The Attrition for The Amber Cold Incident

[MunaZaldrizoti 8037]

 

AN APOLOGY TO THE KOYO-KUNI SHOGUNATE

ISSUED ON

12th of TOV and YERMEY, 590 E.S.

BY
THE HESIR OF KAROSLUND

TO SHUGO ATSUKO & THE PEOPLE OF THE KOYO-KUNI SHOGUNATE,

MY NAME IS MAYA KARENINA BARBANOV-BIHAR, AND I WRITE TO YOU THIS DAY OF A WRONG DONE TO YOUR PEOPLE LONG AGO. It has taken some time and several generations to reach this point, but my house can no longer run from the deeds of my forefather, King Aleksandr II. I thus offer unto you this apology for his actions taken by what was once dubbed the ‘Amber Cold Incident’.

In 574 E.S, on a late evening during the month of the Amber Cold, King Aleksandr II rode out of Valdev with a small party of retainers and sought out a place just north of the kingdom’s capital. There, he met with a party of robed and bearded men seeking to make a trade of valuable artifacts. It was the King’s intention to garner a particular item they kept, to be the prize of an astronomer’s tower they wished to erect at the center of Lake Georg. This meeting, conducted by one named ‘Ugi’ (otherwise coming to be known as the Lich-King Gashadokuro himself in disguise) and a former diplomat of Haense called Lukas Radonovic, ended in the exchange of two relics that included the cursed infernal blade of ‘False Siegmund’, a former enemy of the Haeseni people and attempted conqueror who derived his power from the hells below. In his eagerness to attain what it was they offered, my ancestor willingly and unknowingly forfeited a weapon that would go on to empower the Lich-King Gashadokuro in his assaults upon the lands of the Koyo-Kuni Shugonate, leading to the loss of countless lives and continued bloodshed, leading up to the death of Shugo Uncle-O in an effort to vanquish the lich forever.

King Aleksandr was, firstly, a warrior and conqueror. He had no mind for scholarly pursuits, seeing that exchange as the mere offering of yet another sword that languished in the storied vaults of his own forefathers. He did not serve the Lich-King himself or collude with those others who served him, but did little to make himself more aware of the situation that unfurled over the course of that meeting. I say this not to excuse his actions or the severe lack of inquiries into that blade’s origins when he first called for its retrieval, but to further make plain the negligence by which this series of circumstances unfolded. It was not only a woeful misdeed done unto the people of the Shugonate, but also a betrayal of those Haeseni who had died against the forces of the false Prince of Carrion in the days of Almaris. However revered a ruler might be, that does not excuse them from criticism or fault, even in death.

 

I am but a young woman, unknowing of the greater politics and long-standing grievances that run between many of Humanity’s families and realms. But I might both take pride in my ancestry whilst also being capable of acknowledging when a grievous wrong has been done and long since been left to fester into animosity. The House of Barbanov-Bihar has carried the bloodied stains of this incident and what came to be thereafter for nearly a century. As I am named ‘Matriarch’ by my father’s own word, it falls to me and becomes my responsibility to seek the cleansing of those stains and seek a path forward. I will meet this issue head-on, where many before me could not.
 

 

I, MAYA KARENINA BARBANOV-BIHAR, do admit with a contrite heart that the line of Barbanov-Bihar must and will take upon responsibility for the actions of the late King Aleksandr II of Hanseti-Ruska. For his lack of care and awareness in his trading of dangerous weaponry and the outcome it wrought upon the people of the Koyo-Kuni Shogunate, I apologize to you on his behalf. Whilst I cannot undo what has been done, I pray to GODAN himself that you shall see this writ as forthright and true, for it is penned by an honest hand of one who seeks no further quarrel with you and your people. 

 

Our present continent is plagued by yet another evil that threatens both our existence and the people we so care for. I hope, with this deed done, we might once more raise our blades side by side without further animosity.
 

HEZYR I, Maya Karenina Barbanov-Bihar
Hesir of Karoslund, Matriarch of House Barbanov-Bihar

[Venomous_Pup 2978]

Music

The Witch's eyes burn with chaos; she remembered well that terrible blade, was it him she saw when she laid eyes upon that blade? The battle to be that occurred long before her arrival, while she indulged in the treasures of the cosmos, lost in the vastness, to escape a terrible pain.

The very same gift the King traded for.. 
 

It's all coming back.. Her memories, her hatred, her longings.

"Chaos is the seed of Balance."
"Balance is the tree that bears Chaos."
"Actions and consequences."
"One and the same, one and the same."

She almost recites in a flurry, a painful insight.
Then she remembers, it was for her, for the vision she sought for her people, now long dead or scattered. If it weren't for him.
Then she remembers, violently being ripped from the ground and beaten, inflicted with a burning pain. If it weren't for him.
Then she remembers, countless seconds, deprived of her dreams, and equally countless clay dolls crafted in stead of dreaming. If it were for him.

The sounds of wood being shattered echoed in the cave, and frustration boiled. Before an amused huff escapes her lungs. It hardly mattered now, a vision so big was before her, unshackled by those who would not help her secure the future. She remembers the lessons imparted by the Red Lich, his hatred inflicted upon the world. His name, never forgotten.

[HugoAntero 1962]

Botsugo, an old oni of Sakuragakure, coped and seethed at the missive which he showed his nephew Ichiro, a fellow samurai- pointing a fat finger towards the word SHOGUNATE. @Benleft

"Yasu-Tori noobed out, buddy."