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Wyrden Treatise I:

Freedom in Fetters

an essay by Versalean

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THE FIRST TRUTH

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Good neighbour, there is a paradox scribed deep upon the hearts of the lesser races, and it is thus: an adventurer will fight against unspeakable odds in order to protect her freedom... yet given the choice to exercise freedom, she will usually choose not to. You know this, and so do the shrewder traders in the Basin. "Aye, buy this fesix cloak now, and if you change your mind within fourteen months we shall proffer a full refund!" Does the trader offer this guarantee to your benefit, O loyal customer, or to his own? 'Tis simplicity: the trader offers you the freedom to change your mind about your purchase, thus making the purchase more attractive. Yet tell us, pray, when last did you return an item to a trader beneath this promise? He shackles you with the freedom to unshackle yourself.

We speak in illustrations: A most learned tae'dae (for are not they all?) attempted to solve a puzzle, while a child screamed within the very same room. He found himself unable to solve the puzzle. A most learned tae'dae (for are they not all?) attempted to solve a puzzle, while a child screamed within the very same room. The researcher told him that the babe could be removed if he simply asked, but begged him not to ask. The tae'dae did not ask for the babe to be removed, and yet he solved the puzzle.

These situations each point toward a single phenomenon, that we strive for choice and yet do not choose, and this pervasive phenomenon serves to illustrate a truth that is Wyrd, and of Wyrd. We thus reveal the First Truth within this treatise:

     Mortals shun freedom for the feeling of freedom.

Neighbour, to what other domains of your life can you extend this Truth? You would fight with tooth and claw to protect your right to contest useless guild leaders. But do you now contest those who lead your guild in small, stagnant circles? You would move Celestia and Nil to preserve your ability to divorce an absent spouse. But do you now divorce your wife, who is absent from your marriage either physically or emotionally? Fool! Open your eyes: the freedoms you cling to are the very freedoms that trap you in dead conventions and decaying social structure. Tear down the hierarchy and dispel the illusion. Slave: you are not enslaved to freedom, but by freedom. Aye, freedom itself is your fetter.

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THE SECOND TRUTH

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There is a folly among mortals, and it is thus: 

A merian is gravely injured by a shark, while across the world a furrikin plummets from a cliff. A babe wails into the night. An igasho is whipped to within an inch of his life. 

The common factor in these pictures is, again, one you are well aware of, you who profess to want freedom. When you were squeezed screaming from your mother's womb, you felt two things for the first time, and you hated them. First, you felt cold for the first time in your fledgling existence, and to this very day warmth brings you comfort. Second, you felt unbounded for the first time, and it struck you with horror. Nothing held you close, restraining your movement, securing you against the vast, horrible nothing that surrounded you and threatened to swallow you away. For weeks later, you would awaken in the still of the night to find yourself free, terrifyingly free!, free to roll and flail and wriggle, free to fall, so you screamed until your mother returned and swaddled you and held you close. Yet slowly, foolishly, you unlearned this most basic understanding: with freedom comes danger and insecurity. 

Let us revisit the illustration: Would not the Inner Sea diver have been safer within a diving cage? What of the broken furrikin? Even as he reaches agonisingly for his restorative ice, does he not wish that there had been a safe, sturdy boundary at the cliff edge? Does he not curse the very freedom that allowed him to fall? We have spoken of the babe already - it is you yourself - and now we shall turn our eye to the igasho, for e'en the babe fully understands that he is only safe when restrained, the igasho has taken the lesson to a further level. Let us join him.

Good neighbour, child of dust, know that the igasho who is being whipped howled with pain for the first hour of his torment, and then his cries turned inexplicably to pleasure. Bound up and at the full mercy of another, he finally released the illusions of control and freedom... and found true ecstasy. For the first time in his life he realised how foolish and petty most of his concerns were. Would he pass his novice examination? Gone. Would his City triumph in the next flare? Gone. And what about that time he accidentally told his mother he loved her across the Market communication channel? Gone. All blissfully gone. He eschewed the future and the past, living only in the glorious now, and in the now he had no control and thus no concern. For the first time ever, he was free. My prudish neighbour, do not wrinkle your nose at the carnal nature of this scene - rather look past to its core lesson. We thus reveal the Second Truth within this treatise:

     We are slaves until freed from freedom.

Again, apply this principle to your life and see that it rings true. Have you never sat at table, maddened with hunger and unable to choose between the ten menu options? Have you never wished that somebody would make your choices for you? Yes, you have. You are tired of choice and of choosing. Life would be much simpler if you were secure, restrained, and at the mercy of one whom you trusted to choose for you. Consider that this was once said in wisdom: only that which you give away is truly yours. Does this not apply also to you yourself? To own yourself, you must disown yourself. Does it not apply to your freedom?

Then give it up, child of dust. Choose to stop choosing.

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We have revealed to you truths hard-learned: Mortals shun freedom for the feeling of freedom; we are slaves until freed from freedom. The truest freedom is a life of service to Wyrd. Freedom from fear. Freedom from mercy. Freedom from weakness and loneliness. Aye, freedom itself is your fetter, yet in Wyrden fetters, aye, yes!, there is true freedom!

Contemplate our Wyrden words, good neighbour. Make no changes in your life. Simply continue as you are, but look at your world with fresh eyes and taste for yourself that we speak true. You are not yet ready for the next steps on the path to your freedom, so simply prepare your heart for them. Today, we have evidenced that you do not wish to be free, and that freedom robs you of happiness. These truths are counterintuitive given the lies you have lived since birth, but compared to what follows they are milk. Next, we shall move to more solid food. Next... next we shall show you that you do not exist.

Rest, good neighbour, for you have done well today. And if you draw no further lesson from this treatise, know only this: there is Freedom in Fetters alone.

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