Typhon
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize for my neighbor's vehemence. We have struggled with the people of the Marukan, it is true, but our struggle is merely for identity. We don't ask for any special concessions beyond the right to exist. It's the most basic desire of all creatures, young and old, living and dead. I think too often these newly returned Exalted of the Sun ask us to push the past behind us, perhaps because their history is so shameful. Perhaps this is why they are so fearful of the voice of their ancestors, of the wisdom, experience, and perspective that they provide.
"I tell you that there are residents of Thorns today that remember the Anathema for what they were... and shudder! Older and more temperate men than myself have called for their extermination, if only to prevent the repetition of so much sorrow. We have struggled for centuries to recover from their last reign of terror. To think that we stand on the brink of another such catastrophe... No, it is too terrible to contemplate.
"Despite the imminent danger of their presence, in the past the city of Thorns has gone out of its way to avoid quarreling with our... well, frankly, paranoid neighbors to the north. This is why we've been so surprised by their interpretation of the events at Three Hills. We've become used to their baseless accusations, but even so, I again apologize on behalf of Song of the Silver Wind to the assembled body for airing out such a trivial matter. I cannot stand to see the upright citizens of that village tarnished before you, so I will say a few words for them before I introduce a more appropriate representative.
"The deceiver (to use the common parlance) has said that we have forcibly taken one of the Marukan's villages and occupied it militarily. This couldn't be further from the truth. The people of Three Hills are our friends, and we've long had peaceful relations with their town. The people in Southern Marukan are not like the vocal representatives of the fortress state of God Crossing; they understand and respect their ancestors. In fact, they are so in tune with the respectful treatment of both the living and the dead that they were blessed with a miracle, that special blending of life and the afterlife that is a Shadowland. I admit that they were surprised by this, and some were fearful of the first new steps into a brave new kind of family continuity. For this reason, the Mask of Winters, in his benevolence, sent a handful of advisors to the village to help them through the process. Nothing more.
"It was the prejudice of the warlords of God Crossing (thank goodness they do not speak for the whole of the Marukan) that sent them to the village with blood on their minds, always eager for the slaughter. We did not stoop to acquiescing to their desires. We did not attack them, though it broke our hearts to refrain when we watched them gather the entire village, some so sick they couldn't even walk, loaded them into their chariot like cattle, and then drove them away to be "reeducated" in their strange and insular propaganda. For the city of Thorns makes no claim of sovereignty over any of the independent villages of the Marukan. It is not our place to judge such internal conflicts, although the increasing civil strife within that country, instigated and exacerbated by the anathema, has troubled our master's gentle soul. Perhaps it troubles you as well.
"I'll speak no more on the matter, but rather introduce my guest, a venerable citizen of Three Hills since the Contagion..."
Typhon, at the Council of Rivers, regarding the incident at Three Hills
