Archmage of the Ascendril Order,

Once upon a time, I visited the City of Enorian, bringing with me a proposal to coordinate - not even cooperate, but just to share information and a common goal - to resist the upcoming War of Shadow, with the consequences of Duiran's follies already set into inevitable motion. Enorian was the first to acquiesce, after putting me on the stand to question my Guild's role in irresponsibly wielding shadow, in bringing circumstances to the dire straits they were then.

Before the year was out, the Shadow Guard I had helped to form then was defunct, ashes in my hand.

I swore then, no more would the Sciomancers Guild and Spinesreach rely on outside help. Sryaen had warned me during my visit that the Shadow Guard would likely meet the same fate of the failed Accord. He was right. Oblivion will come for us one day. When that day comes, I will be fighting, and wielding the power that I will need to stand against it. I do not set my sights so low as yours, "Archmage", to brown my nose rubbing it into the mud at the Abyssal's feet. The Sciomancers stands against the true enemy, against the bigger prey, and we will be doing so then as the true masters of the arcane arts.

You can remain cowering in your Hammer of Dawn, dreaming of the cursed utopia of light-scorched lifelessness, praying to the Eschaton and begging yet another unreliable, untested Creator and His vaunted Voidlight to save you after They have stripped you of the elemental forces you now wield greedily, and in the words of great Tanixalthas, that you gulp without regard.

For the Guild that has deigned to lay claim to all that my Guild has abandoned, your stance puts you on the level of the common hedge witch, that slings half-formed hexes to pox the jilted lover and to steal sovereigns from beggars.

Shame.

The Sciomancers Guild hereby reclaims all that we once wielded. To the Ascendril Order - nay, the ascendril circle: you have proven unworthy to inherit the legacy of the Magi. To debase yourself and your arcane discipline to the mercy of another being? You are a disgrace to your forebears, who did not shy from wielding the elements, their birthright, against the odds to form the Order.

Kagura Tsuchimiya
Shadow Warden

Composed at my desk on Falsday, the 24th of Dharos, in the year 7 AC.