EPISODE 1: “To Cut with Stillness”
Host: General Meethus
Style:
Setting:
Key: “The blade moves only when the heart does not.”
Quote (Hagakure):
“If one is to be a man, there are times when he must be prepared to throw away his life in an instant.”
Meethus’s Note:
“There was a time when I would’ve drawn steel without hesitation — not for glory, but because hesitation meant death.
But lately, I wonder how many times I’ve not drawn… when I should have.
Stillness is sacred in the Order — but I’ve seen men drown in it.
Sometimes, the noblest thing isn’t silence. It’s noise. It’s movement. It’s defiance.
And that… that is harder to teach.”
:: Transcript ::
🎙️ Voice Behind the Blade
Episode 1: “To Cut with Stillness”
Runtime: ~28 minutes
Speaker: General Meethus
Theme: Discipline, restraint, internal war, the act of not acting.
🔑 INTRO KEY + DIRECTIVE (0:00 – 2:00)
(Low magical hum. Heavy boots on stone. Distant echoing footsteps. Fade in.)
“Directive 7. Alpha. Echo.”
“The blade moves only when the heart does not.”
(pause)
“This is General Meethus — Third Circle, Western Flame. The following transmission is not sanctioned by the Pale Tribunal. If you’re hearing it, then permission has already been granted… by something older than the Order.”
📜 QUOTATION SEGMENT (2:00 – 4:00)
(Ambient wind grows slightly)
“If one is to be a man, there are times when he must be prepared to throw away his life in an instant.”
— The Hagakure(Brief pause)
“They taught us this in our first days under the Ivory Dome. Not with the quote — but with silence.
They took our names. Not to erase us, but to prepare us to lose ourselves.”“But what they forgot to teach… was when to keep ourselves.”
✍️ MONOLOGUE / JOURNAL ENTRY (4:00 – 16:00)
“There was a boy. Just fifteen. Assigned to my flank during the siege of Serrith’s Hollow.
He was too small for his blade. Could barely keep pace.
I asked the Spire to reassign him. They denied the request — said if he broke, he was meant to.”
(pause)
“He didn’t break. Not like they expected.
He stood, still and unmoving, even as fire rolled over the trench.He didn’t cry out. He didn’t draw. He waited.
When the enemy passed, he aimed… and ended one of their captains with a single shot.He moved only when the world stopped watching.”
(longer pause)
“I promoted him. Off-record. Taught him everything I knew. And when he vanished two years later, I didn’t report it.
Some blades are forged by duty. Others by pain. He was both.
I still don’t know if that was strength… or damage.”
🕯️ SILENCE BREAK (16:00 – 17:00)
(One full minute of near silence. Just ambient hum, soft wind. Maybe faint breathing.)
🔁 THE ECHO – PAST CONVERSATION (17:00 – 25:00)
(Shift to more intimate tone — like reading from memory.)
“Siana once asked me…
‘General, when do you stop following orders?’
I told her, ‘When they start sounding like apologies.’”
(pause)
“But the truth is, I kept following them. Even when they turned into whispers, then doubts, then screams.”
“I’ve sanctioned deaths that didn’t need to happen. Protected relics we should have destroyed.
I’ve watched the Order reward silence and punish clarity.”
“And now… I wonder if the strongest thing I ever did was letting her go.”
(longer silence)
“They’ll come for me, eventually. When they realize I’m not reciting the old words anymore — I’m rewriting them.”
“But until then… I’ll keep recording. Not for them.
For you.”
📘 DIRECTIVE WRAP-UP (25:00 – 27:00)
(Tone shifts slightly more formal, clear, directive-like.)
“If you’re holding a blade, hold it still.
If you’re waiting for permission, remember — waiting is also a choice.And if you hear nothing but silence… perhaps that is the sound of your conscience moving.”
“Cut only when the stillness tells you to. Not before. Not after.”
(short pause)
“Directive ends.”
🎙️ OUTRO SIGNATURE (27:00 – 28:00)
(Soft ambient fades in. Meethus speaks low, like a personal farewell.)
“This directive was never official.
If you heard it… it was meant for you.”
(Fade to silence.)