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Clickbait Title: I wrote an essay on a fictional world's history and you WON'T BELIEVE what happened...
In the light of my internship at Wizards of the Coast and the sudden burst of studying I have done on Magic the Gathering lore, I realized, much to my surprise, I struggle to find MTG lore as easy to learn as real history. I began reflecting on what makes learning real history more engaging for me and why I found learning this fantasy lore -- which was literally curated and designed for my entertainment -- to be boring.
My conclusion? It is the causes and effects -- the WHY's of history -- and not the plot -- the WHAT's of history -- which draw me into the lore of a setting. I was reading what happened and taking it at face value -- not analyzing if the author was truly correct in identifying the causes and effects of the events in the MTG universe. This isn't to say that the MTG universe is badly written or boring at all times, but I learned history through a series of lenses. I was not learning lore through these lenses.
With this in mind, I decided to highlight the ways in which the lore of my world can be interpreted through different historical lenses in order to exposit about it more interestingly! The following is the essay of a hypothetical history student -- perhaps in the local equivalent of High School -- living in Telethens and writing for a class on relatively recent, but still historical, events. I would give this student a 6/7 -- they used two different sources of Historiography, they were generally analytical, but were not as concise as they could have been, and sometimes slipped in the first person -- failing to maintain the hypothetical objectivity expected of a historian.
PROMPT: For what reasons did the North lose the conflict with the Aftokratoria? Ensure your answer is clear, concise, and analytical. Include at least two examples of Historiography.
The war between the peoples of the Northern Continent and the Aftokratoria recently ended at the beginning of the Year of Our Lady 1453, when the Northern forces surrendered to Senator Diacaius Praefori at the Fall of Nouveau Thuille. However, for what reasons did the North lose the conflict with the Aftokratoria? The North lost the conflict with the Aftokratoria primarily due to the geographic homogeny of the South -- in comparison to the ecologically diverse and historically un-unified North -- which resulted in superior technology, stronger negotiation techniques, and a stronger cultural unification than what the North could muster.
The superior technology of the Aftokratoria is one of the most obvious causes of the Aftokratorian victory over the Northern forces. Historically, the North could not be conquered or unified without overwhelming air superiority -- as indicated by the last successful conqueror of the North, Riavh Solais, who only ruled the North through a sword that could summon what the Northerners call "Dragonstorms". Once he died and his sword was lost, the North immediately dissolved back into fractured, warring states. This shows that superior air force is necessary to conquer the North, which the Aftokratoria had. The number of Aftokratorian airships can be directly attributed to the innovations of a united Aftokratoria. Our airships are manufactured primarily in Zavlakya but the metal parts are primarily sourced from Ririkya and manufactured in Telethens. These cities are all on opposite ends of the continents but due to the centralized coordination of trainways, we are able to do it with very little disruption. The reason that trainways are feasible here is because of relatively minimal elevation changes and environment changes, meaning the same train-cars and rails can be used throughout the Aftokratoria. In the North, such innovation would be impossible due to the scarcity of certain critical resources only being available in some cities -- which resulted in all their airships and anti-air weaponry being produced entirely in Nouveau Thuille (a single city-state). Saegenheim (the second-largest city in the North) was unable to help at all in this regard because the resources they have are different. This discrepancy in geography indicates that the air superiority of the South was basically inevitable because of our geography. Lastly, and perhaps most notably, the creation of the Philosopher King was only possible due to the intercity team who designed her AI and made her as good at magic as they did. The result of their cooperation ultimately resulted in her capability to completely destroy cities on her own, which ended the war faster and with a smaller loss of life than fighting a protracted Northern Campaign. Given that the Philosopher destroying Togen Oyer was the key event which influenced Northern surrender, and the Philosopher King's creation was specifically possible because of Southern geographic and ecology homogeneity, it follows that the Aftokratoria's victory is directly caused by its geography.
The Aftokratoria has also developed more effective negotiation techniques in comparison to many Northern cultures due to the homogeneity of ecology resulting in higher homogeneity of cultural values. Throughout the Aftokratoria, there is a strong emphasis on the needs of the collective and the importance of interpersonal bonds. This stands in stark contrast to the North, where it is generally expected that everyone fends for themselves -- resulting in constant conflict and the betrayal and sometimes murder of potential allies. As a result of this, negotiation between historically hostile groups has been possible in the Aftokratoria, which means more resources for the whole of the Aftokratoria. The cultural groups of the North have been historically separated by mountainous terrain which made it difficult for culture to move from place to place. This difference shows how the Aftokratoria's better negotiations led to its victory in the long-term. Furthermore, practice with negotiation techniques means that when our diplomats met with Northerners, they were able to create turncoats which were invaluable in winning the war. For example, a certain Nouveau Thuillean lord was turned against the other nobles of Nouveau Thuille, and their plans were ruined--resulting in the Destruction of Togen Oyer and the subsequent events which led to the Fall of Nouveau Thuille.
The stronger cultural unification of the South was also a result of the geographical benefits of our continent. There are some religious pundits, such as Tarchus Euchirinius, who will point to our victory and our geography and declare it to be the Will of Dyeus and His daughter, Yeulia. Only Dyeus knows if it is wise to attribute the continent's geography to Him. However, while we while the Seeress' visions were helpful on a battle-to-battle basis, the Northerners managed to take up to the Selkie Isles and came dangerously close to the Isle of Telethens under the current Yeulia's advisement. Indeed, the turnaround of the invasion was more likely due to the multicity team of generals who worked tirelessly together--as one can clearly see in the recently released notes from Diacaius Praefori. While some critics already believe these notes are doctored, other generals have denied this to be the case -- the consensus is that the turnabout was thanks to the team. So despite the Seeress' functional ineffectiveness, the cultural unification of the South can be directly attributed to its common belief in Dyeus. The North often fought inwardly amongst themselves, even under their defensive alliance against the Aftokratoria, because they frequently had different beliefs and desires out of the war. For example, the Demons frequently wanted to eat Aftokratorian soldiers and to drink the blood of Northern ones. This caused a lot of conflict based on biological and cultural differences -- which only arose in the face of difficult to travel terrain -- which subsequently prevented the weak Northern Alliance from being as effective as the interconnected Aftokratoria. As such, the geography can be directly traced to the victory over the North.
The conflict between the people of the Northern continent is over now, due to the superior technology, stronger negotiation skills, and cultural unification of the Aftokratoria. But the Aftokratoria was blessed with geography that granted us these things. Now, it is a matter of overcoming the geographical challenges of ruling the North--because the things that prevented the North from being unified in the past are still risks that could lead to the fracturing of our Northern colonies and new citizens today.
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