[ WP ] A soldier from a generally non-militaristic culture reflects on his/her role in protecting the civilians .

My father wanted me to become a priest. He would have settled for merchant son or even an academic. He repeatedly threatened to disinherit me. In the end, he gave in, and so paid for my commission. He still does n't like my choice, and neither does my mother, for different reasons. She's worried I'll lie dead on some field with my eyes picked out by the crows. My father... I'm better off not wearing my uniform when I visit. 
 
 My father is not alone in his distaste. Many here in the Grand Duchy of Odinana would rather not see armed men about the cities and countryside. We've had eighty years of relative peace. The last war was the Odinic-Sula War. My great-grandfather fought in the climatic Battle of Peran Bay. Hundreds of galleys were destroyed and tens of thousands drown in those waters. The stories speak that the bay was so choked with flailing men that one could not see any water. It was a sea of bodies. 
 
 The battle was influential enough to change the perception of what awaited the damned. Now in our religion, those doomed to torment suffer the fate of floating endlessly on an infinite ocean surrounded by others. The overhead sun burns the eyes and skin, while the nights so cold that ice freezes the damned in place. All the while, massive sharks drift underneath, demons who occasionally grabbed a poor soul before dragging him to the murky depths to suffer unspeakable horrors. 
 
 The stories were enough that I swore ever going to sea. Instead, I joined the Duchy's meager army. Barely 10,000 strong, it's mostly used to man the border with the Kingdom of Nela to the North. But recently, with news trickling in about Verland's King Aidan and his victories against the Sarn Confederation, I fear it is only a matter of time before war arrives here. No one seems aware of that. We control the Straits of Kartum. Sixty percent of the Galen Thalassocracy's trade income passes through that narrow strait. If King Aidan of Verland were to control it, he could throttle Galen to death. Galen is invincible on the waves, but it has no land army. While Verland is busy in the North-East, it is only a matter of time until their attention will fall on us. I do not want my mother and sisters to know war. I have tried to be heard, to warn those about the looming danger, but my pleas fall on deaf ears. Short sighted fools. The people will suffer. When war does come, we will pay dearly for our complacency. 

