To the Duke | An open letter

[FlemishSupremacy 6115]

[!] A letter was distributed to the Veletzian towns, and to various other hubs of the Covenant. It bore no insignia or heraldic marks, merely a signature at the bottom.

 

To the Duke of Adria, Markus Sarkozic

Once, long ago, I walked into a church just in time to overhear you speak ill of my kin. At the time, this was an understandable sentiment, as my kin who had migrated to Adria had committed horrible acts in furtherance of your war of rebellion. You were quick to denounce them, and in doing so, bought your state a way back into the Canonist fold.

 

Today, you find yourself fighting alongside men committing the same acts for which you condemned my kin all those years ago. Bandits, robbers, church burners. Men who kill innocents, kidnap pregnant women and harass their own allies to get concessions. You do not disavow them like you did my family back then. I wonder if all those years back, I listened to the words of a man truly meaning his repentance and now made a hypocrite by circumstances? Or was this the work of a shrewd negotiator and diplomat, who’s only care for words is the advantage they might bring?

 

We now find ourselves in a similar position, with Veletz, or Adria, facing a Canondom united in its desire to see your state wiped away for its transgressions. You are once again called to try and mediate a way out of this predicament. But what is the point of a peace agreement with one who does not stick to their agreements? What has changed since then? How can one trust the promises of a nation who have betrayed every agreement they’ve ever made? 

 

Thus I turn to you and ask you this; are you truly repentant? If so, are you willing to disband the state which has brought with it so much strife? Are you willing to cast the power that was used to bring harm to the rest of Canondom away? Can you truly consider yourself worthy to rule, after you participated in the crimes of Veletz? Do you and your fellow midlanders consider that you still have any right to the lands that have fueled villainy? 

 

I believe I speak for many that should you want peace at this eleventh hour, you must be willing to truly right the wrongs perpetrated by you and yours. It will not suffice to scapegoat Ser Gaspard, or on those who have perished in the conflict, or on others, who may be fleeing the consequences of their actions. All of the Veletzian nobility is in equal part guilty of supporting and partaking in the atrocities that occurred in the past years and decades. If you want peace, there must be justice for the crimes committed. 

Justice is not negotiated. Justice is served, and one can only submit to it. You wish to reconcile with the other Canonist nations surrounding you? Submit to them, fully, and let them pass judgment.

Signed, 
Cassius von Draco
 

[Crymson 535]

Hali nodded firmly. “I do not know this Cassius but he is a bold man to state what no leader has dared state thus far. The Midlanders have no right to dictate their own terms.”

Edited January 23, 2024 by Crymson

[Shmeepicus 4215]

"If the Covenant agrees to this summit- the terms shall be dictated by the Victors." Percy de Lyons commented, nodding in agreement with the letter. "Should the terms not be amicable- then Winburgh shall burn, like the Petran monastery, like the throne of Cloudbreaker- and only its ashes shall sing of peace across Aevos."

[Nooblius 7965]

The Duke of Adria read over the letter. He had a knee-jerk reaction, of course. How dare they question my intentions? Was having your world peace ruined by others so terrible a crime? But deep down, a special grace guided Markus' heart to know things are never so simple. He knew the shame and guilt that things had progressed to the point he told his own squire to abdicate. Markus knew his own inaction in the aftermath of Johanes' reign was to blame. And so he endeavored to take ownership, and he began to write a reply.

 

Cassius von Draco,

 

I remember you. How could I forget? There were not many sons of that house upon Aevos, yet one of the few walked in the door just as I was speaking of their crimes within Adria to the High Pontiff. The conversation you refer to with his holiness Sixtus V was perhaps one of the most important ones I have had in my life. The declaration I wrote afterwards was then also dubbed 'The Reconciliation of Adria'.

 

You are right (for the most part, anyways). I take great shame in having allowed the diplomacy of the Midland Realm of which I was a founding member turn into what it has. I look back in hindsight, and think of the times I could have asserted myself to take command before aggression even happened. But it did happen, and when it did it quickly escalated. We were once again engulfed in a grand war, and this time with twice the enemies we had before.

 

But am I a Hypocrite? I think not. I have not encouraged the wrongdoings within the midlands, but have instead made my mission their wholehearted rectifying. They are disavowed now as they were then, and anyone who has spoken to me throughout the war either within the midlands or abroad can attest to this. 

 

At every turn, I advocated restraint and reconciliation, and it did not fall on deaf ears. The pontiff has attested publicly to this before, that I had sworn myself to his aid several times. All who have witnessed my conduct whilst in captivity can attest that my only demand was that they must genuinely advocate for resolution (terms or not) and I would back their life to the hilt. I do not know looking back what would have been better to do, except that which I have now done.

 

Perhaps it would just be better to go to exile. But if I believe if you genuinely look to the people of Veletz, you will not find a godless people but a zealous folk. Crimes have been committed, but they are not unpunished. Gustaf Otto, the one who burned the church in Petra, was ordered to turn himself into the Church but thereafter died during the Siege of Brasca. His debt has been assumed by Adria, and I shall see it made right. Those terrible acts of war that have occurred do not come in glee, but out of fear. A war is declared with the stated goal of our total death. There is no declaration to have the princes of the coalition preside over a tribunal; only demands of absolute death. What man shall accept this surrender? Would it truly be better to die than to make right your wrongs against the graces of GODANISTAN? Do we exalt Gustaf Otto the churchburner for dying during the siege? Or would it not have been better that he stand to face his crimes?

 

I submit myself and my office to justice. I do not pretend to know what terms such shall mean. But I shall always refuse total death and destruction as a means of peace. That is no surrender, that is a slaughter. I shall never accept those who seek to exalt their own vices in the punishment of others'. This behavior shall not yield honor but instead bitterness that shall be used to cause the ruin of nations. My mind goes to warnings of Auspice, which speak of how Kings, Priests and Nobility are used as tools of evil. I am confident that should a peace summit be held, the right solution shall emerge from those gathered so long as they are allowed a tongue to speak. 

 

And it because of these things, not despite them, that Gaspard relinquished his regime to me. He knows that the current situation has not developed to the interests of the midlands, and he loves his people. He wants them to be united with Canondom, and to live flourishing lives. His aggression was a vice, and it shall be punished by the Holy Church (and the state too no doubt shall inherit punishments). But his love was a virtue, and it would be better for us all if that virtue would triumph.

 

Markus Sarkozic

[thesmellypocket 1859]

Offa, still staying at the monastery in Petra, found comfort in the Venerable Cardinal Boniface's Thesis on War and Mercy. 

 

"Boniface sought peace, not necessarily for the sake of the wrongdoers themselves, but for the sake of all the ordinary innocent people caught in the matter. For while it is a legitimate good to dethrone the wicked, there are also those bound by ties of nationality, fealty and family to fight alongside or under evil men, who must needs also be swept under. Thus good men seek peace for their sake. Ultimately many thousands of innocents die in war, and its continuation only in the rarest instance can be accounted an evil worth suffering in proportion to any good attained.

 

P.S. My writing in standard Common seems to be improving.

 

P.P.S. I apologise for not following on into your service as I desired. I am currently at the monastery since I was recently baptised and seeking to learn more about Canonism. Please keep me in your prayers."

 

He writes (in his best formal, non-Churlish Common) to his friend Walter Weiss. @SethWolf