Greetings,

I agree with some points of your post but I would like to point out one
major flaw.

You ask, "as a fellow Achaean" for me to extend my hand in friendship to
the Vertani and give them the benefit of the doubt. I have never
personally attacked or killed or otherwise harmed a single one of them.
They have however attacked me and nearly caused my death. Now, as Hingar
pointed out (and I'd like to thank him for reminding me and everyone of
that point) it is difficult to tell which members of Ashtan or Mhaldor
are against the Vertani and which are not. However, I cannot in good
conscience allow the Vertani to invade my city or villages allied with
my city and not fight back.

How do you ask me, someone who has never harmed anyone in ANY of the
villages where the Vertani are allied (or in Thera for that matter), or
harmed a single Vertani, how do you ask me to extend the hand of
friendship when I have been repeatedly attacked by the Vertani for doing
nothing more than passing through a village, perhaps on a shopping
trip?!

I could leave my home of Ashtan as I once left Shallam and thereby
remove some of the threat, but Ashtan is my city, my home, my love and
my house resides in her walls as well as my guild. I would have to leave
behind all that I stand for, Freedom, individuality, a sense of purpose,
friends, family, a home simply so that a race that came here uninvited
will stop attacking me because of my citizenship.

Tell me again how we Achaeans, how we of Ashtan and Mhaldor and Thera
are treating the Vertani unfairly. I reiterate the fact that many of us
have never harmed a single being from Vertan or any denizen in any of
the villages they now make their homes in.

As someone has surely said, All's fair in love and war.

Riven Sa'Rithven-Campbell, Guilty by Association

Penned by my hand on the 4th of Scarlatan, in the year 386 AF.