The Myrmidon Way of Life
The Way of the Warrior, the Way of the Sword & the Way of the Kill
A fusion of all well known Warrior philosophies & principles around the World, the most well known, the middle age Knight Code, Bushido the Samurai Code (Oda Nobunaga etc.), Sun Tzu the Art of War, the Spartanian & thessalonique Guidance of Achilleus & Alexander the great and at thy very last from the chinese Philosopher Confucius.
And thus we created thy Way of the Myrmidon, the container of all these Ways.
We are no brute Barbarians, we are a civilised Folk who look for more than just on flesh bodies, we look at what disappears in one glimpse of the eye but appears when we dream, fulfillment by seeking and practicing your Way of Life. That's why we created the three Ways within thy Order.
The Knights Code of Chivalry
To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
To protect the weak and defenceless
To give succour to widows and orphans
To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
To live by honour and for glory
To despise pecuniary reward
To fight for the welfare of all
To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honour of fellow knights
To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
To respect the honour of women
Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
Never to turn the back upon a foe
Hellenic Philosophy
The Way of the Warrior
should never be neglected, it can be forgotten, if not seeked out from within, why do you handle the Sword? What is it that your Soul wants to represent? The Wrathful Guardian Achilleus we so much pray, because without we are just weak. We are no brute Warriors, behind those masks of War we are Philosophers and Fathers and ask ourselves so many Questions, left to be unanswered until our Time of Death.
We pray everyday in the Temple of Achilleus to our Guardian the Vice of Wrath Achilleus to be blessed by his Spirit with a strong Buff and to be able to follow his Ideal of a Warrior life.
We have Dignity, Pleasure and Honor, because what we seek is not what this Life can give us, it is thy afterlife we prepare for in this life so that we will finally know, where every attribute finds its place, where our Children may grow in peace as our Kingdom's structure stays. So that we may protect arkadian Life and its next generation which is yet to come.
The Way of the Sword
should be practiced by anyone, a defensive state when danger rises, our survival Nature, an art to handle and to master, everyday train of your Sword Art Skills to one day achieve Mastering and Enlightenment. As such the highest Spiritual Form a Sword Master can achieve is the Title of the Sword Art Teacher, by teaching thy Art of the Sword to disciples and younger folk, training the new Generation of arkadian Myrmidons.
The Way of the Kill
what is it that makes you furious? What awakens your Rage? Is it the loss of Souls, the start of Vengeance, destroying one so that another can pass on peacefully, there's no reason to think when you meet the Eye of the Death, there's only you and me fighting like Beasts for our own Survival, where Dignity and Honor has no place but only our Swords meet flesh.
The Way of the Samurai
I. Rectitude or Justice
Bushido refers not only to martial rectitude, but to personal rectitude: Rectitude or Justice, is the strongest virtue of Bushido. A well-known samurai defines it this way: ‘Rectitude is one’s power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike is right.’ Another speaks of it in the following terms: ‘Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. Without bones the head cannot rest on top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand. So without Rectitude neither talent nor learning can make the human frame into a samurai.’
II. Courage
Bushido distinguishes between bravery and courage: Courage is worthy of being counted among virtues only if it’s exercised in the cause of Righteousness and Rectitude. In his Analects, Confucius says: ‘Perceiving what is right and doing it not reveals a lack of Courage.’ In short, ‘Courage is doing what is right.’
III. Benevolence or Mercy
A man invested with the power to command and the power to kill was expected to demonstrate equally extraordinary powers of benevolence and mercy: Love, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity, are traits of Benevolence, the highest attribute of the human soul. Both Confucius and Mencius often said the highest requirement of a ruler of men is Benevolence.
IV. Politeness
Discerning the difference between obsequiousness and politeness can be difficult for casual visitors to Japan, but for a true man, courtesy is rooted in benevolence: Courtesy and good manners have been noticed by every foreign tourist as distinctive Japanese traits. But Politeness should be the expression of a benevolent regard for the feelings of others; it’s a poor virtue if it’s motivated only by a fear of offending good taste. In its highest form Politeness approaches love.
V. Honesty and Sincerity
True samurai, according to author Nitobe, disdained money, believing that “men must grudge money, for riches hinder wisdom.” Thus children of high-ranking samurai were raised to believe that talking about money showed poor taste, and that ignorance of the value of different coins showed good breeding: Bushido encouraged thrift, not for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence. Luxury was thought the greatest menace to manhood, and severe simplicity was required of the warrior class … the counting machine and abacus were abhorred.
VI. Honor
Though Bushido deals with the profession of soldiering, it is equally concerned with non-martial behavior: The sense of Honor, a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and worth, characterized the samurai. He was born and bred to value the duties and privileges of his profession. Fear of disgrace hung like a sword over the head of every samurai … To take offense at slight provocation was ridiculed as ‘short-tempered.’ As the popular adage put it: ‘True patience means bearing the unbearable.’
VII. Loyalty
Economic reality has dealt a blow to organizational loyalty around the world. Nonetheless, true men remain loyal to those to whom they are indebted: Loyalty to a superior was the most distinctive virtue of the feudal era. Personal fidelity exists among all sorts of men: a gang of pickpockets swears allegiance to its leader. But only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance.
VIII. Character and Self-Control
Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was essentially a man of action. No historian would argue that Hideyoshi personified the Eight Virtues of Bushido throughout his life. Like many great men, deep faults paralleled his towering gifts. Yet by choosing compassion over confrontation, and benevolence over belligerence, he demonstrated ageless qualities of manliness. Today his lessons could not be more timely.
Favorite Story of Myrmex from the Hagakure “Book of the Samurai”
-Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Even if one’s head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. The last moments of Nitta Yoshisada are proof of this. Had his spirit been weak, he would have fallen the moment his head was severed. Recently, there is the example of Ōno Dōken. These actions occurred because of simple determination. With martial valor, if one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die.
When one has made a decision to kill a person, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about going at it in a long roundabout way.
One’s heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success.
The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong. When a certain man was going to the sutra readings at the Jissōin in Kawakami, one of his pages got drunk on the ferry-boat and began to pester one of the sailors.
When they landed on the other side, as the page had drawn his sword, the sailor took a pole and struck him on the head.
At that time the other sailors all ran up together carrying oars and were at the point of striking the page down. However, as the master passed by with an air of not knowing what was happening, one of the other pages ran back and apologized to the sailors. Then, pacifying his comrade, he accompanied him home.
That night the page who had been drunk learned that his sword was being taken away from him. Now, first of all, it was an insufficiency on the master’s part not to have reproved and pacified the drunken page while they were on the boat. Furthermore, even though his page had acted unreasonably, after he had been struck on the head there was no reason for an apology.
The master should have approached the sailor and the drunken page in an apologetic manner and cut them both down.
Certainly he was a spiritless master.