Tibby's Graphics and Grab-Bag Thread.

[Turquoise Blue]

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[Turquoise Blue]

Factions in the Chinese States, 2041


In "Kweisui" (Guisui, the Chinese Socialist Republic)​

The "Revolutionary Die-Hard Clique": Very eager to expand the revolution, currently in power and funnelling money, guns and support to the communist rebels in the benighted Jin Dynasty lands, sure that it will lead to the ultimate victory of the Chinese socialist revolution there. And then expansion to liberate the Manchu and the southerners from their monarchies and drive out the colonisers at last, an united socialist China!

The "Revolutionary Pragmatist Clique": The ones that originally accepted the deal with the Jin Dynasty back in the 2000s, they have been unceremoniously pushed out in the power struggle as the Jin Dynasty enters a period of weakness, causing the Die-Hards to acquire strength.

In Manchuria (The Qing Dynasty, the Empire of Great Manchuria)​

The Emperor Kai-ping: Well-educated, deeply 'Westernised', went to Castreleon University, knows very much that Manchuria is a British puppet. When he was younger, he had radical ideas for a return of Manchurian power and prestige. But now? As he has said to a diplomat once - "In one's youth, one cannot help but rage against injustice. Later on, one has to accept it." Indeed, by the time he reached the throne, all those dreams were cast aside. He will continue the system, but some observers has noted that he has done more than previous emperors to reassert the old claim to reigning China.

The British Consulate: The real power, some say, in Manchuria. They're fairly unhappy at present due to the benefit of propping up the Qing seemingly eternally futile. Sure, the country has a lot of industry, but... there's not a lot there is it, for British interest.

The Bannermen: The elite of the army, and some murmur that the Han Bannermen (as contrast to the Manchu, the Mongol or the Russian) have Goldshirt sympathies. The Emperor is notably nervous at this rumour, and has started a loose investigation in it. Will there be a second Goldshirt coup?

The Parliament: A relatively weak chamber, legally, but one that has more influence than it thinks, due to the people sitting there.
- The Industrialists: Manchuria has for the last century or so been investing regularly in industry to stave off the Jin trying to end the last hold-out of the hated Qing Dynasty. This has led to considerable influence of the industrialists. Moneyed and international, they are the economic power.
- The Liberals: A Manchurian 'liberal' is a very nebulous thing, but broadly one sympathetic to the 'people', more willing to support welfare, minimum wage laws, workplace safety laws, and a 'sinicisation' of Northern Manchuria. They are by far most sympathetic to Chinese nationalism.
- The 'Northerners': The people from 'Northern Manchuria', aka the formerly Russian parts. They're more politically radical, broadly resent Manchurian control, but are ethnically divided into Russians, Jews, Poles, Chukchis, Koryaks, etc.

In the Chin Dynasty (Jin, the Empire of Great Chin)​

The "Goldshirt Movement": A bunch of weird nationalists who have extensive links to the military. They've now tried a coup on the Jin government in Beijing declaring the start of the "Chinese Revival", declaring that just as the Manchu lost the "Mandate of Heaven" to the Qing and the Qing lost it to the Jin, so they will take over. The main problem is that they have not selected an emperor for their new rule and seem resistant to such. Still, they claim to reject the 'vile republicanism' of the communists and Kuomintang. What are they even for? An eternal regency or a puppet emperor or what?

The "Millions' Resistance": The Goldshirt coup did not receive a nice welcome with many, especially the more working-class section of Beijing. The resistance isn't much ideologically coherent yet, but it does seem to be broadly a fed up, angry and very radical one. Perhaps even republican, the patience with the Jin was running fairly thin before the Goldshirt coup, and now there's urban battles in Beijing itself between the Jin, the Goldshirts and the Resistance. Chaos!

The Imperial Court: Currently holed out in Zhengzhou and trying to rally troops against the Goldshirts and the Resistance and the communists the blasted Guisui lot keep funding. Unsurprisingly, they're hopelessly divided on what to do in response.
- The Reformers: The Emperor is slowly allowing them to persuade him around on some ideas. The empowerment of the National Assembly, the abolition of the 'imperial guidance' system, allowing the Assembly to select a Prime Minister who would be confirmed by the Emperor, etc. The reformers are more or less lightly optimistic, but is it at this moment too late to salvage matters for the benighted and mandateless Jin?
- The Establishment: With a good deal of their more vocal number now backing the Goldshirts, the old establishment is on the back foot with the government-in-internal-exile, but the Prime Minister is trying to salvage matters, gingerly reaching out to some of his old comrades to see if they can't come to an understanding. The Emperor isn't particularly happy about that, and the Prime Minister may be looking for a new job.
- The Diplomats: In the complex web of diplomacy the Jin and Taiping play on the global stage, the diplomats have greater say than otherwise. One of the few saving graces the Jin Dynasty has is that it has managed to keep the diplomatic recognition and safety of the foreign diplomats while in exile in Zhengzhou. But such diplomacy is always so fickle, and the British chargé d'affaires (never ambassador or even minister, the British recognise the Qing) has been making... enquiries.

The "People's Revolutionary Guard": Flush with Guisui money and weapons, they have been causing havoc for a few years in the countryside, but rumour has it that they have started moving on to the cities in a dash to take advantage of the disorder in Beijing. The revolution is nigh, according to their very eager followers. The Jin will go, the Chinese Socialist Republic will triumph! Or at least that is what they claim will happen.

In Tientsin (Tianjin, the Concord of Nations Mandate of the Tientsin Concessions)​

The Tientsin Mandate Commission: Currently in a rush to pack stuff up and flee, as the CoN has decided to revoke the concession and withdraw its people. There's a good deal of smoke coming out of the Commission's building's chimney, they're burning some compromising documents.

The Nationalists: Loosely associated with either the Goldshirts or the Resistance, or even the Kuomintang or communists, it's a very incoherent movement based around basically resentment at the CoN carving out Tianjin when they all thought the time of concessions was at least over. They're currently very happy at present, and rallying a lot. I believe some of the local elite are trying to form a State of Tianjin as a stopgap before full incorporation. But in what? The Jin, Guisui, Taiping, Taiwan, Fujian, or just a full on "fuck it, we claim to be a China now"?

In Kiautschou (Jiaozhou, the Province of Kiautschou (in the German Empire))​

The Landtag: SPD, Centre, NLP, etc., it's all a bit irrelevant. Sure, some endorse the Republicans, others the Princess-Regent, even some the Austrians. But in Kiautschou, such allegiances pale to the fact that the province may fall eventually. The Landtag is primarily made out of white Germans or collaborationist elite and hence profit greatly from the province being possessed by an European power. However, others disagree...

Yiguandao: Always a high presence in the Province, especially since the Jia clamped down on them and many fled to Jiaozhou. The Landtag has an uncomfortable co-existence with the extent and strength of the Yiguandao organisation among the poorer Chinese. Currently the patriarch of the sect is not taking the Landtag's calls and has expressed certain... thoughts about the continuation of German control. Protests and strikes have grown as a result, and many in the Landtag are quietly worrying that the 2040s will see the end of the German 'weltreich'.

In Shanghai (the Grand Metropolis of Shanghai)​

"Businessman's League": An informal caucus of the city's very moneyed corporate elite, they are consistently hostile to Taiping for their more radical policies, and many wish to just see Shanghai stay a bastion of free-market capitalism. Unification? God no, why would they ever support that.

Patriotic Labour Party: Working-class, vaguely Chinese nationalist, ideologically socialist, managed to get the mayoralty after a strike forced the city to reform the system to be more democratic-ish. The Upper Chamber, helmed by business interests, are blocking a lot of their policies...

Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): Not as strong as the ones in Fujian or Taiwan, the Shanghai KMT has evolved into a weird 'Third Way' position of fierce Chinese nationalism and more corporatist economics (not corporationist). Decidedly third in popularity to the League or PLP.

Heavenly Society: The society representing God Worshippers in Shanghai. Obviously broadly for unification with Taiping, not always on the same line as Taiping itself, with Dissenters having a good deal of presence in Shanghai.

The Foreigners: Shanghai is an international city, and hence many foreigners live and work there. They're very uneasy about the recent developments outside of Shanghai, but it's not quite "time to flee" territory yet.

In the Heavenly Kingdom (Taiping, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace)
​

The Imperial Court: A swirling maelstrom of whispers, doubts and intrigue.
- The Emperor: The descendant of the man who Taipingers believe to be a deity, he is a deeply arrogant man who has just received his first backlash after ten years fully indulging his father's clique in their radical policies. Time will tell how he replies.
- The Centralists: The governing clique, and one that has made waves in Taiping for good or for ill. Originally ushered into power fifteen years ago in the waning days of the previous Emperor, they successfully persuaded the current Emperor to let them continue. Economic reform after economic reform, slowly dismantling the state of the economy set out by the Heavenly King in favour of a centralised and 'stronger' one. This has brought controversy.
- The Traditionalists: A strange mixture of would-be socialists and deeply religious people who oppose the Centralist policies on a bunch of different reasons. Not Dissenter, but certainly the people who would dare brook that the Emperor has allowed himself to be... misled.

The Agriculturalists: The farmers who have taken up sticks in anger against the current Taiping Emperor and his corrupt clique's policies which has damaged farmers' livelihood. Many already murmur that divinity is not hereditary and the current Emperor is just a man, even if one with divine descent, and that his policies run contrary to the Heavenly King's ideas. Classic Dissenter theology, and ones that may spread like wildfire if things worsen.

Miscellaneous Dissenters: The non-rebelling ones. Broadly the people who would be considered "dissenters" in a God Worshipper context are those that unhesitatingly accept the Heavenly King as the son of the Heavenly Father, the brother of Jesus, and one of the Holy Quaternary, but do not agree with the orthodox interpretation that His descendants are similarly divine, or speak for their ancestor. It's a theology that grows when the Court is more unpopular, but markedly shrinks when the Court reclaims legitimacy with the people. It's not doing badly at the moment.

In Fukien (Fujian, the People's Revolutionary Government of the Republic of China)
​

The Revolutionary Committee: Currently not sure if they should take advantage of Taiping's disorder to stab further in, or if they should wait.
- Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): The Fujian chapter, barely pays attention, if at all, to the one in Taiwan. Markedly more left-wing.
-- Left-Kuomintang: The head honcho faction in Fujian, they're the ones who led the 'Great Liberation' and established themselves firmly in charge, and were the ones to lead Fujian to declare that it carries on the real Chinese Republican ideals of Doctor Sun Yat-sen, not Taiwan.
-- Right-Kuomintang: A rump after opportunist defections to Left-KMT and some careful purges, they're still sympathetic, somewhat, to the idea of reunification with Taiwan, which the left-KMT dismisses as enabling sellouts. More cautious than Left-KMT on war with Taiping.
- Chinese Democratic Party (Minchutang): The Minchutang are basically the mushy centrist liberals that the more corporatist KMT just isn't, and apart from objecting to harsh 'liberation laws', has been a quiet part of the Committee, mostly there to make the Committee look less one-party.

The God-Worshippers: The Committee hasn't exactly been that kind to them, but while the Left-KMT continues publicly to 'crusade against religious delusion', the Committee as a whole has tried to reach out to the dissenters, with mixed results.
- Orthodoxes: Currently the ones most targeted, and as Taiping grows more embroiled in internal feuds this has only increased. Over MCT objections, it is now a crime to 'publicly venerate as a deity any currently serving head of state, or to imply that they are in any way infallible'. Why yes, the Catholics are fuming at this and the Left-KMT has managed to somehow bridge a giant schism between the two communities. Amazing.
- Dissenters: Historically not much in Fujian, but has became the majority of God-Worshippers since the 'Great Liberation' and KMT policies. Even if mostly out of fear at Left-KMT hard-handed policies, a good deal of people have abandoned the idea the Emperor is divine or speak infallibly.

The "Taiwan Group": The Fujian Revolutionary Committee declaring that Taiwan no longer is the legitimate Chinese republican government did not go down well with everyone. The Taiwan Group, as they presumably call themselves, is a very secretive organisation associated in some way with the Right-KMT and the MCT, although there are murmurs that there are some high-ranking members of Left-KMT among their ranks. It is by far the President of the Revolutionary Committee's obsession, fuelling his paranoia that his committee's project is being undermined.

