Thread: The Fall of An Era [ Father x Fruit ]

War was not a clich. It was a brutal and relentless landscape, a harsh existence that some might volunteer for but none would ever recover from. The trauma of war, the cruelty, and the vicious cycle of violence was imbedded in the souls of those that were swept away by it. Let the civilians clamor, let the politicians try to come to peace, and let the merchants make a profit...but let none of them think they understood the realities of what people face on the battlefield. The soldiers were the ones who understood, as did the families fleeing the burning fields and shattered lives that they had once called a home. So often history books misunderstood what occurred, the victors turning the fallen into icons of savagery while lauding themselves for their honor and bravery. The truth was always in between and far more tragic than any book would ever describe. Let none tell you it was sanitized, let none wag their tongues that it was honorable and glorious, for they were all fools in the telling. War could only be truly understood by the people who had seen its brutality, its futility, and its ultimate stupidity. It was not something he reveled in, but it was something he excelled at. Aelius Corvus , was everything his father could have hoped for and more. Born of a powerful magistrate of the Valerii, he had excelled in his education before serving his mandatory military service. It was there that his familial name found him a place amongst the officers and his calling as a strategist. Victory upon victory was heaped upon his shoulders, not unduly, and even if the man did not allow hubris to overcome his wisdom...he was not immune to the growing ego that came from being the general that had brought entire armies to their knees. Where his sword arm had been merely strong, his mind had been keen to the strategies of others, a relentless intuition which grasped what an opponent intended far before they engaged in the action itself. It was that integral knowledge of the workings not of the mind, but the soul of another that had allowed him to triumph time and again. Now he stood waiting, his hands behind his back as he casually considered the proposed treaties on the table before him. He was not a man given to wanton slaughter, not a man given to viciousness, he was a man given to victory and while there were many at home who extolled the virtue of utter subjugation...he was not one of them. He was willing to listen to reason and to negotiate surrender. A compliant city-state was one that had been shown mercy and allowed autonomy as long as they willingly bent knee to the empire he served, it was the foreign nation that had been brutalized which bred rebellion. As the minor functionaries milled about him he wondered once more who would be sent to represent the Elven nations that border the far outskirts of the western territories. The Imperium had not sought the conflict with them, but the satellite countries that had come under their control had pressed the Elven people to desperation. It mattered little in the end, war had broken out and Aelius had served his people and now if all went well...he would owe allegiance to these elves, just as they owned allegiance to the Imperium.