Greetings Sapience.

More than likely most of you will want to just skip this as it applies
to a select group of people only.

I said before that a book had been closed. I open now a new book.

I have joined the city of Mhaldor as a rogue priest. Now, to stem the
tides of questions I will provide a few answers here.

I left because I felt the Church had grown into an institution designed
to glorify its few leaders and to police the actions of its members with
increasing amounts of rules and laws and court systems instead of doing
what it is on this world to do. But what is the Church to do? They don't
know. They have a mandate from the Logos saying that they should
influence the city-state of Shallam and guide the world in the ways of
Light and Order and Goodness.

But Shallam resents having its government run by 'Churchies' as they are
called even in the streets of Shallam. Most of the members of the Church
deny the mandate of the Logos, deny the history of the ancient Church
and would put themselves under a yoke designed by the Shallamese
government.

I laboured my whole life to help build up the Church into what I felt it
should be. I was reprimanded at every turn, my ideas were met with
courteous smiles and then swiftly forgotten, my voice was as the shaking
of leaves in the wind.

My thoughts turned then to Mhaldor. A city built on the worship of a
single Divine. A theocracy where religion and government are one and the
same. A place where the ideals of the people are clearly defined and
explained and preached in every public place. A place where Gods and
mortals do not endlessly debate about what This is or what That is. A
place where a single document that can be interpreted in any way you
please does not serve as the guiding text for an institution that
doesn't even know what it exists for.

I am fully aware that I have not joined a perfect city. I am also fully
aware that Mhaldor has its bad sides the same as any city. However
Mhaldor has something that the others do not. A clear agenda, an abiding
faith in solid principles and a determination to glorify themselves and
their God.

And that is what I'm after.

I hear that many of you are calling me your dearest friend and bemoaning
my 'treachery'. I am still your friend, fear not. Though I doubt that I
had many 'dear' friends at all. Do not assume you know my thoughts or
the motives of my heart.

If any of you wish to speak with me personally I welcome your
conversation.

By the way, I am not doing this for fame or to set myself up to become
the next novelty or whatever you may be thinking in your mind. I do this
because my spirit is drawn to it. What I do, I do for myself because I
must abide the dictates of the spirit and the heart.

Sincerely,

Lightsbane Angaril Del-Amroth, Black Priest of Mhaldor

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Scarlatan, in the year 377 AF.