Difference between revisions of "The Thracian Hegemony"

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(Welcome to the Thracian Hegemony.)
(Replaced content with "These are setting essays by Nick the Nevermet for the Wyzard's fantasy setting. It is currently written "in character" from one standpoint. Ov...")
 
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These are setting essays by Nick the Nevermet for the [[The_Wyzard_Setting_Essays|Wyzard's fantasy setting]]
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These are setting essays by Nick the Nevermet for the [[The_Wyzard_Setting_Essays|Wyzard's fantasy setting]].  It is currently written "in character" from one standpoint.  Over time, I hope to write from other standpoints.
  
 
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[[Welcome_to_Freedom|Welcome to the Thracian Hegemony. Welcome to Freedom]]
== Welcome to the Thracian Hegemony. ==
 
 
 
Welcome to the Thracian Hegemony. Welcome to freedom.
 
 
 
Long ago, humanity did not dream of freedom.  Rather, its leaders
 
dreamed of power.  This hubris caused the downfall of the Amaranthan
 
Empire, a downfall that was as inevitable as it was disasterous.
 
The sorcerer-kings were replaced by Vampire Princes, demonic patrons,
 
and alien intelligences who erected the Dark Kingdoms on the backs of
 
humanity.  The Dark Kingdoms were the natural conclusion to the
 
vicious pursuit of power began by the Amaranthans: sectarian, war,
 
suffering, alienations, and hopelessness reigned supreme.  Humanity
 
dreamed of little beyond survival.
 
 
 
The rise of the Thracian Hegemony was a successful rejection of this
 
social order.  There was no revolution creating a new kingdom, as that
 
would merely continue the cycle of oppression.  The Hegemony was
 
something new and distinctly, wonderfully human.
 
 
 
The Hegemony can be thought of as a web, though not for prey like a
 
spider’s web.  Freedom is a product of the Hegemony’s collective
 
effort, and through integration into the Hegemony a nation’s people
 
gain access to freedom in ways it could not have dreamed of before.
 
The Hegemony can be thought of as fabric that clothes humanity,
 
helping to protect it from a hostile world.
 
 
 
The Hegemony it is a network of organizations and institutions
 
dedicated to helping humanity transcend the provincialism.  The
 
Hegemony is composed of combines, formal organizations with specific
 
missions (“threads”) in accordance with the Hegemonic worldview.  Some
 
promote particular industries, others general economic growth, or a
 
political concern, a form of government, or any number of countless
 
other matters.  However, each combine is defined by an interest it
 
promotes in the name of the Hegemony: humanity shall be free to have a
 
full life of opportunity to be assembled as they see fit.
 
The Hegemony is not a government, and it does not serve governments.
 
It is not the market, nor does it serve the market.  It serves
 
humanity in all its infinite possibilities.  Markets and governments
 
are inevitable and necessary, but they must serve humanity, rather
 
than force humanity to serve them.  The Hegemony calls its attitude
 
toward governments and markets “parameterism:” a few key ideals
 
regarding universal human rights must be recognized by all nations
 
within the Hegemony.  Beyond these core ideals (“The Parameters”),
 
humanity is allowed to self-organize as it sees fit.  Two of the most
 
basic are democracy, the will of the people directs the nation’s
 
course, and functionalism, societies are to be sustainable and
 
efficient.  The Hegemony sees these as interrelated, and offers
 
assistance in the form of experts and technocrats to ensure integrated
 
nations can be maintained within the acceptable parameters.
 
 
 
 
 
=== Life in the Sunrise. ===
 
 
 
The Sunrise Realms, also known as the Selvaged Realms or
 
(derogatorily) the Salvaged Realms, are those nations which have been
 
newly integrated into the Hegemony.  They exist in a thick, long arc
 
beyond which the Dark Kingdoms still stand, dominated by dark and
 
inhuman rulers.
 
 
 
More than in the Core, the people in the Selvaged  feel the continuing
 
threat of the Dark Kingdoms.  The Vampire Princes range from
 
inscrutable to alien to mad, and the general populace thus finds their
 
attacks and plots utterly beyond comphrehension.  Hegemony technocrats
 
manage the situation best they can, but perfect security is simply not
 
possible.
 
 
 
=== The Gates ===
 
Gates are special organizations that approve or accredit a nation as being acceptable for entrance into the Hegemony.  Gates periodically re-examine nations both inside and outside the Hegemony to see if their CCHR should be revised.
 
 
 
 
 
=== CCHR ===
 
 
 
CCHR (Connectedness / Collectivity / Humanity Rating) is the basic measure of how much a given polity embodies the ideals of the Thracian Hegemony. Different gates calculate CCHR in slightly different ways according to their internal methodologies, but the same three core ideals are used across all Gates and polities.
 
 
 
==== Connectedness ====
 
Fluidity is a goal in and of itself for the Hegemony.  Humanity should have the ability to customize its path through this life as much as possible.  The requires the freedom to change in self-determined ways, and cosmopolitan access to as many ways to live as possible.  This is a rejection of the First Failing of the Dark Kingdoms: provinciality.  The Dark Kingdoms were at best isolated and static things that could not handle change without breaking, and they certainly could not grant the people within them the freedom to change and develop as they saw fit.  Connectedness is the rejection of static isolationism.
 
