Net
Net (Shinasthana: 浽, snur; 1770/71 – Apr. 2, 1793) was a Themiclesian soldier most known for brutally murdering 92 Camians publicly and committing other atrocities, as part of General Lwang Lit's plan to terrorize the Camian government into recalling its army from Maverica. A minor and obscure figure in most historical works, Net has been the subject of recent scholarship in the history of war crime and urban legend.
Net has been enumerated as one of three most infamous mass-murderers in Themiclesian history, the two others being the 8th-century Chancellor Mreq and the early 19th-century serial killer N′wal Kup.
Name
There is some variation between the sources as to the name of the person who was publicly witnessed killing Camians during the occupation of Kensington, the Camian capital. All sources agree that there was only one person who did so, at a fixed location near what is now Market Street and 14th Avenue, leading to the conclusion that the differing names must belong to the same person. Themiclesian letters, mostly in Hallian and Shinasthana, refer to Net as Snur, while most Camian sources in Anglian state his name was Net. Scholars usually do not controvert this point, and some state that Snur was likely his given name, while Net was his courtesy name. Themiclesian people of the time usually had courtesy names for social interactions, as calling a person by his given name was considered offensive.
Life
Almost no verifiable information is available about Net's early life, other than his unusual relationship with Lwang Lit. It is likely that Net came from the interior of the Subcontinent, where a multitude of Themiclesian settlements existed. Records show that a young soldier in the South Division of the Colonial Army, named Snur, absconded after mere months in the ranks. This Snur may or may not have been the same person as Net/Snur, as it was not uncommon for Themiclesians even in the same community to be given similar names. In accounts given by contemporaries, Net and Lwang were both in the Ostlandic Musketeers (despite the name, a Themiclesian regiment), though by the start of the Second Maverican War, Lwang was an officer, while Net was a newly-enlisted man. Net is described as Lwang's "familiar" (褻, sngryat), indicating he functioned as Lwang's personal assistant.
When Lwang was made General of the West Expedition, he attempted to secure an appointment for Net; however, Net was unable to show proof of his abilities, so the Chancery Department of Military Affairs (㷉𣍘, ′uts-dzū) rejected his appointment on Jul. 2, 1790. In September, Lwang again asked for an appointment, but it too was rejected, on the grounds that there were no records of Net's performance.
After Lwang had taken Kensington and negotiations broken down, Net's most notorious activities began. According to Camian diarist Charles Mantle (1754 – 1830), Net "made several appearance a month upon an erect scaffold and slaughtered the gentle people and inhabitants of Kensington, imprisoned by Themiclesian forces, before the public and in daylight. He boasted to the people most rightfully outraged by his actions, it was joyful to him to kill and maim. The blood seeped from the scaffold and pooled upon the street. The respectable people of the whole city spoke of him in disgust and refrained from speaking of him in disgust." Several Themiclesian letters refer to the same activities in the similar locations, which all but confirms the historicity of Net's public atrocities. It is unknown if Net actually participated in any of Lwang's campaigns to the west in the summer of 1792, but it seems likely he stayed behind in the capital city and continued committing atrocities.
In early 1793, General Lwang was replaced by the Lord of L'jin. Soon, Camian elites established what Net had done in the previous year and demanded retribution. L′jin's ordered him to be tried by his judge, Srin Nuk. The prosecution argued that because none of Net's victims had actually been convicted of any crimes, Net had killed innocent men and was guilty of the crime of murder (賊殺人). Net's defence does not survive. He was convicted by Nuk on Mar. 29, 1793 and sentenced to death. Camian accounts say that he was beheaded at Dead Man's Gate, Kensington's north gate where executions usually occurred. In L′jin's report to the royal court written in 1794, Net was executed on Apr. 2 at an unrecorded place, for the crime of murder. There was apparently a crowd that turned out to see the death of the "infamous murderer", even though it seems L′jin attempted to keep the matter discreet.
Doubts
Historians of related fields often assert that Net's story is very fragmentary and difficult to verify, because neither the Themiclesians nor Camians attempted to make a biography of any level of detail about Net, which is expected for a person of his status. There are certain areas which attract much doubt, as accounts contradict typical practices of the day or each other.
