The Ravenblack Grimoire

.... is that it is just that. The past.

There are those who say it was a golden age, and proclaim that if only we went back to "the way things were", everything would be ticketty-boo again. They are wrong. The past was made by people, and many of the people fromt he past are gone and unlikely to return. Their place has been taken by people with new ideas, new ways of doing things, and new dreams of personal power or glory. Trying to go back to "the past" (whatever that means) is neither possible nor desirable.

There are others who say that the past is gone, and the future is what counts. They too are wrong. The past is the foundation of the present, and those two together will be the foundation of the future. The past has valuable lessons to teach. It tells stories of what worked and what didn't, and more importantly it gives us legends to live up (or in some cases, down) to. Without those legends and that history, the city is nothing.

But whether you live in the past, present or future, the majority of us claim to want to improve things. That is, of course, sometimes no more than saying "I want more of whatever is out there to be for ME". There are those, however, who say they seek to improve things for the city as a whole. To them, I have two observations.

First; you cannot revive something from the past in an identical form. You have to update it, make it relevant, and in doing so remove the reason why it failed in the first place.

Second; you say you want to make the city better. Ask yourself this - "What unselfish things have I done to achieve this ?" I bet no more than 10% of such vampires (if that many) can provide a really good answer to that question. Actually, I doubt I can, either.