The following contains spoilers for Robin #14, on sale now from DC Comics.
"Shadow War" kicked off with Deathstroke seemingly murdering Ra's al Ghul. At least, that's how it appeared. Someone framed Slade, impersonating him to ignite the conflict between the assassin and Talia. Whilst the Secret Society of Supervillains and the League of Shadows fought, Batman and Robin investigated the mystery surrounding it.
As the conflict draws to a dramatic conclusion, Ra's al Ghul's real killer and the true mastermind behind "Shadow War" was revealed in the final pages of Robin #14 (by Joshua Williamson, Roger Cruz, Norm Rapmund, Luis Guerrero and Troy Peteri). The hints were there, and some of the players in this event figured it out before the big reveal. However, many readers may have been surprised to uncover the killer's true identity - and they may be asking why he did what he did.
Former Outsider and Markovian royalty Brion Markov, aka Geo-Force, revealed himself to be behind everything in the final pages of this latest issue. His history as a hero, and an ally of the Dark Knight, might leave his motivations for sparking such endless violence unclear. The reasons why lie in the character's history and it explains why he was the only person who would want to start this conflict.
First, there's his motivation for framing Slade Wilson. It seems out of character for him to kill, given his heroic reputation, but Deathstroke gave him plenty of reasons. Brion's sister was Tara Markov - the infamous hero Terra. During "The Judas Contract" Teen Titans storyline, Terra was planted on the heroic team by Slade to secretly bring about their downfall. He used her to get to the Titans and the story resulted in her death. During Final Crisis, he confronted Slade about the events that led to his sisters death and tried to kill him. Clearly, that one confrontation wasn't enough to settle the score.
As for why Brion hates Talia, that's a part of the character's modern history. Talia al Ghul created the terrorist organization known as Leviathan, but she was overthrown as its leader by Mark Shaw. He took total control and planned to use it to build a new world order. In a bold move, he bought Markovia and turned it into a new Leviathan nation. Although it was not shown, it was assumed that Prince Brion Markov was unceremoniously kicked out of his home country.
Although Markovia has been restored to the sovereign nation it used to be in the wake of Leviathan's defeat, Geo-Force still had his birthright and his home stolen from him. Although Talia herself was ejected from Leviathan and fought to take down Mark Shaw later on, Brion clearly blames her for what happened. To a certain extent, he's right to. She set up the organization that took his home, and she was working with Mark Shaw before he kicked her out of the terrorist group. Even now, she's reclaimed her empire and is free to make the same mistakes again.
All of these personal grievances are what motivated him to orchestrate the "Shadow War". His hatred towards both Deathstroke and Talia is immense and, knowing that they have their own long and troubled history, he knew he could kill two birds with one stone. As a hero himself, he probably believes that all of this bloodshed is doing the world a favor too. His true motivation, however, is revenge.
It seems that family and country are both equally important to him. Considering how personally he took what happened to Terra, his rage towards Talia must be unbridled. It doesn't look like he can be talked out of any of this. Geo-Force wants Deathstroke and Talia dead, and it was a long time coming.
