My Dear Colleague,
Before I continue, I must thank you for reminding me that Milandir still remembers my service to our King and people. Thank you, for reminding me that once a Milandisian Knight, one is always a Milandisian Knight regardless of one's having been released from one's oaths. When I was released from my oaths to King and Country at the formation of Almeric, I admit that I felt a loss of identity for quite some time - something I pray that you may understand given that I had been a Knight of the Crown for nearly five decades when I was suddenly, at the stroke of a quill, retitled as an Almerican Knight instead. I assure you, however, that regardless of name or title, I have always held true to the Knight's Code, and I shall continue to do so so long as thought and action remain to me.
Now, forgive me, but I feel the necessity to continue our debate, for I worry greatly for the state of your soul as well as for the motivations behind your words - and I must ask you to shine the Light of the Pantheon upon your own darkness and not shy away from whatever you might see. Ask yourself, are your actions for Their glory, or for your own? Ask yourself, does this hatred stem from righteousness or from an inner-darkness, hurt, or anger that you have not addressed within your own soul? I fear I must remind you that Cadic teaches us that we all wear masks and must be careful - for the worst sort of evil wears a mask of righteousness. Many great men and women - many great Knights even - have fallen to evil whilst seeking only justice. I take now a moment to remember their tragedies, and I say again a prayer for them - in particular I pray for the fallen souls of Ophelia val'Tensen, Nerodic val'Assante, Dorjan val'Mehan, and Morushun val'Ishi. All died in the belief that they did the will of the Pantheon, and all did evil in the name of Righteousness. I pray that whatever good may have remained to their souls finds its way from the Cauldron to a more worthy vessel... and I pray that Ophelia in particular may find her cursed time at the Cauldron's threshold an opportunity to reflect on the evils she committed in life.
Does not Beltine tell her clergy and Hospitallers that pain and suffering do not stop at borders, and neither should her followers? Her tenets clearly state that one should not involve oneself in the affairs of one's nation if doing so would prevent one from helping those in need. The heretic's soul was in need, and I answered the Pantheon's call to save that soul. I pray that you find it in your heart to follow your patron Goddess's tenets in such regards in the future - know that I shall also light a candle for your soul each night, for I grow concerned that the affairs of nations have clouded your judgment in these matters.
You are yet comparatively young, so I feel I must remind you that Milandir, may its glorious spires forever stand tall, has never been the aggressor against benighted Canceri. We are not the warmongering likes of they - every crusade has been precipitated by Cancerese incursions. King Orsric, blessed be his name, always sought peace except when his hand was forced. His son and successor has thus far done the same. And forget not, my dear Exorcist, that Canceri and Milandir have been at peace for more than fifty years - the last true Milandisian Crusade into that benighted land having taking place prior to the events that would lead into the Coryani Civil War. For the glorious crusade against the Infernals, our most glorious King Osric IV even sought the help of Canceri - though the vile abomination Hegrish val'Mordane, cursed be his name, could not find it in his unbeating, rotten heart to lend us that assistance.
Genocide and Conquest have never, ever been the goal of the Milandisian Kings - our people are far too noble of heart and spirit for such vile, base motivations. The Milandisian nobility of spirit would never allow us to wish the destruction of the Cancerese people, rather we would only wish to rescue them from benighted lives of heresy under the unjust yoke of oppressive, blaspheming tyrants. Such would be the will of Hurrian, that we could do so. I, for one, answered the call of Holy Emperor Calcestus val'Assante, Blessed be his Memory, Arch-Prelate in Exile Shaitan val'Mordane, and yes, then Arch-Prelate Sabinus val'Assante as well in 1027ic when they called us to crusade in Canceri to support the newly returned to the Church Erdukeen in the suppression of the vile Dark Triumvirate faith. Have no doubts, however, we arrived in Nishanpur as liberators, not as conquerors. While we ultimately failed due to the interference of greater events in the world - including the necessity of the Holy Tasks set to us by the Word of Illiir, we won a great many battles in the name of the church, in the name of justice, and above all else, in the name of saving heathen souls. Many of us gave our lives, and some of us gave our very souls in this noble endeavor. I must say that even now, nearly half a century hence, I am shamed that noble King Osric did not give his official support to our crusade, but I understand the politics of the time and how they stayed his hand.
