They were the same, though other than putting it in my formal resignation, I've not been asked for it often.
[Many people assumed they knew. Others didn't care, he imagines. He pauses, now, gathering his answer to express it succinctly.]
I believed in the Order as a force for good, broadly. That abuses and horrors were aberrations that would be punished, and that we were protecting mages from those who would do them ill as much as we were a check on the few mages who lost control. Then years of evidence suggested to me that those of us who believed that were in the minority. It was a thing we told recruits, yes, but not a thing you were expected to go on believing. It became clear to me that the structure of the Order, if it didn't encourage abuses, was at least certainly not designed to check them.
I reached a point where I did not believe I was in a position to push for reform from within, and that had been the only reason I was staying for some years. When that last reason was gone, I resigned.
no subject
[Many people assumed they knew. Others didn't care, he imagines. He pauses, now, gathering his answer to express it succinctly.]
I believed in the Order as a force for good, broadly. That abuses and horrors were aberrations that would be punished, and that we were protecting mages from those who would do them ill as much as we were a check on the few mages who lost control. Then years of evidence suggested to me that those of us who believed that were in the minority. It was a thing we told recruits, yes, but not a thing you were expected to go on believing. It became clear to me that the structure of the Order, if it didn't encourage abuses, was at least certainly not designed to check them.
I reached a point where I did not believe I was in a position to push for reform from within, and that had been the only reason I was staying for some years. When that last reason was gone, I resigned.