Strategos is a title that can translate to 'general' or 'governor', and both are, at present, accurate descriptions of Count Janos of Avannar, Adept and Imperial Kinsman of the third degree. As governor it is his duty to oversee Faun Kar province, and he must collect taxes, enforce laws, and ensure that his administration is free from corruption, prejudice or local cliques that might threaten the Empire and its mission. As general, it is his duty to suppress rebellion, put down banditry, and make sure no hostile army crosses the Hardornen border into the Eastern Empire. To assist him in both purposes, he has mages, soldiers, clerks, nobles, officials, and, of course, a personal spy service (officially on the books as grain inspectors), all under his service.

So when the news trickles in that Valdemar is attempting to put together a coalition of all of their neighbors - except Hardorn - to oppose a bandit warlord, Janos is moderately disturbed. Valdemar has apparently managed to bring in Rethwellan (from which a sizable fraction of his art collection and foreign books are sourced), Karse (admittedly Karse is presently their puppet state) and Iftel to the coalition, as well as various mercenary companies and a few of the barbarian tribes of the spell-scarred Pelagirs, spending money and political capital both like water. It's a disturbing trend; first their annexation of Lineas and Baires, then their installation of a puppet ruler on the throne of Karse and their expansion north to the edge of the Ice Wall mountains. They are, frankly, running out of directions to invade.

And so Governor Janos dips his pen (Serve the Emperor. Serve the Empire) and writes to his superiors that he non-confidently expects Valdemar to launch an invasion of Hardorn come the next campaigning season, and sets to work preparing his border defenses, inspecting fortifications, and making sure that grain, wine, arrows and talismans are all well-supplied to his frontier fortifications. His contacts in the courts of the neighboring Hardornen lords are to insist that he has no hostile intent, and to suggest (though not state) that should the worst occur the Eastern Empire will be happy to offer protection to anyone who cannot find it at King Festil's court.

He does consider other possibilities, of course. His spies at the court of Hardorn and Karse (and the merchants in Valdemar who report to his spies in Hardorn) report that Valdemar insists that this bandit has been quietly hiring mercenaries for a very long time, that he is a terrifyingly powerful wizard, and that they desperately require all the assistance they can possibly find. Janos is skeptical; oh, the salaries mercenaries can command (especially mercenary mages) has been rising throughout the past decade, but no famous companies have disappeared and the claim that a force powerful enough to conquer a kingdom could be supplied in the Ice Wall Mountains is ludicrous. Whatever Valdemar is after, it is war.