Clan Wars

Clan Wars, also known as Times of Strife, are low-intensity conflicts between various clans of the Directorate. They are typically very limited in scope and destructiveness, and most acknowledge that the appropriate course of action is generally for clans that are uninvolved in a given dispute to stay out of the hostilities and allow the matter to be resolved by the warring parties. Historically, it is only when a clan war begins to draw in these uninvolved clans that the Directorate will step in and attempt to mediate the dispute.

Origins & Causes

Causes of clan wars throughout history have been many and varied. At one point in Fen's pre-spaceflight history, it is likely that there were at least five wars happening on the planet at any given moment. None of these conflicts were ever existential, however, as Feni were largely nomadic and standard practice was simply for one or more sides of a clan war to judge that to continue hostilities would cost enough in lives or resources to be counterproductive, and thus relocate. Much of Fen's early written history is found in the form of peace treaties, or in later centuries, personal accounts of campaigns, and the semi-perpetual shifting of clan territories only eased gradually with the slow adoption of agriculture and semi-settled life.

In the modern day, clan wars are typically caused by issues such as:

• Perceived disrespect
• Conflicting commercial or industrial interests
• Opportunism
• Mutual interest in testing or preserving military readiness
• Vengeance for depriving a clan of a perceived opportunity
• Territorial violations
• Poaching of valuable personnel
• Historical custom (e.g. the semi-regular clashes between clans Vrak and Jadthraxaka)
• Access or lack thereof to one of the few scarcities in modern Directorate society (e.g. water from a sacred spring)
• Allocation of commercial or industrial licenses for contracts with the central government
• Envy
• Theft of intellectual property

And more!

The Wars

When matters could not be settled through peaceful means, politics instead took the form of ritualized wars, where a captured enemy was preferable to a dead one, and strength was measured by the number of stolen ghineru. Raids were preferred to pitched battles, and a display of individual skill or valor could often carry the latter. This remains the case today, although with modern technology these wars are somewhat inevitably more lethal than in ages past, and few ghineru are generally taken. Priority is nevertheless placed not on destroying the opposing clan nor its people, but on besting them honorably with the expectation that both parties will use the lessons learned to advance, although it isn't considered extremely poor form for the winners to gloat. Civilians are not typically involved, nor is infrastructure generally destroyed, although it may be raided. This is a radical departure from the galactic norm, where wars of survival are not only regular but expected. In human societies, for example, war is almost never conducted except between sides which regard the other as an existential threat to be ended permanently.

Clan wars have not been fought since before the War of Ruz'kahni Survival, as the central government has made unity and centralization a policy goal. Historical clan wars include: