The first candles are lit

[Licinia DuQeynos]

Delivered by secret courier via the League of Antonican Bards, unsigned:

A single candle, or a pair, can easily be pinched out. But a dozen candles, a score, a hundred - together they can drive back the shadow that slowly spreads itself across Norath to herald in a Dark Reign.

This shadow must be resisted, or every individual light will perish. Once there were champions who proudly stood up for the oppressed, the poor, the weak; those who wished only to live their lives in harmony with their neighbours or their surroundings, whether they were mothers cooking meals for halfling children in the Misty Thicket, or elves dancing in the moonlight in the Greater Faydark, or farmers tilling the land in the Karanas. Once there were many. Not all have fallen.

And there are others who have decided to stand together lest we fall separately. Together we stand: Ones such as Stormfollower, shaman of Halas and the Tribunal of Justice. Xodyn, High Priestess of Nife. Rarcorder, Knight of Truth. Licinia, Investigator of Qeynos. Qlari of the Ocean of Tears. The list grows daily. We will channel our efforts; let this channel be known as a Candle in the Darkness.

[Gilliadson]

You may add the lights of Gilliadson Shadowbane of Freeport/Kelethin and She whom I am sworn to protect, Sineliniel Eledhwen of Felwithe to burn beside yours.

[Stormfollower]

~Many years later~

He looks down at the old parchment he has come across amongst his many crumpled maps and charts and recalls the emotion it stirred in him then. Like a reflection on sapphire seas the same feeling came back to him only slightly less powerful then when he first read the note from the bards.

"The shadow must be resisted" He murmured under his breath as he read. "Together we stand"

As he reached the end of the note he turned his gaze to the solitary candle that lit his study this night. His eyes transfixed on its vibrant dance. His thoughts meandered over the years in which they had resisted, their battles, the debates, their celebrations and losses.

Taking his albatross quill he scrolled the following lines onto the end of the note.

Yet all the candles in the world cannot shine beneath a rock until that rock is lifted. Together they have done this. Lifting many stones. Together they have assured that many dark places have seen their lights and still more shall see it yet. And as one candle in the darkness can bring a powerful hope and perhaps warm a pair of cold hands, the fire from this brave group now warms and illuminates the hearts and minds of all who come in contact with it. Each flame its own unique color, each fed by a slightly different fuel.The warmth and light combine in a unity of purpose more beautiful than any single source.

To this note please add your views

Stormfollower Wolfheart

Folding it carefully he carries the note to the Inn and finds a messenger to carry it to all those of which it speaks

[Gilliadson]

The knight reads the note delivered to him by the bard and pens in his response...

"As the new leader of House Illumine I declare that this House shall stand against the Darkness. Though we all have different views we still all hold one common enemy. Let notice be given to those who seek to extinguish our lights that we shall not fall easily nor shall we go away quietly. To attack one of us is to incur the wrath and judgement of all. War is coming let our blades and magics not fail us when it does!"

Lord Gilliadson Shadowbane
Lord Protector of House Illumine

[Licinia DuQeynos]

(My goodness, has it really been nearly three years? I think we did rather well - characters and players brought together who, I think otherwise might never have met each other).

She reads the note and remembers helping pen the first words. Has it been so long? She herself looks no older, but she only looks no older. Stormfollower the Younger is no longer so young, and to her mind, he has grown... harsher, with age, time, and battle taking its toll. Like herself. Of them all, only Elianeth seems the same as in those earlier days, a reassuring constant star that has helped her navigate when nothing else could be seen in the fog.

Had the hopes of the early Alliance been met? Did it try to be too many things to too many people? Or too little and to too few? Did we truly change anything for the better for the people we hoped to protect? Do our values burn as brightly now as they did then?

She had always hoped that better people than her would carry the torch forward. Her morals and ethics had always been too compromised by the necessity and nature of her duties, but that didn't mean she couldn't recognize, admire, and ultimately put her hope - and, in large part, the fate of the citizens of Qeynos - in the hands of those whose values had never faltered. Optimism had trumped cynicism; hope had trumped desperation.

She has less words now than she did then. So instead, she simply added one line, one name to the note.

Licinia of Qeynos