Sunday Special #02 - The Age of Silence: Sacrifice

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If you haven't already, check out last week's Special!

On the Age of Silence

The Age of Silence refers to the novel's title, which I oft abbreviate to TAoS. If you've checked the Patreon page, you'll have gotten an idea of what the story's about, namely:

The Age of Silence follows a young Syrilae girl known as Aneskia in her quest to right a terrible wrong that has befallen her home. On her way she will meet unlikely friends and lethal enemies, while her very existence unravels with seemingly every step she takes. 

With madness closing in and threats revealing themselves to her new-gained senses, will Aneskia find a way to mend what has been broken? Will she rise beyond herself and find the strength to oppose the growing darkness? And who, among all foreign faces she will meet, will side with her when the time comes to make the hard decisions? 

The plot in itself I shorten to this: it's a story about Love, Sacrifice, and Death. These words hold a lot more meaning than readily apparent. Today, I will be discussing Sacrifice.

* * *

TAoS and Sacrifice

Paradoxally, Sacrifice is a notion foreign to me. I do not view the world from the perspective of having to give up certain aspects of my life in order to keep advancing; rather, I see these losses as natural consequences of choices made. The major difference here is, where sacrifice holds a negative connotation, my perspective allows me to, on the whole, not regret what I lose.

In the dark world of Aeyuu, sacrifice is a part of surviving. Humans sacrifice their dignity, Elshir abandon their unwanted children, Syrilae sacrifice their lives - all in order to survive. They say that only the strong survive - in a world where the strong may become weak in a heartbeat, there are no certainties, no guarantees that tomorrow will ever be seen.

In the Age of Silence, main protagonist Aneskia, a young Syrilae girl full of kindness and unconditional love, will eventually be faced with a terrible dilemma: to accept the death of one in order for thousands more to be saved.

When you cannot accept death in any way or form, what choice can be made? What Sacrifice is acceptable? 

Beyond sacrificing one life - or thousands more - the real Sacrifice is that of Self. This is a Sacrifice many citizens of Aeyuu have known all too well.

For the second main protagonist, Nalyn, Sacrifice of Self is something so ingrained in the entirety of his life that it is hard to say where he begins and Sacrifice ends. Dignity, morality, health - there is nothing Nalyn has not traded in at some point in his life. The only thing he has never been able to Sacrifice is his very life.

For Kristofa, Sacrifice of Self meant betrayal, that indirectly caused the death of the one woman he'd ever truly, and unrequitedly, loved. After everything he'd known had changed, the hard-hearted Kristofa discovered what it truly is to feel regret.

For Devon, Sacrifice of Self was a loss of humanity born of jealousy. The woman he loved chose another, and this man ultimately became her death. Never, before then, had he killed because he'd wanted to.

And these are but a few of the characters who, in one way or another, closely or distantly, relate directly to the story of The Age of Silence. There are many more whose lives and exploits (in)directly affected the state of the world, such as Sorasiehn, a bloodthirsty Syrilae who Sacrificed her Self the day her mother was murdered, or Eglen, whose Sacrifice of Self made him become a better person, to one day lose all that he had so painstakingly acquired. 

Everything comes down to choices made. Such are our lives, and such are theirs. They may not know what their lives will be made of, but of one thing is certain: everything ends with death.

Or does it?

And on that note: stay tuned for part 3, Death, next week Sunday, same Blogger channel :D

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