Messages

Champion of Ephia's Well, Legate & Balladeer of the Lost Hearth Asherias Myl;

I am not your enemy. It baffles me how this could be considered, and I would prefer if we are not friends, we at least establish that we are not enemies.

The truth is we have nary had a brief flicker to speak this past month, not since the last election. Our last words together in brief were that you urged we speak soon. So why have we not?

Admittedly I have been busy in the past but this short tenure as Legate demands my full attention, and so I have endeavored to honor the position that Alexandria has entrusted me with. If you have qualms with something, come and speak with me.

Don't let Lyrist Domergue fill your head with nonsense. I have never wavered from my ideals or vision, and I have only ever been loyal to the League of White and the people I have deigned to serve. The only thing anyone in this city can hold me at fault for is a stupid and drunken night that I have willingly confessed to and made no denial of.

I do not gallivant with a raised chin through the streets, pretending I have not done this city or its people wrong; but those errors are between myself and the Spoke I serve, the Twins, whom judge in life as they do in death. It is not the realm of man to judge man.

What have I done to you, that I have bereaved you so? Shall you call every Ephian who had burdens at home to uphold a coward, or do you think only with the visage of a warrior, that such things are the cusp of worth? You have felled Iakmes, and brought back with you an ego to show for it, as arrogant in your belief that I have somehow failed our League as the Lyrist Domergue is arrogant in that she and she alone knows the path forward, refusing to allow ideas to become as they are through the beautiful process of experience. She has thought, and thought she has, to come upon one thought and not many, and has made that one thought iron in her head, refusing to accept that she, even in her old age, has much to learn, for as Izdu would beseech us; we must never stop learning.

I can more than entertain the ripostes of Aubrey Domergue, and they do not bother me, for she has done little that was not for the purpose of inflating her already gargantuan ego and desperate desire for the people's love, but I expected better of you, Asherias. You are worthier of her position than she ever has been and ever shall be, and that you are now subject to the whims of a failed politician is sad.

You know where to find me if you decide that repeating her talking points has grown boring and dull.

Regards,

Edmund

Delivered by Scribe to the Office of Legate Vellyn Lhyrian, from the Office of the Second Seat, currently held by Interim Legate Edmund Lothere.

Dear Vellyn,

I know we have not always seen eye to eye, and I have met your ire with more ire, and our relationship ever since your election has been one of lapse after lapse in judgement and cross wording, we no longer have the courtesy nor the time to waste upon each other in squabbling.

Now that I need not Alexandria's approval - Twins rest her soul - we may have more heart to heart discussions. For at the very least we agree on one thing; the prosperity of Ephia's Well. I once stubbornly told you there was little we could do, but there is always something we can try.

That is what this all is, isn't it? A trial? An experiment? This nascent thing that is democracy. So let us try it, and work together. As said in my bellows, you will find yourself unopposed for so long as I am an unelected Legate serving the end of a Seat's term.

In the time that we have, these are my pursuits;

1. Inanna's Law is raised upon the Stele and given my approval in writ. It would be an amendment to the law of Trespassing, and Trespassing would be renamed to Inanna's Law if wished in her honor.

2. The Voice is lowered to 2,000 dinari from 4,000 dinari. A few amendments to the law alongside this may include Fraud, Contracted Debt and Election Tampering. The vision here should be to give meaning to a Voice, but ensure every Ephian has the opportunity to work towards it. Furthermore, we should work towards less intervention by foreign gold, contractors and wealthy patrons in the city for the purpose of binding a person to vote a particular way via purchasing their Voice.

3. An official title is made for lawyers employed by the state, those we may call upon to ensure dutiful Jurisprudence in court. They would be assigned cases to represent as defendants with unbiased prudence. This title would have a wage of 4 dinari.

4. An official title is made for those under the Deputy Chief Scribe; Junior Scribe and Senior Scribe. Give the Scribes more to work towards, and they shall work harder for it. Raise all three of their wages.

That is all for now, though we should meet soon to discuss an Assembly and an Allotment to ensure the Accord is well funded and rewarded for their efforts in the war. We should also be in touch with Gohari Heavy Machinery and receive an ultimatum on when construction shall begin on the new district.

Whether my term ends in victory or defeat come the cusp of election, I will aspire to work towards if not correcting the entire system, making small changes as is your philosophy, that make this vision closer to a reality than naught.

