Post by IE Mod on May 14, 2009 22:56:46 GMT -5
INFAMY AND ENTROPY
“…and then a firestorm of magic reigned from the heavens.”
There had been whispers, there had been murmurs. It was a secret not very well kept and a consequence that would irrevocably change the face of Wizarding Europe. They may have known, but they were not prepared. When the war with America began on October 21, 2101 Wizarding Europe was found in a position unknown to them for centuries; subjugation. It didn’t take long for the Americans to achieve their cause; they had watched for years as Europe imploded. They abolished statutes on wizarding secrecy, delved into the darkness of mankind, and constructed a society devoid of the basic principles of freedoms their former allies across the Atlantic hold so very dear.
Five years later, Wizarding Europe in 2106 is a very different place than it was before the war, before the occupation. Yet, it is also unnervingly similar. New figures may have come to power, nominal titles may have changed, and iconic buildings may have been razed then rebuilt, yet at the core of this broken society is the same thing that troubled it five years ago: corruption. The Americans may have had good intentions, but with retrospect it seems unlikely. They beat and bloodied a continent when it was already down. They sent their warning, issued their formalities, and then a firestorm of magic reigned from the heavens over Wizarding Europe and destroyed everything in its path. After the first blitz ended in early January 2102, the terrain of Europe had visible scars from a beating worse than any in its history; its people fared no better. Thousands were displaced, even more dead. This, unfortunately, was just the beginning of the long and laborious retribution forced upon them for their crimes.
The Americans waged their war for three years. The Europeans fought back as well as they could, but their organizational capacities were overwhelmed from the beginning. They had no solid leadership, no form of centralization. Eventually, they could do none but accept their ruin and pray for an ending. The war may have ended in 2104, but the invasion did not. Two years of agonizing occupation followed. It was a strange kind of occupation though; the Americans instituted a chancellor, called it a democracy, and returned to their side of the world. The flaw in their plan was obvious from the start; they hadn’t created a democracy, no one was given any more freedoms. They simply hand-picked a new dictator, and one with very little regard for the well being of the Europeans.
Within a year of Chancellor McCarthy’s rule, Wizarding Europe began to yearn for its former flaws. They may have been corrupt, murderous, and prejudiced, but at least they were independent in doing so. With Chancellor McCarthy sitting on his ostensible soap box of democracy, life remained eternally unsafe. His temper was volatile, his temperament merciless. He would abuse and murder for sport, justify his actions as ‘taming the savages,’ and do it all again the next day. It seemed to be the ultimate irony that could befall upon this once great continent: the colonizers became the colonized. It is with the few Americans sent to work as administration in Europe that new, different, and more deeply prejudiced problems arose.
Suddenly the divide in Europe wasn’t between magic and muggle anymore. It wasn’t a debate of bloodlines and family legacy. It wasn’t even a question of which nation could boast itself as the birthplace of the current figure in power. It was instead a vicious split between the elite foreigners and the ones supporting their new system against the lowly locals and those that oppose the occupation. The standard division of resistances that opposed the system and the Death Eaters that supported it was shaken up from top to bottom. They could no longer ideologically define themselves in relation to a system that no longer existed.
Many resistance members felt that their day of vindication had finally come; democracy was brought to Europe and though it may not be perfect, it was better to work within the system than to work to destroy it. At the same time, many Death Eaters felt as if their cause was no longer represented by the new administration and consequently abandoned the institution which had been taken over by the new Chancellor. In a way, things are still the same; people are still fighting, opposing each other, and defining themselves by that opposition. But the people, and the sides they represent, had changed. Former Death Eaters now work alongside resistance members to get their old, flawed system back. And now former resistance members are working with Death Eaters to make the best of the chance they’ve been given.
Life in 2106 is a strange and twisted version of its former self. Similarities are tinted with a sense of uneasiness. Familiar institutions have been transformed, some completely abolished. The ideological lines which once so ardently defined this society have melded together and emerged as unrecognizable versions of their former selves. It is a place that is still the same, yet terribly different. And somewhere in the middle of this extraordinary and awkward situation is the same crooked society trying to survive the firestorm that is upon them.
[/font][/center]