[Hello!]

Empires built on blood always end the same way. Rising through lies, only to collapse beneath the weight of their own failures. The leaders of Crownforge are no exception.

"When I came to the north to build a Temple for Vinaska. It was Crownforge who asked for me to join their people, to aid in times of war. There I witnessed a kingdom at war with itself.

A meeting was called, for the Shogun to hear the plights of his people. They do not want war. Instead, asking for prosperity, for stability.

The Shogun offered neither, only his burden.

When people voiced their concerns they were ignored. When they challenged him, they were branded traitors, Cor'Kalo learned this firsthand. Nearly a decade of leadership passed in Mitsuya's rule and nothing has changed. The same empty promises, refusing to listen to his people, only a call for war.  Even his own court began to fracture. 

Soheil, once his most loyal supporter, declared him unfit to lead. The Shogun's right hand turned against the one they swore to serve. A sign of a failing kingdom.

Amdist this coup, Mitsuya responded not with words or wisdom, but accusation, lashing out at his own people and calling them traitors. When chaos erupted, I stopped Soheil's assault. Proposing for a vote instead of violence, offering myself as an option as an alternative, not for power, but to guide the North towards something better.  Mitsuya's answer was simple. His family and loyalist called me a traitor, a criminal, shouted for my death.

The Shinjitsu family did not earn this mountain. They seized it through blood and deceit, a coup that stole dwarven homeland and called it progress. A ruler who cannot hear criticism cannot lead, one who fears accountability, one who values his ego above his own people and rather see them die than admit he cannot guide is already a tyrant. 

Nowhere is this more clear than with Haruhi.

Managing to defend myself, I held Haruhi in my grasp, Mitsuya had a choice. He could've asked for her safety, he could've sought for peace and protect one of his own. Instead, he begged for my death. I offered Haruhi countless of times, exchanging her for my freedom, offering an end to further bloodshed.

Mitsuya and Estelle refused every opportunity.

When one of his own was in danger, her life was not a concern of his. Rather, his pride.

This is not a leadership. It is tyranny dressed in a phoenix banner.

Within a year I prevented a war after Soheil's death threat against Annie, saved a citizen that Mitsuya and his court abandoned for years. I stopped a coup that would have ended in Mitsuya's death. I have done all of this while building Vinaska's temple nearby.

Imagine what I can do when the North is no longer chained to the Shogun's disease."

To the People of Crownforge

"I aim to march for the people in the North who deserve more than a sinking ship. For the people who wish to build rather than bury. The ones who want a future instead of another war. To give the people a chance to make something new, to be apart of a bigger change.

Change is hard. It is terrifying. It means turning back on your old loyalties. To start anew from everything you know.

I do not ask for you to fight or die for me. I only ask that you look at what stands before you. 

Ask yourself.

When your leader had a chance to save Haruhi, did he ask for her safety, or did he ask for my death?

I am not the villain, it is the one who has failed his people. Hold him accountable.

The north deserves a new beginning. Not endless wars or inherited power by "divine right". Not burdens disguised as leadership. It deserves a foundation strong enough to outlive us all. I've already begun in the ruins of Enos, Crownforge is next. 

The Shinjitsu plague ends now."
- Vulkahn Folhammar

Note: This is addressed to the people of Crownforge and those who call the North their home. Members of the Shinjitsu name and their loyalist who wish to contest these claims can find me in the wilderness or a set date.

[Appo]

A white rabbit has been lurking in the shadows since the presiding incident.

Since the flames burned, and all hel broke loose.

He threw the first stone in this mess.

He's not done throwing them.

The voice of declaration of one Vulkahn Folhammar is met with yet more of that coldness.

"We deserve more.

We deserve more than the Shinjitsu, who seek power for themselves,

but fail to defend their people when the moment arises.

All this talk of a burden - but when the time came, they did not step up.

They did not do what was necessary.

They failed us.

We deserve more than Soheil.

A man who had an opportunity. A man who held our dreams...

...and walked away when the flame was burning.

He did not do what was necessary.

He failed us.

We deserve more than you.

Vulkahn Folhammar.

Another snake in the grass.

A man who 'redeemed' himself.

Stepped out of the shadows...

...and dared to declare himself as an answer.

Imagine that?

A man, who'd only just stopped being the problem.

Then, he joins our people.

Fails to truly mingle, such that none...

...were ever truly on his side.

You and Soheil are not too different.

Both opportunists.

Both rebuffed.

...You may not be the villain.

But you're not our hero, either.

You have no right of claim to the fire I started.

You haven't earned the right, just as any other.

A greedy, glory seeking sort, you are.

Failing to see how you don't cut yourself apart...

...from the poison that already festers.

You are not our future, either."

In Crownforge, there is no answer.

Not today.