Written By Shard
Aug. 18, 2019, 2:41 a.m.(9/3/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Cambria
I'm going to have to agree with Valdemar. The one person I've hated more than anyone else, at any point in my life, I started hating before I understood what that word even meant. The day he dies will be a very, very good day.
Written By Shard
Aug. 14, 2019, 3:35 a.m.(8/23/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Tikva
These days, I hear the word wielded as a weapon or an accusation unless it's a sermon about Gild; and sometimes, even then. But the Compact does not own the gods, and it does not own civilization or the concept of being civilized, and it's good to be reminded, or to remind myself, that this is the case from time to time.
My tribe was not big enough to be called a civilization, I'm fairly sure. We didn't build houses, let alone villages or cities. We had to trade for any metal that we had. At the risk of exciting Elloise, we moved around nature, and with nature, rarely against it--but that was our way. Our traditions. That was how we wanted to live, and how it seemed best to live, for us. It let us move when danger got too near. It let us live in harsh, wild, frozen places far, far, far away from any place anyone here might call civilization, where the horizon was only ever broken by trees and mountains, not walls and towers. We could follow the herds wherever they went, unless they journeyed too far to the south and too close to danger.
Once, when I was still a child, I was away from camp helping the woman who raised me gather plants for her medicines and ceremonies when we found a half-frozen body in the brush. We pulled him free to a partially open place, and we built a little pyre among the rocks out of tree branches and twigs. He had no markings, no tattoos, no sigils, and no writings to tell us who he might have been, or where he might have come from, so there was nothing to say over his body as it burned away. I asked her, the woman who raised me, why we had spent valuable time doing that for someone who might have been an enemy, a member of the Compact, a member of a hostile tribe, or at the very least someone who was not one of ours. She told me that we all have to meet death one day, and sometimes it's nice if someone helps you to do it properly. "And besides," she said. "We're not /savages/."
My tribe was not big enough to be called a civilization, I'm fairly sure. We didn't build houses, let alone villages or cities. We had to trade for any metal that we had. At the risk of exciting Elloise, we moved around nature, and with nature, rarely against it--but that was our way. Our traditions. That was how we wanted to live, and how it seemed best to live, for us. It let us move when danger got too near. It let us live in harsh, wild, frozen places far, far, far away from any place anyone here might call civilization, where the horizon was only ever broken by trees and mountains, not walls and towers. We could follow the herds wherever they went, unless they journeyed too far to the south and too close to danger.
Once, when I was still a child, I was away from camp helping the woman who raised me gather plants for her medicines and ceremonies when we found a half-frozen body in the brush. We pulled him free to a partially open place, and we built a little pyre among the rocks out of tree branches and twigs. He had no markings, no tattoos, no sigils, and no writings to tell us who he might have been, or where he might have come from, so there was nothing to say over his body as it burned away. I asked her, the woman who raised me, why we had spent valuable time doing that for someone who might have been an enemy, a member of the Compact, a member of a hostile tribe, or at the very least someone who was not one of ours. She told me that we all have to meet death one day, and sometimes it's nice if someone helps you to do it properly. "And besides," she said. "We're not /savages/."
Written By Shard
Aug. 12, 2019, 7:46 p.m.(8/20/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Elloise
She really does think that Abandoned can't and won't lie. Incredible.
Written By Shard
Aug. 11, 2019, 8:58 p.m.(8/19/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Elloise
Okay, you're just trying to irritate prodigals at this point. I get it. Though it's always amazing when Compact-born nobility try to lecture prodigals about their own history and peoples. Particularly when they don't even bother to make a single distinction between the prodigals themselves, let alone the tribes they're supposedly admiring.
Written By Shard
Aug. 11, 2019, 8:47 p.m.(8/19/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Bliss
I disagree about as strongly as I can with the idea that the Compact somehow owns civilization on Arvum. That said, no, I don't think it would have been possible without the Compact either; or, at least, some form of humanity banding together in order to fight our real enemies.
I didn't think you, specifically, believed we did it alone, but it felt like something publicly worth emphasizing anyway.
I didn't think you, specifically, believed we did it alone, but it felt like something publicly worth emphasizing anyway.