I eagerly await what you ask for in return, and any amendments, suggestions or proposals you have.

Yours truly, with earnest apologies for past and brazen words,

Edmund

Your best PC to date and I love how this chapter has really invoked that in the community, giving every player their magnus opus with more to come, with how great the narrative fits and the setting immerses you. Narwen was an anchor for Wheel based RP and you rocked it, alongside every other detail. Good luck on the next.

Spectacular PC as always Pool, and ever since Jasper I've admired the way you can bring every PC you play to life. Thanks for being a part of EFU and keeping it real. Good luck on the next!

One of your best so far in the four-ish years I've interacted with your PCs, NND. Excited to see what hooks you next, loved all my time with Vorazol across the several PCs I played influenced by my terrible character ADHD. Good luck on the next!

Legate,

With all due respect, no. Once your term is finished, turn in your badge and join the League of White.

There is no amount of 'I'm different' that will change the fact that you serve a League that is interested in their own gain than that of the city.

If you want change, join the League that strives for it. You are not writing history here. You are simply acting as a spokesperson in hiding their mundane antics.

Your League is a cancer.

Thank you.

LOTHERE'S TREATISE: OF STATE AND BEING

Penned by Edmund Lothere
Sponsored by the League of White


Introduction

Good evening, dear imposed readers of what shall amount to nearly three months of studying the theatre of politics in Ephia's Well, and a love note to all that I stand for as part of my endearment and loyalty to the ideas and the tenets of the League of White.

My inspiration for writing this is that over the span of my political career in Ephia's Well, I have used certain terms that I have repeated many times individually but never en masse to an entirety, and so I mean to clear up and clarify some of them into the ideas they truly are, and what they truly mean, so that they can no longer be twisted against their will and beyond their intent.

I dedicate this piece first and foremost to the People I deign to serve and to aid, and to my colleagues and friends; Legate Alexandria Sayburgh, Balladeer Katya Belyaeva, Student & Vizier of the People Denain de Jonquille, the Students and Brothers Thorncrest, the leader of the Rathgan, Ulfgrim Grimgarsson, the scholar Ramez Hour Sobhy, the lovely Sisters Selsi and Jamei alongside Acolyte Narwen and lastly, the foremost Candidate for the League of Purple and noble philanthropist, the daughter of Ghalib, Lujayn bint Ghalib ibn Ahlam al-Farisyya, to whom without, my ideas would find little opposition and find itself cold whence it should be grazed in the flames of critique.

Thank you all so very much for your support, your care, your counsel and advice, and your ear. Thank you, also, for being so patient with my troubling antics of late, and the addiction that claws at my heart, a burden I have since defeated in earnest due to your unwavering encouragement and the amnesty of the gracious Wheel Clergy.




The Common Good

Evil begets evil and good begets good. First and foremost, the term 'Common Good' implies two things. One, that it is common, therefore it is not vague nor unheard of and is shared among the many, and that it is good, and so that it is for the benefit of all, not just the few.

I first began speaking of the Common Good in relation to the more often spoken 'Greater Good', in which questionable acts are committed and justified as sacrificing the few to save the many, or sacrificing something smaller to spare something larger. In short, a grand scheme to commit a great act and sacrifice to benefit the world as a whole or society as a whole, to no choice or say of their own. This good is often not deemed by the many, but by the few, and yet is claimed to be for the good of all.

The Common Good directly opposes this idea, and instead declares most vehemently and justly that such things are often the justification of heinous deeds, of tyranny, of cruelty, and dismissing it as fine due to the good, overall, it accomplishes. Moreover, I believe it is unquestionable that sacrificing even a few to save many is unnecessary in a generation of survivors. There is always another way. There is always another option. There is always a choice.

Instead, the Common Good would be led by simplicity, in concepts that any man or woman could very well understand. That, for example, walls keep our enemies at bay and our people safe, and we would all agree on this; or that the economy when it thrives is good for all, or that it is better to teach one to fish than it is to indefinitely hand out buckets of it forever.

The Common Good is led by logic while the Greater Good is led by conjecture and vague excuses for acts that are more often than naught, bloody and inexcusable, and yet excused all the same and defined as inherently good. Which they are not, and rarely ever are. Nor are they ever things the people as a whole have decided on for themselves and in the future of this young and nascent Polity we must, therefore, ensure all have a say, and further develop its bright idea of such.





Dinarcracy and Democracy

I have often spoken of Dinarcracy and Democracy, and must confess that Dinarcracy is not a term I coined myself, but a colleague named Barend Hoensbroeck.

In Ephia's Well, there are not many structures in place to ensure those who are rich are made to contribute to the coffers, as they have the most to spare. In truth, the only feasible tax currently is that of the Voice, and it is a one-time fee that gives many benefits.

Once a person reaches a certain credential of wealth, it ceases to no longer be a burden of theirs to have need of anything in particular. They do not pay taxes, only rent on their properties, which is generous for their coffers, and the board pays exceedingly well to any adventurer who can swing a blade or work miracles from their hands. The boardworkers of Ephia's Well are among the richest of us, and are also the most vocal whenever change is threatened in the city by a progressive Legate, as the world, in their viewpoint, revolves around them. And society often reflects that, while the masses, the many poor and disenfranchised Ephians to-be, are left to line up for soup at the Stockades and beg for alms, as many of them cannot wield a blade, and some of them shall never be able to.

Where once, perhaps, these were farmers, lumberjacks, foragers, criers, messengers, reporters, craftsmen, etcetera, these are professions that either no longer exist, are no longer needed in excess or are a niche filled already by double-dipping adventurers fueled by greed and bedlam.

Make no mistake. Ephia's Well is the place to retire, is the place to live, the place to settle; if you're rich. If you're poor and have nothing, it is still the place to settle, for at least water is provided freely and many accommodations in comparison to the rest of the Great Disc. That is, most certainly a dystopian wasteland when faced against what is essentially a paradise.

But this does not mean we have no work left to do, for work aplenty there is to do before this city is the Sanctuary it is deigned and destined to be. A Sanctuary for all peoples, and the haven and birthplace of Democracy. But while it remains a corrupt and decadent seat of wealth for the few who wish not to see any change whatsoever, and care little for the people bar acts of vanity for prestige and selfish reasons (because it is very easy for them to throw out droves and droves of dinari, the finest example of their expedient and overflowing wealth), this city shall not reach its potential. So, let us be away with this Dinarcracy, and fully embrace power to the People. Polity! Not Idolatry, whose Idol is a Golden Dinar.

It must be recognized however that there shall always be the wealthy few to deal with, but in how we deal with them, and the methods therein, is most important. It is important, indeed, not to compromise, but to enact an ultimatum and a social contract between the wealthy, the city's future and the downtrodden beneath their heel.

We must tax the wealthy, we must tax the prominent Voiced, the caravaneer, the adventurer and finally the venture profiteers (differing from the humble merchant or trader, leading to excessive wealth), and pool together the tax dinars into our city's future and invest in more housing, more opportunities and fairer practice in labor laws and minimum wages. We must remind the many who cannot swing a sword that so long as they can partake in labor and civil jobs, they are as hard working as any Ephian and paramount to its future.

Only Asterabadian Democracy as depicted in Dreams can bring forth this future. The Leagues of Gold and Purple must be treated with one way or another, but they must never hold a Seat, let alone two Seats, else the Pillars of Progress crumble and must be built anew.




Politician and Statesman or Self-Interest against Generous Interest

Often it is labeled politician as the title that best befits one aspiring to enter the Leagues and campaign for Legate, but this shall be a short subject to discuss in truth.

A politician is one who is riddled with self-interest, and in truth, their entire motivation for entering politics is power and authority. Power over their fellow, power over the city, power over the state. Power is their game, their ethos, their final destination. They will smile, when truly they are grinning, and they will weep and grieve when really they are laughing. False faces and false promises are their craft.

A statesman, however, is those rightful participants of the political theatre that are not in it for their own gain but for the gain of the city, of the people and because they truly wish to see their home prosper and grow. They work towards and for the state as a whole, not just their League or their own person, or their friends, but the state as a whole.

Perhaps you shall dislike them the most, but it cannot be denied that they are more honest than politicians, they are more direct, and they are not afraid to step on the toes of the crooked spine. They are those unafraid to truly do what they have deigned and promised to do in office, rather than the politician who is full of broken promises or has only feinted their bravado up to that point, and therefore, are afraid to commit upon any change at all, and simply sit on their Legate's wage accomplishing next to nothing.

