To Her Majesty Catherine Marianne Euphemia Aspexia de Litran, Queen of Cheliax, Protector of Sargava and Isger, Defender of Civilization, & c.

I have heard it said that Your convention voted today to recommend to You that You restore the practice of execution by torture. I am writing to encourage You to disregard this recommendation.

When I was a student in wizard school, I was expected to practice cantrips on my classmates, and on orphans and slaves. There were many Evils of Asmodean Cheliax that I knew were Evil, but this was not one of them. It seemed like an ordinary fact of life to me, no more Evil than it is Evil to strike a disobedient child.

I cannot say for certain, but I suspect that there are many in Your convention who view torture in the same way that I once viewed Acid Splash. Even great Evils can be difficult to see, if one has never known anything else. I hope that You will not allow Your subjects, in their inadvertent ignorance, to overrule your wise and merciful decrees.

Your humble servant,
Llora Albalat

Authorized under the Eighth Publication Statute. ❖︎❖︎❖︎

To Her Majesty, Queen of Cheliax, Sargava, Isger, and Galt:

Eight nights ago, the house where my daughter was staying burned to the ground, with my daughter and all but one of her young children still inside. By the grace of the righteous gods, her eldest son was able to flee, and now finds himself an orphan at the age of eight. 

I do not know the name of the man that killed her; I have heard many accounts of the events that preceded her boarding-house catching on fire, and it is beyond me to say which is true. I know that the greatest barrier to justice is not the laws of Cheliax, but the fact that I cannot even name the culprit.

But the newspapers say that you want to know how we feel about bringing back executions by torture. For my part, there are very few things I want more than to see the men responsible burned to death. Perhaps this is a vice; the newspapers certainly seem to think so. But if it is a vice to love my daughter, it is a vice I will admit to without hesitation.

Sincerely,

Your humble subject

To Her Majesty Catherine Marianne Euphemia Aspexia, Queen of Cheliax, Protector of Sargava and Isger, Duchess of Litran, & c.

I write on a manner of great importance for the character and faith of the people of Cheliax, and I hope that Your Majesty will find the time to give it consideration. I know that Your Majesty is certainly very busy, so I will endeavor to keep this petition brief.

Specifically, I wish to humbly request that Your Majesty outlaw egregious falsehoods by the churches of the righteous gods, or attributed to same. I do not speak here of those many falsehoods on matters difficult for mortals to know, such as matters of Pharasma's judgment, for though such falsehoods are certainly egregious, I fear that attempting to outlaw them entirely would merely result in men of good character being prosecuted for ignorance. But when the churches abuse their position to spread falsehoods that any man of good judgment can plainly see are false, they mislead some of Your Majesty's subjects, set others against the churches of the righteous gods, and convince still others that it is as if they are living once again under the tyranny of Asmodeus, who commanded us to disregard the truth whenever it was inconvenient for him.

There are many examples I could name, but most recently I refer to the pamphlet put out by Westcrown Publishing, a copy of which has been enclosed herein, attributing to the Church of Iomedae the claim that men are dissuaded from crime just as much by the threat of swift executions as by torturous executions. I do not know whether the error lies in truth with the Church, or whether Westcrown Publishing has falsely attributed to it words that it never said, but it is clear that one or the other must be true.

I do not mean to say that this is true of all men, of course. Doubtless some men greatly fear death, no matter what form it takes; doubtless other men are so foolish that they do not fear it in any form. But if I look within my own heart, I find that there are courses of actions I would take, even if in doing so I marked myself for death, and far fewer courses for which I would be willing to risk the agonizing deaths that we were once accustomed to. Perhaps it is Evil to kill a man by torture, no matter the crime. But if so, let the church of Iomedae tell us so truthfully, without cloaking the matter in pointless deceptions.

Your Majesty's Obedient Servant,

Feliu Brugué i Sabater

TO QUEEN ASPEKSIA

I HERD THAT PIPOL WANT YOU TO BRING BACK TORCHER. I DONT THINK YOU SHOULD DO THAT. MY BIG BROTHER IS IN JAIL RITE NOW FOR RITING A BAD PAMFLIT BUT I DONT WANT PEOPLE TO TORCHER HIM. HE GIVES ME RIDES ON HIS BACK AND TOT ME HOW TO REED. IF YOU BRING BACK TORCHER IT SHOULD ONLY BE FOR PIPOL WHO ARE VERY BAD AND NOT FOR PIPOL LIKE MY BROTHER.

SINCERELY GENOVEVA

May it please Your Majesty,

Due to the policies of Your Majesty's predecessors, Cheliax has an unusually large number of wizards with years of daily experience reading the minds of many persons from all walks of life. When some petitioners approach Your Majesty with a proposal, justified by a theory as how it will affect the thinking of the Chelish people, it may be useful for Your Majesty to consult those wizards as to whether the theory has any correspondence with reality.

Of course, it may save Your Majesty much time and aggravation to first ask the petitioners if they even considered they could ask such wizards what, in fact, actual Chelish people actually think.

I have the honor to remain, Madam, Your Majesty's most humble and obedient, but also prudently anonymous, subject.

To Her Majesty Catherine Marianne Euphemia Aspexia de Litran, Queen of Cheliax, Protector of Sargava and Isger, Duchess of Litran, Defender of the Righteous Gods, & c.

His Highness the Archduke Narikopolus claimed today on the floor that there has been no increase in banditry since the abolition of torture as a punishment. I do not dispute that his words may be true of Menador, but I write to provide my own account, in case it is useful for Your Majesty to hear the words of one such as I.

My lands are in the southwest of Sirmium, far from the mountains of Menador. In those baronies neighboring mine, there has been a tremendous increase in banditry, to the point that many such bandits have been driven into my own lands. Since this began, far more of my time has therefore been occupied protecting my subjects from banditry, to the point that I feared to seek election to Your Majesty's convention lest those bandits attack my subjects with impunity in my absence.

I do not know whether this increase was caused by the prohibition on torture, the troubles with the harvest, the reassignment of many local soldiers, or some other reason entirely, but I would not wish Your Majesty to mistakenly be lead to believe that there has been no such increase.

Your Majesty's loyal and obedient servant,

Baron Malaquies Aspex Gomis i Vallverdú de Llorac