Aubrey Domergue

[Zambition]

Lyrist Aubrey Domergue,

I pray this letter finds you in good health. You know as well as I that the Rumor Mill stops for no one, and my, do the people talk.

In the midst of all this bedlam and heated rhetoric, your polity of the Balladeers has struck me as a mysterious beast to unravel in my study of Ephian politics.

Many of your comrades are in the League of White, as are many of the Sibylline Sisterhood. When I spoke to Mae Stern, she held concerns that the League of White had been hamstrung long ago by the Lost Hearth, and that you, Aubrey Domergue, have not let go ever since.

I know you have run for office not once but thrice, and I know that you spent a great deal of time away from the city on hiatus (let us call it holy pilgrimage or soul searching, perhaps). I would like to hear what stakes the Balladeers hold in our League, and what motivates you to exercise so much love into it that you had once forgotten you are not its Official, in saying;

Any person who has given their vote to another league shall be stricken from the roles of the White League with great prejudice. At this moment - at this imperative crossroads! - there can be no excuses for these distractions and detractors.

I admire the bravado and passion for our League, however, and I am sure it was said in an impassioned frenzy. There are two reasons why one would cast a vote for none other than their own League, and one is granted the benefit of doubt; firstly, their vote was purchased, because the Voiced system was dominated by oligarchic politics for several months beneath the League of Gold and so they owed a debt; secondly, they did not have confidence in the League's chosen representative. The former is gross misconduct and should be eradicated as an idea. The latter is entirely warranted in our nascent democracy, where in an ideal world, the people would vote for the candidate that resonates with them, not because they have been told to vote for that candidate.

But forgive me, I've begun to ramble! Let us meet soon? You have surely ordained a firm and resolute vision for both our League and the city by now, having been actively participating in these politics for years, and I would like to hear (as is blessed and warranted by my faith in the Twins, Kalim and Gamil) what you desire of the government, and what you would like to see refined in our (still learning and changing) democracy.

Thank you,

Edmund Lothere

[Pandip]

Edmund,

Sincere apologies for the lateness of my reply. The Cinquefoil quest requires constant attention, particularly during times such as these.

I hear you have taken on the mantle of candidate for the upcoming election. Now, more than ever, it is prudent to address questions such as these -- and seek the answers we ought herald through the chorus of the People.

I have made my fair share of mistakes. The enmity that Mae holds for me is not ill founded; there is a legitimacy to her vitriol that is built over many-an-interaction which has withered our once blooming friendship. I do not, however, believe that my efforts to run as legate and my consistent willingness to exert pressures onto the members of our league fits among those mistakes.

Politics is a battlefield, one not entirely unlike a stage. Each actor desperately vies for the spot of prima persona, navigating the twisting and ever-changing script for the prize of the audience's heart. How, then, is the audience meant to differentiate the conveyed fervor of an impassioned dialogue from the portents of an intimate soliloquy? I would attest that they cannot -- in sooth, they should not. For words are so cheaply bought and exchanged; so cheap that one cannot derive true meaning. It is a person's actions which ring most true -- on this battlefield and all others.

I will confide with you a simple truth: The threat I made over the bellows was naught but bluster. Have I the authority to foist a person from our league? Certainly not! But neither did I have the legal mandate with which to overturn the villainous edicts of conscription and slavery laid forth by the League of Gold. And yet, I blustered! I was fitful! I was tireless! I made demands! I called to the folk to my left and right and said, "Is this not an indignity most insufferable? Shall we let tyranny reign in place of hope?" And soon thereafter, the People cried "Nay!' with all the breath they could muster. They cried aloud with such a furious conviction that I led a march to the pyramid to have these injustices overturned by the very man who instated them -- and so by the mandate of the People, Argent did.

It was imperative that Alexandria Sayburgh win her election. We have not had a candidate in the White League with such potential since Domhnall Guivarch. And what I will count among my many mistakes is the squandering of Domhnall's potential. I would not see history repeat itself. To abandon Alexandria for a greedy braggart like Zina or a moss-laden octogenarian in Marcellus would have been a condemnation of our league's ability to ever enact change in Ephia's Well.

And look at us now -- evoking change with every passing day, giving goodly gifts back unto the People, and on the journey towards a thriving future in spite of the tribulations of the past.

If I must occasionally play the role of the heavy-handed and villainous intruder to see done what needs be done, then so be it. But know this: My intrusion on the White League is a product of a passionate belief that the tenets of the Lillies are the surest path unto the Paradise the Cinquefoil Rose seeks for Ephia's Well.

A good legate is not made from a bundle of promises and a surfeit of deals. Were this the case, the avaricious merchants within the Gold League would have crafted a utopia out of Ephia's Well. No; a great leader is that person whose heart compels them to act for the betterment of all, even when it is most difficult to do so. Especially when it is most difficult to do so! For if we uplift ourselves from the muck only to thrust our neighbors down to replace us, the world we are creating is no Paradise at all.

And so you must ask yourself, as you endeavor to step forth onto center stage: How shall you comport yourself when the audience leans forth and gawks waitingly for your next act?

Good luck in your primary. You shall need it.

Truth in Action,

    -- Aubrey Domergue
       Lyrist of the Lost Hearth
       

[Zambition]

A reply is sent forthwith.

You need not apologize, for I believe the suspense of your response was adequately well received and worth the delay! Thank you for your words and reassurances, Lyrist. Let none doubt your dedication to the cause, and I look forward to discussing all of this at length with you in person one day.

If I do not see you on the morrow, or the Sixteenth of Iyar, then know this; in the absence of the man who sparked the ideals of our League, let proven heroines as yourself stand as well tested and respected champions of all that we believe in and aspire towards.

Thank you, Aubrey Domergue. You have not disappointed, and your reputation for acerbic wit and charm precedes you indefinitely. Truth through action.

Regards,
Edmund Lothere