By Halcalya Marxworth
Argent Summoner
I felt I had to write about this, because I’m sure many of you may have the same questions I do about the Kyrians, and first and foremost among them would have to be this:
At what point does honorable sacrifice…go TOO far?
Now before I get a plethora of Ebon Knights and Illidari jumping down my throat, bear with me here. I commend anyone who chooses to make the ultimate sacrifices in the name of duty and what’s right. It’s the basis of many of our worlds’ greatest heroes, some of which either lost their lives so that others may live, or changed fundamental parts of their lives to be more effective against the threats we face on an almost annual basis.
And then…there are the Kyrian.
The Kyrian are the ferriers of souls in the Shadowlands, making sure that each soul can get to its proper place after being judged by the Arbiter. Such an important job requires that these ferriers be impartial, especially in cases where a soul to be ferried is known to the Kyrian charged with transport. There can be no bias, no deviation from the judgment of the Arbiter.
So to bring about these honored goals, each Aspirant is cleansed of their memories, and here’s where the dilemma is writ large.
See, I have some personal experience that relates to this. In Year 20, I was raised as Scourge to serve the Lich King after the blighting of Lordaeron, and later freed by Sylvanas Windrunner and her Forsaken to join her ranks. There was only one problem, however. I had some severe amnesia. I was able to remember places, language, spells…even my first name. I could however remember not much else.
It was, to put it lightly, torture. See, even if you can’t remember your connections in life, it’s always something that pulls at the back of your mind. You start wondering things like, “Did I have a family?”, or, “What was I like as a child?” Questions that most people take for granted about themselves, events that shaped who they are… they’re not really yours to access. It’s quite literally a series of holes in the soul.
It took an event of random chance at Acherus to put me back on the road toward regaining my memories, and even after that event, and reuniting with my sister, it still took another 2-3 years, and extensive immersion in my sister’s company and relics of my past, before I finally got myself trained to re-access my memories, but most amnesia sufferers don’t even heal at all in that respect. I wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemies.
So, going back to the Kyrians… First and foremost, the Arbiter selects them, they don’t choose the afterlife for themselves. Secondly, their sacrifice it to fully let go of their very own selves, what made them the people they used to be. When someone completes the path and becomes a Kyrian, who they once were in life no longer exists, not even on a spiritual scale. And that is probably the biggest difference between the Kyrians and others who say they sacrificed “everything”, like Ebon Knights and Illidari.
Ebon Knights and Illidari, for the most part, are still shaped by who they were beforehand. It’s not a burden, it’s a feature. It makes them strong. Even if a life was marred by trauma… well, to quote Illidan Stormrage himself: “I am my scars!”
To ask anyone to give that up, fel, to force someone into an afterlifestyle that requires it, even for the most important and benevolent of tasks, and frankly, I’m not surprised there’s a resistance movement.
People need to make that particular choice for themselves, not left to some celestial Arbiter or Archon.
Halcalya Marxworth is a Summoner for the Argent Crusade, currently aiding the Crusade in the Shadowlands campaign. You can reach her by mail at the Oribos post station.