A sprint of an interesting idea that I thought would be cool to write. I sure hope there aren't "minimum" word counts, because this spiel is very, very short. [hider=Searching for Paradise] What is "paradise"? Some may imagine a beautiful garden of rolling hills, golden meadows and gentle breeze. Others see a home of family, content in the safety of their warm shelter. Still more may think of our great empire, halls of achingly opulent wealth that would incite envy from even the highest of gods. This is what I had fought for, once. I was a younger man. I thought I knew what paradise was. I thought I was the savior the crowds with the olive branches were cheering me on to be. I thought I was destroying the enemies of humanity, the deviants, those who dare threaten the reclamation and salvation. And in the end, we won. The enemy was destroyed. The last, fleeting regiments surrendered and embraced back into our fold. Our empire reached far beyond the horizons and over every crevice, every shadow. And I? The crowning champion, the face of the unstoppable march towards our greatest future. But what then? They told me to give up my arms and rest. That all evil had finally been purged, and there was nothing more for me to conquer. That we have finally reached our promised destination. Paradise. But where others saw happiness and beauty, I saw darkness. A silent, insidious holocaust. Not a death of common material sorts, no, such a meagre threat had been swept aside long ago. It's the death of change. A death of definition. A death of our souls. Why? It is easy to be blinded by happiness. Let me show you. Humanity has been defined by their want to change. From our earliest days, we desired shelter. So we built huts and houses. We desired water, so we built wells and dams. And then we built fences to keep out beasts, watermills to use our water, and through our constant strive for greater things we have achieved greatness. Over time, we evolved to define ourselves in this pursuit; never catching perfection, but finding meaning in this pursuit. This is what we are built upon - to struggle against the unknown, and thrive when we conquer it. But what happens if we do catch this perfection? What happens if we achieve the pinnacle, and find that there is no more mountain to climb, no more 'greatness' to conquer? Nothing. We become nothing. Set pieces of diorama, always changing but never evolving. A dust that blows to and fro, mindlessly following the rules of nature in an equally mindless perfection. In achieving perfection, we have been overrun by our hidden enemy; stagnation. So now I set to reclaim what defines us. I will lead an army of those who see the truth and set fire upon this paradise, and in doing so wake the world from its giddy, static lethargy. Sow terror and chaos, and let the age old adage, "survival of the fittest", reign again. Humanity will be reset to our most basic, most valorous days so that we may build shelters and wells, and rediscover our definitions once more. Better a hopeful world of chaos and ruin than a hopeless world of blind happiness. I do this out of love and mercy. I do this to see despair again, and in that despair, hope. I do this to save the world from itself. Whether nor not the world understands this, it is of no consequence. A savior does not save because others sees them as such. If I must go to hell, let it be so. But in my damnation, the world will find salvation. - Journal of Trevis Mae, Hero of the Ametrine Empire [/hider] WC: 604