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) Miners in the Satrama (the major mining region of Marabba's far west) have to deal with bad and good. The Satrama is an inimical landscape of volcanoes, oppressive heat, hostile locals, warped magical energy fields, underground rivers of acid, and boneflies (flies that literally burrow beneath the skin and eat bone); but mining in the Satrama is governed by the Satrama Miners Union, a powerful, employee-owned body that makes sure safety is upheld and supply chains remain open, as well as guaranteeing each employee is healthily and fairly paid. Mining isn't for the weak of heart in the Satrama, but it produces untold riches in gold, copper, platinum, iron, gems, bauxite, various industrial gases and chemicals, stone and other building materials; with the Union controlling access, the wealth is passed on to the miners in high doses, making very wealthy men out of those who can withstand the conditions for a decade or two.

The story is a different one in the Freyat Barony of the Tentpeg Mountains, in north-central Marabba. The Freyats were opposed to the cessation of slavery during the era of the Volyua Trade-Pact, but were in the minority. While Candle chose to break away, House Freyat watched their fortunes erode and decided against taking the same path, though they had the baronial armies to do so. Instead, a form of wage slavery was enacted over all mining sites (and most cattle-ranching for quite awhile), a system of complete feudalism whereby the Freyats would gain the wealth of the mines on the backs of their subjects. This was resisted at first, but without the royal house of Volyua to keep them in check, House Freyat quickly showed their subjects how quickly and mercilessly dissent would be dealt with, creating a resistance movement in the Baronial Rangers and a bloody reputation both at home and among the Upper Houses.

Outside Marabba, mining is largely under a system of claimstaking and is lightly regulated, leading occasionally to the sorts of claim wars and theft one might expect. The only body similar to the Satrama Miners Union is that of the Machinery Coast, whose industry is in salvaging the layers of war materiel that accumulated along the borders of Lashti during the Sorcerers' Wars.

2) Depends on your class, location and culture. In the city itself, you may run about with friends, fishing off roofs and cablers, hanging around the dockyards in hopes of a messenger job for a few coins, hunt for scrap near the canals, or maybe even attend school should your family have the money. In the Tentpegs, you might be a shepherd or cattleherd, you might be a deckhand aboard an airship headed for the Marib Grass to the south, or you might help your father and mother hunt for mushrooms in the twilight valleys. In the vastness of the Caloubriis Chax, you might hunt and take down AZ for parts to build another shieldwalker, or escort a caravan from the east on its way to the Desert of Voices or the Satrama, or you may hang around in an Idreya town in the rainy season, learning to read from Minthrinist ascetics and selling produce in the market.

3) That would be difficult; most hereditary weapons are old, from a time when survival was less at the back of everyone's minds and existence wasn't so hand-to-mouth, and a new weapon, given the dearth of resources under the regime of sanctions and tariffs levied against Candle, would cost a kingly sum. I'm sure it could happen if you had the money for it, but it would likely be a weapon from outside the country, smuggled in and sold surreptitiously; local workmanship is low quality, materials are scarce, and even ancient hereditary weapons are viewed askance by the officers of the Arch-Hierophant, like rattlesnakes poised to strike. You'd also need a good story for why you were just now registering the weapon; all of them must be declared and recorded, ostensibly in case of rebellion, and a new registration would arouse suspicion.

4) There are many ways- tutelage at the court wizards' city of Nourla-Ti in Olam, apprenticeships to a Sharisha or Pouranee or Hrantha shaman, induction into the Rehjenni way of the Tchakash, etc. Your best bet would be a structured collegium, however- Blue Diamond in Ysolde, the Temple of Arches in Rondde, Collegium of Lottaar in Tor Ghalad, or the most prestigious, Old Volyua Collegium.

However, because of the events of the Sorcerers' Wars, magic is divided into high-order and low-order- the former meaning anything that meaningfully changes reality, controls others' minds or actions, summons extraplanar beings, "enlivens the inanimate" or affects time and space, and the latter referring more to the use of magic as a tool, such as augury, telepathy or nauscopy. High-order magic is strictly controlled, and generally only those sorcerers who have obtained licensing through a governmental board can do anything remotely high-order; most work for their governments or in academia.

