EPISODE 2: “On Knowing the Enemy”
Host: General Meethus
Style:
Setting:
Quote (Art of War):
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Meethus’s Note:
“I’ve studied enemies — hundreds of them. Rebels. Mages. Even gods, in name.
But it took me too long to study myself.What I found wasn’t comforting. It was… honest.
I know the Order better than anyone. Which is why I no longer fear it — and why it now fears me.”
:: TRANSCRIPT ::
🎙️ Voice Behind the Blade
Episode 2: “On Knowing the Enemy”
Runtime: ~28 minutes
Speaker: General Meethus
Theme: Identity, enemies, perception, and uncomfortable truths within the Ivory Order.
🧱 EPISODE STRUCTURE
🔑 INTRO KEY + DIRECTIVE (0:00 – 2:00)
(Distant thunder. Low hum of magic. Armor settling.)
“Directive 12. Theta. Shade.”
“A mask can lie. But breathing always tells the truth.”
(slight pause)
“General Meethus. Third Circle. Ivory Flame.
This recording is not authorized by the Grand Echelon.
If it reaches your ears, it was either intercepted… or delivered.”
📜 QUOTE SEGMENT (2:00 – 4:00)
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
— The Art of War(reflective tone)
“A beautiful sentiment. But dangerous in the wrong hands.The Order took this to mean we must control all things — all thoughts, all truths. But there’s a difference between knowing and owning.”
“I have known enemies who were more honest than our archives. And allies who wore loyalty like a borrowed robe.”
✍️ MONOLOGUE / JOURNAL ENTRY (4:00 – 16:00)
“We classify enemies by form, magic, method, intent. But the real threat isn’t in their technique — it’s in their certainty.
I’ve watched zealots fall with a smile. I’ve seen cowards destroy more with hesitation than any blade.
But it was never their tools that undid us. It was their clarity.”
(pause)
“I once interrogated a mage rebel — name lost to the Tribunal.
She smiled when I spoke. Not mockery — pity.She said, ‘You don’t know who your enemy is, do you?’
I ordered silence. She bled. Still smiling.
That night I dreamed of her — walking calmly through Ivory Hall, our banners burning behind her, and her mouth sewn shut with silver thread.”
(heavier breath)
“I don’t dream often.”“But when I do, it’s always the ones I couldn’t break. The ones who knew themselves.”
🕯️ SILENCE BREAK (16:00 – 17:00)
(Soft, whispering wind. A drip of water echoes distantly.)
🔁 THE ECHO – PAST CONVERSATION (17:00 – 25:00)
(Lower, personal tone. Intimate. Talking to someone remembered.)
“Sidon used to ask me what the Order was really protecting.
I’d give him the clean answers — purity, knowledge, structure.
But he’d just smile. That half-smile he wore when he knew I was lying to both of us.”“I think he knew. Even back then. That we were the enemy to someone.
That maybe… we had become the thing we were built to fight.”(pause)
“When the waves took him, we buried his name quietly. No memorial. No mention in the Spire logs.
I carved his initials into the underside of my gauntlet.”(long pause)
“Every time I raise my blade, I see them.And I wonder if the enemy I’m striking at… is the part of me still pretending I belong here.”
📘 DIRECTIVE WRAP-UP (25:00 – 27:00)
*“If you would know your enemy, look at what you defend.
If it cannot bear scrutiny, perhaps it is not worth the blood.The blade is not the tool of the righteous. It is the tool of the prepared.
Know yourself first. Know your silence. Know your breaking point.”*
🎙️ OUTRO SIGNATURE (27:00 – 28:00)
(Meethus speaks softly, with less formality — more like a man remembering something he’s not supposed to.)
“This directive was never official.
If you heard it… it was meant for you.”(Fade to black. Soft thunder rolls.)