The Minor Powers

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Kingmaker
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The Minor Powers

Post by Kingmaker »

The Minor Powers

The Minor Powers of Arcane Steels are factions that possess some political, military, economic, social, or scientific/arcane significance, though nowhere as much as the Major Powers. They are minor nations, popular religions, and lesser sovereigns; they number in the dozens and are the locus of much of the world's "action" so to speak. Some are strong enough to control their own destiny to some degree, though most are the tools or pawns of the Major Powers (some by choice). They tend to be poorer than the Major Powers, though some possess an extreme amount of wealth relative to their population. Their relative weakness means that getting their desires in defiance of the will of a Major Power requires cunning or make themselves to costly to be worth defeating. However, it should not be thought that they are all weak. The strongest of them are not far below the Major Powers, and can exert influence over lesser entities in much the same manner.
Last edited by Kingmaker on Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: Minor Powers

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The Faust Cartels

The Faust Cartels are a group of closely allied criminal groups that control the majority of the world’s organized crime. They are not affiliated with any state, and for the most part stay out of world politics in order to minimize the attention they receive from the major powers.

Different groups emphasize different specialties, from drugs to weapons to prostitution to blackmail. The common trait running through all the Cartels is that both the leadership and the rank and file are dominated by demonic spirits called fausts. Fausts possess a host, either bargaining with the host or overpowering a weak mind. These hosts, called faustians, are altered mentally and physically, although to what degree varies depending on the person and the faust. Some are warped into inhuman monsters but retain independent thought and their original personality, while others are completely controlled by the possessing spirit but appear perfectly human. Most fall somewhere in between.

The Cartels are not well liked, but efforts to suppress and eliminate them have not borne fruit. Political support tends to dry up as anti-Cartel politicians end up dead or backing down, and law enforcement and military forces often find Cartel enforcers to be quite dangerous.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: Minor Powers

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Do these fausts work with a singular purpose in mind, for their organization? Is it a conspiracy by demon-things to take over world crime? Or do the fausts just happen to rule crime because crime lords find fausts the most convenient way to gain power? Is their relationship symbiotic? If these fausts don't have a single purpose and aren't a conspiracy, then are there conflicts between fausts and fausts-hosts with the fausts trying to off each other to be top dog (or top faust)?
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Re: Minor Powers

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Shroom Man 777 wrote:Do these fausts work with a singular purpose in mind, for their organization? Is it a conspiracy by demon-things to take over world crime? Or do the fausts just happen to rule crime because crime lords find fausts the most convenient way to gain power? Is their relationship symbiotic? If these fausts don't have a single purpose and aren't a conspiracy, then are there conflicts between fausts and fausts-hosts with the fausts trying to off each other to be top dog (or top faust)?
There is no real over-arching purpose to the Faust Cartels beyond making, accumulating power, and sustaining the fausts. Fausts do indeed tend to be found among the underworld's power structure because they are a convenient source of power and the people making the bargains tend to be stupid/arrogant. The relationship is more or less symbiotic, however. Fausts feed off human vices, so organized crime keeps them fat and happy, while criminals get a leg up on the opposition/competition if the faust doesn't eat their soul. And yes, there is definitely infighting and competition between the leaders of the various cartels. They are allied in the sense that they take a dim view of outside interference, and will put aside internal competition (briefly) to focus on an external threat or competitor.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Acatalepsy »

As I said in that other thread, I'd imagine that Faust would be involved in the souls market in general - selling souls from the willing and desperate human masses to the elite mages. The fact that this makes more Fausts would be a happy byproduct on a very lucrative market.
Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes.

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Re: The Minor Powers

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The Errynt Clan

The Errynt Clan is a lesser mega-corporation/sovereign entity of Arranic/Tyrran origin. It was originally merely another Arranic barbarian clan, but during the Tyrran invasion of Arran in earlier centuries it proved troublesome enough that it was able to cut a deal. It ended up acquired a great deal of wealth and power in the Kingdom of Tyrre, and when the king was overthrown the Errynts backed the republicans. They were able to parlay this into acquiring recognized Sovereignty. It controls territory primarily in Arran, but also has some facilities scattered around the world. It is relatively small, population-wise, but it is quite wealthy and its alliance with the Saevenoks and the Aurian Church means that it can be a force to be reckoned with if it chooses (though it rarely does).

The Errynt Clan is composed of the Errynt family (which is relatively small—only around 40 individuals) as well as the various factory workers, soldiers, office workers, airship crews, and other employee/citizens (not all employees are citizens and not all citizens are employees). The Errynt Clan derives its wealth from its powerful position in several important markets. Most prominently, Errynt Sky-shipping and Airship Yards dominate airship manufacture and airship freight-carrying. The Errynt Clan also has the Rangers, a mercenary Air Assault Regimental Combat Team, one of the world’s premier (and most expensive) mercenary units. Aside from the Rangers, the Errynt Clan also owns several smaller and more specialized mercenary units.

