A Parable of Humans and Orcs
Note from Lelouch: This is a bit different to what I usually post. This is a parable, basically retelling the story of Apartheid, the history of South Africa up until now... Hopefully you guys enjoy it. I want to tell you a story. It's about a land far away, in another world. It is from very different world, but I think it can teach us all something about our own. The story starts a very, very long time ago. Back in a time when people travelled in small groups, they moved from place to place in search for places to settle down and start villages. One such group of humans travelled a long way from their home – they travelled by boat to a place between the great city of their home, and a great elven city on the far side of the world. There they settled, and spread inland away from the great river. All was not perfect in their new home. They soon found that there was another group of people who had travelled to the land before they themselves had; people much unlike themselves, and they named these people 'orcs'. Neither the humans nor the orcs trusted the other side much, but they did trade from time to time. As each group settled and expanded, however, they often got into conflict over land. Some humans started to describe orcs as thieves and savages; some orcs came to call the humans invaders and thieves in turn. Tensions built, and flared into war on the fringes of the river banks settled by humans from time to time. Little changed over time, though the settlements of each side did grow and make the contention over land ever more pressing. There came a time when some of the humans, unhappy with the decrees and new settlers sent by the new lord of their ancestral nation, braved the great dangers of the mountains that had until then trapped them against the river's banks. They uprooted their lives, and set out to find a place that would be better for them. A handful of humans had ventured into the unknown land beyond the mountains, and told of great plains and fertile farmland, with space aplenty for the humans and those orc tribes that lived in those great expanses. So the Travellers set forth, in groups and heading in various directions away from the water. Along the way, they struck many deals with the orcs of the land, bartered for land and space to live. Sadly, many of the deals went poorly and either the humans were attacked and killed by superior numbers, or the orcs were defeated by the more powerful weapons of the Travellers. Fragile and unhappy as the peace may have been, the conflict eventually died down in most of the land. Orcs and humans started working together, though all too often the powerful weapons and knowledge the humans had bought from their homeland allowed them more than an equal share of the wealth of the land. There came a day when the human homeland heard of the exotic wealth of the wilder land away from the river – tales of precious minerals pulled from the ground in unusual abundance. The human nation sent their armies to claim this wealth, from the humans they had let leave long ago and the orcs that lived there as well. The people of the land – human and orc – fought off the western nation in the first war, but desire to possess the wealth of the land drove the western nation to ruthlessness, and the people of the land had to kneel before the lord of that land in defeat. Years passed. The western nation cared little for orcs, as they had so few living in their own core lands, so in these years nothing happened to bring the orcs and humans of the land closer, and they lived mostly in their own communities as they had in the long times before. There came a time when the western nation tired of keeping their faraway territory, and so they released their control over it and let the land become a nation in its own right. It was at this point that the warlock appeared and started playing a part in the fate of the new nation. The warlock was cunning and charismatic, and was human by birth. He whispered in human ears, reminded them of the differences between them and the orcs. He spoke of old conflicts, stoked fears and nurtured the humans' pride in their own kind. He whispered promises to protect them, save them. He claimed that he knew how best to make sure that the humans and orcs would never again wage war on one another. He would make it better, came the promise. All the humans had to do was give him the support he needed. So it came to be that the warlock was called upon to guide the new nation. He was given great power, and great freedom to use that power. Sadly, the warlock's own spirit had long since been twisted by a great fear of all that he did not understand and anything that was different. The great power that shined with promises of freedom and prosperity were gradually bent to his will. The first steps seemed harmless enough, moving villages around to lessen the disagreements over land usage. Only the few who paid close attention saw the true evil lurking behind this. They saw that the orcs were being moved away, bit by bit, from the fertile fields nearer the river and the lakes beyond the mountain. The orcs were driven gradually away from the growing cities, and the measures to keep them under control grew stricter every year. Many, both human and orc, spoke out against the warlock, accused him of being unfair and mistreating the orcs. Some even claimed that he was practising dark and forbidden arts, that he was breaking the very laws he was supposed to uphold. The warlock did not take kindly to this. Those who spoke out were quickly silenced, and the minions of the warlock grew in power to better strike down any who would oppose him. The warlock cast out many of the orcs when they stood up to him, banishing them to the remote regions of the land or even the other nations and lands beyond. Fearing that orcs or those humans who dared stand up for them would challenge his power, the warlock took ever greater control over the nation, gaining power by whatever means he could. He cast a spell of illusion, to hide his darker sins, and struck down any who would attempt to reveal the truth of his madness and evil. The warlock grew a great wall of thorns with his power, and forced most of the orcs to live outside its protection. Never did he rest in his whispering; always he was spreading fear and sowing the seeds of a twisted ideology that preached the superiority of humans as being more civilised in some immeasurable and intangible way. He knew well that, were his illusions to fade or those who oppose him make their voices