To appreciate the political affiliations of the characters in The War of the End of the World, it is necessary to realize how the regions from which they come influence them. What was to become the mainstream of republican Brazil, of which Epaminodas Goncalves is the principal representative, is located in the urban and coastal regions of the country. Epaminodas Goncalves's political party is the Progressive Republican, which is informally referred to as the Jacobin faction. The Jacobins, of course, have simple, direct wishes for dominant political power in Brazil in general and Bahia in particular, by means of the power they can muster within the structure of the republic. In part, the republican aspirations of the Jacobins do represent social and political progress, although the novel illustrates how that power can be corrupted into a kind of oppression and brought down to the level of political rivalry between two mainstream parties. An important fact about the success of the Canudos enterprise led by the Counselor is that it is located in a remote section of Bahia, which is itself the northeastern part of Brazil. Remote as it is, Canudos is isolated from its more cosmopolitan (and hence more mainstream) political counterparts in such places as Salvador, the capital city of the state. The remoteness of the region, together with the simplicity of devout peasant residents of the region contributes to the success with which the Counselor first preaches with such success against the onset of the republic, in terms of the need for spiritual renewal: He spoke to them of heaven, and of hell as well . . . and of how Satan could manifest himself by way of seemingly harmless innovations. . . . In 1900 the sources of light would be extinguished and stars would rain down. But, before that, extraordinary things would happen" (5). The Counselor suffuses his idea of an ideal society with a combination of an apocalyptic and cautionary vision of th...