To:	All New Groups
From:	The Knifegrinder
You should all be aware that the alliance known as the Iron Legion is not an alliance of 'good'. They accept groups, and have members of the good and neutral variety,... Well, according to them anyway. Yet if you were a group following the side of light would you join an alliance who have acted in such a way? They have dealings with those of the dark side, even embracing them as comrades. They have backstabbed, ambushed, lied and cheated, they steal, rob and have slaughtered the creatures of light. They are indeed an alliance of great power and mighty deeds but all those who wish to fight on the side of truth, justice and good should not choose the Iron Legion. Start your own alliance, or search out another as those searching for the opposite of evil will not find it amongst those in the Legion of Iron. Even their current leaders are proud to be known as thieves! Think hard before you join.

To:	All
From:	The Knifegrinder
Is this true? This surely must be a mistaken beat on the jungle drums? The Marauding Maidens have joined the Curse of Vashanki!! Do they bed hop as quickly and as easily as they alliance hop? Should they be renamed the 'alliance tarts'?

To:	All
From:	WhiteStar, Rich Time Traveller
Ah hello there everyone, just thought I'd show my face again. Like the new robes? Rather expensive-looking aren't they? I've recently come into a huge amount of money, thanks to ... Well, that's not important. I've decided to throw a party for all my frie .. for all the people I know. I've had a huge tower built in Nodnol, come visit me. The locals call it Fort Unato for some reason, don't worry about it, it's just a misunderstanding that started when I came into the money.

To:	Fortunato
From:	Sir Chanrescu
I say, are you actually speaking to me? Mind your manners, I was just telling the Empress the other day about the lack of manners and respect in the youth of today, it's disgraceful. This time I will respond to you. There is nothing wrong in believing (knowing is better though), but the CoV are too ready to believe anything. Any learned man would have realised that is what I meant, now leave me alone peasant.

To:	The Iron Legion
From:	Sir Chanrescu
I'm sure you're aware of the insult on my (and therefore our) honour. I suggest we undertake to destroy the CoV now and not leave the plan until later, as has been suggested by some of my colleagues. They really have no place in this modern society of ours. I say we march now, it would be a fine tale to tell the Emperor at his annual Summer Ball.

To:	????
From:	The Prophet (of Zanath)
Whilst I am joyous for you to have found Zanath, I believe the intense feelings you have discovered have affected you. When the whole of us - mind, body and spirit - are opened for the first time, we act strangely for a while. I ask you to present yourself to me so that I may expand your knowledge further, and we may walk together on our path.

To:	All
From:	The Prophet
As has been proven with the new miracles from the nine gods, to see the light, you should worship Zanath.

To:	????
From:	Bloodwraith
If Zanath made the Torchlight miracle and if you are in contact with him them please inform him that this is the most useless miracle ever invented. It cost 200 exp and 50 power points to get some light for a few turns, if a group want light they can just buy some bloody torches at about 2 gold per torch.

To:	Tuatha De Danann
From:	Bloodwraith
Well, guess the Big Freeze are no more. They were IL members, and like all IL members they did mostly run away and hide. They still have 5-6 members left I guess, but began to do the slip away thing. If you are interested in some mutual raids against the IL please let me know, it could be fun, provided that we are able to find the IL group not NA or in their HQ or otherwise hiding behind something. How are the Freaks, are they still active?

To:	Hacks Dragon Slayers
From:	Bloodwraith
Yes we do despise the NAppy thing, we wouldn't mind it so much if it was to wear off after, say 50 turns, but find it pathetic that groups of 100 turns or more hide behind the NAppy. Even without this sad thing groups could do a hundred things to stay alive. We don't go around and target young groups, we target all groups, it's just that older groups either carry the NAppy or hide in their HQs. We would love to have a fight with the Warped Paranoia, but again they are in their HQ and so we can't fight them. Do you know how hard it is to find a group to fight these days? Whenever we see a group not having a NAppy we attack, and don't bother to investigate the groups first, and so the odd young group get mauled up, but the new combat system will prevent us from wiping them out completely. It seems that even groups our own strength are no real challenge to us, the Big Freeze all have 99 health (or very close to), +3 axes and +3 armour and they even had more fighters.

