Written By Beatrice
April 18, 2020, 1:38 a.m.(2/18/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Drea
The Redrain opened their Spirit Grove for company and celebration this evening. It was an unfamiliar place; a fairy wonderland. I saw no bears, and this was disappointing, but the many other creatures on two legs and four were welcome company. Northern hospitality is a balm during sad days. In this, too, does Gild's spirit shine.
Written By Beatrice
April 11, 2020, 12:18 a.m.(2/4/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
Princess Arianna Pravus was a friend. When business brought me back to Arx, she was one of the first people I hoped to visit. I delayed. Now I shall never have that chance.
I grieve with House Pravus. The world has lost something bright.
I take comfort in the knowledge that Pravosi retribution is ever absolute.
I grieve with House Pravus. The world has lost something bright.
I take comfort in the knowledge that Pravosi retribution is ever absolute.
Written By Beatrice
April 9, 2020, 10:52 a.m.(2/1/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Lianne
It is my honor to accept appointment as Marquessa Lianne's Voice for House Malespero.
I would at this time commit to the archives a reminder of what she has done for the March of Nilanza. Who among us can say that they have transformed a city poorly governed, beseiged, and divided by civil strife into a peaceful paradise? Marquessa Lianne Malespero is accomplished in countless ways: physician, patron of the arts, theologian. She sought this challenge when she did not need to, when others happily - some might say wisely - turned away. More, she succeeds where few could.
We thrive under Marquessa Lianne's leadership. As her Voice, I look forward to further strengthening the relationships she has built with you, our good peers in the Compact.
I would at this time commit to the archives a reminder of what she has done for the March of Nilanza. Who among us can say that they have transformed a city poorly governed, beseiged, and divided by civil strife into a peaceful paradise? Marquessa Lianne Malespero is accomplished in countless ways: physician, patron of the arts, theologian. She sought this challenge when she did not need to, when others happily - some might say wisely - turned away. More, she succeeds where few could.
We thrive under Marquessa Lianne's leadership. As her Voice, I look forward to further strengthening the relationships she has built with you, our good peers in the Compact.
Written By Beatrice
April 2, 2020, 9:26 a.m.(1/15/1013 AR)
Arx, the city of dreams, is presently a city of sludge. How I've missed you.
Still, I could not have asked for a kinder or warmer welcome from old friends and new acquaintances both. Nilanza has many beauties, but even it pales to your company. Let's build something magnificent to admire in the spring.
Still, I could not have asked for a kinder or warmer welcome from old friends and new acquaintances both. Nilanza has many beauties, but even it pales to your company. Let's build something magnificent to admire in the spring.
Written By Beatrice
Jan. 24, 2020, 6:20 p.m.(8.52158275462963/16.208634259259263/1012.6267985628858 AR)
Absolutely thrilled to be hosting an event this week along with Tyche in recognition of the hard work that we've done. A good opportunity to meet and greet, but mostly simply a celebration of my own return to Arx!
My favorite part of planning the parties is working out all the little details where I tell people what to do.
My favorite part of planning the parties is working out all the little details where I tell people what to do.
Written By Beatrice
April 29, 2019, 12:07 a.m.(1/5/1011 AR)
I watch the snows fall and wish for Nilanza, where trade and pleasure can be conducted without such inconvenience. When I first came to Arx, it was snowing. I had been warned of green snow - but, no, it was white and normal and melting into spring. How much has happened between that snow and this.
I write belated wishes for a happy and prosperous year, dear Arx. Even discombobulated as you can be at times. I will not wish that what we do is easy. Such a wish is futile; nothing worth having is easy. I will, however, wish that it - whatever it is - is worth it. We will build wonders this year.
Or, at least, we will after the snows.
I write belated wishes for a happy and prosperous year, dear Arx. Even discombobulated as you can be at times. I will not wish that what we do is easy. Such a wish is futile; nothing worth having is easy. I will, however, wish that it - whatever it is - is worth it. We will build wonders this year.
Or, at least, we will after the snows.
Written By Beatrice
March 30, 2019, 7:52 a.m.(11/1/1010 AR)
For the cost of brief exercise, I can have at my hands knowledge mundane and obscure from across our civilization. What I can't have, it seems, is the mundane and obscure knowledge I need.
My plea eternal to the scholars, delivered with humble thanks for doing vital work that I do not: gather more economic histories. We have a wealth, pun intended, of information left to rot with the bookkeepers. Lives are sketched in ledgers. Numbers can change the world.
I have authorized release of historical Nilanzan records as a modest contribution toward this goal, and we will be applying better preservation standards to them for the future.
My plea eternal to the scholars, delivered with humble thanks for doing vital work that I do not: gather more economic histories. We have a wealth, pun intended, of information left to rot with the bookkeepers. Lives are sketched in ledgers. Numbers can change the world.
I have authorized release of historical Nilanzan records as a modest contribution toward this goal, and we will be applying better preservation standards to them for the future.
Written By Beatrice
March 21, 2019, 12:48 a.m.(10/11/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Reese
Princess Reese Grayson is a marvel gifted beyond reason, stronger than steelsilk and kinder than we deserve.
