My Manifesto

Inspiration goes to Leo Karakolov, my friend, colleague, fellow writer and partner in crime. I do not own Soul Sacrifice.

This world is unfair.

There is endless suffering around every corner, and everyone is struggling to survive. I cannot say myself that I know true, unbearable suffering, but I am human, and life brings me down just like it does with everyone else. I have loved, and lost. I have fought and been abandoned, I have lived and chipped away my life. Sometimes I think death is the only means of salvation, a means to an end.

It is at those times I read a certain, magical book, in a certain video game: The Book Librom, in the world of Soul Sacrifice. 

The story of the book is about a nameless hero and his encounter with a woman named Sortiara. They live in a medieval world, filled with two tribes of human: The Romalus, and the Druids. The Romalus, ruling over the druids, appointed them to be the slayers of the magical beasts that roamed the land. The druids formed under the Romalus banner the organization Avalon. In order for druids to sign up for Avalon, they must take what is known as the sorcerer's ordeal. The nameless hero and Sortiara are participants in the ordeal.

"Half of those who attempt the sorcerer's ordeal will die." (Nameless Sorcerer)

It is a gruelling and thankless task, one that identifies the very ideals of Avalon's Creed: Death To Monsters. 

Monsters, who had once been human.

To be a sorcerer, is to be a murderer.

Those who partake in the ordeal, at the end of it must fight and murder their partner. The nameless hero did just that, but not without consequence. The nameless hero and his partner, his beloved sorceress Sortiara, had grown close over the course of their ordeal together. She had explained that she had a terrible blood lust within her, something that she had incredible trouble controlling, and it detested others. But not the nameless hero. He saw how she was after it all, how she wept and how she suffered. 

I had never known a single friend... until I met you. When you patted my back, that alone eased my sufferings beyond measure. I felt happiness. If we had met under different circumstances, we could have been... (Sortiara)

Standing above her dying body, the nameless hero offered up Sortiara's life in sacrifice, and in turn absorbed her soul into his arm, her thoughts, her memories, her blood lust becoming his. 

I would never see her again... No price, no sacrifice could hurt as deeply as that realization. (Nameless Sorcerer)

Their journey together reminded myself of my youth, how I too struggled with one that I had cared about deeply. Seeing Sortiata's pain and the hero coping with his loss helped be feel a connection with them, though our circumstances be different. He became broken, her smile becoming something that he could not forget. It tortured him greatly, and the feelings he had for her made things all the harder. Her blood lust began to consume him, the feelings he wanted to say to her but could not, pushing him to the brink. 

Yet he overcame it all. I won't say how, and will let you ponder on it. 

But beyond that, watching the hero move on from his struggles with Sortiara, how he came to cope with his murder, gave me hope that I could move on as well. It gave me hope that this world, while unfair, could be overcome. By the end of the journey, he placed his hopes, his dreams and his story within a successor, a person who he deemed worthy to carry on the torch of hope towards the future. The nameless hero offered up his life in sacrifice to his successor, and gave him all that he remembered, all he had experienced. His final words gave me hope, the realization that the future can be changed. That no matter how desperate our circumstances may be, one must only have the strength to make the right sacrifices. 

I've moved on now. I've met so many, and loved so much. These define me, what I choose to do, and who I want to become. 

For your sake, the ones that I love, I will change. 

When the world brings me down, and the circumstances become extreme, it is at those times I read a certain, magical book, in a certain video game: The Book Librom, in the world of Soul Sacrifice. 

What is written on the pages of the future depends upon you, the reader of this tale. And as you live on in the distant future, consider what the nameless hero once told me:

This is where your story begins.