Why didn't the Cad'inorians massacre the ktuvoks?

[patiku]

Assuming that the Cad'inorians knew that the ktuvoks were a continuing threat to their safety as well as the rest of Erelae's, which is reasonable, and that the religious views of them were cemented by the time Munkhash was defeated, what held them back? It doesn't even seem like any victor's justice was exacted! Either Cad'inorians were trying to out-do the Amish in the forgiveness dapartment, or I'm missing something here.

[zompist]

Things look different after a war. There was considerable enthusiasm for killing ktuvoks during the war; but when the ktuvok habitats were secured, to many people it felt more like murder. There was even a certain anticlimax: all this trouble was for these defeated monsters living in a swamp? They looked rather pathetic now rather than demonic.

Some cautious souls also pointed out that the ktuvoks now pleading for mercy might return to fighting if a program of massacre was carried out; also that many of them would simply escape to the sea. (Many did, in fact, as you'll recall from the history of Arcél.)

And for what it's worth the logic applies to the human Munkhâshi as well, and after all they were the ones who did most of the fighting and even strategizing. And there was plenty to do; one more very nasty military operation could be put off indefinitely while the work of reorganizing the conquered territory was begun.

Of course, in subsequent centuries many Almeans thought it was a boneheaded decision too!

[rotting bones]

Also note that the uesti are less depraved than terrestrial humans.

[patiku]

post

Was there much opposition to all this? The religious elite might not care for this, for example, or common people who had been fired up all through the war with rhetoric about the ktuvok's evil.

Also, what was ktuvok life like during the occupation? Were they allowed to keep their slaves and estates, or did they have to modify their status displays?

[Salmoneus]

Also note that the uesti are less depraved than terrestrial humans.

Considerably. If we take the Cadhinorians as analogous to the Romans, the equivalent would be the existential struggle between Rome and Carthage - which ended, of course, in the general massacre of carthaginians (at least in and around Carthage itself) and the fields being sown with salt...

[rotting bones]

Considerably. If we take the Cadhinorians as analogous to the Romans, the equivalent would be the existential struggle between Rome and Carthage - which ended, of course, in the general massacre of carthaginians (at least in and around Carthage itself) and the fields being sown with salt...

That's the very event I was thinking of, although I've heard the salt sowing tale was apocryphal. However, there's no need for such comparisons because zompist unambiguously stated that the uesti are nicer than us some time back in 2006-ish.

[zompist]

Was there much opposition to all this? The religious elite might not care for this, for example, or common people who had been fired up all through the war with rhetoric about the ktuvok's evil.

I imagine there must have been many conversations like this:

Religious elite or common person: Wait, you didn't kill them all?
Weary soldier who's just marched 1000 km back home: Nope.
RECP: What's wrong with you?
WS [hands sword to RECP]: You go do it.

Less jocularly, after a generation of war, the majority were quite happy to go back to civilian life and consolidate rule over their vast new domains. Ervëa and Attafei had destroyed an evil empire that had lasted two thousand years; they were heroes. More than half the ktuvoks had been killed; there were garrisons in the swamps. It was easy to think that the problem was solved.

Also, what was ktuvok life like during the occupation? Were they allowed to keep their slaves and estates, or did they have to modify their status displays?

Their slaves were the Munkhâshi and their estates were Munkhâsh. They had no human servants and no estates outside the swamps, which were now patrolled by human soldiers. Their status displays devolved to things like large whale bones, or displays of personal strength and size.

[rotting bones]

Their slaves were the Munkhâshi and their estates were Munkhâsh. They had no human servants and no estates outside the swamps, which were now patrolled by human soldiers. Their status displays devolved to things like large whale bones, or displays of personal strength and size.

What, didn't they have other trained animals to show off?

[patiku]

Their slaves were the Munkhâshi and their estates were Munkhâsh. They had no human servants and no estates outside the swamps, which were now patrolled by human soldiers. Their status displays devolved to things like large whale bones, or displays of personal strength and size.

Moving further along now, what were relations like between the ktuvoks and the human occupiers? Their psychic powers/hypnotic gaze/animal training skills surely made them risky to have a face-to-face chat with, so even relaying messages must have been a pain. And who did humans go to when they wanted to speak to "the ktuvoks"?

[Mornche Geddick]

Their hypnotic powers aren't irresistable. Lerīmanio avoided being enslaved by refusing to look in the ktuvok's eyes. If the Count of Years is accurate here, then that's all you need to know to resist them.

[zompist]

The ktuvoks' powers aren't instantaneous, and they're greatly facilitated by language. The soldiers found that simply not knowing Munkhâshi was some protection, as was traveling in squads. It got trickier when some ktuvoks started learning Cadhinor or Carhinnian.

Basically, you know, you just take the obvious precautions when facing a nine-foot-tall predator with slashing claws, a history of slaveowning, and mind control powers...

[patiku]

My curiosity is sated, feel free to lock the thread.

[Ars Lande]

I always understood it that way:

If the ktuvoks' mind control is anything like domesticating animals, it should work better if you start when the subject is young.
Sort of like how a wild dog or wolves can be a threat, while we have domesticated dogs...
The average Mûnkhashi is conditioned from birth to worship the ktuvoks; I suspect that the ktuvok's powers are a lot more efficient on their subjects.

This leads to the rather creepy idea that ktuvok empires get started by ktuvok's kidnapping children who happened to pass through the marshes...

[zompist]

That's a good thought, Ars!