Archhealer Naima,

I am the druid Voshrelka, from the Barrowood. I write you this to request resurrection of the dead druids of the Winter Circle, of the same forest.

They were killed before the Infernal regime took over, but their slaughter was nonetheless at the hands of what I believe to be Infernal powers, and their removal from the Barrowood helped clear the way for the future regime. There was once a fragile balance in Cheliax, between forest and city, with the Barrowood being left to manage itself, in exchange for granting bounty to Cheliax's managed fields. I'll not pretend like it wasn't tenuous and failing, but - when it was failing, the druids of the Winter Circle reached out for help. Unfortunately for us all, it was to the Thrunes. I do not expect it ending in their massacre is particularly surprising to you.

It aided Hell's future war: with their actions, all druidic support to the rest of civilization in Cheliax was ended, and there was no one to stop them from clear cutting the forest that was once around Egorian. The resulting farmland and growth in the ashes, along with the sabotage to the other counties that had relied on druidic blessings, greatly aided their climb to power. It is upon the bones of the Barrowood that their capital was built, and it was only because all those who would have tried to stop them were dead or fled.

I do not ask you to resurrect all who are dead blindly, nor for the restoration to the druids of the lands that were once wild. A tree cannot be unfelled, and I understand the political situation of Cheliax to be complicated. It would do no one any good to abandon what has been built in a mad attempt to tear it down to rebuild the past. However, you have restored many of the old nobility of Cheliax, what I understand to be the old wardens of the civilized lands. I might take issue with some of your choices of candidate, but I believe the principle is in itself sound. That being said, I fear you have sown a civil war in your country by only transplanting some of what was lost. For an overly druidic metaphor, to do so only partially is to introduce deer without the wolf to police their numbers, or the wolf without prey to sustain themselves. The Barrowood is divided, and angry, and lost, and has known and fought the horrors of the yoke of Hell for as long as the rest of the country. I believe the restoration of the wardens of the wood would help Cheliax find a balance again, and do a great deal to undo the hatred that has taken root in the Barrowood, and build a better country for us all.

I worry that as things are now, the restored Arodenites will see naught in the wild but trees and monsters to be felled, and if there are no stewards in the forests to steer them from the course Hell set them on, they will be right. Civilization is not apart from nature, much as the foolish and shortsighted try to pretend otherwise, and a war with itself will only tear Cheliax further apart. Druids and rangers and other wise sapients of the wood are needed to help steer it from new and fresh horrors, else all that will live there will be those that will not die quietly when the Arodenites come to burn it all down.

We of the Barrowood were once at the heart of Cheliax. We are still part of it, broken and wretched and angry as we are. Please help heal us, as well.

I am at your service to assist in this endeavor,

Voshrelka

Also attached with the letter is a written copy of her earlier speech to the convention, labelled as such for context. At the bottom of this speech is the recorded vote of the desired law to criminalize the felling of dryads. Passed, 267-186.