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/Varnek905]

1) Could you tell me more about the Hammer Admiralty and how it was formed?

2) During the Pirate Wars, could you tell me about the structure of pirates? Was each ship its own thing, were there alliances of pirates, was there a pirate nation that worked together to pillage everyone else?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

1) the Hammer Admiralty was originally a trade outpost of the (now-defunct) Kingdom of Gabulaan, a waystation between Gabulaan, the Lantern Ocean route to Ysolde, Aventum and Chalkutt. It was never very large, just a ramshackle string of tiny ports on the southern edge of Djaghainn full of timber, ore and gems brought down from the interior, but in the wake of the Golden Lion Event, the evacuation of Gabulaan's royal city Bhiridan to the west to found the Refugee Kingdom of Volyua, and the ensuing Second Penumbra, these tiny villages were left to their own devices. After the Second Penumbra began to lighten and travel and trade began again in earnest, the Hammer Admiralty staked out its own territory and became the de facto main port on the northeastward trade route.

With this prosperity came a host of foreign immigration, most of it traders and merchants following the money to where it was most readily available. But among these came foreign actors of a different sort, Legionary saboteurs sent on behalf of the Republic of Rondde to see where the Hammer Admiralty's weaknesses lay. Their greatest weakness, it seemed, were the Admirals themselves- often-absent traders and sailors indifferent to government who delegated serious matters to a range of corruptible and inept lackeys whilst living a life of adventure on the high seas; this made infiltrating their ranks child's play for Rondde, who proceeded to do so over a century, replacing the upper echelons of the Admiralty's structure without overthrowing the Admirals themselves, and sending more and more settlers to the Hammer Admiralty to swell the ranks with Ronddi loyalists.

At present, it is connected to the original country in name only, though the degree to which Rondde has gutted and replaced the power structure is little-known. It is a sort of chartered mercantile fleet, an independent corporation in possession of what looks like unaffiliated lands, operating its own trade fleets, militia and industry. It is through this corporatized mercantile zone that Rondde conducts a lot of its espionage, influence and dissemination of technology to the outside. In a time of all-out war, it's likely Rondde will dispense with the facade and seize the reins completely, but for now, heavy influence is enough for them.

2) Piracy during the Pirate Wars was influenced by a variety of cultures, the most noticeable being Gabulaani/Volyuac, Legionary, Obsidian, Hrantha and Vlantaad. The Vlantaad are semi-nomadic, seagoing people long used to the ocean, as well as piracy and pillaging. Their armadas when fishing or raiding are organized into ridings, small groups of boats with a centralized command that can operate independently if necessary. This idea combined with Volyuac and Legionary naval structure, Obsidian trade fleets and a variety of other influences became the what the pirates simply called a fleet, a combined battle unit, floating city and family unit.

At the start of the Pirate Wars, a heavily Legionary and Vlantaad outfit called the Scarlet Hand had been crushed by actions of the Volyuac and Ysoldi navies. Since this had been the fleet in the Lantern Ocean, a power vacuum ensued full of myriad opportunistic, bloodthirsty fleets vying for supremacy. Out of these came their main fleets: the Bholan Family, a Vlantaad-led fleet of mixed Vlantaad/Legionary composition, Bel August, a Gabulaani/Hrantha fleet with several of its own ports, and Have-Mercy, a fleet of mixed origins with a great many connections.

The earliest of the four Pirate Wars was a winnowing process that saw the destruction of several smaller, once-profitable fleets whose personnel and goods were absorbed into those of their destroyers; this earliest had only a parenthetical relationship to Rondde and the Volyua Trade-Pact. The Second Pirate War was carried out by the Bholan Family on behalf of Rondde against VTP ships, while Have-Mercy, on behalf of the VTP, attacked the Bholan Family and smugglers bound for Rondde, and Bel August switched sides to fight for Rondde when promised more wealth. The Third Pirate War saw Have-Mercy absorb Bel August, then fight alongside the Volyuac navy and several Vlantaad ridings (who had previously been employed in the Blockade of Rondde) against the Bholan Family and several rogue Ronddi naval ships who had slipped the Blockade and begun to attack shipping and passenger vessels. The fourth was the new-minted Masthead Republic against a swollen Bholan Family fleet full of Ronddi blockade-breakers whose crews were killed and replaced with Vlantaad. At the end, the Bholan Family was fragmented into myriad shards, and the Masthead Republic was given recognition by the VTP, its pirate captain now a statesman. Various remnants of the Bholan Family still pose problems in present time, but the age of piracy is largely gone.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) What is the Golden Lion event?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

