William G Maryblood (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strength_of_will) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
expiationlogs2024-03-03 03:36 am
strength_of_will) wrote in expiationlogs2024-03-03 03:36 am
Entry tags:
A flame to guide the way (open log)
Who: William and anyone
Where: The Church of Many Faiths/near the forest close to Aldrip for firewood
What: William offering shelter from the cold
Warnings: None
If you need shelter, please feel free to come by the church. There are blankets and bedding in the communal area.
And to our newcomers: if you would like a place to make offerings to your god or gods, you're welcome to make a small shrine or something here. I would like this church to be somewhere we can freely share our faiths.
William spends most of the blackout in the church he has taken care of since late last year. It's a humble place, as one would expect, made cosy by the light of a few candles during this bleak blackout. In the aforementioned communal space, he has taken the trouble to create small firepits for people to gather around and huddle by or sleep near. Food is a little more difficult as he doesn't have the capital he does back home. However, he tries to at least offer some kind of soup - simple to make and easy to portion out to a large number of people. Donations are always welcome.
When not at the church, William can be found outside gathering wood for fire. He doesn't seem to care if the wood he picks up is wet or iced over.
Where: The Church of Many Faiths/near the forest close to Aldrip for firewood
What: William offering shelter from the cold
Warnings: None
And to our newcomers: if you would like a place to make offerings to your god or gods, you're welcome to make a small shrine or something here. I would like this church to be somewhere we can freely share our faiths.
William spends most of the blackout in the church he has taken care of since late last year. It's a humble place, as one would expect, made cosy by the light of a few candles during this bleak blackout. In the aforementioned communal space, he has taken the trouble to create small firepits for people to gather around and huddle by or sleep near. Food is a little more difficult as he doesn't have the capital he does back home. However, he tries to at least offer some kind of soup - simple to make and easy to portion out to a large number of people. Donations are always welcome.
When not at the church, William can be found outside gathering wood for fire. He doesn't seem to care if the wood he picks up is wet or iced over.
no subject
[ Marianne rolls up her sleeves and takes a bundle of wood into her hands. She adjusts the weight of it in her arms as she thinks of how to answer him. A tender and anxious heart, she doesn't know what it's like to not feel troubled, but she's gained faith in the future and determination to overcome the trials thrown at them. ]
I wanted to say my prayers to the goddess. Not because I think we can't weather this darkness, but to ask her to watch over us as we do.
no subject
Growing up, I gained an appreciation for the strength faith can give a person. I watched my mother pray daily to the Earth Mother, Mater, for bread to feed me as a child. She would pray even though Mater's flames scoured her for becoming one of Stagnate's undead.
[ He chuckles sheepishly. ]
I tried to save her from burning the first time I saw her praying. I nearly lost my hands trying to pull her away.
no subject
She sounds like a good woman. May I ask why the Earth Mother would do such a thing?
no subject
[ He smiles sheepishly. He's willing to explain if she wants to listen though. ]
The short answer is that when Mary - my mother - joined the undead, it meant she would have given up Mater's protection for Stagnate's.
no subject
[ If she wasn't here, the rest of her day would probably be spent sorting the storehouses and delivering supplies to those in need. By helping William, it achieves much the same thing. ]
I take it she had some reason to pledge herself to- to this undead.
no subject
[ He settles on the floor cross-legged. Best to be comfortable while he tells the story. ]
Two hundred years before I was born, there was a war between humans and someone called the High King. The High King was the supreme leader of demonkind and led them in a war against the people of Southmark. Mary, one of Mater's beloved priestesses, along with the warrior Blood and the wandering sage, Gus, were the ones who devised a strategy that they hoped would defeat the High King and his armies.
They couldn't defeat him but they succeeded in sealing the High King at great cost: the army which had followed them perished in the fight against the demonic horde, leaving Mary, Blood, and Gus to face the remainder alone. It was then that Stagnate appeared before them and offered them a deal: he would turn the three and all the surrounding demons into undead creatures. That would put an end to the war and allow them to watch over the High King's seal until they found a way to defeat him permanently. In return, once they lost their attachment to their duty, Stagnate would take their souls and make them generals of his own army.
[ His smile is melancholic. ] They agreed to Stagnate's proposal. They didn't have a choice. Mary became a mummy; Blood became a skeleton; and Gus became a ghost. For two hundred years, they watched over the seal of the High King, unable to travel beyond the city where they made their final stand.
no subject
How brave of them. Your mother sacrificed so much to protect the people.
no subject
About seventeen years ago, they found an infant. Some demons had come to try and offer it as a sacrifice to undo the High King's seal. Mary, Blood, and Gus managed to easily defeat them but they were unsure what to do with the child they'd found. After some argument, they decided to raise him.
That was when Mary began to pray to the Earth Mother again, every day, for bread to feed their new child. Every day, she invited Mater's flames to admonish her and she endured them without complaint for the child's sake. For my sake.
[ He tugs off one of the gloves he usually wears, showing his bare hand to Marianne. There are terrible burn scars there. Old and naturally healed. ]
Gus could have healed them properly but I chose to keep these scars as a reminder of the sacrifice Mary made for me, as the mother who raised me.
And...as it turned out, Mater never had abandoned Mary. When Stagnate tried to come for her soul and Blood's, she intervened at the last possible moment and gave me the opening I needed to banish their Echo. That let Gracefeel take them with her to their next lives.
[ A gross simplification of the battle which took place, really, but this isn't about him. ]
no subject
[ Marianne says in a hushed whisper, letting the story sink in. The sight of William's hands marred with scars would have saddened her, but knowing that he chose to bear them willingly, knowing that the marks are proof of his mother's love for him, makes her think differently of the old wounds. ]
I'm glad your goddess was merciful. May your mother and her friends rest easy.
[ Her own hands come together as she says a quick prayer for their departed souls. She hopes they are at peace. They deserve it after all they'd endured. Marianne raises her head to look at William. ]
You must have faced much as a child.
no subject
[ He smiles wryly. All those hopes and dreams he had as a boy about to become a man. Mary and Blood will never see any family he does eventually have. Gus still has a few years left before the High King's seal needs attending to again. Yet, William would not have it any other way. ]
My family prepared me well. I'm strong, I'm self-sufficient, and I have a purpose. I have no regrets.
no subject
[ She has seen the things he's done for Aldrip. Bringing people together to defend against the monster, establishing a church that accepted all faiths, he is a leader and protector as brave as the heroes in his story. She has no doubt he's done much for his people back home as well. ]
no subject
Thanks, but I'm just making sure I live a life that I can look back at and be proud of, that's all.