Thus it is that my efforts to save a single soul can be looked upon as that same crusade held in miniature. Remember, dear friend, that every soul is precious - every soul is worth saving. At the time I bent my energies to save that heretic, Milandir and Canceri were at peace, and he was traveling abroad as an adventurer - much as many of us do now. The first time I met him, I remember sensing that he had left Canceri for the adventuring life purposefully - I sensed that he had grown dissatisfied with the foul teachings of that cursed place. That sense told me that there was yet fertile soil within his soul from which - with nurture and care - true faith in the Pantheon could spring. It was more that sense of the possibility of his soul's salvation that stayed my hand from slaying him than it was the laws of man - and believe me, I was sorely tempted to excise his corruption at the point of a blade. However, I saw then that saving his soul instead would be a hard road - a much harder road than killing him for certain... but Anshar tells us that the hard path is often the correct one - that the easy road is not the road to enlightenment or fulfillment. I took the harder path, and because I did this heretic became a champion of the Mother Church and accompanied me to the Battle of Nishanpur where he took the head of the Dark Triumvirate rebellion's unbound Marilith General - effectively ending their alliance with the Devil King Uthbraxcit.
I saved a single soul - as the Gods bade me to do, and in so doing Larissa's tapestry was not denied a thread that proved so very important. Had Josef not slain the unbound Marilith General which led the Dark Triumvirate forces, then I have no doubt that the Mother Church's forces would have been pushed from the city... and the unholy alliance between Palic val'Mehan, cursed forever be his name, and the Devil King would have been sealed. How different would the fifth and sixth Crusades of Light have been if we had fought not only Uthbraxcit, but also the heretic nation Canceri - bound to them in alliance? We cannot know... but I fear we would have fared far worse... far worse indeed.
I saved a single soul, and that soul's thread rewrote Larissa's tapestry of Fate for the better. I paid a dire cost for saving this soul, mind you. During that crusade, I contracted the Bleeding Plague of the Blight Bearers... a plague that always proved fatal and destroyed the victims' souls. During the years it took me to save his soul, I unintentionally engendered a sense of loyalty and devotion in Josef - to a far greater degree than I ever would have desired. As the Mother Church's Champion of the Church of Neroth, he committed the final sin of his life - a sin for which he later paid penance in the Bay of Seremas in righteous battle with the blasphemous Accursed Legion. In his desire to save me, he had a ritual performed to beg his patron deity to preserve my existence...
Please be aware, that at this point in my life my faith was a young thing informed as much by my national heritage as by the Word of the Pantheon. I see much of myself in you, Haakon, in that regard. Like most of my countrymen, I believed that the ultimate sanction of destruction was the only fate appropriate for the unliving - that every undead creature was an abomination. I remember shuddering in the presence of the Lich Arch-Prelate Shaitan val'Mordane at the Convocation of the Divine where Holy Emperor Calcestus val'Assante, Blessed be His Memory, was confirmed. I remember thinking "How can such a monster be permitted to exist in the Holy Church? How can this be? How can this not be heresy that he has a vote in the selection of Patriarch?" Then Arch-Prelate Sabinus val'Assante - the future first Primarch of the Milandisian Orthodox Church - told me that there were a rare few undead whom were not abominations - whom were of the Church and properly Blessed by the Pantheon - and that the existence of this exception made the rule all the more poignant and important. I remember having my doubts, but swallowing them so that I could perform my duties as both an ordained Priestess and a Knight of Milandir.
