People of New Eden,
I speak for the Varyazi Clade clan of the Round Table Assembly. We represent those warriors of Skarkon who have walked the path of glorification by proving and now stand ready as the premier warclone fighting force in Pochven with the means and willingness to stand alongside the Collective and its Kybernaut allies.
When Skarkon fell, I was faced with a choice; flee to once again doom our people to suffer another purge and start from zero or stand firm and ride the fall into the next era for our kind. I, myself, took the first step forward into that future without hesitation knowing that there was nothing left for us in the Old World. We shouldn’t fight the tide of destiny, for what we attribute to fate is in fact where opportunity meets our true will. But I couldn’t well drag anyone with me kicking and screaming much less take a leap of faith on other’s behalf. So I formed Varyazi Clade, to make that decision for myself while maintaining an open door for my brothers and sisters to meet me when their time is right to join. This in mind, when I speak, judge me by my clan alone and not as the words of my comrades in the Round Table Assembly who are still finding their own true will.
Secretly, after the Weaving we were met in a uniquely hostile environment with no proper contingencies. Full disclosure? I had my doubts we would survive the week. But Skarkon provides, if not in resources than in building our adversity and providing new opportunities to gather fresh allies among those that have also answered the call to Glorification. Now we stand sharper than ever, on the precipice of a tremendous blow to our adversaries that will at last unequivocally prove our merit as worthy of the territory we have carved from the Snake Pit of New Eden.
Before we came here Avalon was but a requiem. A dream or a myth on the cracked and bleeding lips of the warclones of the Heath. Wherever there were independent warclones living free, there would be Avalon. A desire to build, a desire to live without fear of the Old World returning to finish the job of destroying our kind. We worked toward it, weathering the Purge and building our first refuge facility to house our kind or our consciousness until the storm had passed and we could once more venture into New Eden in search of a free land.
And here, on Skarkon, we have found it. On accident. By fate. By our will made flesh. By standing and proving ourselves, we have established a free territory among the districts we hold and structures we man that can stand as a true, physical, Avalon. And even if we fall, the advancements our kind have made from studying this land means that we are on the verge of establishing a construct that, should the worst pass and we lose everything we have gained, Avalon can live on indefinitely in that space between consciousness waiting until the proper time to resurface. Waiting, for rediscovery when the desire for freedom oncemore burns in the hearts of our kind or our successors.
Of course, none of this could have happened were it not for the continued assistance of our friends. Those clans in the Round Table who, even when we clash over specific application of ideology, nonetheless share our dream of Avalon. To those in the Old World who have shared with us their insights to further learn from all that Pochven provides. To those of the Kybernaut Clades that have accepted us into their community as fellow proven warriors. And, of course, to Subcommander @Seriatim_Foucault for his inspiration and recognition of the achievements of the region over the last year.
But this? This speech? This is for Varyazi Clade and for Avalon here in Skarkon! To our first year, may it stand for another hundred!