,*doff*

Greetings Sapience. I think I've been a very good boy so far, keeping
all my opinions on all the grand conflicts that took place here to
myself. But when a chance like THIS comes up, how can I resist?

Before we begin, I will point out that HA! I am, in fact, Callianessa's
brother. While this should, by Llew's theory, make me "her favorite" and
hence always listened to, I can state with great confidence that our
relationship is one of great volume, with much shouting, anger, and
ignoring from both parties.

Llew spoke of his grand history with this School of Jestering, but it is
just that, history. Nine years ago, Llewellyn decided that he could not
carry on as an effective guild master to us, so he stepped down. At the
time I was an impressionable young Mime, who could only gaze up in awe
and wonder at Llewellyn's stoic bigness. I say stoic because he never
spoke more then two words to me. He was a terribly busy man after all,
what with his responsibilities to Ashtan and the Guild. So I shouldn't
be offended that I could never get in touch with him about being thumped
on and lit on fire by older members for being a Mime, right?

But I digress. Llewellyn stepped down from Guild master, and in general
continued to not say much to us. Since he was officially on vacation it
was OK this time though. Callianessa, the then-current Mistress of
Novices stepped in to fill the void Llew left, and went to work getting
things active again. Older staff was kindly asked to take an interest in
the guild and, dare I say it, DO their JOBS. Guild Favors began to occur
for good deeds. Novices came, parties were held, Llew continued doing
his thing, and we all marched happily forward.

Three years ago now, the guild was quietly agitating at itself in a
slowly building political struggle. Llewellyn decided his vacation had
gone on quite long enough thank you very much, and he made his
contention to get "his" position of Guild master back. Of course, the
majority of the guild had no memory of Llewellyn as an active Guild
master, whether he was in the office or not, so the votes were cast, and
he was defeated.

Since then, Llewellyn has reintegrated himself within the daily working
of guild life, we'd live, he'd watch. It was brilliant really. On
occasion he'd offer the sage bit of wisdom. However, mostly he'd make
decisions that were the realm of the guild master, and launch into epic
debates with Callianessa about why he did them.

As I can personally attest, Calli demands that her secretaries be people
she can work with, and trust to do good work. These are not positions of
reverence, or some kind of homage, these are demanding jobs. Were a
secretary to misstep badly, they run the risk of being ousted in favor
of someone who can be trusted to get the job done. Trust me, I've gotten
that boot-print on my butt already. Llewellyn though, through sheer
virtue of his years in office and importance to the guild has managed to
avoid the boot for quite some time. This time out, he simply didn't get
out of the way fast enough.

Llewellyn, your years of service to the Jesters Guild during its awkward
birth and thrilling early years is monumental, and I grovel accordingly.
You speak of "not earning popularity points" and "keeping the Good of
the Guild at Heart" and I hate to inform you, but you're not the only
one. Your dream of a truly neutral guild is one we all strive for. But
like the adorable Logosmas puppy that pees everywhere when left alone,
we just can't afford your luxury.

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Ero, in the year 322 AF.