Salutations to the Unbroken Tortoise Academy
To whom it may concern,
I’m pleased to have made the acquaintance of Master Lo Jia and Master Shao while sheltering from a storm along the Great River.
My credentials are foreign but I will present them anyway: I am a graduate of the Academy of Shrouded Halls, with research and practical specialties in all fields of arcanism, as well as blood, metal, minor elementalism, and dusk mysticism. I am the presiding high guardian of the Great Library of Elistina, in Deldrin. And I am a welcome occasional lecturer in universities across the North and from beyond the barrier mountains. It has been my pleasure to lecture at your satellite campus on flow, transformation, and the strength of one’s origins. I find that students do best when combining their personal strengths with the new things they learn.
You may view me as a gateway to formal relations with many other schools, if you wish. It would be my pleasure to make introductions and facilitate the exchange of information and students - I’ve always felt that broad access to a variety of magical specialties serves as the foundation for growth into magical mastery. From the Osyr in the Crystal Spires to the humans in Solace - every group I have had the fortune of teaching has brought their own unique blend of skill and tradition to the work of harnessing magical power. I have been so impressed with Masters Lo and Shao that I'd happily recommend them and their peers to entrance at any academy I know.
Before this relationship blossoms, however, I must address something quite grave.
I have been informed that someone in your esteemed organization is responsible for the harm that has befallen the elf named Aestien, brother of the Fourth Hand Do'Angelim'Kal - my own brother.
Imagine, if you can, ripping off a person’s shell and stripping them of the ability to shift between forms, forcing them to exist with the agony of a mutilated and weakened spirit. This is what has been done to Aestien. I must assume that no one in any position of real power or intellect understood what it meant to strip a sworn elf of his oaths.
For the betterment of your knowledge and in the interest of peace and co-operation between our people, I will explain. Elvish oaths are culturally and magically sacred. They are not imposed upon the unwilling - they are sworn with understanding, awareness, and commitment. They are an integral part of an individual’s strength and sanity.
Suffice it to say that such an act against any citizen of my Empire, let alone a close member of my personal family, is a declaration of either ignorance or hatred. It is my pleasure to address the ignorance so that there can be no confusion, and that the motivations for any such future action will be clear.
Aestien’s oaths have been restored by my own hand, and they will not be removed again. Should any elf seek to join your institution, you may determine how to modify your own pledges to respect their existing oaths, or you may send them North to lend their talents to places where it will be better nurtured.
I hope for a future of prosperity and understanding between our respective institutions, and any others at which I’m privileged to influence.
Heiassa Duum’nael
A name to which any further titles or accolades would only diminish the first.
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