I have ever disliked the term 'politician', even as I am called it, and it betrays the motivations of my work. I am a statesman, a man who, in his wanton desire to improve the city-state in which he lives, has and shall continue to participate in the theatre of necessary politics to move forward upon his unabated path of progress, in ensuring all that he wishes to do and has bid himself to do; improve the city-state, and its people. Co-prosperity, must always begin with 'Co', for it is together and only together that we begin to make the necessary steps towards Sanctuary for All and the Ephian Reality, that wellspring of life from the often spoken Ephian Dream that is more an Ephian Lie than naught, spoken by those thieves of joy and champions of self-interest that I label the politician and the sycophant.




The Scales of the Living: The Twins Whom Uphold a City on Their Shoulders

It is well known that I pay faithful homage to the Twins, and would consider myself among the Twindari. In that, I hold the law sacred, and time and again I have witnessed its twisting for the sake of personal vendetta. A homage to the Wroth, in a holy seat of the Martyrs, is and must be held accountable as anathema.

The trial of Mazeed Hafouri is one such example where not only was due jurisprudence not followed as bid by Preparator Fdiz, stationed here on placement from the Adliye of Martyrs in Baz'eel, but it appeared more as a mock trial than a true trial.

This man confessed to serving the hated Ninth Spoke, to assaulting several Ephian citizens, to theft, and to intent to murder, and after given Absolution by a Waterbearer of B'aara as if to dismiss the domain that belongs to the Twins, was allowed to depart freely with not even a fine.

To quote from the chapters, 'Galim, the Living Brother, shall keep the scales right. Records must be kept. Precedent must be followed. Honesty observed. Corruption among officiator (sitting Judge) squashed.'

Afterwards, this man broke his word and went on yet another rampage of murder and strife, to which he was hunted and executed for. But no more harm would have come to another innocent soul, had due jurisprudence taken place as witnessed by the Martyrs.

That is why the Law is sacred, and not a flimsy thing to be changed on a whim. It also brings to light the most dangerous aspect of a nascent Democracy as we know it.

Indeed, the most dangerous thing about Democracy and elected officials is that the Law can be writ, changed, removed and struck from the record all together all in the same day. There is no committee, there is no 'Godslaw' or 'King's Law' as there used to be, there is only the law of Baz'eel, that hangs above us, and the Ephian Penal Code, that has been altered a number of times that is even difficult to count or record.

That is why I campaigned for it in Iyar (7789), and I have sought those like minded to join me in serving as a Voiced committee in regard to proposals of the Penal Code in Assembly, and shall continue to do so; and if I were to have a Seat as Legate, I would put great expectation upon our sitting Magistrates and expand the legal system as a whole.

It must also be said that while some may attempt to hide from quotes left unsaid, I do not, and I will repeat here in written word that I do not support the Fourth Legion of the Sultan's Janissary acting as sole prosecution in Ephia's Well, and I think that should be the place of lawyers sanctioned by the Adliye of Martyrs. I have seen enough mistakes and gross misconduct of the law to not waver from this belief, and shall continue to champion the law being more firmly in the hands of our very well established Clergy of the Twindari in our dear city.

This city is held upon the shoulders of the Martyrs, and the Brothers bear a shameful frown upon us for our conduct, that we should immediately correct going forward, lest we bring greater Wroth than Urazzir himself upon us for breaking this sacred thing.





Protecting the Citadel - Isolation over Frontier

Unpublished...




Ephia's Well - Sanctuary for All

Unpublished...

Honored Legate Lhyrian,

What are you on about?

Regards,
Edmund

Edmund Lothere will be less active IG for the next week or so as he recovers from a mortal wound inflicted from the battle he attempted to lead. Diplomats do not make good soldiers! It's an excuse for me to invest my usual EFU time into finishing his political treatise so that's what I'll be focusing on until it's complete as that will be his magnus opus and then I can retire in peace or fall on an Orcan spear (joking).

I'll still respond to letters and such though.

[Tammuz the Second]

To the esteemed Officiates of the Ephia's Well Accord,

On Tammuz the Second I intend to rally together what supply and shards we bear to wit and organize a last push upon the Abulmahu. In respect to the Warmaster's directive, I do this not lightly, but with a crisp and crestfallen duty.

