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Unit Zero

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During the centuries, the Emperors believed that they could educate people and bring them to a level of understanding that would lead to social harmony throughout the Empire. The training each individual received was supposed to make them rational, composed, capable of foreseeing consequences and act accordingly. These societies never came to be, because of the inherent diversity in the human pool which always led to instabilities even inside small groups. After many unsuccessful attempts at a stable reign, the Dynasties made way for a new era that was cataloged as the Reign of Generals, but is more commonly known as the Reign of the Unit.

The leaders knew by then that any attempt to create a perfect society was doomed from the beginning, so they imposed the notions of good and evil and created a system based on reward and punishment. While most people were unable to feel the currents that moved them and were acting from the simple instinct of avoiding pain, there were also those who were trying to cheat, escape or destroy the system. After the first revolutions that threatened to throw everything into chaos, one General created the Unit, a group outside the law whose sole purpose was to prevent any deviations inside the system, find the unadapted, the rebels and correct their behavior or, as it happened in many cases, eliminate the subject. No one was safe and this is proven by the deaths of three Generals. In time the motto of the Unit became: "We do good when we can and evil when we have to." Of course, good and evil had no real meaning for them. The creation of the Unit led to the disappearance of major conflicts, but induced an accumulation of tensions that would generate in a few millennia the most frightening event in human history: the War.



"Unit Zero"
author: unknown
oil on canvas, life size
approximate date: 1037 before the War
property of the Museum of History

note: Unit Zero was the Commander of the Unit. The name didn't designate a person, but a rank, and was given to the individual who prevented the most important conflict from the previous year. The Unit members where usually called only by their number. The Zero portrayed here eliminated the General who wanted to dissolve the Unit and abdicate. All modern analysts agree that, through his actions, this Commander delayed the formation of the Republic by a thousand years.


___

this "political" painting represents the way good and evil are viewed throughout history, how these concepts are often adapted to suit a regime and to maintain it and how they lose any meaning in the hands of some people

I don't care much for politics and it's not intended to criticize or anything (I actually used a Chinese variant of my face to represent the really "evil" guy)

full view
for those who don't know much history this short description is fictional
pencil for outline, added colors in Photoshop, used my own textures
please let me know if the colors are bright enough and the image is not overly burnt


my other entries for the contest [link]
Image size
800x1214px 443.89 KB
© 2009 - 2024 hypnothalamus
Comments8
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Existence-is-Futile's avatar
Interesting indeedy! I love the fiction - it really lifs a curtin n what this piece is about.
I love the textures and colours in the background and the way that it contrasts with the sheen of the figur. And I can recognise your head shape. creepy much? ^^;