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Rhea and Teagan

Posted by Apostate on 04/02/19
When the Northlands invaded the Oathlands and laid siege to Last Bridge, Lady Teagan Blackram spoke in defense of her vassal and pledged support. And many assumed that Bellerive's liege would come to their aid promptly and smash the siege, to the relief of most of the Oathlands and the indignation of the Northlands at seeing interference in a just reprisal. But then matters get complicated as it is revealed that Teagan had been in negotiations with House Acheron to attempt to resolve the matter peacefully, and Blackram forces attacked and destroyed the sieging Threeriver forces, resulting in the death of their count and massacre of many of the surrendering forces. Lady Teagan Blackram denounced her own forces for acting without orders, and Marquessa Rhea then in turn denounced Teagan, pointing to her proclamation.

As many senior scholars of Vellichor are fond of saying, hoo boy, there's a lot to unpack here.

Fortunately for Teagan, it appears as if her surprise denunciation was actually true, which causes extremely mixed feelings in the Oathlands. Her troops were awaiting final orders to march, but a general acted on his own initiative taking the proclamation as an excuse to march and smash House Threerivers' siege, and numerous soldiers speak of of the different speeches about how, 'We can't let honorless Northerners waste our Lady's time in negotiations while our allies at Last Bridge are dying' and 'actions taken without orders are not the same as taken against orders' and the like. The people in the Oathlands are of two minds about it. First, many feel that using a proclamation seeming to imply action is imminent is a very dangerous negotiation tactic, just because of hotheads like this, particularly when it comes to ancestral enemies. Secondly, others feel that the Northlanders are -clearly- in the wrong, that they were on Oathlands land, and the general was absolutely right to march. A massacre is sad and regretable and he should be held to account for that, but many knights in the Oathlands would have done the same thing in his shoes, and if their liege disavowing their actions is the cost for smashing invaders, so be it. The traditions of Oathlands honor are much more personal than say, the Isles, and while much of the Compact think of the Oathlander knights as extremely obedient, that is not true when it comes to matters of honor.

In the Northlands, there is incredulity. Don't say something unless you really, really, really mean it. They expect the Lycene to adopt positions that are overstated or misleading, because that's what they do, but not an Oathlander house. Or at least if you are going to negotiate after, disavow your previous position or recant it publicly so some blowhard can't lead an army off of an excuse. On the other hand, a lot of the more diplomatic northlanders, much suffering and exasperated by their own dumbasses running off and doing their own thing contrary to orders, are surprisingly sympathetic to Teagan. It happens.

Ultimately, a slight majority of both the Oathlands and Northlands hope it can be settled without more bloodshed, and among those, Rhea calling out Teagan is seen as unhelpful and unwise, regardless of whether it was accurate or not. Among those who -want- more bloodshed, such as Threerivers in particular, such call outs are profoundly appreciated, as it helps garner more support from houses that might otherwise sit things out. There's not an insignificant percentage that hopes this turns into a much broader war.