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I was reading the Longacre chapter in The Hellfire Compact this morning, specifically about the town being a dumping ground for soldiers who ended up on the wrong side of the civil war. Specifically, this section:
Yet these weren’t retiring heroes claiming dubious dues. Rather, House Thrune pardoned countless soldiers fighting on the side of the old monarchy. A condition of their amnesty, however, barred them from the capital of Egorian and the cities of the cosmopolitan south, sending the defeated into scattered, semi-official exile.
Now that got me thinking, what is actually preventing these exiles from returning to Egorian or the other cosmopolitan cities? There are too many soldiers for there to just be a big roster that guards check when people enter town, and that would be too easy to spoof anyway. No, they would have to give these soldiers something permanent and obvious, something like a brand, scar, or tattoo. And it would have to be somewhere obvious like the face or forearms. So in my campaign, a sizeable percentage of the populace of Longacre will be these 'marked' soldiers wearing reminders of the war they lost. And there would be a local slur used to refer to these unfortunate veterans.
Later on, as the rebellion starts to take hold, these marks might start to take on a sense of pride, and maybe non-veterans would start giving themselves these marks as well, as an act of solidarity/rebellion.
Thoughts?
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I don't know. It's enough to send them off to a rural nowhere land. It's not Earth 2016 where they can just hop on a train to go spend the day in Egorian Mall.
Riding a horse or just plain walking for 20+ miles a day just isn't feasible for most war veterans (especially those who have been injured). Remember their injuries run deeper than the flesh in most cases: they have been ostracized, discarded, abandoned, and dishonored by their nation. Showing up in your poor man's rags to Egorian for your military school grad reunion where everyone knows you're a traitor of the Thrune Empire would not be a fun time for most.
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My guess is that they are pensioned off with land grants.
It seems that most of the area is pretty well depopulated as a result of the Chelish civil war. The veterans are sent there to repopulate the territory - and given a minor land grant in lieu of a cash payment at the end of their service, possibly with an Infernal Contract to occupy and till it for a certain period of time or until the veteran's death.
It's Cheliax. Play up the EVIL.
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My guess is that they are pensioned off with land grants.
I don't think so. The Archbaron seems to be the landowner. They are probably pensioned off, yes, but with promise of an apartment available for them when they get there, or a duplex / shared housing, which they must pay a monthly rent to the Archbaron, of course, rent deducted at the source (i.e. directly deducted from their pension before it is distributed to them) for "their convenience", along with other deductions and taxes, and they probably get a net amount at the end that's probably less than 50% of their original pension. This much reduced net amount is now their disposable income, which they use to buy things that are probably tagged with a 15% tax (making your effective income 35% of the original pension). In order to thrive with such small amount you must keep your expenses to a minimum, so not enough money for gambling or drinking, or other vices or pleasures, making it kinda boring to live there. My guess is that they are also taxed more in the province Longacre sits in *because* it has a whole bunch of people disloyal to the Crown.
You know, the same way Canada does it.