State of the Nation

Deimos was forever impressed with the insight his children managed to have despite their young age. Damira in particular seemed to really understand what she learned and that showed particularly well as she gave her ideas for why having alliances could be important. He nodded while she listed off the possibility of trade, the need to be known and to know, the possibility of having an ally owe them something in return for helping them, and even mentioning how it could be beneficial to change alliances if their ally was on the losing side. He smiled proudly at her wisdom beyond her years and gently nuzzled the top of her head. "Very good, my girl. You're a natural."

But, of course, there was some nuance to all things that only came from years of experience and seeing how things played out around them. "While I do agree that it can be beneficial to change sides at times if you find yourself allied with the losing side, there is something to be said about loyalty as well. If you're constantly changing your allegiance to follow the fair weather you'll end up with no one. Other's trust in your word will lose its meaning." He hoped he wasn't making the concept too big for her to understand, but he had a feeling that if anyone would follow what he was saying it would be Damira.

"That's one of the reasons why it's so important to be sure of who you're aligning yourself with from the beginning. For example... Ashen was one of the larger packs on Boreas and had several other strong packs allied with them already when your aunt Manea was looking to found Elysium. That was why Manea began building a relationship with Ashen well before she founded our pack so that when the time came to begin looking for alliances she already had one friend to call on and in turn had a much better chance of building relationships with the other packs that Ashen was allied with. Even now that Ashen is gone, we are still on good terms with packs that had been a part of this larger agreement so we have other groups to trade and train with as well as allies that can help us defend from less savory packs."

"Deimos Mendacium"