Despite having to take sit down breaks often, a woman in the uniform of a de Courcillon retainer spreads hand written posters across the various Dementlieuse and Borcan encampments
Variety Talent Show
Dementlieuse, Borcans, Outlanders, and More
Sing us your songs. Tell us your stories.
Together, we are freedom's roar.
~
Not only are we soldiers, but we are men and women. Each and every one of us is here from a different life, but gathered for the SAME REASON - a freer and most just Core.
~
Jan 25th, 5pm EST
Baudouin's Hill
~
Please keep performances no longer than 10 minutes so we have enough time for everyone who wants to participate.
// OOC Jan 25th, 5pm EST countdown (https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20230125T17&p0=250&msg=Variety+Talent+Show&font=cursive)
[A series of notices written in Mordentish and Falkovnian are carried on the wind from the Borcan encampment, into the confines of the Twisting Castle.. and they read as follows...]
An Open Letter to the Defenders of the Twisted Castle
Read well, and consider our words. They are very much a matter of life and death.
To the Sellswords who yet remain in the Keep: it has become apparent that the “Free Falkovnians” are no longer using the promise of coin but instead the fear of reprisal to keep you all in line. It is threat of death and fates worse than death that compel you to stay, even in the face of complete ruin at our hand.
It need not end this way. It was a life of liberty and the dream of being beholden to none that inspired you to take up the blade and embrace the life you now live, and yet it has led you to this moment; you are now expected to fight and die for Falkovnia’s Tyrant and his bastard offspring, men who, if given the chance, would see you branded and put in irons like the rest of his subjects. There is a choice for you, though. Disarm yourselves and surrender, and safe conduct will be promised to you.
To the Concerned Citizens, Dementlieuse Revolutionaries, and their sympathizers: by aligning yourself with the Falkovnian Brute and his slavers, you have made a grotesque parody out of the causes you champion. You have confirmed everyone’s fears about you -- fears they have held for over eight years. Anyone who had suggested the Revolutionaries to be a fifth column for Falkovnian Slavery has been proven right — by you and yours. Never again will you, your comrades, and the grievances you seek redress for be taken seriously… unless you take steps NOW to alter your course and help break the Silent Fields free from the Hawk's shackles.
It does not remain too late for you. Pardons have been offered by the Lady-Governor and the Council of Brilliance for any and all past transgressions. Lay down your arms and submit, and the names of your heroes and martyrs may be spared from the acts you have done to tarnish their names.
“Free” Falkovnians: we know the truth. We know you are not truly free… and yet you could be. Richemulot accepts all who agree to pledge their swords to the Grande Dame and agree to defend it from outside aggression. Many Falkovnian emigres have already done this. You could join them. Dispatch your officers, slay those who yet hold your leash, and flee the field of battle, due west. We will not pursue you.
Dove: you lie to others and to yourself that you answer to nobody, and yet you have never been more of a pawn than in this moment. In the hopes of achieving her favor, her love, a thing you know to have only ever been a deception and a comforting lie, you act alongside the most wretched the Core have to offer.
This will be what you shall be remembered for. This is who “Dove” shall be, and nothing else. It could not have all been a lie, however. It could not have all been an act. If it ever actually meant anything to you, if ever you once thought those who you met and came to know in Dementlieu could perhaps one day be called your friend, then show us that it mattered; that any of it mattered. Even now, even for you, redemption can be found.
~ The Silent Fields Expedition
Nailed to the post of the command tent in the Dementlieuse war camp:
GENERAL ORDERS 31st JANUARY 778
- "FREE" FALKOVNIAN SOLDIERS ARE TO BE OFFERED NO QUARTER.
- ANY FLEEING ENEMIES ARE TO BE PERMITTED TO QUIT THE FIELD:
DO NOT GIVE CHASE, FOCUS ON YOUR OBJECTIVES.
Signed on this day by Sieur Dorian de Sauvre,
on behalf of Captain Baudoin de Courcillon,
leader of the Dementlieuse Expeditionary Force
[Several notices are placed near the Siege Line and the Dementlieuse Camp.]
Victory.
To some, this possibility may seem a distant dream. It may seem as though the horrors we witnessed this past evening are the only outcome for us in the wake of such power and brutality. That the only fate that awaits us is doom at the end of a Hawk's sword or destruction from their machine of war. I, however, disagree. There is only one possibility - victory.
Some of you are career soldiers like myself. You fought at Ameranthe, or in the Revolution, or in any number of countless battles that have been waged across the Core. You have seen this brutality, you have seen this horror, and yet here you stand. And you are not alone.
Others are not soldiers of battles previously fought and this is your first taste of the sheer bloodshed and carnage of the battlefield. You are tailors, farmers, dockhands. You have seen this brutality, you have seen this horror, and yet here you stand. And you are not alone.
All around us are the dead, comrades and friends that you have known for years or for days. But we will not think of them as the dead, we will think of them as the fallen and carry their spirits with us. The courageous fallen. The anguished fallen. Their sacrifice has meaning because we the living refuse to forget them. And as we march, one final time, we will trust our successors to do the same for us.
Because my soldiers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world. My soldiers push forward. My soldiers scream out. My soldiers rage.
To victory.