First of all, in response to Greywolf, I did have concerns
about these issues, and while I didn't speak with a vizier
or your Minister of Security, I most certainly did speak
personally with your Sultan about the issues at hand, and
it was a result of my dissatisfaction with the end result
of that conversation that Public 10118 came to be. Other
issues you brought up will be resolved in my rebuttals of
Solar's post, which is to follow.

"The person I first wish to address is Reznik. What Reznik
says is true, he and his comrades did come into Shallam, they
did "peacefully praise Eris" (although how peaceful it was is
a matter of opinion), they were asked to desist, one them was
enemied and one of them did die as a result. Reznik himself
was not enemied. His posting small parts of my conversation with
with him and the rhetoric which follows seems disingenuous to me,
but people can decide that for themselves."

If you're going to accuse me of taking your words out of
context, Solar, please do so openly. I presented the parts of
our conversation that were not merely trite pleasantries, and
were instead issues that I found to be of concern. If you
think that I unfairly twisted what you said to make you look
bad, say so. I would also like to hear how anything we did
while in Shallam could be considered violent.

"I regret that Belarius died. As I said in my conversation with
Reznik, I would would have preferred to speak with him myself,
and did in fact travel to Fish Street for that purpose. By
the time I arrived, a Shallam vizier decided that there was
sufficient reason to enemy him, and the ensuing mayhem (guards
running around all over the place) made any form of conversation
pretty much impossible. Greywolf's assessment of what happened
is essentially correct (See public 10121). While spurious
enemying occasionally does happen in any city (I myself was once
enemied to Ashtan for buying buckets there during landmarking season,
in the city of freedom that allows its citizens to sanctify or
defile as they see fit!) this was *not* the case with Belarius.
It happened more quickly than I would have liked, and perhaps
could have been avoided had we had a chance to talk, but it was
entirely justified. (Interested parties can refer to sections
VIII and XV of the Laws of Shallam.)"

Belarius yelled his last mere moments after it was declared that
to continue would mean we would be enemied. Additionally, I
fail to see in any way the relevance of those sections of the
Shallamese Constitution - Section VIII of the Laws deals with
the consequences of a broken treaty, which, to my knowledge,
is not in any way applicable to this situation, and Section XV,
which deals with special circumstances not spefically mentioned
elsewhere. That is indeed the type of situation in question.
However, Section XV also says that those special circumstances
are to be handled through a citizen appeal to the Council, who
will then call for witnesses and evidence before returning a
decision. I am very, very impressed with the speed of your
bureaucracy if you are capable of receiving a filed report,
scheduling a meeting, reviewing evidence, talking to key
witnesses, and reaching a decision all during the four or so
minutes we spent in Shallam.

Next, I'd like to call attention to the Shallamese Code of Honor,
violated quite flagrantly that day:

"Dignity
I. We will present ourselves in a mature and respectful manner
in the presence of others, especially guests and enemies. This
includes public channels and the channels of clans set up for
the Shallamese Ministries."

I'm sorry, but I fail to see slaughtering someone for
presenting views differing from yours as mature and respectful.
Additionally, I find the way in which he was killed to be
highly abusive with respect to PK Rule #4 (help pk). He
was told very shortly before he was enemied of that
possibility, and was given no time to leave the city before
said decision was enforced. And if Brinn did not enemy
us for what we were saying, I'd like to know what exactly
we were enemied for, if not for being "offensive".

"III. Honor
We will not attack or act aggressively towards others
unless we are provoked by physical or mental attack, ordered
to combat by our ranking superiors, defending the life of an
innocent, seeking righteous retribution from one who is
exiled from our city, or involved in openly-declared warfare."

Again, while I'm told that Eris' teachings are offensive to
residents of Shallam, I don't think that praising Her
constitutes provocation "by physical or mental attack", and
yet you slew a man. He didn't fight back, and you didn't
even bother to do it yourselves - you called the guards on him.
Magnificent. Not your fault at all, and neither your or
Brinn are in any way to blame, of course.

The next portion of Solar's post critiques my techniques as a
speaker. What do you do when you begin a public speech?
You have to energize your audience. I apologize for not
being more substantive, but I usually get to meatier topics
after a warm-up, and I was cut a bit short.

As far as your views on some of the Gods mentioned and what
they represent.. it would seem that two of the Gods
in question have made statements of Their own on the matter.
Therefore, unless you have other questions for me personally
on that, I will let it go with the suggestion that you at
least act as if you are neutral to those Gods you disagree
with, and not as if you would find it to be "offensive" to
your citizens if They were to set foot in your fair city.

-Reznik

Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Aeguary, in the year 317 AF.