And the words of the Skull Grinder continued to echo in the Protector’s mind:

“Even a fool can see why you lowlanders are destined to fall before us. Put plainly, you fight only if you need to. You think battle is something that finds you, something you can wait out and endure. Even when raising a weapon you think it a shield or a tool. All your villages, your very position, ‘Protector’, is based on this delusion.

“My people are different. For us, fighting is like breathing. Our lineage is a combat record, a family tree whose roots entangle and tear asunder whomever we can call an enemy. We find battle, and then we conquer it. The will to fight, the unstoppable thirst for blood, is what our souls are made of. Should it not be obvious? You inherently peaceful villagers can never truly win a war with we of the City. For us, war is essential. War is everything.

“War is in our bones.”