ce vis pacem te ipsum vince
“If you want peace, You must conquer yourself” -- Anon Guest
[AN: This prompt has been cut down to its soul because I really don't like epically long prompts]
They say that war never changes. They're wrong. Some elements of war remain the same, in that the side that kills the most people tends to win... but the means is ever evolving. When the world began, Dragons threw fire at the Elves, and the Elves countered it with ice and water magics.
Weapons were invented by later species. War evolved after that.
Magic got so devastating, that several treaties limited its use in battle thereafter. Some say that's how the sky islands happened, or how the magical wildlands originated. It's certainly how a great many monsters became creatures living in Alfarell. One of whom, also among the Unwelcome People, had become a king by means of conquest.
According to tales told about him, he had burned the Golden King of the Olikent alive, cut off his father's face for saying a bad word, and that people who wronged him had a bad habit of turning up dead. Only one of those things was partially true.
Countess Parygrin Vasterhazy, new to her crown after an incident involving her father's eagerness to please the devilborn king, had to face that monster at the seasonal meeting of crowns for Pax Infernus. The monster responsible for the meeting of crowns and the debatable peace between the polities.
The monster who had got her father exiled in shame because Arrinham Vasterhazy had sent an assassin to Tinatinos over a simple misunderstanding.
The lords were clamouring for weaponry. Arms and armies. Genius devices meant to mow down as many soldiers as possible in the least amount of time. Many of them were parading these weapons around where their neighbours could see.
King Kormwind cleared his throat, and the rest of the room fell into a terrified silence. Vukotik the Noseless was proof that the demon lord of the mountains was quick with a blade. The blue-skinned Hellkin simply said, "Ce vis pacem te ipsum vince."
There was an entire minute of silence as they collectively worked out the Ormanish. Many of them, just like Parygrin, had forgotten their old Ormanish the instant they passed out of their scholastic gates.
"If you want peace, conquer yourself?" said Kamonas. "I don't understand, my lord."
"Of course not," said the devilborn king. "You're all thinking about which weapons you want to scare each other with. You forget we're allies for peace."
"We've conquered and subdued the enemy that made this alliance necessary," argued Parygrin. "Why do we maintain it on your word?"
"...Hellkin?" said King Kormwind, as if stating her unsaid challenge to his nature. "Think for a minute. In less than ten years, we have built together something far stronger than all its parts. We have a mutual prosperity and the help from each other's armies. When some of us are in a better mood," this last with a glare at two of the bickering lords. He returned his attention to Parygrin. "We've built a lot, despite our differences. Why would you shatter it to pieces?"
"It's served its purpose," said Parygrin.
"Has it?" said the Hellkin. "A mental exercise while Ragnarsson and Fundaine call each other names. Imagine, sometime after lunch, that Pax Infernus permanently breaks apart. All your allies today are potential enemies tomorrow. Not so great, any more, is it?"
Before Pax Infernus had banded together against a common enemy, their uncommon enemies had been each other.
"That I grant," she allowed. "So where does the conquering yourself come in?"
"Gaining a rational mind to rule over an emotional nature is an advantage in some situations."
"Says the man who cut off Vukotik's nose."
"They were all warned. They had their chance. They heard what I did to my own father. Vukotik should have schooled his tongue, and not called me a teuf."
Parygrin gasped and covered her mouth. She knew how much terrible news that word was. It was a word used by the kind of people who murdered Hellkin for passing by their houses.
They might be Unwelcome, but they never deserved to die.
King Kormwind smiled, showing his mouthful of sharp, pointy teeth. "And, if you have a rational mind, you can gather all the facts before you let yourself act with emotion." With that, he stood from his chair and said, "My Lords," in a meaningful tone. "We have this alliance to prevent conflict. Why the fuck are you at each other's throats this time?"
Parygrin controlled herself long enough to watch the devilborn king of conquest unriddle a growing feud between two other polities. Hammering out a compromise to at least cool the tensions between the twain.
He might be right.
If you want peace, begin with your own heart.
[Photo by Caique Oliveira on Unsplash]
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