It Is More Difficult By Far To

As I Became A Creature Of The Empty Tunnels, Survival Became Easier And More Difficult All At Once. I Gained In The Physical Skills And Experience Necessary To Live On. I Could Defeat Almost Anything That Wandered Into My Chosen Domain. It Did Not Take Me Long, However, To Discover One Nemesis That I Could Neither Defeat Nor Flee. It Followed Me Wherever I Went - Indeed, The Farther I Ran, The More It Closed In Around Me. My Enemy Was Solitude, The Interminable, Incessant Silence Of Hushed Corridors.

Here's The Thing, For Me At Least: This Is A Huge Genre Now. It Wasn't Always So. Not So Many Years Ago, It Wasn't So. There Is A Tremendous Diversity In Fantasy Today.

There Is One Other Error In The Gondsman's Line Of Resoning, I Believe, On Ap Urely Emotional Level. If Machines Replace Achievement, Then To What Will People Aspire? And Who Are We, Truly, Without Such Goals? Beware The Engineers Of Society, I Say, Who Would Make Everyone In All The World Equal. Opportunity Should Be Equal, Must Be Equal, But Achievement Must Remain Individual.

The Physical Powers Of The Body Cannot Be Separated From The Rationale Of The Mind And The Emotions Of The Heart. They Are One And The Same, A Compilation Of A Singular Being. It Is In The Harmony Of These Three-body, Mind, And Heart- That We Find Spirit. ... Spirit. In Every Language In All The Realms, Surface And Underdark, In Every Time And Every Place, The Word Has A Ring Of Strength And Determination. It Is The Hero's Strength, The Mother's Resilience, And The Poor Man's Armor. It Cannot Be Broken, And It Cannot Be Taken Away.

We Are All Dying, Every Moment That Passes Of Every Day. That Is The Inescapable Truth Of This Existence. It Is A Truth That Can Paralyze Us With Fear, Or One That Can Energize Us With Impatience, With The Desire To Explore And Experience, With The Hope- Nay, The Iron-will!- To Find A Memory In Every Action. To Be Alive, Under Sunshine, Or Starlight, In Weather Fair Or Stormy. To Dance With Every Step, Be They Through Gardens Of Flowers Or Through Deep Snows.