The War is Over.
I am not known for being a level head. I will do my best to be succinct and truthful.
An unarmed prisoner bound in chains, forced to hard labor and barely able to stand from the day’s work, was burned--slowly--to death by a known Travancian soldier. An innocent. Life was torn from them in an excruciating circumstance, with no way to defend themselves. The Travancian was pleased with this. Laughed in the face of those who wished to deliver this slave from cruel bondage. Bragged about it to the people of the Dragon's Claw Inn. And when someone raised up against them in alarm and cried for law and order, the cackling wizard was quickly pardoned by an old friend.
Another such case of undermining justice was not long after. Kormyrian subjects had their lives endangered for the mere novelty of an arrogant meddler in powers far beyond them. A ritual which released a literal abomination into Arawyn for the mere sake of petty curiosity of jamming two forces together, just to see what would happen. A council of experts, of Lords and Ladys, of Lawmen and of common folk and the Count himself all deemed this act irreprehensible. This person was Outlawed, a just fate on par with Exile. However, in an effort to bypass the authority of Count Winterdark himself--as he lays sleeping under an unknown ailment--this perpetrator is currently under protection; receiving tutelage and education of magic. An honor not bestowed on even the brightest or most promising of our loyal subjects. No, this is given to one who should have been receiving their just punishment. Instead, they seem to be being rewarded for loss of innocent life.
This is no new trend. Over the past years of me being within Travance, fools and obvious traitors have betrayed and disobeyed orders and the rule of law set out by his Grace and the Noble Councelette. Miraculously, they have all turned out to be personal agents of this old friend, wiping the slate clean of their wrong doing and elevating them to states of trust and opportunity. This happened so often, in fact, that there is now an official policy naming all hidden agents within a secret directory known amongst the Nobles. So that no new “personal agents” would appear suddenly pardoned for crimes against the common good. This proved to be a necessity, due to the convenient practices of this old friend.
The War is Over. A Warlord should not undermine the authority and law of the land. Even his compulsory good works are constantly overshadowed by this ever present pattern of enabling and pardoning criminals that remind him of his errant youth. He claims this is for redemption; however, speaking as someone who has indeed been lost, there is no soul more malleable or more usable than one who is legally reliant on you to live.
Warlord Aleister Thorne Demirosz the Phoenix, Admiral of the Royal Navy, Warlord of Kormyre I publically recount a portion of your actions and challenge you to one or more of the following:
Step down from your borrowed authority over Travance.
Reverse your crimes and undermining of Sovereign Law.
Or
Continue your seizing of power in this vacuum so that your fickle word is finally law.
However, know that I and others will forever be watching your actions, with unyielding scrutiny.
You must be better than and for those you lead. In the time I have observed you I have seen you guide this town to be worse; to accept criminality and to enable those who wield cruelty under a façade of camaraderie.
While you are a Lord in Kormyre, you are one here no longer. And it is obvious the ways you undermine the authority of Travance and of its Lords and Ladies with every criminal you conveniently pardon from punishment.
I am sure the majority of those you have pardoned and added to your flock will have much to say in regards to this denouncement, for you have shown them an undeserving boon. To them your actions seem merciful. But to the common folk you have granted them more than any normal bandit could hope to gain from stabbing subjects in the middle of the woods.
The innocent lives lost call out for Justice. The blood of beings merely trying to live their peaceful lives scream for vengeance. Souls that come back are not more important than those who cannot return from Eodra. Quit treating them as such. Quit forgetting about them for the “heroes” you wish to bring into your employ.
By your own hand, you have attempted and succeeded at removing me from every role and official title I have held in this land and at denouncing me as an uncontrollable mad man in an effort to control me. You have failed.
Punish those who murder innocents, or admit you believe yourself above the Sovereignty that entrusted you with every title you have ever held.
Seth
Once such rollicking exchanges would be torn from their nails but since his lordship requests an open forum of opinion, I would be remised within my role to not to state a few facts, observations, and perceived trends, Supporting Outlaws is an interesting precedent in Sovereign law. It is interesting to hear tell of the Rogues Guild flaying enemies of the state in public without sovereign judgement. It lacks cohesion with any recorded instance of Kormyrian law dating back to the time of the Empire. It is a daring tactic- Creating an environ of "interventional mercy and rehabilitation" where senior judicial agents have flagged from well over 35 to less then 5 within these past few years. It has proven to be an interesting transition in this militant period. Guards and Inquisitors unable to act without bottomless reprisal has created a far more hands-on-environment for his lordship to dole whatever justice he finds sufficient.
That being said, without irony, the war was a triumph. Few could complain about its result save for the thralls of Gaalderon, and the subjects of Troy who now lay silent. There is a gleaming kingdom upon this horizon, beautiful, endless, and terrible. The law must be governed by a sovereign with the vision to guide it, and once overseen must be beyond these petty accusations or the whims of random courtiers. Marcain's commander reports he was gone within half the span of his sentence- off to handle business in Coast Haven. This type of mercy is a common one under this restorative justice. Written above is how it pays off for those that grant it. Agents of neutral law were once part of a system that lays enervated- secondary to the wishes of this radiant new kingdom of mercy, peace, and favor.
Discussions of Philosophical Opinion amongst the high courts of a stained bar top is a waste of tax coin. Like most discussions of relative concepts, it is pedantic, serving primarily sophists and demagogues, but rarely the farmer, nor the soldier, nor the alderman. Sieve the world down through the finest sieve and you will find not one iota of Justice, nor mercy. In what you can see with your eyes, and feel with your hands you can observe order, or discard what is found to entropy.
Whatever his grace wishes I shall honor within my capacity as an agent of the state until I am released from service to Kormyre and its Laws,
In Service to the Crown, Magistrate R.T.