I fully agree with the latest postings by our respected Sister Imperia,
but the full story of what happens in Shastaan is far grislier than
even she assumes. If it were a matter of sexual slavery alone,
the guilt would be with Shanugis and his henchmen only, and it
would be quite unfair to let the rest of the Shastaan population
suffer for his aberrations. Personally I am not in favour of killing
people in order to make them rise against their tyrants, but it is the
people itself that are guilty of something far worse than just
looking the other way while their children are being abused. What I am
talking about is the horrible crime of ecocide, of overfishing the
sea off "their" coast and brutally butchering any Kelki bycatch. This
whole affair is indeed about balance, but it is a balance that far
outweighs the petty struggle between those that use devotion and those
that use essence. In order that the marine fauna be preserved and in
order to prevent that the Kelki population be driven slowly towards
extinction it is at present imperative that the Shastaan villagers be
culled from time to time. The only way for them to avoid this fate,
or at least to rightfully claim the status of "innocent" victims is
to desist from the atrocities that right now lie at the heart of
their very identity and to revert to a more civilized way of life.
Maybe in that way too they will start to deserve their high
alignments instead of just owing those to the preachings and rites
that are pandered to them by the righteous ones.


Penned by my hand on the 5th of Midautumn, in the year 110 MA.