Men often look to some great event in which they might, through their participation or influence therein, impact the outcome of human history, and in doing so, earn a place of prominence within antiquity. I have been in many battles both in wartime and in need of survival. I have surveyed the depths of Maenatae and its heights. Often I wondered at discoveries which I was first among mankind to witness. Still I felt that I was missing something. As if I were observing the elements of some grand play unfolding and I was a mere spectator. More importantly, a spectator whose own life made events in the play seem pale and uninteresting.
Well, now I know. It was more than a notion, more than simply a feeling. Stethanos Francois – Charles of Sebastian; and here I thought I was Stephan Adrano. Wellspring of Light and Justice rather than a creeping darkness and canker to men. Son of the son of a king and not the son of a hateful man bent upon raising the dead to do his bidding. Enemy to the Duke of Coventry and his advances upon Caradia; not the Aide de Camp of the elite forces of the Dukes Son. Winsome and not stoic. Considerate and not self serving. I do not even know who I am and I wonder now if another spirit came into my body after my resurrection and return to this plane.
The one constant I have had, and to my greatest joy and relief, has been the friendship and dedication of the Prince Regent, now Duke of Coventry, Vincenso Marcuso Scarlotti. It is odd to me that he was my enemy all of those years and neither of us realized it. Well, he was enemy to my family and to my people. Yet of all men which I know it was Vincenso which most quickly accepted my true heritage and acted to see me safely returned to my rightful place. So then, considering these things which I have spoken to you Lords and Masters of Caradia, let us rally beneath them as a banner and as a forebear of things which shall be. We shall go to the aid and the right flank of this Duke and we shall, fighting beside him as we did when our fathers fought under Phillip of Light and Antoni I of Coventry. We shall make them and the remainder of humanity face the truth. We are brothers and we shall join ever as such when doom threatens either.
Stethanos III of Caradia
Oration to the Lords of Palatine and the Order of the Swords of Light on the eve of The March of Men, Mae and Khrn at the close of The Hundred Day War.