We might be about to get an answer as to how wed to capitalism Ishee is. It's time to roll for the planet's government! Let's see, that's a 2d6-7+Pop roll, and Pop is 7, so it's just a flat 2d6 roll. A 7 tells us that the world is balkanized, or split up into multiple nations (just like ours! Gov digit 7: bUWP α-3D-0704-? (α Greve-Eau Pleine-Bishop Scheumack-Ishee)/????77?-?/?/??/Em). We'll figure out just how many nations in a moment, but first we'll have to look at non-governmental agents. We roll 1d3+1 for how many of those there are, which turns out to be 3.
We roll on the Government table for each of the non-governmental agents in order to see, generally, how they're structured. We get 10, 5, and 6, so we're looking at a charismatic dictator (like a religious messiah or revolutionary leader), a feudal technocracy, and a captive government. In my Traveller setting, “feudal technocracy” (which is kind of a weird term, especially cuz technocracy is a misunderstood and misapplied term in so many cases) refers to a recreation of feudal hierarchy, land ownership rules, and entitled rights by means of hypercapitalist subcontracting. That is, a duke will award a comital contract for the administration of a group of systems within their subsector to someone (granting them all the rights of a count while burdening them with the responsibilities of actual governance), who might then subcontract with someone to monitor the banking industry in their county and awarding them in exchange the title and rights of a viscount or marquis. When the system is working properly, the contract goes to whomever it can be shown will most skillfully be able to fulfill the role (which is the technocratic bit).
ANYWAY: The 7, 8, and 8 I roll on three 2d6 rolls reveal that the charismatic dictator is only a minor power with some supporters, but the other two are notable powers who are well known and enjoy significant support. I'm thinking that the feudal technocracy faction might merely represent the contract noble whose fief is/includes this planet. They want to unify the world for some reason, to forge it into a world-state. Is it for power? It might be, but I'm kind of more enamored by the idea that the noble actually thinks it will be best for the population somehow to bring the various nations of the world together. And with the stateless captive government faction (something of a conundrum), I'm kind of thinking either agents of another world trying to manipulate this one into its control or (maybe more interestingly) a grassroots movement trying to convince the world to let another take over.
A roll of a 5 on 1d6 tells us that there are 4 major nations on the planet. Before we divide up the population among them, I'm gonna roll for their governmental structures, just in case I get another 7. This roll is 2d6-7+(Pop-1), or 2d6-1 in this case. Let's see . . . 3, 5, 5, 6. Well! That's an awful lot of feudal technocracies there! This time with a state, as is another captive government. The 3 means that one nation is a self-perpetuating oligarchy.
My current thoughts on the political situation (I'm gonna give the nations and cities random Wikipedia names at this point; I'll add the link, too):
The Guild-State of the Rose Brothers (6,174,679). The Guild of the Rose Brothers is a group dedicated to innovation and invention. Think a cross between the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, Maker Fair, and Noisebridge. They're a semi-mystical lightly anarchistic fraternal order to which you gain admission by demonstrating that you've improved some already existing piece of technology or methodology. You join its highest levels only by creating something new, introducing some major, paradigm-shifting innovation or invention. Major cities: Haldon (primary: 799,023 people), Scopula Vicina (primary: 650,169 people), Pursuit of Life (primary: 599,580), Balvaneh-ye Motamedi (primary: 532,214), Barnette City (secondary: 445,786), The Bridges (secondary: 173,828)
Oleinik March (4,105,907). The (vis)county which contains the Bishop Sheumack system recently had its contract awarded to a new (vis)count; I think the previous one died of natural causes (age?). That dead former viscount was far more interested in the activities and opportunities in the Duke's court than in actually administering their territory. I think maybe they aren't dead at all, but managed to win a higher contract that had an exclusivity clause. Regardless, they had a great fear that their underlings would overthrow them and take their contracted position. So administration of the Bishop Sheumack system was contracted to two consular marquises, one of Oleinik and one of Jermlaine. While the large print of their contracts set out how they were to administer the system together, the nature of the two marquises and the small print ensured that they would spend all of their energy struggling for an edge over the other and never being secure enough to move against their contract liege. Major Cities: Nueva Veracruz (primary: 796,209), Machrihanish (primary: 555,167), Neo-Edinburgh (primary: 466,559), Thorell (secondary: 373,164)
Jermaine March (4,453,070). See above. Major Cities: Landell de Moura City (primary: 761,773), Daedalus City (primary: 544,487), Amiman (secondary: 239,206), Luisa Maffi City (secondary: 100,368)
TCI (the captive state; 1,287,657) . . . I have no inspiration for this yet, other than that it leads to an offworld polity. Major Cities: Moa (primary: 758,380), Sun City (secondary: 204,087)
Similarly, the nature of the charismatic dictator eludes me as of yet, but stateless feudal technocracy faction will be agents of the new (Vis)Count, who is much more conscientious than the last one and has their agents on the world working for peace and integration among the various nations. It'll just make their job easier. Finally, there's the captive state stateless faction: I'm thinking that they'll be a cold war kind of thing. The captive state that has territory is at war with another polity and that polity has sent agents to this world to strike against that outpost.
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