Nothing is here 4

This page is a discussion of the society and political structure of the fictional world of Tehom, which is part of the setting The Judges of Tehom.

To Live Above the Oceans and Beneath the Heroes

The human population of Tehom is heavily concentrated in large mega-cities called cosmopoli, the largest of which measure several million people (Pinnacle, the largest cosmopolis, has an urban population of roughly 8 million). Generally, each cosmopolis is an autonomous political entity that controls several less populated nearby islands that are used for agricultural production and other natural resources. Human society on Tehom is highly industrialized and developed, and a vast information network links the cosmopoli together, ensuring a highly integrated culture.

The cosmopoli of Tehom are dominated by the Few – superhumans with powers and abilities fantastic in their scope. These powers may be something they were born with, developed later in life during a stressful event, the product of scientific experiments, or based on super-scientific items in the individual's possession. Powers are exceedingly diverse, and many seem to defy the laws of science as understood by mortal humans. When one of the Few has a leadership position, he or she is known as an Archon, though many use the terms "Archon" and "the Few" interchangeable. Adoring fans follow the every move of the Archons, and this fixation is woven into the political structure of the cities as well.

Kleocracy

In a very real (if flawed) sense, social order is created and maintained by the many watching the few. Tehomin society revolves around the lives and struggles of the Archons. Popular Archons inspire the public, and the people live in fear of notorious Archons. Partisans support specific Archons. Daily streamcasts document the latest public and personal activities of Archons.

This social order grounded in fascination in the Few is called kleocracy, the rule of the glorious. In ancient Greece, kleos was glory or recognized heroism. Acts of kleos inspired awe among the spectators, as if they were watching the divine enter the world. The Archons embody this. To watch Pillar lift a building to save a hundred people, or witness the Swamp Prophet drown his enemies in a wave of doom algae, fills one with awe. This is kleos. Kleocracy is a form of neo-feudalism, and a kleocatic society is understood in terms of three overlapping spheres of life: the common, the formal, the synoptic.

The Common Sphere

The common sphere is the mundane realm of day to day life and the Many. The Common Sphere is the domestic, the personal, and what keeps society running. The Few, precisely because of the attention the attention they receive at all turns, have limited access to the common sphere. Different cosmopoli have different customs and laws regarding the common world of the Many. In some, such as Eiren Bay, the feel of society is very similar to what we would expect in an industrialized, liberal democracy. In others, such as Pinnacle, a rigid hierarchy with the Few on top is constantly in view.

One cannot understand the common sphere or Tehomin society in general without understanding that it is grounded in Cosmopolism. Generally speaking, each Tehomin polity is based on a primary urban center, called a cosmopolis. Tehomin society is an urban one: resources are extracted from the environment (agriculture, raw materials) and sent to maintain dense population centers. Very few people willingly live in the country, away from people, away from the Few. Dark things can happen away from the City - things that can only be understood by some of the Few. The city is the place of humanity; within the city, one finds work, family, entertainment, and life. Outside the city, one finds wilderness.

The Formal Sphere

The Formal sphere is the realm of power, policy, and the decisions of society's elite, and the neo-feudal character of Tehomin kleocracy is most obvious and distinct in this realm. In a formalized or bureaucratic organization, a large amount of authority is held by the office of the leader. Various positions have standardized, official responsibilities and available methods. Neo-feudalism attaches less resources and obligations to official positions, focusing more instead of the personal characteristics and resources of the individuals in power. Consequently, kleocracy focuses on personal rather than official authority. This also leads to patrimonialism and noblesse oblige as an ideal. The Few have authority, and when things work as they should, use it to care for the Many. When it does not, the potential for exploitation and authoritarianism is great.

The personal nature of elite political structures within the cosmopolis gives rise to adhocracy. Kleocracies rely on a decentralized model with temporary task forces and projects designed to respond quickly to various technological, political, or economic situations. These various projects and joint ventures have a tenuous relationship to one another, and conflicts may erupt between them. Supporters of kleocracy believe the increased conflict is balanced by higher degrees of flexibility. A central authority (often with titles such as “Lord” or “High Archon”) attempts to balance and manage this diverse set of projects.