Written By Beatrice
March 12, 2019, 5:51 p.m.(9/22/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Venturo
In return, Nilanza thanks Kismet Carnivals for living up to its promise of audacious, exhilarating entertainment. We look forward to the next.
Perhaps next time the shows might include a duck. I find they never run afowl [sic] of fate.
Perhaps next time the shows might include a duck. I find they never run afowl [sic] of fate.
Written By Beatrice
March 9, 2019, 9:16 a.m.(9/15/1010 AR)
The city hums with jubilation. I expected to return from Nilanza to a dour Arx. I happily commit to history my wrongness.
The Carlotta is magnificent. I am grateful to Archduchess Regent Jaenelle Velenosa and the crew for the opportunity to see a caravel up close. It is an inspiring creation.
Lady Monique Greenmarch's launch party for the Adventures of Zeriax series was a charming gathering, startlingly entertaining and unexpectedly poignant. The Gilded Page is a treasure.
These joyful events will sustain me through the Assembly, I think.
The Carlotta is magnificent. I am grateful to Archduchess Regent Jaenelle Velenosa and the crew for the opportunity to see a caravel up close. It is an inspiring creation.
Lady Monique Greenmarch's launch party for the Adventures of Zeriax series was a charming gathering, startlingly entertaining and unexpectedly poignant. The Gilded Page is a treasure.
These joyful events will sustain me through the Assembly, I think.
Written By Beatrice
Feb. 25, 2019, 10:59 a.m.(8/20/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Avary
The Archlector's recent journal on charity was, while modest, neither futile nor unrevelatory. I see these arguments daily in the business of domain stewardship.
I present five archetypes with a pile of dirt. The physician wants a hospital. The soldier says better to prevent harm first and recommends fortifications. The artist tells the soldier that utility is not the end of life and insists on a statue. The priest advises the artist that art should be divine and suggests a shrine. The academician argues that man's capacity for understanding is the better tribute to the gods and proposes a school. The physician points out that schools without bodies to fill them are wasted. And on we go.
None are inherently wrong. Futility? We must know what to do in the face of these debates. Too often we are left torn, divided, and with what we began: a pile of dirt.
Resources will ever be finite. Quantifying, assessing potential opportunities, the benefits and the consequences - and choice without consequence does not exist - for what to do with resources is, yes, an art. One which some of us have dedicated our lives as surely as the painter to his canvas. Yet, at the end, the most important part is not which you built, but that you built. Choose, before paralysis becomes stagnation.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss these most crucial of needs.
I present five archetypes with a pile of dirt. The physician wants a hospital. The soldier says better to prevent harm first and recommends fortifications. The artist tells the soldier that utility is not the end of life and insists on a statue. The priest advises the artist that art should be divine and suggests a shrine. The academician argues that man's capacity for understanding is the better tribute to the gods and proposes a school. The physician points out that schools without bodies to fill them are wasted. And on we go.
None are inherently wrong. Futility? We must know what to do in the face of these debates. Too often we are left torn, divided, and with what we began: a pile of dirt.
Resources will ever be finite. Quantifying, assessing potential opportunities, the benefits and the consequences - and choice without consequence does not exist - for what to do with resources is, yes, an art. One which some of us have dedicated our lives as surely as the painter to his canvas. Yet, at the end, the most important part is not which you built, but that you built. Choose, before paralysis becomes stagnation.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss these most crucial of needs.
Written By Beatrice
Feb. 23, 2019, 9:35 a.m.(8/15/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Domonico
It was my pleasure to bring Nilanza's fleet to the massive intra-Lycene naval training exercises organized by House Malvici. Commodore Lord Domonico and Lord Martino are a formidable pair.
Prince Jasher Thrax's participation deserves mention here. How exciting, how welcome to have him there. Military exercises create tensions, a natural effect of aggregating a powerful force - however necessary and appropriate it may be to do so. His attendance allowed us to keep open communication with his House. May this herald future collaborations.
Prince Jasher Thrax's participation deserves mention here. How exciting, how welcome to have him there. Military exercises create tensions, a natural effect of aggregating a powerful force - however necessary and appropriate it may be to do so. His attendance allowed us to keep open communication with his House. May this herald future collaborations.
Written By Beatrice
Feb. 16, 2019, 9:30 a.m.(8/1/1010 AR)
Nilanza has my love, but I left a piece of my heart in Setarco. I bantered here once with a perfumer on bottling dreams. Would that she could bottle this instead.
Thousands worked in concert to transform dust and air into wonder. Architects and artisans, sailors and soldiers. Is there any greater mark of our Compact, our humanity than creation? Of vision realized through unified purpose?
You know how cynically I left Arx. I was repaid it better than I deserved. It seems, too, that I must find my next project. The Titan of House Pravus is my credential.
Oh, Arx. What shall we build next?
Thousands worked in concert to transform dust and air into wonder. Architects and artisans, sailors and soldiers. Is there any greater mark of our Compact, our humanity than creation? Of vision realized through unified purpose?
You know how cynically I left Arx. I was repaid it better than I deserved. It seems, too, that I must find my next project. The Titan of House Pravus is my credential.