Written By Shard
Aug. 10, 2019, 11:11 p.m.(8/17/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Bliss
When it comes to our greatest enemies, the Compact has not, and has never, defeated them alone, as much as people like to pretend otherwise. Not the Gyre, not the battles against the Horned One, not the Silent War, not the War of Stolen Names, and certainly not the Reckoning. The first statues in the Hall of Heroes are only the tiniest representation of the people and peoples that had a hand in ensuring that we could still be here, alive and arguing in journals. And, in some cases, still do have a hand in it, somewhere.
Written By Shard
Aug. 10, 2019, 11:02 p.m.(8/17/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Elloise
No, what you're saying is that prodigals either are, and or come from cultures that are too 'simple' and 'savage' to act like ordinary human beings; it's just you think that's a good thing. Your words read like you're talking about some particularly dumb animal, not millions of people in thousands of different tribes.
There's no such thing as 'the morals of the Prodigal'. We're all different, we all come from different places and different tribes. Some are warriors, some are thieves, some are actual nobles, some are and have always been craftsmen. Every one of us has a different story, but I'm willing to bet none of them match up with whatever Haze-fueled nonsense you've convinced yourself of.
I grew up in the wilds. I prefer the wilds. My people preferred freedom and the open sky to high walls and safety and a single patch of land. But most people don't live like that and don't want to live like that, and that's fine for them. There's no 'morality' to whether you live in a tent in the woods or a house in a city, or whether you cook food you killed yourself over a campfire, or food you bought at the market in a kitchen. What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. We're not children, we're not mysterious animals, we're people pretty much just like you in most ways that matter.
There's no such thing as 'the morals of the Prodigal'. We're all different, we all come from different places and different tribes. Some are warriors, some are thieves, some are actual nobles, some are and have always been craftsmen. Every one of us has a different story, but I'm willing to bet none of them match up with whatever Haze-fueled nonsense you've convinced yourself of.
I grew up in the wilds. I prefer the wilds. My people preferred freedom and the open sky to high walls and safety and a single patch of land. But most people don't live like that and don't want to live like that, and that's fine for them. There's no 'morality' to whether you live in a tent in the woods or a house in a city, or whether you cook food you killed yourself over a campfire, or food you bought at the market in a kitchen. What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. We're not children, we're not mysterious animals, we're people pretty much just like you in most ways that matter.
Written By Shard
Aug. 10, 2019, 6:22 a.m.(8/15/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Elloise
Okay, I admit it, I'm fucking baffled.
Do you somehow think that Prodigals (and Abandoned, I guess) don't understand lying, or are too stupid to know how to put on a front? Do you think lack of manners is 'closer to nature', whatever that means? Am I actually reading that right? Plenty of Abandoned live in houses. Most of them probably live in houses. And villages. And towns. Sometimes castles. What does an absurd amount of silverware have to do with anything? What are you even talking about?
I lived in a tent in the Everwinter and I knew what a fucking fork was. I don't use ten of them to eat a meal because that's a giant stupid waste, not because my inner simple savage ways keep me from it. I think the nobility just get so damned bored they have to keep inventing newer and more ridiculous ways to show each other up.
Do you somehow think that Prodigals (and Abandoned, I guess) don't understand lying, or are too stupid to know how to put on a front? Do you think lack of manners is 'closer to nature', whatever that means? Am I actually reading that right? Plenty of Abandoned live in houses. Most of them probably live in houses. And villages. And towns. Sometimes castles. What does an absurd amount of silverware have to do with anything? What are you even talking about?
I lived in a tent in the Everwinter and I knew what a fucking fork was. I don't use ten of them to eat a meal because that's a giant stupid waste, not because my inner simple savage ways keep me from it. I think the nobility just get so damned bored they have to keep inventing newer and more ridiculous ways to show each other up.
Written By Shard
Aug. 8, 2019, 2:31 a.m.(8/11/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Preston
The idea that killing a person somehow damages you forever is an idea I've always found to be ridiculous nonsense, and it's usually trotted out by someone who either has had the luxury of being able to choose whether or not they'll take a life, or someone who has been listening to people who have. That's not to say that the first time it happens to someone it doesn't affect them somehow--I think I'd look sideways at anyone who didn't at least feel /something/--or that it can't be awful. There's a reason people tend to remember first kills. I threw up after mine.
