Common Aradasheans are actually quite peaceful. Violence is not frequent in daily life. But among the nobility, there has always been warfare. Warriors are highly regarded, and the highest honor a young noble can achieve came in battle.

Even so, in earlier times, warfare was more of a contest. Individual warriors sought battle to test their strengths and abilities. A warrior could best show his superiority by defeating an opponent without killing him. Killing was considered cowardly; a brave warrior subdued his enemy, spared his life, then walked or rode away without looking back. In some cases, opposing warriors would meet on the battlefield following a battle to show their respects to the enemies they had fiercely fought shortly before.

But soon, greed began to outweigh honor. As nobles got richer, they wanted more. Soon, they no longer cared about besting enemy warriors in contests; they sought to eliminate them so they could obtain their lands. Warfare was now a cold and bloody affair.

For a while, a pretense of civility and honor still lived in the ritual of combat. Warriors still met on the battlefield, acknowledged each other, and fought in accordance with unspoken rules of conduct. But the consequence of losing a fight was now usually death. The stakes were higher, and the rules of conduct were stretched thin.

War in the years approaching the 25th Century was serious business. The most powerful barons hired professional soldiers who were lower nobles, or not even nobles at all. These new professional soldiers did not have the restraints of "honorable combat;" they fought for their lives—and their livelihoods. Soon, barons were conscripting farmers and fishermen into their forces. The armies were very large, and wars were increasingly frightful and bloody. Thre was little room in this new world for the old rules of conduct. And, in spite of the noble pretenses of the glory-seeking nobility, there was little honor for the modern warrior. There was only survival.