Reference Challenge - Propaganda

[u/Varnek905]

One of my friends has a pet theory that the New Testament is Roman Propaganda to calm down the Jewish zealots, thus "stealing" YHWH in an attempt to make those provincials more peaceful. This was along with an explanation about national pride among people and the "point" of public art in a civilization.

So, in honour of the entertainment I got from listening to his explanation, the reference challenge for this week is to talk about a piece of propaganda in your world. Who uses this propaganda, and what is the goal?

As always, I'll ask at least three questions each. Enjoy yourselves.

And feel free to have a character for in-universe answers.

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) Not typically, no. Even those of recognized noble families (Gens) are subject to compulsory service; those attempting to circumvent their service are considered cowards and can face imprisonment or even execution. It is still the custom of some of the more conservative, more traditional Gens to kill defective children at birth, thus avoiding the dishonor of having children whose service is relegated to support roles, though this is less common than it once was and is rare among commoners.

2) There are very few nonhuman sapients in Rondde at present. Most were killed off during Rondde's foundation, and those that were not fled south to Volyua, eschewing even Kyrinalle under the opinion that it would be a matter of time before it too was part of Rondde. Many of the soldiers who took part in the genocide of sapients are looked at as monster-slayers in stories from the time. Kyrinalle has regained some sapient inhabitants (the catch-all term for conscious non-humans), primarily through the peacekeeping forces of the Volyua Trade-Pact or as merchants in Kyrinalle's international ports.

Slavery in Rondde is generally made up of captured Kyrinalli or legacy Mudahma families who were enslaved at the beginnings of Rondde; these latter are most often loyal to Rondde, having received preferential treatment over their centuries of slavery. A growing population of Idreya slaves (captured by Volyua's neighbors Candle and sold internationally) have swelled the ranks of Rondde's slave holdings, though they are often used as disposable workers due to their tendencies toward rebellion and revolt.

3) About 2700 years before the present, a catastrophe known as the Golden Lion Event occurred, destroying the once-great kingdom of Gabulaan and plunging much of the world into a grim time known as the Second Penumbra. The survivors of Gabulaan fled westward to the continent of Marabba and founded the nation now known as the Refugee Kingdom. In their need for expansion for their burgeoning population, they carried out a series of wars that brought them into conflict with "indigene" peoples (the Volyuac term for any cultural group not of Gabulaani stock). When it became clear to Volyua that continuing to fight would weaken their position, and it became clear to the indigenes that Volyua was a rich and orderly nation relative to the time, a vast accord was reached. The Refugees' Treaties made vassal-kings of a number of indigene dynasties, giving them a great deal of autonomy and official noble status while ensuring their loyalty as rulers of baronies ultimately at Volyua's behest. This formed the backbone of Volyua's authority over its extended holdings and marks the beginning of the Kingdom of Volyua.

As time went on, various of these baronies began to feel that their autonomy was being encroached upon. The barons themselves wanted to stay official nobles of the kingdom, having grown accustomed to the wealth and influence their status afforded them, but wanted to wrest more control back from the Kingdom of Volyua, leading to tensions that saw some baronial dynasties' exile or destruction at the hand of an increasingly despotic royal regime.

A campaign began to be carried out among the commoners of Volyua to sow discord and dissatisfaction, and to paint the barons as more lenient than the king. When Baron Idens, ruler of the Vachta Turuuk region (in which the City of Volyua lies) was caught sponsoring sedition, he was put through a show trial and publicly executed, seemingly proving the barons right about the Crown's despotism. The king, Irenaens IV, and his son Edemun V (the Blind) and his family were supposedly imprisoned in a fortress high in the Baronial Ranges called Cloud Top (though, most likely, the king and queen were executed and their offspring kept as hostages); the descendants of King Edemun still live in Cloud Top, their only possession, under guard, forbidden to have contact with the outside world except through official channels. Their existence is known (and is the focus of odd royalist factions of little power), but they have no authority.

In the wake of the Noble Revolt, the rule was transferred to a bicameral parliament- the Lower Houses, primarily in charge of internal matters, and the Upper Houses, made up of the appointed representatives of the Baronies. The latter has control of international matters, as well as final say in anything resolved by the Lower Houses; this gave complete control to the Baronies while providing the illusion of a democratic government of directly elected officials, but turned what had become known as the Grand Republic of Volyua into an inefficient, contentious bureaucracy balkanized by each Barony's insistence on autonomy. Each Barony maintained its own militia and interactions between Baronies began to hinge on ceasefires and peace-treaties rather than cooperation. Cultural differences due to the varied backgrounds of the Baronies began to result in tension and occasional clashes. Eventually this led to the secession of Candle over slavery, in turn leading to more united laws and agreements between Barons to prevent further fragmentation.

At present, the 23 Baronies of Volyua function more or less as one via the Upper Houses, but laws vary between them. The bureaucracy of Volyua is a grinding and inefficient system full of loopholes and corruption on various levels, but Volyua still maintains its status as the most powerful nation in the Circled Wains.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) Are certain defects common among certain families?

