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Speech excerpt from the book Luoi Dua-La, The Call of the Sap
Handwritten copy of Luoi Dua-La's speech, now known as Sage Sap, delivered at the Assembly of the Zoraï Circles on Tria, Fallenor 15, 3e CA 2600, as well as of the answers given by her interlocutors from the Masters of the Goo tribe.
“Luoi Dua-La
Masters of the Goo, silence the weapons to listen to your sister in sap!I am Luoi Dua-La. I come from the far-off tribe of the Sap Gleaners, and yet I am in your likeness! My ancestors and yours left Zoran[1] and its protective enclosure so that the First Swarming would not extinguish the light of the Chosen People[2]: they knew that we could not afford to leave our fates in the hands of the Né-Kwai[3] and chose the harshness of a secluded life in a tribe camp rather than accepting the coexistence imposed by the Ma'Kwai[4] Hoï-Cho…
But the time for this schism is now over! Like me, it is up to you to reintegrate the Chosen People to write a new page in their history!
Four centuries have passed since Cho's Pact committed each Zoraï to the Path of Enlightenment, as recalled by the Mask of Kinship that we have been wearing ever since. Touch your Mask of Kinship and remember! Let your sacred sap express itself! Feel your divine ancestry just as I feel it myself!
Just like me, you are convinced for long that our future depends on our ability to forearm ourselves against meddling from the Né-Kwai. Yet your leaders have recently betrayed your trust by consorting with a foreign, decadent and mixed civilization! Listen to the warnings of our forefathers: your sacred sap will dissolve the further you drift away from your people to acculturate to the Marauders…
What if the time had come for you to to regain the place that has always been yours? Come and join me! By my side, you will help to protect your people rather than hand them over to their foes.
Wisdom requires us to keep in mind our duty to our ancestors and descendants. Isn't this, moreover, the first and most fundamental of our responsibilities? The potentialities contained in our sap make us the voice of our vanished ancestors but also that of future generations who cannot yet express themselves to judge our present action. Which Theocracy will you leave them as a legacy? A Zoraï people united behind the Mask of Kinship and protected from the progress of the barbarians and of the Scourge[5]? Or a composite horde fighting over the last remains of a land gangrened by the Goo and even using it as a weapon, as you just did?
This choice, no one can make it for you! But whether or not you seize the hand I hold out to you, you will be occupying my prayers like all our brothers and sisters in sap!
Ochi Kami no !
Fao Sao-Ko
Brothers, don't listen to this bullshit! They're sending her to divide us! Make no mistake about it: we will never have our place among them! But with the Clan of the Hopeless, we will free the Zoraï people from the lies of the Usurper[6]! Our brothers in arms Marauders have already proven to us that we can count on them to lead us to victory!
Len Fai-Cu
And where will this victory lead us, Sao-Ko? Our founding fathers were veterans of the Great Wall of Zoran. They were committed to the protection of the Masked people, including against the recklessness of some of their leaders! To prove ourselves worthy of their heritage, and even if it means defying you, we must recognize, while there is still time for, that Luoi Dua-La is right, we misguided ourselves! I rally behind her and invite you all to do the same!
Fao Sao-Ko
You're crazy if you think you can save the Theocracy from itself without resorting to weapons! You who follow on Luoi Dua-La's heels, give up any hope because you doom yourself to perish at my hands!
Speech excerpt from the book Luoi Dua-La, The Call of the Sap,
written by Din Ha-Zhia, 2601
- ↑ [OOC] Zoran was the capital city of the Zoraï on the Old Lands.
- ↑ [OOC] The Chosen People: the Zoraï people.
- ↑ [OOC] Né-Kwai: word meaning "Without mask" in taki zoraï, i. e. "not Zoraï by birth".
- ↑ [OOC] Ma'Kwai: the "Great Mask" in taki zoraï; he leads the Theocracy.
- ↑ [OOC] The Scourge: term referring to the Goo.
- ↑ [OOC] The Usurper is the name the Masters of the Goo give to the Great Sage Mabreka Cho, leader of the Theocracy.
