I'm checking in from Nagarov, and today I want to talk a bit about Mollus Darkblade, one of my favorite fantasy books.
But before I begin to elaborate, I would like to aware you all of the fact that our friends and sponsors at Viking Jewelry have a Black Friday sale.
So you can use my code boom and get some nice discounts.
So head on over there and check out if you see anything you like.
And thank you to Viking Jewelry for sponsoring this video.
Now I saw a most joyous update from Total War.
And that is that Mollus Darkblade is coming as a playable character.
And massive shout out to John who gifted me with the DLC.
So I will definitely make Let's Plays on it since I've mentioned Malus so many times before.
Especially if you've been with me for a few years, you know I am a fan of Mollus.
Also, before I begin, let us admire this stream here in the forest.
I thought it would be the most appropriate to make another forest video when talking about Smallest Darkblade.
So I will show you a brief clip from the release trailer so you get an idea of how he looks and the overall aesthetics of it.
So here it goes.
Boom.
So the other man is the representation of a demon who have who has possessed Malus.
So Tsarkan, which I'll get to in a bit.
But first and foremost, a bit of history.
I read Mollus Darkblade about 10 years ago and this was actually my first, well one of my first favorite, one of my first fantasy books after Lord of the Rings.
And it was basically the same story as when I started reading Horus Erisi.
That I just wanted to try something new and have heard, you know, Mollus Darkblade is a good book to read.
So that's why I tried it and yeah I was I was hooked, it was a good book.
A note here as well the first books of Mollus Darkblade is written by two authors Dan Abnett and Mike Lee.
Dan Abnett is also one of the primary authors of The Horror's Heresy.
So I credit both to Dan Abnett because he's such a great author.
So that is something to keep in mind.
Anyway, you might wonder why on earth would I as a radiant paladin endorse a typical anti-hero such as Mollus because that's something you have to keep in mind.
If you read Mollus Darkblade and you're a disciple of mine, I like using that term disciple, you might wonder how can I endorse this barbarism?
Well I'm not really endorsing Malus but I do believe it's a good book.
He is an anti-hero.
You're not supposed to like him really but you do it anyway.
It is Grimdark.
It has some dark humor in it as well.
But mostly it's him going around pursuing power completely lacking in morals.
The only sin in Nagarov is weakness.
One famous quote, another famous quote from Marlus Darkblade and this is something I've said before with enough hate anything is possible.
And no YouTube this does not count as hateful content.
I'm just quoting a book here, quoting a fantasy book.
So basically, I'm not going to spoil anything, but he gets possessed by a demon upon acquiring a sacred relic of power, and the books then revolves around him collecting more artifacts of power to liberate his soul from the demon.
And then also in regards to well, perhaps the gameplay you see in Total War is that he can call upon the demon Tsarkan to bolster his combat skills.
Basically so, but when he does so, he further strengthens the the demons hold on him.
So that is a moral dilemma.
He has now also a note on Dark Elf society.
They are degenerates.
They have cults of excess and they have all manners of debauchery and yeah, degeneracy in its proper sense.
So dark Elf society is not an ideal, and his being is not an ideal either.
For me personally, if I try to inspire others, I'm doing it from the position of being a valiant paladin, a champion of order and good.
That's my ideal at least.
Then, of course, no one is perfect.
I'm not perfect either.
Mollus Darkblade however, is an extreme individualist without any sort of loyalty to family.
The only loyalty they have really is if they are out for some common goal, achieving riches or glory together.
That's about how loyal they get.
It's just how it is, and of course, he's not supposed to be an archetypal hero, he's an anti-hero.
So, And I suppose it was a good thing that I read this when I was a bit younger.
If I'd read it today, I would probably think it was, I don't know, perhaps not as good as I thought back in the day.
But it also reminds a bit about Western society today.
The extreme individualism, the extreme egoism that you're only looking out for yourself, that you are willing to do a lot of things to attain personal power.
Now, of course, it's also important for someone like me to not be deluded into thinking that I have the support of everyone who is on the same side.
There is no such thing.
And a good example of this is when I got demonetized by YouTube.
Wasn't really all too much support that came.
There was some few guys who supported really, really much.
And that is similar to the notion of a pirate crew or for that matter a dark elf expeditionary force.
You are a few guys who are in it together, but this sort of broad support doesn't exist, it doesn't exist for me.
It's not because I am faulty or my subscribers are faulty, it's just how it is.
There is no unity or there isn't any movement either.
So it can be a good reminder to everyone that you know individualism is still what is up in Europe in the West today.
That being said let's admire this tree.
Could potentially be a good video if I try to run up there.
