[AdmiralZhao]

The Council of Marignon has returned, having finished its conference on how Blood Magic can be used to produce a step change in enterprise class corporate IT synergies. Of particular interest was the new technique of "swarm" development, where hordes of imps design, code, and test new software applications 3 seconds before their release date. Also notable was the talk on how automated phone systems can be designed and implemented at lower cost by outsourcing them to Kurgi and his associates.

We would like to thank Bananadine, or B((an)*)adine as we like to call him, for his able leadership of Marignon in our absence. To be honest, we were expecting the nation to be a smoking desolation at this point, and were pleasantly surprised to find the homeland and much of the north intact. Also, thanks to Xietor for finding a sub on such short notice, and our apologies to our allies for absconding during this war.