Do we have any details on the Peron Massacre? What little source information I could find was that it happened late in the war. Devi Soulsong was captured and killed and Arnold Blair was killed trying to rescue her. This is somewhat confusing to me. Blair married a Pilgrim woman. Now we know he fought for Confed, but what about Devi? Where were her loyalties, who captured her and why? Was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time or was she captured to draw out the hero of the Pilgrim war? What factions were involved here? Clearly Confed was a major player, but was the Pilgrim Alliance responsable, or was it some faction. What was the mindset of the Pilgrims? Would they capture and kill one of thier own kind? Did Arnold make to her side or was she killed before he could make it to her? Sorry, I know I'm bouncing all over the place. It just seems like such a pivotal moment in Confed history as it surrounds the life of the "Savior to the Confederation." It doesn't really seem like we know a whole lot about it.
I always thought of it as she was some sort of prisoner which Arnold helped capture, then they fell in love, got married, had kids, etc., then during the Peron Massacre they both died.
I'd have to reread Pilgrim Stars to give you any real response if it talks about it in any legnth... There may or may not be some info in the confed handbook as well. The WC movie novelization touched on it briefly too but I don't remember the details.
It was the final battle of the war. And Dev became a piraha among the Pilgrims after she married which I believe was before the war. The Pilgrims were a fair size power and if memory serves they controlled most of the Sol sector and parts of neighboring sectors before the war.
A lot of what may seem to you like significant events are really just offhand references and flavor text. You're not going to find information on the mindset of disparate factions when what we know about a subject can be summarized in a couple sentences. If you are interested in this subject, then you need to read the Confed Handbook, Movie Novelization and Pilgrim Stars. Where are you guys getting the prisoner thing? The planet of Peron in the Luyten System was under blockade by the Confederation, which whoever made that wikipedia entry misworded it as being "captured." You mean a pariah? The Pilgrims had an early head start with hopper drives, but the introduction of jump drives quickly evened things out.
I would really like someone to lead a weekly Wing Commander book club. It would be very helpful in so many discussions here if everyone got a refresher. It could be like the community replay done over the last couple years. People wouldn't be summarizing their experiences since we'd all be reading the same thing, but someone could briefly summarize the chapter of the week and pose several discussion questions to the group.
Sounds like a good idea, you should get right on it! Sadly I'm in the middle of finishing up Fleet Action, so starting over is unappealing to me at the moment.
I think the important missing fact here is that the Peron Massacre happened when Blair was a toddler. His mother and father had met, fallen in love and produced the savior of the galaxy *before* the war between the Terran Confederation and the Pilgrim Alliance began. You won't have to worry, sir, they're both dead. She was a civilian, I don't think there was any greater plot there. Arnold Blair was a decorated officer during the war, but he wasn't anywhere near the monolithic superhero his son would be to the next war. Blair had a role in fleet planning and he knew that the long siege of the planet was about to come to an end--the Confederation was deploying a second newly-constructed fleet to press the siege and capture the planet. His "betrayal" was that he used that fact to sneak behind enemy lines to try and rescue his wife and son before the final attack began rather than staying quiet and letting them (possibly) die. I believe Arnold was shot down by a Pilgrim drone while trying to land on the planet and Devi was killed in the attack. Chris survived and was sent to live with his aunt. I think we should do this immediately. If there are no other takers, I volunteer to lead it.
I've long looked for a reason to reread the novels. Being able to compare fresh notes with people is as damn good a reason as I'm likely to find. Count me in.
