L'Barra's Vreza (The shadow's lesson)

[Zaira]

Crude scribing woven over a number of worn and tattered scrolls by Zaira's hand for benefit of House L'Orn d'Elamshin

Barra's Vreza

With love, it begins. As with all things. Remember how it ends.

Ssin
Beauty. Art and passion, love and lust, obsession and hate. It steals our breath away and reminds of our place within the world. It reminds us we are not alone, and chills us to the bone with what it shows us. It is a weakness, a corruption that fills the heart. It makes you act against your better judgement, it makes you willing to cross the lines you vowed never to. It is a special poison that can only be cured by the cause. And it makes life worth living, worth fighting tooth and nail to continue on. Embrace the weakness, your strength is merely a measure of your desire. But remember, the rose has bled many a fool too enchanted with it's beauty to see it's thorns.

Ssinssrin
Desire. Ambition. Can you hold it? Be ambitious. Be passionate. Crave and lust and consume - the world will forget your flaws, your sins, your trespasses if you succeed where others have failed. Those that triumph become heroes, become legends. Those they had to wrong to get there are forgotten and not weeped for. Remember however, that what you have in the world is what you deserve. If you are unable to keep what you have earned, suffered and bled for, you were never worthy of it in the first place. Be not afraid of challenge, that which we must suffer for we hold on to for ages, that which we earn with ease is cast aside with equal ease. Desire, for whether you do evil or good in the world, you will always be hated.

Khaless
Trust. Face and Mask. Hide the inner workings of your mind, hide your expression by mask, fan or deceit. Smile when discontent, weep when feeling joy for an unfolding plan. Your face, your body, wear it as an ever shifting and changing mask. Do this, and you will never have to speak a lie. Take care in whom you show what is underneath the mask to, take care in sharing blissful moments of true emotion, they will be your undoing. Any fool knows to take care where trust is placed, that, that trust is a danger, a weakness. They are fools for a reason. Egotistical, self centered, consumed with protecting of the self when danger comes in many forms. More dangerous, more potent is who trusts you. Take care of whom you allow behind the mask, and who you allow to take you there.

Bel'lain
Respect. When welcomed into the home of another, meet them as family - especially if they are your enemy. The house is a sacred place and damaging it shows that you are weak willed and lack cunning. When welcoming another into your house, meet them as family - especially if they are your enemy. Protect them with your life, offer them the last pieces of food from your cellar, the last drops of wine in the house. The role of host is a sacred one, breaking it breaks your reputation. Honor the traditions and rituals of those you let into your house and that you let into your heart, have no doubt that holding to manners is a display of mental strength. Be measured in your wrath when an underling disrespects you - punishment may merely make you look like more of a fool.

Ethan
Quality. Your measure. Are you a tool or a weapon? Nothing is learned quickly nor without a scar, if you can find your enemy's scar, you deprive him of that knowledge, that strength. Be wary and aware of your own scars however and be not prideful, pride blinds us to our own weaknesses and reveals them to our enemies. Be no beguiled by the deception of strength; power is not a measure of prowess. To be a true warrior, to have true worth you must know others as intimately as you know yourself. A lover's betrayal can be so much more deadly than a blade. You master desires, your own and others is an act of true cunning. Charm is the most versatile weapon, if you have it you shall never be in need - but if you lack it, it does not matter what you have. Do not judge another by the company they keep, judge them by the enemies they make. And remember above all else, without courage, all else is meaningless.

U'nef
Fortune, luck, fate, the divine. It is fickle, It has killed many and it has laughed gleefully while doing so. Entrust everything to it. It can be charmed by acts of daring, and so should you. Honor the bold, especially if they are your enemy.

Waer'hongiath
Justice. A joke. A lie for those that cling to the hope that the land we walk on has mercy. Fools. Do not be as them, forget about fairness, equality, about harmony that must exist within the world. It is not justice you seek when wounded, it is revenge. When wounded, when wronged, seek to make the other suffer as they have made you suffer. Have faith in your own prowess, in your own cunning, not that the world will find balance for you.

N'belern
Debt. Someone has to pay. The coin in your pocket is not fresh to the world, nor the blade at your side, nor the food in your bowl. Only a fool seeks to hold on to his coin forever; it is a transitory thing, in constant flux and change through the empire, flowing. The same is true with all things you will possess in live. In your desire, in your ambition, remember that you are taking something from someone else - directly or indirectly, perhaps one day they will seek to collect back what you have taken. Keep track of who owes you and for what, but never -never- forget who you owe.

Vharcan
Revenge. Hate. Malice and obsession. It is of the same cup as Beauty. Drink of it deeply, but remember: what has been spilled can never be replaced. When another spills of your cup can never fill it back to the brim. The same is true for beauty. The end and the start of things are the same, you will love none as fiercely as your truest enemy.

With blood and pain it ends. As with all things. Remember how it begins.