Cyrene has been spoken over long enough.

A cacophonous chorus of outsiders now presume the right to tell us what we are, what we believe, what we may do and where we may march; dressing their demands in the language of history and virtue as though your convictions grant authority.

It does not.

Cyrene is not an idea you admired once. It is not a memory you outgrew. It is certainly not a moral ornament for those who never bore its burdens.

Cyrene, as always, belongs to Cyrenians.

Those who never called it home do not get to dictate its conduct. Those who gave up their home do not retain some power over its future. You forfeited that voice when you walked away.

Do not mistake past cooperation for continued obedience. Do not confuse shared goals with eternal oaths. And do not insult us by pretending your disappointment binds us more tightly than the will of our citizens.

Our treaties are honoured. Our word is kept. What we do not entertain are imagined obligations invented by those who wish Cyrene to remain small, static and useful to their conscience.

You do not speak for Cyrene.

We know who we are. Oceanus' Gate. The jewel of the Thalassian Empire.

Cyrene will define itself by the will of its citizens, not by the comfort of those who dislike what we have become.

In service,
Crixos
Cyrenian citizen

Penned by my hand on the 3rd of Glacian, in the year 992 AF.