Seretenin,

A not wholly unanticipated piece of rhetoric. Clearly you've learned
your lessons in the Order of Fain quite well. However, despite the
pleasant surprise of the Engine putting forth a coherent response to my
thesis, I am disturbed to find that said response lacks in critical
reading.

You state that I have perpetrated an attack upon the Red Masque, my
"Lord and Master". Unfortunately, this is a pleasant bit of sophistry
with little behind it. As I stated within my essay, it was not written
as an attack upon the Patron so much as it was an attack upon His Order
and the quality of the members thereof. Is it your opinion, therefore,
that His followers are, in fact, Him? I would reconsider this bit of
dogma very carefully, Sohei, before He calls you to accounting for it.

Moreover, if I had perpetrated an attack upon Him, which I have not, I
am very certain that He would call me to accounting for it. As He has
not, I can only conclude that He either disregards my essay, as is His
rightful choice, or that in some fashion, He agrees with it. These are
logical conclusions; I respectfully note that I do not, currently, speak
for Him, as I am a member of Lord Elostian's Order.

On to the matter of change. Magnagora stands at a precipice of change?
Magnagora has never been stronger? I'm amazed, truly, then, at the broad
selection of villages the Engine holds, the unified military forces that
have slain the forestal Avatars and crushed us 'neath your undead boots.
Moreover, I must congratulate you on your victory at Wild Nodes, your
supremacy in matters cultural, and the impressive skills of your young
warriors.

You shall have to excuse my vast amounts of sarcasm, the irony overcame
me.

Yes, Seretenin, you stand at the brink of a great cliff. But the
transformation has come and gone. And while I preach passionately from
the pulpit of the dark forest, those things you speak of as errors are,
in fact, the strengths of Glomdoring. And where you have accused of
stagnancy, so I speak the Liturgy of Adaptation, drawn from the canon of
the Shadowdancers:

'The shadows of Mother Night are an ever-shifting being. They evolve and
reshape with the movement of Father Sun and Mother Night, adapting to
their new environment. Adaptation is the tool of the strong.'

I am not afraid of transformation, Sohei. I embrace it, as I always
have; turning away even from those and that which I love to pursue it.
As I have turned to follow the greater good, so have others, adapting to
the winds of change. Change is not weakness, but strength.

I acknowledge as well my past. I was of Fain, and I learned His lessons
well. So was I of the Nihilists; so too did I learn well. I have studied
and worked in the auspices of the Engine for decades, moving pawns and
bishops as I might upon the chessboard, and occasionally, resigning that
others might seek to evolve and change, turning their hand (occasionally
unsuccessfully, as Celina proved) to the wheel of power. Now even as I
have moved through cycles of change, so do I come to Glomdoring and turn
what I have learned and become to their benefit. A similar process has
brought others to Glomdoring.

Is this treason, perhaps? I say not. Is Glomdoring a cult of
personality? I say not, for we do not speak the name of Kaervas d'Murani
as the name of Thoros is spoken, nor, for that matter, is Talan
considered savior of the Dark Forest. We are a commune, and stand
together for the survival and growth of our home.


For the Transformation, I remain,
Sthai Oubliette


Postscript: Please rend your scribe; it is spelled 'congratulate', not
'congradulate'.

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Dvarsh, in the year 235 CE.