Weirdsound brings up a point – by my count this is the last round free of permanent harm.
Shall the Loyalists consider Option Zed: lay down arms? Is it Cyl we're fighting for, or the good of the country when a usurper has arisen? "Good of the country" has broad connotations.
For my own part, I would say yes if and only if I had assurances that the write up would be something like: the fifteen year old
boy man silently advances between the lines at noon, knowing that history demands his head as the price of peace. Knowing that his honor and his hasty oath of service place his country and his father's country far above his short life. And knowing that while he martyrs himself here the womenfolk will escape abroad, denying the foreigners and usurpers their true passion.
The Pretenders never had a case against Cyl, only accusations against Segeda. I want to see those upset as a condition of appeasing the insurrection. Let them feast on their bile, wondering if she will return. (Ironically, if they truly believe those aspersions, they are perhaps more likely to see any hidden truth revealed in the initial biography and/or further events when Cyl becomes the Player Character.)
Failing such a guarantee, I am prepared to risk one round of extended harm, then decide from there. Technically, after all, we have the stronger battle position at the moment. Just not as much as the cards we used could have given us.
Also, this round is Autumn. Cyl's birthday is Mid-Spring, so he is officially old enough to rule in his own right.
Uncle Luath,
I can guess your answer yet honor and decency compel me to ask: once you promised to stand aside so I might inherit Father's legacy, will you now abide by that vow as I come to my majority?
It would be easier to ask if I were in a position of strength, I suppose. Indeed, even of weakness so that I could claim the bravery of desperation. My councils tell me I am winning, having held the battlefield so far, but I can read a map and I see our respective positions little changed. How much longer this might drag out I cannot know, nor, Uncle, can you.
I suppose your disdain of Mother must have played no small part in your decision. I know of her undiplomatic nature; indeed I have suffered her venom more often and more keenly than most through the years. Even you, Uncle, received but a part of what I heard day by day. In my upbringing she enforced upon me the elements of courtesy toward my elders, but it is from Father and from you, Uncle, that I learned to respect them. When Father sent her away, I hoped to see more of you but still you never appeared in our apartments. I tell you, fear not that Mother will have undue influence in my court, if that is what alarms you: I intend to give her a similar treatment for similar reasons of state.
If it is money that drives you, well, I can make no promises there that you would believe. Yet even as you piled up the nation's treasury I did not think you more loyal to gold than to the people. The stories I hear have greatly alarmed my good opinion of you on that score. Do not prove them true.
Your nephew,
Cyl, Heir Ascendant to the Throne of Methiant
A postscript in my own hand, Uncle, that I dar'st not entrust to the scribes: I can vouch for my own experience that I never knew Mother to engage in magickal arts of any hue; but if your many allegations of witchery were amended to be spelt with a 'b' then we should be in total agreement.
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Topic: SPAMKINGDOM#: Emperor Houlandin IV of Methiant-Cydwyl! (Read 719520 times)