Shadowlands Horde Letter - #9
They are weak.
We are strong.
They must bow to us, or die.
It is that simple.
United against us, they have defeated us. But they have forgotten how to stand as a force united. We shall insure that they do not have opportunity to remember.
Behold our might! None can stand before our new masters. Not even a Thunder! Not even an Emperor! We have mustered forces from deepest Jigoku, forces the humans have never seen before. Our grasp even extends to the Shinomen, to the Tombs of the Kitsu, and even to the deep northern mountains. Wherever there are nightmares we are there! The Emperor's death is merely the first sign of our inevitable supremacy!
This time their weakness will be their undoing. This time, their armies will disperse like blood in water. We will crush them, squeeze the life from them, claw, tear, and devour them.
This time, their Empire will fall.
It is a good time to be alive! So to speak.
Even yet, we must be cautious. Our greatest weakness has been overconfidence. We could not imagine how they could find a way to defeat us. And that is the problem. We could not imagine. They can. Always something new. A new trick. A new power that we had not anticipated. Perhaps you are accustomed to hearing that victory is certain. That is still the message that we must share with our troops. As the masters of darkness, I trust you enough to tell you this truth: victory is likely, but never certain.
In the wake of Volturnum, many of us have stood on the other side of that Wall. We are organized for the first time under commanders who understand battle as well as the generals of the Empire, who have imagination. We know their tactics, their culture, their people better than ever before. We are Rokugan.
Have heart; though a long battle lies ahead, victory is already ours. I do not refer to the rule of the Empire, or the subjugation of the weak-willed spawn of the Kami. No, that will come in time. Our victory is the loss of the daylight peace of the Empire. The samurai are accustomed to thinking that the Wall confines us, keeps them safe from our power. With the powers our new masters bring to the Horde, the Wall is no longer a barrier to us, no longer a threat. The people of Rokugan know that their doom is merely a matter of time.
Though we have been beaten, we have never been destroyed. The people of Rokugan have never had it in their hearts to pursue our extinction; they know the toll such a battle would exact. We shall do them the same favor. When our victory comes, we shall preserve their Empire, twisted into our own image. We shall carve scars into their faces, twist the desires of their hearts, rend their souls, and make them our own. The loneliness and despair of those who escape our grasp will lead them to wonder if perhaps those who died were more fortunate.
Yasuki Nokatsu
Dark Oracle of Earth