We shall need commanders to take the fore, and lead detachments of our soldiery into battle, whereas I shall keep a scanned eye over the battlefield and ensure we have able bodied volunteers to man the cannons. I must admit, I am unsure what to expect.

Write to me, at the post office of the Second Seat, with your intent to be present and lead, and I shall note it down. We must not march unprepared, and I am open to any and all suggestions and word of advice before hand. Let us march to victory, for Ephia's Well. For the fallen.

With regards,

Prelate Edmund Lothere

The Second Seat of the White League

Alexandria,

You are informed of one meeting amongst trusted friends of my suspicions regarding your possible involvement in the assassination of Inanna.

Information I have no doubt that Oswick fed to you in droves, with added details as fits the little Viper. Information I again, am doubtless, that Denain le Jonquille either belayed to you in earnest, or further twisted himself. Knowing the man is honest, I shall say the latter.

Unless the Fourth Legion has come to you directly to speak of an interrogation and what transpired in that dark garrison, you know next to nothing of the truth. You are arrogant, and more often than naught these days, it has begun to bleed into your very being.

That you cannot possibly concept the very notion of your own guilt (even if you are innocent of what I suspect, murder has lived in your mind before) is tangible to this very fact. What I thought to be mistakes I say are now lessons, lessons I shall learn from, but not to your benefit. Not any longer.

We will see how far your ill sought notions of Paradise bring you, and the sole weapon you have relied on since I've known you; countless mountains of beautifully prosed slander. There is not a single idea worthy of our League in that head of yours.

Regardless, soon you shall no longer be Legate, and doubtless you will lose this election. If not defeated by myself in the Primary, then by Lujayn in the General, for it has unraveled quickly that you are little more than a radical that shall do whatever she must to achieve her goals.

The Absolution was a fine prospect, but I do not think they shall ever hear your confession.

A shame.

- Edmund

Dear Alexandria,

Where once we were rather close, it does pain me how distant we have become of late over the whispers of a ruffian, whose sole contribution to your works an eye in the dark.

The same ruffian that cut the cloth of enemies I did not have, concepting conspiracies that did not exist, through the plain manipulation of his words, and the truth.

Drunken stupors are regrettable, but such aside, I have bid no one to consider you a murderer so long as I serve the Living Brother, and I have never dallied from the fact that I have no proof of my suspicions, and so in the place of suspicion, there can only be trust.

You laid before me two paths. Correct my words in public, or not, and see how I might fair in the Primary. Whether that was a threat against my life or not, it matters little. I do not serve you any longer, and so your ultimatum holds no meaning. But on the matter of remaining cordial, and stepping out of your way that shall be a short lived tenure in the grand scheme of our League's future, I offer another path.

I have long since my arrival to the Citadel considered employment with La Banda Rossa, owing to some sense of brotherhood, and the friendship I have built with Luther Donisthrope. They ask for only one last thing, to expedite my recruitment. Your blessings, and referral of my good deed.

You shall not have a public apology for a thing that has not been spoken in public, let alone over the bellows, for to say such would only spread this lie further. But you shall have my assurances, as I have done already, to be silent on the matter and let it die in Gellema's banquet of secrecy and lies.

You remain the sole candidate for our League, and I take a different path, the Lily still close to my heart and my pen not far. To write of my works in peace, in the midst of campaigns, battle and negotiating tables.

With regards,

Your hopeful and regretful friend

Edmund

A now richer vagrant is sent as courier with a simple note, left for the 'Makhyoons' in the Creep.

Keep thy Old Curse from my ear. The Living Brother is who judges.

You and your dogs are but hounds itching for blood, with the pretense of justice.

'Wroth'.

Regards,

Edmund Lothere

Democracy, not Dinarcracy

Here have we demonstrations of a dream that began with Magus Asterabadi, instead of fostering it, instead of expanding it, we have seen its desecration and the advantage taken upon the poorly implemented system of democracy.

Instead of a charter of rights and obligations alike the Noblesse Oblige of auld, a citizen's cloth cuts only as deep, deep as their coin purse or the coin purse of the corrupt lobby that has made of them a debt-slave. A debt that cannot ever be paid, for this debt will grow larger than the shape of a man's footprint, and grow endlessly, like quicksand. It will bury us deep, and we will not escape.

