A letter from Anna Zamyotova, esteemed historian and author of The Last Race: Consolidation of the Human Empire to Heinrich Wortanwender, Professor of Human History at the University of Deliria.

Esteemed Prof. Wortanwender

It makes me very happy that lately the community at the University of Deliria has been picking up interest in the Great Battle of the Capital, as it increasingly feels like any real interest for it has mostly waned in the Empire. Dogmatic, as well as ideological thought seems to dominate so much of the discussion on it that I have found neither the opportunity nor courage to present my own unfiltered opinion on the subject.

As you may very well know, the adjectives most associated with it are the following: Unnecessary, illogical, bloody, stupid. Both Prince Frederick and Princess Lia are nowadays treated as mainly caricatures of the nobility of the day: Frivolous people, unconcerned with the consequences of their actions or strategies. To most people living in the Empire today, the both of them are held up as examples of cold-blooded leaders, wiling to treat the lives of any other person as disposable pawns to be used in the “Grand Race”, whether it be to reach their objectives or to entertain them. To most people today, nothing illustrates that caricature better than the Great Battle of the Capital. It is quite a sad state of affairs, in my estimation.

On many occasions you have professed admiration for my work about the Great Races, so I am sure you realize that in it I attempt to portray them as, at the very least, products of their time. Would I ever disagree that they were a barbaric method of succession? Never, this isn't something that is truly up for debate. But to treat them as not being necessary steps in a development that brought the Empire to where it is now? I don't think so, I firmly believe that to treat the Great Races and the people involved the way that most people do today, with contempt, is to refuse to learn precious lessons that history has left for us.

Even in my book about the last of the Great Races, which surprisingly enough did not earn much wrath from my colleagues, I was unable to give more than an overall dry description of the movements in the Great Battle of the Capital. Part of it was self-censorship, part of it was advice from my editor that painting the six candidates as something more than power-hungry tyrants-to-be was already good enough, and that perhaps extracting a different meaning from the whole thing might be a little too much for the general reader of the Empire. On that subject, I must admit I have a fair amount of pride of being able to push boundaries like that, even as I feel some shame for not being able to write everything that I felt I should have.

Enough about my ramblings, I'm sure you will receive this letter expecting to hear more about this pivotal battle, rather than my feelings on the suffocating academic climate the Empire finds itself in lately. First, let's lay out the two main characters: Lia and Frederick.

In most historical descriptions of Princess Lia's character this is what we have: A cowardly, manipulative, greedy, treasonous and ambitious woman, who would not shy from sacrificing anything or anyone to achieve her goals. To start her journey, she stripped Nessa, the city she administrated, of almost everything she could, leaving it so undermanned and untenable, that she would demolish most of its central section to make difficult any takeover by the Infected. In her first stop, Destroia, it seems she made contact with the now famous Duke Prelestia, further cementing her reputation as someone who would even sell the Empire if it was convenient to her. Apparently, she defeated Charles through sabotage, not a very nice thing. In Trestia, it seems that she was able to secure some kind of alliance with Alexander because of a massive attack by Infected, but it also seems that she left Alexander to die defending the city while she fled. It seems that in every city she stopped, she negotiated the support of the local authorities by any means necessary, sometimes participating in suppression of rebellions.

How much of what I just described here is completely true is debatable, by most documents left of her time as Nessa's administrator, she was very competent at it, being a fairly just ruler. Not only that, there are almost no Pre-Race accounts that severely impugn on her morality. By most accounts, she wasn't overly favorable to nobles over commoners and the records left by most soldiers and knights who served with her did not paint the picture of a ruthless strategist sacrificing people left and right. Now, the most common argument is that one can hardly accept clarity about a leader when they are able to call for the death of any critics. However, there's nothing to indicate that the anonymity of people recording their stories wasn't preserved if they so wanted. In fact, something usually stressed in most records of Races is that they were there to help preserve the truth of anyone who wished to speak it. Officially, nothing indicates that any prince had access to the records made by their soldiers and knights, therefore there is no reason to believe that there should have been censorship, self or otherwise.

Still, it is hard to deny that Princess Lia was a figure who did what she felt had to be done. As for Frederick, while his character is painted in a less sinister manner, he was always characterized as the more dangerous of the two.

Arrogant prince with a fetish for the “best”, almost a personification of the concept of pride. Is how most historians describe Frederick. Might makes right does not even begin to describe the way he is seen today. A man capable and willing to throw millions to the fire, not because it might be necessary, but because those who weren't good enough were worse than nothing in his eyes. He was destructive in a much more straightforward manner than his sister.