Archons are grand personalities with various forms of personal resources and capabilities. There is no guarantee, however, they will have the necessary training for any given assignment. Beneath the elite network of personal relationships, one finds a vast array of high trained if mundane specialists. These technocrats are to work to put the vision of the Archons in practice. A creative tension constantly exists between the Archons and the technocrats. Young Archons who do not listen to the voice of Technocrats find themselves in impossible situations, and experienced technocrats who forget their betters find themselves in dangerous ones. Between Archons and Technocrats, one sometimes finds Magistrates, members of the few who have given up publicity and glory to apply their powers to technical expertise. Magistrates are often seen as strange, not fully respectable, but exceedingly useful.

What we would consider as business and government are both within the formal sphere, as Tehomin society doesn't distinguish the two as people in our society do. Instead, Archons are given the command of ventures. An Archon may command a venture that helps maintain the peace, or mines a rare metal ore, or studies science. Some of these projects are more directly tied to taxation as a form of finance, some toward sale of products, many to both.

The idea of a conflict of interest is not present in Tehomin society; it is perfectly reasonable for someone who organize economic policy for a cosmopolis and also run one of its primary industries. Because of the fluidity of the adhocratic element of kleocracy, Archons often have dual roles, and its possible for the responsibilities of an Archon to change frequently over time. However, Tehomin society has a very clear idea of what running things poorly looks like: there is no glory in running one's business or a cosmopolis' economy into the ground either for bland personal gain or out of incompetence.

Finally, a common form of conflict between competing cosmopoli is Archonic War. Total and nuclear war is terribly wasteful, and kleocracy tries to avoid such unpleasantries at all costs. When diplomacy fails (and it often does), wars are waged by Archons, not armies. Minor conflicts, called Static Struggles, are highly ritualized and are rarely lethal. Fluid Struggles, on the other hand, are high stakes and often with very few laws except the most basic codes of honor. When Pillar and The Render destroyed 3 square kilometers near Pinnacle's agora, it was a fluid struggle between Pinnacle and Thaimbase.

The Synoptic Sphere

The Synopticon is an arrangement of society that creates order from the Many watching the Few. It is also called "The Civil Sphere," as it is the realm of community. A healthy cosmopolis requires community, and community requires festivals, entertainment, culture, and the arts. The social structure of Tehomin society is grounded in a ubiquitous system of mass and social media, a highly interconnected society where everyone talks about the celebrity aristocrats who are the Archons and other members of the Few. Many Archons use their power to create community organizations. Some are religious in nature, some secular. Some of these association promote a lifestyle, while others are effectively charities.

For an Archon, one's glory is reflected in one's cosmopolis, and this has lead to an interest in monumentality. The leaders of cosmopoli take great pride in various public works to demonstrate their prosperity. Cities almost always have a core downtown that is developed, safe, and aesthetically pleasing (at least according to the ruling Archon's tastes). When this norm of governance is functional, it means that the Archons "give back" to the Many by ensuring a maintained infrastructure, cultural opportunities, and economic development. When monumentality is dysfunctional, the cosmopolis may be in risk of bankruptcy in the name of vanity projects.

Key Tehomin Polities

• 'Beacon' is the oldest continually occupied polity on Tehom, going all the way back to the Garden Period. Though not officially a theocracy, its ruling Archons are all staunch defenders of the Remnant Church, and Beacon is the main hub of Remnant activity and thought. They spend a great deal of their wealth on their continuing effort to contact the Garden and bring them back to Tehom.

• 'Broken Horn' was once known as the Tenax Primacy after it fell during the Dundainian Revolt. All who could flee this place have done so and taken most of what was valuable when they laft. A Hadalian disease has infected the land and water table. The Dundainian Anarchy is slowly attempting to take control of the area, but it is difficult and it is a low priority in the eyes of the Peers.

• 'The Buttonwood Triarchy' is a former colony of Pinnacle governed by three rulers: Triarch of Blood is a hereditary title from a Legacy, the Triarch of The Visible is a Sacritech Keeper elected by the other sacritech Keepers within Buttonwood, and the Triarch of Dolphins is always a practitioner of the mystical and cosmic arts selected through a ritual of some kind (they may be a Legacy or otherwise).

• 'Caliban Arcology' is a new cosmopolis commissioned by a set of Archons known as the Council of the Reef, lead by Marcus Steelcrow. The Caliban Arcology is the most ambitious mining effort on Tehom, a city-sized mining rig just off the coast of the Winged Islands. Constantly under attack from Deep Monsters, the Caliban Arcology is designed as a gigantic fortress to be defended against any assault. To date, it is a venture that has more or less broken even, with the massive wealth it generates from rare earths and metals being spent almost completely on its maintenance and defense. Time will tell if it can be maintained.

