Historians do not agree on the messages carried in detritus of the long-ago past.

As one delves into history— such ancient, chaotic times!— the more facts become fluid, the stories contradictory. Across the ocean of time and fallible memory, true heroes metamorphose into archetypes; battles grow more significant than they actually were. Legends and truth are difficult to reconcile.

As the First Official Historian of the Jihad, I must set down this record as best I can, relying upon oral traditions and fragmentary documents preserved for a hundred centuries. Which is more accurate— a carefully documented history such as mine, or an accumulation of myths and folktales?

I, Naam the Elder, must write honestly, even if it invites the wrath of my superiors. Read this history carefully, as I begin with Rendik Tolu-Far’s Manifesto of Protest, a document that was confiscated by the Jipol:

“We are weary of fighting— weary unto death! Billions upon billions have already been slaughtered in this crusade against the thinking machines. The casualties include not only uniformed soldiers of the Jihad and their hired mercenaries, but also innocent colonists and human slaves on the Synchronized Worlds. No one bothers to count the number of enemy machines that have been destroyed.

“The computer evermind Omnius has dominated many planets for over a millennium, but it was twenty-four years ago that the murder of Priestess Serena Butler’s innocent child triggered an all-out human revolt. She used this tragedy to incite a fervor in the League of Nobles, precipitating the Armada’s full-scale attack and the atomic destruction of Earth.

“Yes, this was a blow to Omnius, but it killed every last human living on that planet and left the birthplace of humanity a radioactive ruin, uninhabitable for centuries to come. What a horrendous cost!— and that was not a victory, not an end, but only the opening act in this long struggle.

“For more than two decades, Serena’s holy war has raged against the thinking machines. Our strikes against Synchronized Worlds are countered by robotic incursions against League colonies. Again and again.

“Priestess Serena appears to be a devout woman, and I would like to believe in her purity and sanctity. She has spent years in the study of available writings and doctrines from ancient human philosophers. No other person has spent so much time talking with Kwyna, the Cogitor in residence at the City of Introspection. Serena’s passion is evident and her beliefs beyond reproach, but is she aware of all of the things that are done in her name?

“Serena Butler is little more than a figurehead, while Iblis Ginjo is her political proxy. He styles himself the ‘Grand Patriarch of the Jihad’ and leads the Jihad Council, an emergency governing body that rules outside the boundaries of the League Parliament. And we allow this to happen!

“I have watched the Grand Patriarch— a former slave master on Earth— use his charismatic oratory skills to transform Serena’s tragedy into a weapon. Is everyone blind to how he builds his own political power? Why else would he have married Camie Boro, who traces her bloodline back a thousand years to the last, weak ruler of the Old Empire? A man does not wed the only living descendant of the last emperor merely for love!

“To ferret out human traitors and clandestine saboteurs, Iblis Ginjo has established his Jihad Police, the Jipol. Think of those thousands who have been arrested in recent years— can they all be traitors working for the machines, as Jipol claims? Is it not convenient that so many of them are the Grand Patriarch’s political enemies?

“I do not criticize the military commanders, the brave soldiers, or even the mercenaries, for all of them are fighting the Jihad to the best of their abilities. Humans from every free planet have set out to destroy machine outposts and to block robot depredations. But how can we ever hope to achieve victory? The machines can always build more fighters… and they keep coming back.

“We are exhausted from this endless warfare. What hope do we have for peace? What possibility exists for an accord with Omnius? Thinking machines never tire.

“And they never forget.”