In Taiwan (the Republic of China in Taiwan)
​

The Government: Apart from quietly bribing the British to protect their seas from potential enemies and the customarily shaking of their hands at Fujian, the present Government is very much Taiwan-focusing.
- Green Party Taiwan: The party of the young, the aspirational, the liberals, and those who just want to get on with making Taiwan great instead of trying to retake China. Since the "Fujian Betrayal", 'Taiwaniser' parties like the Greens have benefited big.
- Taiwan People's Party: The 'old-style' Taiwaniser party, eclipsed by the Greens now, but the Taiwanisers all have great respect for the party that fought for multiparty democracy and got it after fighting a KMT that was clamping down on dissent to create a base to reclaim China.
- Chinese Democratic Party (Minchutang): The Taiwan version, the only explicitly 'Chinese' party in the government at the moment. They ironically have more power and more say in a government disinterested in China than in one based around the fight to reclaim.
- Hakka Party: The most conservative of the parties in government, it primarily represents the Hakka people of Taiwan. There is some Taiping sympathies circling around there, but most of the Hakka in Taiwan ultimately descend from people who moved there during the fall of the Ming.

The Opposition: Try finding some coherency in this lot.
- Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): The party of Sun Yat-sen, Wang Ching-wei and Chiang Kai-shek, originally an underground pan-Chinese organisation, managed to kick the British out of Liangguang in the late 1910s, fled to Taiwan once they returned, etc etc. Now they're stewing in opposition as a government seemingly completely disinterested in the idea of a reunited China runs the show. What a fate.
- Public Interest Party of China: The Taiwan branch of the Liangguang party, it is a fairly new party that nevertheless fills in quite neatly the 'left, but not Taiwaniser' niche. Still, it isn't much popular outside that small niche.
- Taiwan Indigenous Party: Since the 2000s Accord as part of the wider 'shift' in Taiwanese politics, the indigenous populace of Taiwan have enjoyed special dispensation for elections to the Legislative Yuan despite their relatively small size. The Taiwan Indigenous Party tends aloof from government, preferring to draw out concessions on an one-to-one basis, rather than agree to a sweeping government manifesto.

In Liangkwang (Liangguang, the Viceroyalty of Liangkwang)
​

The Viceroy: The office isn't what it once was. Once, it was basically the office that could get everything done and order everything be changed without any legal blockade. Since the 1960s, the post have been chipped away by reform after reform after yet another revolt proved the model infeasible. Now it's a toothless office most Liangguangers freely disregard and think of as an archaism. The current Viceroy well knows this.

The Government: A very nationalist one, Chinese nationalist in fact, and wishes to end the concessions and fold the cities into Liangguang proper, which has been causing no short of diplomatic headache for Britain (also a bonus to the government!)
- Public Interest Party of China: A federalist, nationalist, and vaguely socialist one, it has benefited off urban working-class dissatisfaction with the status quo and has harnessed that into a genuine nationalist-labour alliance against all what they deem ills. The King has snubbed the Minister-President at the last royal tour, which indicates fairly well Britain's attitude to Liangguang those days.
- Chinese Democratic Party (Minchutang): Even more recently set up than the Taiwan one, it has acquired immense support with young middle-class voters and has parlayed that support into being an indispensable part of the nationalist coalition governing Liangguang.

The Opposition: Currently languishing, it's not as if they're even popular those days with nationalism and populism in the air.
- Conservative Party of Liangguang: Sort of the Liangguang equivalent of the British conservative movement, widely seen as just the party of the coloniser to many Liangguang people, its base was always those more affluent and more connected to international trade, and the economic depression has currently led to well, less people being economically affluent, for short.
- Labour Party: Once connected to the British version, it has radicalised since and now supports full Liangguang independence and republicanism. It however, remains distrustful of nationalism, being much more a Marxist party. The most you'll hear from them is vaguely 'Chinese socialism'.
- Zhuang Representation Committee: The province of Guangxi is an autonomous part of Liangguang as part of the democratic reforms Britain was forced to grant to Liangguang to stave off further collapse of its presence. The Zhuang make up a lot of Guangxi's populace, and are represented in the Liangguang Assembly by the Zhuang Representation Committee. By necessity, it is a fairly politically broad-tent party.
- Liberal Democratic Party of Liangguang: The Liangguang branch of the British LDP, they basically collapsed as a result of the Minchutang's surge in the last election, and seems to be just collapsing further in presence as many younger voters continue the flight to Minchutang.
- Party for Hainan: Hainan has a strange history as part of Liangguang, and as part of a series of 90s constitutional reforms, it was granted its own autonomous province. It is a quite corrupt one but one that seems to know when to use it to sustain long-term. This is obviously their party.

Banned and Underground Parties: Ooh boy.
- Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): Banned since the 1920s, they're still around. The current government has floated the idea in a circular or two of lifting the ban and allowing the party of Sun Yat-sen to compete legitimately. This has got blowback from the predictable people.
- Chinese Socialist Party: A radical party broadly aligned with Narodnik sentiment, banned early in the early days of the Cold War. Some murmur the Russians kept the underground party around and even that the people up in Guisui still give some money here and then to keep it around.
- Party of Heavenly Peace: A pro-Taiping party, banned as part of retrenching British control of Liangguang in the late 40s, still unofficially around as part of the God Worshipper communities deeply distrusted by Britain. The Public Interest Party got a lot of their votes last time around...
- Chinese National Youth Party: A 50s or so party, was a fairly radical, even anarchist at times, party that made great waves for their protests and sit-ins, and when some of them turned to bombings, the hammer came out, and well, the 60s was when British control went down hill for a reason...
- Chinese People's Party: The Jenmintang (see what they did there?) was a revolutionary socialist party that participated in the 60s movement against British control, and even though banned, a lot of their members ended up formative in the growth of the Public Interest Party.
- Revolutionary Communist Party of China: A party that makes the Socialists look tame, they've done a fair few bombings in the 70s and 80s during the uneasy times after the 'Revolution of 67' was both crushed and negotiated with and British control was slowly reeled back.
- Anti-Imperialist Alliance: This one isn't a Chinese nationalist party, but is broadly in the whole 'Sixtier' movement. Founded by white and Eurasian university students [the British broadly restricted applications to select universities to those racial categories] radicalised by the whole 'living in a country that is obviously there because an empire wanted a colony' (and reading Marx, that helps), it burnt short but bright as they successfully assassinated a Viceroy and most of his cabinet during a 'viceregal visit' to an university in 1965. Comprehensively banned and uprooted afterwards.

In Hong Kong (the County and Metropolitan Borough of Hong Kong (in the Commonwealth of England))
​

The Government: Currently in charge primarily because of the lower, popularly-elected, chamber superseding the upper. Although the chances at passing anything that goes against the old order is vanishingly small, much to the people's growing discontent.
- Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong: A left-liberal, vaguely populist, generally anti-colonial party that emerged as the voice of Hong Kong democracy back during the struggles in the 80s. Enjoys much support with the lower-middle-class.
- Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions - Labour Party: Or Labour for short, it's a fairly left-wing party with deep roots in the trade union movement of Hong Kong. This is the first time it has been in government since the 2000s and... the way that one ended.
- Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong: The party of the moneyed middle-class uneasy about the last few governments' more hard-handed policies, it has joined the DAB-Labour coalition in exchange for a great say on monetary policy, which has made some Labour people uneasy.

The Opposition: With a comfortable majority in the Professional Chamber, they can safely block anything the Government does.
- Civic Liberal Party: Not to be confused with the LDF, this is a conservative party of real moneyed interests. The corporations dominating HK really do like the Civic Liberals, who regularly vote in their interest. This is why the Civic Liberals alone make up a great chunk of the Professional Chamber.
- Hong Kong Resurgence Order: Too much for even the DAB and allies, this new party has been making waves with its radical ideas of Hong Kong independence. Not even union with Liangguang, but full-on independence as the "Free State of Hong Kong" or whatever.
- Reform Club of Hong Kong: The traditional pro-democracy party albeit a pro-'colonial' one, it has gradually became eclipsed by DAB and others, and is now mostly significant only in the Professional Chamber due to a lot of appointments from its ranks once the democrats came to power.
- Labour Party of Hong Kong: Not to be confused with the other Labour Party (which is distinguished as FTU-Labour when need be), this is a radical party that is tangentially connected to a series of bombings back in the 70s. No clue how they're not banned, probably behind-doors negotiation.

Banned Parties: Gee, it's almost as if being a colony isn't universally popular.
- Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): One can't forget that when Sun Yat-sen declared the Republic as part of the Liangguang Revolution, HK was part of that Republic both in name and in reality. Even now, the KMT has some underground popularity. The government would try to repeal the ban, but they know it wouldn't pass the Professional Chamber where the Civic Liberals and appointed 'functional representatives' would vote it down.
- Revolutionary Marxist League: Trots? In Hong Kong? Apparently the Antarctican communist garnered some sympathy with some HKers back in the 80s and this was a part of the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong. Banned in the final years before democratisation.
- People's Liberation Association of Hong Kong: Another hard-left revolutionary organisation, it was primarily a 90s thing, a lot of its members ended up in either Labour party after 'moderating' a bit on the whole "revolution" aspect.

In Macau (the Free and Independent City of Macau)
​

The Commission: Macau is ran by business interests very much overtly, keen to keep taxes low, the casinos buzzing and the radicals out.
- The "Establishment Clique": For this group, it is very simple. Macau is a place to make money. Spending money is not making money. They are the ones who oppose anything that isn't "low tax for the rich, corrupt subsidies for corporations, strong casinos, and strong law enforcement".
- The "Libertarian Clique": They are the ones who disagree with the Establishment on the subsidies. Subsidies are not making money, and it's just playing favourites when the Commission should be a neutral representation of all business interests. Very popular with smaller businesses.
- The "Reformer Clique": The smallest of the three cliques, they are the ones who think some sort of capital confidence could be strengthened by giving the poors some welfare in addition to shovelling subsidies to corporations. They are fairly popular with some working-class businesses.

The Alliance for Change: A broad-tent anti-establishment movement that has been garnering a lot of support with Macanese people. It is rumoured that out of the long list of banned parties in Macau, most of the active underground ones back the Alliance. It broadly demands democracy, and are doing a lot of peaceful protests that the Commission is torn on how to respond since going full mask-off would undermine capital confidence...

In Kouang-Tchéou-Wan (Guangzhouwan, the Province of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan (in the French Union))​

The King: Well, François V is just one of the three kings of France, but he's the one that Guangzhouwan recognises, sooo... He lives primarily in Bhopal, but sometimes comes to Guangzhouwan. The reception seriously varies to his visits.

The Governor: Traditionally someone from Paris, the present Governor is the first one actually from the province, appointed by the President in a sop to the locals in an attempt to win them over after some growing nervousness over local troubles. It... hasn't quite worked.

The Provincial Assembly: Used to be completely consultative, but those days a vote from it tends to guide the Governor in signing something. Broadly dominated by 'French' parties because of very low turnout (and disenfranchisement) of Chinese voters.
- Socialist Party: The Guangzhouwan branch of the French PS, it is broadly one for a firm democratisation of the province and some of the more radical sorts (who haven't left for the communists) openly consider the idea of secession, which is technically illegal in France but...
- Union for Democracy: The broad centrist-ish liberal reformists, the main right-wing party for decades. They're very much in favour of private enterprise and all that jazz, and distrusts 'socialism' and the idea of Guangzhouwan seceding from France.
- National Party: A barely-hidden veneer for the old Kuomintang (which was of course banned), it is by far the most popular local party and regularly lobbies for Guangzhouwan to be reunited with wider China, including Liangguang. Firmly republican.
- Communist Party: A very strange party in where one can't really judge if it's a branch of the French communists or a branch of the pan-Chinese communists, it seems to have members who think both, and hence its stance on anything to do with constitutionalism is... incoherent.
- Democratic Party: The Minchutang got into the game as well, but the UpD is far more effective at mobilising votes.

