@he1retic - the worst damage humans do isn't rooted in malice, but in thoughtlessness. / these violent delights
NOT AN INACCURATE ASSESSMENT, NO, BUT AN INCOMPLETE ONE. "One unfortunately very often follows the other, I'm afraid."
In its own way, thoughtlessness can be a form of malice, whether deliberate or unintended, if that thoughtlessness leads to harm. The First Warden comes to mind, a man of thoughtless stubbornness that has lead to the death of so many under his command, to his own downfall. To the loss of Weisshaupt, a bulwark against the Blight since time immemorial. Davrin had said he was a man without imagination, and while the entirety of it did not rest on the First Warden's shoulders alone, his thoughtlessness - his inability to conceive that someone and something outside of his purview might be right, and that he, himself, might be wrong, his hubris - had attributed to that awful maliciousness with which Ghilan'nain had pulled it down.
He'd be remembered as the First Warden who dared to stand against a god, and the truth of it - that he'd failed to act when urged, had waited until a moment before complete destruction before coming to any kind of sense - would be overshadowed by that. Another kind of thoughtlessness, perhaps. Another form of calculated malice.
He pauses a moment, with a thoughtful hum.
“Or more accurately, one can simply be a form of the other. Actions reverberate, and when that reverberation - the consequences - of those actions are ignored or left unexamined, malice is born. One can intend to never harm a fly while burning down the village through inattention. The end result is the same.”
