Aisling Individuality and Aisling Community: A Balance

"My people believe that the weak should perish, but is not any one person alone weak?"

-Vollric, Eldred Leader, Armada

I'm a weird person in that most of the intelligent things I hear don't come from famous movies or novels or such things, but from video games like this. But that's not why I decided to write this (especially with the hunt for personal soapbox rants ^^).

Truth be told, all aislings are individuals, which is how it should be. Aislings are given a spark from Deoch which gives them creativity. It's part of the culture. But it's easy to become overly individualized. Without gathering, communicating, and agreeing, we can't change a single thing.

It's what our society likes to tell: live for the moment! Live for yourself! No one else is more important! If you see something you want, take it.

There's also the point A to point B mentality. "This is my goal. This is the path. This is what I need to go through." I'm sure it's been said before (in fact, I know Etienne said it earlier) that there is one goal and one way to reach it.

So what can you do? You can't change the people. You can't change their view on what a good goal is either. You can guide them..and you can change the path.

Because the truth is why SHOULD they change their path to the 99th insight? Why SHOULD they change their quest for political power? People have shown them time and time again that caring about things other than your next insight or for doing something for the community and not the nice clothes is
1) stressful,
2) a whole burden,
and most importantly, 3) makes the person miserable.

The fact is, you need to show the people that this is fun and enjoyable. And more importantly, you need to show that it's more important than their other path. People see "Well, I'm tired of all this so I'm leaving" and they say to themselves "Why should I follow that guy if it brought him nothing but grief?"

What I think should help (and, like Etienne, I think a lot will call me a dreamer for thinking this. Well I am.) is don't be so quick to push someone away. And I need to follow my own advice too. Gather in a group and talk with friends and make it enjoyable. If a heretic comes into the group and asks something, say "Come here a second. I want your opinion on this." Bring them on an elaborate journey of your imagination and ask questions. What's the worst that can happen? They take off, maybe hitting a few people, maybe uttering a few curse words, but how is that any different than what would have probably happened anyways? If they actually stay and listen, end it with "Now wasn't this chat better than hunting?" If they say no, then that's fine. But if they say yes, you have in your hand a new carrot in front of their noses.

The problem is is that a lot of people who like to roleplay break off into smaller groups. There's no community area for activity really. Aisling individuality again. We are weak if we try to remain apart and let little greivances come in our way. They are strong because they all know what they want (the next insight) and they know how to get it (hunt). Other aislings should do that.

I hope that this makes as much sense on this mail as it did in my head ^^

-Dartanian Lestor