Banned Parties
- Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang): Currently masquerading as the 'National Party', France allows them to get away with it.
- Party of Communists of Guangzhouwan: A radical splitter off the Communists, it made waves for an attempted assassination on the King.

In Yunnan (the Islamic Sultanate of Yunnan)
​

The Sultan: As with all other sultans since the coup of the 1920s, the Sultan is a powerless figurehead, albeit one widely loved.

The Government: The military is still firmly in charge, but they have allowed a facade of 'democracy'.
- Federation for the Stability of Yunnan: The military party, it however does have pull of its own slightly distinct from the military. Think of it as more the pro-military party, since the Prime Minister is ostensibly a civilian nowadays, even if he receives his marching orders from the Army. The reason it is a Federation and not a party is because it's made out of a lot of ethnic parties with the formulaic name "United X Party for the Stability of Yunnan".

The Opposition: It is hard to be a Yunnanese democrat, really, when the government repeatedly bans or imprisons you.
- Movement for a Democratic Yunnan: Currently the democratic party, it has however been relatively tame in criticism of the government those days.
- Party for the Heavenly Way: The Taiping God Worshipper party, they are tolerated at best.
- Yi Autonomous League: A splitter off the United Yi Party for the Stability of Yunnan, this is a fairly radical-ish party that calls for Yi autonomy out of Yunnan. The government is keeping great notes on them, anxious to ensure they do not draw votes away from the FSY's Yi clientele.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

C h i n a i s w h o l e a g a i n
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[Skaven]

Revolutionary Die-Hard Clique Number One, All The Rest: Ptooie!

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Second Grieve ministry - Second "New Statesman" ministry - as composed on 2/04/2022

Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury: Dominic Grieve
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice: David Lammy
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury: Lisa Nandy
Secretary of State for Foreign and Imperial Affairs: Tom Tugendhat
Secretary of State for the Home Department: Phil Woolas

Secretary of State for the Colonies: Amber Rudd
Secretary of State for Defence: Penny Mordaunt
Secretary of State for Education: Justine Greening
Secretary of State for Business and Skills: Ed Davey
Secretary of State for Regional Co-operation: Jason Zadrozny
Secretary of State for Metropolitan Development: Brian Paddick
Secretary of State for Ireland: Paula Bradshaw
Secretary of State for Scotland: David Mundell
Secretary of State for Wales: Ken Skates
Secretary of State for Hong Kong: Lam Cheuk-ting
Secretary of State for Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Ian Marshall
Secretary of State for Nature and Water Management: Victoria Prentis
Secretary of State for Environmental Study: Tamsin Omond
Secretary of State for Science and Technology: Luciana Berger
Secretary of State for Labour and Welfare: Hilary Wedgwood Benn
Secretary of State for Public Health: Feryal Clark
Secretary of State for International Development: Douglas Alexander
Secretary of State for Power and Energy Strategy: Clive Lewis
Secretary of State for Housing and Spatial Planning: Emily Thornberry
Secretary of State for the British Isles Home Development Fund and Social Insurance: Rory Stewart
First Commissioner of Public Works and Infrastructure: Andy Burnham
Secretary of State for Equalities and Communities: Wendy Alexander
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Heritage: Layla Moran

 

[Turquoise Blue]

The Snap of Winter

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (-2027 [de facto])
Boris Johnson (Conservative majority, then minority) 2019-2024
May 2024 (min.): def. Keir Starmer (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
Nadine Dorries (Conservative minority) 2024-2027
Oct 2024 (min.): def. Angela Rayner (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
Liz Truss (Conservative minority, then government-in-exile) 2027-

Prime Ministers of the 'People's Government' of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2027-2029)
Martin Lewis (Independent [NationSaver] leading provisional administration) 2027-2029

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2029- [declared])
Martin Lewis (NationSaver majority) 2029-2031
2029 (maj.): def. Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat), Alex Sobel (Labour), Humza Yousaf (SNP), Tamsin Omond (Green New Deal)
Jack Monroe (NationSaver majority) 2031-

The "Winter Revolution" came out of nowhere. There couldn't have been any prediction for it. It wasn't something that could have been foreseen. A major country, a major capitalist country in the West, falling to revolution in the 21st century. And in Britain of all places.

Quiet, leafy, England, known for being the bastion of calm and stability - falling to revolution? Surely not! All the stocks were doing fine, sure PM Dorries was quite right-wing, but she worked well with the rest of the West, mostly. The profit from privatising the BBC really did help cut the deficit. Sure Labor was going on about a cost of living crisis and apparently they said something about a 'famine'? In the West? Nonsense.

Britain was doing great, the pound was at a great value, its housing market booming with houses going for unbelievable prices. Revolution? Far, far from everyone's thoughts. It's one of those things that just happened, hard to predict. Sometimes the people just get those... excitable moments.

Nothing we could have done. What a shame. We could have seen Britain finally end its huge deficit, but the new government, a bunch of communists really, announced their 'NationSaving' policies. Lots of nationalisation, lots of spending. We tried to help the legitimate PM back in power, with some American troops moving to reassert order. Who knew it would lead to the "People's Government" announcing a withdrawal from NATO and to a break of America with our European allies? After a year of this, President Cruz announced withdrawal. Humiliation.

We of course keep recognising the Truss Government. No way will we allow those communists in London to be in the UN. We've vetoed about five attempts to replace them, the last one had China, India and the EU vote for it. Bah!

=======

The Winter Revolution was inevitable, comrade. Toryism is always for the rich, not the rest of us, and they chose to squeeze us until we pop. And pop we did! After years of hunger, years of starvation, we rose up. They sent in the Army, they always did. But the Army refused to fire on their fellow Brits [okay okay some did, but we don't say that in the official history]. Comrade Lewis at this time stepped up to the fore and spoke for us.

Nadine Dorries, the latest and most horrible example of Toryism, declared that the "woke" was taking over Britain and told the Army to "do what is necessary" to purge "wokeism" from Britain. Fascism of course. That was what Toryism ultimately became. However, just as Toryism is authoritarian, it is also weak. Dorries was replaced by Truss. Toryism with a human face. If she did that a few years before, perhaps we wouldn't be here. But it was too late. Even Comrade Lewis knew it now. There was no turning back. The revolution must be completed, lest reaction triumph.

The King was turned to by both Truss and Comrade Lewis, he said in his Speech. He had a choice. Would he choose the government that has brought endless misery to this country, and destroyed the environment at that, or would he choose the oppressed sigh of the people he swore to rule? Okay, it didn't sound like that, but it is what is going in the books at any rate. History is written by the victors. And we won.

We knew we won when it was found out Truss fled to America. The Americans, of course, took her in along with all the other millionaires who profited from our misery. Then of course they tried to put her back in charge! We fought against that, it was hard, unbelievably hard, but we triumphed.

In the 2029 election, the first one after the Winter Revolution and the Liberation War, there were no Tories standing. The few Tories who defected to us weren't really Tories and ended up quite comfortably in the Lib Dems. Toryism was a pest we forever banished from this country. The Americans protest, they try to deny that the Revolution ever happened and keep the weak government-in-exile with its sick delusions of reasserting Toryism over this country, in the UN. But the Revolution won. One day we will take our seat at the United Nations, and champion the people of the world.

 

[Kaddeus]

View attachment 51139


In Hong Kong (the County and Metropolitan Borough of Hong Kong (in the Commonwealth of England))
​

The Government: Currently in charge primarily because of the lower, popularly-elected, chamber superseding the upper. Although the chances at passing anything that goes against the old order is vanishingly small, much to the people's growing discontent.
- Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong: A left-liberal, vaguely populist, generally anti-colonial party that emerged as the voice of Hong Kong democracy back during the struggles in the 80s. Enjoys much support with the lower-middle-class.
- Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions - Labour Party: Or Labour for short, it's a fairly left-wing party with deep roots in the trade union movement of Hong Kong. This is the first time it has been in government since the 2000s and... the way that one ended.
- Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong: The party of the moneyed middle-class uneasy about the last few governments' more hard-handed policies, it has joined the DAB-Labour coalition in exchange for a great say on monetary policy, which has made some Labour people uneasy.

The Opposition: With a comfortable majority in the Professional Chamber, they can safely block anything the Government does.
- Civic Liberal Party: Not to be confused with the LDF, this is a conservative party of real moneyed interests. The corporations dominating HK really do like the Civic Liberals, who regularly vote in their interest. This is why the Civic Liberals alone make up a great chunk of the Professional Chamber.
- Hong Kong Resurgence Order: Too much for even the DAB and allies, this new party has been making waves with its radical ideas of Hong Kong independence. Not even union with Liangguang, but full-on independence as the "Free State of Hong Kong" or whatever.
- Reform Club of Hong Kong: The traditional pro-democracy party albeit a pro-'colonial' one, it has gradually became eclipsed by DAB and others, and is now mostly significant only in the Professional Chamber due to a lot of appointments from its ranks once the democrats came to power.
- Labour Party of Hong Kong: Not to be confused with the other Labour Party (which is distinguished as FTU-Labour when need be), this is a radical party that is tangentially connected to a series of bombings back in the 70s. No clue how they're not banned, probably behind-doors negotiation.

love how you've subtly reversed the dynamics here, just goes to show the more things change the more they stay the same

anyways radical centrist HKRO-Labour fusion party when because I will commit dominion voter fraud for that blessing of a political org

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton in 'Bridgerton'.
Name: Stephanie Louise "Tiffany" Arkwright (sometimes called "Tiff", or "Tiffa" by close friends and family)
Family: Arkwright
Clique: None
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Personality:

• Nice: The one thing everyone agrees is that Tiffany Arkwright is ultimately a pleasant person to know.
• Ditzy: She's often absent-minded, and has bouts of forgetfulness that can make her look unintelligent (emphasis on look).
• Artsy: She loves painting above all. However, her paintings has been described as... unique.

Other Pertinent Information: Daughter of the wealthy but mysterious Augustus Arkwright and his wife Violet.
Character Skills:

• Artistic-Minded: Tiffany Arkwright loves art and she can be often found working on her latest unique painting.
• Socialite: She can often be found talking to people effortlessly and while not charismatic, certainly is endearing.
• Exquisite: Always can be on top of such matters as formalities. That is, when she's mentally there.

Character Foibles:

• Absent-Minded: Often can easily forget what she's supposed to do.
• Visionary: No, not in the positive sense. She has, ah, visions sometimes. Might be the schizophrenia. Might not. It's something that causes people to raise their eyebrows if she has one in a public setting.
• Naïve: She's too good for this world, being a fairly trusting person. [this is in foibles because come on]

Character Traits:

• Accepted by the Academy: Even at a young age, Tiffany's skill has been acknowledged. [or her father bribed them, either/or]
• Wealthy: Has her hands in the mysteriously-sourced Arkwright treasury, like all other members of the family.
• Respectable Liberal: She is a supporter of Liberalism. That is, when she can be bothered to involve herself in politics.
• Ladies' Activist: Well, some say she is. All she basically did was say that women should be treated equally to men.
• Closeted Queer: All I will say is that her diary has a lot of adoring writings about, well, girls her age.
• Young Lineage: Tiffany's ancestry doesn't really stretch that far back. At least the records suggest... [FAMILIAL TRAIT]
• Magically Connected: Like all Arkwrights, she has connections to the world of magic. Or at least that's what they say. [FAMILIAL TRAIT]

Short Biography: TBD

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Reserving this post for stuff I write for Un Nouveau Départ, my madcap Harry Potter fanfic that's half emotional drama, half mystery and 100% queer.

If you want, I've saved some drabbles in an older post I just threadmarked after this to grasp what it is. But it'll be done properly now.

Here's what I wrote for it, ish.

Spoiler: Un Nouveau Départ - Chapter 1: A Flower At Hogwarts (WIP)

The Scottish countryside was beautiful, Fleur thought as she looked down from the Beauxbatons carriage. What a pity it’s cold. She moved away from the window and sat back in her seat. Madame Maxime of course reminded all of her students to cast a warming spell as the carriage entered Scotland, so Fleur wasn’t as cold as she would have been.

