Autonomy Debates

The Autonomy Debates were a philosophical disagreement, started in early -644 CE and lasting for much of the year, between the twin cities of Dewan and Kennat.

In the early Rising seasons of -644 CE, wise and esteemed philosopher Pente Alma released his musings on the nature and ultimate invalidity of the flawed notion of free will. As the appointed Philosophical Adviser to the governor of Kennat, his words were immediately recognized as the Official Truth for the city.

"As the stone may not choose to roll down the hill, neither can the person choose to roll it." -"On Autonomy of Choice," Pente Alma (Approximate translation from Simplified Freetext)

This caused much stir amongst the ignorant and superstitious people of Dewan, who immediately called for the retraction of the Truth. They believed it a contradiction to their irrational religious beliefs, and if Kennat's governor did not officially decry the obvious truth of Alma's writings, they threatened to sever all trade with their city. Standing by his principles and his people, then-governor Kevlin Prannetic refused, citing Alma's obvious wisdom and the clarity of his logic.

On Autumnox of -644 CE, the Dewanian military lit the three bridges connecting the twin cities on fire, declaring war on their sister and breaking the pledges made in the cities' joining nearly two centuries earlier.

For two seasons, the two cities found themselves locked in combat with one another, but Kennat's position nestled in the Enperoy Mountains left it cut off from many of the supply routes available to Dewan. In Terminoctis of -644, his people starving, Governor Prannetic made the honourable choice and surrendered his position. The barbarians across the river poured in, indiscriminately slaughtering one third of the population, including the city's noble governor and the great philosopher Pente Alma himself. They decreed their gods satisfied and exerted their government's control over both cities, claiming to have unified the two and pushing their terrible deeds out of their selective memory. Modern Dewanian history makes little mention of this atrocity.