A Countess once asked me, what makes a Countess? I said that she must hold land, and so she acquired it.

A Countess asked what tribute she might offer a Duchy, so I tasked her to cull dangerous beasts and help feed the people. Sapience need not attribute to ego what is done in service.

A Countess chose the hill, but I drew the borders. Plains northward to grow grain where the triton legions have not salted the earth, hills southward so that it might be sent through Nicator's Crossing to the hungry. Sapience need not attribute to her what was drawn by me.

A Countess faced opposition to this claim, and did not hide from the challenge nor pass blame onto her liege. That is noble, and Sapience should not mistake determination for disrespect, nor think she acts alone when foundations have been long-laid.

War-torn Sapience need not lecture Meropis on when a war is justified, we sense the lives you spend each year to trade highways and mountain ranges, savannahs so viscera-soaked that they could be Taug's Kasmarkin. Sapience needs not lecture Meropis on feudal claims and rule of law, with the Aalen Kingdom subjugated by its long-time neighbour as a matter of convenience, and so-called empires won through naught but violence. I hear you from your high ground, and I pray you do not slip on all the blood as you climb down.

I am adaghun daghalta. I have lived life in the saddle, and I have met the White Stallion. None hold the Chaghut of the Swaying Sea in greater respect than I. But rulers of nations must secure the future for their people, the Noyan for his and I for mine, and time to time that must be decided in glorious battle. I forged trade with the Chaghut tribes, sought alliance with them. Alas, it was not to be. But the nation east of the Vasnari lives free and in plenty, while the nations west of the Vasnari live in poverty under the shadow of Seleucar's curse.

The Daoric is vast, and I do not come to conquer it, we can coexist. A few ranches of black soil, a few hills to hold Nicator's Crossing open for all is all Aster Malik requires. For the sake of my subjects, and even for the sake of my Peers who decline to join me, I will secure this so that Meropis west of the Vasnari may enjoy the same freedom as the Chaghut, under the Aster sky.

Much ink has been spilled on this, but there is naught to do but put pens aside, and in glorious combat see which claim is righteous before the Gods.

The Regent


Penned by my hand on the 10th of Scarlatan, in the year 993 AF.