EC had seen a whole year - or thereabouts - of uninterrupted peace. No wars, virtually no battles other than a few monster mop-ups which are hardly worth the effort. That might be fun for those with top positions so they can kick back and siphon off tons of gold to their families or to train their characters, but for the vast majority of people who have no positions at all and a mediocre or small income, it's incredibly boring. Tom first said "Start some wars." That didn't help, so he said "Start some wars or else." That /still/ didn't help, so he threatened to bolt those who were chiefly responsible for the boredom: the rulers. And I guess they thought he was bluffing, because not too long after that a few rulers got fried. And wouldn't you know, wars started within a week or two. I wouldn't call that heavy-handed. If anything, I think Tom should've started threatening people much, much sooner. As far as I'm concerned, that was an entirely wasted year. This game is called BattleMaster, the fighting aspect is just as important as the RP aspect.
