Address to Debke Wadam Garrison

Date: 2 Age of Chaos

Author: Öthenar Maelorith, Commander of a garrison in Debkemewd, first Exarch of Nemerwod.

Soldiers of the Legion! The Empire has fallen to the goblin invasion. The emperor’s sons are dead, and the bright city of Aethlirin has vanished together with the imperial court. Governors all over the world are seceding or are being overthrown by their rebellious subjects.

As we speak, the demon-worshipping Kwoden are assembling in the vales below, preparing to attack us. The Empire is gone, and so is the Emperor. In the eyes of Dhin, or any other gods you may worship, we are free from our service. Each of you would be well within your right to rise now and leave for your homes in Izbred.

But why would the heretics thirst for our blood, if we were men of the Empire no more? Because we are still soldiers of the Empire for it is not a banner, not a throne, not a faith, but an idea. The idea that an unarmed man can pass unharmed from Dhinaem to Urandayed, that one can trust a stranger with their life, that there is a law in Udroth. And even as the power of this idea crumbles, its institutions fade, we remain its symbol, that puts fear into the hearts of all murderers, robbers and heretics. A fear that the Empire is not gone. That is why the rabble in the valley wish to see us dead. They are afraid, afraid of what we were, and what we can become again.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of other imperial garrisons all over the world, lost and forgotten. The Empire itself may be gone, but its soldiers remain. On our own we will fade, dissolve in the seditious, shattered world. So you can leave – and know that the Empire dies with you, or you can remain with me and fight, and uphold the light, keep the seeds of the imperial idea until a time comes, and they can bloom once more.

And if we die today – let us die not as fleeing cowards, but as remnants of a good incomprehensible to our foes, haunting them until the end of the world! For the Empire, Sun, and Law!