I thought the Autism thread was the dedicated space for this. Oh well.
Here is a second iteration of historical backstory for Vacuo, and just what made my Act 1 antagonist think the way he does;
(Non greentext form because reasons)
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Guns aren't biodegradable - and vehicles necessitate infrastructure and logistics.
For the same reason as the owner of a house that wouldn't pass an inspection (and isn't worth it to renovate) hands it off to someone else and makes money at the same time, the majority of the unneeded warmachines ended up as scrap metal in the hands of tinpot warlords, after the Faunus Rights Revolution.
Wouldn't you know, selling the problem resulted in a different kind of problem for somewhere else.
As a result, some time ago one warlord had gotten far too influential for Vacuo to be comfortable with having as close to their population centers as he had been.
They financed a group of militias to go ahead and take him down.
If that sounds close to an army, then that's the point.
I'm not writing a world that was stupid enough to completely disarm at the conclusion of the Great War. But, certain actors did see that as the world industrialized, history saw militarism and jingoism become a type of zealotry in its own right.
The outcome of measures taken is that though there are exceptions there may be, the world in general isn't happy with the prospect of large amounts of men at arms taking territory. Despite the setting being one of the best arguments for a strong national military that I've ever seen.
Don't worry, there aren't armies anymore. Just scads and scads of independent companies.
Now, Vacuo is the kind of place with sandstorms so bad that gun optics and battery mountings would get shredded in quick order. The hatch of a missile silo, on the other hand, could be buffed and repaired rather easily.
The militia force gets itself a ballistic missile commander. There are problems in quick order after then.
To the tribes of the place in question, all of the equipment was a windfall. But just like how the people remember their old divides should foreign conquerors withdraw, so do the affairs of the tribes linger to the modern day.
The militias sure put the hurt on the warlord's forces. That's what happens when you care about logistics more than 'just go raid when you need more'.
It arrived at the point where the last holdout of the warlord was about to be blown to kingdom come!
But, the commander of one of the units involved was a tribal, who was a blood-sworn enemy of the tribe of the missile commander.
To be more precise, the said commander had utterly revoked all association with his tribe. And the other officer did not care about this.
This was at the point where the other officer didn't feel the need to keep in communication with the command structure and communications channels of the militias.
The missile commander launched the final missile strike... the missiles left their siloes right as the rival tribal officer ordered a push made to capture the warlord's last holdout.
See, their mindset was that it would be just conquest and prize-taking like they would continue doing.
That advancing troop was so, so thoughly *gone.* lmao
After, the tribe of the snooty now-deceased officer invoked shit that got their neighbours involved - they ended up complaining publicly to the Vacuo Council.
Now, these tribals aren't stupid - you have to be sharp to make it out there.
They complained at exactly the time the kingdom's government felt like good relations with the independent rural population (the aforementioned tribes) was a good way to go.
They looked for a scapegoat. Lo and behold, there was the missile commander.
The fact that the dead officer had been technically AWOL didn't count for much in the court of public opinion.
And this being post-war, when there were many people keen to prove their worth and a single black mark on your record meant that someone else looked more appealing?[Expand Post]
The result of all of that is, the antagonist of my story's first act grew up with his father - that exact missile commander - often and freely criticizing those who governed the kingdom.
As times became yet harder for the kingdom, less and less reason in the eyes of the future warlord (that my MC will end up combatting) stood in order for him to believe that Vacuo would extend the protection of its law to him or his people.