Greetings, Santar.

It seems that, for the past three months or so, you have been a very
busy man.
You have managed not only to annihilate 14 of my Lord' shrines, 2 of
which have rebuilt, and attached several other shrines in various
locations, but are also operating under the impression that the Order of
Wealth and Trade is, for reasons known only to you, crumbling and
therefore makes an excellent target for your continued efforts.

But, certainly, such accomplishments are not only your work, as the
credits for those deeds also go to Lothiac, Fithra, Guga, Morrigu,
Moraine and several other fine members of the society known as The
Empire.

While I congratulate you on your excellent work, and valiant efforts on
getting those shrines out of your way, I do feel obliged to inform you
of something. Those shrines you and your group have destroyed are merely
a material sign of our devotion to our Lord, and as you are aware, I am
sure, they can and will be easily rebuilt. They are not the only manner
in which we, Prosperians, express our devotion to the Merchant Lord, so
I have to point out that this Order is certainly not crumbling because
of the fact those shrines were destroyed.

Furthermore, I would like to inform you that, whatever the reasons for
your current mission are, the Order of Wealth and Trade will not, for as
long as I am the head of the Order, stand idle and give in to any
aggression aimed at it so easily as you may think, even though we are an
Order formed by merchants and traders, and not combatants, for as long
as we have other means of defending ourselves at our disposal.

Thus, we cannot agree to any terms you might present us with, because in
business, we believe in mutual benefits, and we see no benefit in
agreeing to your terms simply to appease and enrich you on our expense.

I must thank you for one more thing, one of the results of your actions,
that you probably have not taken into your account, is that you have
given us yet another reason for the Order to continue, this time more
unified and with a clearer purpose, rather than individuals with our own
agendas.
Also, even though we are now in a relative standstill, with you
succeeding in destroying our Lord' shrines at a faster pace than can we
rebuild them, much thanks to the greater number of people on your side,
better selection of weaponry and several other circumstances that go
into the calculation, and tip the odds in your favour, it seems that we
posses something you do not, the elusive characteristic known as
dedication, that might prove vital, in the end.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank then individual
citizens of Ashtan and Hashan, and especially the citizens on Cyrene,
for their material and immaterial support of our Order, and would like
to invite them to contact me if they have any questions regarding the
current situation this Order is in, or would like to continue their
support in other ways, should they choose to do so.


In service of the missing Merchant Lord,
Aecius Pyroboreus, Managing Director.

Penned by my hand on the 10th of Sarapin, in the year 458 AF.