Once upon a time, long ago and far away, a city-state was at war with its neighbors. It was called many things across the millennia, but we shall call it Aurae. It was a big, prosperous city, rich in art and culture but less so in military might. No matter, there were endless mercenaries to hire, and the city could afford them. Alas, so could the city’s enemies. The wars didn’t last long, but they seemed to come endlessly.

One of the nearby cities was particularly troublesome. Let’s call this one Pizano. Too close for comfort, too big to easily ignore, and due to several hundred years of near-constant feuding and warfare, a rats nest of conspiracies. If you weren’t part of a secret society, it was said, were you even a citizen?

As Pizano was smaller than Aurae, it tended to lose these endless little wars and would have to pay tribute or be sacked. As a matter of self-defense and revenge, if anyone wanted to attack Aurae, no matter their cause, they could find allies in Pizano. Since the city was close to Aurae, it was a useful place to launch attacks from and made securing communications and supply lines easy. By the strange logic of international affairs, Pizano’s very weakness made it so dangerous to Aurae. They simply could not, and would not, refuse to host invading armies.

And a lot of people wanted to conquer Aurae. It was just too rich and just that little bit too big and too powerful to be ignored by the proper, bigger-than-a-city nations. So what was to be done? From the perspective of Aurae, the best thing to do was to conquer Pizano and make it a vassal city under their rule. This had been tried before, of course, and was a miserable failure. It costs a lot to garrison a conquered city, and if the citizens are constantly plotting rebellion, its rulers can know no peace. Worse, they didn’t merely plot! In less than a year, the Pizanos had retaken their city.

During this time of struggle, the city of Aurae welcomed a new master. The old lords had been disposed of, and the new ruler, a charismatic young duke, ascended the throne. Charismatic, but also widely regarded as a dangerous lunatic. He was almost certainly sleeping with his sister. He had poisoned and murdered many, many people for often trivial reasons. His sister being bored with her marriage, for example. He was also supposed to be a pacifistic, chaste priest, but the bloody road he paved used his seemingly endless string of bastards as mile markers.

On the other hand, his father was a notionally chaste Grand Archbishop commanding thirty thousand men and ruler of a dozen regions so that minor matters could be ignored. The new duke claimed Aurae and settled its lands by guile, patronage, and force of arms. First, by making peace with all those, he could pacify, bribe, or join through marriage. He did have a seemingly endless supply of children and half-siblings, after all. The second was to force peace through military might. Crazy and immoral the Duke may have been, but he was a brilliant tactician and well-loved by his troops.

Stolen story; please report.

The Duke fell upon Pizano like an iron flood, smashing aside both mercenaries and what few local allies bothered turning up to defend it. The local militia was so worthless it was asked to stay home. And did. Everyone knew this was a token resistance. The true battle for the city would come later. Before the first wall was breached, plans were laid to drain both the Duke’s purse and the blood of his soldiers.

The Duke was well aware of this, of course. He was crazy, not stupid. Like all good leaders, he understood the wisdom and necessity of delegation. So he called one of his more reliable mercenary captains and told him to crush all resistance and every conspiracy in Pizano. He was to use any method. All sins would be not simply forbidden but absolved. The Duke was very direct- he would ride into Pizano in a month and expected to be greeted by joyful crowds, not seditious rebels.

The captain was an enthusiastic brute. When he learned that a secret society wore mustaches, every person with a mustache was arrested and tortured until they confessed. They might not have known they were part of that particular secret society, but by the time they left the prison (usually for a short walk to the gallows), there were ironclad confessions to that effect. Generally specifying which of their neighbors were also members.

The same logic applied to people wearing red hats, people wearing green hats (to disguise the fact that they were secret red-hat wearers,) people who counted on their fingers starting with the pinkie rather than the thumb, and those who despised capers. There was an endless proliferation of secret societies to uncover. Many were harmless, more drinking societies and fraternal organizations than rebels. Others actively engaged in terrorism and rebellion. It didn’t matter. If one were suspected of being in a secret society, they would be captured, tortured, mutilated, or worse.

In the course of a few weeks, the population of Pizano dropped by one percent. Just from the captain’s “pacification efforts.” The city was very peaceful indeed. No flyers pasted to walls, no graffiti, no rebel songs sung in the taverns. Everyone was dressed neatly in their most bland clothes, obediently paid their taxes, and had no political opinions whatsoever. Publicly.

In private, the city was about to explode. Even those who despised rebellion and considered one ruler no better than another were taking up arms. It was self-defense. The feelings of hate were rapidly coming to a boil, and it seemed that the Duke would ride into a city in flames.

One day, the citizens of Pizano woke to find the captain cut in half on a grand butcher's block in the market square. Nailed to his breast was a letter from the Duke. The Duke apologized unreservedly. He took full responsibility for this outrageous excess by his unfaithful servant, the captain. Those imprisoned would be freed. Those mutilated would receive compensation, as would the families of the dead. The Duke would be arriving the next day and swore to put everything right.

When the Duke’s carriage entered the city, he was greeted by his cheering subjects. The city was peaceful, and the conspiracies were laid to rest. After centuries of fruitless war, Aurae finally subdued Pizano. For about two years. Then the Duke’s father died, he lost his political backing, and his little kingdom crumbled in a span of months. But that was a fable for another day.