My faith was the most tried it has ever been on that benighted night in Nishapur. I usually do not share this story even when asked - dodging the question with a quip or bit of humor - for even without proper emotions, the memory is not a pleasant one... but now I share it in the hopes that you take it as an object lesson. Black Neroth, brother to Illiir and husband of Beltine, has a dark sense of humor... he and his Valinor are want to teach object lessons in the most ironic, terrible way possible. Against all reason, he answered Josef's prayers that dark night - even though Josef had been warned by the priesthood that it was a nigh-impossibility given that I had not been properly prepared and did not even worship Neroth Death-Forger.
I awoke that night as one of the creatures that I most despised. Before that night, had an undead creature approached me and claimed to be a child of the Mother Church and follower of the Twelve, it would have taken much to convince me not to strike it down as a blasphemer and enemy of the Crown. In my anguished self-loathing, I nearly destroyed myself that same night - but the Pantheon sent me a sign. They sent me a child whom needed my aid. He was being accosted by the Ghoulish dead, and I fulfilled my duty to Hurrian by defending that child and destroying those foul creatures. That sign told me that I was still an instrument of His will, and I continued to serve the Pantheon faithfully ever since... better for the lesson in humility that my rebirth taught me in the most terrible way I could have imagined.
I have done a great amount of good in this world since that night - few world argue otherwise. I have been bodily to the Cauldron to wrest a great man back from death, I have seen the warring Valinoric Hosts of the Heavens, I have saved the lives of the leaders of men, and I witnessed the death of a legend and the binding a mad being bent on Humanity's destruction. I played a role in all these events, because it was the Pantheon's will that I do so... and because a heretic whose soul I once saved prayed to Black Neroth that I not be lost forever - my soul and life both lost to a blasphemous plague - on a cold night in Nishanpur.
If this does not illustrate the power of saving a single soul, I do not know what may. That single soul I saved rather than sending to the cauldron, is responsible for both ending the unholy alliance between Palic and Uthbraxcit and also for saying the prayer that brought me back so that I could complete my duties to the Pantheon, my King, and my Country. How many strands of Fate would have been cut prematurely had I not saved that heretic's soul? How many lives would have been lost? I dare not imagine it.
Before you discard my words due to what I was made into, know this: though I did not convert to the Milandiric Orthodox Church - largely due to my absence at the time of its advent and thus only recently having been made aware of its existence - I was the servant and seneschal of Arch-Prelate Sabinus val'Assante twice over. I do not blame you for being unaware of this - at his urging I kept my nature as being Blessed of Neroth secret at the time, because it was best to not confuse the people by showing them the rare exception to the rule, a notion to which I readily agreed. Later, his wisdom was vindicated, for King Osric, Blessed be his Name, saw fit to recognize the rights of Milandisian Knights Blessed of Neroth to continue their service to the crown. To my knowledge, I am only one of two in history to have benefited from that wise and noble decision - the other being the most honorable Knight Protector of Ashvan.
So the long and short of it is this: Not only were my title and lands not stripped from me, as you claim I deserved, for the saving of that heathen soul, but I was in fact honored by King, Country, and Church for my actions. You can not even claim the split between the Mother Church and Milandisian Orthodox Church as justification, for I was honored by none other than the Milandisian Church's future Primarch, Sabinus val'Assante - whom went so far as to make me his direct agent and advisor in times of great upheaval and import. So it is that I ask you to re-examine your priorities - to shine the light of the Pantheon upon the dark places in your soul.
And please, do not mistake my argument to mean that unrepentant sinners and heretics should not be excised from the land. If one makes no headway in the conversion of a heretic - be one's methods by word or by the infliction of Anshar's blessings - then the wrath of the Church should be swift and final. I mean only that so long as headway is being made, one should stay one's hand from that final sanction.
Know - one Milandisian to another - that I shall always be here for you and I shall always be your ally. Even if I was released from my oaths, I shall honor them regardless wherever I can.
All Praise to the Pantheon! Blessed Be!
- Ser Adelheidis Sigrid val'Tensen of Moratavia, priestess of Hurrian Last Scion of the line of Sigismund the Stalwart and Knight-Protector of Ritterfeld
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