Welcome to Sword In Hand!

===========================
  ABOUT
===========================

Thousands of years ago, in the midst of the Age of Heroes, a powerful
magic sword was crafted.  Forged from sky-iron it was named "The
Freyblade".

It gained increasing notoriety as it passed from hero to hero and
warlord to warlord.  Eventually, it, or should we say, you,
gained self-awareness.  As your powers awakened, you soon found
you could easily overpower the will of any who wielded you.

Still, being a sword, your own goals lacked any overarching purpose.
You contented yourself with serving king after king, happily joining
any cause that let you see action.

Your last owner met its fate in the depths of a particularly deep
dungeon.  After a hundred year rest in its skeletal grip,
you have been found and once more provided a body to control.

King Viola, it seems, has a problem.  He and his foe, King Crimson,
are set to wage a battle to the death.  However a quick glance
at the strategic situation shows the battle will be swift and
glorious: for King Crimson!

So you have been awakened to do what you do best.

===========================
  HOW TO RUN
===========================

If you are a windows user, run it from windows/sword.exe.

If you are a linux user, run it from linux/sword.sh.

If you are a source diver, go into the src directory.
Look for BUILD.TXT files to try and guide you, there is one under
each of the porting subdirectories.

===========================
  HOW TO PLAY
===========================

Movement is done with the number pad or with vi style keys.  You 
can also use the cursor keys for four way movement.

    7 8 9  y k u
     \|/    \|/
    4-5-6  h-.-l
     /|\    /|\
    1 2 3  b j n

 Command Keys:
   asdfg - Special Attacks
   S - Search
   i - Inventory
   x - Look Around
     - Wait
   Q - Quit and Save
   R - Restart
   W - Welcome Message
   A - About Sword in Hand
   P - Toggle Fullscreen
   O - Options
   ? - This Help

===========================
  CUSTOMIZING 
===========================

If you don't like the default font, you can change it!

Go to the windows directory and replace terminal.png with another font
compatible with The Doryen Library.

If you don't like the music, you can edit sword.cfg to point to
another file of your choosing.  You can also disable the music.

===========================
  ARTISTIC MESSAGE
===========================

The role of the author in imbuing a work with an artistic message
is often a contentious issue.  Some would say the author has no
place in determining what you take from the game.

That said, there is a message intended in this game.

First, I will pause while you finish the game.  Don't worry.  I'll
still be here when you get back.

Done?

Excellent!

So let us start with a simple question.

Did you get the good ending?

Seems an easy question.  You have a game with different possible 
endings controlled by player choice.  In this case, it is selected 
by the adventures you choose to go on.  But what one is the best one?

Let us look at in-game rationales for "good ending" first.

You are a sword.  As a sword, your best ending would be one 
that leads to a new Age of Heroes.  In a new age of chaos will be the
excitement The Freyblade, you, so desire.

King Viola similarly has a fixed idea about which the good ending 
should be.  It should be one that sees him victorious!

The people of the world, however, will desire something else.  They
will want peace and prosperity.  So the ending that leads to the
happiest civilization, irrespective of its ruler, is what they
desire.

Out-of game, there is a third axis.  As a game-player if you win
the war too quickly you cheat yourself out of some of the content.
The good ending for a game player is the one where you get to visit
the slime pits to try out that content.

So, are these conflated endings my message?  No.  They are a symptom
of it, however.

I made this game to try to understand Pacifism.  Because, simply,
I do not.  I am not a warmonger, and am definitely anti-war on general
principles.  But to reject war entirely?  Usually at this point one
imagines some enemy so vile, whose attack is so total, that it is
fight or be extinguished.  What rationale can there be to not fight?

As I came to understand it, the compelling argument of pacifism is
universalism.  If you believe in humans, if you believe we are constant
despite our culture, then in the grand scheme it no more matters which
culture survives than which individual.  And that vile theoretical other
of infinite malice?  It is composed of humans with hopes and fears like
yours.  You must trust the other humans to live on as you would have
lived.  To put another way, if you are willing to die for your beliefs,
you should be willing to let your culture die as well.

Strong medicine.  I doubt I'm able to swallow it.  But I think I
can now understand better those that do.  I do know that I was
indoctrinated with "Better dead than Red" in my youth, something
which I now am willing to reject.  (Incidentally, according to
Wikipedia that slogan may originate with Goebbels.)

I distilled this into my own aphorism:
"It is brave to die for a cause.  It is braver to lose."

This is the situation that King Viola's nation finds itself in.
They face a war of exhaustion.  They can only win it by destroying
all civilization - a pyrrhic victory.  So the true victory is to lose
so that the humans that follow can lead better lives.

Is this a contrived example?  Of course.  All examples are.  It is
more honest than the "Evil Other" that is usually used as our mental
counterpoint to pacifistic arguments.

I ask only that you think.  Do not reject or accept this argument
reflexively.  This I think is why the ending is conflated.  Because
*I* do not know where I stand on the issue.  It is messy.  But
to recognize that is an important step to progress.

===========================
  CREDITS
===========================

This is a Seven Day Roguelike.  It was written in a 168 hour time
frame.  Hopefully it doesn't feel like that was the case, however.
Sword In Hand is written by Jeff Lait and uses The Doryen Library
for graphical output.  

You can contact Jeff Lait at: jmlait [snail] zincland [dot] com.

===========================
  FINAL IMPORTANT NOTE
===========================

Have fun!
