What bedeviling alchemy performs its transmogrifications when the future becomes the past? (Traveller Tuesday #7)

Oh, look, I missed a thing ~ I've adapted the list of God Views from The World Builder's Guidebook to account for more theologies than listed, and to flatten out the curve to remove that system's monotheism-is-better-than-primitive-polytheism-but-not-better-than-agnosticism-and-atheism-is-best bullshit. But it's been a year since I last looked at it, and I forgot to do that >.< Anyway, rather than going back and redoing everything, I'll just start rolling 1d20 to determine the God View of all subsequent religions.

I roll a 12 on the 1d20 roll, so this next religion is a remote monotheism. Somewhere between the reluctant God of the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers and the watchmaker God of complete deism, the number of times God has involved Themself with the world is, according to this religion, very small. Another 12, on 2d6+1 this time, tells us that the Spiritual Aim of this religion is to preserve the knowledge and wisdom of the past, possibly specifically the stories of the few times God (or mebbe Hermachis of the Horizon) has deigned to interact with the world.

What if this was a descendant of the Rose Brothers? Going from a dedication to developing new tech and shifting paradigms and transforming a futureshocked society into something once more unrecognizable to a disillusionment with the idea that people can actually come up with new ideas that quickly (think the original hullabaloo around the iPhone turning into the humdrum banality of yet another minutely-different iProduct)? And then that disillusionment grasping for a straw of hope and becoming ever-more-desperate to remember those times ~ the Gutenberg Bible, the assembly line, et cetera ~ when the new idea really did change something? A desperation that metastasizes into hope and history?

2d6+5 gives us 14, which in turn gives us a Devotion Required that only occurs once in a worshipper's life, just once sometime before dying. That kind of makes me think of the hajj, and I could justify that within the bounds of the Rose Brothers turned historians idea. It would be a pilgrimmage to the site of some major paradigm shift ~ to see the first printing press or the city where agriculture was invented or Charles Babbage's workshop or whatever. But I think, instead, it would make more sense as the religion calling on its members to, once in their life, erect or enact some grand monument to a technological revolution or to some invention that changed everything. These are the people who fund musea and install statues and host grand virtual historical recreations and write epic poetry. The more religious people in this faith spend much of their lives and money on these testaments.

Organizational Structure is determined by a 2d6+7 roll of 9 (yep, rolled a 2). We continue the tradition of Isheean religions involving great variation amongst its subgroups, as this one has a loose hierarchy that leaves most decisions up to individual worshippers. There are higher clergy, but they exist to enable learning and the creation of monuments, not to lead or dictate. They are librarians and teachers and financiers and the people who introduce you to the people you need to know. Another 9 (this time much more predictable, as it's a 2d6+2 roll) tells us, sensibly, that services consist of communal teaching with only limited ritual. When a worshipper completes their monument, they host an unveiling ceremony with a little ritual and a lot more teaching and spreading of knowledge about the innovation at hand.

OK, now this result takes me aback a bit. These faithful are zealous proselytes. That part makes some sense: driven to ensure that the galaxy remembers the past, they have a habit to (at the least) go off on rants about various moments in history when an invention transformed the way people interacted and behaved. That part isn't surprising, but the fact that the religion is intolerant of other sophont races is (2 on 2d6-2). Let's call them a human religion, cuz that's fun. Turns out that these qweens are rather speciesist, insisting that human are the only species with plastic enough neural structures to experience such dramatic shifts in their thinking. Against the evidence of history, they like to claim that other sophont species had a much more gradual and hidebound path of development and that, since entering the galactic community, humans have been responsible for all technological advancement. What jerks!  But it does let me show that racism/speciesism can be subtle, it can be nonviolent (which doesn't make it any less dangerous), and it can present itself as something that people could admire, like a commitment to learning and teaching.

This intolerance of other species has worked to limit the size of the religion, which rolled a 7 on 3d6-2 for its size. That's tens of millions, and random.org tells us that it's specifically 69,207,559 sophonts. Significantly more than all of Ishee, still. Rolling for a random percentage of the remaining Isheean population, I get 9.4%, which comes out to 1,506,003 Isheeans. Most of those will be in the Guild-State, obviously (at least with the current religious makeup of the planet). As an interesting demographic thought (it's way too early in the process to do this kind of demographic work), the Guild-State has about 38.5% of the Isheean population. 0.094 divided by that percentage comes out to about 25% (roughly) of the Guild-State following this religion, which is a significant number. If the other percentages carry over appropriately, then the Guild-State would also be (all percentages approximate at the moment) 23% atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other, 36% Liberty Fellowship, and 2% Beaumonters. When I do get down to that kind of work, though, I think the Associationists would cluster in the Consular Marches, being more representative of galactic culture than Isheean, resulting in fewer of them in the Guild-State.

So, this significant religion, what's it called? Let's roll that dWikipedia! We're just gonna steal that village's name directly and call it Azeyrenawt.

