Retreat
The Oathbond produces specific attitudes toward withdrawal, and they vary sharply with context.
- Tactical withdrawal during an offensive
- Acceptable and expected. You chose the fight, your city is not under threat, and preserving your army preserves your people. A general who retreats intelligently has shown good leadership; the obligation to protect your own people's lives overrides the abstraction of battlefield honor.
- Tactical defensive retreat
- Falling back to better ground, shortening lines, drawing the enemy into terrain that favors you — fully accepted. You are not abandoning the fight; you are choosing where to have it.
- Strategic retreat to save the army
- Territory is abandoned and the population left behind suffers for it. Extremely controversial. A general who makes that decision carries its weight and faces real social judgment whether or not it was the right move.
- Rout and individual flight
- Deeply shameful. Men who abandon their position to run while their brothers are still fighting, and survive, face the same consequences as male war captives, and for the same reason: they chose their own life over their brothers and their city.
- A last stand when escape is impossible
- The expectation is to fight rather than surrender. Men who die fighting an impossible battle with courage honor their Oathbond completely and are remembered for it.