[Poll] Would you betray your family and country?

Your family has told you that the teleportation won’t harm you. They’ve told you that the beacon is slightly offset so it won’t land directly on top of you.

Of course, that’s if you trust your own family.

 

Oh, you’re not the crown prince and neither is your fiancée. Both of you are further down the line and not set to inherit anything.

 

Well, that's easy. Political manoeuvering, earning merits, making myself popular to the common people and to the people that is in the middle of the social strata, and at the same time get allies from both the Military and the Merchants. If you control the Military and the Trades, you control the whole Kingdom. There's a lot of various ways I could do that but there's a very big con for it and that my death would be more closer and closer. As for my Fiancee's, since she's further down the line I could just use her claim and help her put her into the Throne once everything is done proclaim union between Kingdom and I would let my wife take care of the other side while I take care of the other.

 

I would actually do this to be honest if I couldn't be bothered to save it.

 

I think that is a bit easier said than done.

You are in a foreign country (technically an enemy country), so it should presumed that obtaining allies in enemy territory will be difficult.

From a rather objective standpoint, its kind of obvious that you're serving the role of a pawn. Someone else in your country (either your parents? Your elder brother?) is pulling the strings. There could have been a succession tension in your own prior country and you were outmaneuvered politically by your siblings. In either case, it's highly unlikely you're any degree of an important prince, because if this plan were leaked somehow -- you're the first person to get executed in Alasia. I think it's unlikely for your kingdom to send somebody they can't risk.

 

Dang, interesting.... I can't really imagine being princess of a country and feeling very responsible for its people. I'm not a patriot now and if I'd be a patriot or not in that scenario would depend on my upbringing. As I can't exactly fathom what that'd be like, I'll just answer these question from the point of view of someone who's not very patriotic.

1. What do you do?
If at all possible, I run away at least 2 weeks or more before the ceremony. Before that, I will write 2 different letters, make 5 copies of them each and have them sent through different channels so that at least one of them respectively is sure to reach their addressant at least 1 week before the wedding. I'll send them to different high ranking people on each side, but all titled "please deliver to royal couple of [respective country]". In the one to my family, I'd write sth like "This decision is too hard for me to make, so I ran away. Don't try to find me, I told the Alasian royalty to be wary if I suddenly appear again. I'm deeply sorry. With love, [my name]". To the Alasian side, I'd write sth like "I'm hoping you won't hold this against my country. I just can't marry [insert fiancé's name]. I'm deeply sorry for breaking our agreement. I won't under any circumstances be willingly coming back again, I swear this on my name. In shame, regret and forever with friendly regards, [my name]". Vague enough to not flatly sell my country out but suspicious enough, I'm sure they'll get the hint. Even if I were to get caught, Alasia will be cautious now and knowing this, it's possible my parents won't look for me considering it won't work now anyways. Lurinis won't fall into a trap and Alasia won't get conquered, so I didn't improve the situation but I didn't worsen it by much either. Ah right, I'll leave a note for my fiancé too: "I'm sorry dear, but marriage is not for me. I enjoyed our time together and you're a wonderful person, but I long to see the world much more. Don't look for me, and live a nice life" (just kinda bullshitting a bit to lessen their shock, and to not leave any info that could be used against my fiancé or my country).
Well, I'm not exactly sure though, as I have no idea how I would really think and feel in that situation.

2. In general, would you side with your family or side with your personal beliefs/desires? Are there special circumstances where you might side with the opposite?
If there's a significant gap, I'll side with my personal beliefs/desires. It's kinda difficult to say when I would side with the opposite cause if there's sth that makes me side like that, it would reflect my personal beliefs/desires. Yanno, like "you can only do what you want". Even if it's sth shitty and you'd normally say "I do it even though I don't wanna", there's a part of you that makes you want to do it, so you do want to do it in a way. If you as a whole didn't wanna do sth, you'd never do it. Maybe it's just the part of you that wants to avoid negative things like getting hurt, dying or acting immoral vs the part that just wants to do comfortable nice things, but it's still you. I may side in favor of the "opposite" if I believe it to be only fair this way.