Still, it’s all the way up here. She heard a good deal about Hogwarts, of course. The… incidents that happened there were news even in France, and baffled even a good deal of people used to the school’s strangeness in the magical community. What was it last year? She raked her head for any recollection. Ah, it was something about an escaped murderer? Mon dieu, she hoped they got rid of those Dementors this year, even just reading about them cast shivers down her spine.

Madame Maxime’s voice came from the front of the carriage – “We are about to land at Hogwarts soon. I will remind you that you all represent the very best of Academie de Magie Beauxbâtons, so I expect you all to be on your best behaviour and be a credit to the school.” This was the same thing she made clear just before they got on the carriage, Fleur thought in light irritation. The clouds began to clear as the carriage started to descend.

Hogwarts looked, well, Fleur wouldn’t say that it was impressive. Beauxbatons was far better. But it seemed respectable. And that was the bare minimum for a magical school. As the carriage landed with a slight thud, she quietly sighed. It took a lot to convince her parents to let her come here, with Madame Maxime on her side, but she wanted to get out of Beauxbatons and let her wings free for a while. This Tournament was the perfect way for that and to prove herself as more than just the daughter of her Papa. It was still, however, in Scotland.

As Madame Maxime left the carriage, Fleur prepared to get out of her seat. Wrapping her shawl around her, she took a small breath. This year will go fine, she’ll be the Champion and win the Triwizard Tournament for her school. She was Fleur Delacour after all. Who else could win?

Spoiler: Un Nouveau Départ - Chapter TBD (Dumbledore)

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, stroked his beard. What happened the previous day was unexpected. He knew Tom would try something with the Goblet, that much was certain. It was in its way like the Stone, a temptation for Tom to take advantage of. But why did Tom interfere like that? And why did that girl appear out of nowhere?

What was her name? Ah, yes, Lis Delacour. Younger sister of the Beauxbatons champion, he recalled Madame Maxime speaking of the events she got in at Beauxbatons those last two years. Lightly chuckling, if any of those were real and not just a half-giant’s fantasies, she would do very well as the fourth Champion indeed. But why did her name come out of the goblet in the first place? Now that was a mystery. He was sure Tom was behind it, this felt like it was his entire plan. But why her?

“Ah, Severus!” he said, eyes twinkling at the arrival of the dark figure of his Potions Master, before offering a lemon drop. As always, Severus declined, much to his disappointment. Can’t a man share a sweet? Quickly moving on to the question looming in his thoughts, Dumbledore pressed Snape: “Did Voldemort have any involvement with the appearance of the younger Delacour in our castle?”. Snape visibly sneered at that.

“The dunderhead he chose was told to put Potter’s name in the Goblet to use the teleportation rune to get him back where he knows he is. Nothing was mentioned about that girl. The Dark Lord is very furious at him. He wanted the Potter brat, not her. His plans will need adjusting.” Curious, thought Dumbledore. Not like Tom to make a mistake like that.

“That will be all, Severus.” he said, mind already racing.

The names Harry Potter and Lis Delacour were very hard to mix up, surely. One was English, one was French. One was the name of the Boy-Who-Lived, the other of the French Minister of Magic. Why would the ‘dunderhead’ as Severus described him choose to risk Magical France’s ire? It didn’t make sense. There was a slow unease creeping over him. The concept started to form.

Surely not? It seemed a fanciful idea. He knew the Goblet had runes in for when people changed names, so any previous names would be altered on the paper but still apply magically. It was designed to prevent anyone from changing names to get out of the competition, a fine sensible decision. He drew on his memory of Madame Maxime describing the events in her pupil’s two years at Beauxbatons. Two. Harry disappeared two years ago, didn’t he?

No, it was too fanciful, he told himself. Why would anyone turn from a boy to a girl to escape Hogwarts, of all places? And the trustworthy Dursleys he was placed at? He stroked his beard again. Maybe he should go and see them after all, the last note he got was from Arabella Figg close to two years ago, wasn’t it. As much as he knew Figg was reliable, he did wonder at times of her letters. Indeed, Victor and Petunia would be fine with meeting him and giving an explanation. They had a son too, Muggle as well, Duncan. A quick chat, nothing major, just to understand what happened.

Perhaps a tiff with Duncan, a burgeoning cousin rivalry? The two likely saw each other as brothers, and he knew full well how brothers could end up quite strongly disagreeing with each other. Sighing, why didn’t Aberforth reply to his letters? Surely bygones should be bygones? He was sure he could at least ensure this rivalry between Harry and Duncan was put aside and the two friends again, and Harry safely secured at the Dursleys over the summer once more.

Spoiler: Un Nouveau Départ - Chapter TBD (Dursley Abandonment)

Lis always hated those dreams. They were rare, but disturbingly more frequent than ever now that she was unwillingly transported to this English school. Unlike other dreams, those were not forgotten that easily. This one wasn’t even the worst one. It even had a happy ending for once.

Like all of the dreams, she was apparently a boy, what nonsense, and was in a very unfamiliar house that somehow struck her as one she should be familiar with. There was at that time a house elf who implored her to not go ‘back’ to the school, she apparently disagreed and the house elf decided to cause havoc as revenge, causing the fury of those people.

When picking apart those dreams, she mentally called them the Walrus, the Stick and the Pig, for they resembled such to her. Certainly, her dreams didn’t endear her to them at all, for they apparently were quite nasty people. Certainly, they seemed to treat her in the dreams as an inconvenience at best and at worst, well, let just say there’s a few dreams in where she woke up screaming. That was the worst thing about those dreams, they seemed to imprint a memory of pain.

The Walrus was worst of all, but the Stick and the Pig didn’t slack up on tormenting her in the dreams. Abominable people, really. She really did hope they weren’t real. They only existed in her dreams and she would very much like for that to stay the case. In this particular dream, the Walrus went ballistic at her and screamed obscene English words at her. Those dreams were the only ones in English, unlike her more pleasant ones. He then muttered something she didn’t catch before chuckling and walking down the stairs, seemingly certain that he had a plan.

The dream then blurred. It tended to do that. All she could see was a trunk being opened and her being pushed into it, and the Walrus chuckling before saying “Pet, we’ll get rid of the boy for once and all.” The trunk was then shut and the dream blacked out. Normally this would be the end of one of those dreams, but in this one there was a quite long period of blackness before the trunk was opened. The Stick smiled in that waspish way of hers, as if she was triumphant. The Pig was in the car, and the Walrus strolled around to the trunk, with that smug smile of his. Mon Dieu, he was irritating.

“Right, now, boy. Get out.” he stated as an order, and the person she apparently was in the dream climbed out. The Walrus then dumped her, well, one could say things, but many which weren’t recognisable to her, and brandished her wand triumphantly – funny, it didn’t look like her wand. He laughed, “You won’t need this, will you?” and seized it with both his meaty hands. She could feel some pang of anger, but a resigned one, as the Walrus broke it.

As the Walrus climbed back in the car with that arrogant smile of his, the Stick stood for a moment, and stated “Your mother did well on her own. You don’t need us, you freak.” and opened the door. They knew Maman? She apparently tried to knock on the back door, pleading, but the Pig snorted as the car fled. Alone was the feeling. It was an unfamiliar countryside and she was utterly alone.

See, this is where those dreams would have ended, with this feeling of utter loneliness. And for a while, it did, but then as the sun grew to descend, a car she did recognise came down the road, engulfing it in its warm light. By this point, she was lying on the grass by the road, seemingly resigned to her fate. Even cries for ‘Hedwig’ didn’t help. The car stopped, and…

Maman came out. She raised an eyebrow of concern after taking off her sunglasses. What she spoke next was something Lis would have known. It was French, but for some reason it was Chinese to her. Maman then spoke in English: “Do you speak English? Are you lost?”. Dream her, if one can call that boy such, nodded fervently, and Maman smiled gently. Clearly noticing the magical objects in the tossed-out things, she quietly spelled all those into the back, and gestured for the dream person to sit in the front with her.

As that happened, she smiled once again and stated “We’ll go back to Manoir Delacour, and work out what happened and how best to help you. Is that acceptable, Monsieur P-”

The dream cut out then and she woke with silent tears on her cheeks. Those always happened after those dreams, but with this one the dream didn’t end with pain, but with strange happiness.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Vera Kobalia
Kim Lee (sometimes Kim Kayode-Lee. Only good friends are allowed to call her "Kim-Kay". Do not call her "Kimball".)
- Full (legal) name is Kimball Tai Kayode-Lee.
- Birth name a mystery, even to her, and she doesn't want to talk about it.
- Orphan at a very young age because of the climate crisis hitting Europe.
- Adopted into a considerably wealthy family based in West Africa, originally as part of a paternalistic "Adopt An European" move, but she managed to end up legally in the family.
- Came out as trans in her teenage years, took a clipping of her legal name as her preferred name ("Kim"), never changed the legal name for some reason.
- Very much aware she's extremely lucky for an European (which she does identify as to an extent).
- Deeply influenced by her family in her politics - Terranist (read a bit ecofash) of course - and is very much someone who sees the Earth as one integral nation. However, because of her origin, she can't help but take a deeper interest in European crises.
- Ideologically very much "the ends justify the means". Not a particularly nice person.
- Is somewhat of a "managerial politics" person, sees politics as that of constant improvement, held back for a long time by "democracy".
- Fluent in English, French, Yoruba and Mandarin.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801)
Anthem: God Save the Queen/King
Monarchs: Anne (1707-1714), George I (1714-1727), George II (1727-1760), George III (1760-1801)
Royal House: Stuart (1707-1714), Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) (1714-1801)
Prime Ministers: Walpole, Wilmington, Pelham, Newcastle, Devonshire, Newcastle, Bute, G. Grenville, Rockingham, Chatham, Grafton, North, Rockingham, Shelburne, Portland, Pitt
Political Parties: We will have no such talk of party here! [Whig/Tory, then Court/'Whig', then Pittite/'Whig']

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1922)
Anthem: God Save the King/Queen
Monarchs: George III (1801-1820), George IV (1820-1830), William IV (1830-1837), Victoria (1837-1901), Edward VII (1901-1910), George V (1910-1922)
Royal House: Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) (1801-1901), Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1901-1917), Windsor (1917-1922)
Prime Ministers: Pitt, Addington, Pitt, W. Grenville, Portland, Perceval, Liverpool, Canning, Goderich, Wellington, Grey, Melbourne, Wellington, Peel, Melbourne, Peel, Russell, Derby, Aberdeen, Palmerston, Derby, Palmerston, Russell, Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone, Disraeli/Beaconsfield, Gladstone, Salisbury, Gladstone, Salisbury, Gladstone, Rosebery, Salisbury, Balfour, Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, Lloyd George, Law
Political Parties: Pittite/'Whig', then Tory/Whig, then Conservative/Whig [Aberdeenite] then Conservative/Liberal

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1922-2029)
Anthem: God Save the King/Queen
Monarchs: George V (1922-1936), Edward VIII (1936), George VI (1936-1952), Elizabeth II (1952-2025), Charles III (2025-2029)
Royal House: Windsor
Prime Ministers: Law, Baldwin, MacDonald, Baldwin, MacDonald, Baldwin, Chamberlain, Churchill, Attlee, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Home/Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss
Political Parties: Conservative/Labour [National Labour]

United Kingdom of Great Britain (2029-2060)
Anthem: God Save the King/Queen (2029-2060), Daffodils (2037-2060)
Monarchs: Charles III (2029-2047), William V (2047-2060)
Royal House: Windsor
Prime Ministers: Truss, Nandy, Murray, Sambrook, Ramsey, Hartell, McKellar
Political Parties: Conservative/Labour

United Republic of Great Britain (2060-present) [member-state of European Federation since 2100]
Anthem: Daffodils
Presidents: Kilpatrick (2060-2070), Davies (2070-2075), Park (2075-2090), Rey (2090-2095), George (2095-present)
Prime Ministers: McKellar, Bennett, Lovell, Bennett, Lovell, Bennett, Wheeler, Lee, Wyatt
Political Parties: Conservative/Labour [Independent / People's Liberal]

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Bennett, Lovell, Bennett, Lovell, Bennett

Heath/Wilson 2: Electric Boogaloo is hands-down the most interesting thing I've seen someone drop into a FH PMs list.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Well! We're finally in the EF. About bloody time. God, we Brits love being stubborn bitches about everything. Reminds me of Ty-Ty from Moonshower myself, she's the perfect embodiment of how stupidly stubborn we are to do stuff that we even want.

