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A public missive: contemplations of Imperium and War
9th of Aurelian’s Glory, 637
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Death claimed my mother early into my life. The Empress-Consort Circe Horen, remembered so vividly in my mind for the love which emanated from her as naturally as she breathed. You, my reader, perhaps will recall her. Perhaps it is a memory buried and nestled uncomfortably in your mind, as a memory of an Imperial who spoke only from a kindness now scarcely attributed to our names. For myself, it is a memory of my mother – a memory of, when all things otherwise find themselves disturbed in uncertainty, how I truly know myself at its beginnings.
I wondered, as our Imperium finds itself upon the precipice of expansion, how she might feel. We find ourselves before the turning point of history, as armies gather united against our treacherous foes – and we might feel, at every coming sunrise, the bitter kiss of steel and stench of blood for every stand we take united. It is an honourable thing to serve in your Imperium, to protect a legacy that has not been seen since the ages of our forebearers; but then, as well, it is a heavy thing to defend and bear the burden of violence upon ourselves. For in our Earthly Kingdoms we remain beneath the auspice of our Lord, and war makes heavy upon our souls. So when it is that I see my brother return from battle, and his face is parched of youth, I think again; “what would my mother say?”
If she had lived, she would see upon our horizon the Imperium we have made, and how far we have come together. She will see that humanity sees itself settled firmly in the unity of our Imperium, that houses lost to time have found themselves rooted, a common banner stands amongst us, and we are kin again. Lorraine, I would have urged her to visit, and the warmth of the hearth it has rekindled. Tarnavon, as I would lead her down the river, where the remnants of old foes now found themselves settled with new-found love in marriage. Idunia, perhaps if our journey would go so far, where the one she would have known only as a boy in his youth, ascended so far as its High King. Therefore if she had lived till now, we would have found ourselves beneath the summer sun again, gladdened by the legacy of an Imperium that would have found itself absent if not for the deeds of a collective, greater humanity.
But her gesturing finger would have raised further than our borders,where our foes gather and lurk, and pry at the weaknesses of our fortitude. She would see those who would reject this Imperium, those who would flee and those we call other. I would tell her, they will be our foes in this war, and we will see them behind iron shields or walls of stone; in blood and viscera, or enlocked in chains. But she would urge me, you, to look again, closer still, and see them beneath the iron and themselves laid bare. Through our eyes, which we share as inherited gifts from the Lord, and see untowards their redeemable souls.
So as I sit here lost in my memory, and you find my writing upon this missive, I daresay that she might bid mercy. My father loved her for her compassion and heart, and she spoke to us these lessons under oaken leaves hiding glimpses of sunlight. Her hair vibrant beneath afternoon suns, so vivid that in my youth I thought it comparable to gold itself. Joan, she had bade me: It’ll be a troublesome thing, to let yourself feel. It will hurt to hope, and more so to open your heart to it. But you must promise me something – you must never stop daring to. It will be our promise alone. Yet it is my hope that in my sharing of this, this promise will not stay ours alone.
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Ser Misha, the Watcher
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Mercy is an easy thing to miss in this time of strife, a small action that might otherwise be deemed unnecessary or unearned. Heed ourselves to my newly found friend, the newly Knighted Ser Misha, the Watcher. On the eve of my return from Idunia, a snow elven traitor was brought to execution within our lands. At its completion, it was a simple thing to burn the dead as our customs dictate. The head was to be piked as example. Yet, on this eve, he pleaded mercy for the traitor’s corpse. There is a custom, he begged, for those of his ancestry. His remembrance of customs for even the traitorous dead, that bid my hand to stay. At his urging, I asked for the return of the elf’s corpse, the head included, and he laid it to rest in burial; a return proper of his own, at no benefit to himself. Ser Misha, who asked only for a simple grace, for a stranger he knew nothing of and undeserved.
Hence, again we stand at the precipice of a march. Abide by your Emperor, abide by your oaths; it is a dignified thing to pursue a legacy of man, and find the light of the Lord banishing the darkness of these lands. The soldiers of this Imperium are a testament to a legacy that has not seen itself returned for many-a years until our forefathers found themselves victorious. Yet I beseech you at this precipice to, as well, heed the words of my mother, an echo of all mothers. Pursue this war with the burden of merciful justice in our minds, and the daring to hope for the redeeming of our foes. That we might meet them upon the battlefield in the inevitability of our victories, but greet them thereafter with the conscience to handle our laws mercifully and kindly. Wherefore we may leave this time of war better than we had begun — not merely triumphant, but justly kind.
Let us, when drums fall silent and our banners place to rest, say we had not surrendered our souls in exchange for conquest. Peace will return, it is a bud which grows and will find itself in splendour with each rising sun: so wherefore we are triumphant in battle, let us not raze this bud of peace. Let us remain unyielding in our duty to this Imperium, but humble still in the judgement which comes thereafter. The hand of mercy is a generous one, and we may impart it even when it is not given in kind. Stay your hand, not at my command but upon the command of virtue.Victory is assured in our unity, but the measure of our souls remains in the keeping of our deeds alone.
Joan Mariana Horen,
Imperial Princess of Man
Daughter of Circe and Tiberias Horen
Proofread by Mayelasiol Aen Tarem (Thank you Johann for proofreading for me)
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A Private letter is penned to Johannes Horen, alongside a copy of the missive.