The Horsemen
A handy guide to the harbingers of the end of the world
Conquest
Famine
War
Death
Conquest
The big picture is the only thing that matters, and the long game is the only path to get there.
When your situation calls for a scalpel and not a sledgehammer, Conquest is your guy. Calculating and cunning in equal measure, he’s already so far ahead of the people who think five moves ahead, he barely remembers they exist. Exact in his thinking, ruthless in his execution, Conquest won’t just win you the war, he’s already got the venue for the unconditional surrender booked.
So, if that sounds like someone you need in your corner, this is the coffee for you. After all…
The end is near. Wake up.
Famine
“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?”
~Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi, 1970
Famine might have well been whispering in Joni’s ear when she wrote that lyric, because it perfectly embodies his whole philosophy. There are few things that help us appreciate what we have like scarcity. Famine’s personal mission is to simply use withholding to bring people to their knees, as well as the bargaining table. If hunger is the most potent spice, Famine serves up a whole lot of it as an appetizer.
Famine adapts, appears suddenly, and may vanish just as quickly, and by doing so teaches us to maximize opportunities when they are present. So get on with the business of whatever needs doing, because you never know when he’ll show up next.
The end is near. Wake up.
War
There are times, like it or not, when your only option is to fight. War does not hesitate, because hesitation in conflict is defeat.
War does not seek out conflict, but he doesn’t shy away from a good opportunity. He will go full berserker-mode and charge the entire enemy line by himself, should the situation call for it. War and Death, though very different, know each other all too well. As such, War harbors no fear of death, focused only on the thrill of battle and the satisfaction of triumph over the enemy. That enemy might be as big as an army or as routine as a TPS report due before Saturday, but either way war attacks without hesitation, because victory is the only viable option.
Dark, strong, and driven with a focus as sharp as the tip of a spear, once war is involved, things get done.
The end is near. Wake up.
Death
In the end, one way or the other, we all will become his companion.
Death has no interest in being feared. Neither is Death innately cruel, though sometimes his actions feel brutal in their finality. Death does not negotiate, but death is not the enemy. Death is (and always has been) the infinitely patient companion to us all. Death doesn’t raise his voice, or adopt the violence of War, the calculations of Conquest or the shrewdness of Famine. After all, inevitability needs only unyielding persistence and time.
So take some of your time to enjoy good things that life offers. When that time is over, Death will be there, quiet and persistent, to accompany you on the next leg of the journey.