Written by Anonymous

Rule 1: Competition

You may protect your territory, you may protect your food, you may not exterminate your competition. There are four things that ‘Civilization’ does, that never happen in the ‘wilds’ or the community of ’The Balance.’ The first is the extermination of competition. In the ‘wilds’ an animal will defend its territory and their kills, but it will not seek out its competition and kill it, just for the sake of killing.

Even when two species include competitors as their prey, they never seek them out just to kill them the way a farmer does with wolves, foxes and crows. In general terms, what they hunt, they eat, they do not exterminate like the father.

It is of note though that animals of the wild can and will kill in self defense, or even if they feel threatened. The proof that this law is followed by everything but the civilized world is that there is diversity amongst competitors. If all acted as the farmer, the competitors would hunt each other to extinction and there would be only one predator. This predator that would remain would be of course the strongest and the only one left.

Rule 2: Take what you need, leave the rest alone

This is one of the most important laws and the most dangerous threat to ‘The Balance’. The farmer will destroy the source of food for everything else to make room for his own. This expansionist policy is what the druids fear the most. The biggest problem with this is the excess in food. The more food that is needed to be stored, the more the population will grow. Thus in the coming seasons the land that is being cultivated is not enough to support the now larger population.

What does this mean? It is simple… more land is needed to cultivate and thus more intrusion into the wilds. The greater population also adds a greater threat of disease to be spread and famine to occur. This puts some of those who work with the balance at odds with each other.

Take the faithful of Chauntea, she sees to both the wild, and the agricultural domain of the plants. This has caused a certain split in the church and also made those of other faiths who tend to the balance wary of them.

Just how far will Chauntea go to see the farms thrive and the population grow… and when does it become a hindrance to the balance if it is not already. This can also be applied to hunting. Take the game hunters of the noble humans. They see little fear in killing massive amounts of ‘game’ and have no understanding of how it can be dangerous to the surface wilds. There are times yes, when the population of certain animals grows too large due to an excess of food, like the deer. In times like this is a policy to cull the excess and return the population to a level which can be stable to the environment. This is the job of the druids though; it is for them to decide when this must be done

A Perception of Balance: Musings of the Balance

It is no secret that the system works, the forests thrive and the animals are healthy and well populated. Though, the ‘civilized’ world draws back in horror from it, they fear it, in fact.

They see it as a world of chaos, endless competition, and where every living creature lives in fear of its life. This is not the case at all. Those who live in this ‘world’ would rather defend themselves to the death rather than be separated from it.

Take the deer. Some would claim the deer and the wolf are enemies. But I can assure you that they are not. The wolf does to massacre every deer it comes across, it only takes what it needs. A content and full wolf will pass by a herd of deer who will happily go on grazing. That is the basis from one of the laws, it is not chaos… it is in fact a law of peace keeping.

It is when one thinks that they are exempt from these laws that the problems start. They create a civilization that flaunts the law at every turn. This is where some might disagree with me that civilization can work in the balance. But in the form we see it now? I can attest that there are those who live with the balance and do not flaunt it. So is a civilization that is against the laws of the balance, or the ‘people’ themselves?

A Perception of the Balance: At one with the Balance

The Balance represents the important side of all things natural. It represents the importance in preserving the wilds as well as the tame. The importance of the forests, the deserts, the farms, and the gardens, the importance in fertility even infertility. The importance of destroying all undead and aberrations. The importance of keeping a close watch on those not native to our world, in case they seek to push their alien agendas on our lands, people and creatures. The importance of the sanctity of our natural life spans, people, animals, creatures and all.

The importance in not altering or destroying the soul of any being. The importance in magic and its proper use. The importance in the wolf eating the deer, the dear eating the grass and the grass taking the nutrients from the wolf after the wolf dies, decays and is returned to the earth itself. All this and more is the Balance and it is of the utmost importance that we do our part in protecting it by preserving and defending it.

A Perception of the Balance: a broader view

The first and most important task in this essay is not a simple one: To clearly define the concept of ‘The Balance.’ Now, as the observant reader will notice, the concept is ‘The Balance,’ and not simply ‘Balance.’ Which implies that only certain, pre-determined variables are included in the concept. This, then, means that we are looking at something specific, not ‘Balance’ as a broad term that can include anything someone wishes to see in relation to something else. Specifically, ‘the Balance’ as understood here, refers to the optimal state of nature, in which the land is utilized and preserved in a manner that sustains the world as a whole. It does not refer to ‘Balance’ in ethic and morals, and does not propose neutrality in all matters as some falsely believe. The next question then, would of course be ‘What is Nature?’

‘Nature’ would here need to be understood in the broadest meaning of the term. ‘Nature’ is not simply trees, water, birds and bushes, it is also mountains, cities, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Gnomes and so forth. ‘Nature’ in this regard, is the sum of everything that is native to Faerun, with certain exceptions that will be mentioned later. The much used division between ‘Nature’ and ‘Civilization’ is inherently false, for the following reasons.

It is the natural instinct of most humanoids to band together and build communities in order to survive and improve their lives. As such communities evolve beyond a pack of roaming humanoids into stable settlements (as is the natural and logical path for most humanoids to pursue) they become ‘Civilizations.’ Does this mean that they cease to become part of ‘Nature’?

Of course not. They still depend on the land for the resources they need to survive and thrive, and are as affected by their surroundings as their surroundings are affected by them. They are part of ‘Nature’ still.

The distinction originates both from the ‘Civilizations’ themselves, who sometimes wish to believe that they have evolved into something that exists independently of the world around them, and from those who advocate ‘nature’ as something pure and unchanging which everyone is, or should be, wild animals with contempt for anyone who develops and uses tools. They are both, as you can see, very narrow interpretations that can be demolished by anyone taking a broader view.