Karl Prosek, a pre-Rifts historian in his own right, prefers to think of himself as a combination of the best traits of Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Napoleon
My knowledge of the ancient warriors of Mongolia, Italy and France is pretty limited. I was wondering for those who knew more about them could help give examples of how these ancient people have influenced the Coalition States. This isn't an area I see explored, due to Godwin's Law. I think doing this would help view them in a broader scope.
Karl is expanded upon in Heroes of Humanity. He truly cares about humanity and his human soldiers more than anyone else in leadership on rifts earth. His son doesnt quite see things like he does, but Karl is 100% committed to the idea that the only way regular 04-12 stat humans as a species is going to live on Earth is if all the tentacle stuff gets hella killed.
I don't think he's entirely wrong, given everything. The Federation of Magic and the Mechanoids books both lay out magic as being a disruptor that humanity in LARGE numbers is not exactly ready to regulate and manage and society is paying the price, just like industrialization in WW1 and nuclear weapons with the Cold War and it's proxy conflicts. It's like if every household had nuclear weapons and a 5th grade education/socialization level.
I think the CWC books and HoH are both laying out narrative framework for the Coalition leadership eventually being overthrown by the Republicans or something.
Karl Prosek, a pre-Rifts historian in his own right, prefers to think of himself as a combination of the best traits of Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Napoleon
My knowledge of the ancient warriors of Mongolia, Italy and France is pretty limited. I was wondering for those who knew more about them could help give examples of how these ancient people have influenced the Coalition States. This isn't an area I see explored, due to Godwin's Law. I think doing this would help view them in a broader scope.
Don't overthink it. I can assure you the author didn't research those particular traits before he wrote it.
Some gave all. Love your neighbor. Know the facts. Know your opinion. Know the difference.
The names were likely thrown out as hyperbole but it is an interesting topic never the less. I'm not sure about Genghis Khan being any sort of relation, ideology or politically speaking. As a general Genghis and his soldiers were masters of horseback combat for that era which allowed them attack speeds that many of the neighboring nations couldn't counter readily. I don't see the CS mirroring that much. Could they utilize that that style of combat? Perhaps. But his style of combat also matched his style of governing the masses:
"Organization, discipline, mobility, and ruthlessness of purpose were the fundamental factors in his military successes. Massacres of defeated populations, with the resultant terror, were weapons he regularly used. His practice of summoning cities to surrender and of organizing the methodical slaughter of those who did not submit has been described as psychological warfare; but, although it was undoubtedly policy to sap resistance by fostering terror, massacre was used for its own sake. Mongol practice, especially in the war against Khwārezm, was to send agents to demoralize and divide the garrison and populace of an enemy city, mixing threats with promises. The Mongols’ reputation for frightfulness often paralyzed their captives, who allowed themselves to be killed when resistance or flight was not impossible. Indeed, the Mongols were unaccountable. Resistance brought certain destruction, but at Balkh, now in Afghanistan, the population was slaughtered in spite of a prompt surrender, for tactical reasons."
The CS are known racists and fascists but not rampaging monsters like the Mongols. Nothing preventing them from doing so but I don't see them marching up to smaller kingdoms or even the Colorado Baronies, slaughtering a thousand or so people by drawing them out and then shouting "ok you can surrender now".
"You did 264 MD to the guys head, and you think you could capture his helmet intact?" - Killer Cyborg
I just remembered, I forgot the rule of headshots doing x2 damage. That should have been 528MD." -Lord_Coake
Axelmania wrote:The CS has a lot of vehicles which go at higher speeds than their neighbours.
You're right he doesn't seem as brutal as Khan, maybe that is a trait he didn't like and it was tempered by more tolerant guys like Napoleon?
Even if they do it doesn't look like the CS uses them in that fashion. If the CS were being written with Genghis in mind they would have likely taken over Northern Gun, Ishpeming, and many other neighboring entities (city states, kingdoms, etc.) and after force feeding them a diet of homicide he'd have turn to them and said "ok so who's surrendering?" and promptly set up a ruler who'd begin paying them taxes.
Prosek and the leadership of the CS seem to have more in common with our modern day rulers as well as Caesar than Napoleon or any of the Khans
"You did 264 MD to the guys head, and you think you could capture his helmet intact?" - Killer Cyborg
I just remembered, I forgot the rule of headshots doing x2 damage. That should have been 528MD." -Lord_Coake
Greepnak wrote:I think the CWC books and HoH are both laying out narrative framework for the Coalition leadership eventually being overthrown by the Republicans or something.
And the Republicans are a case of over-intellectualizing Golden Age nostalgics who are arguably just as bad. They would do well to use Lazlo as a model, but are stymied by the same fears of Humanity being crowded out of their own homeworld as the more academic CS elites use as an argument to justify turning a blind eye to 'what needs to be done'.
Historically, though? The Mongols liked to pile mountains of skulls to cow their conquered vassals. The Coalition chooses instead to wear the image of skulls, while vaporizing their enemies. The Mongols liked to push locals up siege ladders so the defenders on the other side would hesitate to open fire. The CS has begun using penal and conscript d-bee troops on suicide missions, though not to intimidate local defenders...just as canon fodder. The Mongols were nomads who were rather bad at local governing, until they began to be assimilated by the local cultures. The CS tends to steamroll in, and impose their ways and technologies on the locals, like China burying Tibet, with brahmanization(i.e., the assuming of local culture) being verboten.
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Jefffar wrote:The more tolerant Napoleon who dispersed protesters by firing cannons into the crowd?
To be fair, French protesters of the day were known to put people in the guillotine and chop their heads off. It wasn't called the "Reign of Terror" for nothing.
Jefffar wrote:The more tolerant Napoleon who dispersed protesters by firing cannons into the crowd?
To be fair, French protesters of the day were known to put people in the guillotine and chop their heads off. It wasn't called the "Reign of Terror" for nothing.
Actually, Napoleon was acting on the side of those who threw people on the guillotine when he ordered his men to open fire.
