By From Provost Hank Marblemaw, Chaos Broker Academy

To the Accord Chairs, Broker Council Members, and Brokers of the , Alusian Pathfinders, Cunning Champions, and Sovereign Warriors:

Well. Here we are.

After the votes were counted, recounted, glared at, discussed in tones ranging from scholarly to apocalyptic, and generally handled with all the grace of a Dragos trying to perform surgery, it has become clear that the Alusian Pathfinders have received the highest number of votes for dissolution.

That fact, as many of you are no doubt already painfully aware, has not gone down smoothly.

Since the result became known, there has been a substantial and rather emphatic wave of protest from Brokers within the Pathfinders, and from more than a few within the other Accords as well, regarding what many have described as the draconian method by which the High Council and the Chaos Academy chose to reduce the number of Accords. The fact that this process appears poised to eliminate one of the most storied and decorated Accords in Academy history has, understandably, not improved the mood.

And let us not pretend this is only sentimental hand-wringing from nostalgic Brokers clutching old banners and muttering about legacy. There are clear implications here for the economy of the Firmament and for the health of the Chaos Broker Academy itself. It has become evident that many Brokers (particularly among the Pathfinders) are willing to relinquish their Houses, their Vaults, and their future commercial prospects entirely rather than transfer into a rival Accord. That is not a minor gesture. That is a threat of institutional self-immolation, and it would be idiotic to ignore it.

Accordingly, an emergency session of the High Council was called.

During that session, High Regent Dusana made a passionate plea on behalf of the Alusian Pathfinders, citing their strong historical performance in battles, the competitive and cultural legacy of the Accord, and the many legendary Brokers who have been nurtured under the Pathfinder banner. Those of you familiar with the High Regent’s speaking style will understand the significance here: when Dusana becomes passionate, entire rooms tend to discover, several minutes too late, that they have already lost the argument.

Further, XN-1031, serving as a Council Observer representing the Xandrian Consensus, announced that the Xandrians are withdrawing their request to be considered a full-fledged Academy Accord. According to XN-1031, it was never the Xandrians’ intention to create resentment or civil instability among Academy Brokers. Their aim was not to provoke a collapse of Academy identity, but rather to secure recognition as full-fledged Brokers with rights comparable to those enjoyed by the existing Accords.

XN-1031 also stated that, given the reluctance of Brokers to join the Xandrians in any significant numbers, it is now clear to the Xandrian people that even if they were instituted as a full-fledged Accord, they would face a degree of hostility from other Accords that the Consensus regards as both counterproductive and undeserved.

In the same session, XN-1031 further requested that the Pathfinders not be dissolved, and proposed instead that the Xandrian people seek to form a strategic alliance with one of the existing Accords. To that end, Accord Council members should be receiving direct communication from XN-1031 with the details of a proposed alliance arrangement.

As a result of these developments, the High Council and the Chaos Broker Academy have jointly decided to pause the Accord Dissolution process. The Xandrians will instead be given an opportunity to pursue such an alliance before the beginning of the next Accord Wars III campaign.

This is, I realize, not the clean and decisive resolution some of you may have wanted. Then again, clean resolutions are mostly the invention of playwrights, propagandists, and people who have never had to govern anything more complicated than a bath schedule.

While we wait for the Xandrians to expand on their offers of strategic alliances, we would appreciate it if all Accords refrain from doing anything theatrical, irreversible, or economically catastrophic. That includes symbolic Vault burnings, House dissolutions, oaths of eternal vengeance, or whatever else some of you have been composing in your heads while pretending to listen to official notices.

Let Chaos Reign.

Provost Hank Marblemaw
Chaos Broker Academy