With Great Power

Briefing

I have devoted much of my life to history of all sorts, from its unflappable truths to its infallible lies to the nuanced information systems found throughout the chronicles, artifacts, disputed ruins, and subjective quagmires. Despite what people think, history is a shapeless void of nonsense, akin to space's vacuum or the cold, thoughtless smattering of stars that we call home. There is no meaning besides what we make of it; we do not know truth outside of the lenses we place over this shapeless void, the teeming nothingness, the endless morass of information. This book troubles me. I do not know what to make of it, nor do I know how to proceed. If what this book says is true, and the chances are good that at least some of it is, then the Starkmanir did not begin their rebellion out of a thirst for independence, but rather out of loyalty to their Holder, a man known to them as St. Arzad. The Wildfire Khumaak, a symbol he stole from them, is not an enduring relic of independence, nor is it a glowing tribute to the spirit of the Matari people. Rather, it is an artifact devoted to the memory of Starkmanir captivity, an heirloom of oppression, but also an endearing homage to a fallen captor. In other words, the Wildfire Khumaak subverts the defiance of my people. That is, of course, if this is true. All we have is the relic and this book. The story of St. Arzad is practically hidden or buried in the Amarr history: I can't find a trace of it. For all we know, this is apocryphal heresy, a rash account of history, a fever dream from some demented Starkmanir, or an outright hoax. I don't know. I honestly don't know. I'm torn on what to do, and thus I will put the choice in your hands. I don't want the responsibility for what happens to this text. There are two places we can take it: Return it to the Defiants and reunite it with the Wildfire Khumaak, or donate it to a Gallente historian I know. The former option gives the book back its people, though I don't know how they'll approach the text (or even if they'll release it to the general public, which to me seems a shame). The latter will keep the book safe and make it available for the greater good. Even though it's a troubling account, it's still history, and it still needs to be known. The choice is in your hands.