Missive from the Duke

[rukio 8924]

Spoiler

 

 

 

Godric’s Response

Issued Winter 1743

 

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To the Duke of Helena,

 

        It is always a pleasure to receive letters from the learned folk of the Heartland. It reminds me of the intense and irreconcilable differences between our two peoples. In the future I would very much appreciate if the unnecessary titleage and praise were dropped from your addresses. The man makes the title, the title does not make the man, so to speak. I am Godric, first and last. There is no need for ‘noblest sirs’ as I am not a woman in need of courting. I understand this is your southern custom but my first name will suffice in the future.

 

        It is good to hear that you are learning of the War of Two Emperors. No doubt you will recall the oceans of blood my family spilled securing the border of your own realm. How we lost not one but two of our chieftains. How countless of our folk burnt and died on the wretched fields bordering the Ruber. How many died with the names of their loved ones on their lips, as they defended Helena from usurpacious invaders? Yet we persevered. Such has been the way of our family in all things. The great war was perhaps the single greatest cataclysm of human suffering in the recorded history of mankind, ignited by two Horens vying for the crown. 

 

        Goodman, to suffer is to live. To breathe the cold morn air, to take a woman, to enjoy a fire in winter. These are all meaningless without suffering. You cite the suffering of those youth performing their duties. Where you see a tragedy, I see a mercy. I know countless venerable warriors of my realm beg me with both hands to let them take to the front one last time. That they may die doing their duty rather than withering away as cripples in the poor house. I have held the hands of dying mothers, sobbing their last in fear that they would lose the child before they expired. To die in duty is not a tragedy, it is the expectation. I will shed no tears nor offer praise for the youth you speak of, dying in duty. What they have done warrants neither praise nor criticism. They have done what was expected of them until death took them. Those of them who fled duty as you describe will receive naught but disdain from me.

 

        But I digress. Let us speak rather of ‘total war’. Goodman, do you recall my missive titled ‘To Heartland Crowns’ wherein I explicitly stated that should my surrender terms be declined I would be offering no further quarter. What ‘good will’ or ‘regard’ am I to hold for humanity Goodman? Surely you jest. Am I not the barbarian lord of the barbarian lineage? Where was this good will and regard when Seahelm burned? When its people were put to the sword? Imperials are so quick to speak of justice and right. Yet when has it ever been offered? 

 

        As for the innocence of these women? You speak to me of the innocence and neutrality of them. They are the future of the line. From them shall spring the resentful young princes who will no doubt aspire to topple me in my ‘tyranny’. They will spend their days telling their spawn of the vicious evils of Godric, The Northern Barbarian who began wars on a whim and devoured children with his pointed teeth. This is her crime. She opposed me and was defeated. Why should I allow a future font of challengers and foes to live? Goodman, you speak of lacking the ‘legitimacy and sovereign power’. If you have not realized: My men are very angry and wield very large swords. Your stacks of paper and fanciful words are meaningless here. The head of your Empress shall roll. Her complicity in the offences of Peter and the future offences of her son suffice for her conviction and subsequent execution. I feel that you southern lords still fail to recognize my position. Your laws do not exist. Your rights do not exist. Your ‘justice’ does not exist as you cannot enforce it. There is only the word of the divine and the right of each of us to struggle. 

 

        However, I am a merciful man. I myself have recently been deprived of my own wife. Knowing the mental capacity of Peter, a man whose brains I personally rattled with the heel of my boot. I will not deny him the opportunity to regain his dearest nursemaid, though with his treatment at my hand, or rather at my boot, he must certainly be incapable. Should these terms in their entirety to the letter be satisfied, I shall have the Queen of Helena released: 

 

I. Ester of Curon shall be delivered to Rubern in chains

II. A sum of Ten Thousand Minas shall be delivered to Rubern

III. The Kingdom of Helena and all of its associated realms will cut all associations with Ruswick, Reivers, Blackhill bandits, or any future subsidiaries etcetera ad nauseum.

III. The Kingdom of Helena and all of its associated realms will forego all associations with Ruswick, Reivers, Blackhill, and further any descendent successionary groups that act in an analogous military capacity to these named.

IV. A chess match with my esteemed friend Veikko H-

 

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Writ en Namen De

-Godric,

[ferdaboy 3488]

Kenswey smiles.

