In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Terrans and Merseians fight at Syrax.
"'If we possess Syrax,' said Aycharaych, 'it would with 71 per cent probability, hasten the collapse of the Terran hegemony by a hundred years, plus or minus ten. That is the verdict of our military computers... However, the predicted date of Terra's fall would still lie 150 years hence.'"
-"Hunters of the Sky Cave," II, p. 163.
But Merseia does not gain Syrax so does that put the projected Fall of the Empire about 250 years hence?
Poul Anderson puts that Syrax crisis to good use later in the Technic History:
"What action [Olaf Magnusson] saw at first was against barbarians, bandits, local rebels and recalcitrants, nothing to stir inner conflict. But when crisis erupted into conflict at Syrax, he fought Merseians. What agony this cost him - and perhaps that was little, for he had been taught that death in battle is honorable, and an individual is only a cell in the bloodstream of the Race - was eased when a secret agent brought him praise and told him that henceforward he would be in the minds of the Roidhunate's mighty."
-The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE , p. 437.
We see how first Erik Magnusson, then his son, responded to events throughout the earlier Flandry series, Syrax providing one more example.
7 comments:
"Duty, heavier than mountains; death, lighter than a feather." -- which comes from the Japanese Imperial Soldier and Sailor's Rescript of 1883, but is simply a restatement of a very much older Japanese attitude. Any samurai from the Kamakura period on would simply nod agreement, usually being slightly surprised that anyone had to say it.
Merseians and Japs again.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Yes, the Empire wrested the Syrax stars away from Merseia, making it likely 250 years would have to pass before Terra finally fell. And that Fall might well have been delayed even more because of Flandry's struggles, triumphs, and toil. Perhaps by extending the lifespan of the Empire by a century? If so, that means Terra wouldn't fall until 350 years had passed. Also, we see at the end of THE GAME OF EMPIRE how Flandry more modestly and cautiously hoped Terra's Empire would last two more centuries.
Last, don't forget how Aycharaych was skeptical of those computerized predictions, thinking the faith placed in them by the Merseian High Command "naive and rather touching."
Mr. Stirling: I can see analogies in the West to the Japanese view, with some differences, of course. E.g., Japanese considered it utterly disgraceful to surrender when defeated. The Western view being that surrender was no disgrace if victory was impossible after everything had been done or tried win and honorable terms were offered.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that's not the impression you'd get from the 'Chanson du Roland'... 8-). It all depended on who you were fighting.
Fighting between knights in the West was sort of stylized, done with rules. Against outsiders, a different set of conventions applied.
The Japanese had a rather odd approach to feudalism. After the aborigines who preceded them were subdued, killed off or expelled, their fights were all among themselves.
And the military nobility were in fact at first, and in theory for much longer, all acting as agents of the Emperor and his officials. Enemies weren't equals, they were "rebels", and again in theory the victor was the Emperor's agent subduing wicked insurgents -- rebellion against the emperor was (again in theory) more like blasphemy.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I was unclear. I should have added that I was thinking of how the Western view of the laws and customs of civilized warfare were gradually coalescing from the 17th century onwards to taking the shape we now see in the Geneva Conventions.
But, yes, high medieval combat between European knights did have elaborate rules. Some of which we see in your own Embervese books.
It still seems surprising that Japanese leaders and Samurai non Japanese as rebels against their Emperor. And unrealistic! Did they really expect the Chinese Emperor, for instance, to meekly behave like a vassal of the Tenno?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: traditional Japanese culture was extremely isolated much of the time. Trade and interaction with outsiders were far more limited than in most of the world at similar levels of sophistication.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Understood. And much of that isolation was self imposed, esp. during the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Ad astra! Sean
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