Today, Shallam and its allies, composed of some attentive Druids and Sentinels, saved the world. The Quisalar and Twilight never planned to bring back Thoth. They planned to dupe many of you (and succeeded apparently) into assisting Twilight in slaying Thoth, and thus increasing Twilight's power. They failed. Though outnumbered, the Shallamese impressed me (I had not expected them to win) with their organization, and their fervour.

Once the Heart had been attacked and was small enough, Pryla'ka, the Tsol'dasi priestess of Life challenged the Quisalar to cease his plans, and destroy the Heart. The Quisalar refused, and so Pryla'ka banished him to eternal sleep. Once the Heart was small enough, her Tsol'dasi magics easily overwhelmed the Quisalar.

Unfortunately, Pryla'ka realized, once she tried dismantling the Heart that even now it was too strong for her. It began to look as if it would explode, no doubt slaying many. Fortunately for all, the noble God Deucalion intervened, and tried to absorb the energy. Unfortunately for him, he only partially succeeded. His essence has been dispersed about the cosmos, but due to his actions and those of the Shallamese, only a handful died. Had the Quisalar and Twilight completed their plan, _all_ would have died. Women, children, squirrels, trees, grass, warriors, noncombatants, scholars, babies, even the Black Boar. No doubt Deucalion would have attempted to absorb the MUCH larger blast that would have ensued had Twilight and the Quisalar succeeded, but it would have destroyed Deucalion utterly, and destroyed all of you too.

I feel I must personally commend Shallam on its efforts, and on pulling together in a way I had not seen them do before (thus my expectation that they probably were going to lose). When those of you who like to point out Shallam's flaws (while completely ignoring your own) start doing so again, I will simply ask you to remember that against big odds, they saved the world. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The opposition forces were working, knowingly or not, to do one thing: strengthen Twilight, at the expense of all life on Sapience.

Deucalion's sacrifice has one further benefit, and that is that before he was dispersed, he was able to give all of you, forever, a chance at redemption and reincarnation. His final wish to me was that those who fought to slay themselves and everyone else have an opportunity to wipe their moral slate clean. Thus, you may now reincarnate, once during your mortal lives, into a new race. Doing so will also make your alignment neutral, thus wiping your moral slate clean. I have also given your souls the opportunity to become one of ten races, rather than the previous five. HELP RACES will tell you more about the new races, and HELP <race name> will tell you more about the individual race.

You must be dead to reincarnate, and the syntax is REINCARNATE INTO <race>. I caution you to be careful about your choices, because races are much more differentiated now than they were before. Were I you, I would take some time to think about which race you wish to reincarnate into.

Once again, I want to emphasize that though this is a sad day, with the relative passing of Deucalion, there is joy to be had. Celebrate the life that Shallam and its allies, and Deucalion have given you, and more importantly, celebrate the chance for redemption and reincarnation that Deucalion has given you, as his final act.

Penned by my hand on the 24th of Daedalan, in the year 242 AF.