The campaign is over.

In a sense, we failed.
Our characters did not accomplish the appointed task.
But yet we, the players, did not.

This is where I sit, it has taken much time to determine that this is the case.
Because we fought it - a failure to accomplish a determined task was synonymous with a failure to play the game.
But we achieved a glorious and powerful climax to sessions of play.
Mysteries were resolved, opinions were had, conflict was abound.

The party, travelling loyally together, helping each other, and working together - the party fractured.
We fought, we argued, we attacked and murdered, we deemed each other moral impotents, we yelled our causes and values for hours on end.
For we had learned the truth.

And the truth was jarring.
It was too much for us, as players - we fractured, we collapsed.
It was certainly too much for our characters.
They learned the truth, and it destroyed them.
Mere mortals cannot handle reality, the simple minds too weak to process.

Greg, uncaring, left for better places - he was never one to care, this was not his battle to fight.
Valeria, turned to lizard, corrupted and destroyed. Although living and breathing, her spirit is dead, she is gone.
Seeka joined the enemy. Seeka joined the true cause, those on the side of the good and the righteous. Seeka won her battle, whatever the cost.
Phranque left broken, torn between his greed and good. His choice was to sacrifice everything he had worked for, or to sacrifice everything he had worked for.
Only Skip-Grath remained, a single bastion of determination and hope. Skip-Grath, the fearless and mighty - but even he could not do without friends.

Thus, they failed.
The Wish-hunter is left to whomever can take it.
The invasion of Orchestra will resolve however it was meant to.
The plots within plots will be as they are.
For we had failed - as characters.

But as players, as a game, it was no failure.
Yes, it was a failure for the characters. It was a spectacular, glorious, beautiful failure.
A failure that will be discussed forever, a failure with unimaginable consequences.
A conclusion to an epic story. A conclusion to countless struggles. A conclusion to numberless successes and failures.
We made the world a better place, but the truth of it was too much.

Thus it is over.
Not because we suceeded, but because we failed.
It is a story with the worst of endings.
Our heroes failed to be heroes, they collapsed under the weight of their responsibilities.
It is a tragedy.
It is no heroic story, it is a story of desperation and failure.
It is a story of humanity, of weakness and selfishness.
It is a still a story to be told.
It is the story we had.

The campaign is over.

Not because we failed.
Not due to the many disagreements over rules.
Not for the fact that our motivations to play are different.
But because the story has ended, it has come to its conclusion.

The campaign is over.