I tentatively agree that it's the reasons for it, and just who exactly is dying, that matters. Some people really do just need killing. A lot of people, sometimes. Some people have to die because there's no better way around it. And for some people, dying is better than the situation they're in.
It's the ones that didn't have to die, and didn't deserve to die, that should haunt people. Unfortunately, most of their murderers are usually very good at justifying their ghosts.
I tentatively agree that it's the reasons for it, and just who exactly is dying, that matters. Some people really do just need killing. A lot of people, sometimes. Some people have to die because there's no better way around it. And for some people, dying is better than the situation they're in.
It's the ones that didn't have to die, and didn't deserve to die, that should haunt people. Unfortunately, most of their murderers are usually very good at justifying their ghosts.
Written By Shard
Aug. 5, 2019, 6:53 a.m.(8/5/1011 AR)
A word of advice: if you're going to hire thieves to do a job for you, at least have the self respect to hire ones that haven't already been caught at it.
I hope you didn't pay them in advance.
I hope you didn't pay them in advance.
Written By Shard
Aug. 1, 2019, 4:30 a.m.(7/25/1011 AR)
Don't hit nobles. I don't know or, honestly, particularly care about the details of what happened, or which person's story is closer to the truth, so I mean this in general. Don't hit nobles.
It's not that a lot of nobles don't deserve to get socked in the jaw. You could probably fill the Grand Cathedral to the roof with nobles that deserve a whole lot worse, let alone a few bruises. They might be very annoying. They might really, really be asking for it. It might be the most perfect justice in the entire world. It doesn't matter. Don't hit nobles. All of society will come down on you like a cartload of bricks for doing it. Hit something else instead; a wall, a tree, a barrel, whatever. If you're not so stupid about it that you break your own hand in the process, you'll just have some sore or bruised knuckles for a few days as a consequence, rather than, at best, a prosecution.
That's more or less the advice I was given just before my first time entering the city. It turned out to be very good advice, and I've somehow managed to follow it in the years since. I'm happy to pass it on. Don't hit nobles.
It's not that a lot of nobles don't deserve to get socked in the jaw. You could probably fill the Grand Cathedral to the roof with nobles that deserve a whole lot worse, let alone a few bruises. They might be very annoying. They might really, really be asking for it. It might be the most perfect justice in the entire world. It doesn't matter. Don't hit nobles. All of society will come down on you like a cartload of bricks for doing it. Hit something else instead; a wall, a tree, a barrel, whatever. If you're not so stupid about it that you break your own hand in the process, you'll just have some sore or bruised knuckles for a few days as a consequence, rather than, at best, a prosecution.
That's more or less the advice I was given just before my first time entering the city. It turned out to be very good advice, and I've somehow managed to follow it in the years since. I'm happy to pass it on. Don't hit nobles.
Written By Shard
July 29, 2019, 6:06 a.m.(7/19/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Sparte
That's the problem. Wind is wind. Why would it ever think about what some human does with their day? I'm not sure it would even think about days at all. What's time to the Wind? Or set paths, for that matter.
Written By Shard
July 27, 2019, 6:23 a.m.(7/15/1011 AR)
I've heard the saying that 'there are no stupid questions'. Of course there are. There are a whole lot of stupid questions, and we all end up asking at least a few from time to time. There's generally nothing wrong with those--except that they're stupid---if you're asking because you genuinely want to know the answer.
But if you're asking stupid questions to try to teach, then there actually has to be a lesson in there somewhere. If you're asking, for instance, 'why is slavery wrong?' then I'd assume what you're actually looking for, what you want the person you're asking to think about, are solid reasons as to why slavery IS wrong. Maybe you want them to be able to back up knee-jerk reactions with well reasoned opinions. Maybe you just want to reinforce what they already believe. Who knows? I'm not a very good teacher, I've never really taught that way. I've had a few teachers who did, though, and they always had some kind of point. Some reason. Some purpose. Sometimes they would have to slap me across the face with it a few times before it sunk in, but it was always there.
