IC Scene: The Council Chamber (Provinces / Free City Event)

Sir Azrael strode into the room behind Kamos and took his seat. He didn't really acknowledge others present, including the fruits, but remained within his own thoughts. Suddenly breaking from his stupor, he took his notebook and started to sribble down something. He muttered something to himself...

Mastifus was next to enter, stomping in as he usually did. This time he went to Iskar's scribe rather than taking a seat immediately and passed him a letter bearing the Royal insignia.

The scribe looked up in surprise at the attention of the Dragon, but took the proffered scroll and glancing over it rose to read it aloud as Mastifus took his seat and scanned the room for a beer.

"To all those at the meeting,

We have been studying the map lately and would ask you to consider which counties should be considered a marcher province, and which should be made a normal county. We ask this because many of the marcher counties are arranged around the Jatu Steppe which we consider no-longer as dangerous as it once was thanks to the many defeats the nomads have suffered there, and the ongoing fortification efforts of the Silvermists. Instead, we are more concerned by the continuing raids by the Mystmountains in the north, and of course the more major incursions by the Snake Cultists to the south.

We could appreciate your counsel on these matters.

Signed,

King Mordred"

Sir Aranor enters the room with his men.

He quietly sits down at a free seat, betraying no emotion with his demeanor. His men look a little anxious though, due to the griffon guards.

Iskar smiled at Jareth's compliment. Thank you, centurion, though I did only what was expected of me.

Sir Aranor listened to Mastifus

"Excuse me, but exactly to what extent are the Mystmountain tribes raiding? From what I had last heard, they were pacified for the most part."

Merzinas shadowed in after his Grandmaster and sat close bye with the rest of the small Dawn embassy. After the scribes proclomation Merzinas wondered aloud: "What would declaring a territory a "marcher" entail?"

Saeros enters the room and quickly picks up a free seat.

"Apparently no one needed help with the feast", he says, disappointed. Disappointed, because he would rather be cooking than debating.
After checking the notes piled up beside the Silvermist scribe, he rolls his eyes.

"I do not see why renaming the provinces would not be a appropriate. Of course, one might want to keep the marcher status of the duchies bordering Elacrai.

Regarding the Mystmountain tribes, I would be more than happy to apply what I know about the surroundings of my home, Poinsbruk, to assist the Raven Spear driving them further away of the civilization - with the permission of my grandmaster, of course".

Turning the Silvermist side of the table, Saeros talks in a lower voice, but there is no need to attempt to conceal his words.

"But this is an interesting point. Without threats, and no longer having actual 'marcher lords' in its ranks, the current form and purpose of the Clarion Call are becoming obsolete. Perhaps the grandmaster should allow Lady Laisha to reform it. At the very least, we should consider positioning their main forces at our northermost borders - not so much in the urban and safe environment of Laria."

[OOC: double post, sorry. But I didn't want to clutter the previous post with editing].

"Furthermore, we Silvermists have good experience with the settlement and acculturation of large contingents of foreign people. Do you, fellow knights, think that it would be possible to make a deal with the Mystmountain tribes? We could offer them fertile lands and plenty of space, in exchange of peace. After living in the frozen tundra for so long, I believe the offer of food, fresh water, and good weather will not be overlooked. And they would be free to carry on their traditions in their settlements.

We are warriors, but not everthing must be solved with blood."

"The shamans would fight against it, the mountain cat would not let his children leave his clutches that easily.

But I must ask again, what would a marcher province entail?"

"Then we either convince of kill the shaman leaders. A combined stealth operation of Silvermists, Clarion rangers, and certain knights of the Eventide can certainly achieve that. The important thing is giving them the choice. Even if 10% of the barbarians accept the deal, it will already be a victory: it will mean 10% less fighters to kill."

"And I don't know the benefits of a duchy being consider a march".

Sir Aranor raises a single finger

"A march is one of our border provinces. As border provinces, they are generally in more unruly areas and have to deal with foreign threats more often. For example, the Larian marches for the Kingdom of Sarleon were their eastern border and always had to deal with Noldor and Jatu. If we declare the lords of these areas marcher lords, we are basically naming them defenders of the realm, and are allowed to raise substantially larger levies."

