Quiver he/him Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Eh, couldn't think of a pithy, witty title. Anyway. I've been thinking about World War One lately, particularly the fact that it seem's like a good source of inspiration for a fantasy novel and story themes and stuff. I'm not going tog et into that -since it's my own thoughts rather than directly related to Brandon- but it did get me thinking about something which is Brandon-related. Namely, it got me wondering: Was World War One an influence for the War of Reckoning? I thought I'd open it up to the forum, since- while I have an interest in it- I haven't exactly studied the period, and I thought someone who was more historically aware might be able to help fill in the gaps. Part of what caused World War I was the fact that, during the decades leading up to it, countries were engaged in complicated treaties with one another; as a consequance, whenever one nation went to war (as Austria-Hungary did to Serbia), their allies were basically dragged in with them. It's nto a perfect comparision, but Gavilar had created a United Alethkar at the time of his assassination... which meant that whenever the Vengance Pact was declared, all the Highprinces joined the war against the Parshendi, rather than just the Kholin family. Speaking of which, Gavilar's assassination. This was the trigger that kicked off the vengeance pact (and the war), just as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was what led to Austria to declare war against Serbia in the first place. As for the War itself, the Alethi camps on one side of the plains and the Parshendi stronghold on the other could be considered analogous to the trenches. The plateau's certainly seem to correspond with No Man's Land; every bridge run costs a lot of bridge teams their lives, as they get shot down trying to cover open ground. This -combined with their leaders refusal to change tactics- doesn't seem that far off from the events of what actually happened on battlefields of the time... Am I reaching for a comparison that isn't there? 7
Curious Anamaximder he/him Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 No. You are spot on. Nice job!
Quiver he/him Posted December 5, 2015 Author Posted December 5, 2015 No. You are spot on. Nice job! Ah, thanks! And, thinking about it, possible more sources of stuff: World War One was 'the war to end all wars', whereas this is being described as "the Final Desolation". Granted, this might be fantasy hypberole - "the last war" isn't exactly an uncommon thigns- but still. Also... we know there is a timeskip planned for the second arc. We also know that there are certain, more radical factions already present in Rosharan society- like the Sons of Honor, the Ghostbloods, the Ardentia. If books one to five are World War One... might it be possible that, as a consequance of the events of this first arc, one of those groups was to rise to prominence in Alethi society? The timeskip might even be a means to facilitate that transition during a time of peace, without having to go into all of the details... In which case, might books 6-10 be intended as a parrallel to the second world war? 1
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