Being "Common"

***NOT CAELVAN***

After speaking with someone about where the below posting was originally I have moved it to be here instead of it's original position.
This is still a response to a posting on the postings remembering four people.

-M

((OOG: The top of this paper is ripped, it looks like it would match the rip on the "In Remembrance of Julie"))

**NOT CAELVAN**

Pardon me but I disagree. I don't think being called "common" is a compliment. I think of it as an insult. A "common" person is someone who doesn't have a higher calling in life and wants nothing else except to go through the cycle of life leading to death having no impact on the lives around them. For example the mundane smiths. They exist don't tell me they don't. Many don't further their calling on working with anything except the mundane materials and they are considered "common" they have no drive to further themselves in their art. The view is that they become "uncommon" when they start furthering their knowledge past that.

I have seen many of the "Heroes of Travance" have or talk about trades that they do. I have heard of smiths that are carpenters for furniture, rangers that are hunters for hides. They clearly show that you can be "uncommon" and still be a person to further living by making chairs and hides for clothes or materials.

Also if you wish to celebrate the wonderful aspect of being "common" then why are we paying homage to these four? Why these four over all of them? Especially in my view that they are in fact not "common" but "uncommon". The ability to stand to the Demon Prince that ravaged this world is a very uncommon thing to do. So tell me again? Why do we consider these four [strike]commoners?[/strike] common people?

There are many [strike]commoners[/strike] common people in this world as you can see all over. You can't celebrate both these four [strike]commoners[/strike] common people and then at the same time say all [strike]commoners[/strike] common people are wonderful.

Don't think I don't know what I am talking about. When I was younger I saw the people around me who stepped up away from the mundane, away from being "common". I looked at them and got that drive, the drive to further my learning beyond being a simple glass blower's apprentice to train to do that job for the rest of my life. I learned things that I needed to in order to become something more, something that is highly regarded from where I am from. So did everyone in Travance. You can't tell me at no point in your life you were not "common". We all started there and we all had the drive to further ourselves in our learning.

When furthering your learning to go to a higher calling is common in the world, THAT is when I will think being "common" is a compliment and being "uncommon" as an insult. Until that time I will consider being called "common" an insult that simply says you are unlearned in your life and you didn't further your knowledge. Just going through the motions of life and dying. If that is what you wish Dominic then yes, you can be called common and go to simply making chairs and hunting hides. I will instead further my learning to become one of the most uncommon people in this world. I hope others follow in my footsteps.


-M

I have read your argument and I respectfully disagree. I have spent a lot of time in Travanse and I have heard of many stories in Travanses history that shows that the power the "Heroes of Travanse" obtain and use to grow is miss used and abused for self. I have even seen those with power they obtained in Travanse become corrupted and use their power for personal gain and prejudice. Political, magical, physical, and any other type of power can corrupt even the best of people. And in this swirling vortex of raw power known as Travanse many good, honest people have taken to do evil things yet remain a "hero". We are not heroes, we are not good people. We are Travancians.

The people who don't want power, who don't need it. Those who go day by day doing what they can, everything they do having an impact on those around them. The farmer who tills the fields for harvest, the scribe who takes down history, the carpenter who creates benches, the weaver who creates clothes, and the hunter who hunts for food in the forest. These are true heroes, for what they do is essential for the survival of all. They help others and keep each other alive without desiring anything more than just payment for a hard days labor. The kind, honest, "common" people are the true form of good in the world.

***NOT CAELVAN***

Dominic I never said to learn makes you a hero of Travance, nor did I say that it doesn't corrupt. I simply pointed to the fact that even the uncommon people have trades that do exactly what the "common" people do. Therefore learning more and being what is now uncommon you can do a mundane task as well. You don't need power to further knowledge.

A druid can farm the land better than a common farmer by making things grow faster, a scribe can write better if he is a scholar, a smith can be a carpenter or do mundane smithing tasks while having the knowledge to work with higher things, a ranger can hunt while he is serving the land. All the points you have mentioned can be done by the uncommon people just as well if not better than the common people doing them right now.

The problem is no one wants to further their knowledge so they can't do it better. You don't need power, you just need the knowledge. They are not the same thing, as much as you think they are.

I can't tell you how many times I have seen farmers come to druids to cure their crops. They wouldn't have to do that if they had the drive to be druids themselves.

The [strike]commoner[/strike] common people aren't the true heroes that you say they are. They are just don't wish to, or have the drive to learn more.

Speaking the truth,
-M

I believe being a Commoner and being Common are two different things.

M, you are accurate about your description of someone who is Common. If they truly do not try to be better, that is unacceptable.

However, a Commoner is a person with little to begin with. They often do try, the world just pushes against them sometimes. But, they still try. I have seen a slave become a Templar in Travance, and he had absolutely nothing to start with.

I am not Common, my blood literally dictates that to be impossible and I have learned to flourish from it. However, I was certainly a Commoner when I arrived in Travance.

Make sense?
-Ilana

***NOT CAELVAN***
My mistake. I meant to write on my postings common people thank you for pointing that out so that I may fix my postings.

-M