A BattleTechnology Exclusive Feature Article Black Luthien-a world of sprawling, black cities; a wilderness of black ferrocrete and manufactories and industrial centers encroaching upon black swamps under an atmosphere black and turgid with the foul belchings of Luthien's industry... This has been the image of the capital world of the Draconis Combine held for centuries by the citizens of every one of the other Successor States... but just how truthful an image is it? BattleTechnology asked Roger van Nuys of our Draconis Combine branch editorial off ices on Luthien to give us a report. Not many people outside of the Draconis Combine realize the extent of the terraforming miracle which has transformed the face of the world known as Luthien. Only four centuries ago, Luthien was a world of little more than equatorial deserts, shallow seas and foul-smelling polar swamps. Fourth planet of a huge, G0-type subgiant star, Luthien was virtually uninhabitable at the equators, and the poles sweltered in a steamy, sauna bath climate that made the world only marginally habitable. Its population was less than three million-farmers, mostly, raising rubber, bamboo, and Jukwood. On the Sendai Coast, fishing fleets harvested the xenocrustacean known as Tushani, the "Tushan Lobster" served as a delicacy by expensive restaurants and catering services across the Inner Sphere. It was Lord Sanethia Kurita's decision to move the capital of the Draconis Combine from New Samarkand to Luthien in 2617 which was responsible for the transformation of Luthien into the imperial splendor which we of the Combine know today. The factories are there--there can be little doubt about that. An estimated 70% of Luthien's land area and large parts of the shallow, coastal sea regions are now covered by the industrial facilities and manufacturing centers which make Luthien one of the leading industrial worlds of the Inner Sphere. It is true, too, that certain problems--pollution of air and water, the conditions of life in the officially-designated "housing utopias" surrounding the cities, the threatened extinction of all native Luthien lifeforms--have caused and concern among Draco administrators and officials. Tashiro Smith, an Associate Co-Ordinator of the Luthien Ministry of Information, addressed the problem with characteristic directness. "Lies!" Smith said during a recent interview. "The picture that non-Draconians have of life here on Luthien is a fabric of lies, exaggerations, and half truths! If they want to see Luthien, to know Luthien and its people, they should visit Imperial City for themselves, and not rely on the words of anti-Kurita propagandists and Davion rumor-mongers!" Imperial City! Perhaps the most astonishing and magnificent city in the Inner Sphere today is that monument to human energy and creativity, Imperial City, a monument which truly is the modern heart of the Draconis Combine. Growing in the midst of what once was swampland, Imperial City today is a showcase of magnificent edifices of teak and marble, of cut quartz and ediobony and granite, arrayed among the parks of imported sequoia, birch, and traverswood trees, reflected in the limpid beauty of the Daimyo Canal. It is in the midst of this tranquil magnificence that the teakwood beauty of the Imperial Palace rises above the still, blue waters surrounding its island garden. To know Imperial City is to know the slandering maliciousness of the Combine's enemies. The Imperial City: High art and beauty mark the Imperial Palace on the Daimyo Canal in the heart of Luthien's capital. It is difficult to imagine why the enemies of House Kurita should refuse to acknowledge the engineering and artistic brilliance of Luthien's capital. When asked his opinion, Tashiro Smith merely smiled and suggested that jealousy might have something to do with it. "You have to realize that we Draconians endure a constant state of siege," he went on to say. "A case in point: these so-called wargames which Hanse Davion is engaging in along our frontier-sheer, blatant, militaristic provocation, and nothing more! This Operation Galahad of his... first in 3026, then last year, and now this year as well... endless maneuvers and threatenings and saber rattlings! He presses upon us, testing, always testing! He launches sneak raids on our outposts and settlements, ambushes our garrisons, loots our industrial worlds... and claims that it is we who threaten him! Against such a tapestry of lies and violence, it is small wonder that our enemies can find nothing good to say about us... even about the beauty of our capital!" It is important for non-Draconians to remember the Draconian's own view of themselves--a stubborn, courageous, and independent people, engaged in a life-ordeath struggle against powerful, implacable, and encircling foes. If they seem suspicious of outsiders, it is because their neighbors are anything but friendly. Black Luthien: Planet-wide factories and pollutant-spewing industrial facilities are what most foreigners think of when they think of Luthien. As is so often the case, this is an anti-Draco distortion of the truth. Perhaps never in the history of Man's grand exodus to the stars has there been as spectacular a victory of Man over nature as the triumph of Imperial City. Ittookfive years to drain the swamps on which the city now stands, and the construction itself was accomplished almost entirely by hand, with every building, monument, and garden an individualized and unique work of art. The city's building ignited the explosion of interest in old Japanese customs, traditions, art, and architecture which was spread across the Combine by the edicts of Kokugaku"the National Learning." Much of what the Combine is today--much of what the Draconian people are today--had as foundation the creation of Imperial City where before there had been only fetid decay. True, it is a pity that the Tushani xenocrustaceans have become extinct, an inevitable by-product of the explosive growth of industry upon the world. But if acids pollute the waters, if the skies are darkened by the outpourings of Luthien's industrial might, who can say that Man is poorer for the loss of a few lower forms of life, when he is so obviously richer for the gleaming gem which is Imperial City, and the heartfelt dedication of the valiant Draconian people! [Editors' note: BattleTechnology readers from Successor States other than the Draconis Combine should be aware that articles in this publication originating within the borders of the Combine are subject to rigorous screening by the Ministry of Information, and by an Arts and Ethics Purity Council,which review all written material before publication. While BattleTechnology remains independent of the politics which sunder the various Successor States, it is inevitable that certain elements of House politics will still appear in articles appearing from time to time in this magazine. Opinions and views expressed in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of Battle Technology's editorial staff, or of the magazine's publishers.] Back to BattleTechnology 2 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com