Karahd of the Templars Guild
A Tour of Guildmasters: Karahd of the Templars Guild
by Kerrin Gaile
This is one of a series of articles involving interviews with the
current guildmasters of the realm. We will be finding out what each
guildmaster thinks of his or her guild, and hopefully learning a little
about these leaders in our community. So, join me as we sit and chat
with each of these powerful and influential figures.
For this particular article in the series I interviewed Karahd,
guildmaster of the Templars guild. Let's find out all about them
templars.
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KERRIN: Starting with something easy...How long have you been the
guildmaster of your guild?
(This one always stumps 'em.)
KARAHD: I forget. Huh. Maybe about 15 years? I'm not quite sure. I'm
making a wild guess, here. I know when I joined!
KERRIN: Okies. We will let you off easy on that one.
Since becoming guildmaster do you feel you spend less time being
a templar and more time being a parchment-pushing administrator?
KARAHD: Most of my duties as guildmaster tend towards just communicating
with people who desire to one day become a templar. So, I
wouldn't say that it necessarily detracts from my being a
templar myself.
KERRIN: Do you view your guild as a professional association, a
clubhouse, a close-knit society, a way of life, a comedy club,
or as something else entirely?
KARAHD: I would have to say a professional association. In the loosest
of possible definitions. The only real cohesion comes from the
fact that we believe that life is not worth living if not in
service of a cause or goal. We all seek to serve our own
individual agendas which may or may not have anything at all to
do with each other. My role as guildmaster requires me to pay a
little more attention to the guild as a unit than normally a
templar would allow.
If that makes sense.
KERRIN: What do you feel is the biggest misconception about your guild?
KARAHD: I think the biggest misconception about the guild is that its
members are experts in their causes.
KERRIN: They are not? I would think it would be pretty hard to champion
something you do not understand a lot about.
KARAHD: Certainly, a templar will have a good understanding of the cause,
but we are constantly learning, too. A strategist is constantly
learning new tactics, or a baker new recipes and understandings
of ways in which to better their skill.
It is no different from the templar guild. We are dynamic in our
cause. Always looking at our cause in new lights and evaluating
our own perceptions of what it is that we serve to gain a better
understanding of how to apply it and live it.
KERRIN: True, but their level of knowledge as compared to the everyday
folk would qualify them as experts in most cases.
KARAHD: I suppose it is subjective. A templar is a perfectionist and
is rarely ever truly satisfied. It keeps us going.
KERRIN: Well, what are you doing to either encourage or change this
perception?
KARAHD: I confess that I am not really all that active in my attempts to
dispell the idea. Really I try to impress this upon applicants,
to allieve some of the tension. Allow them to relax and consider
more how they can achieve their goals in creative ways. To
attempt to look at it in a broad scope and remember that they
will always be learning and will have to adapt as their
perceptions change.
KERRIN: What do you feel are the strongest traits of your guild and its
members?
KARAHD: That is a difficult question. The templar guild is a collection
of individuals. Each person has their own strengths and
weaknesses, but I think that as a group the guild possesses a
strong understanding of what it means to serve the cause and
what it means to have and show respect.
KERRIN: What sorts of things do your guild members do that make you the
most unhappy or cross?
KARAHD: They tend to disappear.
KERRIN: Why do you think that is? Do you have a bottomless pit in your
guildhall?
KARAHD: I have a personal theory that the templar guild is where mages
go to retire.
But in all seriousness, we don't have that many templars in the
first place, so it really is only that much more noticeable when
someone decides to leave the adventuring life or goes on
superlong voyages from which they can only return once every few
years.
And what with new members only occuring maybe once every ten
years or so the ranks simply remain thin.
KERRIN: What sorts of things do your guild members do that make you the
happiest or proudest?
KARAHD: The ability to turn off the outside world. When one enters the
tower, nothing but the simple fact of being a templar is
important. The tower is a haven from outside influence. Once we
pass through the doors any templar you see is a peer. As equally
driven as you are. This is the promise I make to every applicant.