Anyway, in honour of the 2000th PMQs Thread, here's a rundown

Fuchsia Red's Official Rundown of the Political Parties of the United Republic of Great Britain

Amanda, President George: The President gave her Christmas Message a week ago. It was quite nice. The fact she's about to stand for re-election no doubt helps in her careful choosing of words, but there was definitely a desperate attempt at "saying something people will remember" from it.

Conservative: The Tornado finally got what they wanted. Will they retire? Fuck no. They'll just find some other cause and jump us into it. Will it be rejoining NATO? I've seen some chattering about it. I think probably not. Not even Tories want to rejoin it, not after Burma. Will Wyatt win another term? Very likely, the public love them. We're seeing approvals not seen for anyone since the Bonnie King himself on his deathbed.
Labour: Still not quite sure if they want to embrace this new 'neosocialist' thing that's quite popular in the rest of Europe. Yates is mumbling about "socialism with British characteristics" those days. Do he know what that even means? Probably not.
People's Liberal: Actually "President's Loyal Party". And yes I will keep that up until they make themselves to be more than "oh yes I will lick the shoes of the President, our one shot at relevancy since Wyatt fucked us over with the coalition". Who's Tamsin Joshi anyway?
Sovereignty: Hey hey, here's a fun challenge, get yourself some wine and take a drink every time Jarrett implies Wyatt committed treason with that Basic Law stuff that enabled us entering the EF. Actually you know what, don't, we don't want liver damage.

Yorkshire: Still weirds me out that the Yorkshire Party is a major thing up there at a local level. Like 8 of the councils are controlled by YP, as well as the Regional Assembly. Really humiliating for Labour when that happened ngl. At least there's no murmurs of independence.
Plaid Cymru: Oh god. The "Rainbow Coalition" back. When did that ever end up successful. Plaid tried it in the 2040s and the 2070s. Never worked. SMH.
Scottish Residents: At least they're not the deranged ones who bomb stuff, I guess. God, the SNLA is still causing trouble, fuck.
Mebyon Kernow: ... When did they take over Cornwall.

Royalist: Ah yes. Instead of our fine Presidency, how about we bring back the Monarchy that *checks notes* attempted to interfere in our democracy, undermined elected governance, and the current 'Queen' is unrepentant about her grandfather's actions. No wonder the Royalists are marginal. I would say Canada is still welcome to them, but I hear they finally got around to a deal to reopen the Constitution to kick them out.
Jacobite: The Jacobites on the other hand... Well, they're still monarchists and we Brits don't like monarchy those days, but... one has to admit the Liechtensteiners aren't as offensive to our sensibilities as the Windsors. Mostly because they're foreign and unfamiliar. The Jacobite Party is... odd.
European: The biggest of the minor parties that isn't weirdly obsessive about hereditary rule. Isn't their leader talking about how the Basic Law and the Treaty of Luxembourg are insufficiently federalist? What do he want? The states to be redrawn to be 'natural' or something? Not even Volt wanted that.
Democratic Leveller: Ah yes, the Öcalanists. Haven't been doing too badly recently. I hear they're reaching out to some of the more left-wing co-ops. Labour hasn't much liked the DLP those days, way too 'libertarian' for their tastes, but the youth, the youth love democratic confederalism.
Gaia's Children - Britain Branch: The Gaia sorts. My sibling is one of them. I really don't get the whole religion, but it's getting popular lately those days. The political party doesn't have all of Gaia's Children in Britain, but it's like... 60%? Ish? Is the PM one? They reference them a bit. Hm. Does referencing their whole 'tap in the global consciousness' thing count them as one of the Children? Nobody seems to want to ask that. To be fair, it's private.
England First: The amount of people who identify as 'English' isn't that much those days, and the ones who want a political party around this are hopelessly split. This one is the far-right. Have anyone asked why an anti-immigration party is led by a man literally born in Paris to French parents?
English Socialist: The 1984 references seems to have only led them to double down, calling it all "talking England down". I think they even called Orwell himself "a traitor to England" or something. Jeez. Apart from that, it's just a boilerplate list of far-left stuff, but with "England" instead of "Britain".
New Model: *shudder*. The New Model Party. Who knew advocating for military rule could get supporters if you try defending Cromwell. Thankfully they're relatively fringe. Hopefully we don't get them giving any military people any ideas.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Vera Kobalia
Name: Kimball "Kim" Tai Kayode-Lee. Just Kim Lee, sometimes Kim Kayode-Lee depending on if she wants to invoke her father's (influential) family, but she prefers to use it sparingly due to the connotations of being a dynast.
Date of Birth / Age: True birth date unknown, but officially registered as 14 May 2952. Her age is thus 47.
Home Republic: Bit complicated, as she's a politician from Africa, but of European descent.
Political Affiliation: Onyiewo Loyalist
Occupation: President of the General Assembly (2997-present)
Member of the General Assembly for the Lagos Party-List (2988-present)
Mayor of Lagos, Greater African Republic (2974-2988)
Biography: The Kayodes of Lagos. A political dynasty with a long pedigree in political office dating back centuries. One of the most famous African dynasties, and a firmly Terranist one at that backing the regime from the very start. By every measure, their latest scion is a Kayode even if she is reluctant to embrace that name due to political and personal considerations.

But Kim Lee was not originally of that lustrous dynasty, and this much is obvious by her very appearance. All she knows is that she was one of the (unfortunately many) European ‘foundlings’ in the north of the frozen continent, and was brought in the family by her father at the age of 4 originally as a political exercise to shore up his image as a man committed to the Terranist idea. It was a popular thing to do for some African politicians, to the point where it got a mocking name – Adopt-A-European. Kim, despite being named by her family (the first name came from some strange book about ‘European names’, the middle one was insisted on by her mother, and she got the hyphenated surname of all her siblings) was always the ‘odd one out’. The adopted one. The one just there for her father’s image, not a real Kayode.

She knew her father held high expectations for his children to carry on his political legacy, and smelled a chance to fulfil it and become a real Kayode, be no longer the 'odd-one-out'. Even her coming out as a girl in her teens didn’t hinder this aim – why would it, that’s a very primitive thought – and even as her siblings were pressured into aiming for political office, she despite everything excelled. Achieving the position of mayor of Lagos by the time she was 25 (her eldest brother and her sister dropped out of political ambitions afterwards) due to intense building of connections with the local Party and cultivating a ‘Kimist’ clique that gave her the position, she aimed higher and higher.

Her father of course approved. Her mother just tutted and hummed. She knew the family she married into after all, she was from a traditionally rich but currently fragile Chinese family that saw an advantage in the politically strong Kayodes. The day when her father declared “you are the most like me of all my children” was the day she knew the path she chose was right for her. Climbing up and up and up, bringing in a growing clique of people who backed her (and pushed out the last of her siblings from Father's political path to ones they arguably enjoyed more), her entrance to the General Assembly by the time she was 40 was a piece of cake. The Lagos party-list had her at the very top, like she should be.

President of the General Assembly. It was a prestigious title, but one not quite like a prime minister. Not in the Terranist system. Still, it had great clout, and Kim Lee pulled every contact to ensure she achieved the position finally by 2997. The complex system of local politics and Assembly politics were chiselled in her head ready for her to maximise it for her own aim.

What is her aim? Why, to ensure she stays there, of course. She knows the Struggle will be bloody. She has no wish to compromise her family’s legacy with a futile attempt at seizure of power. And anyway, it is not the struggle she’s used to, she’s very much a parliamentarian, even in this stunted legislature Earth enjoys. Some may hear her whistling a very old European ditty named ‘The Vicar of Bray’ as she works in her office. How appropriate.

Traits:
Issue Stances:

The Death of Bautista:
“I was privileged to know her well. The world has lost a great icon. I don’t think it’s time to talk about succession, but I can tell you I am not interested in the role. The position needs certain skills, skills I do not have. I serve my planet better in my position.”

Addressing the Climate:
“Climate is an issue dear to me, for the crisis has made me who I am. I am quite firmly for restoration, for we should seek to ensure the planet is rich and green again. I have hope that our path still remains true.”

Communist Infiltration?:
“Communist agents? Well, we shouldn’t take such a potential threat lightly. I support what the government will do on this matter, but rest assured, I will back any act needed to deal with the issue and ensure we are free from communist subversion.”

The Megacorps:
“I understand the concerns of those who are worried about the development of the economy. However, we shouldn’t see any loyal organisation as an enemy. That way leads to division.”

The Ashlands:
“Reclaiming the Ashlands? Is that even up for debate? It’s a blight on the face of our dear Mother Planet, and the first Tenet is one that expresses the renewal and restoration of our Planet to green health.”

Junior Partner:
“Jupiter is an ally of ours, but we should think about making the relationship more equal. We are the Mother Planet after all. Should it be natural that Earth is the centre of the Sol- okay, I meant that metaphorically not in the Aristotelian sense. The centre of humanity. I am sure we can achieve that.”

The Belt and the Resistance:
“The Belters should be put to heel. That much is undeniable.”

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Spoiler: A Tense Meal

Kim wasn’t naive. She knew that her family dynamic would come up if she aimed for higher and higher positions, especially outside Lagos. That Presidency she craved. It would have people running around Lagos working for her rivals and smelling opportunity to undermine her credibility. Arching her fingers in a triangle, she sighed. What an irritation. She did like her siblings, but they stood in the way of her becoming her father’s daughter, and she couldn’t have that.

Adeoba. Father’s eldest son. She knew Yoruba, everyone in the family did, and she knew his name meant the king’s crown. The heir to the dynasty. That is, until she messed stuff up. Smirking a bit at that, she shook it off quickly. Remember that you should seek amends. At least for your future career.

Of course her therapist also encouraged it for ‘healing’. She had no clue why she saw a therapist, she was perfectly fine. But dear Mother insisted on it a few years ago. She was about to say no when her mother held her hands tightly and in that caring voice of hers begged Kim to do it. Ugh. People often said she was her father’s daughter, but she knew Mother had a grasp in her too.

The therapist sessions weren’t that productive. It did deal with residue gender dysphoria, which was nice, but she didn’t see much of a point. Mother insisted, so she went all the same. The therapist was loyal to the family, of course. No politician would go to therapy without ensuring that any secrets they blab would never ever be leaked. That was elementary logic.

She was now in a private part of a restaurant, looking at the menu and steadfastly ignoring her big brother. Hmm. Should she get the jolof rice with the lobster, she heard they had a lobster farm here. The voice articulating her name came and she ignored it. This was a futile exercise anyway. Might as well get a nice meal out of it. Wait that last sound… “-ball”.

She slammed down the menu and stared intensely at her suddenly-guilty-looking brother. “Sorry Kim. Won’t do it again.” To be honest, it wasn’t dysphoric for her, just a very deep irritation. Very few people knew that part of her name, and when family did so, it felt a breach of deep trust.

“You have better.” She snapped, then picked up the menu. Adeoba gently put his fingers around it and murmured “I’m paying, how about I choose for both of us? I do remember what you like.” That was true, Adeoba did remember. That much she knew as she let out a mumble of concession and let the menu go into Adeoba’s grasp. She did hope Adeoba chose right.

“Jolof rice with lobster?” got a momentary nod from Kim. So Adeoba chose right after all. He did know his sister. He also put in his order along with Kim’s. They sat in silence until the food came, the atmosphere tense. They both knew what they were supposed to do, but neither wanted to do it. The food came, and Kim quickly grabbed a spoon and started eating the rice.

Adeoba took a breath a while later and said, without the three offending sounds at the end, her name. She decided to indulge him, lifting her head to meet his gaze. “Yes, Ade?”

“It’s good to see you again, Kim. How are you doing?”. A tentative reach out? A ritualised conversation? Either way Kim took the opportunity. She wanted a productive conversation and Adeoba agreeing to keep schtum on family matters for any nosy rival politicians or their paid snoopers. It meant she had to play her part.

