Although Omeg has already posted in reply, I wish to add my two cents on
the matter as well.

Ariel, perhaps you should strive to know your surroundings before you
are so quick and decisive to know what you should do. If you didn't know
the situation beforehand as to why your citymates were pressuring you to
join their militia, why did you not bother to ask and just blindly join?
And after that, did you expect that it was for little to no reason at
all? You seem rather shocked to find that your city was at war.
Although, I can't think of any reason to have a bombardment of people
requesting you join a militia - a group dedicated to warring and the ilk
- other than war. Pardon me if I'm wrong in a vital way that I seem to
be overlooking.

You said yourself that you did not understand all the recent news posts
in respects to the war. Yet, you question the intentions of Lady
Slyphe's forces and label them the antagonists, those who would deny
Ashtan's said-coveted "freedom". Perhaps there is due research in order
here. If you truly were once a follower of the Lady, you would
understand Her realm. That of Change, the constant shifting and movement
of the world as we know it. Ashtan is a direct offense to Her realm. It
has sat, stagnant, for years. It opposed those who would try to do it
good, turned them away. If that is an aspect of freedom - the putting
down and turning away of a wish to alter a coming fall - then, perhaps
my vision of the concept is fatally and deathly skewed.

Now, what do you suppose is an alliance? It is a group of people united
with a certain cause or organization. A group, let me emphasize. If
there are a number of organizations that wish the same thing - the fall
of Ashtan - where is the intellect behind refusing their aid? Ashtan was
offered chances to change itself, yet it didn't. It is not the fault of
anyone but Ashtan itself that stagnation festered and attracted the
attention of the Lady of Change and those forces who chose to align
themselves under Her.

I am not trying to create enemies. I am only trying to create
clarification and reasoning behind recent actions that seem to be
misperceived or replaced with thoughts and opinions of another's.

In service of Change,
Osifer

Penned by my hand on the 18th of Khepary, in the year 123 MA.