If you lay out a long, detailed argument as to why slavery is, in fact, good, and specifically who should be enslaved, and why, and how that would benefit all of us, and--and this is important--these are not only arguments that other people are making, right now, with no exaggeration and in all seriousness, they're at least close to the justification for the incident that set off this topic in the first place, well, then it just sounds like you're advocating for the fucking thing. And slavery of one kind or another has a lot of fucking advocates. It doesn't need another one chiming in solely because they just want to ask questions. That kind've thing doesn't teach any lessons, it just pisses people off. And I suppose if pissing people off is the actual goal, then mission fucking accomplished, but don't try to dress it up as something to learn from, because it's not. The only lesson that comes out of that is to stop paying attention to anything you have to say.
But if you're asking stupid questions to try to teach, then there actually has to be a lesson in there somewhere. If you're asking, for instance, 'why is slavery wrong?' then I'd assume what you're actually looking for, what you want the person you're asking to think about, are solid reasons as to why slavery IS wrong. Maybe you want them to be able to back up knee-jerk reactions with well reasoned opinions. Maybe you just want to reinforce what they already believe. Who knows? I'm not a very good teacher, I've never really taught that way. I've had a few teachers who did, though, and they always had some kind of point. Some reason. Some purpose. Sometimes they would have to slap me across the face with it a few times before it sunk in, but it was always there.
If you lay out a long, detailed argument as to why slavery is, in fact, good, and specifically who should be enslaved, and why, and how that would benefit all of us, and--and this is important--these are not only arguments that other people are making, right now, with no exaggeration and in all seriousness, they're at least close to the justification for the incident that set off this topic in the first place, well, then it just sounds like you're advocating for the fucking thing. And slavery of one kind or another has a lot of fucking advocates. It doesn't need another one chiming in solely because they just want to ask questions. That kind've thing doesn't teach any lessons, it just pisses people off. And I suppose if pissing people off is the actual goal, then mission fucking accomplished, but don't try to dress it up as something to learn from, because it's not. The only lesson that comes out of that is to stop paying attention to anything you have to say.
Written By Shard
July 21, 2019, 9:02 p.m.(7/5/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Yvon
They refer to themselves as 'Abandoned' because the Compact already abandoned them a long, long time ago. The Compact has its own words for them. You refer to parents and children; as fucking obnoxious as this comparison is, since when is putting your child into slavery a sign of good parenting? You are not their parents. They have their own parents. Their own elders.
There is no redemption in thralldom, and the 'value' of kidnapping the Abandoned and making them thralls is that you can have a whole lot of slaves working for you for free. There is no value to /them/. Those ex-Thralls that have thrived since being freed or freeing themselves have thrived in spite of thralldom, not because of it. The ex-thralls that have been murdered because they were /ex/-thralls certainly didn't fucking benefit.
You speak of forces of destruction and those that would overthrow the Compact. Slavery strengthens our enemies, quite literally. Maybe you should pay attention to more gods than the Thirteenth, and you would remember that.
Finally, the objection is not that it's 'unpleasant'. The objection is that it's slavery. 'Kinder' slavery than other forms, sure, but slavery all the same. And there is no such thing as a free people who have been forced to surrender their freedom, be it through chains or the sword.
There is no redemption in thralldom, and the 'value' of kidnapping the Abandoned and making them thralls is that you can have a whole lot of slaves working for you for free. There is no value to /them/. Those ex-Thralls that have thrived since being freed or freeing themselves have thrived in spite of thralldom, not because of it. The ex-thralls that have been murdered because they were /ex/-thralls certainly didn't fucking benefit.
You speak of forces of destruction and those that would overthrow the Compact. Slavery strengthens our enemies, quite literally. Maybe you should pay attention to more gods than the Thirteenth, and you would remember that.
Finally, the objection is not that it's 'unpleasant'. The objection is that it's slavery. 'Kinder' slavery than other forms, sure, but slavery all the same. And there is no such thing as a free people who have been forced to surrender their freedom, be it through chains or the sword.
Written By Shard
July 19, 2019, 12:53 a.m.(6/27/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Cassima
I've also heard what happened. And I'm not in the slightest bit conflicted as to what the /right/ action would have been. Lots of situations are messy, and complicated. Lots of decisions are very difficult. This wasn't one.
