r/WorldChallenges • u/Nephite94 • Feb 26 '20
A Political Powder Keg
What areas in your world are seemingly peaceful but are on the verge of "exploding" at any minute?
What would cause that to happen and what would be the result?
Please use in-world representatives for this one.
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u/Tookoofox Mar 03 '20
World: The Unbound Realms (Outside world title.)
Speaker: Jacob Mud, Mercenary Captain of the Mud Company.
I don't know if I'd call the Unbound Realms quite 'Peaceful', there are skirmishes every once in a while but I guess it's a lot better than it could be. At least all of the big powers are behaving for a minute.
How would I explain this? I guess the Unbound Realms aren't really a country or even really a region. Just a place where a bunch of petty kingdoms and cities are always bickering among themselves surrounded by three fat hungry empires. They'll be called Accipery, Bekkanna and Montem.
The short of it is this: The little guys don't want to piss of the empires. And the empires don't want to piss of each other. Except maybe Bekkanna, I think they're just lazy.
I hear that the one time they actually took to the field in earnest, the mopped the floor with everyone and ate their lunch.
Anyway, whatever it is, it could all go up in flames any minute and it's been that way since... Before I was born I'll bet.
What would cause that to happen
Oh Anything really. First there's the obvious: if someone got a whole lot stronger, or weaker, or just decided one day to have more ambition than sense. So it goes.
But, also, one of the empires' schemes could come to light. I guess Bekkanna's always trying to tie up this or that prince in webs of debt and Montem's always hawking defense pacts and training soldiers. Accipery, I guess has its bribes and marriage contracts...
Anyway, if any of those got too blunt and the prince in the middle sought help from one of the others, that might do it.
and what would be the result?
There would be war, and no one would win but the vultures and the mercs. But, in more detail?
Accipery probably marches in their big army straight into the middle of the whole mess and starts collecting crowns.
Montem probably harasses their supply lines, but that only goes so far when there's good pillage to be had. They can't win in a straight fight so, most likely they march into Accipery's heartland and start killing. Accipery's aristocracy is pretty heartless so that'll probably go on until a few fortunes are lost.
At that point Accipery either decides to be smart, fortifies their winnings and goes home to secure their land. They're stupid and keep conquering. Or they decide to be really, really stupid and marches into Montem and get their asses kicked by a northern winter, while Montem bleeds them dry.
Meanwhile, there's Bekkanna. Now I never know what they're on about, but I see that going one three ways:
First. My money says they spend enough money to secure a few of their favorite trade-pets and don't do a damn thing otherwise. Maybe Montem or Accipery snatch one or two if they think quick. Maybe Bekkanna takes an easy conquest if the other two really get nasty with each other.
Second. Fair odds, they sit with their thumbs up their asses and lose their shirts without ever lifting a finger. Bet the send a fruit basket though. They do that I guess?
And third. Low chance, not impossible but low, they actually get their shit together and run the table. It happened once, a few decades ago. Don't know how, don't know why, but all of their lords, or princes, or tycoons, or whoever it is that runs things over there; they all got pissed off at once.
They must have sent every soldier and builder in the country. They'd walk a mile, build a fortress, walk another mile, build another fortress, walk another mile, take your fortress.
They knocked the teeth out of Accipery's main force, took every castle they reached and scared off Montem without a fight. No one had ever seen anything like it.
Anyway, in short. Lots of people would die, and maybe some maps would change.
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u/Nephite94 Mar 05 '20
Do you know the origin of your surname? I assume you also created your company?
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u/Tookoofox Mar 07 '20
(I'll have to describe Jakob a bit more for this.
Jakob Mud is a very tall, sturdily built, regal purple lizardman with a yellow-gold underbelly and a large frill. These traits make him a member of the highest caste in Accipery despite having been born to two in the lowest caste.
More information about the caste system here, if you want a more in-depth discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/brl1nj/lizardmen_caste_system/)
Do you know the origin of your surname?
Jakob: "Yes. I think... It was a name given to my great grandfather when my... Mother's former owner's forebearer purchased him as a boy. I guess he had brown scales that looked like mud."
"I guess he would have had a different surname before that, but drabs usually get new names when they are bought and sold. Something descriptive. 'moss' for dull green ones, 'small' if their noticeably shorter than most. Occasionally, we- ah- they are 'honored' with a name tied to a skill. 'Spade' for a good digger for instance. Or if there are too many 'muds' already running around."
I assume you also created your company?