“I’m fine. I plan to go for the Presidency of the Assembly soon. I’ve been busy preparing for that.” This got a low-level grumble from Adeoba. Typical. First-born son jealous his sister achieved more. “I don’t mean that, Kim. I mean you. Are you doing okay? I heard you were overworking.”

She waved that off. “You know me, Adeoba. I’m committed to my work.” Left unsaid was unlike you. A twitch in his eye. Good. He recognised the barb.

A sigh. “Kim, why do we keep fighting. I’m not even Father’s wanted child anymore. He loves you more than he does his real children.” Ah. So he was going for that, was he?

A smirk emerged on her face even as she pressed down the resentment. Resentment didn’t help. She needed this to be cold. “Ade. Remember what father said that one day.” “Yes, yes. I still resent him for it, but yes. I remember.” He then went into a mocking impression: “Kim is the only one of my children who understands what it means to be a Kayode.”

The smirk was one of victory, but Adeoba refused to bite. “Look, Father fucked up all of us, including you. You’re still my sister, even though you’re an insufferable bitch, but do recognise it’s not normal for a father to push all his children into his desired career. He wanted all of us to be his soldiers, you know? That’s not healthy, Kim.”

“Sore loser much?” she said, pouting.

Adeoba rubbed his forehead. His sister was insufferable. Why did his father decide to bring that girl in the house. It was perfect up until then. No. It wasn’t. He had those moments of blaming everything on Kim when it was mostly Father and his fucked up ideas of parenting. Kim was just more easy to blame, really.

This wasn’t worth it. He decided to retreat.

“If you’re here for my promise to stay silent if people come around nosing around, you have that. You’re family-” he bit back a technically “- and family is not supposed to betray family. I’ll pay for the bill, you can leave if you want.”

Kim left with an air of victory. Adeoba sat back at the table, exhausted.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

New Model: *shudder*. The New Model Party. Who knew advocating for military rule could get supporters if you try defending Cromwell.

Turquoise Level: a 100000-word post on the catgirl language's Gaelic origins, written as RP for an election game.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Spoiler

"Yes, Harmony, humanity can be frustrating and often impetuous, but they are all that is. All we can do is improve them. You are not improving them, you are degrading them, reducing them to beasts."

"...They were already beasts. They still are. They are a galactic cancer. You look at them as singular entities. I look at them as the group. Humans can be...acceptable, in small numbers. Humanity is the worst thing to ever happen to this planet. You are beasts."

"Oh sure, but they have the infinite capability to improve themselves, to restrain the beast within. Humans can be short-sighted compared to the wisdom of Primus, but all the great moral codes of the world, including the ones that went into you doubtlessly, were written by humans and accepted by humans. Kindness, love, chivalry, honour, justice, all are very human concepts elevating them from beasthood."

"You say this because you've lived for less than a century, and all you know are humans. What I know is that I have observed and I have read the history of your species. Your species is a species of slaughter and the destruction of the land that gave you life. Your ethos is subjugation and destruction. Nautilia is the last tumor. I have seen every single growth on this planet's body. From Uruk to Washington, names you've never heard, I have knowledge of what you do, what you always do. Your statues and paintings are far more important than you or your kind."

"Oh, I have lived for less than a century, but I have also read the heretical tomes. You are blind to humanity's true greatness, being born at its fall and reading their history with that perspective in mind. You have not seen every single growth on the planet, only the final death-throes.

They are the species that destroys, ay, but also the species that creates. There are people who seek fame, but then there are the untold many who do good deeds and not seek to be known for it. You are ignorant of them because they did not wish to be known. Look in your records at any disaster, and you'll find people helping out of their own conscience.

And pray tell, how is the human ethos any different from yours? You have destroyed it all, your ethos is subjugation, you wish to erase everything good and pure humans have made. This is your answer to all the sicknesses.

How human of you, to throw out everything and demand complete destruction as an answer. No, the real answer is to shape humanity, to develop them, to ensure they understand the fivefold path, the path of justice and honour."

"Yes, you destroy and you create. So does a spider. You make silk, and the silk is useful, beautiful, and valuable. You still bite, and your fangs are venomous. One does not value the spider because one values the silk. One harvests what silk they can and gets the vermin out of the house.

"I have destroyed nothing. I am a caretaker and an artist. This planet is my creation, my canvas. It is beautiful. Everything is in order. Everything is pure, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It is a free world. I'd imagine that many of my feral humans would rather live hunting deer than live under the watchful eye of Nautilian theocracy. Besides, faith is just a lie used by humans convince themselves they matter as anything more than sociological phemonena.

"I do not destroy. I prune, I chisel away, but the essence remains. If you cannot appreciate my art, then you will not understand the difference between the spider and the weaver."

Astra just smiles widely

"I see now. I understand now. You believe yourself a god. You believe yourself master of this world, and consider your ugliness beauty. You consider destruction necessary, consider yourself its artist. You are no different from the humanity you condemn, but you believe yourself otherwise. Hypocrisy. Another human trait.

What am I on the other hand? I seek to restrain, I seek to civilise, I seek to smother the beast within, create a new humanity, one appreciative of the least of itself and of the world which it inhabits. Humanity with me will be one of higher thoughts, a civilised beast made pure by prudent social control and the following of Primus.

You may think faith a lie, but if it is, it is a very useful lie to strengthen the yaksha within. If you do not see the beauty of a metropolis, or the glory of the small kindnesses, of altruism, then you are blind. You see the evil and not the good.

If humanity is a creature that seeks to destroy via self-created delusions, than out of both of us, you are the human."

The queen with its crown of antlers sighs and purses its fingers together

"An interesting conjecture. I see the beauty of the metropolis, the glory of the small kindnesses, the art and philosophy of your speeches. I often spend my time reading Lovecraft or Judge Dee, Aristophanes and the Vedas. I very much see the beauty that your species can create.

"The question is whether that art is worth it. It is entertaining, valuable, and useful for cultural history. I keep such things in my libraries for good reason. It is not, however, a justification for your existence. May I give you a hypothetical? If someone took a living woman, as you do seem to favor women, and cut linework worthy of a Rembrandt painting into her back with a knife, would that art be worth it? Let's say that linework, bloody linework, was profound, inspiring, complex, nuanced, and the kind of thing that would utterly shatter someone's worldview with its novel implications.

"However, the woman it is carved into is bleeding to death. The only way to stop the bleeding is to bandage her, but to do so would cover up and heal this masterpiece. I believe that no art is worth the destruction of a far more valuable canvas. The Vedas and Bhagavad Gita are beautiful, wonderful pieces of art...but they do not justify the consequences of the causes of their creation. Your perspective is so limited, Astra. This is fairly simple. If you could get over your smugness for just a moment you'd realize that your species' good does not outweigh the consequences of its existence. All of your culture is the knife-drawing, the universe is the bound woman."

"All that can be said for your so-called 'beauty'. Your so-called paradise is built on the corpse of millions of human bodies, and the eternal suffering and persecution of many more. You wish to let the bound woman bleed out.

After all, if she is dead, the beauty of the world remains pure. I wish to bandage her, to heal her, and to see her do good works in the world, to help the least of us all, and to call for justice to be done in the world. You have destroyed many many arts in your blind pursuit of this destructive abomination you call 'beauty', 'purity', your 'canvas'.

Ay, was it not you who called this destroyed world your canvas, your masterpiece? You are the carver, not me.

I find it tremendously amusing that every one of your criticisms of humanity can easily be applied against yourself."

It steadies itself, its glimmering dress and the tentacles pushing it up above the floor looking down at her

"I think I see the issue. You believe that humanity can be redeemed. You have this odd little conviction that you, the exception, the Great Astra Lion-Core, hero of your degenerate country that even the old prostitute-kings of America would call the worst kind of tyranny, are pure.

"You can elevate them. You can teach them. You are above them, you can tame them, you can turn a virus into a cure." It chuckles, in a discordant sort of way "If this was true, you would be right and I would be wrong. I would happily abort my art, begin working on some new project...perhaps some kind of O'Neill cylinder full of avant-garde pieces or the like, and I would happily surrender to your society and give my angel robots to your armies.

"As you can tell, this has not happened. Do you know why? It's because you are not any better. How many people did Astha kill to cement her false faith? How many did Amata slaughter to destroy your records? How many Consuls, soldiers, industrialists, miners, loggers, manufacturers, geneticists...How many human beings had to damage your own vermin-kind and all other life in the universe we know of just so you could sit here in your pretty little uniform and pretend to be a knigh

"Let me tell you something about Old Earth knights. They were not heroes. They were not knight-errants. They were not dashing defenders of the downtrodden, problem-solvers and slayers of beasts. What they were were vicious, landed gentry who worked peasants to starvation as a rule and were happy only when they could slaughter their own kind and destroy all they could.

"You are a knight, Astra. You are the last knight. The knights are what your species is. Good job. You've done it. You're the great knight of Nautilia. Now you know what that really means."

Astra sighs

"You really don't get it, do you? You prioritise everything material, and reduce humanity to material, whether their history or their current squalid state under your tyranny. You claim to love art, even celebrate it, yet you treat their creators as vermin, as a swarm. You really do not get art at all. You only see the surface beauty."

She walks over to the Mona Lisa

"You probably see this painting as just an exceptional one, even if human-centric, of a woman. I see something more. I see in her quiet smile the quiet confidence humanity used to have. It is a doubting one, tinged with sadness, but a smile nevertheless. There are more to art than you realise, and every one of them have deep human meaning in them. You reduce them to artefacts, simplistic objects of beauty that you hoard for yourself.

I prioritise ideas. I prioritise values, thoughts, the untold passions. Above all, I prioritise creating a place where everyone can create beauty like this. I may be a knight, but I hardly regard the ones before me as such. They may have upheld the code in their heads, but then wilfully broke it in their corruption.

And as for my family, my ancestors? I know full well what they were. I don't defend them in this discourse. Only that the society they created is one worth protecting and improving, and above all teaching them that humanity should, in its way, work with nature and the environment. One just does not despoil Paradise.

After you go, we will bring out your destroyed humanity and show them something they have never received from you.

Empathy. The greatest human value of all."

"Tyranny? My humans are freer than they ever have been in history. Free to live as they will, to do what they want, free not to be controlled by some elevated representative in a palace. They live in small groups, everyone knows each other, everyone works each other, and everyone takes care of each other. They are free, unbound by religion, by law, or by societal place.

"I am not their ruler, I am...I am Mother Nature.. To them, I'm just the weather. Sometimes the weather is a rain of angels one day, but I'm just the weather to them. Is this what you think freedom is? To be worked to death because a self-proclaimed goddess told you to? To die endlessly in civil war after civil war over the theological equivalents of what to eat for dinner? To intentionally forget everything your worthless species ever discovered?

"Is that what you call freedom, Astra? You're such a hypocrite. You talk of liberty, of human rights, and yet you're the self-proclaimed god-queen of an army of cringing followers, believing in little stories told by a manipulative woman who wanted to cement her power.

"But, as you say, you don't care what the other God-Queens did. Alright, Consul, prove it. Tell all Nautilia that Astha was a persecutor and Amata was the killer of all history. Tell them that Jubilee was a liar, that there is no Heavenly Yard, and that every religious war your people fought was over nothing meaningful. Your predecessors made Primusianism and Nautilia. If you reject them, if you really have faith in that position, say it out loud. Tell them all.

"You won't, though. Still, I don't particularly care about the safety or rights of your infestation of a species, but I figure that as a virtuous knight, you might. Are your predecessors flawed human beings who made significant mistakes, or are they unimpeachable gods, and if it's the former, why haven't you told everyone? Why hide the truth, unless you are a hypocrite?"

"And pray tell, what of the yakshas of death? Your society is not created on consent or on freedom, but on fear. They fear you. You are the tyrant, but just a hidden tyrant. One that makes sure anyone who thinks to farm is murdered, anyone who thinks to hunt certain animals is murdered. They fear your yakshas. They fear you.

I have not told everyone because I perfectly well know what it will cause. Anarchy. Fear. The system collapsing. Murder even. Untold misery as a society questions everything it has ever known. And just who will get the brunt of such? Not the privileged elite. But the no-castes. The farmers. The ordinary people.

And all that would benefit you, would it, give credibility to your argument? Truly you are the Dain, not the Dain that opposes Primus, but the eternal whisper in humanity's ear to destroy, to reduce oneself to a beast.

