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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9192264" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Emperor Ariakas' SpeechCitizens of Sanction! This is your Emperor speaking!More than 350 years have passed since the Old Gods plunged Ansalon into an age of sorrow, where once-great civilizations lost touch with honor, dignity, and sense of history. Division and petty greed blinded us from seeing beyond the next day, as once-proud kings and queens spoke of duty and goodliness as they extorted wealth from the peasants whose blood and sweat stained their regal robes and scepters.Even so, as the world suffered, we did not lay back content with despair. In twenty years since the Pilgrimage to Neraka, our new Empire continues to make great strides of liberation and progress across the continent. Once-deadly plagues are now gone thanks to the priests and priestesses of Takhisis; hoarded bounties of elves and tyrants liberated for the good of the new order; the reclamation of holy artifacts of old Istar; and the racial unification of once-warring tribes marching side by side to the five-headed chorus of our Dark Queen’s anthem!Nevertheless, the experiences, especially of the last eight months, must strengthen our resolve to be careful and never to leave anything undone that must be done for the protection of all we fought for. Opposite us are the Solamnic Knights who deny the voices of their people, and the elves who commit acts of banditry and shoot down women and children who cross into forests they think are theirs. But worst of all are the so-called “Heralds of the True Gods,” who believe that shackling Krynn to the whims of cowardly deities is the greatest virtue; who would sabotage peace processes and tear down our cities in the belief that injustice in this life shall be rewarded in the hereafter. To them I say ‘unwrap the dark cloth from your eyes! Ask in your heart of hearts why serving the ones responsible for the Cataclysm is any sort of reward. Look at the destruction your path creates, and ask yourself if this selfishness is worth the price of a blackened world.’And so they kept on fixing new dates for our downfall, and now, in wartime, they are doing exactly the same thing. And why not? They are the same people, the same prophets, the same political diviners who prophesied the future so wonderfully when their ideological predecessors gained prominence in Abanasinia and other beleaguered communities striving for purpose. Today they are doing exactly the same thing. They always fix final dates. In the autumn they said: ‘Thorbadin today, Solamnia tomorrow, Ansalon by year’s end.’ It has passed that time, and yet the only places they claimed are the desolate corners of the continent where our Dark Queen’s blessings meet the deafening of ignorance.And so, in all due modesty, I have just one more thing to say to my opponents: I have taken up the challenge of many adversaries and up to now I have always emerged the victor from the conflict. I do not believe that this struggle is being carried on under different conditions. That is to say, the relation of the forces involved is exactly the same as before. In any case I am grateful to Takhisis that this struggle, having become inevitable, broke out in my lifetime and at a time when I still feel young and vigorous.Spring is coming, the spring which we all welcome. The season is approaching in which one can measure forces. I know that, although they realize the terrible hardships of the struggle, millions of Dragonarmy soldiers are at this moment thinking exactly the same thing...When I first entered this relic of old Istar twenty years ago, I was but a nameless man with nothing but the faith of a goddess to keep me going. During the twenty years since with the aid of people from all nationalities and walks of life, a new Age has been created. The road leading into the future will be easier than the road from January 3rd, 331 to the present. I look to the future with hope, not fear. The good folk of Ansalon have united under the banner of brotherhood. No matter the foe who stands before us, I know that when the enemy makes itself known and the order is given, the Dragon Empire shall march.</blockquote>

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