Causes of War for Fantasy Writers

[Aldarion]

Causes of War for Fantasy Writers

One of major aspects of writing warfare is understanding why people go to war. It is in fact the basic requirement of writing a war: if one does not understand why the war is happening, he will not…

warfantasy.wordpress.com

One of major aspects of writing warfare is understanding why people go to war. It is in fact the basic requirement of writing a war: if one does not understand why the war is happening, he will not be able to set coherent goals for factions fighting the war, and thus the war will appear disjointed. No individual or collective, no enemy is simply evil. Everybody does things for a reason, even if some reasons may be difficult to understand for most people. And these reasons determine not just why, but also when, how and how long will wars be waged.

This is necessary, as establishing a believable reason for the conflict helps both the writer and the reader – it helps the writer actually write about the conflict, and it helps the reader understand what is going on and get immersed in it. And these believable reasons and attitudes cannot be based on the current-day understanding of warfare, because said understanding is so different and out of step with ancient and medieval attitudes towards war that including it basically breaches suspension of disbelief all on its own.

More on the link.

 

[Finchbearer]

Good article to get me thinking about my own plot and the more detailed reasons behind including a war within the storyline, beyond the obvious reasons of ‘conflict’ literal and metaphorical.

 

[Devor]

One factor that was put forward because of recent events, the longer someone has been in power, the more they get "fed up" with their advisors and what everyone tells them they should be doing, and the more likely they are to take the big actions they've always wanted to, like going to war. Their attitude gradually goes from "Why can't we...?" to "Screw it, let's just do it."

I mention that because, from the big picture, there are always reasons like greed and fear and honor. The US could invade Mexico for resources and security, but literally nobody wants that. I think there usually has to be a more personal nature to it, sort of an "attitude" that drives it.

 

[Finchbearer]

I would agree with Aldarion that greed usually drives war, but greed can take many different forms. Greed for power, control and perceived wealth is probably a big reason, but to get everyone else to agree with the reasoning for war, I think there is often a veiled reason such as divine reasons, political reasons or something else that isn’t the actual reason. Given that most people who hold positions of political power are probably along the sociopath and psychopath spectrum gives way to megalomania and the desire to control the masses.

And I am assuming that retaliation is also a reason too.

 

[Renè Williams]

Causes of War for Fantasy Writers

One of major aspects of writing warfare is understanding why people go to war. It is in fact the basic requirement of writing a war: if one does not understand why the war is happening, he will not…

warfantasy.wordpress.com

One of major aspects of writing warfare is understanding why people go to war. It is in fact the basic requirement of writing a war: if one does not understand why the war is happening, he will not be able to set coherent goals for factions fighting the war, and thus the war will appear disjointed. No individual or collective, no enemy is simply evil. Everybody does things for a reason, even if some reasons may be difficult to understand for most people. And these reasons determine not just why, but also when, how and how long will wars be waged.

This is necessary, as establishing a believable reason for the conflict helps both the writer and the reader – it helps the writer actually write about the conflict, and it helps the reader understand what is going on and get immersed in it. And these believable reasons and attitudes cannot be based on the current-day understanding of warfare, because said understanding is so different and out of step with ancient and medieval attitudes towards war that including it basically breaches suspension of disbelief all on its own.

More on the link.

Thanks for this! I definitely need it since my current WIP will be apart of a series and one of the B-Plots of it is avoiding a full on multi-sided civil war. My world is a mix of old ideals and new ways of living, so i'm sure it'll be a helpful piece for me even if it focuses on a more ancient style of warfare

 

[Aldarion]

I would agree with Aldarion that greed usually drives war, but greed can take many different forms. Greed for power, control and perceived wealth is probably a big reason, but to get everyone else to agree with the reasoning for war, I think there is often a veiled reason such as divine reasons, political reasons or something else that isn’t the actual reason. Given that most people who hold positions of political power are probably along the sociopath and psychopath spectrum gives way to megalomania and the desire to control the masses.

And I am assuming that retaliation is also a reason too.

Agreed. But as I wrote in the conclusion:

But it should be kept in mind that reason for war and justification for war are not one and the same. For people to accept war, they need to be emotionally winded – and “we need those mines” is not going to be enough. Thus to justify a war, a mythology needs to be created.

 

[Renè Williams]

"political ideology is nothing but secularized religion anyway."
Possibly my favorite quote I've read in a week, maybe a month, and perfectly encapsulates my feelings on the matter. Furthermore, it's literally the idea my world's government is based off of, because on their planet, they think they know the 'truth' of the universe and so very few other beleifes actually exist on the planet, much less mainstream society. That makes it sometimes very difficult to sway public opinion but when things get really, well, impossible from their point of view, it becomes easy because to them, instead of accepting what it is, alot may assume this is a new face of the evil of their world.

 

[Genly]

Regarding civil war, I guess the causes are the usual ones: starkly different views of how society should be organized, a long history of animosity between two or more sides, and then a triggering event. The triggering event would typically cause intense disappointment for one side, leading to them to conclude that they had no other option but to take up arms. So I guess one question to ask when constructing a fictional history is what might be a plausible triggering event,

 

[pmmg]

One of major aspects of writing warfare is understanding why people go to war. It is in fact the basic requirement of writing a war: if one does not understand why the war is happening, he will not be able to set coherent goals for factions fighting the war, and thus the war will appear disjointed. No individual or collective, no enemy is simply evil.

Have to counter this, because in a fantasy story, the reason for war can in fact be just because the other side is evil. What was the reason for war in LOTR?

I'd also add, that war can be fought for reasons of moral outrage, a sense of entitlement, a sense of righting injustice, and out of duty or obligation (our ally got in a war, and we made an agreement...).

