Oakstone,

Perhaps one of your members or Hierophants not engaged in tasks of vital
and manifest importance to the defence of Nature, such as defiling
shrines or looting Temples, would consider responding to the points made
in posts 13492 and 13493. Whereas we understand that we are humble rogue
and rank-and-file Druids, we believe it is not unreasonable to ask for a
justification of the laws you impose on us.

If you, sincerely, feel that the laws in your Charter are indeed just
and fair, and that the punishments are proportional to damage done to
Nature, then surely you will have no problem to come out and argue so.
We respect intellectual integrity regardless of the person exhibiting
it, and we will listen.

Then again, if you feel that the laws in your Charter are not just, or
proportional, you should change them accordingly. Or if you are not
sure, we would be more than willing to clarify our standpoint.

But, perhaps, you are not sincerely convinced of the justice of your own
laws, yet refuse to contemplate adjusting them. Or perhaps you do not
know, do not care, and cannot be bothered to do so. In that case, heaven
forbid, you would be mere petty bureaucrats, pushing quill and parchment
without an idea of the ramifications of your own actions, and you would
be well-advised to reconsider your position on the Council.

For what it is worth, you are the political leadership of the Forestal
Community. It is you, more than anyone, who will determine its political
course, with all the responsibilities that come with it. And it is
people like us who wield the oars and hoist the sails. Refuse to engage
with the ideology, laws, and course of the Forestal Community, and we
will both end up on the shoals.

The choice is yours.

N.

Penned by my hand on the 5th of Mayan, in the year 376 AF.