3. Would you ever side with your family even if you thought your family was doing the wrong thing? For example, suppose a family member committed a crime (you know this as a fact) and now they are in court. Would you lie as a witness to try and reduce the sentence that they receive?
Depends on the situation. Questions to consider:
- would being in jail be good or bad for my family member in the long run? E.g. would they learn their lesson that way
- am I bringing significant harm to someone (if there's a specific person my family member commited a crime against) by lying?
- how likely is it that I will be found out if I lie?
- is my family member a person who totally deserves it?
So yeah, it's too vague to say. Although I can say that I wouldn't lie or not lie out of principle. If anyway possible, I'll try to find a way to stay somewhat neutral. I don't wanna sell my family out but I don't wanna support doing wrong either. It might be not super loyal but not my fucking fault when my family's just asking for trouble.

4. Do you have a responsibility to your parents and family for raising you?
Yeah but not to a degree where I'd basically sacrifice my happiness for them. I'm thankful they raised me, and I'm sure it was difficult at times but I never asked to be born and to have all these needs that I now need to take care of, thank you very much.

5. If you have a great responsibility (e.g. leader of a country), would you prioritize your duty or your personal feelings / family?
Well let's just assume I took on that role voluntarily. That means I'd really care about the people I lead, otherwise I wouldn't have taken that role. I believe a leader should be ready to sacrifice a lot, even the satisfaction of their personal feelings or family ties to a degree. Which is why I'd never really wanna become a leader like that XD but if for some reason I did, I'd be prepared to make sacrifices.

 

1. What do you do?

I decided to help plot against my family. I am assuming most of the elites would come into the teleportation, meaning most of my countries forces could be incapacitated by the trap. That would make the following war a completely one-sided victory. That's better than a bloody fight between the two countries. In the first place, it seems that my family weren't the greatest rulers, the rich country described would be much more fit to rule. That also prevents a warring nation from growing.

2. In general, would you side with your family or side with your personal beliefs/desires? Are there special circumstances where you might side with the opposite?

If it was an equal situation, I would assist my own kingdom for sure.

3. Would you ever side with your family even if you thought your family was doing the wrong thing? For example, suppose a family member committed a crime (you know this as a fact) and now they are in court. Would you lie as a witness to try and reduce the sentence that they receive?

It depends on what they did. Attempted to murder me? No.

4. Do you have a responsibility to your parents and family for raising you?

Not in that situation. If they want to use me as a pawn, I have no problem as long as I don't have to personally kill them.

5. If you have a great responsibility (e.g. leader of a country), would you prioritize your duty or your personal feelings / family?

Duty. I chose to betray for the sake of the commoners. They shouldn't have to go through a long war. I will get the stronger country on top and use my influence to protect my own country, excluding the royal family and high ranking nobles. A non-warring, wealthy country is by far superior.

 

Personally, I think this is a bit of a misjudgment.

I think it's very rare for a country to put all of their eggs in one basket (100% of the military capacity in one strike) while throwing caution to the wind. To be honest, I don't even think your kingdom needs to send a large army. A modestly-sized or average-sized army would be sufficient to seize the enemy capital from inside the walls with the absence of an opposing army.

The plot works for your country because the entirety of Alasia's royalty will be present in attendance for the wedding of royalty, so the entire ruling structure of the country can be taken out in one strike.

However, if the attack fails (for any reason), your kingdom's command structure is still intact, and there are likely many other legions/armies still on the map. It isn't a crippling blow, so I wouldn't anticipate the resulting war to be easy. Furthermore, it is stated that Alasia does not have a strong military tradition, and the only reason why they won the previous war was from defensive fortifications. I think it is unlikely for Alasia to win an offensive war encroaching to your kingdom's territory, especially since your kingdom's military is often perceived as the best in the Continent.

 

I would say fuck them all and elope with fiance away from this conflict into another world.

Que reverse isekai...

Years later...

Their son returns to their original world...

Que isekai... and title...

 

What's with all the sexual euphemisms?

I'm going to assume we're the only royal child and am set to inherit both kingdoms.
OR
I can just assassinate other inheritors and climb up the corporate / royal ladder.

