To the Janissaries of the Fourth Legion

[Sunburst]

Janissaries of the Fourth Legion,
Haunted by the Misfortunes,
Patriots of the Sultan,

As most of you well know, I seek your formal support in the coming Qdim election. I am well-aware of the great, simmering disdain among your ranks for Marcellus Saenus (and indeed, for the weak-handed, unambitious Purple League as a body). And I like to think that I have been a just and cooperative Magistrate, across all judgements that I have rendered.

It is time to begin serious negotiations. I seek a contract, promising the organization of your ranks to vote for me, signed by your Sergeants and Lieutenants.

For those of you who do not know this, the agreement is sacred to the Modini. It is the cornerstone of our honor and our worth. And though my understanding of honor is different in some matters, from those of the dead city, mine is an honor I take very seriously.

This agreement will be made sacred to you also. These promises we make to each other, they will be consecrated under your much-feared god, the Wroth, against all his hate if it is broken. This ceremony, I would ask you to lead, and I would join respectful.

If we come to an agreement, this we will do. And all promises, I will uphold with iron purpose.

As a floor to this negotiation, Rennik Colmes has asked me to refrain from civil rights legislation that could handicap the investigations of the Janissaries. This, I could agree to easy, as a guarantee of the contract.

But I have not heard other needs and wants of the soldati, and I think that is important to change.

Write to me your hearts.

If it is ink, it is in blood,
DANTE
MORETTI

[Sunburst]

Thank you for receiving me in person

I hope that our next conference has the same delightful hospitality.

With some factions in this city (politely unnamed), a conversation like this makes me want to start the next life. But consistently have I found the Sultan's men to be courteous hosts and rational minds.

DANTE
MORETTI

[Sunburst]

Pursuant to our conversation on the matter, Lieutenant Rennik Colmes, the leadership of the Gold League have met to discuss the matter of Arslan.

We are unanimously resolved to advance the imperial ambitions of Ephia's Well and acquire the city as a colony, as a long-term investment in the wealth and prestige of our fledgling nation. We are prepared to go to any necessary length to obtain this asset and have begun to take steps toward building our leverage in the coming negotiation. This includes, but is not limited to, earmarking a massive sum (far in excess of the plunder we have divided) to prospectively purchase Arslan outright, whether by buying out the Serdar, by bribing court interests in Kha'esh, or by paying into the clause of some diplomatic treaty.

Necessarily, this political war chest will require us to draw from certain charity accounts, such as the Sisterhood trust fund, but we are unconcerned with potential pushback there. So long as the White League does not win a seat ahead of the negotiations, our preparations should proceed apace.

The exact details of how we will administrate Arslan are to be determined, but I assure you this: we are here to build an empire, not an international charity house, and we have little sympathy to the White League's ideological cousins in Arslan. It is only for the sake of good business that we will look past their wholesale genocide of local merchants (let alone their brutal attack on our own). If the Serdar has not already crushed their Seekers-After-Death partisan factions, we are more than ready to perpetuate martial law in Arslan and let our soldiers achieve that personally.

DANTE
MORETTI