The religious landcape of Ishee so far:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 sophonts (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
1,428,915 sophonts (app. 8.9%) not yet accounted for

Details, details, details (Traveller Tuesday #3)

OK, so who actually runs these four states and three factions? How do they work? Well, we start by determining the representative authority, the person or group who is considered to be the center of the government (“The Decider” as one former President I'm annoyed I miss once called it).

The Guild-State of the Rose Brothers (self-perpetuating oligarchy): Rolling a 1 on 1d6 tells us that an elite council serves as the Guild-State's representative authority. I'm assuming that's either the council of paradigm shifters or the judge who determine whether someone joins that group. Probably the former, but we'll find out after we figure out everyone's representative authority.

Oleinik March (feudal technocracy): Here, we roll a 6 on 2d6 and discover the quite expected: the representative authority of Oleinik March is a single ruler, in this case the Marquis of Oleinik who rules directly.

Jermaine March (feudal technocracy): Jermaine March, on the other hand, is much less typical, as an 8 reveals that it is ruled by several councils. Huh. Don't know what to do with that yet. Maybe the marquesal contract was awarded to an administrative company?

TCI: We roll a 7: this nation is ruled by a ruler. Military? Corporate? I don't know yet . . .

charismatic dictator: Oh, look! It's a junta of some sort! (We rolled 6 on 1d6)

(vis)comital agents (feudal technocracy): They're governed by an elite council (we rolled 4). It's probably some sort of cell structure, naw that would actually be more like . . .

foreign agitators (captive state): . . . several councils (thanks to a roll of 10)! So this group will be the one organized into cells.

But what do these representative authorities do? And how much power do they have, really? We're gonna answer those questions in reverse order as we first determine what the division of power is like in each, and then will determine what kind of power the representative authorities have:

The Guild-State of the Rose Brothers: no division (rolled a 6), meaning that the elite council is certainly the Council of Innovating Masters. Said Council holds all the highest power in the Guild-State: executive, legislative, and judicial.

Oleinik March: 2-way division (rolled a 4), with the consular marquis holding executive and legislative power (rolled a 5)

Jermaine March: 2-way division (rolled a 3), with those councils holding executive and legislative power (rolled a 3)

TCI: 2-way division (rolled a 3), with the ruler holding executive and judicial authority (rolled a 1)

charismatic dictator: 2-way division (rolled a 4), with the junta holding legislative and judicial authority (sounds closer to a bunch of messiahs or a council of wise elders than a bunch of military generals . . .)

(vis)comital agents: 3-way division (rolled a 2), with the elite council holding legislative powers (rolled a 3)

foreign agitators: 3-way division (rolled a 2), with the various cells holding executive power (rolled a 1)

We've almost got the governments on this world sorted out! We just gotta figure out who holds the other kinds of power in each, if not the representative authority.

Oleinik March: Several councils hold judicial power (roll of 10). Let's call them teams of lawyers hired by the consular marquis of Oleinik to comb through the marquesal contract and determine what actions are or are not allowable under its terms and fine print.

Jermaine March: Ah! Here's the consular marquis of Jermaine, holding judicial authority (roll of a 6). I've two ideas about how to explain the situation in Jermaine March is constructed, and they aren't mutually exclusive. The consular marquis of Jermaine is a lawyer by training, not an administrator, so they outsourced the day-to-day running of their march to a corporation, reserving the right to place boundaries and limitations. They have also been seduced away by the adventurous possibilities open to one of marquesal rank and become more of an absentee ruler.

TCI: Several councils (roll of an 8) hold legislative authority. So far, I'm thinking this is a miltary outpost or militarized colony, but until I determine what other polities exist in the Bishop Sheumack system or its (vis)county, I don't think I can say too much about it.

charismatic dictator: A single ruler (roll of a 7) holds executive authority. Maybe this is the charismatic dictator, and they are merely a pawn of the council? The vulgate, the masses, follow him because of his charisma, but any real powerbroker knows that the council holds the actual power?

(vis)comital agents: Here's a surprising bit: the demos holds the executive power for this faction (roll of a 2) ~ the (vis)count doesn't want to take direct action, probably fearing over-committal of resources, disruption of the balance of powers, or contractual consequences, so while they have agents working towards unifying this fractured planet, those agents are limited to recruiting and encouraging natives of the world to act. Must be frustrating for those agents, by which I mean: PLOT. Several councils, on the other hand (roll of a 9), hold judicial authority. Let's say those are social and political scientists hired by the (vis)count to evaluate the success of these efforts.

foreign agitators: several councils hold judicial power (roll of a 10) ~ maybe there are two kinds of cells, the kind that actually works to achieve their ends, and another kind (the Inquisition) that investigates, infiltrates, and manipulates the cells to ensure ideological unity? And several councils hold legislative power, too (roll of an 8). This is one decentralized non-democratic group!

Politics are what happens whenever two or more people are interacting (Traveller Tuesday #2)

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.