I do apologise ahead of time for the length of this post, those of you who know me also know that brevity is not my strong suit.

If the words of a man branded 'traitor' can only be seen as lies, and not for the content contained within, then what is contained herein does not apply to you. Surely the Overseer himself has already sought to dismiss my actions (at best) as one of those of a disenfranchised upstart or (at worst) the mastermind of some nefarious plot steeped in the Dark order to overtake the city's government and claim the Overseership as my own.

I have always always acted strongly in my own convictions, but always with the best interest of the organizations that I have served. My actions were my own, and were in no way encouraged or sanctioned by the Order of Darkness; a message to those who actively seek to defraud the city-state of Ashtan from its true sovereignty through nepotism and blatant abuses of power vested by those they claim to protect.

This will serve as an account of my experiences regarding my time on the ruling council of Ashtan as I experienced them leading up to events transpiring in recent months. On to it then..

I do not fully understand why, however from the time that I contested Enyd Tresmegistus for the Archon sear, Dunn has seen me as a political threat and on several occassions has made reference to my organizational arrangements as a former Mhaldorian ally and as a follower of Darkness in an attempt to defame my character and intentions, stooping so low as to call me a liar when confronted with his own lies and abuses of power.

Shortly after succeeding Enyd, and in a move to consolidate his power, Dunn, without appropriately consulting the council, changed the laws (illegally) so that a three of five member majority was required for all proposed law changes. Under this change to law, he passed further laws to decentralize authority from the ruling council, consolidating his power, and distributing Archon powers onto several of the ministries and the courts, to which he appointed a known political supporter, Kinilan. Kinilan, himself has powers to select the Magistrati, and further selected supporters.

This bias became apparent when Crythril, after accused of aiding Mhaldorians in a worldwide capture the flag event identified me as
his representation. Not knowning Crythril, but wanting to ensure that he received a fair trial, I agreed, despite knowing that the charges against him were dire. This was again confronted by Dunn with threats and accusations of malintent and being sympathetic to Mhaldorians over my own citymates. Those directly involved in the case would tell you that I had no personal bias in the matter, although the Overseer sought to further slander my name and invalidate my arguments despite that he had no role or stock in the investigation.

There is evidence of these law changes in the city news as the Warlock Kunama sought to uncover what she perceived to be unannounced law changes in the wake of my election. When personally confronted on this, he did -not- refute the fact that he acted outside of his power and his response to my challenge was to personally threaten me with violence. Stating that I deserved to be 'cuffed upside my head' for what I could only assume was calling him out for defrauding the legislative process and establishing himself as dictator under the guise of a fair and balanced legal process.

Throughout the early years of my Archonship the Order of Twilight's shrines came under attack from a group of Eleusians, primarily Ryuke, Mazzington, Rangor, Valaria, and a few others. Even the Eleusians involved will tell you that in most cases I acted alone in the defense of these shrines. It was not long before the Villagers sought to expand their campaign to include attacks against Hashan, and in two instances there were Hashani Darkwalkers who followed me into combat against them. Dunn's response to this was to, yet again, accuse me of sympathizing with what he called an 'unliked city' (whatever that is supposed to mean). And threaten me a third time. Respecting his wishes, I acquiesced.

But soon his plan to further discredit me would become clear, as Ashtani soldiers such as Nemutaur to start defiling Darkness shrines in order to provoke Ashtani Darkwalkers into attacking. Still being under seige from Eleusis I witnessed Nemutaurs acts reflexively, and naturally did not engage him since he was a citymate.

Most recently, as a member of Ashtan's cultural ministry alongside Kadin had chosen to hold the honourable Ascendant of Zarathustra tournament. The minister of culture, Khaibit and I had a conversation in which she expressed that the tournament had come under the topic of great controversy since Jhui was challenging the rule changes. Up until that point both Kadin and I had been fully responsible for the outcome of the tournament. Dunn, stating that he consulted Lord Vastar on the matter, chose to change rules so that Jhui would also be involved in the finale despite that he was not eligible to do so. Furthermore, the Minister of Culture covered up the evidence of such by changing the rules and reposting the altered rule set in the cityhelp file. Even yet, these were not even the rules that they had been changed from, but yet a third set of rules consistent with Jhui participating in the finale. Yet another abuse of power of the Overseer, to provide favors to a friend and political ally.

Josoul provided evidence to me confirming that the rule-set established by the Overseer was indeed, not one from the past, but one created to support his goals to both discredit me and my efforts and allow his friend the title he felt he was entitled to. This is an affront to the tournament as a whole and to those who participated and followed the rules according to how they were written.

Fed up with stowing my feelings, I contacted the court system, stating that I would be pressing formal charges against the Overseer. Immediately, the Overseer spoke up and challenged me on this desire. Kinilan then showed to be at that point, yet another agent of the Overseer, unable to remove his personal ties to Dunn to confront the injustice for what it was.

Empassioned by yet again another flagrant disregard of Ashtani law, and confronted by corruption at every turn, I made a choice to do what only made sense to me at the time.

I cast the Dunn Lichlord from the city, branding him an enemy for his treachery.

I am not asking for forgiveness for my actions. I will not cower or bow before a dictator. All I ask is for this to be seen for what it is, yet another course of events that proves that your current government seeks to defraud you of your most basic freedoms.

Dunn Lichlord is a Tyrant and actively seeks to further his own agendas, surrounding himself with political allies and sycophants. He has at every turn sought to secure himself as the only true authority in Ashtan, resorting to threats and slander.

Search your feelings and you will find the truth. Is this, as he so claimed, a dark plot to stage a coup? If so, it was certainly not a well planned out plot. It would, however be in line with his agenda to engage in a war against Hashan.

He holds no accountability to the populous as a whole, and seeks to only further his own ends. Search your feelings and you will find this to be true. I beseech the populous of Ashtan to hold him accountable for his actions, doing what is necessary to ensure that your Bastion of Freedom stays just that.


Always in Service,

Andraste Montenegro

Penned by my hand on the 5th of Aeguary, in the year 671 AF.