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This is the text of an open letter to the Invictus made by my PC (Dix Lee) recently - enjoy!

Unconquered,

It’s not easy for me to write this, partially because I can hardly think that I should need to, partially because I’ve not had a lot of education and words on paper don’t come naturally to me. If there are spelling errors, grammar and punctuation I’ll ask you to overlook it – to read the words and what I’m saying rather than looking at the words and seeing the mistakes. Those errors are mine and I’m sorry for them.

I should also point out its taken me a fair amount of time to write and rewrite this, hopefully the point is clear and the language plain, but I’m happy to clarify as I need. If you read it and think this is aimed at you – you’re right, it is. If you read this and think it’s not aimed at you – you’re wrong, it is. I use man a lot, that’s because I am one. Don’t read this to mean its just menfolk I’m talking to and talking about, it’s to all of us.

What I want to talk about is something very simple and yet important – the worth of a person’s word. I’m a nomad, I move around a lot. It’s not uncommon for me to travel hundreds or thousands of miles in a single weekend, in a week I can go from one side of the world to the other and back again. I’ve always been a nomad, though I’ve not always travelled such big distances.

One thing that helped, right from the get go, on joining the First Estate is that people wouldn’t look at me and think they had a shiftless drifter, a vagabond who might be on the run from some trouble. They knew they had one of the Unconquered, someone whose word could be trusted, someone of value and worth. Back not so long ago being of the Invictus opened the door.

That’s no longer the case.

I had someone come to me and say “It used to be that if an Invictus said something you knew that was truth, even if you did not like them, if you did not trust them, you knew that they were Unconquered and that their word was good. Now, now it is not so.”

And that’s a plain, sad truth. Where once we all seemed to know the value of a man’s word –now it seems that its not so. Ladies and gentlemen, the value of a man is exactly what his word is worth. Gold is nice, land and fancy houses are nice. I appreciate a soft bed as much as the next man, and the trappings of power are grand. Without the trust of the word though that’s really not worth much, because to my mind a man’s word isn’t just his bond, it’s his worth.

What’s more than that, the point of this letter, is that it’s not just a man who’s judged by his word – it’s his friends, it’s his family – and for us it’s also the Unconquered. For what was known about us as a group, regardless of who you were, was that our word was good. If one of the First Estate said something, promised something, that it was solid. It was so. There was no doubt even for the most rabid Carthian that what was said was simple truth.

That is no longer the case.

It takes one bad brick to collapse a strong wall, one weak link to break a chain, and it takes one sworn Invictus putting their own hunger for power, their own bloody ambition over the value of their word. A fallen wall can be rebuilt and a broken chain can be reforged – but a word is a different thing.

See that one fellow with their ambition burning away, and their lack of care for their word, that person makes people stop and think again. And they’re seen as being Invictus, seen as being the norm – even though they’re not. That one person with their disregard for the way things should be, their lack of respect for their own word, means that the word of the Invictus isn’t valued.

That means your word is not valued, and it means my word isn’t valued.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know this isn’t the most eloquent of letters – but consider this an appeal. Think on what being Unconquered means, not just the same phrases we all learn, not just the traditions, what it really means to you. Think about your word, think of the value of it – of how you value yourself. Look about you, think about the value of each others words.

My word is my bond, if I say a thing then its so. That’s how it should be for all of us, Prince and pauper, Settled and Nomad, Alder and Neonate. We are Unconquered and our word is good.

Let us make it rock solid again.

Thank you for reading and considering, I only hope this makes some difference.

Safe travels

Dix

Mister Dixon Lee,

Pursiuvant & Master of Horse of the Guild of Marathon,

Road Captain of the Kestrels Motorcycle Club,

Patron to the Order of the Silver Dragon,

Member of the Unconquered Senate,