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April's Monarch
Ja'afar al-Saladin

Dariuas - Hail Jaafar_al_Saladin, I am Dariuas of AC Stratics.
Dariuas - I come to you with an interview.
Dariuas - You have been selected as the third Monarch of the Month for Asheron's Call Stratics.
Ja'afar al-Saladin Greetings Dariuas, I thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Paladins of Asheron and I thank you for this honor.
Dariuas - You have earned it.
Dariuas - Shall we begin the interview?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Certainly, I am at your disposal.
Dariuas - Very good.
Dariuas - To start, what do you think, is the most important quality a monarch should have?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Difficult question... give me a moment.
Dariuas - I recieve my pyreal's by the hour, take all the time you need.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - As much as I would like to say patience, or understanding I don't think that is the most important.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Certainly they are needed, but I would have to say durability. There are always problems and always issues to be dealt with.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - If you can't stay the course and work relentlessly with your people, you don't get the opportunity to operate the other traits that actually help people.
Dariuas - Don't you belive though, a strong monarch should have compassion to lead well?
Dariuas - To be able to understand what a follower is going though?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Yes, I would say that. I would also say on the other hand that one must be able to be stern when the time comes.
Dariuas - Understandable.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - However, with durability you can grow tired quickly and be of use to no one, regardless of how much compassion and understanding you carry in your soul.
Dariuas - Next, will you explain to me how you came about answering the call?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Pardon, the above statement should read without durability.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Yes, I can answer that. I am surprised how little it is asked.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I was a young man on Ispar, one of the Gharun'dim who made their existence by tending and raising the tougher strains of goat.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Sheparding was a task my father left to me while tending our small holding, and I was often far from home.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - One day, in one of the more rocky and hilly areas on the edge of the desert, I saw a purple glow over the crest of a nearby hill.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I investigated and drove the flock closer, only to find what I now know to be a portal to Dereth.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - It scared me, I will say that. So I began to move the flock away, but one of the younger goats drifted into the portal and dissappeared.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Foolish of me in retrospect, risking the flock like that. Yet, I always had a desire to investigate strange things. I suppose I liked to be scared a little.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I had no choice but to follow the goat, it was my task and my father would be displeased if I returned without it.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I never found the goat. I presume it was dumped somewhere else on Dereth and quickly destroyed.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - That is how I came to be here... the rest is then history.
Dariuas - I've yet to see a sheep in Dereth.
* Dariuas chuckles.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Ah yes, but I would imagine some shreth found the goat a good meal. I often wonder what happened to the untended flock, and if my father ever found them.
Dariuas - How did you come to be a monarch?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Well, I can't really say. I shortly found myself in Yaraq and it would seem that the wand in the pack I found near me on entry was an indication of aptitude.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - So I began to haltingly learn of the arcane arts. I teamed with an experience Sho warrior who found himself there, Yazuli Neko.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I did not spend much time learning the arts of war magic, spending more time learning the arts of support.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I found that working in tandem with others made survival so much easier, and from there it grew.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I would say that we adopted a strong sense of code and honor, much like the Code of Pwyll.
Dariuas - Pwyll?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I charge all of my people to make this Dereth of ours a better place.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Yes, the Aluvians have a king from the old world called Pwyll. He established this code of conduct for his warriors and nobles.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Ours is not the same, but it is similar. Would you like to know the code of conduct for a Paladin of Asheron? It is simple enough to recite.
Dariuas - Very well.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - A knight is sworn to valor
Ja'afar al-Saladin - His Heart knows only virtue
Ja'afar al-Saladin - His Blade defends the helpless
Dariuas - His might upholds the weak.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - His Might upholds the weak
Dariuas - I know of this code.
Dariuas - But by a diffrent name.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - You know of it then.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Well that is what we instill in our people. More than that though, they are charged to provide help when and where they can.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Not just to one another, but to all of Dereth in the hopes that we can one day claim this world as trully our own.
Dariuas - Do you ever dream of what would have been had you stayed in Ispar?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Not in possession of a dead race, or a boil of darkness that springs from the earth.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Oh I know what I would have been. I would have been a man who managed his estate while his children worked on a farm and tended the flock of goats the family owned.
Dariuas - Have you seen anyone from Ispar in the land you know now?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Not a soul. I was just a young man on the edge of a desert in a small, and well seperated community.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I had friends of course, mostly in my family. I would remember a family member at this point, but other than that, I have forgotten most of it.
Dariuas - Have you ever made attempts to return to Ispar?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - No. I do not think I want to return even if I could. I beleive that it is high time we forgot about what we had, and work on what we have.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - The old customs and the old ways of our people are to be learned from. Not to be enforced here. We will make our own way, and it will be our Dereth way.
Dariuas - Aye. Many belive the same.
Dariuas - I have just a few final questions for you.
Dariuas - What do you belive is the most important job of a monarch?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Finding and recognizing good people, and putting them in a position where they can help their fellows. You cannot manage everything your following wants you to provide for them. Without finding good people and relying on them, you will ultimately fail them all.
Dariuas - Finally, what would you say to people who want to one day become a monarch?
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I would say much. Do you want the simple answer or the long one?
Dariuas - Which ever you wish.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Alright, first and foremost I would say for them to be sure it is what they wish.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Some people beleive that fealty grants power and influence. The more fealty you have in the form of followers, the more power is the perception I suppose.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Yet, every new person is an additional responsibility and one day you may find yourself under a mountain of it an say... "How did I get here."
Ja'afar al-Saladin - I would also say to be sure your motivations are pure.
Dariuas - Very good
Dariuas - I thank you for your time.
Dariuas - Again congratulations on being selected as the 3rd Monarch of the Month.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Certainly, I hope I have not bent your ear too far my friend.
Dariuas - My ears are made of elastic good sir.
Ja'afar al-Saladin - Again, thank you for your time and I am honored at this title.
* Dariuas bows
Ja'afar al-Saladin - bows