Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 48 (Patreon)

Chapter 48: Ranger Versus Route I

(Original Chapter Title: Ranger vs Route)

It's a silly chapter, in a lot of ways.

Ranthia endured an incredible feat, she's reeling with loss—with guilt. She's struggling to cope and... well, she's not entirely herself. Which meant that it was the perfect time to throw her a situation to resolve that pushed all of her personal buttons. It let her vent some toxicity in an appropriate direction.

But Ranthia's always fairly swift to bounce back when she starts down a dark path. She's stubborn and she's got a lot of experiences at burying trauma. Good thing that's never done anyone ill.

The temple ran into tough times because ultimately the gods didn't save Perinthus—an argument could be made that Papilion deserves the credit, but only to those that read the stories. The Rangers did—and those who lived the crisis know that one [Healer] in particular did, no matter what a song claimed—and so gratitude was hard to attribute to the gods. Give people a time where coin was more precious/in shorter supply, and it's to go "well I haven't bothered to donate to the temple in a while, maybe I need to rethink my faith?" Add in some throwaway musings in BtDEM about worshipers of the System, and it paints a very reasonable picture.

Any true faithful would know that the people would return to the gods—after all the deities of Pallos aren't as absent as many—and had patience and accepted the lean times. ...The [Priests] of Perinthus were not quite so devout themselves and were easily swayed by greed, even at the expense of the people.

Elaine has a VERY rosy view of guards, but Ranthia's own view is bleaker. Incompetence, corruption, and protection of the status quo are the norms of her experience. Sure, Ranthia's willing to believe that a rare few truly care, but they don't rise into power. Elaine saw as much herself, but she had her own authority BEFORE those lessons managed to sink in. As for the guard captain's theory? Well, when you keep your circle small, it's easy for a bad theory to build up until it becomes accepted. And when all the leadership of the guards believe one thing, well, surely they must know something you don't, right?

Fortunately for everyone, Ranthia does her own scouting. As inadvised as that may be.

I have nothing to say about her dream, that can stand on its own merits (or lack thereof). But we've all had REALLY stupid nightmares that were horrifying/stressful in the moment but just weird and stupid after we woke up, if we remembered them.