• 'Calmport' is a small polity and a curiosity. If asked, all citizens of Calmport are of the Many; none will admit to superpowers. The civilian government similarly is allegedly made of nothing but the Many. However, in the darkest nights and in moments of great need, the hidden heroes of Calmport emerge to defend their city state. Emissaries from Eiren Bay have learned that Calmport is in fact rules by a secret Archon council that allows the Many to believe they are in control.

• 'Eiren Bay' is a relatively open democratic cosmopoli where there is a shared governance model between Baselines and Archons. While there are many legal protections in place for human rights, Archons are in practice the political and economic elite who dominate the function of government and Eirenian business ventures. However, as baselines can rise to levels of prominence, it is sometimes seen as one of the more open societies within the Set. Eiren Bay has risen to prominence as the seat of The Kairos Covenant, a diplomatic agreement between several Cosmopoli that works to minimize the amount of violent and destabilizing conflicts on Tehom. In Earth terms, it is somewhere between United Nations, with its interest in diplomatic solutions to conflicts, and NATO, to help defend the peace of member cosmopoli from other non-covenanting cosmopoli.

• 'Fallen Horn' was once known as High Spire, until it's ruling Archons were killed in the Dundainian Revolt. Now it is mostly abandoned, though Uncle Vulture resides in the remains of its agora.

• 'Kachlex City' is a gigantic flying fortress created, maintained, and ruled by Cloudmaker, a legendary technical genius, keeper, and pirate. It slowly floats in the skies of Tehom, sending its storm shard down to plunder and raid.

• 'Novum Volsci' is a fallen cosmopolis. Once controlling a large sphere of influence, long periods of internal conflict weakened it, creating opportunities for its vassal states to either declare independence or be taken over by another power. Novum Volsci still has a beautiful and well maintained city core and angora, but it is surrounded by near lawless slums and completely abandoned ghost-districts of the cosmopolis. The poverty of the Many of Novum Volsci is shocking even to Tehom's neofeudal Archons.

• 'Ox' is the capital of the Dundainian Anarchy. Before the revolution, it was known as Stoutfort. It is sometimes called “Little Horn”.

• 'Patience' was originally known as Hazor when it was founded and ruled by Warmaster Molyvdos, an extremely powerful Archon and demogogue. He now rests in a cryogenic vault as a supercomputer slowly removes a radioactive nano-toxin from his genetic code. Maintaining this chamber has almost bankrupted Patience several times, but Molyvdos is venerated to the point of religious worship by the citizenry. Weirdly, no Archons are ever born to the people of Patience, and they have an active policy of hiring mercenaries and "converting" Archons to their cause. Patience is views the day of Molyvdos' renewal as an eschatological event that will usher in a new age. The biography of Molyvos is a complicated one, portraying a brilliant yet heartless ruler who brought both peace and carnage to his region of the Set.

• 'Pinnacle' is an exceedingly stable cosmopolis and it has one of the longest continuous regimes on Tehom. Pinnacle is ruled by an aristocracy of Legacy families obsessed with understanding the genetics of their superpowers. Their genetic knowledge and biotechnology, both in regular human technology and cryptotechnology, is unsurpassed. The Startree Index is a listing of the genetic markers for the Linneages of Pinnacle, and anyone who has any of those markers (including baselines humans) are afforded special legal rights. Additionally, Pinnacle's law distinguishes between Startree Archon (Archons who belong to the aristocracy), Sundered Archons (Archons without the markers of their genetic aristocracy), and The Strewn (Archons with the Markers that are foreigners). The energy manipulating members of the House of Arc are currently dominant, with three of the last five Doges (appointed head of state) coming from its ranks. However, the House of Rend, their major ally full of bestial-appearing mutants, has been increasingly unhappy with their role in the Senate.

