Contrasting Facets
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: Contrasting Facets
Author: Ritchian Lantanian
I'm getting old. I lived through all the new ages of our world. I can recall when there was but one world, or facet as they call it today, and places like Papua had yet to be discovered. So, I think I can speak with some authority about the current state of the world. From my home, Dragon Hall, next to the swamp north of Trinsic, I've seen much. My neighborhood has never been an easy one to live in. There were always murderous thugs about and the constant incursion of swamp dwelling lizard men is an ordinary occurence. But ever since the great split between the two facets, my home facet has deteriorated.
There are a couple of places that have remained somewhat populated. Thugs constantly fight with one another outside the Yew moongate and warriors of the factons appear in mass once in a while.
But over all, the towns are abandoned of all but those shopkeepers and town residents who are tethered to their homes.
Worse, many of the old frontier communities that have stood as shining lights in the wilderness have vanished or become more abandoned than the cities themselves. Even the Atlantic Mage's Tower has been demolished, leaving a single, eternally open moongate as proof that it once did exist.
The migration to Trammel was not unexpected. If nothing else, people look for safety and security. They have no wish to deal with murderers and thieves.
But Felucca is a wasteland. A facet studded with crumbeling buildings standing like tombstones to what it once was. It is hard to look at the lifeless landscape and not ask, "How did we let it slip into such a state? How could be abandon our homes, our ancestorial lands, a place many of us had been born and raised."
How could we abandon that once great land so eagerly and without so much as a fight?"
I'm loathe to say that even I, who once despised the thought of Trammel and the illusion of safety it provides, have been forced to spend much of my time of late in Trammel or one of the new lands that fall under the same protections and security that Trammel does. Mind you, it is not by choice, but by nessessity that I do so. One can hardly find anything to buy in the old world any more. Merchants, by their very nature, must follow their customers. And they have moved to Trammel.
I hold no illusion about the "good old days." The sence of nostalgia I feel does not blind me to the problems the old world faced during its golden age.
All I ask is that we do not give up completely on the old world. That we find a way to rebuild it. Revive it. Repopulate it.
It deserves more than our indifference. Hidden in the most dangerous corners of it are many unique and fantastic sights which are slowly being lost and forgotten by all but those who can remember the time when they were thriving.
I thank you, dear reader, for listening to this old man's rantings. While I harbor no illusions as to my abillity to sway you in your opinions of Felucca, I do hope that you consider what I say. If if you are so moved, visit the old points of interest found across Felucca.
While I very much doubt their revival is possible, it would give me some solice if but a single reader of this tome went out to see what there is.
What existed in the dangerous world many of once and still call home must be remembered. Our world has existed longer than many of us fathom, and its history is important. Without it, we are lost. Without the youngest members of our society learning what came before them, how do we ever hope to forge our new worlds into something great? Worlds worthy of those that came before them?
- Ritchin Lantanian
November 26, 2004