Proclamation to the citizens of the Old Temple District

[XanthVanBokkelen]

::a message on decayed, yellow parchment is nailed to a sign in front of the RhyDin Public Library::

To the citizens of the District of Old Temple - Southgate:

As your new reigning Baron, my first official decree is to claim the main building of the RhyDin City Public Library as my own personal domicile. Public services by this facility are immediately suspended. Trespassing or interference of any kind will be punished by MORTAL DEATH.

Let me further explain - I am in no mood for the daily inanities of the average mortal of this district. Provoke me and you will suffer my wrath. I would have no problem with purging this fetid district in a sadistic orgy of fire and blood so brutal that it would take a team of psychiatrists a decade just to figure out what mind could create such horror.

You have been warned. You may now return to your inebriations and fornications.

Xanth Van Bokkelen
Reigning Baron of Old Temple - Southgate District

[G]

Yeah, except that a Public Library means it's Public. You are provided a Manor as Baron of the district, and you are not going to be permitted to just claim a public building for your own.

So, be careful who you provoke.

[Xenograg]

I, too, object to the seizure of the library. A Baron should have a light touch concerning his district, especially considering how brief one's tenure can be.

Were I not already entrusted with another Barony, I would consider challenging Xanth. I suggest he heed my advice regarding the district I call home.

(signed)
Xenograg

[Goldglo]

As Governor, I object to the intended hostile takeover of the Rhydin Public Library. The Library, and those working there, provide valuable services to the men, women, and children of this city.

The Library will remain open; if Xanth Van Bokkelen chooses to live in the building, that is his choice. However, even if I must assign City Watch members to ensure it, I will do my utmost to prevent the blockading of the Library by the Baron of Old Temple.

--Matthew Algiers Simon

[Neo Eternity]

The Seraphim Knights also object to the hostile take-over of the library, and offer to enforce Governor Simon's request. He will not need to assign any City Watch members. The three of us will do it of our own volition.

This means that we are willing to forcibly remove you if that's what it takes. It could become an ugly situation for you, so it would be wise to withdraw before it comes to that.

[Vanion Shadowcast]

I, too, have a message to the denizens of the Old Temple District - particularly the Catholics. But I will wait to share it for another time.

[Sinjin Fai]

Wait, wait.. a sadistic orgy of fire and blood? That doesn't sound half-bad. But having an orgy in a library seems weird to me, and I've had sadistic orgies of fire and blood in a lot of weird places.

Ooh -- do you have some sort of crazy book fetish? Neat! Like, do you just roll around in the non-fiction section and get a bit turned on? "Oohh, these memoirs, I can't stop touching them.."

You should try and kick the habit, hombre. Don't worry: I believe in you.

- Sin

[Natolii]

Lord Van Bokkelen (And Lord Shadowcast);

I would also advise a lighter hand in dealing with the denizen's of your districts. As has been stated, your reigns can be ended in a heartbeat, so it is best not to provoke the common herd into an uprising.

Commandeering buildings and making threats just tips your hand and alerts to lighties to your plans.

Signed;

Natolii Azeraith Soulbinder Tanner
Lady of Gharnholme
Lady of the Black Company
"Leave all you believe true behind, and Welcome to True Black"

[XanthVanBokkelen]

To the Dueling Community, the Supervisor of the Duel of Swords, and the Governor:

In my defense, there is no rule that says that I am required to inhabit the Baron Manor of this district. If I choose to inhabit a government installation, that should be my right, as well as to run my Barony any way that I see fit. Also, it was not a private residence that I procured. I see no reason why I should be bullied into leaving the RhyDin Public Library.

However, since the Governor himself disapproves of my methods, I will abandon my position in the Library, and retire to the Baron Manor in order to keep the peace.

In the future, I believe that the rules and regulations should be spelled out clearly so that misunderstandings such as this will not happen in the future.

Xanth Van Bokkelen
Baron of the District of Old Temple - Southgate

[Vanion Shadowcast]

I prefer transparency to veiled plotting. It is the right of the other denizens in the city to choose to live in a world of self-delusion.

