True Mastery
- A True Master inspires loyalty among those under him. Force is the desperate act of the weak.
True Mastery is the central idea of the Pact of Reason and the standard against which every free person in Teraell who holds authority is judged. It is not conferred by birth, position, or wealth. It is an achievement, earned again each day it is held; a position does not continue to be held because it was held last year.
The reasoning
Authority resting on force lasts exactly as long as the ability to apply the force, and is as much a chain on the master as on the slave. Loyalty under compulsion is no loyalty. A master followed because refusal is punished knows nothing of those under him and has demonstrated nothing; he has not mastered anyone, only overpowered them, which anyone with enough strength can do. Inspiring loyalty requires understanding the nature of those in one's charge and conducting oneself so that following is a chosen act. That requires knowing one's own nature as well as theirs. It cannot be dictated and it cannot be faked.
Force as confession
The community reads force as an admission by the one using it: that they could not achieve the thing by their own character. Abuse is weakness openly shown. It is a failure of character before it is a moral failing, and the shame it carries is the shame of having been found wanting.
Where it applies
True Mastery governs the relation of master and slave, but does not stop there. It governs every relation of leader to led: parent and child, captain and crew, teacher and student, magistrate and city. Each position of authority is judged by it.
What it does not claim
True Mastery is a standard for those who hold authority. It does not decide who is meant to hold it. That is answered by station and by the Natural Order, and is treated as a separate question.
Enforcement
No single authority enforces True Mastery. It is upheld by each community, by reputation, and by the Oathbond; it is maintained from the inside out, and to fail in mastery is to fail oneself. Its defenders recognize the weakness of this: it requires people to be of equal standing with their community, and it becomes unreliable where power concentrates or community thins. The Frontier and The Iron Coves are the standing examples. This weakness is the strongest argument the abolitionists have.
By city
Shining Reach names True Mastery — the capacity to inspire loyalty without force — as its own definition of strength. See What Might Means.