Chapter 10 preamble

He wants to go home.He wants to find the world he once knew.I don't know whether it's the treasure or his simplicity that drives Bruno now.He hoped to find Mithril Hall, wipe out the monsters that might still live in it, and restore this place for the Warhammers. Above the surface, desire seems legitimate, even noble.We all travel for the sake of adventure, and for a family with a noble tradition, the desire to avenge and restore the family and its status cannot be underestimated. It looks like our road to Mithril Hall will not be easy.There are many dangerous and wild lands between Icewind Dale and the land east of Luskan, and if we find the entrances to those now unknown dwarven mines, greater dangers will surely await us.But I was surrounded by a group of friends who were old-fashioned in martial arts, so I wasn't afraid of monsters—at least not ones I could fight with a sword.No, my fear of the journey was centered on Bruenor Warhammer.He wants to go back to his hometown, and he has many reasons why he should.Yet if his desire to go home was motivated by nostalgic melancholy, I fear he may be greatly disappointed.

Nostalgic blues may be the biggest lie we tell ourselves.It uses the beautified past as a standard to look at the present emotionally.For some of us, it can bring us a level of comfort that allows us to reconnect with ourselves and our roots.But I worry that for most other people, it just distorts their memory and thus becomes oblivious to the reality around them. I doubt how many people yearn for "a simpler and better world."They never saw that it was they who were simpler and better than the world! As a drow, I should normally live for centuries, but the emotional development of the first few decades of life as a drow or surface elf is not that different from that of a human, halfling or dwarf .I also remember the ideals and vitality I had when I was younger. At that time, the world was not complicated for me. Every time I took a step forward, right and wrong seemed to be clearly written on the road ahead.Maybe because of my unique situation, my early years were full of horrible experiences, the circumstances and things that happened at that time were beyond my ability to bear, so I feel a lot better now than I did back then.Unlike many people I have met on the surface, my life has been a steady upward spiral.

Does it make me feel more positive about myself and the world around me? There are many people, especially humans who have passed middle age, who keep looking back at their heaven, and keep saying that when they were young, the world was a better place than it is now. I can't believe this.This may be true in some exceptional instances, where a tyrant replaces a sympathetic ruler, and a plague ends an age of health.But I believe, I must believe, that people in this world are moving up.The natural progression of civilization, if not continuous progress in a straight line, is a long-term trend that will still make the world a better place.If someone discovers a better way of life, all people will naturally be attracted in that direction, and those who fail the experiment will be abandoned.I've heard Wulfgar describe the history of their people, take these barbarians of Icewind Dale as an example, and I'm amazed and terrified of their past cruelty, tribes never stop fighting each other, and will be captured The women collectively raped, and the men tortured and abused collectively.There is no doubt that the barbarians of Icewind Dale are still brutal, but if their oral histories are to be believed, they are nothing compared to their predecessors.This makes me feel very relieved, and I am also hopeful that this trend will continue.Some day, perhaps, some great savage leader would appear, who was truly in love with a woman, and who had induced in him a respect for women which none of his people knew.Will he raise the status of women among the tribes?

If this happens, the barbarians of Icewind Dale will discover a new power they don't understand, within half their population.If this happens, if the status of the barbarian women is raised, these tribesmen will never force them to return to their present role, which I can only describe as slaves. All people, men and women, are better off with such a change. To the mistresses of Menzoberranzan, to the generations of tyrannical nobles there, and to the wealthy lands, change may be seen as a threat to their power base, so their resistance to change can be said to be justified, Even taken for granted.So how do we explain that there are so many people, even people living in poverty, just like their parents and their parents' parents did!Generations see change as something to be feared and disgusted with?Why would a serf at the bottom of society not want a change in civilization that would make life better for his children?

This may seem unreasonable, but from what I have seen over the years, most people are resistant to change because many of the short-lived humans are past their strongest and healthiest age, and they think they are Gone are the golden days of , and it does not seem easy for them to accept any change.No, many of them cling to the past, when the world was "simple and good." They personally hate change, as if any progress shines a bright light on their own failures, making people can see. Maybe that is the case.Perhaps this is one of our most fundamental fears, born of foolish pride, the fear that our children know more than we do.At the same time that so many people are trying to discipline their children, do they have a deep fear that their children will see their parents' mistakes?

I have no answer to this seemingly paradoxical question, but to Bruno, I pray that he seeks Mithril Hall for the right reasons, for adventure and challenge, to reclaim their family's heritage and family name, Not to restore the world to the way it was before. I believe nostalgic melancholy is something necessary to allow us to find inner peace in our past successes and failures.But if such sentiments lead us to do something to restore the era that has been distorted by memory and deliberately painted rose colors, especially when a person thinks his life is a failure, then this is nothing, doomed It will only cause more frustration.

Worse, nostalgic melancholy is a really bad, debilitating thing if it gets in the way of progress. — Drizzt Do'Urden