"What's the difference -"

"Possibly that happens naturally when murder is - on the list of options - but I still don't know if I should be modeling this as a single point of departure or something systemic -"

"Maybe if I met some of the others I could help you guess."

"The only other flat Arda we have door access to is the one in which your alt is seven."

"Then I don't know. How long does the siege traditionally last - or is the political situation sufficiently changed to change that -"

"Usually ends in 455."

"And then?"

"All the civilian kingdoms in Beleriand fall one by one over the next ten Years, and when nearly everyone's dead someone with a stolen Silmaril makes it back to Valinor, pleads with them for help, and they come over and stop Melkor."

"Are there more kingdoms than us, Doriath, and the Dwarves..."

"I think standard soul Arda Noldor are pretty splintered - there're at least four or five independently governed polities and Nolofinwë is usually at least nominally high king of them all but this does not seem to entail much concrete power -"

"Fëanáro makes it to Beleriand but doesn't survive long so there's no one who takes it quite that personally."

"We're united, and govern all the humans as well. I don't know how much difference that'd make -"

"None at all, probably, he seems to match the capabilities of the army up against him pretty much regardless of what those capabilities are."

"...but you have practice governing humans, that's been a topic lately, is it as hard as it sounds?"

"What about it sounds hard, it's gone really well except we can't get them to stop dying -"

"These are crime-rate-of-no Elves you're talking to, they're rather appalled at dire predictions about how humans would interact with systems designed for... that."

"- oh. Well, I didn't design my systems for that. They all serve seven years in the army and get pensioned off at 25 and most of the court is structured through the military, so it'd take some wrangling to rule humans in peacetime off what we've got, but I'd expect it to be easier, on the whole -"

"...well, having heard today about a species that claims vehemently to thrive on slavery I can't say it would be impossible to find one that thrives on warfare but it would not be expected, no."

"Well, being united against a common enemy is really genuinely helpful for integration and so on. But I do not expect I'd do worse with fewer constraints on my resources. What species thrives on slavery?"

"They're called house-Elves. They're from another Earth, mine, which has a lot of species of magical beings and then humans. We don't manage to pension them off at 25, either - and I don't think you've got more advanced technology -"

"It took some doing but their lives are so short as is -"

"It's actually kinda impressive even without taking the tech level into account - I mean, more advanced societies tend to have strictly volunteer armies but that's mostly because technology can do more of the work, I think. For a society at constant war it's nicely done."

Tired smile. "It was satisfying to prove you can rule people who aren't all saints without warping their brains into something more manageable. Do you have something for the dying - it's absolutely appalling -"

"Yes we do. It has horrible safety risks but they can be managed if your people can follow simple instructions reliably."