Faith, clan, ethos all have their own little mat by the door
where you set aside your personal differences. Inside the guild,
we are all equals.
KERRIN: A noble goal. Do you think it is easier to accomplish in a small
guild like yours than it would be in one of the larger guilds?
KARAHD: No. It comes from respect. Respect that you have and respect that
you offer.
KERRIN: With which other guilds do you feel your guild has the closest
and best ties or relationships, and why?
KARAHD: At present there exists no official ties to any other guild. We
learn magic and we learn to fight with steel. One might believe
that as such we would have ties with the other magic guilds and
even the fighters guild. But to us they are only tools. We do
not actively seek to discriminate between the other guilds by
virtue of favour or scorn. We respect all other guilds equally.
KERRIN: So there are no guilds with which you feel your guild has
contention or poor relationships?
KARAHD: Not at all.
KERRIN: Why is your guild better than every other guild in the realm?
KARAHD: We have a really nice rug in the foyer.
KERRIN: Nice one.
(Score one for the interviewee.)
Do the issues of ethos or religion ever cause disruptions in
your guild?
KARAHD: I instruct every aspiring templar that my role as guildmaster is
to be entirely objective in that capacity. A Vishnav templar and
a Bastite templar would receive the equal treatment and
consideration. They are equally eligible to join the guild based
on their own merits and activities; and within the tower as
previously mentioned there is no ethos, religion or clan, there
is only respect.
That isn't to say that there might be problems outside the guild,
but that's where the real world kicks in. Not the fantasy bubble
I have created inside the tower.
KERRIN: Is it difficult to keep your personal beliefs in-check when
dealing with the usual three-headed debate that is ethos?
KARAHD: Not at all.
KERRIN: Can you give me an overview of this whole Cause thing?
KARAHD: Simply put a cause is an idea or precept that the templar seeks
to further. But it is far more than simply an 'opinion'. It is a
wholehearted belief that this is a requirement if the world is
going to improve. A templar seeks to further this idea using
whatever tools are available to her; attempting to convince,
lecture, educate, et al such that others begin to feel the same
way. Every templar's dream is that the world will agree and work
with the cause as well.
KERRIN: Is a templar's cause something they should be ready to die
utterly and irrevokably to achieve, if it ever came to that?
Is that a fair measure of dedication to a cause?
KARAHD: A templar -exists- to serve the cause. This is part of the
templar creed. So, I would have to say yes. If there were no
other course of action than the utter obliteration of the
templar in order to achieve the cause then yes, most definately.
KERRIN: How do your guild members deal with being such highly visible
icons?
KARAHD: I don't think I can fairly answer that.
KERRIN: Everyone deals with it in their own way?
KARAHD: I would have to agree with that.
KERRIN: What is DIT, is it a secret templar acronym?
KARAHD: I'm sorry, Kerrin. I cannot answer that question on the basis
that you are my clanmate and I would be perforated by Thalia if
I had to kill you for letting such a secret out.
KERRIN: Well, thank you for saving my life then. I greatly appreciate
it.
(Although, for some reason, she seemed rather jovial when saying
that.)
If you could change any one thing in our society or in the
realm, what would it be and why?
KARAHD: If I could change anything it would be that people remove
themselves from their usual haunts and find some thing, some
place some idea and explore it, delve into it and learn.
KERRIN: What is your favorite color?
KARAHD: Green.
KERRIN: Any particular shade of green?
KARAHD: Love them all.
KERRIN: One last question...Is there anything else about your guild
you would like to say to the rest of Sable?
KARAHD: Not that I can think of, Kerrin.
KERRIN: Thank you very much for the interview!
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Keep your eyes peeled for the next article in this ongoing series.
Several guildmasters have already agreed to grant interviews, and
hopefully all will eventually appear here in the pages of The Sablean
Times!