"Chaos, law, can't we focus on your similarities instead of your differences?" -Peacemaker Valis Tal "Shut your bone box, and quit interrupting our battle." -Tanar'ri & baatezu (moments later, after both reaching for a stone the annoying interlocutor has thrown between them) "Hey. What were we fighting about?" -Tanar'ri & baatezu "How many fiends and planars must die before the Tanar'ri and Baatezu realize that what they have in common is more important than what they disagree about? Law and chaos are opposed, it is true, but this senseless war is going nowhere. The real enemies of the beings of Baator and the Abyss are the Upper Planar beings! Only united can the forces of evil triumph. Neither chaos nor law is sufficient unto itself in this battle." -Tarkus Nite Tarkus Nite is the founder of the Peacemakers. Nite is acutally an ancient ultroloth exiled from both Gehenna and the Grey Waste for seeking to end the Blood War (which some suspect the yugoloths began for their own purposes). He usually appears as a wise and benevolent appearing old man, only adpoting his true form when dealing with fiends. Nite began the Peacemakers long ago (how long is as unknown as when he was exiled) to bring together the three lower planar "Great Races of Evil" (his term) to exterminate the Upper Planar beings he hated so. As the yugoloths were already ready to work for the highest bidder whoeever it might be, he concentrated on the Tanar'ri and Baatezu in his efforts to end the Blood War. Of course, he hasn't succeeded one bit. The Blood War has a LOT of momentum behind it. However, in Valis Tal he may have found the pawn he finally needs to end the Blood War and begin the REAL bloodletting. Valis Tal: Valis Tal is everything that Tarkus Nite is not. Lawful Good, she's an ancient mage from an unknown Prime, who's been wandering the Planes for years. Over these years she's seen many a fiend slain and many an Outlands village razed in the name of the Blood War. She wants to end the war forever, and "stop the madness." In this interest, she's borrowed an ancient artifact from the Mage's Guild of the mysterious world from which she originates (possibly the mysterious world of the Harmonium): the Sympathy Stone. This nondescript appearing stone can bridge the gap between any two beings, by letting them briefly see each other's point of view. Hopefully, once enough tanar'ri and baatezu have seen it from the other side, they'll call off the war. That's all Valis wants. She known nothing of Nite's plans for AFTER the end of the Blood War. Actually, things aren't even that simple. While showing Nite the stone, Valis Tal touched it while he held it. Now they can both see the merits of each other's viewpoints, which has led them both to become half-barmy, and half enlightened.
© 1996 A. D. Groce