Steven Erikson
Pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist and novelist.
Mappo Trell, I believe motivations prove, ultimately, irrelevant. Upon either side of the battlefield the face grins with blunt stupidity, even as smoke fills the sky from horizon to horizon, even as crops whither and die, even as sweet land turns to salt. Inequity ends, Trell, when no-one and no thing is left standing.
The righteous will claim sole domain on judgment. The righteous are the first t make hands into fists, the first to shout down dissenters, the first to bully others into compliance.
You cannot fight unreason, and as these dead multitudes will tell you are telling you right now certitude is the enemy.
Sometimes, mortals did indeed forget. Sometimes, mortals needed ... reminding.
'No, do not look at me that way, you of smooth and subtle thought, you give your sympathy too quickly and therein hide your belief in your own superiority. I do not deny your cleverness, but I question your compassion.'
Can you live without answers? All of you, ask that of yourself. Can you live without answers? Because if you cannot, then most assuredly you will invent your own answers and they will comfort you. And all those who do not share your view will by their very existence strike fear and hatred into your heart. What god blesses this?
But now Apsalar was trying to tell him that competence was not justification. That necessity demanded its own path and there was no virtue to be found at its heart.
Children were meant to be gifts. The physical manifestation of love between a man and a woman. And for that love all manner of sacrifice could be borne.
Do mortal fools still measure the increments leading to their deaths, wagering pleasures against costs, persisting in the delusion that deeds have value, that the world and all the gods sit in judgment over every decision made or not made?
"What war is this?"
"A pointless one."
"They are all pointless Denier. Subjugation and defeat breed resentment and hatred, and such things cannot be bribed away."
"Unless the spirit of the defeated is crushed," Trull said.
I can see your reasons, my love. But wont you get thirsty? Inscription found beneath capstone of household well, Lakefront District, Darujhistan