Stripped to the Foundations

 

"Only through many hardships
Is a man stripped to his very foundations
And in such a state
Devoid of distractions
Is his soul free to soar
And in this
He is closest to God"
— The Scriptures, Book of Missions 42:5

When I first read these words from the Amarr Scriptures, I felt the weight of their truth settle deep within me. I did not come to them as a faithful child of Amarr, nor as a willing supplicant to Empire ways. I came as one who once bled for the Tribes, who carried their banners and believed their struggle was mine.

But time and hardship have a way of reshaping a man.

The tribal life taught me strength, but it also bound me in endless struggle — war without rest, grievance without end. My spirit became entangled in causes that never allowed space for silence. There was always another fight, another enemy, another duty. And in that noise, I could not hear myself.

After almost two months with Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque, I have been given the time and space to reflect. What once felt like exile has begun to feel like refinement. The silence of mining operations, the discipline of study, the steady rhythm of a community bound not by vengeance but by purpose — these have stripped me down to foundations I did not know I still had.

To be stripped to one’s foundations is to stand bare before the truth of who you are, without the armor of tribe, duty, or expectation. And in that stripped-down state, I began to see the soul not as a tool for war, but as something capable of soaring.

I do not claim to have found God as the Amarr know Him. But I know I have come closer to something beyond myself — something vast, quiet, and eternal. Perhaps that is what the Scripture meant: hardship does not only break; it frees.

And in freedom, the soul learns to rise.

— Shama Olgidar