Authors Note:
I'm a big fan of the book World War Z by Max Brooks. It's not just the fact that it has zombies in it. Rather, I adore both its commentary of humanity and its oral history format. It's intimate and intelligent, and it's by far one of my favorite books. I figure i want to try my hand at writing in this format.
The story that I'm going to tell you few, few watchers is an oral history of the Pandoran Conflict. It details the eight year fight between the invading human miners and mercenary forces, and the native na'vi tribes. Unlike my other work Colonies, this does not really revolve around a set of characters. Rather, it goes between the various personalities and veterans of the war that ended four years ago. It chronicles motivations, trials, hardships, atrocities and triumphs endured by people of all sides of the conflict, from the highest general of the human forces, to a simple na'vi farmer, fleeing their homeland. Unlike Cameron's focus on environmentalism, this story is about justice, identity, morality, heroism and villainy, war, innocence, and colonialism among other things. It is a book of memories. Of people trying to get a grip as to why things had to be like this. It is a hard journey, and the tales do not always end happily.
Just for the record, its not related to Colonies in terms of story or characters, although there definitely a few nods here and there to it. That story's in writers hell right now, but I will get back to it sometime.
Chrispy
A Short History of the Pandoran Wars.
By Garth Munro.
There are some truths in this world that people refuse to acknowledge. It's not that they are ignorant to them, or that they are unaware that such a truth exists, but rather, they keep that truth out of their mind. Instead of openly acknowledging that truth, or even just deny it outright, they prefer to avoid thinking about the topic altogether in the hopes that the truth never becomes relevant. What people don't get is that those truths are never really expunged. Instead of being dealt with head on, or simply forgotten, that truth remains inside the hearts and minds of the people who have at least, realized or heard of that truth once in their life. It remains locked away in some dark recess of the mind, only to see the light of day when that person realizes it at the worst possible moment. And when that happens, realization can make grown warriors cry for what could have been done. There are many such truths in this sad world. But right now, I am only referring one in particular.
It's: "An eye for an eye makes the world blind."
The Pandoran Conflict, (also known as the Pandoran Wars, The Guerrilla War, The First Human-Na'vi War 'The War' or The Invasion to name a few) was a bloody, miserable period. Lasting for roughly eight years, the conflict claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands. Human and Na'vi, warriors and soldiers, farmers and miners, men, women and children; all died in some form or another. Whole villages were wiped out. Great tracts of once beautiful land turned into battered warzones. Trillions of credits being spent per day by the Earth governments and corporations to wage war, the list goes on. If any other sapient life form found this planet, they would use it as fine example of why species should never attempt to interact with each other.
Now the conflict is over. And the survivors are left trying to pick their former lives from the ashes. Human mercenaries are trying to get a grip on farming crops and building houses, as opposed to burning and destroying them. Na'vi raiders are trying to get back to hunting game as opposed to humans. Human warships have been converted to ferrying cargo and fish. Great beasts, once fierce mounts for Na'vi warriors, now graze amongst the rusted hulks of war machines. And Na'vi villages try to remember the songs they used to sing. The ones about harmony and peace, not blood and victory.
But even four years later, things haven't 'Gone back to normal'. They never will. It's not just the now permanent presence of humans, trying to eke out a living in the dangerous lands of Pandora. Many have entered the fires of the war and have come out changed, and not necessarily for the better. Old hatreds remain. Many tribes now often barter for human technologies. The weather just isn't the same as it used to be. Species have gone extinct. There's the unsettling presence of the Hollow people. Every month in the news there's some spat about resource and territory rights between the two races. And the pain of losing loved ones, through the human bullet or na'vi arrow, is never something that goes away. The scars on the land may run deep, but it is the scars upon the heart that run deeper.
It is now four years after the official end of hostilities. A new generation of people are growing up on Pandora and this one in particular asks their parents many uncomfortable questions. "What was the war like?", "Did you kill anyone?", "Why is this land barren?" and most of all "What did you do in the war?" Sometimes these questions are answered quickly and tersely, those being questioned shying away from it as much as possible. Others make it very clear that they don't want to answer, Period. Few people in this day and age speak honestly and openly about what had happened, and often they can only answer from their own perspectives.
This book, the one you are either holding in your hands or reading off a screen, isn't one that is based off of one single account. It is based off many. After the war ended, I found myself talking trying to collate data for the newly formed Colonial government in order to create a sort of 'after-action report' as it were. I was sent all over the world to collate data, interview survivors, and try to draw conclusions as to why events played out the way they did. I was given a surprising amount of resources: I had food, travel, security, plenty of translators, not to mention audiences with famous personalities and leaders of the conflict, both na'vi and human alike. I thought I had everything I needed. But what came as a shock to me was the news that almost half of my work was being cut out of the final product. It turns out; the administration was more interested in cold hard facts and data as opposed to interviews and explanations. Naturally, myself and the rest of the team that I worked with were quite irritated to say the least. According to the people publishing the report, they felt that the intimacy of some of the interviews clashed with the professional and clinical tone that the report needed to be, and for this reason, they were cut in order to reduce the threat of bias.
Yes there is that threat, but isn't this personal factor important? Will future generations really be interested in a bunch of statistics and numbers? By excluding the personal factor, the human and na'vi factor alike, we risk becoming detached from the events. The harsh memories reduced to abstractions. And we all know it is all too easy to commit atrocities when one is looking at numbers and not people.
So that is why we decided to put our own findings to paper, translate them into all of the assorted languages of Pandora, and then publish them cheaply enough so that even the poorest settler can get their hands on a copy. None of us were interested in profits. We just wanted to get these stories out. Some people may point out that with the war ending only four years ago, publishing these stories may be rash. The perspectives within may not have matured with rational hindsight. But if we continue to wait, we risk losing those memories forever. Its little secret that the standard of living for human and na'vi alike has dropped over the years and many of survivors of the war may not live long enough for that hindsight to come. Perhaps later, someone can record the recollections of the older, wiser survivors of the war. Maybe I'll be the one doing it.
This book was written and collated by a team of human and na'vi writers, translators and publishers. We have done our best to try to remain as neutrally biased as possible, although many would know that mistakes have been made at times that were grave enough to paint even the most decorated veteran a monster. This is not a firebrand journal lavishing blame upon those it deems the villains, nor is it an apologist treatise on why people were forced to commit so and so. It is a book of memories. The perspectives in this story are not our own. This is the book of the people who have been interviewed, not mine, and I have tried to maintain as invisible a presence as is possible. If there is any personal factor that needs to be removed, let it be my own.
Garth Munro was previously a member of UNDETA: United Nations Department of Extra-Terrestrial Affairs, working as an analyst and consultant. His work involved a great deal of travel, negotiation and diplomacy. Many sapient rights and diplomatic successes and failures have been attributed to him.