Many of you don't know me - truth be told, I'm not writing here to be known. I won't be singing the virtues of my city, although I have chosen Cyrene above all others. I will not be puffing my chest and brazenly speaking of the Mojushai as if we seek glory - we don't. They have helped me find the better parts of my nature, and for all of their merits and their faults, I am one of them. However, it is neither as a Cyrenian, nor as a Mojushai, nor even as a Serpent that I write these words - it is as a man who has found some small measure of the angels in his nature that I must respond to somewhat recent news posts.

Dawnlord Maynard - I was Shogakusha when Shallam fell, as much a danger to myself as I was to others in regards to combat. Before my Rebirth from the Flame, I was a bastard orphan who pickpocketed along Fish Street, tried pilfering Reinhold's pastries, and got a bloodied nose once too often from the thugs lurking in the sewers. I was never a citizen of Shallam after my Rebirth, but to this day I regret not standing by their side and fighting the inevitable when the city fell. That's something I'll have to live with, for better or worse.

I say these things, not to evoke a sense of pity, but to highlight something that you and yours have said quite often: Targossas is not Shallam. Often, this is followed by an explanation of the purity in your cause, the wickedness of your enemies, the choices that we all must make. I agree wholeheartedly, of course: Shallam was an imperfect vessel for carrying the light. It was destroyed, and Targossas was made by the Divine as an agent to destroy Evil, Chaos, and Darkness.

But I look back at the history of my city, and see how Cyrene and Shallam once stood. It was not so long ago that our cities were friendly towards one another, if not allies outright. Perhaps it was before my time, but Shallam and Cyrene cooperated with one another, didn't they? Were there so many of Shallam enemied to Cyrene in its prime as there are so many Targossans now who cannot walk in the Heart of the Vashnars? When a Cyrenian offered a hand in friendship to help Shallam's defense against common enemies, were they told as bluntly to join Shallam as I have been told to join Targossas if I wanted to help? Or am I too much of an idealist over a time that I had barely known?

Targossas is not Shallam - I accept that solemn fact. But I accept it with sadness, Dawnlord. One does not cultivate a garden by eradicating the locusts.

Matrician Taraus, I do not know you - and far be it from me to meddle in the affairs of a mother and her child. But when you say that the goal of the Nihilist is not simply wanton destruction, nor selfish desires, I glance askance to those who routinely steal, murder, and harass anyone and everyone they can get away with.

I find interest in your words regarding the inevitability of chaos - I find it interesting because when agents destroy, I see Creation push back. How often have Mhaldorians razed and withered the forest, only to see it replenish over the span of months? How often have I seen a gentle hand restore life to a being who had been destroyed? You speak of inevitability, and yet I'm hard-pressed to think of a time in my relatively short life in which the agents of oblivion have struck a blow that creation could not recover from. But then, I'm young and know less about the world than I'd prefer.

Perhaps creation's growth is what is inexorable, and it's chaos that is trying to fight the losing battle - it's a more pleasant idea, I think, than the endless maw of oblivion. It comes with a caveat, of course: bloody hands won't be so easily washed. I hope that you and yours may one day find that there are better ways of paying one's tab than burning down the pub, so to speak.

Mosr, the methods -always- matter. Always.

..Huh. I sounded a little preachier than I had originally intended - apologies for that. And just to clarify: my words do not reflect the opinions of Cyrene or the Mojushai. This is just a concerned Serpent, speaking in a public forum, in a way that doesn't make him seem too pompous. I hope.

..There. I've covered myself.

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Aeguary, in the year 641 AF.