Although I can not speak for war, chaos or evil, Brinn, I would like to
take a second to debate with you about what you consider to be the true
form of Darkness and the knowledge we seek. I would also like to talk to
you about what you consider to be a democracy, and the parts of such a
system.

Does Darkness seek knowledge, yes. Does it share within itself that
knowledge, yes. However, how is that different from the Occultists
keeping their spells and rituals to themselves or the Jesters keeping
the ingredients to their graffiti secret? How is that any different from
Lord Pentharian's order sharing it's knowledge of light and good amongst
it's order members, or those of the serpant class from keeping their
ways in the shadows hidden? All guilds, all orders, all walks of life
have ideals and knowledge that are only shared with those that have been
made aware of it's existance. If someone came to you before a fight and
asked what all venoms you have on your longswords, you would make your
own decision whether or not to give that information out and judge the
person dependant on your own ideals. If it were an ally, you would share
for they could use the information... An enemy would probably only find
out as you ripped into him with said swords. Knowledge, whether passed
from a Diety to a mortal, from a guild master to a novice, or from
friend to friend is only done when one acknowledges the other as worthy
of said information.

Darkness only seeks to find information out about the world, trying to
understand the multiverse in a better way. All are open to try to
understand that with us, but we do keep our information to ourselves.
That's not a secret. You point out a flaw hoping to make it sound like
every other group of people in the world doesn't already suffer from it
as well.

As far as your views on democracy, you're wrong. It is up to the leaders
in a democracy to come together to watch out for the masses. If everyone
got a chance to be king, nothing would be done. If you were to become
the leader of your city tomorrow, Brinn, you would not only have to look
out for your higher ranking city offcials, or the smaller citizens in
your city, but also (and above all else) the smallest of the little
people. Hakhim has just as much voice in the city as anyone else, but he
chooses not to use it. Try to have a conversation with him. He does not
have the intelligence or the enlightenment to even recover from the
shock of losing his arm, even many years into the future. Hakhim does
not have the mental aptitude nor the ambition or knowledge to do
something like running for a city official position, but that doesn't
make Shallam any less a democracy. The elite, the enlightened, the
intelligent and knowledgeable ALWAYS run the city. You and I are the
elite, Brinn. Those in your guild who take the highest stances, those
are the elite. Everyone who reads this message in the insistance that
they learn what is going on in the world is elite. Hakhim is a citizen,
yes, but will never reach the same point as us. To say that only in
Darkness are the elite enlightened is again a falacy. In all the world,
-only- the elite are enlightened and knowledgeable... just some more
than others.

But let us not dwell there. We, Darkness, are not evil. We are not
subversive as most would say, although secretive as all are. We are
knowledge seekers, gatherers. With knowledge comes power. We would offer
some of that to Cyrene if it would open it's gates to us as citizens.
The forests and ourselves are working together even now to try to ease
problems inside of those forests, to use the knowledge we have to stop
great damage to it. We only offer what we can, and do not wish to see
any harm brought upon others.

Hesitance is understandable and expected. It would be foolish to let in
that which you do not understand but we mean no harm and only offer
friendship and help in the pursuit of knowledge and power. Cyrene, let
us come together and build something great. We offer our friendship with
open arms.

Sincerely, with faith in the notion that all minds can change,
Rangon

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Lupar, in the year 320 AF.