“Unpleasant whispers?” Marius frowned, “they must be particularly bad if you decided to risk seeing me with my father around.”
Aelfruna nodded gravely, “The tribes across the border seem to be restless this year.”
“They are restless every year.”
“Not like this,” Aelfruna shook her head, Marius was able to feel the air change as anxiety poured into it. “This is different.”
He put his arms around her and focused his emotions… He was not very good with emotional control, but at this distance he might be able… Yes, he felt Aelfruna relax in his arms, then sigh.
“Do you know how odd it is for you to use excitement to get rid of worry?” She grumbled, “It just feels strange…”
“Haha,” Marius laughed. “Well I am not an Ethosi after all. Still you don’t need to worry, my father already warned me about the Langobardi. The watches will be strengthened and the legions will be on alert.”
“I think it is more serious than that…” Marius frowned as he felt her nervousness begin to slip out again.
“I will send a messenger to Legio I Minerva in Bonn,” Marius said soothingly. “The legion even has Ethosi within it, and with them watching the border we should be fine. Though if you could explain a bit more I would be grateful…”
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Marius was familiar with the tribes within and without of Germania Inferior mostly, but there were many and they often moved, merged, or split into new tribes seemingly without warning. As Marius recalled, the Langobardi had came from further north, and were pushing tribes south as they settled more expansive regions. Though really he had not expected them to be this far south for another twenty or thirty years…
“The Langobardi used to only worship the Vanir,” Aelfruna pulled back and began to give a short lecture. Many might be bored with this kind of thing, but for Marius it just made him wish she would be at his side more. “As they have moved south, they have begun to worship the Aesir as well.” She gave Marius a look as if to say that she had explained those two groups before and that he had better remember.
“So from fertility gods to war gods,” Marius mused. “I would guess that the change affected their Emotional Atmosphere then? Damn, we might be looking at a Rage Plague…”
A Rage Plague was a common occurrence during wars, and required the strictest management of an armies Emotional Atmosphere to prevent. Essentially, emotions of anger, rage, glory, greed, and lust would form in an army as it conquered and pillaged and eventually the Emotional Atmosphere would be so strong that it actively affected the troops emotions, effectively perpetuating itself like a disease. As it grew, and the army moved on, the effect would spread, often to cities never even touched by the war, and when it did riots and civil unrest were sure to break out.
“I don’t think my father knows about this,” Marius gathered his thoughts. “I have to go tell him.” It was unseemly for a man of his station to run, and harder in a toga than it would be for someone in pants, but he wanted to catch up to his father as soon as possible. He thanked Aelfruna and left her behind, though he knew she was relieved that he took this so seriously.
Well of course he did, barbarians were one thing, but barbarians unable to control their emotions could spell catastrophe!