The Errynt Clan is a minor political player on its own due to its small size, but it has been involved in numerous major conflicts in a supporting role. The Rangers have fought in nearly every major war over the past two and a half centuries, and the Errynts have often supported the Saevenoks in their conflicts with other minor powers.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Acatalepsy
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Acatalepsy »

Somehow mercenaries are always fun to base stories around. They get to beat the stuffing out of stuff, and none of this nonsense about larger strategic objectives...they're there to get paid, and that's about it.

Are these guys more or less your typical cyberpunk megacorp goons? They sound like good antagonists as well as protagonists.
Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes.

- Bruce Sterling
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Acatalepsy »

One question I have (and couldn't find any place to put it) is how "supernatural" human cognition is. One of the big themes of cyberpunk is that human beings aren't fundamentally special - actually, my sig is about a guy talking about cyberpunk.

But here we have an issue. You see, rats (presumably) do not have souls, or at least not on the same level. Yet clearly souls have an effect, hence the Fausts. But it also appears if the physical mind has effects as well - hence the bug things.

So basically I'm asking what souls actually do in this universe. Can messing with someone's soul be the equivalent of a low-level brainhack? Are souls singular, non-reducible? Or are they made of more simple bits that can be in turn reduced to more simple bits?
Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes.

- Bruce Sterling
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Re: The Minor Powers

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What IS soul-forging? And are there soul-forged animals as well? Biomancy on animals? I mean, imagine industrialized magic... but magic doesn't have to work solely on "industrialized" machinery or shit. You can magick the entire ecosystem! Elongate the legs of elephants and make something that looks like a Salvador Dali painting!
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Re: The Minor Powers

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Are these guys more or less your typical cyberpunk megacorp goons? They sound like good antagonists as well as protagonists.
The Rangers protagonists, although they sometimes work for bad people. One thing worth mentioning: in this setting working as a mercenary carries far less stigma than in real life.
Shroomy and Acatal's magic questions
I just created a magic thread where I'll answer these.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

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Arcane Library

The Arcane Library is a secular monastic organization dedicated to the accumulation and cataloging of human knowledge, with a particular focus on metaphysical and arcane knowledge. In addition to serving as a repository for knowledge, they also sponsor scientific endeavors, especially in fields like archaeology that focus on recovering lost knowledge. Their final notable function is that they act as a sort of international magical police force—they use their own agents or employ freelance agents to hunt down and capture or eliminate arcane predators and criminals (human or not).

The monastic libraries of the Arcane Library are numerous, and spread all around the world, though most have no more than a few hundred monks and no substantial financial capacity. They function primarily as a repository and institute of higher education. There are a handful of major libraries where thousands of monks reside. They serve as the seats of the order’s leadership, and it is from these facilities that most of the Library’s non-academic interactions are carried out.

Agents of the Library are called Librarians (this was initially a joke title given to them by a crew of mercenaries hired to assist one, but caught on inside the order). There are less than a hundred Librarians at any given time, and all are qualified archmages by the Library’s own standards of evaluating a mage’s skill. They tend to be sent out only on the most important and dangerous of missions. Less important missions tend to be farmed out to freelancers (occasionally referred to as ‘witch hunters’, or just ‘hunters’). The majority of the monks are merely academics of some sort, although there is a much higher proportion of mages among the ranks of the Arcane Library than the general population.

The Arcane Library is almost entirely apolitical, and its representatives are accorded a great deal of respect. Few wish to incur the wrath of the Library and run the risk of being cut off from the Library’s compendium of arcane knowledge. Many mages, especially those from more modern nations, do business with the library to acquire new formulae and arcane paraphernalia. Their standard of neutrality means that whenever the Arcane Library does intervene in a conflict on one side or the other, the dynamic of the conflict is radically transformed.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Hrm... do they hoard some of the knowledge they deep people are "not yet ready" for? Or do they make it ALL freely available? Who exactly are the enemies these Librarians are sent to destroy?
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Re: The Minor Powers

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Hrm... do they hoard some of the knowledge they deep people are "not yet ready" for? Or do they make it ALL freely available?
It isn't free, and some doesn't get distributed at all for legal reasons. They also are sitting on quite a few artifacts of DOOM!, which can cause problems, like summoning hordes of alien-demon-things from hell that will rip and tear your guts.
Who exactly are the enemies these Librarians are sent to destroy?
Manifest demons, criminals with a dangerous level of magical skill, Faust Cartel leaders who let their guard down--things like that.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

If their mandate is to collect and store knowledge, why are they enacting vigilante justice? :?:
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Kingmaker »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:If their mandate is to collect and store knowledge, why are they enacting vigilante justice? :?:
They're like Jedi in space, man...wait.
It was an expansion of their original operations involving collection of artifacts of doom for cataloging and safe-keeping. They very rarely get involved in mundane criminal or military situations. Hence why their intervention is such a big deal: a Librarian showing up says that there is some serious magical shit going down. They don't show up for a guy who mugs people with magic. They show up for the guy who summons demons to destroy small cities.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Ah, I see. I presume they often work together with international or governmental task forces in consultant roles? Yes, their specialized knowledge in all sorts of archeological and technotheological matters would come in handy when all sorts of weirdo nastiness comes down. Like, part Dumbledore, part Monk, and part INDIANA JONES!
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Re: The Minor Powers

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Vulcadia

Vulcadia is a former colony of Nova Edessa and a fairly prominent nation among the minor powers. While it doesn’t approach the Major Powers in influence, its policies still bear considerable weight in regional politics. With a population in the tens of millions, it is fairly populous, though, again, not on the same level as the Major Powers.

