I know your type.

I've dealt with people like you before. You come from a country filled with promises of freedom and pride and justice. You think there's only one way to run a country, and you have it all figured out.

People like you look at us and cringe. Just look at the violence and corruption. Look at all the people that die over simple politics. Maybe you pity us, maybe you hate us; either way, I bet you're pretty sure you're better than us.

And so what, I say.

Do you think you really know Civil Combat? I don't think you do. Sure, you know the basics. There's an arena, five fighters to the team, and then there's a lot of punching and that sort of stuff. Then you see pictures of the aftermath and people like you jump to conclusions. So your idiot journalists barge in with their big cameras flashing and harass us for interviews, because to you it's just some gruesome spectacle – you don't even realize what you're looking at.

Civil Combat is what we do. It's not pretty, but for a century it's been the only thing holding Nindara together. While hundreds die in the arena every year, before that thousands died on the battlefield. Civil war or Civil Combat? Between two evils we picked the least.

In the end I think there's only one real way humans were meant to solve a problem, and it's through violence. Violence is really the only way we can accomplish anything. You can have as many endless debates and ballots as you want, but nothing will happen until somebody gets hurt.

If you set a man before a podium, he'll just spew out the same bullshit he thinks everyone wants to hear. If you set that same man in an arena and make him fight for what he wants, you'll find out where he really stands; values tend to change a little when there's a fist flying at your face. Honesty. That's what violence breeds.

Politics through violence. In the end we're just like you. I know it's not what you want to hear, but we've got out fists and you've got your soldiers and nuclear missiles and in the end we're not as different as you think. All humans solve their problems with violence – it's what we do.

So think about that before you send your big fancy diplomats and try to change the way Nindara works.

Maybe, just this once, you should try and open your mind a little.