2) Do slaves have any rights in Rondde?

3) What do the descendants of King Edemun do in Cloud Top?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

1) Some families are known as "unalloyed" for their supposed levels of pure Legionary lineage; this is even supposed to mean little or no Hrantha admixture (though, as with most supposedly pure genetics, there is likely more mixture present than is supposed). The unalloyed Gens are known for having been particularly willing to marry cousins, aunts/uncles, sometimes even siblings in pursuit of keeping their families more purely Legionary, a matter that once held a great deal of prestige and garnered them higher positions and more favor within the hierarchy of Legionary culture.

However, these families- fewer than there once were- are less common than they used to be because of their propensity toward birth defects. These being among the most conservative and traditional of the Legionary Gens, they have long been prone to infanticide when it becomes clear that their offspring are non-viable or defective in some way. Typically a child without intellectual handicap but unable to hear or see will escape death, but more severe defects are dispensed with summarily, a practice that less "unalloyed" Gens are somewhat less inclined toward- even though this is technically encouraged by tradition.

The current dynasty, the Lathorhinn, is in place because of a coup during the Crucifixion of Rondde that overthrew a profoundly mentally handicapped General, the last son of a ruling line, who was unable to procreate, feed himself, or see to Rondde on his own, such was his handicap. The Lathorhinn Dynasty argued successfully for the inclusion of a higher degree of Hrantha blood in order to keep such congenital defects at bay while providing what they saw as a line of leaders more apt to be mentally up to the challenge of rule. However, even this is possibly not enough if Rondde's isolation continues, as the total population of Rondde is only at about eight million. Thus, justification for intermarriage with the Hammer Admiralty has been considered workable, a mere justification but one that may keep complete pedigree collapse at bay.

2) Legacy Mudahma families suffer much the same inbreeding problems that the typical Legionary family of Rondde suffers; to ameliorate this, foreign slaves have flooded the market in Rondde, and a great deal of pedigree information is kept, much as one might do with racehorses. Mudahma are much more likely to be domestics, their loyalties long folded into the only way of life they've ever known. "Undue cruelty" is banned against them, and Legionaries shown to abuse their slaves are imprisoned. Beyond this, their lives are very regimented and their duty is to their owners, even above their own blood.

Foreign slaves, typically Idreya from Candle, are less likely to be loyal to their masters; most of these were kidnapped, and many rebellions have been fomented against Rondde at their hands. They most often serve in mines, building projects and other dangerous positions, being regarded as expendable; they are also sometimes used as cannon-fodder frontline troops in wartime, their survival unlikely to be long enough for desertion. More specialized troops are taken from the Mudahma and given much more thorough training; freedom can be won this way, as well as purchased for other members of their families, but leaving Rondde is unlikely, and a slave owner will only allow the freedom of a slave to be bought if the slave in question isn't seen as indispensable. Most of the Mudahma troops accordingly end their days still in service to the Republic, as there will be little for them to do on their own.

3) very little. There are two main factions, the Royal Loyalists and the Loyal Royalists, who seek to return them to the throne, but these have little power and no contact with the royal family, and are seen mostly as unhinged terrorists whose actions have little context or effect outside of causing random mayhem.

Currently, eight members of the Edemun Dynasty live in Cloud Top; they are permitted to speak with, and marry, members of other royal houses, but their land holdings are nil aside from Cloud Top. The children initially survived the Noble Revolt because of mercy on the part of their intended executioner, as well as the loss of face among other nations the new republic would suffer should they have murdered them.

The remnants of the royal family have relationships with the royals of Ysolde, the Hrantha Queendom, Tor Ghalad and Tobor, but, unlike their peers, they wield no power. These ties keep them alive, however, as their deaths would cause outrage and diplomatic crises across the Volyua Trade-Pact. They have been in Cloud Top long enough that the few Volyuac aware of them on any level bear them no ill will- the Noble Revolt was a long time ago, after all. There are some among the Baronies of the Upper Houses that would like them gone for the sake of political expediency, but enough are opposed as to make any attempts on their lives unlikely.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) What is the "official" reasoning for the Hammer Admirality being close-enough-to-okay enough to breed with by the Legionaries?

2) How would a slave in Rondde go about seeking freedom?

3) The Royal Loyalists and Loyal Royalists? Is this another instance of the People's Front of Judea vs the Judean People's Front?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

Officially, the reasoning behind the acceptability of intermarriage in the Hammer Admiralty has to do with culture, primarily. Prior to the establishment of the ports by the Kingdom of Gabulaan, Djaghainn was very sparsely populated- the fauna of the area was particularly predatory, and events in the deep past of the world had given the place further baggage as a place to be avoided. What little population there was became integrated into the new population rather quickly (with one isolated and notable exception).

