'Desert' seems an awfully inaccurate description of Thanatos. To its inhabitants, and especially those of the rest of Tae'Karada, my home is a desolate, barren land, but in my eyes, it's teeming with life.

Long ago, the entire planet was much like Thanatos is now, but when the conquerors came, they changed Tae'Karada into a paradise. They built forests and seas, and fields of vibrant flowers that fill the air with an intoxicating fragrance I can only imagine in my dreams. They made the planet a veritable sanctuary for themselves, one whose beauty any would be wont to delight in.

But it wasn't so for the Karadans. They were oppressed and forced to live in unmodified parts of the planet, like Thanatos. My ancestors were slaves, original Karadans, as were those of most of the population of Thanatos. It's a shame they're so bitter about the enslavement their ancestors were subjected to; they're tearing Thanatos apart because of it.

I've seen some of the crusaders at work, those who've vowed to free our people from the subjugation faced at the hands of the foreigners, but all they're doing is creating dissention amongst themselves. Thanatos can never be free if we continue to alienate eachother. Murderers are rampant and the number of gangs claiming territory on the streets are growing by the day; they say it's the New Ploutonians, and the other foreigners who are oppressing us, but the truth is, we're destroying ourselves. They've known nothing but violence and crime their entire lives and with each successive generation born into this existence, so too is bred more spite and hate; that only contributes to more violence, as I've seen many times over. It never ends. It won't ever end unless the people of Thanatos unite and cooperate to achieve a common goal: making Thanatos a peaceful, hospitable place to live. If they could only look around and see how lucky we are to live in a place where so many possibilities await us, then perhaps they would hesitate to spill blood onto the sands next time they lust to harm a neighbour, a brother, a fellow Karadan.

The potential to make the desert as beautiful and hospitable as the rest of Tae'Karada exists, but we must band together and end our petty strifes before that potential can be realized. The gangs, the destitute struggling to get by each day, all the citizens of Thanatos blame the foreigners for their bleak existence, but the truth is, they've condemned themselves to it. If instead of fighting eachother, they turned their efforts towards freeing Thanatos, and ceased fueling the stigma it has gained through years of violence and crime, perhaps the foreigners wouldn't think of us as just scum and parasites.

The amount of hate in Thanatos is palpable. It lingers in the air and is carried by the desert breeze to the farthest reaches of our land. It infects each of us, but those who crave violence are most susceptible to it. It seems nowadays, everyone hungers for it in one way or the other. If they could only realize that, things might change...

There's nothing I can do, though. I'm just a cook. No one wants to listen to the ravings of a mere cook. Anyway, I think they're content with their stations in life; I think they're comfortable with being the subject of scorn and contempt by the foreigners. It gives them justification for their crimes, as well as an excuse to hate. Once the bitterness ends, perhaps the desert won't seem so dreary and desolate anymore. Perhaps then, all will see the beauty I see in it. Perhaps we too can have rolling landscapes filled with lush grasses and trees that reach to the heavens and touch the stars. Perhaps...

Fytha, my caretaker, told me once, that plants need fluids to survive and replenish themselves; if you don't water the soil enough, the plants wither and die; too much, and they drown. We're watering the sands and have been for years, by tears shed, as well as blood. The desert may seem so now, but it truly will be barren if we continue to drown the sands with blood.

Nieme Yaresh, cook at The Rhack