heard, the humans would unite with the orcs to topple his corrupt throne, and he was willing to sacrifice anything for the power he needed to keep up his rule. Nations from all over the world made their displeasure over this growing taint in that land known: their merchants avoided it, and they shunned it in all ways they could. In defiance, the warlock called upon the people of the land to stand tall and be self-sufficient despite what the warlock claimed was evidence of foreign jealousy. Foreign nations – human, elf, orc and other – were not the only opponents that the warlock faced. Many of the orcs were not content with the unfair way in which they were treated, and they fought to make their voices heard. The warlock was not willing to listen, in his paranoid madness, and when the orcs turned to violence, the warlock conscripted humans (willing or not) to protect the walls. A war was fought, a war of terror on the fringes of the land. The warlock bent even this evidence to fit his misleading narrative: evidence of orcs' savage nature, he would claim, pointing at the flaming boulders they lobbed over the walls. To the thousands of humans who lost someone they loved to these attacks – labelled as acts of cowardice by the warlock – the warlock's whispers sounded all too much like the earnest truth, and so they gave him their support, even their praise. For many years, the divide between humans and orcs was nurtured by the warlock. He used his dark arts to hide his failings; suppressed criticism and shocking information. No storyteller or teacher dared speak out, even if they had seen glimpses of the truth behind the illusions. To stand against the warlock was treason, you see, and against the law. It was to be in support of those who burned homes, of humans and of orcs, and so those who spoke found their words were quickly smothered. Among the many who were caught and incarcerated in the dungeons of the warlock – guilty of standing up against his oppression – was a most unusual orc. His appearance was ordinary enough, but what set him aside was his leader's spirit. Despite all the reasons he had to succumb to bitterness and hate, he set aside his negative emotions and worked forward. He learned the human language, and even their culture. To the guards, this orc was proof that the warlock's word was not as reliable as they thought... he was proof to them that an orc was capable of great wisdom, compassion and depths of understanding. News of this great orc – a hero of wisdom rather than might – spread amongst the humans. A new idea grew strong, an idea that suggested equality was the way forward, together rather than apart. The warlock, seeing that his power was failing, conceded to the pressure from the humans, orcs and other nations, and one of his apprentices stepped forward to help find a way forward. Old prejudices do not die easily. Those who had faced and fought each other at the wall of thorns would always remember that divide, that conflict. Those who lost loved ones could never truly let go of that. Despite all that, there were precious few people of any kind who did not celebrate when the wise orc was released from the hidden dungeons of the warlock, and both human and orc sat down together at last to find a way forward to land without the wall of thorns. Like any good compromise, neither party got quite what they wanted. Concessions were made, and many old grudges were struck from the official record. Forgiveness, at least officially, was the motto of the day. There were a great many more orcs than humans in the land then, so it was little surprise when one of the groups of orcs who had fought to free their kind and the land as a whole from the warlock's oppression was called upon to guide the reunited nation forward. With the great hero at its head, this new guide broke down the wall of thorns, and set the equal rights of both human and orc (more accurately, of every individual, regardless of their origin, appearance and gender) into stone as the foundation of a land of freedom. Glorious were the years that the hero reigned, and great was the growth of the land as it shook itself free of old oppressive policies and righted itself. Other nations rejoiced as well, and the new free nation was celebrated the world over as an example of how such things can be done right. Human and orc, despite lingering resentments, realised they were not so different as it might appear on the surface. The years passed, as they must, and the happy end started to show signs of wear. The great hero stepped down and let another take his place, as was the way of things. Power, the rules in the stone said, was to be shared and not abused for personal gain. Even the great hero kept himself strictly to these rules, as he knew that his work would be for naught if that foundation was not kept solid and reliable. The one who stepped up after the hero's time as the highest guide came to an end, did not have the same greatness as his predecessor. This was perhaps inevitable, but it was not this lack of similar greatness that doomed his rule – instead, it was the tarnish that started to spread through the guiding group that eventually brought him to a fall. The second guide did much to make space and opportunity for orcish tradesmen and merchants to prosper like their human counterparts, which contributed greatly to the stability of the new nation. But all was not well, as the poorest of the land were left in the same difficult situation for years, with little change. Discontent started building, not between humans and orcs, but between the guides and their charges. Things did not get much better as time passed. A grim plague visited the land, killing both rich and poor, human and orc. Even so, the places worst hit were often places with larger than average orc populations. The second guide proclaimed on high that this plague was no more than a vicious lie, spread by those who would see orcs be labelled as diseased and unclean. His ban on the treatment of it killed thousands before his foolishness ran its course. To protect his mistakes, he resorted to a small magic stolen from the warlock that ruled before the hero – a small magic that not only feeds on division between human and orc, but in turn nurtures that division. This small magic he employed recklessly to hide his failures behind a weak illusion. Some of his sins were so great, even his illusions were not enough to protect him. The hero, despite having stepped down to enjoy a life of peace after his great works, spoke up. He returned to the guides, to