Hullo, Sapience.

I don't really make these public posts often.

I have no real love of posturing, and I'm not exactly a wealthy man, so spending money to be heard is always something I need to think about and weigh against whether what I'm going to say is worth the coin.

In this case, I think it's warranted? Hear me out.

Duiran, I'd love to know what your business in Sterion is, now that you've senselessly slaughtered every man, woman and child - soldier or not - and set yourselves up around a portal that you have admitted you know little to nothing about.

Admitted. This is not a conclusion drawn from anything other than the words of the Presiding Voice herself. I asked what she was doing in Sterion.

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Rihrin says, "Originally, I didn't realize it was the full-on connection from Shadow to this Plane. I thought it was like Dendara, where a secondary rift was opened. So, we were going to see to shut it down and stop an additional excess source of Shadow."

Exhaling a breath, Rihrin says, "Once we realized it was not, we decided we'd at least prefer to control the area. Keep an eye on things more directly, and investigate what we can do to limit it some."
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Well, now, it's yours. Your job to keep stable, to keep safe, to keep an eye on. Do you know what it would look like, if it began to grow stronger, and extend its influence? Do you know what it looks like when the Shadow Mother begins to touch the minds of those around you through proximity to a portal to Czjetija?

I know you didn't go after Sterion for the slaves. I mean, first off: See above, that was your response to my asking you why you were there, and you didn't mention them at all that whole conversation. But also, you killed just as many of the slaves in your intial raids of the place as you did citizens, and on top of that, I wasn't exactly going to let Sadako and her people continue to keep slaves had the altercation fallen in our favor, and that fact was known before the seige began, so that posturing is more than a little bit defunct.

So what are you doing there, exactly? What are your plans? How do you plan to prevent Czjetija's influence, and the influence of the Shadow Mother Imprisoned there, from taking root and having their way with now-weakened security in the biggest point of access they have to prime material and your precious Dendara?

You can't close it, you must know this by now. So how do you plan to educate yourselves on how to recognize the signs of danger, now that you've murdered the most reliable tutors you could've possibly found?

Seriously. Enlighten me. I'd love to have my mind put at ease.

For the rest of Sapience: It's important to me that you note that the Shadow Mother's influence is subtle, and will slowly and gently try to convince people to take actions that will give Her a chance to weaken our defences against another insurgence of Hers in an attempt to take over the Prime Material plane. Weakening the easiest point of access by taking it out of the hands of people who know how She works would be a really good way to do that. Just, you know.

Food for thought.

Duiran... hey, I'm eager to be proven wrong. But until that happens, I suppose this is as good a post as any to annuonce that Spinesreach is going to begin hosting educational seminars on Shadow and the Shadowbound, to hopefully avoid a second War of Night. Expect to see more items to protect you from Shadow's Influence, like Senator Legyn's charms, alongside lectures and reading material, because I was here for the first War of Night and it was not pretty.

Not even our Gods are immune to the influence of the Shadow Mother. If you have any concerns or questions, we will answer frankly. I'd rather not have to go through that a second time.

Getting really uncomfortable with how often I have to sign off with:
I hope you know what you're doing.
Inkh, Chairman of Spinesreach.

Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 8th of Lanosian, in the year 503 MA.