Wars

Legal Conflicts

Interestingly, the LWA does not prohibit warfare or any such related aggression. Perhaps those who drafted the original LWA regulations, and those who have maintained them, realize that warfare is, however regrettably, integral to the human condition -- and that, therefore, any attempt on the part of the LWA to inhibit, restrict, or otherwise oppose war would bring them only frustration and loss of authority. Nothing in their charters and regulations actually condones war, but the omission is widely known. Perhaps one of the LWA's greatest strengths is their practice of recognizing independent rule of individual Lattice Worlds; perhaps their power stems in great part from the willingness of those worlds to submit to the LWA's ministrations in some areas, as long as they can maintain their own autonomous rule in others.

Of course, the LWA maintains the largest military force known, and those rare instances of agression against the LWA itself have all ended in swift defeat and reimposition of LWA authority -- or in some cases, disintegration of the aggressor's government and an installation of new rule by LWA-chosen entities.

The Spoils of War

Of all the reasons for warfare, one of the most basic is simple material confiscation. The Power Films and Mass Generators in each Lattice World's Core offer up more than enough reason for one world to mobilize an army and seize control of another's Core. Indeed, many Lattice Worlds maintain an empire-like presence, spread across as many adjacent "blank" worlds as they can manage, for the sole benefit of extracting energy and material.

Though territory is far less of a concern than in pre-Lattice times, the conquering of new land remains another motivation for war.