Oh, Arx. What shall we build next?
Written By Beatrice
Feb. 11, 2019, 1:55 p.m.(7/20/1010 AR)
I have not been able to set down the latest edition of Councilwoman Perronne Amboise's Merchant's Almanac since its publication. It is a masterpiece of literature, an economic treatise stuffed with heroes and villains, humor and tragedy. It is history and satire and romance and so beautifully, heartfully human. I recommend it unabashedly to my friends and require it as reading for all of my staff.
Written By Beatrice
Jan. 22, 2019, 1:31 p.m.(6/8/1010 AR)
I miss Nilanza. It is a good time to visit home, when everything is dire and you know this paradise isn't safe from the world's interference. Then, return with resolve firm.
How reassuring the journals have been. Yes, there are fights and misunderstandings. Such is life. But on decisions of such magnitude? Stirring our deepest passions? Facing such consequences? I have hope. A rational people making a sober, solemn choice - even if it is decided to be the "best worst choice" - are ones who can surmount the challenges to follow. Like that, and only that, can we move forward together.
Until then, paradise calls. I think, too, I will miss you Arx while I am gone. I love the sand and the surf, and I love Arx's dreamers and wish-fillers, its artists and aesthetes, its bold merchants and happy warriors, and - of course! - the family formed within its walls.
How reassuring the journals have been. Yes, there are fights and misunderstandings. Such is life. But on decisions of such magnitude? Stirring our deepest passions? Facing such consequences? I have hope. A rational people making a sober, solemn choice - even if it is decided to be the "best worst choice" - are ones who can surmount the challenges to follow. Like that, and only that, can we move forward together.
Until then, paradise calls. I think, too, I will miss you Arx while I am gone. I love the sand and the surf, and I love Arx's dreamers and wish-fillers, its artists and aesthetes, its bold merchants and happy warriors, and - of course! - the family formed within its walls.
Written By Beatrice
Jan. 12, 2019, 10:08 a.m.(5/6/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Cassia
Cities are dreams, and no two are the same. Would you bottle them? What discriminating clientele you must have. Of course, you could steal only the best sides. Nilanza is cumin and honey and oranges tossed by sea air, salt and warmth. Stolid Arx, roses and slate, coffee and a thousand shades of ale, somehow sweet and not at all at once. But we know that cities and dreams are more than beauty. They blossom from simple things, important things, that may never appear at the salon, may never grace the pages of a Grayson's book of poetry. Would you bottle those too?
Written By Beatrice
Jan. 5, 2019, 11:51 a.m.(4/20/1010 AR)
Relationship Note on Domonico
My pleasure in asking questions is matched by your patience in fielding them.
Written By Beatrice
Jan. 5, 2019, 11:31 a.m.(4/20/1010 AR)
Contracts are poetry. (Posterity, if it is bored, may decide if this stance makes me a romantic or aromantic.) They have form and meter, invent words at need, and convey the complex, intangible, and aspirational. They are truth, the expression of that most defining human trait: the freedom of exchange between two individuals. "I choose." "I will." "I commit." This is a contract's prose.
I've argued that Nilanza's House of Vows is our most beautiful building. I do not know art or architecture. It is beautiful because of the acts it sanctifies - those of free people making a committed choice.
In this last month, Arx's white journals, its grand gatherings, have been beautiful - dare I say poetic - too. Long may they, we remain so.
I've argued that Nilanza's House of Vows is our most beautiful building. I do not know art or architecture. It is beautiful because of the acts it sanctifies - those of free people making a committed choice.
In this last month, Arx's white journals, its grand gatherings, have been beautiful - dare I say poetic - too. Long may they, we remain so.
Written By Beatrice
Dec. 28, 2018, 10:23 a.m.(4/4/1010 AR)
The sun is bright. The wind is warm. It's a perverse backdrop to Arx's gloom. "I'm happy," the sky says. "Why aren't you?"
For me, it has been a week of books and looks, of sober dialogues and gentle puppy dogs. The welcome by my new family has been as hospitable as the weather and as promising. I miss Nilanza. With all my heart, I wish these were happier days. We do not, however, belong in calm seas; our place is to navigate the storm, the beacon on the rocks. I pray for the wisdom to do so.
For me, it has been a week of books and looks, of sober dialogues and gentle puppy dogs. The welcome by my new family has been as hospitable as the weather and as promising. I miss Nilanza. With all my heart, I wish these were happier days. We do not, however, belong in calm seas; our place is to navigate the storm, the beacon on the rocks. I pray for the wisdom to do so.
Written By Beatrice
Dec. 23, 2018, 11:58 p.m.(3/23/1010 AR)
While I miss Nilanza's beauty, I must love grand, eccentric Arx. The city is warm in its grief, resolute in its loss, stubborn in its many trials. What it suffers - and it does suffer, as surely as its people - may start here, but it will not stay here if allowed to spread. How lucky so many are determined to help. May I grow to be what is needed in this hour.
And in the next hour? May I grow to meet that one too.
And in the next hour? May I grow to meet that one too.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.