Azor Corso, in his public epistle so long ago, said that we who were engaged in the protection of Creation and the preservation of its ways tacitly wished for an end to history. Azor is a wise man, perhaps the wisest I know, and his words ring true, for there is no preservation without collection and there is no collection without an end to the processes of renewal and innovation that make Creation, to Eastern eyes, worth preserving in the first place.

Do not gaze at the heavens and plead for your own salvation. Instead, turn your face toward Baelgrim and smile, knowing that the strength of the Lord-- the power to recognise and contend with your own weakness and fear and uncertainty-- lies within you. Do not fear dying or living, and instead grow strong, knowing that the Lord gathers unto Himself those who despise weakness. Do not fear those who would scourge the flesh from your bones, nor those who would cast you down with disparaging word or glance, nor those who offer only their cold indifference. No, emerge instead from your palaces and hovels, set your gaze toward the Western Isle, and rejoice, for you who desire Strength will always have a path to walk.

In my own time, I, too, have seen the designs of Good scrawled upon the tapestry of history, and I, too, have come to reject it, just as I would renounce any other ties in my past seeking to lay any lingering claim upon me. Let neither past word nor deed impede my path as I turn my own face to the West. Let my words, now and forever, ring down from the mountain to those former compatriots of mine who seek to better themselves and truly, meaningfully preserve that which is worth preserving in Sapience and beyond.



Hail, Mhaldor.

Penned by my hand on the 11th of Aeguary, in the year 655 AF.