i keep re-reading sinew of war, which is a short story in scions of the emperor. my first read-through i didn't really see anything in it, but there were some things that i didn't grasp. one of them was the repeated references to drunkenness that didn't seem to go anywhere. i knew it had to mean something, so i went through with a (digital) highlighter, marking every mention of drunkenness until the pattern emerged
teenaged guilliman, narrating in first person, describes just about every enemy as either a drunk or a savage at some point or another. which certainly says something about his views, or at the very least how he was at 13-15. i want to focus on a specific quote from late in the story, talking about the campaign he'd just come back from at the beginning of it:
The campaign in Illyria had been brutal but satisfying. For every savage we killed, there were ten who listened to sense and dropped their guns. For the first time in my life, I had seen how diplomacy could outstrip force. But the leader of the revolt, a wiry runt called Zullis, had not been willing to bend the knee.
there is SO MUCH going on here. the contempt and disdain in the wording (savage, wiry runt, bend the knee) is radiating off this so hard it seemingly implies a war of conquest or colonization, but its actually a civil war against reactionaries. he just... talks like that, constantly. he also refers to rioters in the city as moronic creatures at another point.
beyond his wording, its important that diplomacy is mentioned. letting people surrender is a form of effective wartime diplomacy, as it avoids unnecessary battles that are clearly a foregone conclusion. the phrasing "for every savage we killed, there were ten who listened to sense" could have been referring to the "sense" of their flawed ideology or the "sense" of their inability to win in a real battle.
he also mentions having fought multiple campaigns before Illyria, which combined with how in Illyria "for the first time in my life, I had seen how diplomacy could outstrip force", means he'd been carrying out some other form of war before this. so some element of war had changed or was new to him, just before he returned to Macragge City, and I think it was literally just the concept of giving quarter, because:
'In the name of the consuls,' I cried, 'submit!' They froze, confused, thinking I was offering them a chance to surrender. I nodded, acknowledging their obedience, then removed their confused expressions with a barrage of shots. I felt no pity as they thudded to the floor, their faces smouldering and their limbs convulsing. They had turned on the senate. They had betrayed Macragge. There could be no greater justification for summary execution.
he's taking this new concept and immediately twisting it to create a trap (and obviously a war crime).
