Crusader's Letter

Note · 20 gp · Weight 2

"My son, You are already ten years old as I write these words. I don't know when you will read them, or if you will ever get the chance — I am writing to you from a city besieged by a demonic horde, in the last crusader stronghold, minutes before the battle that may very well be our last. I have put off writing this account year after year, but now that I can feel death breathing down my neck, I thought it was finally time to pick up a quill. I don't doubt that in our noble family, my name is either mired in disgrace or consigned to obscurity. I am called a coward and a traitor, one who forsook his homeland and his family. It doesn't matter to me. As I see it, I owe nothing to the Great House Garess — they gave me life, yes, but they took my childhood and my youth, denying me love and friendship, joy and happiness. I owe them nothing. But to you, my son, I owe the truth. I never loved your mother, nor she me — marriages amongst the nobility are not brokered for love. When a Brevic aristocrat says the word 'love,' he means 'obedience.' It was in the name of 'love' that your great-grandfather bid me 'love' that woman — and I obeyed, to my sorrow and hers. I comforted myself with the hope that our union would prove fruitless, for I knew I would be unable to give you anything but that same northern 'love' — that cold cruelty that speaks its name in screams and floggings. I resolved to flee when I understood everything with clarity: Brevoy was doomed to civil war. For too long had its two halves, Rostland and Issia, suffered under the yoke of this forced marriage, as your own parents had. I counted among my friends many heroes of Restov who bore the illustrious name Aldori. I knew I would be forced to raise my sword against them when the Great Houses decided to destroy the very thought of an independent Rostland. It was a burden I knew I could not bear. I turned my back on my homeland and my family and fled to Mendev to join the crusaders. Whatever horrors awaited me in a war against evil incarnate, they could not be more terrifying than the fratricidal slaughter that was coming for Brevoy. In Mendev I could be sure who my friends were and who was the enemy. Here I need not wonder if I am fighting for a just cause. Here is where I learned what love is, real love. Goodbye, my son. Know that I regret nothing. I found my truth — I hope you will find yours. Quilessy Garess, Foot Soldier of the Crusader Army of Her Majesty Queen Galfrey of Mendev"