[ Her face turns completely serious now. She takes a deep breath, and starts in - ]
They kept slaves. That was the foundation of their power. Slavery. And that corruption tainted every element of the system. Magicians summoned spirits and enslaved them. The crueler a magician was, the better he could keep his slaves in line, and the more magically powerful he became. And the more powerful he was, the higher he rose in government. And that put the absolute worst at the absolute top. And so those cruel, wicked few who ruled our country decided how the Empire was to be run, and it was to be run on oppression and paranoia. My people, the commoners - the people without magic - were ground down, kept in poverty and kept ignorant so that we wouldn't rise up against them. They kept us under surveillance to make sure we didn't think to organize, and they denied us legal rights and standing, and if we spoke out against them they had us arrested and tortured or simply torn apart by their police werewolves. And they sent us to die, too, on foreign shores, using us as fodder on the front lines of their wars. We've been ground down for centuries. The spirits have been ground down for even longer. And even the magicians themselves - They're not even hateful; they're pitiable, because they're all taken as children and taught all this before they're even able to question. They're instructed in the ways of wickedness, and they're presented with no alternative. It's a horrid system that corrupts everyone involved in it. It's a poison that corrupts our entire nation.
[ She scowls as she polishes a pint glass, getting her anger out on the water spots on its side. ]
no subject
They kept slaves. That was the foundation of their power. Slavery. And that corruption tainted every element of the system. Magicians summoned spirits and enslaved them. The crueler a magician was, the better he could keep his slaves in line, and the more magically powerful he became. And the more powerful he was, the higher he rose in government. And that put the absolute worst at the absolute top. And so those cruel, wicked few who ruled our country decided how the Empire was to be run, and it was to be run on oppression and paranoia. My people, the commoners - the people without magic - were ground down, kept in poverty and kept ignorant so that we wouldn't rise up against them. They kept us under surveillance to make sure we didn't think to organize, and they denied us legal rights and standing, and if we spoke out against them they had us arrested and tortured or simply torn apart by their police werewolves. And they sent us to die, too, on foreign shores, using us as fodder on the front lines of their wars. We've been ground down for centuries. The spirits have been ground down for even longer. And even the magicians themselves - They're not even hateful; they're pitiable, because they're all taken as children and taught all this before they're even able to question. They're instructed in the ways of wickedness, and they're presented with no alternative. It's a horrid system that corrupts everyone involved in it. It's a poison that corrupts our entire nation.
[ She scowls as she polishes a pint glass, getting her anger out on the water spots on its side. ]
And so I'm going to burn it to the ground.