For the re-launch of Cauldron I've chosen the fight between Umma and Lagash as our starting point. Certainly not the first battle in human history but in my humble non-historian opinion the first that we can really get a clear narrative picture of. It’s ancient ancient history, 2,116 years before Alexander crossed the Hellespont, so dates, facts, and numbers are loose when present at all. But, there are character archetypes we’re familiar with; a great and greedy king, a ravenous blood-thirsty god, and there are recognizable themes; revenge, jealousy, pride, and lust for power. All this means is we can only broadstroke the battle given the lack of information and facts, truly a glimpse of the past, our past, through Tuchman’s “distant mirror”. But, a picture can be formed, however loosely, of that long gone version of ourselves and we can start to tell our history, the history of war, if not from it’s beginning then somewhere closeby. So, let's get In Medias Res, and get stuck in with episode one the battle between Umma and Lagash!

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