Within three days of Illumination’s publication of “A Noblewoman’s View of the Renaissance”, Shavira, who was keeping watch over Aranor’s Illumination Shoppe in the Merchant District, received these three well-thought-out responses to Lady Jagaad’s manuscript. In the spirit of debate, we’ve put them together into a short treatise, and will publish all further copies of the two manuscripts as a single, companion volume. We’ve left the letters unedited, precisely as we received them.
The first response is by Kalen,
a peasant who lives in the fields outside Aranor. He is a married man who has
three children.
Dear people at Illumination,
A friend told me about Lady Jagaad’s treatise, and I got myself into the city as soon as I could to read it for myself. To be perfectly honest, I was amazed at her writing. I myself have little of learning, and could never hope to speak as she does, let alone write that way! But that doesn’t mean I can’t put together a few thoughts about what she wrote.
Much of it, to be honest, is beyond my scope. I don’t pretend to know what effects more or less magic will have, or if a Jeddan restaurant in Aranor is serving ‘real’ Jeddan food. But I can say that her ramblings about peasants were pretty far off target. She seemed to say that we live pretty base lives, and that no-one would choose to do what we do, if they had the knowledge of what a ‘good life’ is. Perhaps she doesn’t realize that under Goddard’s rules, we were an official caste, and had to get legal permission to marry out of it. Now that Queen Lillian’s here, we’re not official anymore. In fact, all of us have made a choice to be peasants. Lady Jagaad would say that’s because it’s all we know, but I’ll let her know that my daughter, Vanessa, was recognized by one of the sages in the city as having an exceptionally bright mind, and gets private tutoring on history, language, numbers, and politics. And even though she’s had three years of such ‘high learning’, she still wants to be a peasant. Why?
Well, to begin with, our work is, indeed, hard. We do sweat and get dirty. But that’s not the most terrible thing to a lot of people. While many of the nobles get soft and flabby by the time they’re thirty (just look at their women - most of them are well gone to seed by then), we peasants enjoy good, healthy labor - it keeps the body strong and muscles lean. We also get the privilege of knowing that we’re feeding all the interesting, amazing people who live inside the city walls. Let me tell you, there’s a certain sense of pride in knowing that if you didn’t do your job, all these people would starve. And don’t forget that we can’t do much for planting or growing in the winter, so we, unlike a lot of other people, get half the year off. Since we don’t pay taxes like we did under Goddard, most of us make a good share of gold, and if we like, can just relax all winter long! Many of us take time to go into the city and do quite a bit of learning, since we have a library which gives us the rights to read any books we choose.
Perhaps I’m not the best representative for the peasants. But I know that most of my neighbors are quite satisfied with their lives, and wouldn’t trade it for a big house in the city. Lady Jagaad says that ‘ignorance is a necessary quality’. Well, I’d say that ignorance is an inevitable quality, and to support that I’d just say that we should take a look at her. Well educated, but obviously ignorant of some pretty basic facts which she could have gotten straight it she just would have gone out into the peasant’s fields and talked to some people.
From,
Kalen
The second is by the mage Tennon, an aspiring practitioner who makes his home in the city.
Dearest Lady Jagaad,
Astounding. In a single letter you managed to insult the peasants (most of whom are quite pleased with their lot and many of whom, since the advent of Queen Lillian’s reign, are quite educated), the Fisherfolk (who are an ancient religious and cultural group who have historically chosen their lifeway over numerous other opportunities), the people of the city of Aranor (who you obviously deem so ignorant as to believe that the Jeddan restaurant they are in is actually in Jedda), and even the group of which I count myself a member - the practitioners of magic.
You are swift to compare Aranor with Antara, but what is your basis in doing so? Indeed, magic is freely practiced here, but have you ever been to a first-year magic class up at the School? If so, you’d find that much energy is delivered to the task of teaching us the responsible use of magic. We practitioners tend to be educated in other realms as well, and perhaps, if you so value the well-educated person, you should grant us some respect, and the opportunity to set our own limits.
Lady Jagaad, you are right that magic will get out of hand. And it will do so if it is practiced at all. Even in Goddard’s time, his own court mages would abuse their power. People who wield swords also get out of hand. Go down to the docks some night, find a rough tavern, and perhaps you’ll see what I mean. The whole point of the Renaissance is to put our trust in people, and not only in the judgments of the few. Else we are swiftly taking ourselves down the same road that the Goddard family led us upon.
As a last little thought, consider the most recent muses of sages. Goddard was defeated by magic. And many now suggest that had magic not been banned, he might have had more magicians willing to fight for his cause. As it is, the outlawed mages and majaes of the Old World banded to Queen Lillian’s side, and the war, as a result, was extremely one-sided. A culture is only so strong as the people who make it up. I, for one, would not want to weaken us to the point where the Old World was three years ago - a province rotting from the inside out, ripe for rebellion or collapse. If indeed the Renaissance fails, at least it will fail in the spirit of striving and belief in the human spirit, and that, I would think, would be an honorable failure.
Tennon, citizen of Aranor
The third was by
a woman who wished that her response be placed last.
There has been much speculation as to what lands I came from, and what my ultimate plan for the Old World might be. I, nor anyone else, can know for certain what the future carries for us, and the so-called Renaissance is, indeed, as Lady Jagaad suggests via her writing, a dangerous undertaking.
There are two polarities from which to deal with people. One is to control them utterly -- shape their minds and control their bodies. The other is to grant them freedom.
How many nights have I laid awake, pondering on the meaning of that word? In my lands, people take their own freedom, while rulers battle to control them. It is a bloody, war-torn place. In some lands, people wear invisible chains. With the Old World, I tried to find a balance between those two poles.
In my thinking, I have found that I have a belief. That belief is that the creature we call a human is, in the end, a good and thoughtful being, a creature of caring and respect. It may be that I am wrong, and if I am, than surely Lady Jagaad's fears will become realities, for the freedom I have offered is one where the human heart is given leave to emerge in all its creativity. We speak freely, my lady, because ideas harm no one -- only the action behind those ideas, and that I do take care to observe. We welcome other cultures -- not to plant false ideas, but to show that all humans, regardless of race, are free in our lands, and to enjoy the bounty of our world. We open the doors of learning because all of us have the right to choose our lives, and learning opens the doors of opportunity. We abolish static laws in favor of understanding what lies behind an action. And we allow magic because magic only need be feared when we stand ignorant of its workings.
If humans truly are good, as I do believe, we will guide ourselves down the path of enlightenment. Yes, we will learn, and many lessons and trials will need to be overcome as the years pass. But if we live sheltered, we will never grow. And if we never grow, the world will swallow us up.
The world, Lady Jagaad, is more vast than you or I know, and our corner of that world is not so secure as you might imagine. Tides shift, and as the challenges come, we will meet them only if we can act from a pure and enlightened heart.
Queen Lillian