• 'The Retenu Chain' is a chain of islands toward the periphery of the Set. While its waters hold an extremely rich and fertile amount of aquatic life, the islands themselves are relatively desolate. The consequence of this is that Retenu is one of the least urbanized polities in the Set, but its hinterlands are more populated than most. The Retenuans life revolves around Sorts, networks of families and business partners. Archons on Retenu are called Judges, and are selected by Sorts through a variety of methods. In times of war, the Sorts may select a supreme Judge to be the Admiral of the Chain, though this is rare. The Retenuans are famous for their devotion to a Retan Dualism, a religion that see the Tide's Eye as a generally malevolent force. However, they also posit another divine being that is benevolent yet more distant, called the Song Eternal, that shall one day force the Sea to submit and be tamed. The more traditionalist Retenuans know many rituals for supposedly calming the sea and banishing storms. If these Retuans are mystical members of the Few, the spells sometimes even work.

• 'Saltmerche Citadel' On the edge of the Set Islands, there is a region called the Elder Green, a saltmarsh with a great deal of hybridized Terran and indigenous Tehomin life. It is a strange place, and it is one of the consistently "magical" areas humans know of on Tehom. The economy of the Citadel is dependent on the unique life within the Elder Green. A baseline human regent rules the citadel, aided by the Reeves, a group of (relatively low-power) magic-oriented archons. The true power, however, lies in the hands of a Mirk the Swamp Prophet, a powerful sorcerer-priest who lives in a monastery within the Elder Green, and Karka the Warden, an inhuman-looking combatant that resides in the wilds between the Citadel and the monastery.

• 'Srimec City' is also the headquarters of Srimec Technologies, a transnational venture specializing in advanced robotic technologies. Citizens of Srimec are referred to as shareholders, and their legal rights increase depending on the amount and type of Srimec stock they own. Srimec is run by the Imparted, individuals who have undergone an extensive cyborg transformation. These individuals volunteer for the process, and they are selected as the elite of their society. Srimec law makes relatively few distinctions between the non-Imparted Few and baselines, a fact that irritates quite a few Archons. The Current High Executive has been in her position for well over a normal human lifespan, and some are worrying that her wisdom is becoming outdated.

• 'Thaimbase', was known until recently as Deltaport until a hulking Archon named Risha Thaim lead a coup, exiling and executing many of the native Archons. With the support of his Metamen, Lord General Risha has centralized his power and his neighbors live in fear of his next move.

The Dundainian Anarchy

Dundain is the largest single landmass in the Set, and it was once home to the cosmopoli Highspire, Stoutfort, and the Tenax Primacy. However, that all changes with the Wasting War, a conflict involving all three city-states in a free-for-all that devolved from Archonic war to a full military engagement, culminating in a biochemical holocaust against Tenax and a genocidal retaliative attack against Highspire. Seeing this, the Many of Stoutfort began a rebellion against all members of the Few, driving them from first their cosmopolis, and then from Dundain all together. A new nation thus emerged, called the Dundainian Collective, a nation where the Many rule themselves with no superhuman masters. The rest of the Set, however, calls it the Dundainian Anarchy, quite literally a land without Archons.

Stoutfort was renamed Ox, though it is sometimes called Little Horn in the Set. The only agora has been completely leveled and turned into the Memoriam Field as a symbol of their triumph against the Few. The Many generally find the place oddly peaceful, but the Few find it eerie and unnaturally disturbing. Ox is now a small but sprawling city, and the Anarchy has demolished any buildings they did not have immediate use for. It has rebuilt most of the armaments, living in paranoid fear of an Archon attack. The governing body of the Anarchy, the Peers, live in hidden camps in the hills outside the city most of the time. There is also an extensive tunnel network beneath the city. Slowly, Ox has stabilized and allowed the Dundainian Anarchy to begin to spread its message of liberation and humanism to the rest of Tehom. Generally, these attempts at propaganda are met with confusion and terror by both the Few and (most of) the Many. The social order of the Anarchy should simply not work. It is an impossibility that nevertheless exists. Beyond the propaganda wars, however, the Anarchy is still relatively poor and weak, as it lacks trading partners, and much of its territory was devastated during the Wasting War and the subsequent Dundainian Revolt.

The exiled Archons and their familes that once rules Highspire, Tenax, and Stoutfort are biding their time, hoping for an opportunity to retake their homelands. However, few cosmopoli wish to expend the resources to create such an operation, as the open warfare it would require is unpalatable to Tehomin thinking. Additionally, the few times exiles have attempted an attack on their own have ended in the defeat, and often death, of the exiled Archons in question. Rumors have spread that the Anarchy has developed various power suppression technologies, but these rumors have not been confirmed yet. And so, a tense and uncertain détente continues between the Anarchy and the rest of the world.