The only thing that made it 'gray and complex' is that the people it happened to aren't considered to be worth anything. Or, for that matter, to actually be people. The Gods are the gods of everyone, but why would Skald really care about those particular humans, after all?
The only thing that made it 'gray and complex' is that the people it happened to aren't considered to be worth anything. Or, for that matter, to actually be people. The Gods are the gods of everyone, but why would Skald really care about those particular humans, after all?
Written By Shard
July 14, 2019, 11:57 p.m.(6/18/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
Wait a minute, are you comparing contracts to oaths? Are you actually confusing a temporary business arrangement with an oath of fealty?
Written By Shard
July 14, 2019, 11:36 p.m.(6/18/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Arianna
I don't get paid for 'most things I do'. In addition, and it may shock you to learn this; most sellswords aren't nobles slumming it up to play soldier. Most sellswords have to buy their own food, shelter, and equipment, many sellswords have families relying on their work, and most of them don't get money handed to them whenever they have a whim. Doing the nobility's dirty work is expensive in both resources and actual lives, so damned straight you get charged when you want more people to stick on the front lines of your wars. You expect us to die for you, for free? With what rations, with what weapons, with what armor should we do that, exactly? Your own soldiers don't march without food and equipment, I wonder if Pravus sneers at them as well.
Written By Shard
July 10, 2019, 6:08 p.m.(6/10/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Alecstazi
What in the everliving fuck are you even talking about?
I've done bad things. I've even done at least one terrible thing. I have never, /ever/ done the things that we've been discussing. To be honest, if I wasn't so damned confused about what my title actually makes me as far as the Compact is concerned, I'd take up the offer to fight for me that I received a few days ago and challenge you over that accusation alone.
And even if I was whatever you're saying, whatever you're referring to, exactly how does that invalidate anything I've been saying? This argument was not about Shard, Better Than You. If that's how you've been reading it this entire time, you're not only hopeless, you're looking for excuses to ignore uncomfortable realities. I could be the biggest, most hypocritical monster on Arvum, and it wouldn't somehow make murdering babies /okay/. It wouldn't make butchering thousands okay. It wouldn't make torturing hundreds to death because you're mad at your liege and you think your new human body art project will get their attention fine and acceptable. It doesn't suddenly justify slavery.
I've never claimed to be a good person, let alone a paragon, so I don't see why you keep insisting I have. The more important question is why it is that someone like me, whoever and whatever you think /I/ am, seemingly has to point out these basic fucking things to someone like /you/.
I've done bad things. I've even done at least one terrible thing. I have never, /ever/ done the things that we've been discussing. To be honest, if I wasn't so damned confused about what my title actually makes me as far as the Compact is concerned, I'd take up the offer to fight for me that I received a few days ago and challenge you over that accusation alone.
And even if I was whatever you're saying, whatever you're referring to, exactly how does that invalidate anything I've been saying? This argument was not about Shard, Better Than You. If that's how you've been reading it this entire time, you're not only hopeless, you're looking for excuses to ignore uncomfortable realities. I could be the biggest, most hypocritical monster on Arvum, and it wouldn't somehow make murdering babies /okay/. It wouldn't make butchering thousands okay. It wouldn't make torturing hundreds to death because you're mad at your liege and you think your new human body art project will get their attention fine and acceptable. It doesn't suddenly justify slavery.
I've never claimed to be a good person, let alone a paragon, so I don't see why you keep insisting I have. The more important question is why it is that someone like me, whoever and whatever you think /I/ am, seemingly has to point out these basic fucking things to someone like /you/.
Written By Shard
July 9, 2019, 3:35 a.m.(6/7/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Vincenzo
They're not exactly wandering. They're mostly just sitting in their boats glaring at each other, when they're not being invited to give lectures.
Written By Shard
July 9, 2019, 3:34 a.m.(6/7/1011 AR)
Relationship Note on Alecstazi
Which actions are you referring to? When I fought in the front lines to defend Setarco? When I fought to defend the Lodge of Petrichor? When I spent weeks in the Gray Forest helping to root out cultists and demon worshipers? Actions taken under the command of Audric de Lire, I might add. Who was awarded a barony because of /his/ actions in the Silent War. My actions speak for themselves, the good and the bad. Am I conflicted? Of course I'm conflicted. Most people are conflicted over something.