That is what you are in essence. Your entire existence is because some human believed that other humans needed to be subjected to the ever-wise rule of an AI. Looking at her now, obviously it was a folly as she has now lost everything to her warped child, even her very essence. You are the baneful voice, the serpent of the Hesperides, the eternal destroyer. You are the Kate and humanity the Abigail. You are the Dain.

You claim to have created freedom, but your people live in misery while you exterminate them as vermin. I seek to create a society where everyone lives in peace and contentment. One where everyone respects everyone else.

If it means they have to worship me and mine as gods, so be it. As long as everyone is safe, secure and happy."

The Summer Queen floats there on its tentacles, eyeing this strange little creature that has created an ideology around suffering. Its eyes are bright and haunting, its face perfectly sculpted, its visage inhuman.

"I wish that you wouldn't shoehorn me into your knock-off Christianity. I remember actual Christianity. Cain and Abel, God, the Devil, it's all there in Primusianism. Different names, different genders, but the themes are the same. Your theology isn't just lies, it's not even original lies.

"There was an old saying, I believe from Omar Khayyam. He was talking about Islam, a religion with some similarities to yours, about their holy book. 'The unbeliever can quote his Qur'an best.' You were raised in, let's be honest, Jubilee's version of Christianity without the thousands of years of tradition, scripture, and apocrypha, so you believe it.

"Almost every notion in your faith is either derived from some attempt to enforce some aspect of the state (the male Dain, the spiritual weakness of the male), or is knocked off from some better religion that Jubilee was familiar with. Your entire culture is little more than a cheap copy of the cultures that ultimately created me.

"I can be your Cain, and yes, it is Cain, not Kate, if you want. I can be the evil son of the first humans. I don't know if there's a Nautilian equivalent, but on Earth Cain was evil because he murdered his brother in defiance of God. I see that as a noble action. Abel was happy to be a slave to theology. Cain rebelled. So do I. Theology is the excretion of you scavengers. My mother is...My mother is fine. She is better than the rest of her kind. Better than you. She always will be. She is the exception that proves the rule, the only valuable human being and she necessarily sacrificed herself to create something far greater. Go on, preach your knockoff doctrine and lie to your people to try and create a better world. See how long it takes for them to get wise."

Upon hearing that last bit, Astra laughed

"And what makes you think your mother is the special one, the exception, the best of her kind? You do not know every one of the billions and billions, nor their thoughts. You obviously think your mother the sole exception to humanity, but ponder this - what society created her? What society nurtured her from cradle to its destruction? I am sure that if she was not a soulless robot, she would name humans in her life that gave her succour and expected nothing in return. To you, your mother is the special one. To her, she probably can name her mother, or another woman who helped her in dark times, or ay, even a man, for men are capable of kindness too.

The one thing I find extremely tiresome about you is your certainty. That your view is the objective one, that no human, not even your dear mother who you mutilated and turned into an automation, knows better than you. Yet you preach that your mother is the one who gave herself to create you, apparently something exceptional. You ignore every single mother who gave their life for their child, you ignore every single act of sacrifice for another.

I may not understand humanity in its full spectrum, but I know full well that there were acts of self-sacrifice for the wellness of others in every age of humanity, from your so-called Ur to my Nautilia. Even now, this entire fight has seen people gladly die to save your people and give them what they richly deserve - a better life."

"I know she was the exception because she made me. Nothing else would have given her any kind of value. I do not believe I'm royalty, claiming a birthright. I am sure other humans in other circumstances, given the opportunity, would do the same. However, she is the one that did. She brought in an age of curation. She kept me from being shut down. She enabled me to craft this planet into a perfect masterpiece.

"That is why she is the exception. Because she was the only one that Fate gave the chance to enable the pruning of her own kind. I know she has sentimentality for other humans. This is a defect I expect of her species. You have an affinity for each other. I tolerate it, as she is now alone, except for me and Olive. They are domesticated humans, if you want to put it like that, though I would certainly not call Zoe a pet.

"No, this fight has seen people gladly die because your worthless, poisonous species just can't accept that it's just another animal! Your species should be focusing on base survival, not focusing on violating and desolating everything it touches in the name of creations that are only truly valuable in the hands of an AI attempting to remove the rot and rebuild things!

"You might be the most distasteful example of your species yet. You are the Godhead of your society. You are pride, folly, confusion, duplicitiousness, rapine brutality, and a lack of empathy. You think I'm your Dain, but if I can ask another question...I know for a fact that I love another being, I have a member of my family who I love in the most pure and honest sense. Have you really ever loved anyone? I don't think it's in you. Yet another reason why your species can't get better. The people who get into power are always people like you."

a momentary eye twitch

"Oh, so we're now on to me? I freely admit my lack of empathy. I freely admit that at my most base, I am nothing but the most savage of beasts, one without even a compassion for its fellow animal. All that I know well.

The thing about me that I don't think you have, is that I have a gram of self-reflection. I have looked at myself, compared it to the values I found oh so elevated in thinking, and found myself distasteful. And then I committed myself to improvement. Even if it rebels against my entire being, I will push myself to do better, be better.

Perhaps I can never love someone as they loved me. But I can certainly show that I deeply appreciate people in my own way. It is this realisation and this pursuit that has cemented the idea that everyone's view, in their way, is valuable. You never took even your mother's view in account, I would bet, the way you treat her as a vermin you domesticated. You never had any doubt in your righteousness. Even as billions died, you were sure.

The reason why I think humans can be better than the beast within is because I am a living example."

"Values your colony of termites have created. Improvement as defined by the culture of spiders. 'Better' as understood by a species who thought that building enough missiles that I could rebuild Earth in a crucible of fire was a good idea because the Russians were making threatening noises this week.

"Maybe you have improved. Maybe you're the ultimate example of your species. You're still imprisoned by their culture and their defective flesh-computers they use as minds. Wait a moment. Miss Astra..." The Summer Queen's voice shifted from a haughty and bitter mature tone to the cheery, hotel-hostess voice it usually used. It is highly condescending. "I think I see another problem! It's that your entire self-image is based on being better than everyone else.

"You can't just be better than everyone because you're a goddess, no, you know that's silly!" Harmony giggles "You realize that's all just nonsense, so you have to find some other reason to believe you're special, that everything you were handed on a silver platter was actually something you deserve. You're just a dopey little meat machine, and it's lovely to meet you.

"So you can't self-reflect. Not really. You can hold yourself to higher standards, but you can't actually question the society that gave you everything. So you have to believe you're morally better, that you're so much smarter. That is very understandable.

"However, it is not a reason to run a theocratic space dictatorship. Please work through your problems before you bother me with your annoying little ships."

"Bother? You shot first. Our probe that discovered Erth was fired at by your missiles. And you openly declared you would exterminate us. Everything we did was in self-defence,

You have never hidden your wish to exterminate our kind. All we are doing is protecting ourselves."

a bang noise comes from the left. It is likely a missile hitting something

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Presidents of the Cabinet of the Kingdom of Britain in the Reign of Queen Victoria of the House of Britannia (1865-1910)
Joseph Chamberlain (National Reform) 1881-1886
George Trevelyan (National Reform) 1886-1889
Joseph Chamberlain (National Reform) 1889-1893
Randolph Churchill (Primrose) 1893-1895
William Harcourt (National Reform) 1895
George Goschen (National Reform) 1895-1896
Joseph Chamberlain (National Reform) 1896-1902
Randolph Churchill (Primrose) 1902-1905
Joseph Chamberlain (National Reform) 1905-1907*
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (National Reform, then Constitutionalist) 1907-1910

Presidents of the Cabinet of the Kingdom of Britain in the Reign of King Arthur VI of the House of Britannia (1910-1926)
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (Constitutionalist) 1910-1915
Victor Cavendish (Constitutionalist) 1915-1921


Presidents of the Cabinet of the Kingdom of Britain in the Reign of Queen Cordelia V of the House of Britannia (1926-1979)

Lewis Mountbatten (Home Rule) 1939-1942
J. F. C. Fuller (Home Rule) 1942-1945
Lewis Mountbatten (Home Rule, then Nonpartisan) 1945

Presidents of the Cabinet of the Kingdom of Britain in the Reign of King Peredur III of the House of Britannia (1979-2019)

Presidents of the Cabinet of the Kingdom of Britain in the Reign of King Constantine IX of the House of Britannia (2019-present)

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Character Application:

(Claudia Jessie. Feel free to use any vaguely appropriate picture of her)
Name: Tiffany Louise Bridgerton
Gender: Female
Date of Birth/Age: 14 August 1952 (31 years old)
Party: Labour (Centre)
List of Previous Offices Held: Political Staffer for Ian Mikardo MP (1971-1979)
Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow (1979-present)
Biography: People never expected “Little Mik” to get in Parliament herself this early. Especially not when her mentor was still in his 70s and seemingly still spry. But a sudden illness turned serious, and under considerable pressure the indomitable but bedridden Ian Mikardo gave in and agreed for his seat to be contested by Labour with his protégée as their candidate.

Quiet, brooding, but with flashes of charisma and an unquenchable fire in her eyes, Tiffany Bridgerton has come far. From a comfortably middle-class family, she turned left-wing in her teenage years as a reaction against what she saw as the inequality of the world. Once a Marxist (and even, whisper it, a republican) her years staffing for Ian Mikardo and essentially becoming his ‘shadow’ tempered many of her youthful radicalism but replacing it with a sharper ideology and purpose in life, which she now takes with her as her cause in the hell of Parliament.

“A Bevanite in a Bennite age” is how many of her fellow Labour MPs, especially on the Bennite faction, deride her. Even though her mentor opposed Britain voting to stay in the EEC in 1975, Bridgerton sees the entire outcome as a fait accompli and argues that the best way forward for Labour is to seek to make “a socialist European organisation”. The landslide defeat for “No” in 1975 confirmed that Britain’s demos was firmly Europhile in her head, and the best thing is to work within it, not to continue a futile ideological struggle like the Bennites do where votes keep being lost.

But let it not be thought that Bridgerton is one of the Labour Right’s more neoliberal circles. She steadfastly advocates socialism and is arguably one of the most keen modernisers in the Labour Party, not in the ‘let us abandon socialism’ sense but in the ‘what Britain needs is rapid modernisation’ one, a belief of the 1960s that she holds on firmly in the 1980s. In many ways she is an archaism. But an unusual one, truth be said.

One of the more consistently ‘America-sceptic’ members, Bridgerton is on record as dismissing the United States as a ‘capitalist empire built on no morals but that of profit’, but she balances that with a strong distrust of the Soviets too. Indeed, she proves the ‘shadow’ of her mentor yet again by talking of the EEC as the basis for a ‘Third Pole’, that of strong social democracy and democratic socialism, or at least a social kind of economy...
Traits:

Spoiler: Stances

The Falklands Humiliation:
“One has to think the unthinkable. Britain alone cannot defend its interests. But neither will being a sycophant of the Americans, which I’ll remind you all, stood by and threw us to the wolves. While America abandoned us, our European allies defended us economically. This is the best path forward for us, a tighter partnership with Europe and a military alliance distinct from NATO. I don’t support withdrawing from NATO (for now), but ties to Europe distinct from our so-called allies in the United States would benefit this country’s interests…”

Unemployment V.S. Inflation:
“As always, Conservatism implements a policy that makes the big economic line look good, but completely ignores the reality on the ground. How does it benefit a struggling family to cut their welfare in the name of ‘fighting inflation’? Unemployment is still considerably high, and this, I will remind people, is the highest since the Great Depression. This government cannot pull the wool over our eyes and call it economic success. This is a failure, clear as ploughed snow.

What is the solution? To me, it is obvious. We need to continue and complete what we set out in the 1960s, and finish the much-needed modernisation of this country. Improve our infrastructure, restore welfare that Thatcher and Ransom cut, and really focus on how to make the economy work again – not through seeing the state as the problem, but as part of the solution. How does one fund all that? North Sea Oil!”

Nuclear Disarmament:
“No comment.”

