On Honor Culture

[bloodless]

As a foreword, I will address my methodology, as this subject is far from my expertise. Though I have read and compared works on it, and for this purpose interviewed an expert, I still do not claim this a definitive or complete treatise on the matter, but rather a summary of historical thoughts and attitudes around the Four Towers nations.
- Dr. Medb Neasa

In preparing this work, I contacted Dr. Stephen Banks from the Academy of Richemulot's School of Law, who has written numerous books and articles about the practice of dueling, including Duels and Dueling and A Polite Exchange of Bullets: The Duel and the Mordentish Gentleman. There is a lot of misunderstanding among both foreigners and the common people of Dementlieu alike as to what constitutes honorable behaviour, and the culture that surrounds it. I have heard claims that what separates the nobility (Dementlieu's noblesse or the Mordentish Gentleman) from the "commoners" is their wealth, social power, and political clout. According to Dr. Banks, none of these are deciding factors. Beyond their lineage from the immemorial nobility, that is, those families recognized for having always lived nobly since before the fall of the Empire, or alternatively their letters patent of ennoblement, the noble are distinguished by their store of internal honor that most people lack, and which makes them unwilling to be subjugated. "When a gentleman views a whipped slave," says Dr. Banks, "he doesn't see a man who has been a victim of power relations and social structure, rather, he sees a man who has allowed himself to be whipped. Better to rebel, to deny he has a master and to be killed than be so subjugated. This is what a gentleman (in theory) would do."

This idea that the gentry are not only socially but physically different is reinforced through the repetition of acts that "constantly emphasize that a gentleman is distinctly and qualitatively different." Noblemen, for instance, always serve as officers in the military and are granted certain priviliges, such as the ability to take quarters outside of camp and an excepmtion from physical punishments like flogging. Gentlemen have titles and forms of address, so that literally talking to them is different than conversing with a member of the working classes. This special treatment under the laws of society is present in civilian life as well, and noblemen accused of crimes can often find themselves dining as guests of public officials the night before their trials, since jails are dirty places unfit for a man of breeding. These priviliges also come with obligations - namely, that the gentleman must keep his honor intact by holding himself separate from the common people (an officer can lose his commission for sitting down at a table with enlisted men), preserving his image as something different and nobler, and above all else, make sure no one challenges his honor or tries to subjugate him. Failing to uphold this system means being cast out of the elite class entirely.

Challenges to honor most often come from inside the noble orders. The world of the upper classes is a competitive one, where men jockey for position and recognition from authority, leading to some strange power relations. At all times, they try to uphold their honor and show that they deserve a position among society's elite, meaning that disrespect cannot be tolerated or else they would be seen as lacking the strength to resist subjugation, therefore losing their social capital. In this culture, a disrespectful gesture in itself can be cause to defend one's honor via pistols, since no one, the logic goes, disrespects a man who is considered respectable. As an example, Dr. Banks offers this scenario: "I am taking my wife to the theatre. Whilst taking our seats my wife is barged aside by someone else rushing to take theirs. Who is at fault? I am. Why? Because someone about me has suggested that I am unable, unwilling to protect my interests... This gentleman has presumed that I have no honor." The way to defend his honor in this situation would be to show that the man's presumption was wrong by challenging him to a duel. However, Dr. Banks stresses, this is where people usually misunderstand honor culture: in this scenario the offended party does not defend his honor by killing his opponent in the subsequent duel, but by risking the danger of being killed himself. Essentially, he proves that his honor is intact by showing a willingness to stand up for his character at the risk of his own death. Honor isn't restored by avenging disrespectful behavior, but by showing that the disrespect was never warranted in the first place.

So far we have largely talked about Dementlieuse and Mordentish honor cultures which share broad similarities, to the point that I have used terminology interchangeably even if some of the finer details or practices don't necessarily align exactly. For a much more notable contrast within the Four Towers, however, we need not look further than Borca. The Borcan vendetta, specifically, is a fundamentally different form of honorable combat. Duels are a display of courage in a structured environment, while the vendetta is retaliatory murder. According to Dr. Banks, the key difference lies in the involvment of social groups and its focus on doing harm: "The vendetta is a familial phenomenon in which the obligation to perform it is imposed upon the group. The sentiment expressed is something like, I cannot live as a man in this world knowing this man has harmed my family and I have done nothing." In the vendetta, you do not have to respect your opponent. You can stab someone in the back, you can deceive and trap them, or destroy their lives. You do everything possible to avenge the people you love. The duel meanwhile is a display of social power rather than morality. According to Dr. Banks, "Honorable combat is about equal combat.” In fact, a general sense of fairness is what made duelists replace the sword with the pistol, since fencing required a specialized education and gave the young an unfair advantage against the old. These differences have historically been the cause of a culture clash. According to Dr. Banks, a great deal of Mordentish literature from earlier periods states that the Mordentish were "superior because in Mordent men of honor duel with courage and then make up their differences, whereas in Borca cowards stab each other in vicious and interminable vendettas".

An OOC disclaimer and disclosure: This is hardly original work, instead repurposing and adapting (read: plagiarised) an excellent article on the game Dishonored by the excellent Robert Rath. The original may be found here, Corvo Is Not An Honorable Man.