To:
Archbishop Phạm Quang Nhật of Herbert
CC:
The Noble Houses of Herbert and the Order of Battle Brothers.
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This world Your Grace is a garden, and yet in this garden of Our Lord's serpents abound, and oh do they love to raise their heads and bare their fangs and at times even whisper sweet sounding words on their forked tongues to those foolish enough to listen to them.
I will get straight to the point. Our information based on observation of the Riah Hariqa as of the time House Agichis operation was ordered was that the Riah Hariqa,
who had no right whatsoever to the republican ruins to begin with, rendering thereby any claim by the Azhgeya to legitimate ownership based on purchase of land rights worth less than the sheep skin it is scratched upon, had made secret counsel with the same Azhgeya and revealed to them the location of ruins harking to the age of heresy and that contained therein was an artifact of blasphemous technology. At the same time we learned that the Riah Hariqa offered scouts and rangers to the service of the Io-Ian and that these were primarily engaged in observing Hazat movements.
We expected in course that the Azhgeya, being half-a-step removed from desert savages and granted by an accident of history the titles and dignity of nobility, would publically at that time as is customary in matters pertaining to forbidden technology release the coordinates of the ruins to Your Grace for them to be assessed by your agents and for your forces to consign anything forbidden contained therein to oblivion before what legitimate artifacts and resources were contained therein were released into Azhgeya custody. For indeed as the Hazat rightly say and contrary to the stated position of the Azhgeya that this is a matter purely between the nobility, it is the nobles obligation "
to take the lead in ensuring all machines and technology within our fief follow the guidance of the Church" and this includes forfeiting forbidden technology, such as nuclear weapons, cloning facilities and the like to the sole custody of the Church. They did not do so.
Rather we observed instead the strange silence of the Azhgeya as the Hazat subsumed House Io-Ian through threat of force and through the instrumentality of a farcical propaganda campaign facilitated by the shills of the Guild. This act being grossly against noble norms and one of great concern to us but which we were hardly in a position alone amongst houses to object too where all others were silent. We see now as well that the Hazat, scarcely a year after their great triumph and despite having no stake whatever in this stand-off in the sands, voice their support of the Azhgeya in the matter of ownership of a site based on purchasing rights to the ruins from a tribe that had no right to the land involved to begin with. Two birds of a feather flock together Your Grace, or perhaps the Azhgeya's silence in the matter of the Io-Ian was due to something other than mere indifference and is simply the price the Azhgeya paid for the Hazat to turn the other cheek on their errant endeavors.
Nonetheless presuming still upon the Azhgeya's good nature and fearing that the Riah Hariqa with the imminent subjection of their Io-Ian backers under the Hazat would in haste foist heretical technologies to the likes of the Scravers Guild (whose ships you would know have been observed loitering on our fair world) for propagation to whatever criminal or heretical group might see fit to purchase them, we immediately contacted the battle brothers as the most proximate ecclesiastical authority to the area in question with the military power to prevent such a nefarious act and notified them that Republican artefacts of spiritual and temporal concern were likely fall into the wrong hands if concerted action was not taken to secure the artifacts by the pious post haste. It was our intention then that once the site was secured with the aid of the battle brothers the ordinary ecclesiastical investigation would then commence without obstruction under the auspices of the See of Herbert. Alas by the time our forces had arrived the Azhgeya and the Al-Malik (who presumably learned of the location of the ruins by their own means) had already arrived and the former had set up forts and hoisted their sheep-skin scrap of a flag claiming ownership. Hence the point we have come too.
