Last month, at Ezalor's request, I met with House D'Baen to discuss the
Carnifex law in which we demand recruits shed titles and trappings until
they have undergone training and earned Knighthood. The guild's laws are
public and have ever always been, but I will repeat the law in question
here:

"No Initiate, Cohort or Postulant is permitted to carry a Consanguine
House or family name until they undergo their Tainting. Until then, they
are recruits, trainees at the Shadow Keep - after, they are Knights and
have earned the right to proudly display their individual allegiances."

Certain Houses dislike this practice and have tried to pressure the Keep
into changing our law to suit them, first with meetings, then with
threats and now by forcing their members to abandon their training at
the Keep. That I am fine with. We take those who are strong, and if you
are unable to stand without your titles and rank or train outside of
your mother's arms for a few weeks, you won't survive a Mount Gallows
winter - if you can't survive being tested, we don't want you.

What I am not fine with is my words being twisted and used by the Houses
to paint the Keep as filled with empty arrogance (that distinction I
will leave to those who place the stress and meaning on constantly
showing off their rank through titles) - so I will reiterate why the
Carnifex have this law:

While recruits are undergoing training at the Shadow Keep, they are
simply that - recruits. I do not care if Varian himself spawned it,
there is always more it can learn. One can always become stronger.
Titles and rank and family connections serve no purpose for a recruit.
Until trained and tested, it is merely a lump of metal, not even yet a
blade, one which must be shaped and then honed before it is worth
individual consideration.

D'Baen stated that their training was sufficient (if not superior), and
I merely countered with this: To strive for strength means that you are
never done training or improving. Other organizations train their way.
We train our way. I have not disparaged other training methods, despite
what poorly paraphrased recitations of my words may claim, and I even
attempted to extend an offer for mutual treaties and shared training to
overcome this clash in our laws. Strength is not a static thing. It is
not some peak you scale to stand at the precipice of, satisfied and
finished. It is a constant, endless battle you always fight, with
perpetual challenges and no end to learning.

The Carnifex will continue to accept any who wish to be trained, and we
will continue to strip our recruits down to their bare elements before
we build them back up. The Houses are free to continue with their
practice of pulling their children out of the Keep when they object to
our removal of titles. We do not care.

However, due to this apparent hostility and pressure against our
established laws, I am banning apprenticeship towards those in the
Houses actively decrying our methods. I am sure nothing less than this
was expected, so this ban should hardly be a surprise.

I hope my explanation has clarified things. If you wish to quote me,
quote from this post, instead of quoting half-truths and gossip.

In Strength,
Commander Moirean Seirath

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Lleian, in the year 388 MA.