I'm going to have to agree with Silas here on Mhaldor's convenient
cowardice, actually. Even when I fought with Mhaldorians, very few would
raid Ashtan with me (among them, Jarrel). The rest were either too
scared of the consequences, or too scared to fight a battle that wasn't
an easy slaughter (hence, they spent most of their time raiding Shallam,
but only in large groups).


Mhaldor is divided into two kinds of people, as many know. There are the
brave and competent, such as Kandor, Profit, etc., and there are the
idiotic and cowardly (often also bureaucratically oriented). You need
not look any further for an example of the second kind than your own
Minister of War, as Silas pointed out.

You might note that all three Mhaldorians I mentioned as being brave in
this post are no longer around or a citizen, while the one example I
used for the other kind is quite active. This is indeed representative
of Mhaldor's current state of affairs.

The "great Mhaldorians" of (mostly) old were not afraid to pick fights
they couldn't win, nor did they waste their time writing posts to boost
their own ego. Neither did they declare war on the order of Lupus or
Cyrene. Nevertheless, it is clear by the rapidly shrinking number of
respectable fighters in Mhaldor and who the city chooses to talk that
Mhaldor is in a rapid downspiral. All "declarations" for the past few
decades have been transparent attempts at convincing yourselves that
those that remain are just as good as those that left long ago. Whereas
once you'd have sent Kandor or Jarrel to merely destroy those who oppose
you, you now merely send a coward whose competence in combat rivals
Malaphus's competence in politics. Fittingly, you're not sending him to
fight, merely to flap his mouth.

Penned by my hand on the 25th of Valnuary, in the year 510 AF.