It was meant for you, Jaxrilan. It was you who brought up peace and
love--embracing it and inferring that only Antioch understands and
accepts love. Perhaps you have not spent a day in Celidon or
Kinsarmar--there seems to be plenty of love there.

I was once Antiochan, Jaxrilan. I once stood in the walls of the Holy
City as demoners picked off citizen after citizen. I attempted to
organize those that follow your Lady with little success. There was
little they could do. You may say that you wish to heal rather than hurt
but those of Peace could not even heal. You say that you wish to talk
rather than fight and yet you stumble over your own words. How will you
accomplish anything when you fail to do the two things you state you do
instead of fight? Your city decides it values a dragonfly over a
competent fighter. Perhaps such a dragonfly is a symbol of your Lady, a
gift from Her--but what is it that She does for you? She does not raise
a hand to save your city from burning when the magickers come to play in
what they refer to as the 'Sand Box'. It is the warriors that raise
their maces, blades, and fists to defend the Holy City and drive them
from your lands. It is not the Goddess that promotes peace.

Nowhere in my post to you did I state that my personal belief supports
the idea that pacifism is equivalent to cowardice. I did not state that
you do not have the decision to serve the Lord or Lady that you do and
to follow the tenets of your respective Divine. It is your childish
notion that love will command us and is a powerful force that will
conquer all. You, yourself, said that we cannot escape it.

The principles that you follow do not coincide appropriately with the
values of the Pines. Such is the simple statement I wished to make
regarding your Lady's ban within Ithaqua, but perhaps that was not
clear. It is not a matter of bravery or defending my beliefs to you,
Shallite. It is a matter of enlightening the unenlightened and naive.
Perhaps you will learn from my words, for this is the last you will hear
from me on this subject through the public news.

- Alesud al-Hamasa


Penned by my hand on the 20th of Artificium, in the year 578 AD.