What does it mean, to live as a warrior? To everyday, find something worth fighting or fighting for? How does one go about fighting the world? Life? Fate?
Is it possible to fight gods and win? Or are mortals forever doomed to fail?


I ask myself these questions quite often actually. And sometimes, even I find myself wanting. Could I have punched that guy in the face for hitting on my g/f? Probably. Would it have been wise? Hmmm...maybe not so much. I think, to live as a warrior, means that you never lose hope or courage, even in the face of great adversity. That you stand tall and firm for what you think is right and just, even at risk of harm to yourself. But I also feel that, given certain circumstances, it is acceptable to retreat and plan.

Do you have to find a cause worth fighting for everyday? No. Because even warriors have their limits. And besides, you may not have yet finished the one you started yesterday, or the day before. A warrior always finishes what they say they will do.

Fighting the world is an everyday struggle. We have to fight it when we wake up, when we go to work, when we seek a mate, when we make plans for our future. When we set out to raise a family. Go into the military. Buy a car or house. The world is full of struggle my friends. But it is up to each of us to decide, if we will allow the world to crush us, our hopes, our dreams...our loves. Destiny will not come to you, but you must reach for it and make your own!

To fight the world...means to fight the gods. And yes, it IS possible to do so and win. They may have the powers of gods, but we have something they don't. We Have Something To Lose. And when a person is cornered, with no where to run, no other options, they fight like demons. The human spirit houses the one thing that will always claim victory over god-like power...Hope. For a brighter day. For another tomorrow. For a better future. Hope is a light that shines bright than the center of the universe, even when surrounded by darkness.

So my friends...Do you live the life of a warrior? Do you hold onto hope, even when it would be oh so easy to give in? Do you take the longest road toward that brighter future? I do. Every. Day.

Quite true saying and philosophy.

I once lived the life of a warrior, where everything had meaning, even the mundane.

The way of life is so precious and a rare thing to find those who live by it, and I hope one day to walk that path completely again, instead of shadowing the warriors still holding onto it.

I still fight for others hopes, dreams, and loves, but I lost the ability to see my own.

Still good philosophy and glad you posted a way of life, that is sacred as is important and ingrained into soul

Bushido:

"The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments or dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything. Men must polish their particular Way." ~ Miyamoto Musashi

That is what it has become to mean to me. It's a way of life that goes beyond just fighting. It's an attitude, which can be shown in all aspects of life. Maintaining that attitude is a fight on it's own though, like Xilthanas said. A never-ending struggle against life and modern society, in which hope is our most important weapon.

I choose to fight that struggle internally. By understanding myself and perfecting myself I can stand my ground in life much better than when I would openly draw my sword and charge out at an enemy I can't contain.

It may be the longest and hardest road ... but I wouldn't want to take any other.

Nightwolf, I am saddened that you feel you have lost sight of your own hope. I pray to Luna that you can find your way back out of the shadows and onto the moon-lit paths where you belong. Your brother warriors miss you.


Zan: I can see where you are coming from. Sometimes it is the internal fight that is the most grueling and difficult for anyone. For who is the most critical of our actions, than ourselves? We must analyze and dissect and dissemble, over and over again, until we see to the very core of our actions and reasoning.

But what happened...to merely accepting things on faith? What happened to believing that what we are doing is right? Why do we need that reasoning? Is it because we doubt our very beings, our very own consciences? Why? Because society tells us to? Because the world must have 'reasons' and 'probable cause' for every little action we perform?

What happened to those who would come to the aid of someone in need, without asking why that person became in need? Where are the selfless, those who willingly sacrifice so that others may be helped and saved?

I am not talking about those cross-wielding bastards, whose promises are empty and whose coffers are full. I speak of those who emblazoned the word KNIGHT into being. Those whose HONOR was worth more than their lives. Whose VIRTUE was untaintable by the blackest heart. Those who had the COURAGE to ride against darkest night and win. These people who, with greatest HUMILITY, stood tall in the face of evil.

These basic traits, later expanded upon by various knightly orders, were the basis and the STANDARD for everyone who wished to be a Knight. But before this, there was simply one. Honor. It was honor that made or caused the fall of every warrior. Honor that bade them fight on, even when it was impossible to win. Honor, in its own way, can be considered a form of Hope.

...Forgive me friends. I seem to get carried away with things like this sometimes. ^_^;

Snaps: On a small note I've known cross wielding . . . people, to use faith as an excuse or replacement to reasoning to prove their righteousness. I think that may be one of the reasons people do not trust in blind faith anymore. There also does not have to be faith without reasoning. After all, how could one discern right without reasoning? Society does technically dictate what would be right and wrong, but it's something we also learn on our own when we grow up. So much for being a small note, I'll be quiet now.

I think the knightly virtues have always been a rare thing. It is something that stood its ground in every culture and every timeperiod, the fuel for tales, myths and legends.

In Europe you had the knights, Japan the Samurai and many other cultures each knew their own version of the honorable warrior.

