|| The South Dukeland Oddity ||

[AntonVoron]

A Thesis on:
Sovereignty,
Pragmatism,
Rights,
& Defence
By Richarr de la Rivíere.


Music

The plains of the South Dukelands are an avoided place for most wise merchants, caravans, or Hellatians making their way northward to our Empire's heart. The steppes are of profound beauty, rolling and ever expansive, but much like an ocean their danger is fast striking and often unseen until the last moment-- like the Great Sea Shark, the nomadic horseman deals his blows without warning or remorse. The Szabadok are unlike most Ailor of the Archipelago, they are truly in all sense of the word 'free'. Free to create majestic cities of tents, to design ornate masks, and live amongst a flourishing culture; free also to pillage, kidnap, and murder at the expense of their fellow Ailor and to do so without fear of reprisal. While it could be said that once upon a time we were all merely barbarians, it is the taming effects of Empire and statehood which afforded us civilization. Empire enabled our cultures to retain positive freedoms through art and skill, while limiting the negative freedoms of our oft times murderous and sinful behaviour. Yet are the effects of statehood and Empire truly felt in the South Dukelands? I would argue they are not, and I would like to address the shortcomings and possible solutions to this issue.

For decades the nations bordering the South Dukelands have experienced the worst effects of the Southland Laws-- nomads have been permitted a safe haven in the steppes from which they may raid, kidnap, pillage, and all in all commit acts of aggression upon their neighbours with impunity. Leutz, Calem, and Etosian people have found themselves worst affected by this, and it is known fact to missionaries to the South Dukelands that a vast majority of the nomad population is made up of kidnapped Leutzmen, New-Regalians, and Etosians -- and the relatives of such kidnappees. The Szabadok are for all intensive purposes the byproduct of our 'lost sons and daughters', the children that could not flee fast enough from nomadic horsemen when they came to our villages at night. So too are their wives the byproduct of enslavement, taken in those very same raids that future Szavadok Horsemen were kidnapped during. The grave injustices committed by the Szabadok go on -- The South Dukelands was once a land of Leutz and Calem Lords, governed a mere forty years ago, stolen and unrightfully held in anarchy. Those who remained within the land were sharp to realise that despite the South Dukelands having a largely dispersed population of Szabadok: they remain dominant over the land through fear and superior horsemanship on the plains.

This is not to say the Szabadok are a people without merit. They are by far some of the most talented horse archers and cavalry in the Archipelago -- yet this is hindered by the unstructured nature of the South Dukelands. If proper governance was established over the lands, and the steppes were tamed then perhaps they might better serve the Empire's military apparatus? The Szabadok are fine artists and craftsmen, but in a society oft isolated from currency and reliant on bartering, would the crafts of these people not better serve the Empire further under its control? Indeed, the answer to these questions is a resounding yes. If the Szabadok and the South Dukelands were to be ruled by a feudal hand the worst excesses of their culture could be tamed, the best of it harnessed, and the lands rendered less treacherous and outwardly hostile. Such an endeavor is best left to those who have lost the most to Szabadok aggression, Leutz, New Regalian, and Etosians -- also those who have through proximity became the most entwined with the horsemen.

Now more than ever is the vision of the South Dukelands as a tamed, civilised, yet socially free, and militarily adept nation in need of realisation. While war boils on, there is a stunning reality that the Empire is unfortunately unable to rally the estimated 220,000 Szabadoks in their most efficient capacity -- for lack of bureaucracy and census keeping in the hostile Southlands. The Szabadok enter the Empire's armies more often than not as mercenaries -- a fact which comes with the reality that not too long ago Szabadok were invaders, and in some sense still are. With this there is an inability to properly levy tax onto these inhabitants, and again an inability to regulate law in this large area of the Archipelago (Empire Proper). Educated men of blue-lineages must step up to the task, through might tame the lands and rule it in the best traditions of their own culture, but also that of the Szabadok. I see a vision of lords adorning the Szabadok masks with pride as they lead a newly civilised people into a new age. Come what will, the steppes must be tamed, and order must at last be restored to the Southlands -- action is the only remedy.

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