View source for Pyronomicon III: Ashes

''“We learn method. It did not. It is enough.”'' -Banuk of Brogendenstein
----1. The three borders of warfare can be defined as follows:

2. i: Life is battle.

3. ii: All strategy is vague guesswork.

4. iii: It is the nature of violence to beget violence.

5. Your only purpose in battle is to destroy your opponent. If you must think, then think only of pounding him and his noxious hangers-on into dust. Do not even think of this if you can help it. Do not allow your mind to stray or your grip to loosen. There will be time to reflect in the ashes later if you somehow manage to survive.

6. In destroying your opponent, the means do not matter any more than the ends. All that matters is the will that drives the act. Only singular purity of intent can ensure that the wound of conflict is cauterized utterly.

7. Empathy, like most things, is only valuable when you are not locked in battle. When you are, it becomes a useless liability and should be abandoned along with your ego, sense of right and wrong, and memory of how it could have come to this.

8. True mercy is to bring an end to the conflict as quickly as possible. The longer the skirmish, the more misery and suffering and food for the crows. The incineration of a thousand men in the blink of an eye is entirely preferable to a slow piling of bodies over ten years. Those who feel otherwise are contemptible sadists or well-meaning idiots who will buckle under the weight of true choice.

9. If warfare and existence are one and the same then there is no such thing as victory. You may congratulate yourself on your senseless triumph and the glory and reward you expect to receive, but know that an imperfect blow will return to you like a spear thrown in the air and strike you down a hundredfold.

10. Do as you will before and after the battle, but in the burning moment your actions must be hot and bright, beyond notions of good or evil. Both are useless and insubstantial hangers-on that will drag you down with them.

11. To find fulfillment in the act of evocation is to be an artist. To find fulfillment in the result of evocation is to be a wretched piece of human garbage unworthy even of contempt.

12. After this will come another. More fuel for the fire. A spear thrown in the air, again and again.

13. I wish you luck in burning this book and forgetting its awful lessons.

14. No blade forged may vanquish regret.

[[Category:130-139 AR‏‎]][[Category:Arcane Tower‏‎]][[Category:Arcana‏‎]]