"That is the reason that Margrave Fouchier can raise more troops than a simple Baron."

He turns to Saeros

"No offense to you Saeros, but I would rather defer my judgement to the Dragons on the topic of Mystmountain barbarians. Your suggestion could very well anger all of the Mystmountain peoples, they might take the offer as an insult."

"As for the 'stealth' operation, you would have to traverse the mountains to go into their lands. We have no eyes there, I have never seen a map that even has areas mapped out past those mountain ranges."

"My suggestion, is to approach Adonja. As one of the king's companions, she should be more open to talks with us. I say we offer specific tribes trade agreements. I say that we offer them food, but in exchange for furs. They most likely do extensive hunting for food to supplement their raiding, which would guarantee them a steady supply of fur. Trading parties could be set up to exchange food from villages for fur from them. Agreements with them should be taken slowly, settling them in our lands should be done over a period of time."

"If they discover just one attempt at killing all their religious leaders they will unite again, all of them. We have shattered the people, but a direct attack on their god's servants will not be wise." Merzinas intoned back to Saeros.

"There is a third option of course. Instead of killing them or leaving them to fester, we can assimilate them. Hire out all their soldiers and use them in the south against the snake cult or in an expedition to Barclay or gods know where. But keep all there potent forces under our control, then they don't raid as the families are paid, and the shamans don't feel threatened and most importantly, all the dangerous warriors won't get bored and bloodthirsty."

I agree that in order to lastingly subject the tribes we need to assimilate them, Iskar said. But that will hardly be possible as long as they mutually confirm each other in their enmity for Pendor. Therefore we must needs drive wedges of competition and mistrust between the different tribes. One could start with trade agreements for single tribes, never negotiating with them as a whole people, but ever only with single shamans and chiefs.

"To be honest, I would rather leave the final decision to grandmaster of the Ravenspear and to the lord of Poinsbruk. They are the ones under more immediate threat, and the ones with greater amount of knowledge about those tribes.

Nevertheless, the Mystmountain menace should be solved once and for all. We must concentrate our forces on the upcoming Snake Cult invasions, and not divide out attention between many fronts. The siege of Cez was observed by foreign powers, and a bad performance would have triggered others to invade us. Fellow knights, our next battlefields are all located in the East, and we need every Pendorian soldier for that.

So I vote for solving this problem of the north in a quick manner. Offer them peace, assimilation and settlement in the Jatu plains, or obliteration in the hands of the combined Pendorian and Knightly armies."

"Besides", Saeros said to Sir Mastifus, "I am sure you will be pleased with the liberation of the vast lands of the barbarians. Their endless forests and their mountains rich in minerals will be free for you order to use."

Mastifus remained silent while words were bandied about by the other Orders, however it was clear that he was listening hard to what was being said, his brow furrowed in concentration. As the discussion levelled off, Mastifus finally rose from his place, his back straight and lacking the usual swagger that accompanied his movements, keenly feeling the expectant eyes of the others on him.

"I finally see the ken our King showed in assembling this council" he began, inclining his head to the Grandmaster of the Dawn, and affixing those who had spoken with his single eye, though for once there was no malice in the look.

"Ye begin to talk about what is best about the Kingdom at last, and ye words have much wisdom in them. The Mystmountains continue their tiresome raids, some of meh men even think they are increasing again lately so they are a threat that we take very seriously" he began, thumbing the eye patch with a hand and he considered his next line.

"If I know meh history of Pendor, we have had a similar situation before, and it was handled in a unique and effective manner, and we maybe able to recreate it here. The Fierdsvain, a part of Sarleon as they were then were being hounded by the Vanskerry raiders; but instead of meeting them blade for blade, the local lords game some jarls some land and invited them to live alongside the people of Sarleon. It might be possible to do something similar in Ravenstern, particularly if we offer them some of the new lands me Dragons have cleared for settlement."

