Kaelin,

History, is at best, a repetition of things gone by and things to come.
And once again, History repeats itself.

Many, many years ago, the Church claimed all of the Landmarks. I walked
the Lands as a Sentinel as that time, and I watched as the Necromancers,
who then resided in Ashtan, were targetted by hordes of traps and dsl's
envenomed with..vardrax. For those of you reading this post and
wondering what exactly Vardrax does, it drains Necromancy. Enraged that
your ability to cheat death (Soulcage) and escape from battle
(Blackwind) was quickly being taken away, the Infernals and the
Occultists became irate and quickly began exterminating the Forests. For
every room exterminated, said Infernals would gain a small amount of
essence. At one point in time, Sartan went as far as to exterminate Lady
Gaia's Grove. Of course, this was answered by the slaying of several of
those involved. But the moral of this little history lesson is this. The
Infernals were without Necromancy, so they resorted to extermination to
regain it.

Move up in history to the present and we have what seems to be a repeat
of this incident. Only this time, instead of whining because you are
being targetted by Vardrax, you blame it on Lady Demeter.

And I quote, "As you have deemed fit to change your rules for
exterminating, without bothering to consult any necromancers in the
land, I hereby remove all guild laws pertaining to forest
extermination."

Lady Demeter changes Her rules and you complain? Are they not Her laws
for Her forests? Or perhaps you believe you can tell a Divinity how they
can run His/Her realm. Perhaps next you will proclaim that Lupus is not
enough of a Hunter, or that Valnurana is not enough of a Dreamer. You
are wrong to think that Lady Demeter should consult _any_ necromancer
before She changes Her laws.

Yes, I do understand that you, as GuildMaster of the Maldaathi, have the
ability to change Guild Policy on a whim. It is perfectly within your
rights to remove guild laws pertaining to the extermination of the
forests. But, as you do with so many things, I think that you have acted
in haste, and that you were personally insulted by Lady Demeter's
actions, and in doing so, decided to allow the extermination of the
forests. But I remind you the consequences of such actions.

1) Forest Enemied. You will be enemied to the Forest, where you get to
deal with the nastiest defenses I have ever seen.
2) An Herb Ban will most likely be imposed upon Mhaldor, not just the
Maldaathi, much like it was imposed upon Ashtan while the Infernals
still resided in the Bastion.
3) Herb prices will skyrocket even more than they are now. Imagine a
newbie having to pay 600 gold for a kola and 200 for a mere ginseng.
Does anyone really want that?
4) Others will stand with the Forests, against Mhaldor and the
Maldaathi, because no fighting class will truly be able to function
without the Druids and the Sentinels and their harvesting abilities.
5) Some people will inevitably sell to the Mhaldorians, only leading to
said person's outguilding, and probably forest enemying.
6) Lady Demeter might get mad one day and decide to strike back for the
actions taken against Her domain. Much like you would attack those that
slander Evil, perhaps the Green Lady will decide to start striking back
against those that harm Her forests.
7) If all of the Mhaldorians end up enemied to the Forest, next
Landmarking season the Church will have one less Landmark to worry
about, because the majority of those that would see the Great Oak become
Thoth's Bough won't make it past the defenses into the Temple of Gaia
where the Tree resides.

Think about it.
Lord Qwilleran D'arvan, Knight of Mnemosyne

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Ero, in the year 321 AF.