Governor; will you also deny the Good Baron a library card? Are you to state that his position incurs any less formal authority than yours?

We all know who the true rulers of Rhy'Din are. The concept that puppet-Democracy will stop them when they come to "license" magic-users and "register" weapons is fool-hardy. The city is an ever-tightening vice, and only those who realize that their own moral obligations to some unspoken and non-existent law are naught but archaic virtues will be free from their control.

May the Good Baron find his freedom in the dusty pages of old tomes.

[Neo Eternity]

It wasn't inhabiting the library we had objection to. At least speaking for myself and the other two Seraphim Knights. It was the closing off of the library, the suspension of its services, and the threat of "mortal death" to any who should try to enter it we were opposed to.

How strange that you threatened an orgy of gore and flames in your original notice, yet suddenly you're interested in keeping the peace.

[Darien Fenner]

Monday, November the sixteenth, saw the following article on page six of the RhyDin Post.

The Price of Knowledge

A Roman poet back on Earth once claimed, “all wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.” The accruement of information is a right of every species, and a sentient being will go to great lengths to further a conscious mind. But alternately, to what lengths will an unrighteous power go to prevent it?

Take Baron Xanth Van Bokkelen, for instance-- the newest Baron of the Old Temple and noted academic. Baron Van Bokkelen has long been an active member of RhyDin society, most renowned for his dueling successes. His career includes-- but is not limited to-- the possession of the Tower of Earth and Tower of Fire in addition to his new Barony. And yet, despite his overwhelming achievements, Van Bokkelen still faces scathing public criticism on multiple levels. The failure to prescribe to mundane RhyDin stereotypes in form and behavior is by no means a reason to discriminate.

Noted academic that he is, Van Bokkelen recently took the legitimate initiative of securing himself a place in the RhyDin Public Library. No doubt the Southgate Manor is ill equipped to handle the passionate research of such an exceptional scholar. And yet, within days of his habitation, the Baron was caviled at and delivered threats that culminated in an autocratic message from the Governor himself. The Governor, who, in a 2008 edition of the Oracle, claimed that his new use of the “security presence” in RhyDin is, by no means, “the beginnings of a military regime or anything similar.” Why, then, were City Watch members to be unjustly appointed at the Library to oust the new Baron from his fervent academic study? What reason had a vigilante group that has no official association with that Watch to second that threat? Is there no boundary to this newfound political absolutism?

A public message by a concerned RhyDin citizen rightfully presented the following query:

“…Will you also deny the Good Baron a library card? Are you to state that his position incurs any less formal authority…?”

If anything, the Baron of the Old Temple should be attributed greater authority. And while some claim that “reigns can end in a heartbeat,” the fact remains that those reigns are prevailing and infinitely deserved. After being forced to surrender his first Tower to an indifferent holder, and another to a markedly inadequate one, the Baron was only to be publicly humiliated and driven out of a public building. A public building that is just that-- public; it is a building that receives its funding from multi-jurisdictional sources and private donations. Deprived, not only of public right, but public knowledge as well? Since when has an honored title wrought such obtuse aspersion?

With tireless humility-- a tribute to his forthright candor--, the Baron relinquished his habitation in the Library, but not without issuing the following opinion:

“In the future, I believe that the rules and regulations should be spelled out clearly so that misunderstandings such as this will not happen in the future.”

Well put, Baron. It is unfortunate that Van Bokkelen was forced to pay a humiliating price in his pursuit of knowledge, but perhaps this will teach the citizens of RhyDin a lesson: Knowledge is power; therefore, power will do almost anything to repress that knowledge.

For our part and from now on, we'll skirt the libraries and stick to the internet.

A black and white image of an historical book burning accompanied the article.

[Goldglo]

In reponse to the article on page 6 of the Rhydin Post, the Governor’s Office released the following statement:

I wish to express my dismay at the malicious and inaccurate article which recently appeared in the Rhydin Post regarding Baron Xanth Van Bokkelen’s intended hostile takeover of the Rhydin Public Library.

