You speak of dignity? You speak of standing to be counted?

I have stood! I stood for years while the Empire came to threaten my borders and harass the Aerie, enduring your gluttony in hopes that you might find other flesh to gorge yourselves upon! I stood when the liars of the Great Oak came to peddle the "Cathres" of a meaningless God as hope, only to find their salvation written in the slit throats of my people! I stood while the cowards of SWEEP huddled behind their walls, covering their eyes while rejecting the very principles they were founded upon!

And now you all descend upon us to howl your empty platitudes at our doorstep. The Empire names me coward - claiming I left my people to bleed for my pride. The savages of the Heartwood murder our sons and daughters in their own homes, in the name of mercy and Life and expect us to thank them for the slaughter. The Hammer of Dawn offers to learn of our Great Dau, with letters of peace in one hand while damning us to die with the other. Proven time and time again that none of you city-states are to be trusted.

No, I did not run from you, false Satraps and butchers. I ran to find a future for my people! But it is only now that I see that there is no future in a world ruled by monsters that would use our extinction as a stage to flaunt your hollow virtues.

Yet, do not mistake our silence for inaction - for our course is set. It is all of you who have driven us to the precipice, where we shall all see that there is only the wind, the drop, and the jagged rocks below. When the calm breaks before the tempest, remember that it was your hands that sowed this wind.

You want me to choose? I spit on the Empire's chains! I break the Heartwood's knife! I burn the Hammer's leash!

We are Atavians of Dau, and we choose the storm!

Aamiran,
Servant of the Great Dau

Penned by my hand on Tisday, the 13th of Lleian, in the year 16 AC.