Murderous. Relentless. All-consuming. Implacable. Merciless. This is the enemy we face. Not the daemon, nor the man, but corruption itself is our enemy; all others are merely manifestations.
Our enemy is perfect in a way which can never be imagined. It is perfect evil: seductive, cunning, ruthless in its perfection. It is a force of nature. Would a man stand against a typhoon and will the rain to stop? Would he put his strength against the base of the mountain to move it?
This is the task given to the Arbiter. Corruption has no morals, no thought, no mortality. It simply is, and it is the Arbiter who must prevent it from devouring our world.
If the enemy is perfect, so too must we be perfect. We must defeat relentless corruption by being more relentless, defeat implacable corruption with implacable wills, overcome deadly cunning with our own. We must be a wall of iron against the seduction of the shadows. Our minds and purpose must be clear.
Our sole advantage is reason, which disappears in those touched by the crimson light of corruption. That deadly darkness eats away at sanity, at thought, existing only in its purest form in the daemon. In men, we may defeat corruption by being more thoughtful, more rational, and more intelligent, but all of those will serve nothing against the daemon.
The Arbiter’s only hope is to expect nothing less than perfection from himself, his peers, and his students. Any flaw in his iron will, any misstep in his sword technique will result in a lingering, painful death, and perhaps that of his fellows.
For a man to err is a consequence of life. For the Arbiter, it is death.
– “Demanding Perfection”, Master Nurem Frejar (1121-1198). The Arbiter’s Codex, pp. 40-41
Eye of the Storm 