He looked about to say more, but right hand began to twitch and he had to clench it hard into a fist to stop the involuntary movements, the skin under his patch also began to palpitate and it was clear that Mastifus was using all his self control not to touch it again.

"However, the people of Ravenstern have been at war with the Mystmountains fer centuries, and we have to consider that many wives have seen their men march off to war never to return, while those men who did survive would not know if they returned to a burning village, to find their bairns and women butchered. These are memories not easily forgotten."

Mastifus promptly sat, looking as though he was physically drained, his twitching hand fastened on the arm rest of the chair.

We might be able to solve that problem, Sir Mastifus, the Lord Constable replied. There is plenty of space in the northern steppes, directly south of Poinsbruk, where tribes could be settled with their chieftains receiving the titles of hereditary landed knights to integrate them into the feudal system. In exchange we could redirect a part of the settlers streaming towards the east to your mountain territories. Your mountains would be settled without causing unrest among the already existent population and in time, when things have settled and the Ravensternians see how the settled tribes behave in the steppes, they will be more likely to accept the remaining tribes among them in the mountains territories.

Isabel Tenorio moved from the door towards the table, and took a seat.

"I doubt a people of mountains would find settling on a steppe desirable. The Dragon has mentioned land cleared for settlement, however?"

Sir Mastifus did mention this, yes, but he also implied that settling Mystmountains among Ravensternians might cause problems due to old enmities. That is why I suggested settling some tribes in the northern steppes first and leading other, less problematic settlers to the mountains explored by the Dragon. I would say that the steppe, while it is not as pleasant as the fat, green heartlands, is still an easier place to live than a mountain. If the barbarians wanted to stay in their mountains they would not constantly attack the plains of Ravenstern or even siege a city.

A question:
Sir Mastifus compared this situation to that of the Fierdsvain settlement. I myself have had little contact with the Mystmountain tribes outside of combat, but I know that despite their savagery in war and raiding, the Vanskerries are not an unreasonable people. Are the Mystmountains actually the kind of people who would accept settlement in good faith, and not simply continue raiding? In short, are they a trustworthy people?

Do they have any system of honour and oathmaking? If a shaman gave orders, would they break those oaths?

"They could also settle islands. Silvermists, for instance hold considerable influence in Mystrock. Or if you prefer a more neutral territory, there is a very large island South of Cez, outside the borders of the kingdom. The Mystmountain tribes would be free to rule themselves do as they please - while serving as sort of shield against Snake Cult incursions.

As for the environment, anything is better than the frozen hell that are the Mystmountains. They would be able to grow crops - even in the steppes -, which is more than any part of those mountains have to offer. The barbarians raid precisely because they have no source of food in their homeland.

With plenty of food, water, and supplies, they will have no need to keep raiding more fertile lands. Their most aggressive leaders will lose influence, the tribes will prosper peacefully, and they will be finally free from their life of violence. Finally, king Mordred will receive a title never given before: 'tamer of the Mystmountain".

"This entire kingdom is built with grudges and old enemies. As long as the land is not taken from Ravenstern citizens the deals would go fine, for the more passive minded Mystmountainers. However I also remember that the Vanskerry settlement didn't stop the raids, They are still as great a problem as ever. All that accomplished was pushing the Sarleon borders inland and allowing another power to develop on the coast. Simply giving them land will only work if they all left the mountains, which brings back the problem of the shamans and Vejovis.

And even if they do settle what about all the warriors of the Mystmountain? They wont sit down and start farming, thats the reason they are warriors, they hate that. That island south of Cez could be promising if they truly do become a buffer from the Snake Cult, but cut off from the mainland they could just as easily become a Cultist staging zone. What if that island is made into a a self sufficient haven, and the cultists snatch it, that would serve as a stepping stone to invasion."

"If a single cultist sets foot on that island, the tribes will have the Legion and the Immortals to deal with. They are, literally, their neighbours. And Silvermist spies will not let anything go unnnoticed in there."