[Violet De Camp]

** The following comes from the journal of Celebrithrade after she has reflected on what took place at the Battle of Skaarbrand’s Folly. It is written in Elvish. **

Spoiler

The more battles I am a part of, the more I learn of war. I can remember not long ago a time when I would not have considered studying such a topic beyond the stories and lessons necessary to Tel-Quessir’s history. I now find myself at the forefront of many conflicts now, and as such, I must dedicate myself to studying warfare to the utmost of my abilities, less I risk failing my people…

But, I digress on my lamentations. If this is what I must do to protect my people and restore us to our former glory, then I will attack it with all my being.

Through my experiences and my studies, I have considered just how many battlefields can be fought on within the context of a single skirmish, battle, or war. There is of course they physical battlefield, where all sides partake in a life-and-death struggle through might, magic and cunning to take the lives of their adversaries. However, I feel as though there are other battlefields being fought over at the same time, even without those on the physical battlefield realizing it.

Beyond the physical battlefield, there is the battlefield of the minds, or as I like to think of it, the chess board. This battle takes place before any physical battle, where commanders and leaders compile their strategies and put them into motion. They collect what information they can and, with a little guesswork, attempt to predict their opponents moves and respond in kind. This battlefield is often only seen by those involved in the process, yet it impacts the physical battlefield directly in many ways. It matters not how powerful your forces are; if you walk onto the physical battlefield unprepared and outsmarted, you are likely to fall in defeat.

Another battlefield that has less of a tangible impact on the battlefield is the battlefield of morals, or as I call it, the debate. I feel like many other academics and warriors would disagree with me when I claim that the ideologies of the combatants play into the war effort at all, but I believe that it does indeed. Leaders can be as brave and charismatic as they wish, but without a common and accepted ideology to fight for, their morale and allegiance to the cause will falter. Take, for example, the Kingdom of Aryvandaar and their quests during the Crown Wars. In the early years, when their cause was considered just, they were able to muster a formidable fighting force that was unshakable in their faith and their resolve; yet, by the time of the Fifth Crown War, their ideals and morals became corrupt and disputed, and so their forces became unmotivated by their cause, and their fighting prowess suffered for it. When two armies clash, so too do their ideologies, and I would argue that the side with the most acceptable and beloved ideology will have an army that fights with a greater strength and tenacity than that with a disliked ideology or no ideology at all.

The last battlefield is one that I have recently come to realize may be the most important of all, and one that is unseen by almost all: I refer to it as the soul weave.

As I continue to expand my knowledge of warfare and of soul magics, I find myself becoming increasingly more aware of the battle that each of us takes part in without knowing it. As our physical shells engage in a life-or-death struggle, the souls encased within our shells are also waging a battle. They lash out and strike in ways similar to that of our bodies do, but it is far less calculated. It’s raw, uncontrolled conflict. During the The Battle of Skaarbrand’s Folly, I could feel the souls strike out at one another… I could feel them go through a wide array of emotions… And I could feel them leave their containers as their physical selves were dealt the fate of death. It was then that I realized that this unseen battle, especially in this instance, was the most important battle of them all.

I believe this for a few reasons:

First, souls are the very centerpiece of who we are. Our bodies are just puppets, and our mind is the strings that are controlled by the whims of our souls. As such, they are the most powerful, and also must vulnerable, part of each and every one of us. When our soul feels anguish, our body feels a physical response to this… And when our body is dealt a devastating blow, our soul is is too. The soul is what makes the very fiber of our being, and so on the battlefield, as tensions are high and emotions run rampant, our souls undergo intense changes. They can strengthen us, or they can weaken us. They can push us to new heights, or drag us to the depths of despair. Those that fared best in the battle were those that could control their souls and keep their emotions in check, for those that did not are likely among the dead.

Second, the potential of souls and their use in battle is not limited to their impact on their physical selves. During the battles prior, I noticed an evil magic seeking to influence the flow of souls after they had been slain in battle. Normally, souls travel from the body to the afterlife to be at the side of whatever god or goddess that individual worships. However, these souls were being taken and consumed in another plane entirely. So, I devoted myself to combat such techniques, and by the grace of Corellon and Sehanine, I was able to stop them at the final battle. Given each soul’s potential, it is understandable, then, why giving them to the enemy to draw power from would most likely spell defeat.

I will not go into detail here what the intention was for those souls, but know that allowing soul magic to occur uninterrupted is incredibly risky and dangerous, especially if the individual is of questionable moral character. This is why such magics have been abandoned and kept under lock and key by my people. The power to weave souls is a great one, and with that power should come great restraint and good judgement, lest you find yourself at the mercy of one who can control and destroy the very thing that makes you, well, you.