Ajax the Invincible

"On behalf of the college, I would like to thank Lord Alvaro for his excellent lecture. The whole school owes you a debt for donating your time today. We will now open the floor to questions. Before we do, I would like to remind you that we enjoy a certain amount of informality here at the war college, but when speaking to Lord Alvaro, let not informality topple over into familiarity. We will take the first question now. Francis?"

"Thank you, sir. Lord Alvaro, what we just heard on the topic of Ajax's strategy was pretty chilling. In your opinion, as someone who knew him, how serious is he with his stance on non-humans in Orden? And how should we reconcile this with the treaties he signed with the elves and dwarves of Vasloria? Thank you for your time, my lord."

"Ah, yes," Alvaro said, eyebrows raised theatrically. "Jack's famous 'pro-human' rhetoric." And there was a susurration among the students. For the last hour, Lord Alvaro had only referred to the subject of his lecture as "Ajax." Everyone in the city knew Ajax and Alvaro attended university together, but for the first time, the students in the lecture hall understood—they had been friends.

"The short answer is: no. I don't believe Jack is a raving ah... 'human supremacist,' as the broadsheets put it. That's Mortum. But he does find the idea useful.

"I spoke for the last hour on Jack's tactics. But let's talk about his high-level goals for a moment. Remember everything I just said about Vasloria. The unique problems it presents to someone like Jack. Vasloria is probably as complex a problem as Ajax will ever face. No centralized government, no infrastructure. There's no Vaslorian equivalent of the Heliopolis, or Capital, Kashiato, or Qarat al Ya'tib. So how does one conquer a region with no unified identity and no central command?

"Well, you create that identity. Consider, before the coming of Ajax, most humans in the region only knew the elves and dwarves as a source of trade! Commerce. Large-scale battles were mostly fought between human duchies.

"Ajax systematically defeats those dukes, replacing them with... no one, and he forces the elves and dwarves to sign treaties at swordpoint. Like the dwarves of Kal Kalavar. They pay tribute to Ajax in forced labor. They don't send dwarves, oh no! They capture humans. Those unsuited for labor go into the Body Banks.

"So, what has Jack done? He's chopped the head off the feudal system in Vasloria leaving only far-flung baronies to fend for themselves. The people feel scared, alone. Leaderless. If the people use the roads, they risk capture by the dwarves; if they use the woods for resources, they're cut down by the elves. So they learn to distrust the elves and dwarves.

"I think it's a stroke of genius. Conquering all of Vasloria by force would be a long and bloody affair. Instead, he creates the conditions that will allow him to save Vasloria. He lets this field lie fallow for a few years, and, when he returns, there'll be a whole generation of young people who do not remember a time when the roads or forests were safe. Who hate the dwarves and elves. When Ajax returns, they will welcome him as their protector and he will unite them against these new enemies.

"It's a long plan, but I can't see any way it won't work. Uniting humans by pitting them against everyone else in Orden is a strategy I think he'll rely on more and more. It's working very well for him. Next question."

"Lord Alvaro, according to the broadsheets, there are many new churches in Vasloria dedicated to 'Saint' Ajax. Do you believe this is part of his grand strategy? Thank you, my lord."

"That's Mortum's doing, I'm sure of it. Mortum was a great believer in the power of religion as a tool to manipulate societies. If Jack's given it any thought at all, he'd see it as a sound strategy for his plan to return as, not just the protector, but the savior of the land. I suspect if Mortum hadn't pushed the idea, Jack would have thought of it sooner or later. The Pharoah of Khemhara commands enormous power, more than any political leader in all Orden, because uniquely he is both head of state and the chief religious officer. Even the emperors of Caelila didn't think of that. Next question."

"Thank you. Lord Alvaro, if Ajax is trying to conquer the world... do you think he will succeed?"

"Yes. Unless there's rapid agreement between all the powers of the world to work together and stop him? Yes, he's going to win. It's precisely because he knew such an alliance of powers was practically impossible that he even considered a Caelian-style campaign of conquest in the first place.

"Next question."