[FlemishSupremacy 6115]

6 minutes ago, rukio said:

My men are very angry and wield very large swords

Flemius is angry, and grips for his very large sword to bring battle to the Orenians!

[LithiumSedai 5750]

“I am very angry and I wield a very large sword,” declared the Waldenian blademaster of renown known as Corwin Freiherr von Alstreim, lifting upwards his massive Zweihänder in support of the Herzog. Perhaps the puppet-Kaiserin would meet her end by that blade, much alike many other enemies of Renatia.

[DylanDeNewb 161]

*Faye looks at the paper and blinks*

[sergisala 3451]

The Duke of Westmark would be eager to see Ester of Curon in chains “Another good demand from the good Duke of Morsgrad” he’d comment

[ReveredOwl 5639]

22 minutes ago, rukio said:

The head of your Empress shall roll. Her complicity in the offences of Peter and the future offences of her son suffice for her conviction and subsequent execution.

“So then what is the point of a trial if you’ve already got a verdict?” asked Boniface.

[winterblood 11181]

”It’s always the most bitter of men,” Arianne Renée thought to herself, releasing a huff as she jabbed and swung at a poor hedge with a wooden blade.  ”Perhaps a monster truly does lurk inside us all, and the Poor Duke lost the battle with his.”  The young girl grunted, sending another thrust toward the bush before swiftly stepping back; as if she were avoiding some imaginative attack produced by the battered shrub.  She took up her stance again, sizing up the hedge once more.  “May GOD bring him solace, and may GOD save the Empress.” Ari muttered between breaths, resuming her training. 

[Axelu 4333]

 Milena of Adria says nothing from above, merely enjoying a beverage alongside Mariya Barbanov and Adeline Horen. ”Tea,” She’d comment with a resolute nod, resuming her golfing in the Seven. Somehow, Charles Elliot wormed his way in there too.

[frill 2277]

Veikko Harjalainen drops his biscuit into his cup of tea in shock.

[Cobbler 809]

Tovelm, now after three years of schooling had learned to read, and after reading the missive felt his pride roar within him. Sitting from his room in Moresgrad, the giant would sharpen his blade and whisper himself a northern tune of the battles to come and smile, writing out a poem to himself on the scraps of paper he had throughout his room.

 

We fought with swords,
before the All-Father.
We held bloody shields:
we stained our spears.
Showers of arrows brake the shield in pieces.
The bow sent forth the glittering steel.
Some may fall in the conflict,
from which there was not a greater cause.
Wide on the shores lay the scattered dead:
the wolves rejoiced over their prey.

 

[trinn 5146]

24 minutes ago, Axelu said:

 Milena of Adria says nothing from above, merely enjoying a beverage alongside Mariya Barbanov and Adeline Horen. ”Tea,” She’d comment with a resolute nod, resuming her golfing in the Seven. Somehow, Charles Elliot wormed his way in there too.

 

 

 

Adeline Alstion Golfing with her Pals in the Seven Skies, sporadically watching the living with a minuscule amount of entertainment.

[colovian fur 8360]

1 hour ago, UnBaed said:

”It’s always the most bitter of men,” Arianne Renée thought to herself, releasing a huff as she jabbed and swung at a poor hedge with a wooden blade.  ”Perhaps a monster truly does lurk inside us all, and the Poor Duke lost the battle with his.”  The young girl grunted, sending another thrust toward the bush before swiftly stepping back; as if she were avoiding some imaginative attack produced by the battered shrub.  She took up her stance again, sizing up the hedge once more.  “May GOD bring him solace, and may GOD save the Empress.” Ari muttered between breaths, resuming her training. 

Thomas Talbot grunts in audible PAIN as he is whacked with the wooden blade, for he was hiding in the bush

 

 

[Juststan147 277]

“We are not giving up milady Ester without a fight!” Lord Rickard would say training his newly found defence force for the encounters to come

[Laeonathan 5890]

“Wads up with da ‘uman always feitin’ each odda... dat ewwa gonna end? Bein’ friends with ya own kin ‘s not dat ‘ard!” a Dwarf who made the dire mistake of leaving his cave would say “Only war up ‘ere aye. Da tall folk should learn ta live ‘n peace...”