"The Teachings of Stuhn to Mortals" as told by Aeda Branch-Hand

#The Teachings of Stuhn to Mortals

As told by Aeda Branch-Hand

In the early days, when the bones of Shor and the et'Ada were still warm, war was chaos. Men and mer shed blood without discretion. They fought aimlessly, killing anyone they came across. The blood of the slain seeped into the ground, sowing violence in the soil. Generations were born and died that knew nothing but senseless war and vengeance. Like beasts, they preyed on the strong and weak out of bloodlust, hunger, and fear. Eventually, the blood flowed down streams and into the ocean.

The blood filled Stuhn's nostrils, and he wept tears of rage and sorrow. The Great Whale rose from the ocean and appeared to the men and mer as they waged war. And Stuhn said, "Mortals! The blood of your victims cries out to the gods. Why do you spill blood indiscriminately? Do you not know that the bodies of the gods have been broken so that you may live? Why, then, do you slaughter yourselves like animals? When you fight, do so rightly, and with honor. So I say to you:

Do not harm women, children, or the lame, for it is dishonorable to murder the defenseless.

Take prisoners in victory, for there is no honor is slaying a defeated opponent. Treat them justly, that you may win them over to your cause.

Offer your enemies ransom, that you may win without unnecessary bloodshed.

Surrender if the battle is lost, for senseless death serves no one.

Make treaties and keep them, for allies strengthen each other, but a traitor has no honor.

"I tell you these things so that you may live and fight in such a way that respects the life that has been given to all mortals. If you treat your enemies justly, they shall do so to you. And if they they do not, know that you are vindicated, for they shall be treated likewise." Thus said Stuhn, the God of Ransom.

When the men and mer heard this, they drew up for themselves documents of war and peace, that they might wage war with honor and dignity, and thus prove their quality. From that day forth, they were able to do battle with courage and order, rather than with fear and chaos like the wild beasts.

Author's notes:

This is a lore book I'm writing to include in a mod I'm making. As such, I would appreciate your input for future revisions. Lore on Stuhn is basically non-existent, so I thought it was a great opportunity to be creative with a blank canvas. All we know about Stuhn is that he was a shield-thane of Shor and that he was the God of Ransom who taught men the value of taking prisoners and how to do so. In keeping with his proximity to Stendarr, I expanded his sphere to include ethical warfare and proper treatment of prisoners, which I feel is very merciful, while staying true to the Nordic heritage of warfare.

I tried to give this a flavor of a religious text, hence the repetitive language. I imagined this text being passed down orally and heavily redacted before finally being written down by a young scholar who grew up sitting by a campfire listening to his grandmother's stories.

In my mind, the oldest surviving portion of the account is the set of commands. Over time, the narrative setting was added or revised and eventually ended up in what we have here.

If you are inclined to provide feedback, I do have a few specific concerns:

What do you think of the commands? Originally, 2 and 3 (prisoners and ransom) were a single command, but it was a bit long, and I thought ransom deserved to be it's own thing since Stuhn's official title is the God of Ransom.
What about the command regarding surrender? I was on the fence about it, as it doesn't seem very war-like, but I felt it was an important counterpart to taking prisoners. If you are commanded to take prisoners, doesn't it make sense to be willing to be a prisoner? If no one surrenders, you can't take prisoners.
regarding the narrative opening, does it seem redundant? It was a concern that it sound consistent and that it use a limited vocabulary to reflect real-life religious texts, but there s a different in sounding ancient and poetic, and sounding like it was written by a middle schooler trying to pad for length.
What about the ending? Part of me feels that it sounds trite and on the nose, but I wnated it to have a proper ending like a fable. I tossed around a few different ways to end it, but nothing I came up with sounded perfect.

This is my first submission to /r/teslore that is an actual contribution, rather than just a question, so I do hope it is well received. If you have any questions or critiques, I would be happy to respond, so I can edit this text further and really give my mod a lore-friendly foundation.

Edit: I just realized that, as an etiology of the rules of war, this fits with the weekly theme of beginnings. Neat.