By Sir Alaric Wolstenholme McAndrew V, Crowndon Minister of Propaganda

8/1-Greetings, citizens of Crowndon, and citizens of our neighbors in Nor Easter. Also, Monteddor. We see you. We just aren’t very happy with you at the moment.

Many of you may be wondering why I, the Honorable Sir Alaric Wolstenholme McAndrew V, am writing an article for the Gazette. It is part of an arrangement, the details of which I am sure would be much too complex and boring for the layman to understand, that Mister Merchant’s father made with the Crown to keep his little newspaper afloat when it nearly went under three years ago. This deal allows the Crowndon military to post a representative, in this case myself, as a member of the Gazette’s staff in times of great national crisis.

And make no mistake, we are in crisis.

Monteddor finds itself embroiled in an internal ‘family dispute’ that has all but stopped shipments of our lifeblood from flowing into Crowndon, and Nor Easter as well. The Empress of Nor Easter, meanwhile, finds it more imperative to gallivant with artists and amuse herself with gossip than address the growing number of protests and myriad groups of political dissenters in her ranks.

Meanwhile, across the Barrier Ocean, our colonies face hardships of their own. A group, nay, and ARMY of bandits terrorizes the western frontier, and grows larger by the day. Too large for the Colonial Marshals to combat on their own. Disease runs rampant in the south, and an entire township has disappeared, along with anyone sent to investigate, including the Gazette’s own Adella Chatelaine.

That’s to say nothing about the disappearance and reappearance of Waystation Bravo, or the various mad men such as Sir Rigel Rinkenbach and the traitorous Ivan Klankenvroot shoveling money and Blackwood into the furnaces of quite frankly insane projects that will likely never see the light of day.

And we, Crowndon, have made the most grievous mistakes of all. We allowed Admiral Roderick Beauchamp La Pierre to walk away in exile when we should have taken his head. He has singlehandedly done more to destabilize not only Crowndon’s economy, but the economies of Nor Easter and Monteddor as well. What the newspapers called a ‘prank’ or a ‘heist’ in the beginning has quickly proven to be much more. It was a declaration of war.

We have inherited a particularly horrible hand as we enter the 281st year of the Imperial Triumvirate, and if we keep along this path, we will not make it to the 282nd. The purpose of the Triumvirate after the discovery of Blackwood was the uniting of the known world into one glorious power, shared between three powerful cultures. Lately, however, the Crown has begun to wonder if the Triumvirate should be a singularity? Who knows? That is a question for the philosophers (and Generals) of our time to consider, not a lowly political mouthpiece such as myself.

We, both as a nation and as a member of the Triumvirate, have faced dire circumstances before, and I am sure we can face these down as well. But we three must face them as one, and in order to do that we must focus our efforts on those problems that present the most direct threat.

As of this day, the eighth day of First Month of the 281st year of the Triumvirate, the Crown is recalling all military forces and fleets, excepting those stationed in the Colonies. And with this combined force, we will break the siege of the Monteddorian capital by Alejandro Julianos and Yolanda De Santana. Blackwood will once again flow north, and our cities and forges will be re-ignited. And I, the Honorable Sir Alaric Wolstenholme McAndrew V, will be right here, to ensure that the citizens of Crowndon, and everywhere else, receive the information that matters most.

Happy New Year!