I'll also add, that it is possible for there to be wars and the participates dont really know the reasons for it.

One war was fought between two nations over the outcome of a soccer game.


I will however, agree with most of the points of the article. They are not unuseful, just...I can imagine other ways things can happen.

 

[Renè Williams]

Have to counter this, because in a fantasy story, the reason for war can in fact be just because the other side is evil. What was the reason for war in LOTR?

I feel like the reason wasn't just Evil Exists, but Evil Exists and has Threatened/Attacked us directly. I guess what I mean is, in order to be considered evil, they had to prove it, and ostensibly the actions the evil people took are the reason for war, not the existence of the people in general.

 

[pmmg]

Even if you hash out the LOTR war to something others than purely it was a war against them because they were evil, it still remains that I can have a fantasy story that has a war just because the evil side is evil.

 

[Queshire]

If your goal in writing a story is to create a simple, hopeful story of good vs evil then I don't think the article is going to be much interest to you in the first place though.

 

[Renè Williams]

Even if you hash out the LOTR war to something others than purely it was a war against them because they were evil, it still remains that I can have a fantasy story that has a war just because the evil side is evil.

Well, yes, I think the points earlier came down to that you'd then have to do the footwork for the reader to be convinced that this is a reasonable explanation in-universe, not saying that that would be hard. Like, if other side is Evil, you have to sort of define why they are considered evil and as soon as you do that, the war becomes about those specific things, not good vs evil.

 

[Jackarandajam]

Read an interesting thing about Rome recently: they depleted all their farm soil in the area around Rome monocropping (growing huge swathes of just wheat, just corn, etc.) And at some point were forced to wage war in order to feed the people from soil that hadn't already been mistreated.

Basically the dustbowl, but with expansion options.

 

[Renè Williams]

Read an interesting thing about Rome recently: they depleted all their farm soil in the area around Rome monocropping (growing huge swathes of just wheat, just corn, etc.) And at some point were forced to wage war in order to feed the people from soil that hadn't already been mistreated.

Basically the dustbowl, but with expansion options.

Interesting, so Rome was basically Kagemitsu Daigō except instead of dealing with demons, they just waged war, and it was tragically justified since they didn't have the knowledge we do now about monocropping.

 

[Jackarandajam]

Interesting, so Rome was basically Kagemitsu Daigō except instead of dealing with demons, they just waged war, and it was tragically justified since they didn't have the knowledge we do now about monocropping.

An Agricultural Testament
- Sir Albert Howard
Published 1940
(My source)

Tragically justified is a great way to put it.

Although because of the size of the Empire, it was probably just easier to do then learn how to Farm. That ground had been farmed for a long time before they showed up with no problem.

 

[Aldarion]

Have to counter this, because in a fantasy story, the reason for war can in fact be just because the other side is evil. What was the reason for war in LOTR?

Even if you hash out the LOTR war to something others than purely it was a war against them because they were evil, it still remains that I can have a fantasy story that has a war just because the evil side is evil.

That is incorrect. Read this:

Sauron and Saruman – the Tragedy of Good Intentions

Unlike Morgoth and his existential nihilism, Sauron and Saruman are both a case study of how good intentions lead to evil. Both Sauron and Saruman are the Maiar of Aule. This may in fact be the roo…

fantasyview.wordpress.com

Sauron was idealist, at least at first. He honestly believed that world will work better if he has everything under his control, that he will be able to create utopia - he was basically Karl Marx or Lenin of his time (idea of utopia on Earth is perhaps the greatest evil in human history). And because he believed that, he created the One Ring to have all people under his control. Morgoth by contrast was jealous of Eru and he merely wanted to corrupt the Creation, turning entirety of Arda into his own personal Ring. Sauron was wiser, but he was also helped by the fact that the world was already corrupted, so he only had to create the One Ring.

So as I said: reader does not necessarily have to notice it, but it nevertheless

helps the writer actually write about the conflict

I'd also add, that war can be fought for reasons of moral outrage, a sense of entitlement, a sense of righting injustice, and out of duty or obligation (our ally got in a war, and we made an agreement...).

I'll also add, that it is possible for there to be wars and the participates dont really know the reasons for it.

One war was fought between two nations over the outcome of a soccer game.

True. Although, I cannot imagine outcome of the soccer game to have been a cause of the war. Trigger for war, yes. Cause, not really.

Well, yes, I think the points earlier came down to that you'd then have to do the footwork for the reader to be convinced that this is a reasonable explanation in-universe, not saying that that would be hard. Like, if other side is Evil, you have to sort of define why they are considered evil and as soon as you do that, the war becomes about those specific things, not good vs evil.

This.

 

[Queshire]

Point of order; Karl Marx would have hated Lenin. =0

 

[Aldarion]

Point of order; Karl Marx would have hated Lenin. =0

And Lenin hated Stalin. And in Spain, Communists spent more time murdering Anarchists and Trotskysts than they did fighting the Falanga.

Which is an interesting point regarding the ideologically-motivated warfare: ideologues typically hate the heretics within their own ranks far more fiercely than they do people who simply flat-out disagree with them.

 

[Finchbearer]

Did someone mention Lord of the Rings?

I’m pretty sure that Aldarion knows all about Lord of the Rings more than I will ever hope to, but for what it’s worth, my interpretation from it is was much about Tolkien creating a sort of allegory for the world wars and his viewpoint on them. The evil in Middle Earth reminds me of fascism, along with many other issues that would have been prevalent during Tolkien’s lifetime such as mass mechanisation, communism, destroying natural habitats in favour of industrialisation (think of the Ents with Tolkien being a huge fan of trees in real life) and many other destructive world events that created such cataclysmic change during the era in which he wrote. In other words he saw real war, and wrote his experiences and viewpoint into an epic fantasy series.