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Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 21, 2020 11:05:05 GMT 10
Title: Every Inch of Soil
Rating: PG-13 for references to violence and bloodshed.
Word Count: 35
Summary: Jasson will regain every lost inch of Tortall.
Notes: Part II of my Jasson the Conqueror series.
Every Inch of Soil
As a prince, Jasson had to watch his father’s incompetent generals lose battle after battle, surrendering mile after mile of Tortall, but as king, he would win back every inch of soil with bloody interest.
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Post by mistrali on Oct 21, 2020 11:32:45 GMT 10
And so the cycle continues.
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Post by Seek on Oct 22, 2020 2:31:21 GMT 10
Ahhhh I really, really like your Jasson series and fleshing out the logic of conquest. Of course on the Tortallan side, their perspective is that the land is really theirs, and of course a weak king unable to defend his territory successfully would end up ceding bits of land as the wolves circle.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 22, 2020 4:45:49 GMT 10
mistrali, thank you so much for commenting! I admit that I have a bit of headcanon that the land at Tortall's border with Tusaine and maybe Galla as well has been sort of shifting back and forth for centuries, and so Jasson may have been responding to Tusaine taking some of what was then Tortallan land and claiming it for Tusaine and then adding on some land particularly beyond the Drell for good measure without realizing or caring that he was sowing the seeds of resentment in Tusaine that could make Tusaine want to strike back at Tortall. Especially since Tusaine seems to have been made landlocked by Jasson's conquest. So, I definitely think it is a case of Jasson perpetuating a cycle of war and violence. Seek, thank you so much for commenting! I am so glad that you love my Jasson series and how it fleshes the logic of his conquest. Whenever I think of Jasson, I imagine him as having this incredible drive to be seen as strong and as having this sort of indomitable will, and that sort of makes me wonder what circumstances in his life and in Tortall created those traits in him. One of my favorite theories is that Jasson had a weak father who lost quite a bit of territory and was generally regarded with scorn both domestically and internationally, and so Jasson became determined that he and Tortall be seen as very strong during his reign. In that way, I can sort of feel a certain sympathy toward Jasson and his motivations at least early on in his reign, but at the same time, I think that sort of need to always be seen as strong is also a marker of deep inner uncertainty and paradoxical weakness. Like in trying so hard to be strong, Jasson shows his weakness. Hopefully that makes some sense outside my head, ha ha...
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Post by Seek on Oct 23, 2020 0:18:56 GMT 10
It does, I think. It's almost externalising your insecurities in a Hegelian way (though I suppose that's not really how the master-slave dialectic is meant to be interpreted), but you're not so strong if you have a deep-seated need to always be perceived by others as strong, because then you are fundamentally dependent on how others believe and perceive you, always.
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