Valorie,

As I read your post, a startling similarity to the coward Ulo became clear: neither of you could make a coherent, reasonable point if I forged you the knife. You're certainly nearer the mark, but given the competition this is not much of an achievement.

I will note briefly to Ulo that nothing smacks more of desperation than shouting that you are attacking the Rekindled's order because they are our 'weakest link' while myself and two of the Unbound's destroy a shrine placed in Jaru. No matter how many news postings you make, we were all awake. We all know your shame. You would have been better served by quietly thanking us for erasing evidence of your vampiric collusion.

Back to you, 'Paragon'.

Nobody but the specters in your skull thinks Duiran should sit and frolic in flowers. You believe this because people vocally and violently disagree with your murdering civilians at random, but I assure you there is a wide range of behaviors in between. Still, perhaps you actually ought to spend some time enjoying the scenery to remind yourself the point of your oaths, now that you bring it up.

You say Duiran does what is 'necessary'. No. You do what you think is necessary, or what you want, and dress it up as needed. Perhaps you claim necessity from the same fear and desperation you project onto others while sprinting headlong towards the next unconscionable act. Perhaps the fear and desperation comes from your struggle to never look inwards and see what you have become. Having been where you are and now looking from the outside, however, the truth of things becomes clear.

You kidnap and murder and act as though your victims should be grateful. You fight and die alongside the Dreamless and place shrines to mark a war won only by base treachery. You claim to revere the Cycle and yet aid the same Dreamless when goals align, paying no heed to what else of their plans you are setting forward. You shout for balance yet seek only to stamp out Spirit. Spirit which plainly you aim not to understand, since as has already been made abundantly clear our goal is not to drown the plane it it - this would be a bit counterintuitive. I know you know this. The point of Severity is not only to act swiftly.

You have taught no lessons but those that reveal your nature, and even then you have only exposed what was plain to see. Parallel to this, you have learned no lessons; you have only digested and propagated falsehoods. You charge forwards with the same lack of forethought that doomed the Bloodwood and so many other places and peoples to be consumed by Shadow when we attacked Sterion and put every single person who knew what they were doing to the sword.

Let's address your point about the trees. I have done you a favor and gone through our records. Many less than one hundred. I will not do you the favor of counting how many trees stand in just the Ithmias, because I don't have the time to spend cutting down all your child-eating Soliads for the years it would take. Would you like me to spell out the difference in impact between this and all the damage just elemental Shadow has done in only the small amount of time Akkari have been on Prime? When it consumed the lands you now proclaim burned? That's not even accounting for the exceptionally long history of your fun new slaver friends. I do still believe, despite everything, in your ability to recognize basic facts if not admit them, so I will let you do that on your own.

To address your personal points, thank you for your permission. It is unnecessary. The rest is pointless posturing. You know the truth of how long I have been duamvi, and so do I. But yes, I did make my choices. As Duiran degrades, I have become.

You were a Paragon of something, once. But I do not recognize the creature who writes this. Nor do the stars.

Thanks,
E. Redwood

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 21st of Chakros, in the year 510 MA.