Submitted: 13 October 1999

Spoiling the Secrets of the Gods

by Salzara, Priestess of Phelim

"Ya know Baresh, it seems that Elanthia's professions are becoming more and more corrupt and fully willing to disclose even the most powerful secrets of their guild. Paladins have lost their honor. Empaths ignore the dying. Thieves disclose their guild locations. Warrior Mages murder children who ask them for small bleeders. And now, it seems, the holiest of the professions, the Clerics, have slipped into the pit of corruption.

"Today, me and two of my friends, Negagear and Drab, were out in the holy place near the Crossing, getting favors from our respective gods. There, there was an older Human Priestess, by the name of Merena, I believe, who kept blurting out loud the secrets to solving the puzzles of the labyrinth. When I asked her to stop disclosing the secrets of the gods, she snorted at me and said that she could do whatever she wanted. When I begged her further, she laughed at me, and replied: 'Secrets of the gods. Whatever, youngun.'

Salzara sighs. "Many things disturb me here. This was not a young, novice Acolyte here, it was an experienced Priestess. It would have been one thing if she were guiding the novices in their holy paths in whispers, giving small nudges and hints, but she was blurting them out in front of anyone unfortunate enough to hear her. Any ambitious novice who wanted to solve the riddles for himself had the secret spoiled for him, simply because a mean elder finds it fun to destroy the intrigue for others.

"Baresh, what is Elanthia coming to? Have we so few morals that Clerics, our links to the Gods, are willing to give out secrets that at one time would get anyone who disclosed them killed? And even Merena, who has lived in Elanthia long enough to know better, is still willing to abuse the trust of her god and jeopardize her image as a keeper of the holy simply so she can get an ego-boost by talking down to those who oppose her abuse of the gods? If she is eligible to be a cleric, then so is that Gelapod in the Crossing pond. I've met earthworms holier than her, and rats more trustworthy."