The Hillfolk
Ever since I read The Grim Gray Hills, which I admire and envy, because I want to be able to harrow readers like this - it begins This is what it means, to be a noble in the Hill Country: you are a traitor to your people. - I’ve started twitching every time a Tortall book mentions the Hill Country. I am all “It is the hillfolk, the conquered and oppressed people of the great Tortallan Empire, even more despised than the Bazhir!”
Thanks, guys. This adds an extra layer of skeeviness to certain sections of these books. Like right here:
“A dry summer and a delay in the winter rains in the south bred problems. First the hill folk near Fief Shaila tried to rebel, laying siege to the local army fort. Third Company rode to free the garrison and hunt those responsible. No sooner had Raoul punished the worst troublemakers and gotten pledges of loyalty from the rest than word came from the village of Sweetspring...”
Did you catch that? The hillfolk, who are (we are told at other times) poorer than dirt, are rebelling against their Tortallan conquerors, who keep them that way. And the narrative is all, “Silly troublemakers! Why would they rise up against Tortall’s great empire?” and disposes of their silly rebellion in two sentences. Meanwhile the reader cries, Why were they rising? Was it a bad harvest? Was the local garrison behaving badly? Did they just feel the irrepressible urge for FREEDOM?
And how does Lerant react to this? Lerant is one of my favorite characters in Protector of the Small. I have many favorite PotS characters. Kel! Neal! Yuki! Owen! Wyldon! Um, maybe I should just not bother listing them and just admit that I love everyone in PotS and want all the fic about everyone ever.
But Lerant! Lerant is our go-to man for Hill Country angst. He is a scion of Fief Eldorne, which is in the Hill Country. (How much blood do the Hill nobles share with the Hillfolk generally? It wouldn’t surprise me at all if...Jasson, I believe it was, who conquered the Hill Country?...if Jasson had gotten rid of the old Hill nobles, or most of them, and installed loyal Tortallan knights in their stead.)
Do any of the prisoners accuse him of being a traitor to the Hillfolk? Seriously, Lerant is such a sad puppy. The Tortallans don’t trust him because his aunt Delia was in cahoots with Evil Roger the Evil Usurper (and is now perpetually confined in a tower in the capital, apparently? How’s that working out?), and the Hill Folk either think he’s a traitor to his Hill blood or simply a Tortallan interloper, and either way despise him.
Does Lerant feel a twinge of sympathy for his Hill compatriots, rebels though they are? Or is he so intent on assimilating that he just hates them, because this sort of thing makes it harder for all the good Hill Folk to show that they’re loyal Tortallans? OR BOTH? How many different kinds of cultural angsting can we cram into one fic?
Thanks, guys. This adds an extra layer of skeeviness to certain sections of these books. Like right here:
“A dry summer and a delay in the winter rains in the south bred problems. First the hill folk near Fief Shaila tried to rebel, laying siege to the local army fort. Third Company rode to free the garrison and hunt those responsible. No sooner had Raoul punished the worst troublemakers and gotten pledges of loyalty from the rest than word came from the village of Sweetspring...”
Did you catch that? The hillfolk, who are (we are told at other times) poorer than dirt, are rebelling against their Tortallan conquerors, who keep them that way. And the narrative is all, “Silly troublemakers! Why would they rise up against Tortall’s great empire?” and disposes of their silly rebellion in two sentences. Meanwhile the reader cries, Why were they rising? Was it a bad harvest? Was the local garrison behaving badly? Did they just feel the irrepressible urge for FREEDOM?
And how does Lerant react to this? Lerant is one of my favorite characters in Protector of the Small. I have many favorite PotS characters. Kel! Neal! Yuki! Owen! Wyldon! Um, maybe I should just not bother listing them and just admit that I love everyone in PotS and want all the fic about everyone ever.
But Lerant! Lerant is our go-to man for Hill Country angst. He is a scion of Fief Eldorne, which is in the Hill Country. (How much blood do the Hill nobles share with the Hillfolk generally? It wouldn’t surprise me at all if...Jasson, I believe it was, who conquered the Hill Country?...if Jasson had gotten rid of the old Hill nobles, or most of them, and installed loyal Tortallan knights in their stead.)
Do any of the prisoners accuse him of being a traitor to the Hillfolk? Seriously, Lerant is such a sad puppy. The Tortallans don’t trust him because his aunt Delia was in cahoots with Evil Roger the Evil Usurper (and is now perpetually confined in a tower in the capital, apparently? How’s that working out?), and the Hill Folk either think he’s a traitor to his Hill blood or simply a Tortallan interloper, and either way despise him.
Does Lerant feel a twinge of sympathy for his Hill compatriots, rebels though they are? Or is he so intent on assimilating that he just hates them, because this sort of thing makes it harder for all the good Hill Folk to show that they’re loyal Tortallans? OR BOTH? How many different kinds of cultural angsting can we cram into one fic?