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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaodi" data-source="post: 7532220" data-attributes="member: 1231">Again for a moment the Bat stands motionless. "I will grant you one thing," he says, his voice quiet. "The designs of the Priestess for the Tome of the Dead are indeed cause for concern." There is another brief pause. "But... But you are mistaken about the the nature of the Tome and of the Underworld. For the beasts life is indeed cruel. But we are not beasts; you are not beasts, no matter what forms the appearance of your cthonian forebears may evoke.""You speak of thievery and vengeance. The veil has been placed firmly over your eyes," he says, taking the smallest of steps forward. "The dark lords of the lower planes stole the hearts of the drow in ages past. Twisted them to conform to their sadistic and vile ways. And then, in their deviousness, they gave them the Tome. Not merely as a guide to their eternal 'reward' by their masters' sides. But so that their mortal servants might do the work of stealing the hearts of each successive generation for them. And ingeniously with each successive generation it took on a greater and more central role in all of their ways, until the most dire parts were protected by the mundane."  "How many of your number were bred with no purpose but serving as the martial arm of your rulers? You revere strength - but only to bury your shame." With each breath the voice of the Darkest Knight becomes more forceful, unable to contain his emotion." How many of the drow, how many of you, have been pushed to cut the throats of their siblings, stab their 'friends' in back, and if they come from lowborn stock, even tear the hearts of their own parents from their chests to sate the thirst of dark gods? Or maybe instead of taking their lives yourself you were forced to watch them night after night in the theatre of blood until you grew to hate them so much you cheered every time they came close to death. There was never anything noble about it.""You call this the "way of the underworld", but it is so far from the truth. They have turned strength through survival into strength through subservience. The shame the drow feel for their weaknesses may return strength of arms of strength in the arts, but their strength of spirit is robbed from them and replaced with obedience to their masters."   Batknight sheathes his adamant blade, and his voice becomes quieter once more. "You may think your cthonian blood makes these perversions part of your essence, but you would be wrong. The blood of the drow that flows in your veins has been chained, but freed from bondage it is the stronger of the two.""I know all of this to be true - because I have lived it." His raises his free hand to his head. "I have survived on the surface, where you have feared to tread, for decades, the better part of a century, living my own way of the underworld. And if the Tome of the Dead must rest with the drow..." Lowering his head slightly Batknight slips off his helmet. Underneath is a dark grey cowl hiding his head as completely as the helmet had. But with a single difference - his eyes. Eyes that under the cover of darkness only those that shared them could recognize. "...then let it rest with me: I am Bru'ekk, son of the Great House of Vaiyune! Join me and show those who would control your fate how mighty you can truly be!"</blockquote>

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