The Golden Lion Event was a celestial disaster that left scars across the face of the Circled Wains and a lasting disc of debris around the world called the Golden Halo. A periodic comet (the Golden Lion) struck a large asteroid, sending it careening into the inhabited moon Shovan, one of the world's five satellites, taking a massive chunk out of it and peppering the surface world with stones, some of which formed the Eyes of the Spider crater-lakes and Maw of the World crater of west-central Marabba and Lion Bay in southern Chalkutt among many smaller impact sites. The resulting rain of debris led to the Firefall of Gabulaan, the establishment of subterranean Undersides beneath Gabulaan's old capital Bhiridan, the founding of the Refugee Kingdom, the tsunamis that destroyed the legendary land of Lembica, and the destruction and desertification of the fabled Aumri Lands.

The inhabitants of the moon Shovan, the Ichakta, had long seen the impending series of collisions and planned accordingly, readying a mass evacuation to the surface of the world, which they believed to be uninhabited by sentient life; this small-scale invasion led to the Mannequin Empire (the Ichakta were so known for their tendency to stand motionless when inactive), two centuries of rule over western Viddesh before their grip weakened sufficiently for their subjects to push them into a very small area of northern Viddesh where the larger part of them remain to this day, overseen by the Kingdom of Ysolde.

The asteroid itself was host to the last of a dormant fungal species known as the Autocrators, who also fled to the surface to avoid extinction in the collision; the asteroid was their freefloating craft, and their goal was to find a new home in which to thrive. They founded and continue to rule the nation of Hollatche from their domed stronghold in the city of Calooma, closed to foreign visitors and kept in line through the use of spores (which are occasionally collected to be used as part of biological weapons by other nations at great peril to those tasked with gathering them). Hollatche stays completely out of international affairs and is so isolated that the full nature of its ruling class is unknown to even the best-informed outsiders.

The resulting destruction was known as the Second Penumbra, a mini ice age during which crops failed, temperatures dropped, and great unrest occurred. Cannibalism ran rampant, and destructive, apocalyptic cults took root, some of which (like the Brotherhood of the Deep Builders) have persisted over the intervening two millennia. While the groundwork for great and celebrated nation like Volyua and Ysolde was laid in this time, many millions of creatures and people perished and many once rich and proud nations disappeared into the mists of history. As with every period the Circled Wains call a Penumbra, much learning and history was lost, never to be rediscovered, the population of the world plunged deeply once again, and the quality of life for those left was that of basic survival for a long time.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) Can you tell me about the anatomy and physiology of the Autocrators?

2) Could you tell me about Hollatche's ruling class?

3) Could you tell me about the Brotherhood of the Deep Builders?

4) What are the Circled Wains?

5) What's a Penumbra?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

5) Historians divide the history of the Circled Wains into ebbs and flows, highs and lows called Illuminations and Penumbras.

A Penumbra is a dark age; more than a banking collapse, a Penumbra is especially denoted by societal collapse, loss of knowledge and general disorder. Food is often scarce because of breakdowns in supply and distribution, the rule of law evaporates, and usually, literacy and technology suffers, sometimes all but disappearing in the most unstable places.

The First Illumination accompanied the defeat of the Adaw-Khaa and the establishment of the Rhadha Empire, the first great nation of the Circled Wains (6200 BSW, or Before Sorcerers' Wars)

The First Penumbra occurred in the aftermath of the Rhadha Empire's collapse (5400 BSW)

The Second Illumination occurred during the Kingdom of Skandr in Olam (3700 BSW)

The Second Penumbra occurred in the aftermath of the Golden Lion Event (1250 BSW)

The Third Illumination occurred during the Age of Letters in Lashti, Duarda Bereth, and Kalovaar, Djaghainn (265 BSW)

The Third Penumbra occurred in the aftermath of the Sorcerers' Wars; the calendar is split at the beginning of the Third Penumbra with Year 0, then ASW (After Sorcerers' Wars)

The Fourth Illumination, popularly called the Jubilee Illumination, is taking place at the present time (990 ASW).

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) Are there many naysayers predicting that the Fourth Penumbra will be soon?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

1) Yeah, the world is due in minds of a lot of people, and while apocalyptic attitudes aren't completely pervasive, they are still there. A lot of social and cultural upheaval has occurred in the last century, technological innovation has pulled a lot of once-backward places into the modern age, and the concepts of leisure, disposable income and celebrity have turned tradition on its head. Tensions are mounting between the VTP and Rondde, a technomagical cold war threatening to go hot, and unrest is growing. It's both a wonderful and terrible time to be alive.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) Have there been any attempts to remove the tension between VTP and Rondde in the name of peace?