Gods and politics are the tools with which the godless and unprincipled manipulate the gullible.

When the balance is restored, people get hurt.

If you want to write something completely unique, you will probably fail or at best write something without redeeming value. The mind works in certain patterns: the mind organizes facts in story form; it is your commonality with that body of human thought that makes a good book, not its estrangement from the common values that humans share.

There must be a corps that will battle for righteousness, for there are endless battalions who serve unrighteousness.

Your honor blinds you, Tempus, to what's right and wrong these days.

And what do the Theban hoplites see in this extended rending of the sky, this white-bright glory of Enlil's lightning? The future, but not theirs: paired cavalry fighters; formed ranks of armored death; grim men on their tall horses with lightning limning weapons tailored to the task; men spoiling for a fight if the gods allowed - the Sacred Band of Stepsons, out from shadows and the dark.

Survival's the thing, isn't it?