Director Jems Aristata,

It is always a curious thing, watching Mhaldor speak of strength as though it were a singular blade, swung only one way. You speak of pain, of discipline, of the crucible that refines flesh and spirit into something greater. In this, I do not wholly disagree. Pain reveals. Struggle unveils. These are truths the Sea has long whispered to those willing to drown in it.

But where you find strength through degradation, we find it through depth. Where your fortress raises walls, we embrace the tide, for there is no battlement that can bar the ocean and no ideology that can escape erosion when the flood comes.

You say Mhaldor does not care for souls. But if you do not care for what moves a being beyond bone and sinew, you forge tools, not people. We do not discard the soul in pursuit of strength - we temper it, let it swell with unrelenting tide and swell.

You invoke war, as if it is the only measure of truth. Yet we know that not all conquest is made by sword. Some is made by undertow, by vast, silent shifts beneath the surface that swallow nations whole before they realise they've been claimed.

And so, let us speak as those who walk difficult paths. But never confuse hardship with holiness. There is a difference between enduring the abyss and becoming part of it.

P.S.

A single point, left to drift where all may see it: the title God Emperor is not to be worn lightly. It does not belong to one who dictates atop a throne of torment. It belongs to the Sea.

Lord Neraeos is the true God Emperor. The Sea does not ask for chains, only surrender. And once you do - truly - you will find that what you thought was drowninga was breathing, for the very first time.

Signed,
Radakail

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Miraman, in the year 976 AF.