Herald of Steel

Following the recount of the initial contact between the Margraves and the natives, for the next half an hour or so, Lord Janus went to describe what happened next.

The immense change to their lifestyles as well as the various atrocities committed against them had made the natives renounce many of their peaceful beliefs, and under the leadership of their charismatic leader, they quickly began to transform themselves.

It was something that went completely unnoticed by the slacking Margraves, who was too engrossed in reaping the benefits of the flourishing trade, swimming in their gold piles and counting the stacks and stacks of coins they were reaping.

But unbeknownst to them, this free, unrestricted trade of goods was also exactly also helped the natives.

Even more funnily, sometimes even the Margraves family unknowingly helped their most hated foe, as they were one of the largest weaponsmiths on the island.

So many times, the Margraves sold their products to third parties affiliates who then sold them back to the hidden natives.

In this way, the natives were quickly able to strengthen themselves.

And once they got their hands on enough of these weapons, they quickly turned around to dish back any and all owed payback, soon managing to reclaim a large chunk of their lost land.

Even when the Margrave's army returned to their home, they were unable to turn the tide around, as the natives with their better knowledge of the island were able to inflict quite a few significant losses using ambushes and hidden flanking attacks.

In fact, under the leadership of that charismatic leader, the tribal folks appeared on the verge of pushing the Margraves completely out of the island and reclaiming the entirety of their fatherland.

It was finally sensing this that the Margraves decided to shed all their pride and asked for help from the ducal families of Sybaris, promising them a cut of the pie in exchange.

And given the lucrative nature of the island, two immense families responded- the Marsh family and the Kaiser family.

These two families had the biggest share of trade on the island and found that losing access to those immensely profitable ports was unacceptable.

Their simultaneous participation soon made the situation untenable for the natives.

After all, the Margraves were already a worthy foe for them. And they were merely a Viscount household.

So how could the islanders contend against a ducal family, much less two?

Thus within the next two decades, the natives were slowly but surely pushed back to where they started from, with military defeat after military defeat being handed to them, accompanied by many, many schemes, betrayals, and backstabbings.

This latter was so much that the period of time was nicknamed the 'Decades of strife' by them, with many thinking the time was even worse than the time they had to endure unilateral massacres.

Because initially they had no hope, but in the latter case, they saw their hopes being actively crushed.

This happened for one due to the immense armies the enemy had brought with them, one that numbered anywhere from tens of thousands to more than a hundred thousand at any given time.

And two because of how skillfully they were able to play the individual tribes against one another.

It almost appeared as if the tribes had not learned their lesson their first time.

But this was also very normal. Because if people were truly that wise, then history would not so easily repeat itself.

Thus with just a little paint and a bit of skillful makeup, the Margraves were able to dress up their schemes as harmless policies designed to help the two groups.

Much money, sweat, and brains were utilized to break up the native's solidarity, and bit by bit, the chips were indeed exposed.

Their main target of the attack was the same thing that had allowed the natives to gain their advantage- the sacred law forbidding the use of metal weapons.

The Margraves and the ducal families quickly identified their biggest enemy and began to target the tribe's shamans and other clergymen, hoping to use them to incite the public.

Indeed the breakage of the sacred law had caused all the high ranking shamans as well as many of the elders of the tribe to be very dissatisfied.

When it was done at first, the circumstances forced them to swallow it all.

However now that the pressure of imminent death was lifted and they seemed to winning, these shamans quickly felt energized by this injection of instigation.

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Thinking they were undefeatable and the other side no longer posed any real threat, these old fossils thus soon began to raise their voices and cause trouble

They started to call the people back to their beliefs and began to accuse the same leader who brought them out of hiding and into the light as bloodthirsty, as someone hankering after power and one chasing individual glory.

They blamed him for causing too much bloodshed and painted him as a ruthless man who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children indiscriminately.

This was something that was completely against most of the tribe's beliefs, and thus, under the numerous shamans' influence, many saw him as someone who had lost the favor of the gods.

And seeing this, the shamans, under directions from the Margraves, started to at last call for him to reduce the size of the army.

These old fossils were even clever enough to request simply a reduction and not a complete abolition of the forces, both to make the man swallow the pill more easily and also because they were not stupid.

They had seen what their weapons of wood and stone could do and they were not going to be foolish enough to willingly wash their neck and wait for the enemy to come chop them up the moment they grew weaker.

Even if the Margraves were to ask them of this, they would never comply with such an extreme act.

Because although they might be their allies for now, these old men were not deluded enough to think the Margraves were their friends.

They were well aware they were most likely being used as tools for the family's own benefit. It was just that, they were happy to be those tools since their goals coincided at the time.

They also knew tt was only time they parted ways.

Thus to ensure they had the minimum amount of defensive capabilities, these old foxes even changed their religious canon, saying that they received a new revelation from their gods.

After that, the usage of iron and bronze weapons went from a strict taboo to something that only could not be used against the native tribes themselves.

And while making this change, the shamans cleverly also added a further addendum, saying that the army should not be too big.

The interpretation of the word- 'too big' however was left to them to decide.

This was exactly how they were able to use it to attack their leader.

And that was not their only form of attack.

Many of the jealous smaller chieftains also accused the man of trying to assimilate all the tribes into his own, and thus remove their individual identity.

While others felt that he was being too stubborn with the foreigners, and advocated for a much more shared existence.

This last group was usually formed of traders and merchants who were either bought by the Margraves and the ducal families, or men who were simply enchanted by the wealth and prosperity trading with these foreigners brought them.

This two pronged attack from both outside and inside soon proved very difficult for the tribal leader to contend with.

Especially given that many of the problems raised by these voices indeed existed.

The natives were indeed prohibited from officially trading with the Sybarians.

And there could have been indeed some truth to the man trying to take over all the tribes, to become the 'king of the Galiosos' as many of his rivals sneered and mocked him.

And perhaps he was truly a bit heavy handed in dealing with the foreigner, slaughtering all men, women, and children the moment he got their hands on.

But in his own defense, there were good reasons why he did those things.

He killed all the invaders to discourage any more immigration so that they would not have to deal with any more foreigners. He also saw anyone who was not one of them as invaders, if not at least spies.

Not to mention most of the natives actually supported these acts, as they saw it as revenge for their own fallen brethren.

It was just that they were either too scared to say it out loud or too ashamed to let go of their beliefs.

So they outwardly sang the same tune as their shamans, while at the same time reveling the looted booty taken from these corpses.

Humans were truly a mass of contradictions.

And this was perhaps why the leader of the tribes was not actually too worried about these atrocities.

He knew these acts helped spread terror among the families and energized his army. And the only people among his own who truly opposed these were the merchants, who saw all three of their producers, consumers, and markets get decimated.

The leader had to find a way to deal with them.

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