Editing Corsairs Gallant (section)

===You Break It, You Bought It===

The habit of the Corsairs Gallant to engage in low-impact operations stems less from a moral position and far more one of practicality; destroying what you intend to conquer is inefficient and pointless, and not to mention counterproductive when dealing with a population you wish to submit willingly. This concept goes back to the earliest days of Manden, in which total war was seen as anathema. This is not to say that they were, or the Corsairs are, squeamish; on the contrary, the cutthroat nature of their politics and tactics is well documented, but tempered by the pragmatic nature of their piracy. Furthermore, Manden culture had a long habit of attributing the consequences of a given action to the most notable cause, as determined through a mixture of rhetoric and complex legal codes, but most of which boiled down to the concept of 'if you break it, you bought it.' As a result, Corsairs avoid destruction precisely because of a cultural mindset that they would be responsible for fixing it afterwards.

Of course, plunder is still also a part of that culture, and intact plunder is naturally more valuable. As are productive, intact economies, all the better to exploit.