TTU: Era: Schism And Stalemate

Edited on 2007-01-28 13:19:13 by BaxilDragon [More detail in Writing Tips]

Additions:
In short, don't overlook the full impact of The Meeting. Politically, it would be as pivotal as The Changes themselves were, and it would cause nearly as many problems for theris as it solved. In this era, the backlash is as strong as it ever will get, and theris are on the receiving end of a great deal of (both anonymous and face-to-face) hostility. The chasm between theris/mages and the unchanged seems almost unbridgeable.

Deletions:
In short, don't overlook the full impact of The Meeting. Politically, it would be as pivotal as The Changes themselves were, and it would cause nearly as many problems for theris as it solved.

Edited on 2007-01-28 13:10:54 by BaxilDragon [numerical fix]

Additions:
The combined voice of two thousand theris and mages gave one response to The Executive Order: "No. And if you make us, there will be war."

Deletions:
The combined voice of over a thousand theris and mages gave one response to The Executive Order: "No. And if you make us, there will be war."

Edited on 2007-01-27 23:06:59 by BaxilDragon [First complete revision]

Additions:

Thursday, January 9, 1997 - Wednesday, January 29, 1997
It was an incredible victory for theri rights, but it came at a high cost. The brinkmanship poisoned the political atmosphere, giving anti-theri groups a rallying cry. Another weekend of unrest rippled across the nation, with demonstrations taking a darker and more directly anti-theri edge. Hate crimes, too, saw an immediate spike.
While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. Humans fixate on the threat of Redwing's war; theris fixate on the threat of internment, and later the political backlash. With the stakes so high, everyone finds it easy to assume the worst of their opponents.
History would definitely record The Meeting as a two-edged sword. It prevented an era of open theri repression (and quite possibly a broader slide into fascism), but it also left Americans frightened of revolution -- and seeing therianthropes as a threatening force beyond anyone's control. The wording of Redwing's declaration, with its mention of war, was ready evidence for those looking for evil intentions; Redwing and other major theri figures would spend the next few months trying to fight fundamentalists' and reactionaries' "I told you so"s.
Like Vietnam, the divisions drawn in this era would be felt long after the immediate conflict faded. The possibility of open war evaporated quickly, but such things as the Gold Murders (and later, the Human Evolution Front manifesto) kept alive the dire warnings that theris had shadowy plans to subjugate humanity under an iron claw. Even a decade later, some of those wounds would still be fresh; America's opposition to the New Atlantis Raising would be based in no small part on 1997's distrust and paranoia.
In short, don't overlook the full impact of The Meeting. Politically, it would be as pivotal as The Changes themselves were, and it would cause nearly as many problems for theris as it solved.

Deletions:

Thursday, January 9, 1997 - Wednesday, January 29, 1997
It was an incredible victory for theri rights, but it came at a high cost for the country. The brinkmanship poisoned the political atmosphere, giving anti-theri groups a rallying cry. Another weekend of unrest rippled across the nation, with demonstrations taking a darker and more directly anti-theri edge. Hate crimes, too, saw an immediate spike.
While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. Humans fixate on the threat of Redwing's war; theris fixate on the threat of internment, and later the political backlash.
in progress

Edited on 2007-01-19 12:08:25 by BaxilDragon [still in progress, but nearly done]

Additions:
Against this backdrop, SANE and The Guardian Knights would coalesce -- the first of many human organizations driven by a theri-related agenda. Others would follow. The Meeting was a landmark that spurred many to action.
This era's end was a landmark, too -- of an entirely different sort. Denny Brogi's teleportation accident at first received very little attention, and was seen as a mere curiosity by those who did notice. But that one moment of carelessness would cascade into The Death Of Teleportation, and by raising fear of safety concerns, would broadly alter the magical -- and political -- landscape.
While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. Humans fixate on the threat of Redwing's war; theris fixate on the threat of internment, and later the political backlash.

Deletions:
teleportation accident; SANE
(While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. - and what of this one?

Edited on 2007-01-17 03:37:32 by BaxilDragon [In progress]

Additions:

Era: Schism And Stalemate

<< Previous Era * Next Era >>

3 Nation On The Brink (1/97)
4 Schism And Stalemate (1/97)

Thursday, January 9, 1997 - Wednesday, January 29, 1997
Starts with: The Meeting
Ends with: Brogi Accident
The combined voice of over a thousand theris and mages gave one response to The Executive Order: "No. And if you make us, there will be war."
There very nearly was.
But ultimately, The Meeting's show of unity and resistance held. Both serious analysts and popular media panicked, fixating on wild but suddenly plausible scenarios about teleported nuclear bombs, shapeshifting terrorists and even (less plausibly) pets rising up against their owners. Redwing promised Americans that theris would take no action unless the government did something stupid, and milked the controversy over the Order for all it was worth.
Americans don't take well to being threatened, so the government initially rattled a few sabers -- but the White House was ultimately unwilling to start a war that could end with the Capitol a smoking crater. Redwing refused to budge, and the Order was rescinded as gracefully as circumstances would allow.
It was an incredible victory for theri rights, but it came at a high cost for the country. The brinkmanship poisoned the political atmosphere, giving anti-theri groups a rallying cry. Another weekend of unrest rippled across the nation, with demonstrations taking a darker and more directly anti-theri edge. Hate crimes, too, saw an immediate spike.
Politicians, bowing to popular anger, scrambled to pass nakedly discriminatory and restrictive laws -- dancing the razor's edge of theri war and human uprising. Redwing proved equally unwilling to start a war that would decimate the country he loved and permanently stain theris as mass murderers, and backed down himself after issuing a few veiled warnings.
As is usually the case with symbolic laws, politicians' solutions were largely unconstitutional or unenforceable. Courts immediately blocked the most excessive of the new laws, and prepared to pounce on the rest. So the end result of all the tension was a legal framework much like the old one but more ominous. Theris and humanity's self-styled defenders stayed frozen in a standoff that would remain motionless for weeks and bitter for months.
in progress
teleportation accident; SANE
in progress
(While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. - and what of this one?

Deletions:

Era: Nation On The Brink

<< Previous Era * Next Era >>

3 Nation On The Brink (1/97)
4 Schism And Stalemate (1/97)

Wednesday, January 1, 1997 - Thursday, January 9, 1997
Starts with: The Flyby
Ends with: The Meeting
Most therianthropes headed into 1997 full of optimism, convinced that they had already weathered the worst of the public opinion roller-coaster ride. They were wrong.
The Flyby, for the first time, undeniably painted theris as the villains. A public that had been willing to let their inner fears be calmed by theris' good deeds suddenly found themselves confronting those fears. Today, 13 in Times Square ... how many tomorrow? Why hadn't there been other similar tragedies, and what was stopping more of them from occurring? Suddenly, doomsayers' warnings didn't seem quite so hysterical.
Historians still debate if the worst of it could have been avoided -- if shedding the blood of the Flyby Three might have appeased the public's newfound rage and grief. But many theris, who understandably felt the Three were facing execution over an innocent mistake, weren't about to let that happen. Dennis Redwing was among them, and throwing his star power into their defense nearly crystallized those fears into open conflict.
Redwing started the showdown with his announcement that he would represent the Three to negotiate their surrender if prosecutors would rule out the death penalty. The FBI's detention of Redwing and their threats to charge him as well upped the ante. Redwing's much-publicized escape gave both sides a personal stake. Further escalation then seemed inevitable, but not even pessimistic theris were prepared for The Executive Order. The gauntlet had been thrown.
The order's 72-hour deadline crawled closer, minute by minute. The whole country, and much of the world, watched and waited -- amid fierce debate, and growing speculation as high-profile theris maintained a strict silence.
Ironically, it was largely that silence that turned the terms of the debate around. Mass media, unable to sustain its focus on theri reaction, shifted its gaze to the order itself. The visions of some of the order's most vocal proponents were brought to light -- new spy and police structures to weed out hidden theris from the humans they resembled; "purges"; and other civil-liberties nightmares. That kicked off a legal and political counterattack whose rhetoric became blistering even in theris' absence. Between that and the outing of one or two significant political figures -- emphasizing how deep any enforcement of the order would have to dig -- some began to wonder if this cure wouldn't be worse than the disease.
And so the stage was set for the surprise unveiling of The Meeting and Redwing's declaration of defiance. The combined voice of over a thousand theris and mages gave one response to the relocation order: "No. And if you make us, there will be war."
The Executive Order
"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.∞" - W.B. Yeats
The theme of this era of TTU is of a steep and accelerating spiral toward destruction. The average human or theri is powerless in the face of their leaders' grand designs; those leaders are themselves
powerless in the face of events. Caught in the grip of history, everyone is simply struggling to protect their life and lifestyle.
In true Cold War style -- a not inappropriate comparison, considering that one of the doomsday scenarios discussed in the media after The Meeting was a mage teleporting a nuclear bomb out of the U.S.' arsenal into a major city -- both sides could only escalate the conflict in hopes of finding a threat whose consequences would be too dire to risk. After The Meeting, an equilibrium would finally be reached, but during this era it was far from clear that the titans' clash could be stopped short of deadly force.
While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. If they're contacted by Redwing or one of his agents, theris cling to The Meeting like a log in a whirlpool; if they're not, theris must decide how to deal with a command that is as world-shattering to them as The Changes were to ordinary humans. Those humans, meanwhile, are getting flashbacks to a paranoia of helplessness not seen since the "Duck and Cover" days.
Many people try to maintain a semblance of real life in this era -- after all, most adults have some Cold War experience and Mutually Assured Destruction isn't a new idea -- but everyone keeps one ear to the news, wondering just how bad it's going to get. After The Executive Order, troops are back out on the streets (although subtly, as peacekeepers); the U.S. has again ground to a near-halt; and things don't start to thaw until the country steps back from the edge.

Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2007-01-17 02:23:21 by BaxilDragon [Cloned from EraNationOnTheBrink]

Page view:

Era: Nation On The Brink

Eras of TTU

<< Previous Era * Next Era >>

pre Pre-Changes
1 Dragon In The Streets (12/96)
2 The Shock Settles In (12/96)
3 Nation On The Brink (1/97)
4 Schism And Stalemate (1/97)
5 From Causes To Crusades (2-8/97)
6 Winter Of Discontent (8-12/97)
7 A New World Order (1998+)
8 Over The Horizon (2007+)

Wednesday, January 1, 1997 - Thursday, January 9, 1997

Starts with: The Flyby
Ends with: The Meeting

Era Summary

Most therianthropes headed into 1997 full of optimism, convinced that they had already weathered the worst of the public opinion roller-coaster ride. They were wrong.

The Flyby, for the first time, undeniably painted theris as the villains. A public that had been willing to let their inner fears be calmed by theris' good deeds suddenly found themselves confronting those fears. Today, 13 in Times Square ... how many tomorrow? Why hadn't there been other similar tragedies, and what was stopping more of them from occurring? Suddenly, doomsayers' warnings didn't seem quite so hysterical.

Historians still debate if the worst of it could have been avoided -- if shedding the blood of the Flyby Three might have appeased the public's newfound rage and grief. But many theris, who understandably felt the Three were facing execution over an innocent mistake, weren't about to let that happen. Dennis Redwing was among them, and throwing his star power into their defense nearly crystallized those fears into open conflict.

Redwing started the showdown with his announcement that he would represent the Three to negotiate their surrender if prosecutors would rule out the death penalty. The FBI's detention of Redwing and their threats to charge him as well upped the ante. Redwing's much-publicized escape gave both sides a personal stake. Further escalation then seemed inevitable, but not even pessimistic theris were prepared for The Executive Order. The gauntlet had been thrown.

The order's 72-hour deadline crawled closer, minute by minute. The whole country, and much of the world, watched and waited -- amid fierce debate, and growing speculation as high-profile theris maintained a strict silence.

Ironically, it was largely that silence that turned the terms of the debate around. Mass media, unable to sustain its focus on theri reaction, shifted its gaze to the order itself. The visions of some of the order's most vocal proponents were brought to light -- new spy and police structures to weed out hidden theris from the humans they resembled; "purges"; and other civil-liberties nightmares. That kicked off a legal and political counterattack whose rhetoric became blistering even in theris' absence. Between that and the outing of one or two significant political figures -- emphasizing how deep any enforcement of the order would have to dig -- some began to wonder if this cure wouldn't be worse than the disease.

And so the stage was set for the surprise unveiling of The Meeting and Redwing's declaration of defiance. The combined voice of over a thousand theris and mages gave one response to the relocation order: "No. And if you make us, there will be war."

Other Major Events

The Executive Order

Writing Tips

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.∞" - W.B. Yeats

The theme of this era of TTU is of a steep and accelerating spiral toward destruction. The average human or theri is powerless in the face of their leaders' grand designs; those leaders are themselves
powerless in the face of events. Caught in the grip of history, everyone is simply struggling to protect their life and lifestyle.

In true Cold War style -- a not inappropriate comparison, considering that one of the doomsday scenarios discussed in the media after The Meeting was a mage teleporting a nuclear bomb out of the U.S.' arsenal into a major city -- both sides could only escalate the conflict in hopes of finding a threat whose consequences would be too dire to risk. After The Meeting, an equilibrium would finally be reached, but during this era it was far from clear that the titans' clash could be stopped short of deadly force.

While Dragon In The Streets may have caused more uncertainty and even panic, this era is the leader in terms of raw fear. If they're contacted by Redwing or one of his agents, theris cling to The Meeting like a log in a whirlpool; if they're not, theris must decide how to deal with a command that is as world-shattering to them as The Changes were to ordinary humans. Those humans, meanwhile, are getting flashbacks to a paranoia of helplessness not seen since the "Duck and Cover" days.

Many people try to maintain a semblance of real life in this era -- after all, most adults have some Cold War experience and Mutually Assured Destruction isn't a new idea -- but everyone keeps one ear to the news, wondering just how bad it's going to get. After The Executive Order, troops are back out on the streets (although subtly, as peacekeepers); the U.S. has again ground to a near-halt; and things don't start to thaw until the country steps back from the edge.