Camian records
On the Camian side, the only source written by a plausible eye-witness of Net's actions is the diary of Charles Mantle, who lived in Kensington during the occupation. Mantle's account of Net's atrocities is very short and somewhat problematic. Historian A. Billy says that Mantle fails to mention that many Camian citizens rose up in arms and attacked Themiclesian soldiers, sometimes ambushing pairs of them in the night, and that the "citizens of Kensington" are such ambushers, not ordinary civilians living in the city. Billy continues to say that Mantle wrote during the occupation and probably wanted to emphasize the enormity of the Themiclesian general's policies.
As for the identity of Net's victims, 47 of his 92 victims are named by Mantle. These include, foremost, the Mayor of Kensington and his wife. Histories penned to be sympathetic to Themiclesian forces tend to emphasize that all the known victims of Net were those who took up arms against the occupying force and were apprehended, and so the act of killing them (while very much still deplorable) was "not as low as arbitrary executions of civilians". Such an assessment may, in another view, be unduly strong since in later decades many victims were described by their families to be part of the civil resistance against the occupation, an object of much positive romanticism in later Camian politics. As such, some of the victims recorded as resistants against Themiclesians may not have been resistants.
In the History of Kensington written by Nelly Alder in 1831, Net's actions were given in very graphic detail: she asserts that Net skinned his prisoners alive or used their intestines to strangle them, and Net not only killed "prisoners in chains" but also innocent passers-by. These accounts are troubled by the book's preface itself, which says that Adler did not live in Kensington when these events occurred, and she had interviewed the "old and respected gentlemen" for these accounts. Billy says that these "old and respectable gentlemen" are potentially the same ones who informed L′jin about Net's atrocities and sought his death. He also notes that, prior to 1831, "not even Mantle" has suggested that Net employed such diabolical ways to kill his victims.
In An Account of the Maverican War, a 1849 monograph dedicated to Camia's campaign in Maverica and at home, Mason Lee asserts that Net was ordered by General Lwang expressly to kill innocent Camians, to humiliate and terrorize them and ultimately to cow them into submission. Thus the executions were portrayed at the radix to a "civic uprising" that tragically failed. Lee's account is deemed untrustworthy, because it openly contradicts the implications of Mantle's account that the Camian citizen's spontaneous assaults on Themiclesian soldiers began before the atrocities did. His 1849 title also makes several other gross errors that make its narrative difficult to reconcile with other works.
Themiclesian records
The matter has generally not received as much attention in Themiclesia as it did in Camia. In the 1795 General Account drafted by the Admiralty Department, Net was adjudged guilty of murder because he killed individuals who were "given to him and his actions unlawfully" by General Lwang. The identities of his victims are not mentioned. Lwang escaped punishment largely because he secured a special pardon from the Emperor with the fantastical tale that he had accidentally burned down a lawyer's lodge in Kensington, and the entire country's lawyers were pursuing him across the sea as he sailed back. As absurd as this account seems, Lwang's letter to the Emperor so stating does survive. Many Themiclesian lawyers at that time did actually pit themselves against royal requisitions in support of the war effort, so Lwang may have accused lawyers of bringing fraudulent charges against him, to levy the Emperor's temporary impatience so as to procure a vital pardon.
Net is mentioned as Snur in several Themiclesian officers' letters that have survived from the Camian Campaign. In one such letter written by Captain Pruk to his wife in metropolitan Themiclesia, Net is accused as a troublemaker who has little regard for the actual objectives of the campaign and a sycophant to the General Lwang. In another epistle, Captain Kyat say that they avoid walking near a fixed place, for fear of reprisal; Kyat then complains that General Lwang has the most unorthodox tactics and privately favours Net, who "sells depravity for gifts". At least two letters mention that Net has blackmailed his victims and their families for money and sexual favours and then refused to honour his bargain, and this is known because he bragged about it to other Themiclesian soldiers. Captain Hap calls him "Snur, an infamous malfeasor". A number of other communications mention a "distrubing thing" (不祥) happening during the period when Net is known to have committed atrocities.
Yet, notably, none of the private letters written contemporaneous to the occupation explicitly say Net killed prisoners, which raises questions about the public attitude of General Lwang. If he had indeed publicly sanctioned Net's actions, other officers seem to have little reason to resort to circumlocution when mentioning such an event.
