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xxxxx"Traditionally, no two Orders are as close as the Adamantine Arrows and the Silver Ladder, a fact demonstrated by how many Deacons of the Ladder are honorably retired Arrows. Despite my best intentions I have been unable to enjoy the same rapport with the Arrows here that I did in San Francisco. They seem to dismiss me because I am not a warrior, and they are right, I am not a warrior. Still, I lead a victorious campaign against a logistically and numerically superior entrenched foe. I discretely uncovered a Pylon of Seers and coordinated their capture with one exception. I've wrestled down axe-wielding psychos, faced down gun wielding youths, cited city ordinance violations to a Dragon, stopped a chemical weapons attack at the ARU campus, battled Zombie Crab Corpses to keep the Airport clear and even hazarded a mad wizard's dungeon to confront the avatar of a Lobster God to help secure hoary tombs needed to prevent a cataclysm. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough, or maybe they haven't take the time to look past my snappy suit and silk tie."
xxxxx "My feelings about the Guardians of the Veil are as myriad and conflicted as the masks they wear. I love tradition, and traditionally they had a place in Atlantis that was very important. While the Arrows stomped rampaging titans the Guardians slipped into foreign villages and ended the lives of would be Magical Tyrants before they could become a threat to Atlantis or the sleepers around them. In the Cold War we wage with the Seers, they are the front line. The problem I have with them is when they forget that "judging" has never been their purview. Assess and report, yes, judge no. They are not and have never been the keepers, interpreters nor even the makers of the Law. The Guardians here are so very good at their job that locals either loathe them beyond all reason or hang on them like sycophants wishing for a nod of approval. I would love to be able to support them in their true mission and clear away a path for them to do so -- they just need to stop getting in the way of me trying to do *my* job and I'll extend them the same courtesy."
xxxxx"The Mystery of the local Mysterium and its woes has been solved. Lead by successive Seers of the Throne, first Mab and then the compromised former Herald and then Councilor Gwydion the chaos and diffuse sense of purpose now makes much more sense, as does their abject refusal to allow members of the Diamond to have access to their services and goods. I have goods friends and even some family in the local Mysterium -- I expect relations between them and the Silver Ladder to make a sharp improvement as we all will depend heavily on their scholarship and insight in the months to come.
xxxxx“My fellows, my friends, my family, my Order. I love them fiercely, and that even includes to some lesser degree those who were among as Seers. The lack of focus and agenda confused me when I got here. Only through the lens of understanding that Yarrow, Maximilian and Lucien were Seers does so much make sense. I wonder if they were shocked when I made my hamster wheel go places and started making things change for the Order. Was it morbid curiosity for Lucien to see how much I might do despite the obstacles -- is that why he didn't kill me? Regardless, we have weathered another challenge and have the work of nation building ahead of us. I have faith that we will accomplish together what will someday be legend."
xxxxx“Living across the bridge from them, the Assembly of Oakland seemed to me to be rabid anarchists for the most part. Tearing down things, not because they were bad, but because they were old -- like the cultural gutting of Los Angeles caused by lack of preserving architectural treasures of the past. I think, maybe the Libertines of Aleswich are of a different stripe. While many do claim to eschew the Diamond's traditions and cultural memes there may be some hope for reaching an accord based on a Republic Style democratic function focused through Meritocratic criteria. Then again, I'd fully support a dual territorial state for the Consilium Marches -- an Assembly free state run under their authority and democratic conventions for those who wish to live there bordered on the rest of the territory run by a more traditional Consilium model and disputes between both on policy settled by mediation or Arcane Dueling."
xxxxx"What do I know about werewolves? Plenty. Enough. What you want specifics? Fine - one of my best friends in my adult life, is also a werewolf. I say also because it has very little do with our friendship on a general level. I say on a general level because she would still be here and not in another city if the local werewolves weren't such incredible douche bags. More? Okay, before I got to Aleswich a local werewolf murdered my cousin Vale. That one is dead, but his douche bag family and pack are not. I know that another local werewolf murdered another mage a few months later -- for being a mage -- after she was invited to attend a social function and use her magic to heal any too grievously wounded. Just murdered her in cold blood. That werewolf is also dead, but her douche bag relatives and pack are not. What I am saying is this -- individual werewolves are like individual people some are decent and honorable and some are not, and the local packs are important metaphysically to the safety and health of this region. That said if you meet one, and you feel uncomfortable and you can't just safely withdraw -- strike first, strike hard. preemptive Self-Defense, no question."
