A thought for this past Feast

Can we all agree from here on out, that when the next outside entity comes to us and says, "This has to be done, there is no other way, we must do it now!", that statement IS NOT taken at face value?

I mean, how many times are we going to fall for this? Feel free to berate my intelligence for posting this. I am certainly questioning my own for falling for it again, with thee all.

I'm still not sure how to feel about what happened.

I'm sure many of us are, and for good reason. We're currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, there's going into battle with only Bloodtide, which means that, despite the eventual death of Balfurious, he would not die in time for us to foil all of his plans, with much destruction being wrought in his bleeding wake. On the other, travelling through time itself to "borrow" magical artifacts and weapons, possibly damning other timelines to worse fates.

The way that I see things, the outcome of both sides is unsure. Sure, we might have succeeded against all odds using Bloodtide. Sure, other times may be damaged by taking these artifacts of power. But our coin might not land on edge in our fight. And perhaps we do return the weapons in time so nothing bad happens.

In dark times, when someone offers a glimpse of hope, it may be enough to see them carried through. Desperation drives men to do many things. I know, I know, one of you is going to make an analogy of making a deal with a demon. I will remind you all that we, as Travancians, have taken similar risks in the past, however, and so far, we have triumphed. And let us not remember that it has been less than a year since we have entered into the Fourth Age; the horrors of the Demon War is still fresh in many minds and hearts. The terror of Xualla was monstrous enough, and the threat of Balfurious, while there aren't portals and demon gates appearing around the world as was Xualla's plan, is no less serious.
I would like to remind you all that various people of Travance engaged in a demonic ritual in order to follow Xualla as he teleported throughout Arawyn. I, myself, was part of this, using my own blood to do so. Without this, we may not have been able to keep up with him, and thus, unable to kill him and end his power.

We lie in similar straits now. Reforging Bloodtide was a terrible, terrible thing to do, and many will claim such. But what can Travance do when we are caught between that rock and a hard place?

We do what we can, like we've always done.

We cannot undo the past.

There may be many alternate options to many seemingly insurmountable problems, but we rarely have the luxury of time. Thinking about the "what ifs" is a luxury that consumes much of that time, and if there's anything that these past few days have taught us, time is a very precious thing.

So! Let's not pat ourselves on the back, but at the same time, let's not whip ourselves. We've still got work to do.

Sindarion,

On the contrary, my dear friend, we can undo the past. If the Mr. LeBastion who visited us this past Feast, demonstrated anything to us, it is that we can go back to certain periods of time. We did this to retrieve certain weapons. Humor me here. What if we traveled back to before Bloodtide was forged? What if we traveled back to the time before we removed hearts from both the willing and the unwilling? What if we listened to the dissenters who advocated not working in deception, of not keeping in the dark those of the Light? We need to go back in our own time stream and right our wrongs. There is still time, plenty of it, and it would be a tragic thing to squander.

Nalick

Mister Nalick, from where I come from hiding from your past deeds is form of even greater disgrace. If we have already dishonored ourselves by doing the things you mentioned, then there is little point in hiding it by abusing this so called time travelling. Not only that, but so far I have not had any good outcomes from this method. We should focus ourselves on atonement and reconciliation so we, as lands, as groups of people, as individuals, can regain our honor for what we have disgraced ourselves with.

I will only speak to this once to remind you that when anyone jumps time there are risks. Even if one thing changes we risk changing things in unknowable and potentially awful ways, not to mention in case anyone missed it time and space almost collapsing in on itself. I am not necessarily saying we should not have gone and borrowed the items we did however I do not want this town believing we can just move through time and space whenever we get the whimsy to do so.

I will also state that we did not take this "at face value."

Extensive research was performed before this month's feast in ways to both defeat Balfurous, and to find legendary wepaons. Said research by multiple scholars working in concert turned up the same result over and over - Bloodtide was the key to defeating Balfurous (even with other wepaons), and even if we defeated him, our own chances of survival were slim unless we sought additional help from beyond our own timeline.

This decision was not made lightly, nor unadvised. If you have a better plan, you are always welcome to bring it to the Scholar's table, and have it vetted by those who can do the research. If it is vaible, we'll put it into action. Saying that a plan is not acceptable without a viable alternative does not help.