I don't seek to make you a better people; no one can make you better other than yourselves. I'm not /that/ arrogant. But if you want suggestions? Fine. Feel free to ignore these:
When raiders attack you, why don't you go kill the raiders and then /stop killing when you're done/. Don't know who the raiders are? You might have an idea if you took the time to learn which tribes are which, what their stories are, what their traditions are, how they live and where they live. Because Thesarin is right; it's easy for the people that wronged you to get away with everything they've done, because the standard response is to not even bother checking targets before soldiers start attacking.
You know who would have a good idea about who the raiders are? The other tribes. Chances are when the raiders aren't attacking you, they're attacking them. Sometimes they don't, of course. Sometimes they're just attacking the Compact because they're very, very angry at the Compact. And I wonder why that might be. But either way, why should they tell you? Because today you might not murder them in their beds or drive them from their homes? Even I know that kind of thing rarely makes friends.
Ah, but they're on your land? Then I ask you; what makes it yours? Because you say so? They say it's their land. They've often been living there for hundreds of years, if not longer. And the Compact claims every inch of land on Arvum. You claim the islands. You claim the seas. You claim the snowy wastes far, far from any holding. You claim more land than you can ever possibly fill, and yet it's all yours, forever, no matter what. They have no where to go that is not 'your land'. And, funny enough, when a tribe as a whole bends the knee, they often get to stay right where they were, on that land you needed so badly.
What should you do? What do you do with the Nox'alfar? Cardia? Jadairal? Eurus? What would you do if a khati ship sailed into the harbor next? Do you declare them all squatting law-breakers who should be put down? Do you make it clear that anyone can do anything to them they want, because they're not under the King's Law? Of course you don't, because if you did, you'd be in a war you'd very possibly not win. No, all of those were negotiated with. They were allowed to voice their offers and concerns in the Assembly of Peers. One of them even openly claimed to be holding the King's son hostage. He admitted to executing Compact citizens on Arvani soil. And you know what else he said? He said he did those things because he wanted to and because he could. Because his kingdom holds the power and ours does not.
And that, in the end, is why you won't treat the Abandoned the way you treat any of them. Not because of the law, not even because of what's been done to you. But because they don't have enough power. They don't have the ability to possibly destroy the Compact. They can be dangerous, of course, but not to all of us. Not to everyone at once. Not when all the banners are called and the Compact marches together. No, the Compact has the power to end any one tribe, or even a small alliance of tribes, and the Compact wants the land they're living on, so the Compact treats them all as enemies and criminals and at best turns a blind eye to nearly anything that's done to them. Bend the knee or die. And, sometimes, when a few nobles start feeling like society is being polluted, bend the knee and die anyway.
You use my title, but according to your laws I was born a criminal. According to your laws I had a potential death sentence hanging over my head the moment I drew breath, the moment my parents drew breath, and their parents, and /their/ parents. My family has been in Arvum a very long time. It's older than the Compact itself. But none of that mattered to the noble who ordered my death because my tribe was--temporarily at that--vaguely near his holdings. Why should it? He wanted us gone and I didn't have the power to stop him. We were enemies. Everyone out there is an enemy.
So you asked for suggestions. Ideas. I'm not a diplomat. I'm not much of a strategist. I'm very, very new to the idea of leadership at all. But it seems to me, that if nothing else I've said has made any kind of impression, you might consider that the Compact has far too many enemies. Powerful enemies. Enemies that are very good at convincing all your other enemies that life would be better without you. That any kind of sacrifice is worth making if they can be rid of you. In the past few years, these kinds of enemies, these warlords, have attacked the Compact directly three times. We've fought two wars against them. Their armies didn't come from nowhere. Too often they've come from desperate, angry Abandoned that have been driven straight into their arms because it becomes a choice between those warlords and you, and you've ensured that they /fucking hate you/. Maybe it would be in the Compact's better interests to stop doing that.
And before you start writing; no. I have hated, and still hate one of those warlords far, far more than I could ever, and have ever hated the Compact or anyone in it. On that, I have never been conflicted for even the briefest moment in my entire life.
