The problem isn’t that he executed a traitor, or even that he took Xavier hostage, because both these things are pretty much par for the course even in the real world. The problem is that he treated the noble hostage as a slave, which is a big no-no, and not just because “slavery bad” and the kid had nothing to with the treason anyway (though those are pretty bad). It’s a problem because it most definitely doesn’t secure a lasting peace.
If Lena loves her brother, then treating him poorly just instigates hatred. She wasn’t planning treason, but now she most definitely is. And it’s absurdly easy to funnel supplies into the army attacking Rhivenia without any reasonable suspicion.
If Lena didn’t love her brother, then holding him hostage does nothing and treating him poorly just gives her an excuse to hand to the populace to openly rebel against you. When you already have a war on the way.
Regardless of circumstances, there’s literally nothing to gain from treating the kid poorly, and everything to lose.
Like, this is literally the reason fostering was the thing it was.
Tbh, Lena does not need to placate the public, we are in the middle ages after all.
Usualy, armies even today are capable of doing horrible things and supporting arguablly evil leaders for pay. Even if they think the other side is right, what does that change? Due to societal pressure to serve your country, to serve your rullers. They will do nothing, not saying that army mutinies didn’t happen. But they ussualy, most of the time weren’t in support of other peoples, maybe in a civil war. But is this a civil war if the other side is supported by foreign sides both ethically and culturally?
If you want to wage a war you do. Because medieval warfare is basically 90% peasantry, and you can’t have 90% of your army thinking the other side is in the right.
There was no proof that Lena and Xavier weren’t in on the treason. So he was treated accordingly.
And Lena loving Xavier gives her more than enough incentives to not plot treason. It is very easy to cut a prisoners throat, even when an army is at your gates.
This is irrelevant, because it wouldn’t be her army. There’s literally another army already heading our way. It’s ridiculously easy to have a few wagons of food be “raided”.
Goddamn it, you just said Charles acted on facts and logic, you can’t have it both ways.
These people aren’t getting paid, man. Not in any way other than “whatever you can pillage”, and most of that is going to go to the 10% of soldiers and officers, not the peasantry. There’s no societal pressure if the rest of the people around you feel the same, which I assure you is exactly what’s going to happen when you have a bunch of peasantry fighting people they don’t dislike and absolutely dying horrible screaming deaths (because medicine isn’t a thing, so I hope you like blood poisoning) because your king tried to pull a fast one instead of you being home and tending to your farm. Because, for bonus points, if the war doesn’t end pretty damn fast, you also have the threat of starvation to look forward to, because all of your farmers are getting stuck with pointy bits and then getting tetanus.
What it isn’t a reason to is to treat Xavier like a slave instead of a fosterling. This is EXACTLY what fostering was for, and exactly the reason why fostering was the way it was.
I mean… How kids can plan a whole coup tho? It’s not like they being the ruler’s kid have a choice on that, they were just doing what their dad told them to. I think it’s a bit irrational to think that a 10yo (maybe older but it was really young i don’t remember right, still not age enough) were the mastermind or at least involved with the planning.
That they weren’t a mastermind is obvious, but chances were that they knew. Everything Charles did was ensuring peace, everything else would’ve lead to a betrayal of the Asniae. Now there bound to keep the alliance stable
He wasn’t supposed to be fostered? He was a hostage, a bargaining chip. While I agree that the treatment wasn’t necessary, prisoners aren’t supposed to be treated good in the middel ages
Again how will they know if he isn’t freed? For all Lena knows he could be just in house arrest.
And not being pissed that he killed their father? Unlikely.
For all Charles knows, he could’ve freed him and they would’ve started plotting.
And if they knew what could they do?
Try being a young kid of a ruler and telling them “hey treason is bad” and see how that ends up to you. They were spendable, he could just have more heirs if his weren’t following what he wanted them to.
