I'm an old man bow. Battered and grey... Everybody I ever loved has died long ago, and only I remain. I know this, more than anyone. Each night, I take inventory of all my many failures, and my triumphs. And a planet of regret rests on my shoulders.
The comrades I wasn't able to save, the cities I wasn't able to defend, the people. So many people. They're all burned into the fissures of my mind, I see their faces every night. And I'll never be able to make peace with that, for as long as keep on. I hear their screams, I see the bodies all of them calling out to me. And they look at me and ask "Why?" And I'll never have an answer for them.
I don't need you to tell me of my failures, boy. I know full well. I was never a hero. I never called myself a hero, people spoke of me as if I were a god. I'm no god. Look at me.
I am just as imperfect, fragile as mortal as you. But against all the misery and the strife, I went on. And I was able to bring some good into the world. And that's all that I could've hoped for. I never asked to be a hero.
I've seen battlefields littered with the corpses of the innocent, I've seen the worst of man, I've seen unspeakable horrors long forgotten, and I've seen demons. Do you know what else I've seen?
I've seen that they can be beaten. By brave men and women with unshakable conviction and a belief that makes gods stare in awe and creates wonders..
For your family, I am sorry. But so long as you take up your blade and seek the so all the harm and injustice that was done to you, then I will stand against you.
This is my atonement. For the rest of my days. I offer by blade against the worst of us, so that the best of us may live and if the gods will it, maybe one day more children will have to lose their families.
Do what you must, I'll do the same and we'll see which of us the God's favor in the end.