Vulcadia’s society is an odd mix of agrarian and industrial. Old plantation cultivate thousands of square miles of volcanic soil, sustaining themselves economically by growing unique crops that will not grow anywhere else but the arcanically-charged volcanic soil found in Vulcadia. Meanwhile, a substantial middle class and industrial elite has developed in the cities. There is a distinct divide between these two groups, culturally and politically. While Vulcadia is a generally conservative country in many ways, the rural agrarian gentry and patricians look down upon the industrial entrepreneur patricians as overly-liberal.

Vulcadia is ruled by a hereditary constitutional monarchy. In addition to the monarchy, the patricians elect a parliamentary body to advise the king/queen and legislate. More recently, thanks to international pressure, another parliament elected by the freeholders (at this point, all non-patricians, as serfdom and slavery have been abolished for over a century). The freeholders still have very little political power, with the majority concentrated in the patricians and the throne. Other influential groups in Vulcadia include the Temple of Ara (a religious organization) and one of the Faust Cartels.

Historically, Vulcadia has not played much of a role on the world stage. It was consumed in internal struggles during the Eidolon War, and is primarily focused on internal problems and regional rivals to its influence and interests rather that expanding to the world stage. Despite a somewhat archaic social structure, Vulcadia’s population is comparatively prosperous and advanced. There have been flaring tensions between Vulcadia and its neighbors in recent years, but the royal government is confident in the ability of the elite Volcano Legions and the rest of their professional military to deal with any threat.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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Re: The Minor Powers

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The Grand Order of the Knights of Magnus
Population: 30 million (20% abhuman, 5% soulforged)
Capital: Luminatum

The Grand Order of the Knights of Magnus is a heavily industrialized minor power and one of the nations along the borders of the Sinkhole (the world’s most prominent geostigmata). It was originally a military expedition sent by the Lightbringers to colonize, civilize, and secure the border marches. While it was quite successful in this regard, taking only a few months to subjugate the Metacracies that ruled the region, the victories did not last. The apotheosis of the Lightbringers plunged the Empire into chaos. Many of the Metacracies were able to claim independence in the disorder. The Grand Order of the Knights of Magnus set itself up at an independent state (commonly referred to as the Grand Order or the Magnian Knights) under the Order’s Grand Master (the Grand Master christened himself Julian Casca II—the first Julian Casca being the military genius that led the most successful of the Lightbringers’ military campaigns, including the initial campaigns of the Grand Order. This practice has been continued by every subsequent Grand Master, man or woman. The current Grand Master is Julian Casca XVIII).

The Grand Order transformed its territory from a province of the Empire to a military dictatorship. Most of its efforts were directed towards keeping the borders secure against xenothere incursions from the Sinkhole and invasions by the resurgent metacracies. Society was reorganized around the military aristocracy provided by the Knights. Every citizen was required to serve three years in the military. To go along with this, the government has cultivated a military culture, encouraging the citizenry to regard foreigners (especially those from the Metacracies) as soft and undisciplined. The Cult of the Lightbringers is the state religion of the Grand Order, although it deviates from the orthodox elements of the Cult, placing Julian Casca on nearly the same level as the Lord and Lady Lightbringer. Some other religions are tolerated, but just barely, and they have few adherent regardless.

One peculiar aspect of Order society is the testing that every child undergoes at age 14. These results determine the sort of education a child can expect to receive, among other things. This method has proven reasonably effective, though far from perfect, at keeping the military aristocracy from becoming hereditary. In addition to the mundane educational assignations these tests determine, the mental and physical top one percent are conscripted by the government. They receive special education, and, depending on what aptitudes they display, are channeled into science, medicine, civil service, or the military (male recruits emphasize military training, female recruits emphasize arcane training). The military segment of this elite compose the most noticeable segment of the regular officer corps and military aristocracy—most of the male conscripts end up as Knights, most of the female conscripts as War Mages. While the majority of the officer corps is composed of regular professionals, the Knights and War Mages tend to get most of the attention, and thirteen of eighteen Grand Masters have belonged to one unit or the other.

The Grand Order is more prosperous than the surrounding Metacracies, thanks in part to the more stable internal conditions and the much higher level of industrialization. They have also benefited from the resource deposits that are only found along the fringes of geostigmata. Only some of this prosperity is passed on to the citizens of the Grand Order. A great deal is consumed by the military. While the Grand Order's foreign policy has been primarily defensive in the past, there has been agitation recently for the annexation of a few of the smaller neighboring Metacracies. The argument is that they benefit from protection of the Grand Order, and so should shoulder some of the burden. The Grand Master has yet to act on this in any way, but other nearby polities are fearful; the military of the Grand Order is considerably more powerful and more experienced.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
-Rudyard Kipling
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