xxxxx “The leeches have an incredible PR team. While the GotV helps them cover up the fact they exist, and they exist, they manipulate mass media over centuries to turn themselves in the public mindset from rat looking fiends into mad, bad, post-teen angsty love muffins for deluded girls the world over. To put it another way, I don’t care how hot something looks, if it wants to DEVOUR you, it isn’t sexy. That said, if they keep to themselves and don’t kill people, I am all in favor of peaceful co-existence until there is no room for them.”
xxxxx “So I have been doing a lot of thinking about the Changelings and their relationship with Arcadia, and these Others they worry about. First -- the changelings for all their power and what have you are still fundamentally humans. They have been touched by faerie, reworked, molded, what have you but they are still not *of* Faerie. They may be fey, but they are not Fae. So then, we should be reaching to them and offering them succor. And protection from those who took them, and may want them back. And here is my theory why -- why would these people claim they were taken to Arcadia and by denizens of such replete power and yet I *know* they did not cross the Abyss there is no whiff upon them whatsoever. The answer is easy once I stumbled across the notion. The Arcadian Gods driven out by the Exarchs when the took the supernal heavens, took refuge in a near shadow to the realm that was their dominion. Like teh Underworld is to Stygia -- so too Faerie to Arcadia. The Exiled Gods called their home by the name of their former realm, and thus the confusion started. That said, if the Others are fragments or the entirity of Arcadian Gods banished --they are even more dangerous than I previously thought with one caveat. They have already been beaten once, they can be again."
xxxxx“You mean like people possessed by spirits or worse things? Obviously the mandate is clear: We get an exorcist and we get the victim exorcised. With the amount of Abyssal intrusions, infernal influences and Outer Thing manifestations that happens around here, we really don't have the luxury of asking if the possession was consensual or not. Sorry if that's an inconvenience."
xxxxx“You die -- but before you go too far, a proposition from a ghost that has accrued great power in the realms of the Underworld and wants out into the fallen world now - you make a deal and bind and you get to come back. At what cost? I don't know yet, but I will figure it out eventually. But, *Alive* they are -- supercharged mediums with innate ghost-like abilities thanks to their voluntary passenger -- but alive. That makes them about the same as a thaumaturgist, a shaman or psychic -- not Terata, so perhaps there is room for "Super Mediums" in the Cryptopoly.
xxxxx“Humanity standing up to the Lions that lurk in the darkness is *exactly* what we want. Sometimes they focus on us… okay, well you know that teacher you hated in school who you wanted to strike out against, and only years later did appreciate them? That is our situation. You want another example? Fine. The Parable of the Cave. We as wizards are out in the sunshine; most of humanity is still in the dark in the cave. Sometimes monsters slip past us because there are many ways into the cave, and they go eat some people inside. Some of the people in the cave rise up and kill the monsters and follow them closer and closer to the exit of the cave. Sometimes they see one of us going into the cave to help another of them see the light, get the wrong idea and attack. Don’t kill hunters, redirect them or you are stealing from humanity’s future. Of course if it is you or them, use minimal force but win, after all, you potentially can contribute more. Now, be worthy of that.”
xxxxx(Local Update) "I need a revision on my stance regarding hunters for one local hunter in particular. Barnabas Dunlin. Sending Magnes in to spy for you on the burgeoning, Consilium. Strike one. Spreading lies about me by name, putting my family at risk, and trying to interfere with the operation of the Consilium while using Sabin Bryce to spy for you. That's strike two. I'm a peaceable man, I prefer consensus to violence, and hell, I'm a fan of his work. That said, if I trace harm to any non-Dunlin Mage or any Landace to him -- well, strike even the face of Buddha three times and he shall become angry. Queue the Banner quote."
xxxxx “As a Thearch, I spend a lot of time talking about Humanity, being concerned about Humanity, making decisions for Humanity. Here is the thing though -- humanity is a concept, its detached, its massive in scale. It is important to get out there and mix with *people* too. Take a minute to listen to their concerns, maybe help them wriggle free from The Lie. The reason so many of the Elemental Precepts are concerned with how we interact with humanity is because, people matter. Every person matters. I'm not a saint, and I get that sometimes its a numbers game but when I have the chance, the number of people who get lost because of a choice I am making will be zero. When its not, that is because I *failed* to find that window where zero was the option, not because the people I couldn't save didn't matter."
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