ask them why they were letting the plague kill without opposition. And, in return for his concern, many of the guides turned on him. They spilled out his dignity on their dark altars to protect the big lie by his successor. For the second guide, his fall came from within. Amongst the guides, there was one he had taken on as his apprentice. A cunning orc, one trained in a faraway land by the elves of the eternal snows in the ways of secrets and shadow magic. There came a time when questions were raised about a corrupt trade deal – magics and weapons were acquired from merchants in distant lands, but much seemed wrong with the way that the trade deal was planned and carried out. This apprentice (the one of two heads or the one of the rain as he was later known) was accused of stealing from the people of the land for his own benefit, as part of what was wrong about the trade scandal. The apprentice did not take kindly to the accusations against him, and resented that his place as the second most important guide had been taken from him as a result. Thus it came about that he started to weave his shadow magic again for his own gain. The strong courts, once sanctified and proclaimed as a defence against the return of the dark arts of the warlock, provided the apprentice with what he needed. One of the guardians of virtue spoke dark words in the defence of the apprentice, dark words that unseated the second guide from the opulent throne that had sprouted quietly from the humble seat of the hero. The dark words were soon dispelled by many of the voices in the court that yet carried on the defence of the light, but the damage was done. The apprentice, in triumphant fashion, wrestled back his place atop the guides and cast down the second guide. So it came to be that another, an orc of some renown and power in the guides, took the place of the second guide as the prime guardian of the foundation of rules and guide of the people of the land. But this orc was a man of lesser substance, a hollow guide and a pawn of the shadow magic of the apprentice, and so little remains to be said of him. As soon as the rituals could be completed, the apprentice ascended to the position the hollow guide had been filling for him. He became the prime guide and guardian, to the dismay of many. The apprentice thus became the usurper, and set about building his castle. He knew that many of the people – humans and orcs alike – had little love for him. The usurper was an orc beset by great depths of greed and arrogance. He gained an ever tighter grasp of the great power of the guides, and used the small magics he had stolen back in his days of fighting against the warlock to hide his flaws and excesses, and where those small magics failed him he resorted to the shadow magic and subtle curses he had studied under the elves of the snows, who he still had a close tie with. Such was his arrogance, that even the growing voice of the believers, a group composed more equally of humans and orcs, did not worry him. The small magics that play on the divide between humans and orcs would be enough to quell them, his thoughts went. As the usurper's power grew, and his abuses started breaking free even from the mightiest illusions the guides could summon forth, discord grew amongst the guides. For the first time since the fall of the warlock, the guides were in danger of not being called upon to provide guidance; a situation that many of the guides could not even accept to be true. Their new foe, after all, was themselves – an untenable position they could not admit to, for fear of what would happen if their great illusions fell and exposed their true rot. Faced with approaching doom, the guides resorted to ever greater magics to fuel their illusions and buy support from allies and the people of the land. They would take from the rich, and give to the poor, came the claim. No-one but the guides themselves could ever understand the land, the guides declared. Little did the irony occur to the guides: they were fighting the very freedoms the hero had suffered for, and they themselves had ostensibly fought for. There was no choice to be made they said – no freedom. So the guides came full circle, by ignoring the lessons illustrated by the great fall of the warlock. Dark whispers and spreading seeds of fear became common again. The small magics were not enough, so the dark arts were revived to hide the truth and pull attention away from the failings of the guides. A few of the guides even went so far as to break away from the rest, and proclaim themselves as the new rebellion. This rebellion went on to preach of a land for orcs, where no orc would be poor. The humans had too much, the rebel chief shouted to a land frustrated with poverty and no work. The rebel chief promised his followers land and prosperity. They could get what they needed from the humans, who surely could manage without their land, their property. The orcs would only need to give him the support he needs, and he would protect them... The guides even came to such great despair, that they had to make sacrifices upon the warlock's old blood-stained altars. Their sins had grown so great, that no power they had could keep the illusion in place. Power was slipping away from them, and none among the guides were willing to accept this. So it came to be, that even the remains of the great hero – who had passed away years since – was brought to the altar. He was a betrayer, the whispers came, dark as any that the warlock had conjured. The great hero was never great, claimed the guides, and all their failures were in fact his. When surviving companions of the hero – fellow survivors of the war on the warlock and his dark entourage – spoke out against the dark taint spreading through the guides, that magic was even turned on them. The guides had gone power-mad, sinking into delusions that were all too reminiscent of the twisted visions of the warlock. This is where that story ends. It will be up to the people of that land, orc and human alike, to decide whether they are content to be ruled by ruthless guides, gone mad with power and infected by greed and arrogance seeping down from their leader himself. Bound to the usurper with chains of shadows, secrets and sins, the guides are paralysed. Even as the people watch the usurper sell their future to his elven patrons from the eternal snows, and to the wood elves who welcome him and his into their home, the usurper rests safe in the knowledge that his dark magics will protect him in the end. They have so far – perhaps they ever will.