To My Brother

[_Stigwig 1510]

TO MY BROTHER

 

Joey the Pretender’s army cornered and butchered during the Siege of Helena, c.1716

 

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“They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but not when your soldiery are solely comprised of scribes” - Charles Elliot to Francis the Unfortunate before his execution in 1666.

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Dearest brother, Alexander, who takes the name of our own shared father. I write to you with a please and request which you should not find too onerous, a request agreed upon by all the signatories underneath this letter I have penned. It has come to the attention of the assembled patriarchs of the houses of Dragonsblood that in the list of titles your courtiers attribute to you in the various letters published under your seal you list the title of King in Renatus.

 

Knowing you to be, by the letters I have shared with my father over the years, to be a loyal, well-intentioned, kind-hearted and intelligent young boy I am sure that I do not need to bring attention to the fact that the titles of Renatus were dissolved by the late Godfrey Remus and not claimed by your predecessors as Emperor following his reign. I hope that its inclusion is merely an oversight by an overzealous courtier who desires to see your prestige grow and is not aware of the history of such a particular title.

 

As veterans, and descendants of veterans, of the various Renatian conflicts, not least the painful and destructive War of the Two Emperors which divided this realm for so long, we have no desire to see the Renatian title resurrected. It was a title for a militant, war-like Kingdom. To adopt it is to encourage claimants and a legacy of destruction, and to insult the memory of both our dearest cousin Godfrey and the founders of the great nation who desired to dissolve it.

 

We therefore forward our humble request: recognise the dissolution of the title and instruct your courtiers to remove it from your Imperial signature.

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HIS GRACE, John Alexander Alstion, Patriarch of the House of Alstion

 

HIS MAJESTY, Tibor I, Patriarch of the House of Tiborovic

 

HIS LORDSHIP, Persus Helane, Patriarch of the House of Helane

 

HIS LORDSHIP, Lucian Renault, Patriarch of House Renault 

 

 HIS LORDSHIP, Paul John Victor Varoche, Patriarch of House Varoche

 

HER LADYSHIP, Laurentina Julia Cascadia, Matriarch of House Cascadia

 

SIR, Titus Tiber, Patriarch of the House of Tiber
 

[Tapman 6]

Adrian of Adria reclined in his seat, squinting profusely over the candle-lit text. “Eh,” he’d exclaim, tossing it on his desk as he went for another puff of the pipe.