All right, I'll try to be brief! It'll be hard...
>We want to get things straight now, we never talk in riddles, we say what
>we really mean !
>
>First of all, I don't recall insulting our neighboors :
To the best of my knowledge, you never have, my Lady. Sir Codric was
calling the noble Jheremai the Scarlet "mercenary scum" from their first
meeting. (Ref. House Carnelian home page.)
>The only one neighbour we have some trouble with is you, Illustrated Man,
>and for a lot of reasons :
>-from day 1 you try to set other Alliances up against us !
>You succeeded with Plato, having them coming to us in Toppe (that was
>before our joining with The Lords)
My, my! I never realized what truly Machiavellian sneakiness we are! I
did not know that we wielded so much influence!
I can only assume that you are basing your theory of this "Illustrated Man
conspiracy" on the Diplomacy 101 letter I wrote during the siege of Toppe.
As I wrote shortly afterwards, that was based on a misunderstanding; I had
thought that the inflammatory words of Sir Codric were coming from the
controller of an outnumbered castle. When I found that I was wrong on two
counts -- the letter was not from you, and the castle was not as threatened
as I had thought -- I believe I did in fact apoligize. If not, I do so
now, for that letter and that letter alone.
I did not urge them to come after you in Toppe for the simple reason that
I did not know of your existence. I learned of it the same time everyone
else did, in the Times during the siege.
>You almost succeeded with Harn, trying to get a war between Harn and The
>Lords and so diverting the attention from your garrisoning the Empire-area
We appeal to Jheremai the Scarlet to testify as to whether we were even
slightly involved in the Harn dispute. It might have been clever of us to
do so, but you did that one all on your own.
>And now you are trying to set neutral Alliances up against us in a dispute
>between The Lords (helping the New Empire) and your Inner Circle which
>should be settled between us, not the others !
*shrug* If you attack us, we'll seek allies where we can. This is war,
not pistols at dawn!
>So stop right here, Bruce ! This time you won't find anyone else to do the
>"dirty work" for you.
>You turned and twisted when you said a little bit too much about your share
>in the Plato/Empire first clash, now you have to stop dragging others into
>this.
>If Plato decides to choose your side, so be it, in fact they wanted to
>return to Camaris, leaving the area between you and us. So if they change
>their mind now, it has nothing to do with neutral bufferzones or
>resource-collection from new players, but it's pointed against us and/or
>The New Empire.
>
>
>This being said, an apology from The Illustrated Man for all insults and
>insinuations is the first thing we want to see in this list.
>
>Greetings,
>
>Lady Eowyn (Lady of the Crown) & Sir Codric (Open Lord of the Crown)
>
>for The Lords of the Crown
Lady Eowyn, since we first learned of your existence, we feel we have done
our utmost to extend you all the courtesy that is your due as a ruler and a
neighbor. We cannot say the same of Sir Codric, who insulted a noble
friend with no cause and, we feel, misused your hospitality during the
siege. But that is between you and him.
We cannot apologize for warmongering that we have not done. If there are
any other places since that letter where you feel you have been insulted,
please bring them to our attention, and we will make what apologies we feel
are called for. Our "Line in the Sand" decree is still in effect. That is
all.
The Illustrated Man