Still, Your Grace, as you have read and supported, we proposed a common and collaborative excavation and knowing the Azhgeyas vulgar, covetous nature and the Al-Maliks secular disposition suggested some division of spoil to compensate all involved for expenses incurred, to at least allow desert tribesmen the chance to save face and manifest clearly their participation in civilised society. They refused, projecting their covetousness onto us, and through us to Our Liege Her Gracious Majesty the Archduchess of Clarke and Tenno of House Li Halan and uttering calumnies against us and against our honour. For this slight we will obtain due satisfaction. Nonetheless we are a rational man and observing that the situation is not necessarily to our advantage
we are compelled to withdraw from the ruins. For as we have said we desire no unseemly scrabble over the relics of a lost age and with the Al-Malik fleeing the scene ( tail between their legs we might add much like an Assimovian dog-monkey flees a Xyall Nymph newly hatched and ravenous out of its egg ) out of fear of the combined power of the Hazat and Azhgeya, whose shady association with each other is clear to all, we are not foolish or impious enough to forget prudence and sacrifice the lives of our men for no profitable end.
We can only urge Your Grace to make full use of your authority to ensure that the ruins are properly assessed
under the direct control and secure protection of the Church, and that all that is forbidden within them is either deposited safely in the bosom of the same mother Church or cast into purifying avestite flame. Alas we fear what the serpents lurking in your garden may do, for as it is written in the holy Omega Gospels "by their fruits you shall know them". Observe Your grace, the fruits borne by those who calumniate our honour, dabble on the fringes of heresy while imbibing the juices of noxious cacti and further so recently offended against the hospitality of your hall are beneath the skin rotten indeed.
~ signed Duke Agichi Ho
PS: we have attached a copy of the relevant intelligence dossiers for Your Graces perusal.
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ooc translation: we withdraw because Ork does, but not without objection, particularly noting that claims of legitimate ownership based on purchase from the Riah Hariqa are obviously spurious because the latter did not legitimately own the land to begin with (Allodial land rights could only possibly be held by the Church or the High Noble "sovereigns" with vassal lords holding fiefhold (either directly or as secondary or tertiary fiefholders under other vassals) and freeholders feudal freehold under their feudal overlord in a descending feudal structure with the "King' at the top. For the Azhgeya to make a claim of ownership based on purchasing the rights means they did not own the land allodially to begin with, yet the Riah Hariqa not being a "royal sovereign" or the Church could not possibly have owned the allodial or feudal rights to then sell them to the Azhgeya legitimately. Therefore the true owner is either another house unknown or the Church itself. At any rate the Azhgeya claim is spurious).
ooc II: Lord Agichi is proud, the above diplomacy reflects that.
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Quotation (with top secret info censored) from my private update (intelligence report) on the previous turn. (complete with typos 
)
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To: His Grace the Archbishop of Herbert
From: Archduchess Naganaka Ichika of House Li Halan.
Your Grace,
We understand that our vassal, His Grace the Most Excellent Duke of Herbert Agichi Ho has already written to you regarding the spuriousness of the Azhgeya claims to ownership of the ruin site and the imperative of ecclesiastical oversight of matters pertaining to matters of blasphemous technology. Furthermore we have been advised that he has informed you of the intelligence obtained that compelled him to swift action to secure the location of the ruins lest it result in the dissemination of forbidden artifacts to the likes of the criminal and the heretic. Know that we support him absolutely in this and that additionally the insults hurled against him and his intentions by the perfidious Azhgeya and added too albeit to a lesser degree by the Hazat are nothing less than insults against us. As the sins of the vassal are those of the liege, so is it that offences against the vassal are committed against the liege also.
We urge you, given Azhgeya intransigence and Al-Malik weakness in the face of provocations from the Azhgeya an the Hazat, as the representative of Holy Church and viceregent of the Pancreator himself upon Herbert to assume direct oversight of the ruins that what sacrilegious artifacts might therein be contained may be documented and destroyed.
Certainly the Azhgeya would not refuse this if their intentions are pure. We likewise urge you to ensure future outrages on the part of savages are clearly condemned, that the likes of the obscenity committed against House Io-Ian is not repeated.
Yours Faithfully.
Tenno Naganaka Ichika - Archduchess of Clarke, Sovereign of House Li Halan.
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ooc translation: stock standard diplomatic protest.