As soon as I became aware of the Baron’s intentions, I publically made my opposition known – I was not, as the article infers, at all opposed to the Baron’s use of the Library as a place of research or to accrue information. My objection was based on the Baron’s intentions as expressed in a letter written to the public and utterly ignored by the Post’s article.

In that letter, Baron Van Bokkelen wrote, “…my first official decree is to claim the main building of the Rhydin City Public Library as my own personal domicile. Public services by this facility are immediately suspended. Trespassing or interference of any kind will be punished by MORTAL DEATH.”

The Baron, while holding a position of power in his district, does not have the right to simply suspend access to the Rhydin Public Library. His threats of “mortal death” against anyone who might enter the Library are unacceptable and deplorable. In the same letter, he also called his district, and those who live within it, “fetid” and stated that he would have no qualms about “purging” the district and its populace “in a sadistic orgy of fire and blood”. “Provoke me,” he wrote, “and you will suffer my wrath.”

Those threats against the public and the city itself are the reason why I was willing to post members of the Watch at the Library – my intent was to protect the populace and not in any way to bar Baron Van Bokkelen from accessing the Library.

The article in the Post suggests that my intent to post guardsman are the beginnings of “political absolutism” and possibly dictatorial advances on my behalf. Nothing could be further from the truth. I completely recognize and applaud Xanth Van Bokkelen on his achievements in the dueling sports as well as academia - those accomplishments, however, do not entitle him to intimidate others and threaten violence should the populace not bend to his whims and wishes. While the Baron’s rights as a citizen of this city do indeed allow for him to receive and utilize a library card, they do not allow him to usurp public buildings, services, or works. They do not allow him to bar public access to a public building. They do not allow him to threaten a large portion of the city’s residents without any sort of response from the Watch or myself. For us to ignore his threats would be irresponsible and inconsistent with the message of public safety and security that I’ve proclaimed throughout my time as Governor.

The Baron was not, as the article states, “driven out of a public building”; quite the contrary, per the Baron’s own written words, he altered his plans of his own volition “in order to keep the peace” which is quite a different stance than his earlier statements of violence and destruction. I applaud the Baron’s decision and while I again intimate that he can use the Rhydin Public Library, he must do so according to the same rules and regulations that all citizens must adhere to – Xanth Van Bokkelen’s status as Baron does not absolve him from following those conventions. Baron Von Bokkelen is, as are all Rhydin’s citizens and visitors, free to enter the library, perform research, and utilize the systems and tools within the library to further their own knowledge and education.

If knowledge is power as the author of the Post article writes, then the Rhydin Public Library is a place and institution of profound power. Such an establishment should be accessible by everyone and not solely possessed by or only available to a single individual, especially one threatening death to anyone else who might venture inside.

Matthew Algiers Simon

[Darien Fenner]

The following apology is to be published in November the 18th's edition of the RhyDin Post.

To Our Loyal Readers and to Governor Simon:

On behalf of the RhyDin Post, we would like to apologize for the offense the recently-published article entitled "The Price of Knowledge" may have wrought. It exhibited great shortsightedness on the part of one of our senior columnists, and was not researched thoroughly.

Michael M. Twert
Editor in Chief
RhyDin Post

---

"Shortsightedness my Aussie bum," said Fenner as he crumpled up the formal apology and dropped it into the trash on his way out of the Post's office building. Panicked though his boss was, the journalist hardly earned a slap on the wrist for that derisive article. And yet, his readership demographics skyrocketed. Whatever Darien was doing, the public sure seemed to like it; and the good 'ol Editor in Chief knew it too. Still, the apology was irritating, if not humiliating, and seriously challenged his stellar writing abilities.

"Matt Algiers Simon..." the reporter hummed with a smirk. Darien would preserve his dignity, of course. He had much bigger in plans for the governor... and for RhyDin.