Dramatis Personæ -- Open
Sept 12, 2014 11:43:58 GMT -6
Post by Armitage Apolithymius on Sept 12, 2014 11:43:58 GMT -6
”The milk is to get back some of those nutrients.”
Armitage spoke listlessly as she began forking food into her mouth. She took large bites, and was eating the food at an almost alarming rate. That’s how life was in the Lycian Military. Lunch was not leisure time—it was simply to eat and get back into the field. In the wild you would want to eat quickly so nothing bigger caught wind of what you were cooking and tried to take it from you. At this point in her life, it wasn’t even a conscious effort; the food entered her body so quickly and smoothly, it was like some weird form of osmosis.
Hmm, so they were building a base. That seemed a bit strange to Armitage. For one, they had no idea how big to build such a base and two, building one now without the means or manpower to protect it seemed…risky. They had the protection of the desert itself, she supposed, but would that be enough? Time would tell. Maybe they would be able to drum up support fast enough to fill the kingdom as it was built. Her mind worked the base over; did he mean military base or town?
”This base your building…is it going to be a military base or a town?” Armitage realized something… ”Nabata doesn’t even HAVE towns does it? I’m slowly realizing just how unfamiliar with Nabata I actually am…” Armitage spooned a mouthful of fish into her mouth. Orange roughy? Bass? She wasn’t sure what it was actually. ”Uniting people by fear is never a good way. They’ll stay for a bit, but that makes them easy targets for your enemies to turn against you. If you’re going to unite a land, you need people to unite. Building an army is kind of pointless if they have nothing to defend…”
Armitage was almost speaking to herself at this point. She never half-assed anything—if she was going to be part of it, she was going to do her best to make sure it succeeded. As long as it stayed interesting, that is. Uniting people is always difficult. Especially in a time like now; it seemed like most of Elibe spent a lot of time in a perpetual warlike state. Without knowing Orys it would be hard to know exactly HOW he would want to unite people. For all she knew, Orys was a blood thirsty Bandit LORD who wanted to watch the world burn just for the sake of it. All this thinking; she needed to talk again. Ideas were starting to froth at a tipping point in her mind.
”Now, I suppose I don’t know Orys…but I think the best way to lead people is through benevolence and protection. Uniting a land through war never works—Etruria, Bern, rebels, they’ve all tried it. Perhaps the best way to gather and lead people would be through the offer of something better—‘greener grass,’ so to speak. The land is fighting right now; the Bern Civil War…” Her heart ached. ”Monster attacks and bandits; chaos seems to plague the east. Maybe we could offer a land of prosperity and peace in Nabata. If we built strongholds and taught the people how to enter the desert and our towns…” It all sounded a bit too idyllic.
”People who were tired and worn down from proverbial ‘tug-o-war’ that the ruling lords like to play with them would flock to us. Warriors, willing to protect the ideals of peace and harmony, that have been pushed around by one too many war-hungry general, would join us simply to protect our ideals. With the protection of the desert itself we could grow into quite the burgeoning kingdom without anyone really noticing.” Armitage realized how long she had been talking uninterrupted. Her mind circled back to Lucius’ original question. ”Yes. I’ve met plenty of strong people in my travels…I’ve also met hundreds of people that have been beaten down with war; tired and just ready to live in peace. I truly think that is the best way to unite the people.”
After taking a deep breath, Armitage down a mouthful of milk and finished off the last of her fish. It was in this moment that she realized she had a yearning for this—a deep down drive that had been building these emotions through her travels. Looking in the faces of orphans of war, seeing once beautiful cities burned down, and losing her family’s armor to war and pillagers, these were all things that had slowly been shaping her outlook on war. Armitage herself had spent quite some time as a weapon of war. Humph. This was turning into a much deeper conversation than she originally intended it to. She waited for Lucius to say something. Not really a response, as she didn’t ask anything. Armitage was putting a lot of faith into the type of person Lucius and Orys were.
Armitage spoke listlessly as she began forking food into her mouth. She took large bites, and was eating the food at an almost alarming rate. That’s how life was in the Lycian Military. Lunch was not leisure time—it was simply to eat and get back into the field. In the wild you would want to eat quickly so nothing bigger caught wind of what you were cooking and tried to take it from you. At this point in her life, it wasn’t even a conscious effort; the food entered her body so quickly and smoothly, it was like some weird form of osmosis.
Hmm, so they were building a base. That seemed a bit strange to Armitage. For one, they had no idea how big to build such a base and two, building one now without the means or manpower to protect it seemed…risky. They had the protection of the desert itself, she supposed, but would that be enough? Time would tell. Maybe they would be able to drum up support fast enough to fill the kingdom as it was built. Her mind worked the base over; did he mean military base or town?
”This base your building…is it going to be a military base or a town?” Armitage realized something… ”Nabata doesn’t even HAVE towns does it? I’m slowly realizing just how unfamiliar with Nabata I actually am…” Armitage spooned a mouthful of fish into her mouth. Orange roughy? Bass? She wasn’t sure what it was actually. ”Uniting people by fear is never a good way. They’ll stay for a bit, but that makes them easy targets for your enemies to turn against you. If you’re going to unite a land, you need people to unite. Building an army is kind of pointless if they have nothing to defend…”
Armitage was almost speaking to herself at this point. She never half-assed anything—if she was going to be part of it, she was going to do her best to make sure it succeeded. As long as it stayed interesting, that is. Uniting people is always difficult. Especially in a time like now; it seemed like most of Elibe spent a lot of time in a perpetual warlike state. Without knowing Orys it would be hard to know exactly HOW he would want to unite people. For all she knew, Orys was a blood thirsty Bandit LORD who wanted to watch the world burn just for the sake of it. All this thinking; she needed to talk again. Ideas were starting to froth at a tipping point in her mind.
”Now, I suppose I don’t know Orys…but I think the best way to lead people is through benevolence and protection. Uniting a land through war never works—Etruria, Bern, rebels, they’ve all tried it. Perhaps the best way to gather and lead people would be through the offer of something better—‘greener grass,’ so to speak. The land is fighting right now; the Bern Civil War…” Her heart ached. ”Monster attacks and bandits; chaos seems to plague the east. Maybe we could offer a land of prosperity and peace in Nabata. If we built strongholds and taught the people how to enter the desert and our towns…” It all sounded a bit too idyllic.
”People who were tired and worn down from proverbial ‘tug-o-war’ that the ruling lords like to play with them would flock to us. Warriors, willing to protect the ideals of peace and harmony, that have been pushed around by one too many war-hungry general, would join us simply to protect our ideals. With the protection of the desert itself we could grow into quite the burgeoning kingdom without anyone really noticing.” Armitage realized how long she had been talking uninterrupted. Her mind circled back to Lucius’ original question. ”Yes. I’ve met plenty of strong people in my travels…I’ve also met hundreds of people that have been beaten down with war; tired and just ready to live in peace. I truly think that is the best way to unite the people.”
After taking a deep breath, Armitage down a mouthful of milk and finished off the last of her fish. It was in this moment that she realized she had a yearning for this—a deep down drive that had been building these emotions through her travels. Looking in the faces of orphans of war, seeing once beautiful cities burned down, and losing her family’s armor to war and pillagers, these were all things that had slowly been shaping her outlook on war. Armitage herself had spent quite some time as a weapon of war. Humph. This was turning into a much deeper conversation than she originally intended it to. She waited for Lucius to say something. Not really a response, as she didn’t ask anything. Armitage was putting a lot of faith into the type of person Lucius and Orys were.