Many wars are not actual wars. Not in the way most people know them. Not in the blood and bone type of way, the aged skin and broken bodies exposing decades of harsh realities. Not in the guns firing, teeth gritting, hiding in foxholes type of way. Many wars are not actively fought on any specific battlefield.
There are no bodies to count. Our aggression is handled in the background, in rules, in private conversation. Your mothers and grandmothers know the specifics. Your uncles and fathers know who is losing, who is winning, what is happening. But it all happens under simmering smiles and ugly laughs. We wither and age and die like normal, so you think nothing of it. As our battles progress, you see less and less of us, and then we’re gone.
Many wars are not actual wars. We wage them in violent expressions and policy. We steer each other toward walls, dooming generations to deal with our consequences.
The war in Parthia, the one that is slowly seeping out to other countries and consuming the world, is both. We waged it in silence until it bled into sound, deafening us.
We burned through every notion of good grace until there was nothing but ash.
This war is too big to understand in a moment. The beginning is too new to conceptualize; the end too awful to comprehend. We have to start somewhere close to the middle. We should start with the smoke.
Wars need a mouthpiece. Someone to keep the people entertained, in line, and in order. Yoan Kendal serves this role with honor, profiting in status and wealth from her syrupy words.
Read Chapter 1: Yoan
A good tactician is always watching her enemies and inviting them to make mistakes. Lyria understands what the war is before it ever begins. As she loses herself, she moves to make sure the war starts in earnest.
Read Chapter 2: Lyria
Not everyone wants a war to happen, or even understands the bad blood. Aba wants to continue the shaky but calm life he fought his way into. He finds himself alone in these desires.
Read Chapter 3: Aba
Every war has fighters who want nothing but peace. Jewel, one of the worst cases of Horn Rot in the world, wants to survive. She finds herself thrown into a battle she never asked for, but that centers around her existence.
Some people seem to know what's going to happen in a war. Where to look for enemies, how to respond to trickery. Old Bro gives his life to his ancestors. They respond.
It's hard to tell what some people want in a war. What they'll do to achieve those desires is even trickier to understand. Lewish Kendal is on a mission that no one else is privy to, and is willing to do anything to achieve her goals.
Not everyone wants to win a war with violence. Not everyone wants to fight, to argue, or even to take part. Junnie wants to survive whatever conflicts happen, but she also wants to do it without harming the ones she loves. It's not so simple.
Every war has a secret. A weapon in plain sight. A truth that will could destroy whatever side finds it last.