Sigil: City of Doors

Hearing that rank and stature would not affect the weight of their words, Ny'leve's smile would have widened, and she'd politely stand up to make her opening statement after Garen had finished. She'd speak softly and with confidence, giving the hivers a fair chance like a true Ilmaterite would.

"Most respected members of the Triad,

As someone who has spent most of her life helping the poor and downtrodden, folks not too different from those within the Hive, I feel the need to say that our methods at dealing with said citizens were bound to fail.

To understand why our situation has become so increasingly dire in the Hive Ward, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of a typical Hive dweller. To them, the Cage seems to be an entirely different place, one where the struggle for survival is far more real than we'd like to imagine from our comfortable seats. To those people, we appear as little more than an uncaring military, who occasionally barge in to solve some issue which they never asked our help with then leave before things get out of hand. We enter the Ward in intimidating plates of red and black, demanding them to follow a set of Laws that would make their lives none the easier, yet fail to offer them anything in return. In essence, we do not come across as a union for peace and harmony, but as an armed force of bullies using some written words as their excuse.

In short, our current methods, even if paired with the oft attempt at charity, do our reputation little good. Those citizens are restless and rebellious because we cannot offer them more than words and reassurances. Indeed, without a full commitment to restoring order, which I believe is out of the question due to other matters, we can offer them little more. But perhaps, by no longer barring our teeth and offering a helping hand instead, we can attempt to better reconcile with the people, and the Ward as a whole.

It is in that spirit that I suggest we cease our attempts at trying to solve the problem with military and force for the time being, and instead focus our efforts on helping to rebuild the communities, educate them and supply them with basic necessities through charity. By focusing our resources on cheaper, more long term solutions such as establishing public schools and community halls, we can give them the message that 'Indeed, we do care' without enforcing our will upon them.... and trust me, the people worth caring for will notice and be more welcoming the next time we go back. Such a solution, of course, would take time...

That is what I have to say in opening, please, don't let me keep you from expressing your own opinions."

With that, she hastily sat down and patiently awaited for the next speaker to rise and offer their own insight.

As the scheduled time arrived, Garen entered the meeting room he had booked to speak with the Harmonium and the Mercykillers. It was a simple room, set up informally to speak about the matters at hand, yet warded to protect from outsiders listening in.

Garen wore simple clothing, mostly what would be considered “casual” dress instead of his Fraternity robes. He had ensured lunch was on hand to enjoy while they spoke.

As members of the other two factions arrived, he would greet them warmly with a handshake. He would motion to the table. There was no assigned seating. It was apparent that this was, indeed, an informal discussion.

When everyone had arrived, he would begin


///I was hoping to do this in game but my work schedule has yet to loosen up. WeÂ’re still in full throttle at work and will be for the next couple weeks at the minimum.

Charae pushed the doors aside, striding into the room in robes of red and black much like the set she wore at the summit, except there was no fabric on her shoulders. In her arms was a portfolio and there was a gentleman following not too far behind.

She would greet Garen, her handshake rather firm despite how delicate her hand appear, and moved over to take her seat.

Dace kept in close stride behind the Mercykiller Factor, garbed in a black long coat and his usual tricorn hat. He would give Garen a polite nod in greeting, then take his seat as well.

Merium follows in behind Dace, giving Garen a smile, Though she may have come in practically unnoticed with her small stature. She wears her traditional work field uniform Matted and leaves her hardly distinguished from her surroundings. She sits to the otherside of Charea.

Charae smiled at Merium, having not seen the halfling for some time. The dark elf would lean to engage in a quiet conversation with Merium, catching up with where the Justice had been on her assignments.

When those present had seated themselves and made themselves comfortable, Garen would begin

“I welcome you all and thank you for taking the time to come and meet with me. The purpose of this meeting is to come up with a list of suggestions to give to our Factols on how to proceed with various issues that affect us all as members of the Triad. First and foremost I would like to discuss the issues concerning the Hive and the Lower Ward. In opening that discussion, I will start with my views on it.

For centuries we have tried to bring the Hive under control. The only thing we have managed to do is waste lives and resources in doing so. We have made no measurable gains in that Ward at all. We cannot patrol it without violence, we cannot supply it without violence, and we cannot control it without violence. This gains us nothing. It merely costsÂ… and the expense shows no sign of being reduced.

Even the Lower Ward is difficult to control. Another pit of wasted effort and resource.

Due to limitations in manpower, this wasted effort forces us to reduce our focus in the Clerks Ward, the LadyÂ’s Ward and the Market. It permits chaotic elements to gain a foothold in those areas, mostly the Clerks and the Market, as our attention is turned to things that demand too much of our time.

My suggestion is this; we abandon our presence in the Hive and the Lower Ward. We create a series of checkpoints on all entry points into the LadyÂ’s and Clerks Wards from those Wards to control the flow of people and contraband, and we take the newly freed up resources and manpower to double our presence in the LadyÂ’s, Clerks and Market Wards.

Right now, if hostilities of any kind break out, for exampleÂ… the Doomguard, we are scattered and they are grouped. We open ourselves to defeat on many fronts. We pull our resources out of these wasted areas and we ensure any flare-up by these hostile forces are easily contained. Even if they decided to surge from the Hive, we could easily stem the flow without reducing our numbers in the surviving wards to levels before this change. We would still be able to maintain suitable patrol numbers and a suitable defending force at the same time.

Now I don’t think this would have much of an issue in us going back in from time to time to extract targeted criminal elements. We’d simply have to do it posing as one of them. What would they do, mount a protest in court? The law does not protect those who choose to ignore it. They would still be open to the Councils authority when it was required that we enforce it. If that means sending in a strike team to extract people now and then, so be it.”