#Hope I got the chelish v chelaxian thing right

[offsidekineticist]

So the subject of Theoven's views on Andoran came up recently while talking with @dujour13, and I realized this requires some space to discuss. Like, a lot of space. Sorry about that.

For Knight-Commander Theoven, the first thing to keep in mind is that Areelu fished him out of the Sellen River after his disastrous first battle more than a decade before Andoran declares independence, when much of the region called Old Cheliax was still under Chelish rule. So when Theo thinks of Cheliax and Chelaxians, he's thinking of an empire of nations bound by - in Theo's understanding - a common Chelish identity. This is very much an idealized view of what was happening, but it was Theo's understanding. In his eyes an Andoren was just as much a Chelaxian as he was (a perspective that, admittedly, would have been considered pretty progressive for his day).

So when Andoran and other colonies declared independence from infernal Cheliax, in Theo's view, they abandoned their Chelish brethren to Hell by seceding. In his view, Andoran remaining as part of the Chelish Empire could have given dissenters enough leverage to force the Thrunes to be more moderate. This is....probably incorrect. But that's Theo's understanding of what happened, and as someone who loves Cheliax and hates Thrune, he feels a great deal of resentment over it. He feels similar resentment towards other former Chelish colonies. This resentment is magnified in the timeline where he doesn't leave Cheliax to join the crusade because he sees it as his patriotic duty to stay in Cheliax and resist Thrune. There's a very personal sense of "I'm staying because it's my duty, even if it's hard and painful and dangerous. Why couldn't you?"

Probably his most legitimate concern (and the one I cited when the subject came up) is Andoran's ambition. He does not believe Andoran wants to spread freedom and democracy so much as expand its own sphere of influence. If asked, he'd point to the Eagle Knights as the biggest red flag: an elite military force, separate from the country's main army, whose stated purpose is to "spread Andoren values." And if this is in the same universe as my Kingmaker playthrough, he can point to examples of them attempting to deliberately stabilize at least one kingdom for having a different understanding of "freedom" than they do (haven't even finished the game yet and I'm so fed up with the Eagle Knights trying to foment rebellion in my True Neutral "live and let live" kingdom).

The final reason isn't really relevant to KC Theo, but is the biggest reason for bleachling Theo's distaste (and why his dislike of Andoran is much more visceral if he isn't KC): Andoran's independence would almost certainly fundamentally change Brastlewark. Overnight, Theo's home went from being a town in the heartland of the Empire to a border city and one of Cheliax's first lines of defense against a potential Andoren invasion. That's not an easy or pleasant transition. The transition is not really described in pathfinder canon, which leaves me loads of room to headcanon what it would have been like.

I imagine Theo would watch in horror as the brightest, most inventive of his former students turn their attention towards Thrune's military pet projects. His current students would go from innocent of dangers to memorizing emergency plans for the event of an invasion. Kids would admit they have fears and nightmares about Eagle Knights coming to destroy their home. Probably the city guard would expand and train themselves into a militia force, which would mean watching his students growing up and becoming soldiers. Any skirmishes caused by one or the other side "testing" the border would send the town into a state of emergency even if it didn't happen anywhere near Brastlewark. In short, they would be living under perpetual threat of violence from a foreign threat on top of the threat of violence from the repressive Chelish government. All of this would break Theo's heart even worse than the book burnings did, and he would absolutely blame it on Andoran "abandoning" Cheliax and becoming hostile towards its former brother.

So, yeah, that's why, despite being extremely anti-Thrune, Knight-Commander Theoven kind of dislikes and distrusts Andoran, and why bleachling Theoven hates Andoran with a burning passion.