Karma: What History Will Say
Entry posted by Bob Janova
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Three months ago, the world was living with the Continuum/One Vision based hegemony. The seeds of what became Karma had been laid, in response to rumours of an attack on Viridia a week or two before, although with the hindsight of historians those rumours will seem incredible and the defensive planning meetings an over-reaction. The moment of tension seemed to have passed, and most were settling back to a routine of stifled politics and peacetime nation management.
The moment that will be chiselled into the stone of history is the update of 20th/21st April. Tensions over the acceptance of information by sethb of Ordo Verde had been building for some days, and while another round of talks was taking place, the world's premier alliance, the NPO, began attacks on OV – formally declaring war some 30 minutes later. Opinion on the justification of this action remains split, but it seems likely that the Karma position will prevail in history as the NPO propaganda team loses power, and that this act will be recorded as one of wanton aggression and an example of poor leadership. It is likely that the fact that NPO are the main aggressors will not be forgotten, as this is a particularly unusual point about this war (that the aggressors have lost).
Of course, TORN also played a large part in the first day of the war, but rather like BoTS in the Unjust War, it seems likely that their part will be forgotten by most people, only to be mentioned in deep debates about justifications, actions and righteousness by those who remain from these days – particularly given TORN's quick exit from the war and their decline since their exit.
Even now, many commentators are painting the war as a foregone conclusion from before it started – how quickly we forget the overbearing strength of the hegemony in March or even early April. This is not the case; Serian government files from the Karma coordination areas early in the war show that there were significant concerns, and poor decision-making by Hegemony alliances was required in order to achieve the scale of victory that occured. The two strongest alliances in the world, with over 20 million strength each – one and a half times today's strongest – fought for Hegemony, and chose the moment and targets for the war. Nevertheless, it seems likely that this will be lost in the simplified narrative of accessible history, and the war shoehorned into the usual war story of an inevitable and crushing victory.
Most losing alliances have received very light peace terms – mercy on a scale unheard of in the previous era, although since the Polar/Hyperion War there have been smaller scale displays of leniency, an extended prologue to the kinder world we are hopefully moving into. However, those at the end of the war are not doing so well – Echelon have received harsh terms, Pacifica has been offered harsh terms which will not be moderated much, if at all, and TPF's terms of surrender remain unclear. There is currently a concerted effort from Hegemonists (including those who have benefited from easy surrenders) to write the latter, harsher, terms into history and omit the merciful former. It remains to be seen whether Karma will eventually be seen as a force for change and the bringers of a new world, or a vengeful coalition repeating the cycles of the past. In truth, there are elements of both (hence the inconsistency in terms on different fronts), but the majority wants a true change, and hopefully that will be shown to be the case in the way the world conducts itself once the war is over.
The result is a clear Karma victory, and there is little doubt that history will remember that correctly – almost every Hegemony alliance lost over half its strength, and Karma alliances have generally climbed in the rankings. Unlike most previous wars, this result also marks the start of a new era, one not dominated by the NPO and its ring of allies – a change which many people are currently finding it difficult to adapt to (the NPO included), but which will be much clearer after some time to reflect.
The question of 'what is Karma' is likely to lose some of its nuance as time passes – rather as ~ is now seen as a single coordinated entity, it is likely that historians will look on Karma as a unified entity, despite the ties between members being mostly informal and coordination loose. Alliances like NSO and TOP continue to claim not to be a part of Karma, despite having been on the same side of the overall war and having had access to Karma communication channels – they will probably be recorded as a part of the coalition.
The contribution of Vox Populi to the war is still unclear, and is likely to remain so for a long time, if not forever. Certainly the Vox spy rings will provide historians with an unusually large amount of primary source information, as most of the conversations between NPO, TORN, TPF, OV and VE were made public, as was the discussion between Hegemony alliances on the night of NPO's attack, neither of which would normally be available to the public. The degree to which they affected public opinion, or the paranoia of the Hegemony which led to the war being started, is highly subjective and likely to be debated well into the future.
Overall, a view back at the Karma war will probably miss out some of its unique points, particularly the way the coalition worked which seems to be being forgotten by some already. And those who style themselves as 'fighting on the same side but not a part of it' will probably find that blurred. But overall, with the vast amount of public information and the large number of people privy to the actual discussions, events and decisions, the story should remain quite accurate.
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