" The people in the King's city [...] thought that these highvalley folk lived like animals. But in truth these villagers lived pure human life. they needed each other to survive, and knew it. They had no conspiracies and no secrets, no ambitions and no feuds. They couldn't afford the luxury of treating any man or woman or child as expendable. "

― Orson Scott Card , The Lost Gate (Mither Mages, #1)