In an 1813 essay, the Lord of L′jin commented that Net was employed by Lwang in this manner to terrorize the locals. Lwang's mission, according to L′jin, was to "change the Camians' minds more than defeat them in battle", and Net's actions could have been backed by Lwang's interpretation of his mission; however, L′jin obliquely hints that the Marines may not actually have trained Net to perform the atrocities, since he was not aware of similar policies the unit enforced elsewhere. This effectively shifts blame onto Lwang, who had died in 1810, for introducing the (illegal) use of torture to advance the unit's missions and further implicates Lord Lrjit, Foreign Secretary in 1791, to have acquiesced or even commanded the use of torture. While L′jin's account is internally consistent, historians note that his writings show a strong desire to distance himself (he was a judge by training), from illegal actions; it should be noted that L′jin was in the running for Chief Justice of Appeal in 1813, so he stood to benefit from taking credit for the good part of his generalship and blaming its bad parts on others.
Some historians believe that more information about Net would be available if the Gwreng-l′junh Palace did not burn down in 1841, as it held most of the armed forces' archives about personnel, finance, and inventories.
Legacy
Remains
The disposal of Net's body is not recorded, though several locations have arisen as plausible candidates, including the historic cemetery for unclaimed corpses outside of Dead Man's Gate. Some literature, regarded as apocryphal, suggest his body was torn into pieces by a rancorous mob. His head may have been displayed above the gate for a time after Apr. 2, 1793.
In the peace treaty signed between Themiclesia and Camia in 1798, Themiclesia agreed to punish all officers involved in Net's atrocities. An investigation led by Nan J. in the following year found very few culpable officers, and they were stripped of their commissions and ordered to repay the salaries they have received under service so far. Several, unable to front the money, were forced into debt bondage. The main culprit, General Lwang, had been pardoned in 1793 before the extent of his complicity was known, but it was decided he could not be further punished even though the pardon was obtained fraudulently. He and his kin were instead banished forthwith from the royal court and deprived of the future ability to take civil or military commissions.
Battle of Liang-gha
The massacre of Camians by Net was used as a rallying cry for Camian soldiers who attacked Themiclesian positions on the Isle of Liang-gha.
When confronted about Net's conduct, the prime minister the Baron of Naq-qrum reportedly said that Net was a "filthy imperial more Camian than Themiclesian". Naq-qrum said that Net had never set foot on Themiclesian soil and only joined Themiclesia's legion from abroad, and so while the government must accept responsibility for its servants of any nationality, the nation "shall wash its hands of Net".
Locations
The intersection of Market St. and 14th Ave., where Net conducted executions, was occupied by a stationery store until 1858, when it became a three-storey café. There is a public spring next to it, where Net was rumoured in later texts to have washed his bloody hands and execution tools. In 1905, the café and nearby buildings were demolished for a memorial dedicated to the martyrdom of dozens of Camian civilians who had picked up arms against Themiclesian occupation or were killed for no reason at all. An annual ceremony is conducted here, where representatives from each branch of the Camian Armed Forces salute civilians for their heroic resistance at home while the military was sent fighting abroad. One of the ceremonial oaths taken at this ceremony references the legend of the spring:
as long as the soldiers and sailors of Camia live, not again shall the land or water be red with civilian blood.
Net frequently appears as a stock character in several genres of fictional works. While some of these popular books purported to be historical, they typically advertise lurid description of Net's actions that are almost certainly false, and some are erotic novels portraying Net as a depraved sexual predator.
Movie portrayals
In 2000 Days, the 1974 film recounting the enter occupation of Kensington, Net was portrayed by Camian actor James Parker. Being of a muscular build, Parker was costumed to be bare-chested most of the time and wore a pair of black trousers and boots, though the uniform of Net's regiment was pastel green and beige boots. Parker revealed later the director was torn between putting him in a mask or not, since Camian films of the time "basically required as a matter of theatrical custom" that executioners be put in masks. But in the absence of a stronger antagonist, Net's role in the film was that of an omnipresent evil, and it seemed strange to have a main character whose face was not revealed. Therefore, the director decided not to mask him and instead use his "angelic looks" as a symbolic mask for the evil that defines the character.
While Net's portrayal is never sympathetic, not even with the addition of personal background to humanize him, other Themiclesian soldiers have received a degree of sympathy in the form of being portrayed as cowards rather than perpetrators of evil.