The following are a collection of writings, essays perhaps, left me by our late King, who was my cousin in name, but was closer to father in fact. He never discussed these with me in life, except to say they existed and he was entrusting them to me if he should die, but I believe, reading through them, that he did not write them merely as an exercise and wanted them made known. I publish them, therefore, in his memory and in memory of what he tried to do.

There are not a finished work, and the titles and organization are my own. It is clear to me that he intended to write a great deal more, but was prevented by lack of time. Indeed, I fancy I sense an urgency in some of the later writings to say everything he felt he must say before his time ran out, despite the fact that he ws still a young man at the time of his death.

Though there are likely to be few for whom this is not known, I include a brief biography of my cousin, for such is the custom in a work of this nature.

Staffan was the second of four sons of Merrick, the Duke of Helgram. He was married fairly young to Imke Baezir in an arranged marriage, though both seemed happy enough with the match. Staffan seemed genuinely grieved when Imke died only a few years after the birth of their only son, Edward. They had been married nearly fifteen years.

Staffan spent much of his youth at the Royal court, having been at least a passing friend of Vere's when both were children. He became the heir to his house when his elder brother, Quinn, was killed in Uriel's coup, and became Duke of Helgram early in the war, when his father was killed on the slopes of Kolvir.

Staffan became king when it became clear that Uriel was leading us rapidly down the road to destruction and the the great houses could agree on no one else. He had a falling out with his son which I do not fully understand over the whole affair and lost his brother Maxim in the final engagement of the war.

As King he had to do a lot of hard things, ending the war and stabilizing Chaos among them. The more conservative houses were deeply offended by his decision to surrender to Amber. Some of his policies, such as prohibitions against arcane magics were similarly unpopular, but he felt some of the excesses in that area had contributed to the Patternfall war and he stuck to his ground. He was killed perhaps two years after he was crowned, making his one of the shortest reigns in the history of Chaos.

Joshua Helgram