Without the Culture's intervention, the war would not have occurred as such. The tensions inherent in Chelgrian society would more likely have resulted in a long-running violent insurgency. This would have resulted in far fewer Chelgrian deaths in the medium term, but would also have created a highly militarised, hostile and expansionist society. Chelgrian society was already moving in this direction, and Culture attempts to avoid this were instrumental in the Caste War beginning.

The risk of such a society existing was unacceptable to the Culture. They had already encountered such a society in the Idirans. The resulting war was one of the most significant Galactic events of the last 50,000 years, and resulted in the deaths of 851 billion sentient creatures. Allowing Chelgrian society to continue in the direction it had been travelling would have resulted in a similar loss of life. The Culture's interventions thus resulted in a great limiting of deaths. However, initial Culture interventions did not aim to create a civil war. They attempted to increase consciousness amongst the Invisible caste, while sponsoring pro-Invisible politicians. Unfortunately, these operations would eventually be derailed from their original purpose supporting the more militaristic segments of the Invisibles and causing the war. There is no evidence that the Culture as a whole expected or planned for the Caste war, but it did lead to an outcome that was favourable to the Culture's overall goals. There is some evidence that it was due to the intervention of a group of rogue SC minds - this had occurred earlier, leading to the Affront-Culture war - but this was not sanctioned by the main body of Contact and SC.