"This scar is mine to bear. A reminder of my crimes, my mistakes. It stays."
—Axikasha Keiran
"I see ye already have it. Looks a bit rusted though, and I have just the thing for rust protection. It be called 'I can't believe it's not sand.' It looks like sand, it feels like sand, it tastes like sand, but here's the crazy part - it be not sand! Although it be not guaranteed that ye won't actually end up with sand. So, shall we start the bidding at...oh let's say...four treasure chests full of sparkly gems?"
—Bashkar
"I'll rebuild my Order even if I have to drown the whole world in blood."
—Belial de Ardyn
"What do you know about family, Vaetris L'andariel? Have you held a spawn—the fruit of your loins—in your hands, see it unfurl its wings for the first time, witness its first flight with your own eyes? Have you heard it utter 'mama' and curl against your body in the cold winter nights, watched it play with its siblings with little care of anything else in the world while the air around it is filled with pure, untainted laughter? Have you dried its tears when it has hurt itself and is crying loudly in the dark, seen it kill for the first time and emerge victorious with the joy of accomplishment in its enthusiastic eyes as it devours a critter's heart in front of you? Has it carried its own newborn spawn gently in its arms months after its first joining, has it presented its fruit to you with the motherly or fatherly look of pride about the health of its offspring? Has it then told you that it finally understands what the word 'parent' really means? Unless you've seen at least a fraction of this, you have no right to lecture me about the joys and fulfillment of parenthood!"
—Jahi Gallu
"Seriously, what the hell are you doing here? Why are you so..."
"Together? You perhaps wish to know my secret? First off, that's the problem. Treating this place like it's special. Something unusual. Okay, the whole mind screwing thing is a bit much. But look at how Alent treats this place: An open secret. A dark one, that everyone wants to ignore. The truth is that the only real darkness in this place is the darkness you bring in it yourself. Every sin, every repressed memory, every stray fear and blind rage. Everything people want to ignore about themselves. What's in here was always there, it's just a bit more...insistent in its existence in Threshold. It's a truth that people are hesitant to admit. And even if they do admit the truth the darkness holds, they still can't deal with it properly. Knowing without understanding, as the saying goes. They acknowledge it, and then toss it back into the shadows to be forgotten again. Or dive in, forgetting everything else.
"So? What's there to understand? People are fucked up? Dark impulses they refuse to be conscious of drive their actions? What a revelation."
"See, that's the problem. You get a little glimpse of the truth, and think that's it. Blinded by it, one could say. It's a balancing act. Can't forget the darkness, but can't let its truth keep you from seeing the rest of it."
"The rest of it?"
"The way you feel now? Just as true as the way you felt before. And the way you're going to feel tomorrow. If you want to understand it, you can't ever forget. Any of it. That's my secret. I never left this place. I made sure to keep a little bit of it with me. A voice inside my head. A conscience, if you will. Because it's a part. It's not the whole truth, and not separate from it. A part of it. And then I went out into the world to understand the rest of it."
"You understand the whole truth then?"
"Not even close. I still fail at doing that. It's not a futile failure, though. A failure that furthers my limited understanding of our world. I think that's enough philosophizing for now. Our goal is a little worldlier: Go be the buzz kill adults and breakup a teenage drug orgy."
"Sounds mundane when you put it that way."
"That’s because it is. Just another normal thing for a city of demons and mages."
—Refan d'Zarnagon and Javan al-Kassis
"Mardük is gone, and we are free to choose our own path. And I choose the path of balance: Chaos cannot exist without Order, nor life without death, nor night without day. It is only within darkness that the stars are free to truly shine."
"And you accused me of being an idealist, Duchess?"
"Perhaps I've spent too much time talking to you. Ideas are nothing without action, though. And peace...true peace will never be achieved without bloodshed."
—Vaetris L'andariel and Jahi Gallu
"There are not many things I disapprove of. But prophesies are like sand travelling down a stream. Who can predict exactly how it travels? We can only say where it will finally end up. Will we live our lives in fear, cowering in our houses for what may become? What if that is what causes the prophesy in the first place? No, we will do what is best in our eyes, because that way we can look ourselves in the eyes and not be ashamed at what we look at. Action may cause doom, but inaction may do so as well. I choose to do what is right. It may not work out, but I'll be sure to look my loved ones in the eye and say I did what I could. Would you not do the same?"
—Nesa Mikoto
"This fire was either accidental or one done on purpose."
—Raistlin I