Furthermore in the place of a constitution that speaks aloud the institutions and their duties in our Citadel, we have an agreement on paper but in actuality, a coalition of interests more aligned with their own than the people they deign to protect. We have the Accord. But as some would ever seek to deny this, to oppose the Accord is to oppose the standing harmony of Ephia's Well.

Co-prosperity in Ephia's Well means co-operation between the Leagues and the Accord signatories, each branch of this olive tree representing some core and fundamental part of the city, that without, that in its absence, would lead to its eventual and rapid collapse.

I would quite enjoy the notion of mutual respect between myself and a Purple, or myself and a Gold, but the fact of the matter is, they are cults of personalities and self-interested, hegemony seeking mad men that deal, steal and bring men to heel. One purports a dinarcracy ruled by oligarchs and corruption, the other seeks to make of Ephia's Well their blood-ruled Satrapy, with intervention at every cornerstone so we are reminded daily that we are not free. We are not free.

I myself, I support harmony and democracy. Harmony and democracy, not hegemony and dinarcracy.

I support every Ephian's dream, the dream that anyone from anywhere can call our city home, and thrive. My words can and shall, however, be twisted by those I accuse. For I accuse the would be leaders and officials of these Leagues, not the people within them whom have been misled into believing that the League of White supports and has ever supported tyranny, or that we lack the know-how and integrity to bring this city into the hopeful horizon. The truth is, we are the only League capable of doing so, and yet those who place status quo upon their tongue like it is a pretty word, are pulling the strings. They despise progress, and the League of White is PROGRESS incarnate.

E.L

Following the arrest of former Prelate Edmund Lothere, an unsent letter or two begins to circulate from a public trust. The first is addressed to Apothar Margarethe Eisenberg, the second to himself, entitled 'Democracy, not Dinarcracy'.

Dear Apothar Eisenberg,

I pen this letter with a heavy hand and a heavier mind, for your actions during the election of Iyar 7789 I find deplorable and difficult to justify the sense of in the face of your long standing commitment on paper to our League of White, which therefore brings me to suspect you do not truly hold our tenets to heart.

Often I see, as spoken by Apothar Mae Stern upon my arrival to the Citadel, accusations accosted upon the Balladeers and the Priorty for supposedly exerting no room for independents to breathe in our party, and for manipulating its meetings and tempering in our Primaries, however I must ask you;

Why is it that your fellow Apothars, specifically Estillise Azim, are found to be bragging upon our bellows her very own confession in guilt of tampering in the League of Purple's Primary, and of seating and unseating Achaeus Komemnos, Saenus?

It then seems to me, coupled with what I have now witnessed in this very election, that you, Apothar Eisenberg, alongside your accomplices Mae Stern and Estillise Azimi, of whom claim to be so called members of the League of White, have betrayed us and conspired willingly and openly against your own fellows, and to make matters more vile to write of and ponder, it dawns upon my concerned mind that these turncloak antics are perhaps not the first time, so blatant with thou disregard for the welfare and common interests let alone the common good, and shall not be the last!

So you have placed most nefariously you and yours interest above them, the common interest, and therefore, the common good that we in the League of White stand for so vehemently, because we are proud, and pride in a thing, as passion in a thing, dictates the spirits of man, and his very essence, his emotion, of which if we must make a moral high ground in these bitter politicks, this battlefield, must ever stand by in earnest.

This then leaves me no choice but to now righteously oppose these so called interests of yours as self-interest, and not the interests of the Accord or of Ephia's Well, and to label thee a traitor of the Lily Standard, and to strongly denounce your actions as unpatriotic and a pronounced breaking of the Accord Agreement that your organisation has adhered to in good faith, for in its manyfolded agreement is a shared duty above all to protect and safeguard the Citadel from harm in whatever shape this harm doth take.

Your actions are not for the good of this city, not for the good of its people; they are not for the good of the Accord, nor the good of Q'tolip, therefore you are most assuredly a villain that shall as the Living Brother be my witness, see to it that in this life if not the next, see the scales right, and justice sweetly served onto thee with a silver platter.

May your hopes, dreams and destructive plotting turn to ash upon thy tongue, forked like a serpent's would be.

We will see your removal in one way or another.

Yours truly,

Esquire Edmund Lothere