So anyway, that being said, Mollis Darkblade, do I recommend reading it?
Yes, it's a good book.
I might reread it.
I'm actually writing my second book right now.
And in that book, I am discussing culture basically.
And Mollis Darkblade will have a chapter dedicated to him, so I will probably reread the books to come with the most sharp of analysis.
So that being said, I have discussed how non-good Mollis is.
But what he is, at least, he is honest.
He's completely honest in his ruthlessness.
He's completely honest in his quest for power.
It's a little gathering of water behind me.
He is completely honest with what he is about.
He's not a hypocrite.
He does not pretend to be good and does evil.
He is out for one thing that is ultimate power, glory, gold, etc.
And that's also how dark elf society works.
And also in terms of the book itself, it's a quite motivating read if you are just looking for something to, I don't know, hit the gym or push through a hard time despite being down.
Because as I've mentioned at some stage, I think I might have actually done a video review of Mollus Darkblade a few years back, but he basically goes around in his pursuit of power and artifacts and glory, being wounded or half dead much of the time.
But he still pushes through because he Wants what he wants and he's not afraid to get it.
So, if I'm going to point to some something refreshing with the story, it's the honesty of it all that he doesn't pretend to be something that he is not.
As you might see from many other wolves in sheepskins, so to speak, stumble upon another aesthetic pool of water.
Hopefully it will look as visually pleasing in the YouTube video as it does for me walking around here.
Because now I am having a good old time reminiscing about good old Malus in Nagaroth, and the landscape of Nagaroth is basically what I envision this to be.
Dreary, somewhat cold forest.
It's not really all the cold though, but something along those lines.
So, that's basically my book review.
I can't really go into many of the details because I don't want to spoil it.
But the series is made out of several books, and he basically deals with different cities and different artifacts in the books.
And yeah, it's a great adventure novel as well for those of you who like that sort of thing.
But a word of warning: if you don't like anti-heroes, if you want a clear good and evil, it's not the book for you.
But if you want some good introduction to the Warhammer World fantasy, it's recommended.
And I mean, it's a very popular book for a reason.
I liked it for a reason as well.
But again, he is quite unsympathetic, at least in the beginning of the book, so keep that in mind.
And he is in no way, shape, or form a role model.
But you know, men are attracted to men who can attain power.
Just how it is.
Will be a coming video idea.
I will talk about Genghis Khan and Napoleon and Great Conquerors, why we admire them.
Yes, because it's hard to conquer things, it's hard to do what they did.
It's easy to be nice.
So yeah, that's another aspect to keep in mind.
Now something else I might have mentioned at some stage, it's the question, should you read fantasy?
Should you read science fiction?
Should you read anything that isn't a facts book or a philosophy book?
It depends.
It depends on where you are in life.
A lot of students are watching this and you have a lot of books to read for your university studies.
Then it might not be the best idea perhaps to read another heavy book in terms of intellectual stuff.
Then it might be better to read something immersive instead.
And it's the same thing if we're talking about gaining motivation as I mentioned earlier in this video that you want motivation to do something hard.
Again, gym motivation to push yourself in the gym.
It might be better for you to read something, a historical fiction book, science fiction book, fantasy book that makes you eager to pursue your goals.
That might be a better idea than to read a book by Julius Evola that you don't really get all too much from.
Now, of course, I do like certain parts of Julius Evola, but if I had to choose between having read Mollis Darkblade and a book by Julius Evola, say Ride the Tiger, yeah, I will be completely honest.
I gained more motivation and it had a larger impact on me to read Mollest.
To read Mollis.
Simple as that, I will not pretend to be to enjoy everything Julius Evola writes because he wrote his books a long time ago and they're translated from the original language which is Italian and some of his thoughts aren't really applicable in today's society.
Then of course other thoughts such as riding the tiger is something I really really like.
Racial materialism is something he talks about a lot.
The quality of the soul is something he talks about a lot as well.
All concepts I like really much but if we're talking about just pushing through getting that motivation fantasy is an absolutely legitimate way of doing so.
So I would encourage everyone to not be pretentious same thing as I talked about Moby Dick.
I didn't want to be all oh this is a great classic that I enjoyed so much and everyone has to read it because I would lie if I said that I didn't enjoy reading Moby Dick.
So because it's ultimately about the utility of books as well can you get motivation from it or can you not?
Is it just something that you don't look forward to?
Because you want the book to be immersive, you want to really get into the story, you want to enjoy the story, you want to have a break from your everyday life.
So it becomes a bit like meditation.
You just immerse yourself completely in something.
So anyway now I have rambled on long enough of Molly's Darkblade and yeah I look forward to making the Let's Place later on.