To:	Curse of Vashanki
From:	Bloodwraith
We are very unhappy with you people, rather than waging war against the Iron Legion which are your natural enemies, you want to wage war on an alliance which are mainly minding their own business, and which you probably think are weak. Well surprise, they are not and we have just joined them, and between the leader and ourselves alone we have more kills than your entire alliance. So if you want a war this will be fine with us, but we would rather see a war against the IL, then again a skull is a skull, so we will be happy to collect some CoV skulls. Now you have been warned so don't come crying afterwards saying that you didn't even know you were targetting the wrong people. Your HQ is quite boring by the way, not even a single +3 item on sale.

To:	Curse of Vashanki
From:	Bloodwraith
Just to show that we do not spout empty threats then we just claimed the skulls and hearts of five of your members. Learn from it and leave the 3rd Artic Cabal alone, or we'll gather a whole mountain of your skulls.

To:	Bloodwraith / whoever
From:	Editor
Am I to assume there is an alliance called the 3rd Artic Cabal around? If the CoV knew about it and declared war on them, how come I haven't heard of them (apart from me being useless)? Some information would be nice about what's happening in the game!

To:	Na Lochlannaigh
From:	Bloodwraith
Too bad you couldn't stay long enough for our mages to have a swipe at you as well, would probably have got us a couple more skulls. Too bad you were caught up in all this, but when some sod of an alliance act tough against the alliance we're members of, they have to be taught a lesson. Guess you were just in the wrong neighbourhood at the wrong time.

To:	Editor
From:	Williams / TDD
It was an accidental use of the party name! I apologise on bended knee and beg cheesy forgiveness.

To:	Mark
From:	The Ed
I forgive you dear chap, we all have these lapses from time to time. If you looked through this newsletter you'd probably find quite a few mistakes I'd made... All of them deliberate of course!

To:	All
From:	Mark Williams / TDD / Old Blue Peach
I Apologise to all my old Quest chums, those applying for membership to the Old Blue Peach, etc! Etc! I just haven't had time to write anything! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'll try and get back to Questing properly soon! (Did I just hear some groups hissing??!)

To:	Marauding Maidens
From:	Tuatha De Danann (Ref SC53)
Hey! We weren't judging you. You can do what you want! We just wanted you to clarify youtr position now that you have joined The Curse. We have always known that you leaned towards the Darkside, but being a member of a dark alliance with its dark aims and structure is slightly different. The CoV follow Fleyshur and Ythcal, between them read:- 'Devastation & violence', 'does not object to slaughter', 'evil to the core', 'likes pain & death', 'followers are encouraged to injure & kill', - do you follow this code?
	The other point is that certain Curse members/leaders consider Tuatha De Danann and several of our friends, your friends, to be enemies of the Curse of Vashanki. You may have a certain freedom within the alliance but ultimately you will have to follow orders or leave the structure. Would you slit our throats in the night??

To:	Tobias Sjöqvist
From:	Mark Williams (Ref SC53)
I take your points about good & evil but don't you think that alliances who are too lazy to role play properly will use the 'for the greater good' or 'for the greater evil' (or 'higher' evil/good cause) as an excuse? If alliances can't be bothered to role play all the time then they should become a neutral alliance and have the best of both worlds!
	For instance: if some members of a good alliance claim to be neutral, then that's fair enough. They could morally justify dealing with a group of evil. But could another member of the same good alliance, say a Baldor/Phyloqure follower justify staying in an alliance that is having dealings with a source of great evil who have been responsible for death, murder, plague, etc etc?? Personally I don't believe so.
	When you mention this to a 'good' alliance they all quote Sundonak! But good alliances follow Baldor - a god who despises injury & death, Phyloqure - who sees violence as folly of the worst kind! And lastly Garthrana - the goddess of vengeance against evil.
	This argument is more against good/light followers because the whole essence of evil is to do anything for its own advantage. So just don't trust evil followers!
	The followers of good have a roleplaying example to set. It is a much harder part to play as there are far more moral rules to follow, but victory in-game by a player following his codes correctly is looked upon with far more respect, right. I'll shut up now.

To:	All
From:	Your lovely editor
The good/evil discussion has occurred in the last few issues and instead of just Tobias answering, let me know you views on good & evil and we'll have a special feature in the next available newsletter. The alignment chart has two axes though - good & evil but also peace & war. If good & evil shouldn't interact, what about peaceful and warlike groups? Would a Phyloqurian group really hang around a group of Garthranians? Let everyone know your views.