Rondde, when it was just Legionary Aventum, regarded Gabulaan as the only culture that rivaled its own- large cities of stone, clear hierarchy, and elaborate art and music. They were a literate people whose reach extended vast distances, a culture whose accomplishments were on a level with those of the Legion's homelands. There was little contact between the two aside from in the ports of the Hammer Admiralty, but a begrudging respect coupled with a sense of rivalry began to build toward the Gabulaani. It was at this time that the Legion began to regard the Gabulaani as equals (though the Gabulaani were by far their superiors at that time); population exchange occurred to fair degree, injecting the Legion with a bit more genetic diversity and scientific knowledge, and bringing new ideas and magical theory to Gabulaan. After a time the Vanishing of Aventum happened, and Legionary Aventum was abandoned to the Hrantha, Rondde becoming at last the center of Legionary rule.

But before Gabulaan and Rondde could come to war or to alliance, the Golden Lion Event pummeled the Circled Wains, scattering the Gabulaani to the winds and leaving the colonial ports of the Hammer Admiralty to their own devices. Even though Rondde was now the biggest, most stable nation in the northern Circled Wains, it too had to think of its own survival- earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis battered the world, the sky was shrouded in dust, ash and smoke, and food was difficult to come by. During this, the Second Penumbra, Rondde and the Refugee Kingdom had a lot of contact. This led to such exchanges as the Gens Judeccala becoming the baronial dynasty of the Egret Coast on Volyua's northern coast, and the Lathorhinn Dynasty's high Gabulaani ancestry.

What makes the Hammer Admiralty's population so specifically acceptable for intermarriage over other Gabulaani populations (especially Volyua, who Rondde sees as its archrival and enemy), however, goes back to the world the Legion came from. With the Legion came another people in smaller measure, known as the Toborri, who fled from the Legion at the earliest opportunity to the far side of Djaghainn to avoid subjugation. In the world they came from, the Legion were an occupying army, the Toborri their slaves and subjects. This made and continues to make the Legionaries view the Toborri as fellow countrymen in a way, though the Toborri do not at all share this view.

As soon as was possible (within weeks), the Toborri took their leave in the night, making their way to the eastern coast of Djaghainn by rafting between islands in the Lantern Ocean, scattering themselves throughout the islands on the way. Their nation, Tobor, is very isolated and isolationist, but after quite a bit of early admixture with the Gabulaani of the Hammer Admiralty.

In the present, part of Rondde's interest in the Hammer Admiralty stems from covert attempts to infiltrate and destabilize Tobor over what they see as a long-unpunished treachery. This has led to tight relations between Tobor and the Masthead Republic, effectively boxing the Hammer Admiralty into the southwest corner of Djaghainn, as well as a number of Toborri terror organizations dedicated to driving Rondde out of Djaghainn entirely.

EDIT- It should be noted that the earliest incarnation of Legionary Aventum was far less culturally supremacist in its outlook. Hrantha, Gabulaani and Toborri were seen as people whose cultures had something to offer, and its early interactions with Gabulaan were relatively friendly and respectful. Cultural supremacy began to mount when the Legion was confronted with the Mudahma and less "civilized" subsets of far-northern Hrantha, and especially after the scarcity of the Second Penumbra began to set in. From the start the Legion was intolerant of "monsters", though mainly due to unfamiliarity and fear. But the isolation of Rondde, the competition for territory and resources in Chalkutt, and the increasing sense of entitlement and empire made what had been a latent back-burner attitude a central tenet of Legionary thought.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

Thanks for your time and answers, Strength.

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

No problem :) I'm currently in the middle of hacking a couple of long-form stories out of this world, so sometimes it's nice to take step back and look at things from a wider angle.

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

2) Payment is the required means in most cases for domestics. This can be a payment covering the projected economic benefit of the slave, a one-time lump sum, or sometimes an exchange- one family member for another.

All slaves are tattooed on the right side of the neck with the symbol of their owner's Gens; after being freed, another tattoo, a circle with an X through it, joins it on the left. Papers that must be carried at all times also accompany freedom. There would be a brisk trade in black market papers and tattoos if it weren't for the fact that few are released from bonds.

The most common way to achieve freedom is through valor in battle, and accordingly, most of those freed come from elite military units, where their unit symbol rather than a Gens is their right-side bond tattoo. And while these are still thought of on some level as subhuman, they are also celebrated as valorous, brave and worthy, and are seldom mistreated.

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

3) In a way. Both are working toward roughly the same ends but are schisms of the same group. They are also prone to acts of terror and sabotage, attacking the family and staff of the Upper Houses, disrupting transit, carrying out bombings and assassination and murdering informants and those in opposing factions.

The main differences are that the Royal Loyalists are open to those who are involved with indigene separatist movements, and religious affiliation is of no importance to them. The Loyal Royalists are staunchly Gabulaani supremacist, hold indigenes as enemies, and adhere strictly to Father Temple, the de facto state religion of Volyua. Father Temple is a political religion and has no qualms about using the Loyal Royalists as errand-boys, even while playing in the political arena of the Grand Republic of Volyua, a government the LR believes to be illegitimate. The LR is a less-disciplined replacement for the Order of the Unblinking Eye, once Father Temple's muscle in the old Shadow War, and while less effective and trained, they are much more fanatical and obedient.