Dear Asmodron,

First and foremost, I would like very much to thank you for the keen interest you have taken in the well-being and recovery of Cyrene. That your attention has been so closely devoted to the events that so recently rocked our city to its core is as flattering as it is uplifting. To know that Cyrene, despite the insistence of so many voices around the world, stands so keenly at what is no doubt the forefront of your ruminations and concerns gives us heart.

Secondly, you have expressed a very clear and passionate desire to see that the history books remain unclouded regarding the devastation that the city and her people endured during the seizing, occupation, and eventual reclamation of the Heart of the Vashnars. In fact, you have expressed a deep, profound empathy towards the tragic losses suffered by Cyrene, one that echoes still within the hearts of many of us who not only stood against the tsol'teth invaders, but knelt before the hundreds of graves dug for those caught in the blood-soaked tides of battle. Should you ever wish to lay down a bouquet at our memorial in respectful remembrance of these lives lost so needlessly, please feel free to mail one to me, and I shall be happy to act as your proxy for such a purpose as I try to do this myself annually.

However, on the subject of history, I fear that you labour under a disadvantageous perspective: specifically, I should like to remind you that you were not there. Nor, if I recall correctly, were you there to assist us with the heart-wrenching task of collecting, identifying, and burying the dead, an act so traumatizing for those who undertook it that several have since retired or gone missing from the realms. I am not one of these, and throughout the gruesome endeavour I become personally acquainted with death on a level which I should not wish on even my most loathed enemies. Through this alone I am able to confirm that your estimation of events is misleading. Despite the words shouted by Bairn Muurn and the frigid onslaught perpetrated by Shuun'eludiela, the primary cause of death among many of the civilians was not in fact drowning, but blunt force trauma caused by the collapse of much of the urban sprawl of Cyrene.

You see, during the tsol'teth occupation, life in the city was not simply 'business as usual'. The streets were patrolled by both tsol'teth soldiers as well as by guards who'd been ensorcelled by the power of the Litany, a magic so mighty that even our guardian, Blu, could not fully resist the force of Ama-maalier's will. As you are so passionate on the matter of history, you no doubt know that the Litany of Obedience once decimated the forces of Seleucar, and has always been the greatest of the weapons wielded by the tsol'teth for the purposes of overwhelming a besieged army and, to our collective knowledge, remains unbreakable when invoked by a sufficiently powerful wielder of Terminus unless the target is at least equally or more powerful. Those civilians who were trapped within Cyrene were subject to assessment and reprocessing by the tsol'teth, save for those who were able to flee or conceal themselves. Many of them were lost to the Meld, as the tsol'teth used them for their own betterment.

My point here is to make clear the fact that Shuun'eludiela and Bairn Muurn's efforts were to wash away enemy forces, no more and no less. Citizens who bravely resisted the tsol'teth remained indoors, where they believed that shelter would protect them from the torrents of conflict as we fought through the streets to reclaim our home. And, at first, it seemed that they were right--but we sadly underestimated the madness and power that Hailqas'an bore within her, and when she spoke her words of self-destruction the very streets of Cyrene shattered, along with the foundations of buildings that collapsed, killing the people that we so tragically failed to protect within.

When a person dies by drowning, you see, their bodies suffer a process that is well-documented and known to alchemical scientists such as those who practice their studies in the Lyceum; active respiration of fresh water--such as that of the Muurn and the Shuun'eludiela--results in alveolar collapse or atelectasis, due to the alteration of the surface tension properties of pulmonary surfactant, resulting in intra-pulmonary shunts. Because it is hypotonic with respect to plasma, fresh water is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, causing transient (but clinically irrelevant) electrolyte dilution and hypervolaemia. This was observed in the bodies of the recovered guardsmen who had been overtaken by the Litany, to a man. By contrast, the bodies of many of the recovered citizens were indeed waterlogged, but prior injuries sustained in life that aligned with the observed effects of Hailqas'an's suicidal eruption were observed in the forms of cranial, facial, vertebral, and limb fractures. While I will not list the full range of causes of death that we were able to determine, the vast majority of them were from blunt force trauma, as well as asphyxiation, exsanguination, hypovolemic shock, catastrophic organ failure, and sepsis.

The reclamation of Cyrene was a day of both hard-won victory as well as tragic failure. Cyrene learned of her weakness because of the tsol'teth, and has been working to overcome it ever since, and make no mistake: Cyrene Will Overcome.

Understandably, as you were not there to assist in the gathering and cataloging of Cyrene's dead, or for the planning of the assault, or for the actual retaking of the city, you would not have known this, and thus drew your conclusions from incomplete sources. In fact, the one interaction I had with you during the entire Third Wave consisted of me finding you clearing away the Tide just south of Cyrene, in Muurn Lake, where you declared that the "land has changed" within the city walls, an observation that was later proven to be patently false--up until, of course, the moment of Hailqas'an's suicide. You also likened standing in the Tide to being like a "babe grasping a sword". However, in the subject of Cyrene's history, you seem to be more or less unarmed. If you wish to confer with those who were present to correct your own documentation, I'm quite sure that there are plenty of us present who are willing to help you internalize the truth of the events of that day.

Provided, of course, you take a thousand seats and shut up first. In the pursuit of historical accuracy, I'm quite sure you could agree that this is a worthwhile price to pay for truth, no?

Sincerely,
Taelle Si'Talvace

Penned by my hand on the 18th of Miraman, in the year 836 AF.