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The Devastation War

Status: PROVISIONAL (→ CANON once the timeline is locked)

The earlier of the two wars, and the source of the story's generational trauma. It is not the same conflict as the Frontier War — see Decisions.

Shape PROVISIONAL

Expected to be short. Becomes catastrophic. Its arc includes:

  • emergency mobilization
  • property requisition (see Requisition Crisis)
  • Greg and Markus entering service separately; years of separation
  • the older man's rise through military command
  • Devastation Day — the catastrophe
  • the older man's disappearance
  • generational trauma that outlives the war

It eventually ends through an unstable / exhausted armistice — not a clean victory.

Consequences that reach Book One

  • The armistice is unstable; Devastation-era political and strategic decisions go unresolved, and the Frontier War partly emerges from them.
  • Continuity is developed afterward, because of Devastation.
  • Veyr carries a Devastation-Day triage decision into the present.

Why two wars

Keeping Devastation separate and earlier lets it function as trauma and as the causal history behind the present conflict, rather than collapsing everything into one war. The single-war version is REJECTED.