The word itself, Warrior, I find it often given out lightly to those who train in combat and fight whoever is depicted as the enemy. Most of those people aren't true warriors in my eyes. Most of them are soldiers, fighters for money, survival or whatever else. We still have armies full of soldiers, just like mankind always did throughout history, just like almost any race and world probably has them.

A true warrior however, who doesn't fight for money, glory or any self-centered reason but upholds virtues greater than him or herself, those are a rare breed. I don't think I can call myself one, not yet .. not anymore. For a true warrior the fighting itself is only a very small portion of the package.

It's not the fighting or the skill that makes someone a great warrior, it's the person. Everyone can be taught to kill, with our modern day weapons even more easily than before ... but being a warrior is something that comes from the inside, not from a teacher.

Well based on the literal meaning of the word I ain't no warrior lol

but on a deeper level I think being a warrior in this day and age is more about the attitude...fighting a cause with everything you have..having courage and hope

as for the honour stuff...well thats more knight than warrior i think..but i do agree that any common fighter or soldier is no true warrior..true warriors imo give it everything they've got..but ofcourse thats different to being a hero although the age of heroes passed a long long time ago

i find the whole thing so much less...epic..nowadays...centuries/thousands og years ago it was a whole way of life and when you fought there was so much more scope to believe in your cause..an important cause..nowadays its more of an internal thing...being a warrior now is more to do with your character..being emotionally strong, brave etc

I was at work tonight and thinking about the way of warriors and realized that one could be a warrior, but there are separate paths to go down, and two sorts of warriors.

The first type is what Xilthanas means, basically the epic warrior, one who fights selflessly, gives selflessly, and expects nothing, only living off the ingrained steel in their soul to be honorable and true.

Then you get the other warriors, these warriors like the first carry the memories and ability to be honorable in their hearts, but in some way has let the terrible weight of what they've been fighting momentarily crush them. Momentary to a warrior may be months, years, a decade. A time when all they've fought for, they've seen crumble, become lost and can't fight the battle to overcome it once more.

These fallen warriors change from selflessly honorable, to instinctual. Honor is surprisingly not lost or forgotten. it lives within their soul and no matter how far they fall, they cannot bring themselves to act without honor. They are the downtrodden warriors, searching for something as great as the dream of the first warrior to give them back their wings to become invincible legends of forever.

As you may have guessed in many ways I consider myself a downtrodden warrior. I used to give selflessly, as I knew no other way to live, but after a long while that giving of myself, just made me lose hope in most man. I suppose the fact that it's rare to find someone like me, made me saddened as I figure many people have the choice to choose how they are.

They have the choice to be kind, giving, considerate, selfless, patient, but many choose not to, and unfotunately i wanted to see that changed and instead changed me, and noone about me.

I'm pretty sure I'm on the road to at least still fighting for something with the attitude of a warrior, but feel like a fallen warrior, who is on the side that noone notices, but if push comes to shove, will shine as brightly as any warrior known before.

And get as carried away as you like, I'm enjoying the topic ^_^

Rose, I think a hero is made by the people around them. You can't chose to be a hero, you have to become one in the eyes of others through actions. In this day and age heroes aren't looked upon that greatly anymore .. they're still there but no longer a huge deal.

As for the distinction Nightwolf makes, I think both are one and the same. Even the greatest warriors go through periods of doubt and depression. Nobody can keep fighting without pause, without getting the chance to recharge their batteries. Like Xilthanas said in the beginning, it's important to know when to fight and when to retreat. Retreating doesn't mean you're defeated it means you probably would be defeated if you went on fighting.

It's not shameful to fall back and take the time to recharge and let your wounds be healed. And I'm still convinced that even your wounds will heal some day, Nightwolf

Snaps: I'd agree with Zan on the people dictating who is a hero. The society that most of us live in doesn't really have the kind of situations that would cause us to look up to someone who is helping us get through adversity. If they are, we probably don't give them enough credit since we have things good enough to be able to log on to a computer and browse the internet.

*Nods to Snaps and Zan* The hero bit is true. It's something I learned while watching my brother. He always wanted to be a hero and to have a destiny more than the mundane. For years I went along with him, but our paths began to split. He became more ambitious of becoming a self made hero, whereas I was content to be normal-ish. He gave himself a name(Chaos or something) and self trained himself and all, but as he made himself a hero in his eyes, his actions could not be deemed heroic. As I observed, I realized that hero's are named. If you look at any of them, they have been given names by the people, or by what gave them power to be selfless, and sacrifice all even when the fame left them and well you get the point. I could rant all night about that.

Either way, what can be said about a hero can be said about a leader as well and thus falls on the shoulders of the life long warriors. They aren't warriors by name alone, or by decreeing it themselves, they are warriors by their actions. Reminds me of one of my favorite sayings. 'A knight is not judged by who he is, but by his deeds'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero

this is an interesting link

*nods* I do like that link. Verry Informational and backing to what we said, if a bit more specific.