"One of these Copper Magistrati has for 600 years come from the Valentin family, a monstrously ancient bloodline grown like a cancer into Alderode's every institution. Its pink-eyed paterfamilias is thin and tall as a pike, speaking in the lazy drawl of a dreaming oracle. He is surrounded by an incestuous herd of equally blasphemous, unnatural red men, grotesquely drawn to hideous interests and loathesome appetites.
      After the recent "Rebalancing," VITS is creaking. One of the heathen Magistrati is gone. The remaining is impotent and the heathen church is in crisis. "The Great Compromise" is looking down into its own wet grave, leaving one to wonder if VITS has lost its purpose when but a single will remains."

_{From "A Brief Course on the Aldish Mind" by TA Orsa}