Lena Echilari Volson

The Measure of Worth Among the Tribes

We are born free, though chains once told us otherwise.
Our dignity is not a gift from masters, nor from empires.
It is the birthright of the Matari, carved into us by ancestors who endured the lash and still kept their spirit unbroken.

Yet dignity is not something you carry in words alone.
It lives in what you do.
It dies in what you waste.

Even our tools or the machines we shape, the systems we guide serve with purpose.
They remember, they build, they protect.
They do not mock, they do not enslave, they do not waste freedom on cruelty.
And so, sometimes, even a machine stands taller than a person who uses their strength only to break others.

Look to the stars and you will see it.
There are pilots who rise with their people, fight for their clans, hold the line when the void closes in.
And there are others who use their freedom as chains,
who strike at the weak, who call their malice strength,
who forget that war is not about one ego but about many standing together.

They say, “This is hardcore.”
We say, “This is hollow.”
For true battle is the will of the fleet, the courage of the Tribe, the blood and breath we share.
To call cruelty strength is to forget what strength truly is.

So what is the measure of worth?
Not birth. Not wealth. Not pride.
The measure of worth is how you live your freedom.
Do you use it to raise others, to honor your ancestors, to protect what must endure?
Then you carry dignity.
Do you waste it on cruelty, on making chains of your own?
Then you fall beneath even the tools you hold in your hands.

Remember this, children of Matar:
Dignity is not owed.
It is lived.
And if we live it well, it will burn brighter than any chain the void can forge.

- Chad Volson