Here’s a note I made to Phil in the revision process that I think stands up on its own: This strikes me as Byron’s REAL problem with trying to keep close to his adventuring roots. He has people relying on him to be part of the group (Syr’Nj is only the one who relies most heavily) and so he can’t go off half-cocked in a bar fight, or on a special solo mission, or behind the picket line when that becomes relevant. He can’t do those things without disappointing his current brothers-and-sisters-in-arms.

Changing the system from the inside gets a bad rap these days, and later developments in both Guilded Age and real-world politics would make Byron look a little naive here. But I do feel like there needs to be pressure from both within and without to effect a serious change to any system. You just have to figure out where you belong, and try to hold onto your principles despite the times when it’d be easier to give them up. That temptation may be more constant on the inside, but it will exist no matter where you decide to be. After all, Braggadocio was on his own when he decided to give up the freelance life that had once defined him as it did Byron.

Phil elected not to have Syr’Nj shout her dialogue on this page as she did in my earlier draft. Might’ve been funnier, but maybe it was a little less “her.”