Lily's Memoirs

It’s difficult to get up the motivation to write right now. This last zodiac has been trying, to say the least. I’ll talk a little about my opinion on the controversy and move on from there.

The specifics of what happened behind the scenes matter very little, in the end. The Hel Tree Order’s Clan Council made the decision that on the Forge Trips for the University of Puddleby’s Ethereal Plane Classes our singular crafter would not be crafting anything other than Ethereal Amulets.

This decision was one of several paths we could have taken, and we did not decide to do this lightly. As is no real surprise, this decision was met with intense unhappiness from the vocals who frequent the Sentinel. This is precisely why I chose to make the announcement myself, in spite of my being an ordinary student who is attending the classes to learn about the Ethereal Plane, myself.

A couple of amusing things came out of this, however. I managed to get a promotion, twice.

My first promotion was that I speak for the Mystic Council! Somehow it got translated that this was “Mystics everywhere,” not just my clan. So huzzah for my promotion in status! Let’s ignore that the citizens of Puddleby still refer to me as ‘Journeyman’.

My second promotion was that I was the Hel Tree Order’s crafter! If I’d known it would only take ten lessons to become a crafter – rather than the many times that it took previous Ethereal Mystics, I wouldn’t have fretted so much and done it sooner. A nice surprise promotion in skill!

My biggest issue with how everything went down is that no one approached me with questions, no one tried to clarify anything. It was simply assumptions and judgements. It is simply assumed that we are “power tripping,” “bureaucrats,” and anti-community. I don’t think I can change how people feel about this sort of thing, and in some cases, I don’t wish to. It just saddens me that the vocal portion of the community is so willing to be so full of malice in how they deal with people.

I will take a moment to make a note that Captain Stinkfist did take the time to talk to me, and I believe that while he and I do not see eye-to-eye, he does understand my perspective a little better. I don’t believe that he thinks we are truly vindictive, which is most definitely a bonus considering the assumptions that were flying around.

I’ll admit that the immediate reaction I got from my announcement does not entice me to do much for those people, though it’s still a bit fresh. I assume that I give it a little more time and I will no longer care about what happened there. It wasn’t big enough to let it define me, but I certainly doubt I’ll forget it anytime soon.

On the bright side, this will be the last public thing I have to say on the matter. There’s no point in dragging it up anymore, and I’m ready to move on.

And here ends the Drama…

In other news, the first two classes have been deemed successes for us. We didn’t reach the Forge last time, but we learned some valuable lessons, and we’ll be trying again next class.

It’s been an exceptional turnout and I’m very pleased that what went from being a pipe-dream of mine has become a reality with such resounding success. If I have my way, all of Puddleby will have access to the Ethereal Plane. Do I expect everyone to use it? Not necessarily, but I do expect that us holding these lectures and then making them publicly available will go a long way to allowing more individuals to participate in Ethereal expeditions for various benefits.

I’m very excited for what the future will bring.