 
 
==== Collectivity ====
 
Power is to be dispersed through a society.  A society is not truly connected if only its elite is fluid, while the masses remain trapped in provinciality.  The means for life and self-determination are to be universalized.  This is a rejection of the Second Failing of the Dark Kingdoms: Tyrrany.  Within the Dark Kingdoms, power was inevitably accumulated in the hands of a few individuals who ruled at a whim with no regard for others, leaving the rest of society cowering in powerless fear.  All shall have a voice in the polity and the Hegemon.
 
 
 
==== Humanity =====
 
Human beings are living, sentient, and sapient beings.  We have the ability to hope and dream and feel empowered, yet we are susceptible to terror, fear, and suffering.  Society ought to defend and promote the humanity of its people.  This is a rejection of the Third Failing of the Dark Kingdoms: Monstrosity.  Inhuman things ruled humanity in those places, and humanity suffered truly unnatural fates as a consequence.  Fluidity and Collectivity mean nothing unless we are human and ever becoming more human.
 
 
 
=== The Technocrats ===
 
The technocrats do everything they can to keep the Dark Kingdoms at
 
bay.  Intelligence operatives track and predict attacks.  Military
 
officers constantly adjust forces to repel the enemy where they can.
 
Not all threats, however, can be correctly met by cold, impersonal
 
efficiency.  For all others, the Sunrise turns to heroes.
 
 
 
== Heroes ==
 
 
 
“Hero” is a generic term for individuals who, through whatever means,
 
have amassed a great deal of power attached to their person and
 
personality.  Some have powered armor.  Some are wizards.  Some are
 
even genetically modified.  All, however, are spectacular: powerful in
 
a way that demands attention.
 
 
 
There are a number of descriptive categories heroes can fall into.  If
 
a hero is employed or sponsored by a nation, the hero is a magistrate
 
or a magisterial hero.  If, however, a hero is primarily attached to a
 
Combine or combines, then the hero is a champion.
 
 
 
Most heroes are retained or attached to a particular government or
 
Combine.  The Free City of Ion retains the Maul of Comets to defend
 
their city from whatever demonic monsters come its way.  Jessica the
 
Windguilder, on the other hand, is attached to the OVDA, the Outer
 
Valley Development Authority, a Combine organized to re-populate and
 
develop a region decimated by the Dark Kingdoms.  They are well funded
 
and have a predictable mission.  Retained heroes are very different
 
than freelance, or less politely, mercenary heroes, who move from one
 
patronizing entity to another.
 
 
 
Eccentric heroes are those who do not fit cleanly onto the retained –
 
mercenary spectrum.  Lord Rail funds his personal vendetta against the
 
Dark through the spoils of war.  Brother Break, on the other hand,
 
primarily makes draws his wealth from his exclusive sponsorship deals
 
and his regular video specials.  There are even a few, like Faithful
 
William, who scrape together enough resources through amassing
 
Hegemonic development grants.
 
 
 
 
 
===Magistrates===
 
 
 
Magistrates are heroes associated with a particular nation’s
 
government, a situation that creates certain inevitable tensions.  On
 
the one side, there are faceless, expert technocrats keeping society
 
running.  On the other, there are the heroes, walking spectacles that
 
defy formalization by their very nature.  And in between, there is the
 
public.  The public may want many things, but more often than not, it
 
rejects the idea that there is an irreducible tension between heroism
 
and technocracy.  This dynamic exists throughout the Sunrise.
 
Meanwhile, the Technocrats constantly attempt to minimize the role
 
heroes play within ‘real’ government matters, and the heroes in turn
 
are constantly fighting for either more freedom in their actions, more
 
influence over the government, or both.
 
 
 
Different nations have attempted to balance this tension with various
 
political institutions.  One nation may have a select group of
 
magistrates with life-long terms selected by its parliament.  In
 
another, they are the cream of the military, given a chance to become
 
more than human in the name of the nation.  One nation is even ruled
 
by an aristocracy of genetically enhanced humans who form various
 
political parties which are then elected by the voting normal
 
population.
 
 
 
Magistrates generally have a “built in audience” in their homeland.
 
Simply by representing the nation, they are worthy of adoration.
 
 
 
 
 
===Champions===
 
 
 
Champions are, if anything, even more diverse than the Magistrates.
 
All champions are defined in part by two questions: what is the thread
 
of their Combine, and how much autonomy they have from the Combine.
 
Some Champions are nothing but agents of the Combine, others are
 
part-time agents, and part-time supporters of the public good (often
 
in the name of good public relations).  The popularity of a Champion
 
varies widely depending on what its Combine’s interests are.
 

Latest revision as of 21:57, 13 November 2012

These are setting essays by Nick the Nevermet for the Wyzard's fantasy setting. It is currently written "in character" from one standpoint. Over time, I hope to write from other standpoints.

Welcome to the Thracian Hegemony. Welcome to Freedom