The Restoration Question

The Restoration Question is the cold argument no feast can warm. Should the Marches restore a single high seat, preserve the ranger-led road order, or become a compact realm where towns and claimants share authority uneasily? Every answer honours the broken inheritance. Every answer threatens someone who survived the breaking. Nobles speak of unity. Rangers speak of roads. Towns ask who will repair the bridge before demanding the levy. The question endures because the Marches need more than scattered courage, but they have learned that unity without accountability can become conquest wearing a familiar name. In winter councils its arguments smell of tallow, wet wool, iron, old pine smoke, and the mud tracked in by messengers from roads no lord has seen in years.