It is through Arthur's war with Lot, Nero, and the eleven kings that Arthur's kingdom is unified, but this unity is grounded on the same principle of violence that operates in personal feuds, weaving an ever more intricate web of revenge and betrayal and debt. Once begun, the process cannot be turned back. While men exact payment of an eye for an eye, both the ministers of Fate (the Lady of the Lake and, sometimes, Merlin) and also the design of Providence strike out at petty acts of violence with terrifying force. If the purest and most just of men can be destroyed in this process — that is, Balyn — the fault must lie in the chivalric code itself, if anywhere. And yet it is the code which, with Merlin's help, establishes Arthur's rule of order. Without civilized order and the redressing of wrongs, the world could have no defense against tyrants like Royns, outlaws like Garlon, men of desperate need, such its the blood thieves of the sick lady's castle, or cruel faithlessness (such as Morgan). The chivalric code is founded, in short, on deadly paradox.
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