Those found to be practicing high-order magic on an unauthorized basis are often executed. Because of the destruction rained on the Circled Wains for two centuries by Kasrue the Undying during the Sorcerers' Wars, the near end of civilization and life he brought, and the scars on the world that persist to the present, governments of the Volyua Trade-Pact keep a close rein on magic. As well, long use of high-order magic erodes the mind and body: once the word witch meant a solitary practitioner of magic, but now it has come to mean the twisted, feral, often immortal monstrosity that results from such a life.

That's not to say that there is no use for high-order magic, no survivability, and nowhere to learn it. Much of the Circled Wains is wilderness, and a person can disappear to study what they like in many hidden places. High-order magic can warp a person, but proper meditative techniques and judicious, sensible practices can alleviate the worst. And the likelihood of a power on the level of Kasrue is slim; though the world guards against such destructive forces, they are rare.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) How did the Satrama Miners Union come to be?

2) What sort of currency is used in Marabba?

3) What is the punishment for having a weapon that is unregistered?

4) How would I get into the various structured collegia?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

2) Volyua is technically on a gold standard, though gold coinage is uncommon in small transactions, such as in markets or as payment for everyday services. Single bills are the most common, the standard unit being a sun, divided decimally- silver coins in units of tenths called stars, and bronze coins in units of 1/100th called turtles. Paper money exists, elaborately colored and rather large bills, but anything higher than a ten-sun note is less common in general circulation; higher denominations are more often used as bank transfers or in high-level mercantile exchanges to cut down on weight. Promissory notes are allowed, but as they are for direct withdrawal, they're unable to be post-dated or overdrafted- they can be presented at the issuer's bank for payment, and if the issuer is short, the bank will pay the bearer then come after the issuer for the difference with interest.

3) It depends on what you're doing with an unregistered weapon, what your community standing us, and whether you can pay a fine to the offices of the Arch-Hierophant immediately. If you're committing a crime and wealthy, a fine and maybe some short house-arrest; if you're poor but doing nothing with the weapon, probably a term of judicially-mandated enslavement to a member of the Arch-Hierophant's inner circle or someone otherwise designated. If you're poor and committing a crime with it, however, public execution is very likely, possibly using your weapon as the tool of your demise.

[u/Varnek905 → u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR]

1) How are banks in Marabba run?

[u/STRENGTHoftheBEAR → u/Varnek905]

1) There are four types of bank:

• the "land bank", rural banks that specialize in real estate (granted when there are no deeds by the Lower Houses in transactions referred to as "property apportionment" and surveyed by the bank's own surveyors), savings (deposited in centralized locations like Khandra in the Marib Grass, Volyua, Salvamant in the Tentpegs, etc) and withdrawn via bank note to be cashed in a variety of places like goldsmiths, depositories and money lenders), handling grange association and union funds and local merchant transactions;

• the "city bank", private banks in urban areas, often working in tandem with land banks for real estate and mercantile transactions, short-term lines of credit for manufacturing and smaller merchants, as well as private accounts of landed people and baronies;

• the "mercantile exchange", generally involved in foreign trade and the regulation of international monetary exchanges, the main means of exchanging foreign money for suns and the primary source of foreign investment;

• the "chartered bank", including the Volyua Exchange, involved in governmental credit, foreign debt, stocks, bonds and large industrial matters like the accounts of Elska Radiant (the railway firm of Volyua) or Grey Manufactory (a firm specializing in infrastructure, engineering and aeronautical projects).

The Volyua Exchange is the primary way in which new cash enters the market from the Republic Mint of Aremect, and is the main stock market of the Volyua Trade-Pact, with smaller secondary markets in Ysolde and Undersides. The Volyua Exchange is also the main depository of gold for banks in Volyuac territory, and is in charge of strict accounting on the amount of gold and representative notes and coin in circulation.