And the alliance isn’t stable cause you’re treating her brother horribly. This will only fuel hate and give the enemy a reason to attack you. How is that being reasonable? He could just have given them both a great life, convinced them that he was the good dude all along and manipulated them into being his followers. There, war avoided.
She’s not gonna be found out. Supply wagons get raided by the opposite side all the time in wars. Keeping a supply chain from getting raided into oblivion is one of the biggest difficulties in medieval wars, because there’s no uninterceptable or fast way of getting supplies around.
She’s going to know he’s being mistreated because you’re making absolutely zero secret of it, and there’s no way she isn’t looking. Like, Charles isn’t even PRETENDING to not treating him horribly. On purpose. Xavier is refilling coal buckets for smiths and getting beat while doing it, come on.
Young noble prisoners are, because young noble prisoners have two uses: either you’re going to ransom them for money, or you’re going to foster them to ensure good behaviour. This was what fostering was for. “We have your family here, and they’re getting well-treated unless you get any funny ideas.”
And also, of course, you don’t want the peasantry to get any funny ideas on what they can get away to doing to nobles.
Everyone knows. Because, again, Xavier isn’t being kept locked in a room somewhere. He’s serving as a coal bucket filler and in the kitchens. This isn’t a secret. EVERYBODY knows.
Charles didn’t have many options in this regard. If he tried to absorb the country, then he would have to deal with constant rebellions. Considering Rhivenia was formed form 3 kingdoms…I wouldn’t be surprised if some remnant of those kingdoms also wish their independence.
And if Charles killed Xavier/Lena out of hand, well, that would just convince other kingdoms that hey, maybe we should ally against him. Yes, he might show proof that he was being betrayed, but said evidence could also be manufactured.
And I’m sure as word got out that this would also convince some of the nations on the sidelines that maybe Rhivenia couldn’t be trusted either. I mean, honored hostages were a thing…but unless they did something really bad, they weren’t harmed…well, unless the host country got invaded.
Spoilers for alpha build: Oh she knows and she throws it on your face during negotiations. It’s one of her excuses to pressuring you into marrying her. She says she doesn’t care for him but still uses his treatment as an excuse for her followers. Plus spies are a thing.
I think odds would be good that word of this would get out fairly quickly. If nothing else, the servants would know what is happening, and unless you confine them all to the palace, they would know. Even allies would know…and beyond talking servants, they probably have their own spies.
One thing I actually would’ve liked to see in the demo was either mention of Rhivenia having their own spies in the invading army…or else those spies got rooted out (beyond the normal ‘we see a large angry mob with weapons on our doorstep’)
Actually, no. If you feed him and is nice to him but at the same time don’t let him go as a prisoner because of political reasons he understands you and when he inevitably runs away he may fail to convince her but you have an ally inside her court because he’s loyal to you, which is the best outcome.
Also please blur spoilers, some people haven’t read the alpha
I concede to the part where she uses it as a bargaining tool, but only because I always freed him, and then it is a given that she knows.
If she doesn’t care why not attack Rhivenia?
If she used spies, why not use them for freeing Xavier?
She does use them for free Xavier! That’s the cool thing: if you treat him good he will be loyal to you inside the court. I discovered it after trying a lot of alternatives because i didn’t wanna be mean but at the same time didn’t wanna lose my bargain. She doesn’t attack you because her plan is to marry you and steal your throne, but she uses his mistreatment as a excuse for her people to back her up in case she attacks you.
The problem isn’t just freeing Xavier, because Xavier actually gets around before Charles gets poisoned (at which point he gets thrown in the prison for something he obviously couldn’t have done): he serves in the kitchens, he serves in the forges, he leaves the forges to go fetch coal unsupervised, etc.
The problem is actually getting him out of the castle and then out of the kingdom, which is whole different kettle of fish.
But she doesn’t need spies, because castles get visited by people from the outside ALL THE TIME (well, unless you’re in lockdown mode).
