And then I noticed one standing apart from the rest, making no obeisance, but staring at his own feet and clutching tight to a fragile jug of oil. "Who is that one, who offers no tribute, but draws within himself at the feet of the centuries?" The answer came, "He is Emperor Bor'gueesh II, the hereditary ruler of the Western lands. He refuses to learn the lessons of the centuries that inform the wise; refuses to lay tribute at their feet, believing himself to be above their tutelage and the sole source of his own wisdom. In his hands he carries a phial of rare and precious oil, the desire for which he used as his justification to depose the Eastern Emperor. As his family seized their own throne by deceit, so he now plots to seize rule of the East by that same means, despite having no means to hold on to them from half a world away. His is the rule of fear that brooks no dissent and recognizes no wisdom. "