You are a powerful noble in the River Kingdom.
One day the Mountain Kingdom starts a war against your kingdom. You call up your bannermen and your knights and fight alongside your family.
The war goes badly for the River Kingdom. The Mountain Kingdom wins many battles; they proceed to slaughter many towns and villages. The vast majority of your relatives are killed in battle or executed. You find yourself captured after a particularly pitched battle.
While under captivity, you are treated very badly. The Mountain people move you around in a cage and keep you in chains. They feed you disgusting gruel and they never let you out of your cage (I’ll spare you the details about your toiletry but you get the idea). Since it rains a lot in the River Kingdom, it gets really nasty and muddy outdoors too.
You remain a captive of the Mountain Kingdom for years, during this time, you are severely hurt and damaged on a physical and psychological level.
After a few years of war, the only nobleman of importance on your side is your distant uncle. Your uncle has always been rather hard on you (in fact, he considers you to be kind of an idiot, somewhat unfairly). Your uncle tries his best to defeat the Mountain people in pitched battles, after this fails, he takes what’s left of his army and retreats to a big castle where he intends to fight to the death.
The giant Mountain army, outnumbering your people five to one, surround the castle and prepare to lay siege to it.
The commander of the Mountain Army has had enough of the fighting and the bloodshed and so he offers your uncle a peaceful surrender (“Surrender the castle, and I promise to let you and your men leave the country as exiles unharmed”).
Your uncle tells the Mountain Army, “WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER. This is my home, and I will fight to the end. You can and will probably take us down. But it will take you YEARS. Hundreds of us will die but thousands of yours will. I’m counting on it.”
…
Irritated by your uncle’s spirit of defiance but still hoping to take the castle without having to fight, the commander of the Mountain Army has you dragged out where the uncle can see you from the battlements.
The commander takes out a large knife and puts it against your throat. You feel the cold and hard blade against the surface of your throat.
“Surrender the castle, or I’ll cut your nephew’s throat open,” the commander proclaims coldly.
Not wanting to give the Mountain Kingdom any sense of leverage (and perhaps he never particularly cared for you), your uncle promptly says: “Go ahead. Cut it open. “ He coldly walks away from the castle’s battlements.
Terror courses through your veins as you realize you are going to die. However, it doesn’t happen. The furious Mountain Kingdom commander considers cutting your throat but decides against it. He has you dragged back into the cage.
…
At night, while you are chained in your cage, the Mountain commander comes to you and offers you a deal.
He will release you and allow you to go back to your uncle’s side. In exchange, you will order every single soldier inside the castle to put down their weapons, surrender, and allow the Mountain Army inside. Since the Mountain Kingdom has killed nearly every single one of your relatives now, you are technically the ruler of the River Kingdom now outranking even your uncle.
You understand the culture of your people very well, if you tell them to surrender, they will (maybe a little resentfully but they will).
In exchange, the Mountain commander promises you that you will be allowed to live in a comfortable castle in the Mountain Kingdom countryside with servants to look after you. He promises you a comfortable existence.
However, your uncle will be arrested and executed for the rebellion. The remaining soldiers will be treated in accordance with their degree of previous participation in the war.
Wanting to get out of the cage at any cost, you “agree” to the deal. The Mountain commander makes you swear that when you enter the castle again you will order your men to surrender.
…
You walk up to the castle. You declare to the guards on the battlement your true name and rightful title. You demand entry.
…
Above on the battlements, your uncle protests.
“Don’t let him you idiots! He’s obviously made a deal with the Mountain Kingdom! He’s going to sell us out!”
However, the soldiers turn against your uncle. “He is the rightful lord of this castle. My lord has given a command. I am sworn to obey my lord.”
Your uncle is outraged but because of the River Kingdom’s culture (where the people are required to 100% obey the feudal hierarchy), your uncle is ousted and the castle opens up.
You walk inside and easily assume command of the castle.
Please discuss what you would do next. Please provide a moral and/or pragmatic justification. Your options are as follows:
1) Fulfill your “promise” to the Mountain commander and trust that he will keep his end of the deal. Tell your soldiers to arrest your uncle, put down all weapons, surrender, and then allow the Mountain Kingdom’s troops inside. You are tired of the war and there is no point in fighting a hopeless siege. This deal from the Mountain commander is the best deal you’re going to get (and your uncle is kind of a prick).
2) Renege on your “promise” and take command of the castle’s defenses. Prepare for the Mountain Kingdom’s incoming attack. Please note that the Mountain Kingdom’s chances of defeating you (as set by the hypothetical when all factors are considered) is 95 percent. However, you refuse to betray your uncle and you want to die fighting with honor even against overwhelming odds.
Please assume that the even though the Mountain commander has ordered many atrocities, he has previously offered and honored a similar deal with one of your cousins. Given the commander’s past actions, you are 100% clear that if you fight and are defeated, every single person in the castle will be killed (if not tortured first).
Please try to take into account everything in the above scenario, including your state of mind after having gone through so much hard times.
(Note that the above scenario is a variation of a fact pattern from a past season of Game of Thrones)
