The Iseld Missive

"Probably the most important document we have here in the Imperial Library. I know it's not much, but this is the actual handwriting and words of Til-Yaltur himself. It's these very words that caused the common folk of Iseld to rebel and overthrow their oppressors. History in the flesh!"

Historical Details

Background

In 1704, a military commander called Til-Yaltur began his campaign to re-unify the lands of the Empire. Beginning with the southern states that suffered heavily during the Sakamohr occupation, these under-populated and badly damaged areas submitted to his authority within a couple of months of the campaign start and the Imperial capital of Belyos accepted him as ruler without a fight. However the northern states, the secessionist regions that had split from the Empire over seven hundred years ago, openly declared their intention to resist any attempts to unify the Empire lands by force. 
Knowing that diplomacy and negotiation would not achieve any success, Til-Yaltur declared that the entire ruling class of the Empire would be overhauled, and any resistance would result in severe punishment and disenfranchisement of resistant nobility. After seeing the states of Imbar and Iren on the eastern shore of the Inner Sea submit, and their existing nobility purged of dissent, the state of Hoat on the western shore increased the size of its armies, calling on its allies in Mythero and Enthero, and began fortification of its southern border. Despite this, Til-Yaltur's forces crossed into Hoat and fighting several notable battles, eventually reached the Hoat capital of Iseld.
Iseld was a well fortified city, built on an artificial island in an canal that linked two gulfs of the Inner Sea that effectively made the rest of Hoat an island. Til-Yaltur knew that any assault on the city would be costly in lives on both sides, and that some within his own forces would demand a sacking of the city for its resistance, something that Til-Yaltur was reluctant to allow, due to Iseld's important status as a trading hub.
It was before any siege began that Til-Yaltur sent the now-famous Missive of Iseld, addressed not to the ruling class of Hoat, but rather the citizens of Iseld. The letter achieved its aims, and the common folk rebelled, overthrew their nobility, and opened the gates for Til-Yaltur's forces. Despite objections, Til-Yaltur elevated the leaders of the revolution, some commoners, to the new ruling class of Hoat, and took one step closer to the Empire's reunification.

Read the Document

The Iseld Missive

To the common folk of Iseld,
From the Chosen of Yaltur, Unifier of the Empire, Til-Yaltur.
Greetings and salutations.
You have been betrayed by those who claim to rule for your benefit. They say that I am an invader like the Sakamohr of old, that I come as a dictator and tyrant to force proud Hoat under my boot. Nothing is further from the truth.
My crusade comes from Yaltur Himself, and is blessed by Hikis, can your rulers say the same?

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Type

Text, Letter

Medium

Paper

Authoring Date

1707 IY