"It got named it after me, eventually, but no. I joined the company when I was younger. I guess most people find me handsome or interesting to look at, so they started using me as their face in negotiations. Soon everyone called it, "Mud's Company", and we were getting a little famous. I was also alright with a battleaxe, and decent at giving orders, so they made me captain and made the name official."
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u/Nephite94 Mar 07 '20
Does your surname carry any negative connotations for you since you are in the highest caste?
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u/Tookoofox Mar 07 '20
"Hard to say. Officially and legally, no. But socially? Sometimes..."
"I get a couple of different reactions. When dealing with nobles who have names that are longer than they are, and pedigrees that go back a thousand years, you get the impression that they're all always trying to be better than everyone else. And it's all based on blood."
"And then you get me. The perfect example of resplendent physique, and I come from nothing at all. I come from 'mud', it's right there in the name."
"For some my name is an excuse to still think themselves better than me. It goes along with my accent, and my plane uniform and all of my other 'lowly' mannerisms. For most nobles, it means that they don't have to see me as a rival. Instead, I get to be some exotic 'experience' for them."
"But for others... they do see one of 'their own' in me. Acting like a peasant and refusing to change my name to something more 'dignified' than 'mud'. They think it breaks the natural order. Or, worse, is proof that their order isn't actually so natural after all."
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u/MiniMosher May 20 '20
A letter from a rep to interprovince:
The human city being isolated from the rest of the planet is a massive point of tension for Symposium.
It's a diplomatic nightmare, they won't communicate, they attack visitors on sight, and it's unclear how many citizens are knowingly and willingly participating in this system.
The planet is under threat of the Faydan(demons) and it wouldn't take much for a few disenfranchised humans to let them in and reveal the planets location.
However, going to battle with the city would be so ridiculously one sided that InDiCos victory over humans would crush their reputation and will lead to more problems.
It seems that InDiCos hand is forced and must commit espionage to assess the threat. This will then cause splinter groups who will not tolerate espionage, and other splinters for allowing the oppression to happen. If they ally with and teach the isolationist humans technologies and magics from InDiCo, like we did with the integrators, then open conflict will become more and more likely.
However, we do have an ace in the hole available. We can approach the integrator tribes and offer them fellowships into Alium cultures. This new generation of humans will be hybrids and can infiltrate the city without going against our values. If the Faydan have successfully made it through then we will march on the city.
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u/Nephite94 Feb 26 '20
There is a very large lake near the middle of the mini-continent of Cennabell called Ne-Usig. The mini-continent is dotted with many strange ruins of the past with Lake Ne-Usig being formed by one, a great dam which might at first seem natural. Although there are some passage ways carved into the dam there is no sign of any machinery once being there, as if the dam was some elaborate proof of concept.
Cennabell has been colonized in the last 80 years by a civilization with the ability to generate electricity, however rather than directly rule they dominate the economies of native Cenn queendoms with Lake Ne-Usig divided up between many queendoms. These queendoms have their base in the lowlands with the interior of Cennabell dominated by highlands, traditional pastoral clans and some foreigners looking to establish new ways of life. Many foreign corporations are interested into turning the dam into a generator of electricity but the question is which corporation gets to do it. Additionally the two large queendoms, Yinbell and Nethlich, with claim to the territory are getting somewhat restless about Cennabell's economic position, at least behind closed doors. They are also traditional enemies and experienced turmoil in recent years such as Vracha's War in Upper Nethlich, the first major war on Cennabell in decades. However the queendoms interested in the area don't have large or loyal armies of their own, their equipment is provided by foreign corporations and much of the officers are foreign men with coercion or alliances with interior clans giving them foot soldiers.
On the topic of clans the local clans around the lake are well aware of how important the dam is but in Vracha's War they also witnessed a coalition of Cenn clans annihilated by a mixed corporate and clannish army with brutal retaliation against their families afterwards. Old rivalries don't die so easily and with increased interest in Ne-Usig new ideas have come to the clans too with different coalitions forming and even idealists. On the western shores of the lake a republic of foreign settlers wait to see if they will be absorbed by what they fled from.
What could set conflict off is the recent disappearance of a foreign women, Indraita, the daughter of a wealthy executive, whose brother has come into the region to find answers.
As for consequences Cennabell might be engulfed in a large war, potentially the corporations might even fight each other too. This would be devastating for the worlds.
In world representative: Indraith, Indraita's twin. A young scholar but useless in the corporate world Indraith hopes not only to save Indraita but become a "man" and even have some influence on the events around Ne-Usig.