I don't seek to make you a better people; no one can make you better other than yourselves. I'm not /that/ arrogant. But if you want suggestions? Fine. Feel free to ignore these:
When raiders attack you, why don't you go kill the raiders and then /stop killing when you're done/. Don't know who the raiders are? You might have an idea if you took the time to learn which tribes are which, what their stories are, what their traditions are, how they live and where they live. Because Thesarin is right; it's easy for the people that wronged you to get away with everything they've done, because the standard response is to not even bother checking targets before soldiers start attacking.
You know who would have a good idea about who the raiders are? The other tribes. Chances are when the raiders aren't attacking you, they're attacking them. Sometimes they don't, of course. Sometimes they're just attacking the Compact because they're very, very angry at the Compact. And I wonder why that might be. But either way, why should they tell you? Because today you might not murder them in their beds or drive them from their homes? Even I know that kind of thing rarely makes friends.
Ah, but they're on your land? Then I ask you; what makes it yours? Because you say so? They say it's their land. They've often been living there for hundreds of years, if not longer. And the Compact claims every inch of land on Arvum. You claim the islands. You claim the seas. You claim the snowy wastes far, far from any holding. You claim more land than you can ever possibly fill, and yet it's all yours, forever, no matter what. They have no where to go that is not 'your land'. And, funny enough, when a tribe as a whole bends the knee, they often get to stay right where they were, on that land you needed so badly.
What should you do? What do you do with the Nox'alfar? Cardia? Jadairal? Eurus? What would you do if a khati ship sailed into the harbor next? Do you declare them all squatting law-breakers who should be put down? Do you make it clear that anyone can do anything to them they want, because they're not under the King's Law? Of course you don't, because if you did, you'd be in a war you'd very possibly not win. No, all of those were negotiated with. They were allowed to voice their offers and concerns in the Assembly of Peers. One of them even openly claimed to be holding the King's son hostage. He admitted to executing Compact citizens on Arvani soil. And you know what else he said? He said he did those things because he wanted to and because he could. Because his kingdom holds the power and ours does not.
And that, in the end, is why you won't treat the Abandoned the way you treat any of them. Not because of the law, not even because of what's been done to you. But because they don't have enough power. They don't have the ability to possibly destroy the Compact. They can be dangerous, of course, but not to all of us. Not to everyone at once. Not when all the banners are called and the Compact marches together. No, the Compact has the power to end any one tribe, or even a small alliance of tribes, and the Compact wants the land they're living on, so the Compact treats them all as enemies and criminals and at best turns a blind eye to nearly anything that's done to them. Bend the knee or die. And, sometimes, when a few nobles start feeling like society is being polluted, bend the knee and die anyway.
You use my title, but according to your laws I was born a criminal. According to your laws I had a potential death sentence hanging over my head the moment I drew breath, the moment my parents drew breath, and their parents, and /their/ parents. My family has been in Arvum a very long time. It's older than the Compact itself. But none of that mattered to the noble who ordered my death because my tribe was--temporarily at that--vaguely near his holdings. Why should it? He wanted us gone and I didn't have the power to stop him. We were enemies. Everyone out there is an enemy.
So you asked for suggestions. Ideas. I'm not a diplomat. I'm not much of a strategist. I'm very, very new to the idea of leadership at all. But it seems to me, that if nothing else I've said has made any kind of impression, you might consider that the Compact has far too many enemies. Powerful enemies. Enemies that are very good at convincing all your other enemies that life would be better without you. That any kind of sacrifice is worth making if they can be rid of you. In the past few years, these kinds of enemies, these warlords, have attacked the Compact directly three times. We've fought two wars against them. Their armies didn't come from nowhere. Too often they've come from desperate, angry Abandoned that have been driven straight into their arms because it becomes a choice between those warlords and you, and you've ensured that they /fucking hate you/. Maybe it would be in the Compact's better interests to stop doing that.
And before you start writing; no. I have hated, and still hate one of those warlords far, far more than I could ever, and have ever hated the Compact or anyone in it. On that, I have never been conflicted for even the briefest moment in my entire life.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.