Ulfgar of Caebrek
Who is the greatest philosopher of your world? Describe what they taught and how it changed the the way people react to the world.
Ulfgar was a farmer from the village of Dunlain on the outskirts of Icehold in the second age. Unlike most people at the time he knew how to read and write, not only in dwarvish, but in common. This put him in the unique position of corresponding with Icehold for assistance with the near constant raiders or the occasional drought. However, Icehold was small and not capable of helping the majority of the time. It too was alone with only the luxury of access to fine metals and artisans. Although it had grand walls, they were not always able to protect themselves either, and Icehold was at war with its neighboring cities, which meant that Dunlain was often caught in the middle.
However that changed when the Gulderians conquered the city states. These cruel magical overlords forced Icehold and it's neighboring villages to send workers into the mines to get precious emeralds for their spells. Gulderians treated the people like cattle working them to death. Thankfully for Ulfgar, he was spared this fate. His ability to read and write was useful and he became a bookkeeper for the slave masters. The slave masters taught him much in this time, including resource management, and in this time Ulfgar began to formulate his philosophy.
Ulfgar questioned what would have happened if the cities had banded together. Would they have been so easily conquered? This questioned plagued him to the point of writing the Thesis of Allied War, in which is detailed the foundations of The Free Cities. Mainly, that war between the cities will rarely be for territorial gain, but to keep soldiers strong and experienced. Deaths are to be avoided, and to encourage little territorial gains the cities would enter into a pact that if any city would take another then the remaining cities would come together to return the city to sovereignty and remove the leader from the attacking city. Experienced armies and constant war would keep industry up and develop the defenses necessary to defend their lands from outside threats.
Ulfgar didn't mean much by the text. He didn't think it would result in anything, but a black market friend of his, Ila, suggested that he allow her to distribute the manuscript throughout the cities. He allowed it, but took up a pen name, the Old Man.
The distribution was slow and wasn't until six years later that Ulfgar received the first rebellious letter. It was from Mirabar and it was a request for alliance and rebellion. The letter spoke of the Old Man and his writings on how to save their homes. Ulfgar was astonished, unable to contain himself. He passed on the letter to not only the leaders of the resistance in Icehold but to the other cities as well. This began the precursor to the Lord's Alliance. For the next two years the resistances slowly broke down the infrastructure of the Gulderian overlords until finally open rebellion blossomed into all out war. Together the cities rose up and retook their lands and homes.
Ulfgar was prepared to return to Dunlain ready to return to a possibly more peaceful life, but Ila had other plans. She told the new kings and leaders of the cities that Ulfgar was the Old Man and published the manuscript under the title Thesis of Allied War and the became advisor the first Lord's Alliance shaping the world as we know it today.
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"Alone we are but blades of grass in the wind, unable to withstand the pressures of nature. Together we like stone in a storm, unmoving and strong." -Ulfgar of Caebrek
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