Should be easy enough to convince the Alasians that I'm on their side (double or triple agent) and resolve the teleportation issue to cause both sides to be at an impasse. Done in history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades (Genius defector general who went Athens-Sparta-Persia-back to Athens).
Problem solved

​

 

Yeah, that's true and at the same time gaining allies is the best way to be able to at least have control on your fate if you're in that kind of situation. As what the saying said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." though it would be considered treason I'll just grit through it and at least get myself enough protection and some movement so that I could prepare myself to be able to enact some of my plans that would probably come up once I knew I am a bit safe for the time being and still being a Prince that has a claim on the Throne is more alluring to others than what you think because it would practically help em' with their standing. At the same time, they would be able to make me a "Puppet" so that they could control the battle-hardened and trained soldiers of my Army. There's going to be a lot of political manuevering and considering the fact that they sent me there I am sure that one if not all of the retinues and servants they've sent me would probably have a spy on it.

The bigger the risk, the better the rewards is and I would have a mild chance of being able to at least free myself and gain more movements, plus considering the fact I am still their Prince they wouldn't be able to do that much to me if it's in the open it's all gonna be Cloaks and Daggers. My first order of business would be to find that "spy" or at least get a hint on who it is then probably try to seek allies with someone on the court and merchants. I could just go to another country and let them install me as their Puppet but it would make it hard for my Kingdom and would ruin my legitimacy if I did. There's countless of ways to do those but considering the fact that I am more of creating plans on the spot and that I have little experience when it comes to politics though I have plenty of experiences when it comes to strategy and tactics.

I would probably try to become the Napoleon Bonaparte of that world and the fact that Napoleon was sent in exile and was able to free himself from the British(I think?) and during that time he made the French Royal Army surrender to him without any bloodshed.

 

user title checks out xD

 

You make this sound easy

You try assassinating the President of the United States remotely while in exile (forced marriage) in Russia.

You'll definitely have Alasian spies monitoring your contacts and communications, because that's a basic security clearance if you have an enemy prince in your country. Contacting anyone from your home country is going to look suspicious unless it's through an official channel.

I mean, the only issue is that you're basically a walking bomb, and a liability as long as you are alive.

Isn't the easier thing to do to just execute you?

If I were on the Alasian side, you don't have anything you can offer me. There's no viable way to turn you into a double agent because I can't send you back to your home country, and your primary existence is to play a role in a plan that results in the total destruction of my government. Double agents need something that indicates that they are "loyal" to their original employer, and I can't let you fulfill your original plan.

 

Go through with the plan. If I am reading the subtext correctly other than my husband, who would likely throw me under a bus if necessary, I have no allies who would treat me with real kindness if I told them. There's probably spies among my maids keeping tabs on me and lots of superficial kindness already.

I don't think there is any way I will survive as a traitor. I would lose my importance to the country and as a “noble individual” he would need to marry someone else to consolidate the kingdom's power against my kingdom. Love may eventually fade but I will still have my status as the royal princess who brought the kingdom victory if the plan succeeds. I doubt I will ever be in line for inheritance so if I play my cards right, I can remain a symbol for the new King and be kept alive in that bloodbath. Of course, that is assuming my family treats me well enough.

Who knows, the beacon could just be a suicide device that'll kill me upon activation or I could die in the raid.

 

Say that to Alicibiades, the 400BC baller!!

The dude was an Athenian general who:
- incited the Athenians to war against the Spartans and made his fellow Athenians jelly,
- defected to Sparta with news that they were going to be attacked (because of a war he started!) and rose to prominence,
- slept with the Spartan queen,
- started a counter-war against the Athenians,
- had his affair with the Spartan queen discovered and was under threat of assassination,
- escaped to a Persian kingdom,
- incited the Persians to attack both the Athenians and Spartans while secretly undermining the Athenian govt to allow for his return (Russian/Ukraine??),
- so impressed the Athenian troops that they reinstated him as an Athenian general and wanted to stage a coup of Athens,
- continued a string of military successes,
- and had all his previous crimes dismissed because the people loved him.

 

Those are bad logic.
If i married the princess(i'm the prince) both kingdom will fall under me so why the heck we need to start another war? I just need to be the crown prince and suggesting we merge our kingdom to be undefeatable in the continent

 

If @Ai chan was head of the USA, treason might then have leeway with me.

 

AGREED, IT IS THE WAY!

 

You would need to plot assassinations up both sides. Neither of you are crown prince(sses).

It's not an easy thing to do, and you fiancee might not be interested in killing her family for your benefit either.

 

This just sounds so exaggerated out of context XDD