He assassinated his brother Phillip in a simple scheme concocted by his Sword quite early on in the Race. Then he had periodic clashes with forces loyal to his brother Richard or Alexander, but nothing that ever managed to seriously chip his forces. These skirmishes concluded in the Battle of Ardenne, the first major urban warfare between citizens of the Empire, a precursor of the massacre that would be the Great Battle of the Capital. Many say that this battle is where he first showed the lengths of his brutality. Though again, by most records left, he was loved by his troops. I hesitate to use the word propaganda, but I sometimes fear that a grave injustice has been done to the past, though I do not have the courage to say this out loud among my peers in the Empire.

However true the descriptions of their personalities may have been, that's what we get for the general scenario of the Great Battle of the Capital: An overwhelmingly superior force, led by a charismatic and capable leader in a defensive position, against a smaller force led by a cunning, equally capable leader who had to assault the Capital.

So why did the battle last two bloody months, culminating in a conclusion that mostly had nothing to do with the attrition and deaths that happened during almost the entirety of it? Princess Lia's forces were allowed to easily establish a perimeter around the Capital's gate instead of there being an effort to push or keep them away. A charitable explanation was that Frederick wished to avoid a siege, but most interpretations go as such: Frederick wanted to lure Lia's forces in and crush them as fast as possible, regardless of price paid in blood, to satisfy his pride. However, things weren't that simple, as Lia's forces took an extremely conservative stance, rarely actually advancing, preferring to whittle down Frederick's forces, while rarely holding positions for too long, the exception being a small radius around their Fortress Train, the Unbreakable.

Lia herself was famous for her sniping skills, maybe the only “positive” side of her left in history. It is estimated that she herself killed some 200 people, though these figures are usually taken with a grain of salt, even in mainstream academia. Personally, I believe they are inflated in order to feed this legend of the Butcher of Nessa.

There are no documents on every little skirmish of this battle, but there are several accounts of ferocious encounters that were focused less on objectives and more on simply inflicting casualties. It is mainly from this that rises the popular description of this battle as needlessly bloody and messy.

Soldiers from Lia took over a building, sniped as many of Frederick's forces as possible, then when an assault happened, hastily abandoned the building, if those from from Frederick pursued too much, they would be destroyed by auxiliary artillery from the Unbreakable. It seems that such a scenario happened many times, though it seems a lengthy pursuit was rarely the case. Sometimes, Lia's forces were caught and completely destroyed. Any civilians caught in the crossfire were ignored or mowed down to get to the enemy. Even if I disagree with the general diagnosis, there s no denying that it was brutal fighting. So, what ended it? A small raid through the sewers that attacked the palace directly. This also ties directly with the popular opinion that the battle was mostly meaningless and needless. Take the following excerpt of a Record made by a soldier from Lia's side after the Race was over for example:

“We had held the same building for a week. At first we divided sniping duty between everyone, but sometime during the third day Johnny collapsed crying, saying he couldn't do it anymore. He was the best of us you know? Even though he stopped after that, he got the most kills among all of us in that building. Maybe that's why he cracked. Poor boy, he had joined us after Prince Charles was done in, so I suppose he had only faced Infected as opponents. You know, the Infected are pretty scary, but at least when you kill them you never feel any guilt or even any guilt over not feeling guilt, you know. Everburning flame! Pow, its done and sometimes you even feel like you've done a favor to the poor bastard. When you kill other people though? It's just not easy, not easy at all, it chips at your soul, I think. Poor Johnny just had too many pieces of his soul chipped away I think. Me? I was such a bad shot, maybe because I didn't have the guts to be a good shot. The boredom of resting and guarding the building was insufferable, but it was paradise compared to holding a human life in your finger and having all the time required to ponder about whether or not you actually wanted to take it.

So eventually, after a week, we were attacked. It was a small group, four Knights I think, which was terrifying for the seven of us. I tried to be a hero and covered my friends' exit, I should be dead by all rights, the only reason I'm not because I was accidentally thrown off the building by one of the enemies. Or maybe he was just bad at sword fighting like I was with my gun. I fell some four stories, I think? Fortunately I didn't suffer any life threatening injuries, but I think I had broken a few bones, see this mechanic arm I have? Cool right? It was given to me in recognition of service after everything was over. But I also think it's because they didn't have the expertise to properly heal my arm. I played dead for hours among the rubble next to a few other corpses. After I returned to the Unbreakable I never saw the rest of the crew again, not because they all died, I never had any news about that, and honestly, I'm scared to go looking for that information. It was just that a few days later everything was over. Can't say I wasn't relieved, but I still don't feel good about how it ended...”

Honestly, it's difficult not to feel bitter when the eventual victor was...