While I am sure many can pre-suppose the Mhaldorian 'Compassion is for the weak' stance that this new post could have, I sincerely wish to address this from a practical standpoint.

Actions have consequences. And breaking an Oath is a serious action. Putting aside the morality and commitment aspect of an oath itself, a person who leaves their city can and even should be immediately enemied by that city.

A person who takes such actions does more than just leave with valuable information, they are giving up in assisting that city and all of the individuals within it.

People and communities are hard, that is self-evident given to the ever growing number of rogues there are in this world, but life is full of hardships.

People who break their Oaths have options before taking such drastic steps.

In my experience however, people seem to avoid even the smallest hardship of difficult conversations that could either help them with what they are going through, or the difficult conversation to the others in said city that their identity no longer aligns with the city.

Oathbreaking imposes a hardship on a city that is felt just as much as it is on an individual person. And I do not mean emotionally. Less hands, fewer leaders and contributions, more negative impact to morale as a whole.

They are lucky that the by-default enemying and in some cases a blood price is the only hardship that comes from breaking one's oath.

As you say, Dr Laras, there are people who hop from city to city to city, this in itself implys that even to become a city enemy is a small thing. People are able after time and work, to potentially remove this status, or regain citizenship if they find that they have made a mistake. Even then they can elect to leave again further down the road, as has happened in Mhaldor to the point that I can name individuals who can do this and are on good terms with those in Mhaldor - because at the end of the day it is a small consequence, but it is still a consequence that must be endured.

A person cannot simply elect to abandon their post without warning and expect to have everything occur as it had been the day before with that "minor" difference. To suggest that such be allowed to occur is just as harmful to cities as it would be to place a tank in each crossroads on a yearly basis just to incur the costs from the damage. I say "their post" here because everyone in a city, regardless of formal position or not, contributes to the health and wealth of that city.

Those who cannot withstand the hardships of their post must learn to endure hardship somehow, perhaps through the act of becoming enemied to a city they will toughen up enough to become of use to whatever community they wish to attempt to contribute to in the future.

Life is not easy, cities are not easy. The default city-enemying of an oathbreaker is just about the most straight forward challenge and consequence that can come from a negative action in this world. If one cannot endure even that, what could they possibly hope to achieve given that everything one does requires the facing of challenges.

Compassion has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Ambassador Jems Aristata, Deadwood Apostate of Mhaldor

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Scarlatan, in the year 995 AF.