A week later, in the Great Hall of the palace of the Salian Kingdom, the elders of the three tribes gathered for an emergency council. In hushed tones they spoke of troubles to the east. Theodoric, son of king Gisiler, spoke to the assembled elders: “Odokar, King of the Longbeards, is gathering a large host for unknown purposes. They say that as many as fourteen tribes have answered his call; not including the two tribes of the dwarves which are in talks with his court. I have gathered you all here to ask the elders for council on the matter of a possible conflict with his host. What should we do? Seek diplomacy or gather a host to oppose him?”
The hall fell into a rambunctious debate with two of the elders leading opposing arguments.
“Who says that he has gathered his host to fight against us? We have always had friendly relations with his tribe. Some of our people have marriage ties to his own, why would he seek to harm his own kin? We should send some emissaries and enter into a peaceful dialogue! “
“Its obvious he plans to march on us, we are the weakest neighbor that he can safely plunder against! We must issue a call to arms, organize the regularii, and draft an emergency levy of the baros. Its obvious that he didn’t give us notice before he gathered an army, only a person with nefarious intentions would sneak around his neighbors. He will send his armies against us; because we are the weakest fattest lamb, that he can reasonably wage war against.”
“That’s not true! He has no resistance if he wishes to march north and expand into Tutonia.”
“There is nothing in Tutonia worth marching for; they have nothing but rocks, dogs, and bad attitudes to plunder. In fact, the Tutonians along with the Goss, migrate whole tribes because of the poverty of their lands; if they don’t want to keep their homeland why would others want to claim it?”
Theodoric tuned out the noise of the debate; letting his focus fall squarely on a large regional map. Cogs churned in his head and a wild idea appeared in his mind. Theodoric made his presence known and asked a critical question to the crowd of elders: “To the east of Odokar is the land of the Hussack horselords, its an enemy too powerful to provoke; and it has been a short while since, they gained their independence from them. To his north is Tutonia, which seems like a poor target. To the west of him is us: He has not sent an emissary to settle a dispute with us; neither has he made any demands of us. What if Odokar is going to march south?
The elders went silent and considered the question. Theodoric continued his train of thought: “The heartlands of the Rumelian Empire lie to the south. While the Rumelians did not win against the Hussacks in the war a few years ago, they did not lose either. What if the war with Hussacks left them in a weaker state than what we have been led to believe? What if Rumelia is unable to raise an army large enough to defend itself? Would Odokar march south?”
The dovish elder continued the inquiry: “Suppose he really intends to move south; would he not send an emissary to ask us to join him, or at the least ask us to be a neutral party?”
The warmongering elder laughed and seemingly put the pieces together: “Yes, the Longbeard tribe will march south with its host. He has summoned more tribes than would be required to overwhelm us with numbers, its more likely it’s a mass migration of his allied forces. The reason he hasn’t sent an emissary is two-fold: He doesn’t intend to share the bounty and plunder the new lands they will be residing in, so there is no point in asking us to join. Secondly, the Spider-Princes’ plots and schemes still reach out from beyond his grave: His prolific pronouncements to the Gauntic, Gossic, and Tutoianic tribes; as an imperator and consul of Rumelia, have worked strangely to our favor in this case. Odokar probably believes the Spider’s old propaganda and has assumed that we are simply a buffer state of the Rumelians. He would believe that to attack us would put him in war state with two fronts. He would be successful on one front but lose the war to the other front.”
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The dovish elder thoughtfully asked his question: “If we assume Odokar believes the old official story; why would he attack the Rumelians first in a proposed two front strategy? Wouldn’t prudence dictate that attacking the weaker link would divide the chain?”
The warmongering elder smiled and explained sagely: “Indeed it would be wise if it were any other combination of opponents; but from Odokar’s perspective the wisest choice would still be to attack the Empire’s heartlands. We are officially a client kingdom; we have an independent jurisdiction and can decide domestic issues with our own discretion. We are only limited to following the dictates of Rumelia from a foreign policy perspective. As such, for Odokar any diplomatic missions with us would be a moot point; because the Empire would dictate the terms, and be the only real decision maker, we can only obey the Empire’s directives so to speak. If he attacks the kingdom first: He would have to prepare for Rumelia’s response. If only for the sake of saving face or keeping the prestige of the Empire; they would send a token army at a minimum, to reinforce us. However, if he attacks Rumelia first, there is no guarantee that we would send out an army to reinforce the Empire. If our relations with the Empire are good: We would be in a diplomatic position of haggling with the Imperial Senate over the troops and recompense for the punitive forces that we would provide to aid Rumelia with; to summarize reinforcements would take months to arrive on the battlefield. If our relations are bad; we would drag our feet to send any aid to the under siege imperial forces, or we would send no aid at all.”
Theodoric sighed with relief: “To Odokar, the best decision in our interest would be to do nothing because we would gain little to nothing from a fight with his forces; but we would gain sovereignty from Rumelia by sitting still. For Odokar this means that he would have minimal opposition forces to fight against and maintain the greatest level of his force’s population, to strengthen his eventual integration with the northern provinces of the Rumelian heartland, such numbers would be needed. In other words, its not simply the best choice to attack the south; but it’s the only choice he can make to expand his powerbase.”
The council relaxed at the declaration from Theodoric, he then called a vote of the council on the issue of the host of Odokar: “Do we send an emissary to his host for purposes of diplomacy?” The council responded with chorus of “Nay.” “Do we marshal our forces to meet Odokar on the field?” The council erupted with cries of “Nay!” “I Theodoric, first of his name and prince of the Salians do call this emergency meeting to close.”
With Theodorics final pronouncement, a steady stream of the elders of the tribes left the Great Hall. Only five people remained in the room; Theodoric of the Salii, Chlodomer of the Austresii, Dagobert of Rudarii, Senior Rachimburg Ingelram, and Lord Steward Abbo. They spoke of the worsening condition of King Gisiler, and concerns around the succession of the throne should he die. The Salian Kingdom was in an awkward place concerning the governing law of its succession. Nominally, they respected the Rumelian tables of law and the commentaries of the councils addressing the law. In practice, they still depended on both the ancestral customs of their respective tribes and the moral laws prescribed by the old Sederic faith, both of which was governed by the rachimburgs, also known as law-speakers. The persuasive power of cannon-law, from the Rumelian church was steadily growing, but it wasn’t at the point where it influenced the kingdom’s laws.
This left the kingdom with two choices on how to proceed with the question of succession: Follow Rumelian law; and split the crown between the cousins, Prince Theodoric, and Mayor of the Palace Clodio; or follow the ancient custom, and hold a grand convention, and elect a leader proposed from that tribal convention. The convention would seem fairer; but the problem is that the choice is not that different from the alternative, they would still be deciding between Theodoric and Clodio, but Chlodomer the most popular Subchief of the tribes would be added to the mix. The five men looked at each other, and tacitly agreed to postpone the question for another day. Each of them plotted their political gameplan; in which they hoped to best rig the system to fall in their favor, regardless of the outcome. In the following days they would begin a high-stake’s competition of cloak and dagger politics.
The morning after the council meeting, Merovic sadly awoke and prepared to go to a birthday party.