Which reminds me, that’s also why we keep oaths.”
“Because of my hoary old ancestor? Ah, I may rejoice then I continue a family tradition of educating ignorant Unseelie.”
“Your hoary old ancestors and my hoary old ancestors spent most of their time cutting bits off each other.”
“I am glad that my ancestors did so in an educational fashion, at least.”
“Are you done fantasising about your ancestors yet? What I meant was, we keep oaths because of information.”
“Because of information? Information received? Because a wise soul (quite possibly my hoary old ancestor) informed you you should? Really, Ilatheril, is a complete sentence really too much to ask for?”
“I’m sorry you need everything spelled out to you like a child. I’ll try talking slower and use more words of one syllable.”
“Merely speaking the language correctly and coherently would be a great help.”
“What I mean is information is freedom, we covered this if you can stretch your fossilised mind back?”
“Yes, I remember your… peculiar notions regarding information. We disagreed, I believe.”
“As ever. Anyway, information is freedom. To know - or to be able to learn, is true freedom. Ignorance is a prison. Well, an oath is the ultimate knowledge - because it is something you have utterly guaranteed is true. You have guaranteed that this thing will happen. It is known. It is a fact, right?”
“Correct.”
“Well, if you break that oath then you are taking that absolute truth - that ultimate key to freedom, and debasing it. You are damaging and inhibiting the freedom of everyone you have sworn to. Unseelie society is based on freedom - freedom stemming from being informed - and that freedom, and therefore society itself, is damaged by a broken oath. Understand?”
“After a fashion. I think it’s a little convoluted, personally. When it comes down to it, oaths have been an important part of both of our societies for so long that there is no longer any real need to say why they are important - they are important simply because they are oaths.”
“Hah, you know exactly what I think to that kind of idiocy.”
“Yes. You are quite repetitively obsessive about it. May I return to my reading now?”
“Sure. I’m going to the kitchen to find that whisk.”