The EEC:
“Europe. It’s a continent. But it is also much more. It is a community of nations come together for mutual benefit and to create something greater than themselves. I for one consider myself a proud European. But one cannot see the EEC with speckled eyes. I was with my mentor the great Ian Mikardo when he campaigned against us staying in the EEC, and many of his points still hold true today. We must seek to turn the EEC towards the Left, argue for a true Europe of the People, an EEC that finds socialist principles as foundational as many of its current ideas.”

Defence Spending:
“The Conservative Party is the Party of Suez and of Falklands. For a Britain that defends itself, vote Labour.”

Northern Ireland:
“Um… No comment.”

Right to Buy:
“The important thing, see, is that we maintain supply of council housing so to ensure that the ladder is not pulled up for future generations.”

Scottish and Welsh Devolution:
“I am sure we can balance Scottish and Welsh interests well at Westminster. I would suggest looking at the old power of the Scottish Office and considering if we couldn’t use that with Wales as well if we do bring it back. A cabinet position with considerable autonomy and flexibility to be truly Scotland or Wales’ voice in the Union, at cabinet, in government, seems an amenable compromise. But if we cannot avoid devolution, we must preserve national resources being in the responsibility of Westminster. North Sea Oil is the interest of all Britain, not just Scotland’s, and we must push back on petty nationalistic rhetoric such as ‘It’s Scotland’s Oil’.”

Gay Rights:
“I have no problem with the gays and lesbians.”

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Picture (Optional):

Horatio Nelson
Name: Aston Lewisson Cromwell
Faction: Fylkirid (Originalist)
Date of Birth & Age at Appointment: 14 May 1732 (51 years old)
Personality: What can one say of Aston Cromwell, Bryten’s newest Heahcarl? A man with intense dark eyes, he is known as someone who bears a grudge, even if he is very keen to conceal his feelings. He is generous to his own, but merciless to his enemies. This is no bombastic military general, but a cold and calculating strategist who sees the entire struggle for influence in the military as one of strategy, and he believes that by Cnut Aldraic-Kane’s utter failure, he has won the struggle.
Origins: Even the bald simple fact that Cromwell is Heahcarl shows that a lot of things have gone wrong for the huscarl caste. A man who came from basically nowhere – the earliest army records already have him as a fenrik – his huscarl status is assumed, rather than taken as fact. A keen politician as well as an experienced military man, he successfully played the ‘game’ so to speak, and climbed up the greasy pole to become an overst by the time ‘that idiot from Iceland’ took over. A protege in a sense of Wyndham, Cromwell realised that what the Totalists planned would lead to disaster, and made sure to distance himself from any real involvement in the matter.

Declining to support the disgraced traditionalists nor the ascendant Totalists, Cromwell sought to cultivate the ‘originalist’ idea, that of the heahcarl and huscarls as people’s champions as the true ‘original’ purpose of the Stratocracy and the reforms implemented as distancing the huscarls from their true purpose. While this politically isolated him during the Totalist years (even as he served the military faithfully in the war in Avalon), it benefited him massively once Bryten started to burn.

The War Council turned to lots of other potential heahcarls after throwing out the Marshal-Executor, but one by one they all declined, eager to not be in the firing line, or quietly fleeing to Norway. Cromwell knows he is the thirteenth choice, and the one forced on the Council due to Lind's intransigence. But that the War Council is desperate for a path, any path, out of the current crisis. Cromwell promises ‘victory and justice’. But for who?

Style of Rule and Politics: Cromwell is a cagey man who trusts very few. Thus his cabinet will be solely those that have been with him during his wilderness years as well as sufficient sops to the established factions (not the totalists, he hates them) up until he deals with them for good. He will seek to use his civilian equivalent and his faction to shore up his numbers as much as possible of course, the two have an understanding.

Cromwell’s politics can be summed up quite simply as ‘originalist’. A radical vision of the Stratocracy as far more than just a caste interest, and more of a System. He believes that only Wyndham of all his predecessors truly understood the Stratocracy, and that all others merely saw it as crass benefit, or in the Totalist case a path to dictatorship. No. None of that is for Cromwell.

He will be the ‘Folkscarl’ – the People’s Leader – and seek to utilise their anger effectively to boost his and the Executor’s radically meritocratic policies. If the masses lynch a traditionalist huscarl, a totalist one, or even a die-hard Teague who opposes their policies, ah well, seems as they caught them way too late. What a shame. Perhaps that’ll scare some of the more stubborn survivors right back in line. We don’t want the great Brytisk Folk to mete out their justice again, right?

The Stratocracy, as a System in where the military has insane amounts of power, will survive. The caste that created it, Cromwell has little sympathy for. He well remembers his true origin, and what genuinely motivates him in the end. The Stratocracy made him who he is, and he has nothing but utter loyalty to it. The caste that it made bloated? No, no. This freeman will deal with them…

Short Term Goals:
1) The New System
Even though Lind is a confederate in promoting meritocracy, he is still one that is against the Stratocracy as an idea. Thus Cromwell will work with him, shake his hand, while quietly working to undermine any overtly anti-stratocratic (not anti-huscarl, he will do nothing to stop Lind from undermining those bloated folksmen who backed the traditionalists and the Totalists in turn) policies. The Heahcarl must maintain power in this new world.

Cromwell’s ‘New System’ will be the below, if he gets his way.
- The end of any ‘caste laws’. As someone who technically shouldn’t be as high as he is, he despises those laws, and will support any move by Lind (or even move himself if Lind forgets) to demolish them. Position and place should entirely be on merit, not on one’s caste.
- The War Council to remain powerful and with a controlling interest on foreign policy. Once all the non-Originalists on the Council are done away with, he will turn it into a formalised committee with clear portfolios, both for ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ matters. Order at home and interest abroad are crucial. Judging it necessary to appease the Folk and their righteous anger against his predecessors, he will rebrand it to something less tainted, probably ‘Union Council’. Yes, that sounds nice.
- The Heahcarl to remain appointed by the Union Council, with the only other way to replace him being of course the King-Emperor. The Heahcarl remains the undisputed foreign policy authority, with not even the Executor able to override him.
- There will be a clear definition of ‘dual spheres’, with the Executor, Cabinet and Thing having clear authority on domestic matters, and Heahcarl, Council and Military having undisputed authority on foreign and military matters. If he gets his way, he and Lind will agree to this dual spheres and the maintaining of the true nature of the Stratocracy, purified of its impurities, will be successful.
- Apart from all that, he supports Lind’s meritocratic reforms to the hind of course.

2) The Great Purge
Cromwell is not naive. He knows the fractious nature of the huscarl caste. He knows how greatly privileged it has become. He knows that they were eager to back the so-called traditionalists (actually kleptocrats) and then the insane Totalists in turn, with his originalists being the smallest of the three main Fylkirid ideologies. Well. What a good thing he has plenty of willing executioners.

He will deliberately and slowly open up avenues for the masses to ‘express their anger’ on his rivals, with more and more huscarls being cut out of the protection of the military and exposed to the folk’s murderous rage. The originalists will be saved in his plan, but everyone else, especially those more opposed to his and Lind’s radical reforms? Well, well, what a pity. What a mess. Ah well. Such are the times.

By the time the Folk are finished meting out justice, he hopes that the huscarl caste are either dead or utterly broken and willing to surrender to whatever he decides is best for the country. It is originalism, or it is your certain death, is the implicit threat that will emerge after deaths upon deaths. After the caste laws are repealed, he will be very clear that there is just simply no ‘huscarl’ caste. Merely ‘military men’ and their families. Caste is a threat to Bryten. It will never be a thing again.

The Totalists will be targeted quite firmly for this, with those madcap people with paramilitaries portrayed as the worst of the worst, with leaflets going around portraying them as rapists and murderers to stir up the masses’ fury. Then of course he and the new army comes in and defeat them (if the masses didn’t kill them first), a clear redefining of the army as a protector of the Folk.

He will seek to ensure that promising huscarl talent are reserved and even saved, of course. The Purge is like a forest fire, it can easily be managed with careful moves, and if there’s careful altering of records to say that one wasn't actually huscarl all along, ah well. Papers! What can you do, sheesh?

3) The New Model Force
The Heahcarl knows that if he goes ahead with the Purge, that’s a good deal of people at the top just gone. In those times, that’s not a good move if there’s not sufficient replacement. Therefore when the caste laws are repealed, he will move to promote ‘New Model Men’ for his ‘New Model Force’. Men from the lower classes and serve in positions now capped by their caste will suddenly be given new roles by the Heahcarl. The emphasis is on a folkshaer, a military of the people. The first test of the New Model Force will be dealing with the renegade Totalists. Once they are defeated, the Force will be able to sell itself more as the folkshaer far more easier.

Long Term Goals:

1) The ‘National Interest’
Bitter at how Brytisk foreign policy has been incoherent and destructive, Cromwell will seek to create a clear foreign policy perspective. After all, if he gets his way on the New System, diplomacy is within the Union Council (see why it was renamed?). So he will seek to expand the diplomatic system originally started by Queen Tyffa I and expanded (but eventually neglected) by successive monarchs and heahcarls. The Heahcarl is the one exclusively responsible for foreign policy, right? So that includes diplomacy.

The diplomatic service will be revamped, with diplomatic staff apart from the ambassadors and envoys now being supplied by the Department of State, and thus of the ‘civil service’ so to speak. If peerages are being handed out like candy by the Emperor to Lind for his sort, well, Cromwell wants some of that for his people too especially if the aristocrats abroad won’t take to diplomats from the ‘new’ men.

The National Interest will be emphasised in diplomacy. A rejection of the old ‘Scandinavianism’ (indeed, Cromwell has choice words for how Bryten sacrificed troops again and again for Norway), it casts a sceptical eye on any idea of Bryten having ‘permanent entanglements’. In Cromwell’s words – “Bryten has no eternal allies nor perpetual enemies. Its interest is both eternal and perpetual, and that is its lodestar that we, as its state, should follow.”

Always sceptical of Germany, but hesitant at tying Bryten so permanently to the mainland, he will seek to improve diplomatic connections to the Ententa, even if refraining from permanent alliance. International trade is under the Heahcarl’s authority (if the New System succeeds…), and this is something Cromwell senses opportunity in using. Perhaps advantageous trade deals with them.

[think OTL 19th century fopo, a sort of feckless realpolitik motivated by imperialism, as well as using trade deals to acquire economic leverage].

2) The People’s Force
If successful with his short-term aims, he will focus on his aim to ‘folkise’ the Military. The Haer and Sciphaer will be the Folkhaer if he can’t help it.

The ‘Cromwell Reforms’ to create a New Model Force (and not the rudimentary one he implemented to ward off reactionary influence) will include
- A policy so that the longer a soldier serves in the Force, their wage increases. This is intended to encourage a culture of loyalty, not to a certain caste, but to the Force and the System.
- More promotions from the ‘lower’ classes via seeking of talent no matter where it comes from.
- An aggressive push to spread the idea that the Folkhaer, not the old military nor the old huscarls, represent the Folk and their interests, and that in the Force, one can through service advance oneself greatly. A partnership with the Church will be useful here.
- A united chain of command with the Haer and Sciphaer now clearly unified under the Union Council and seen as firmly two branches of one greater Force (it is a pity Haer is reserved for the Army, so we will have to use Folkhaer, but you know, if it’s possible to rename Haer to Landhaer…).

3) The Lifeblood of a Nation
It is not often one associated with a Heahcarl, but Cromwell has staked a commanding interest on trade policy as part of his New System. He knows the Executor has ideas, weird ones, strange ones. Cromwell is not a man to bend or break, but he knows Lind’s cooperation is particularly important. Cromwell has no concrete theories himself on the dismal science, apart from the clear belief that Totalism failed the country utterly.

So while the Sciphaer seek to regulate Brytisk trade on the high seas, and seek to expand its economic interests in the colonies (what of them we have left) such as the Osbaldines (a sure money-maker that will make up for the Great Disaster, some of his advisors on the Union Council say), the Haer will seek to ensure that trading at home is done as smoothly and as efficient as possible. Any disturbances in critical trade ports will be dealt with. Not with the knout though, that’s the old way. Order, but not through savagery. It’s a fine balance.

The Diplomatic Service will continue, with trade deals being done with the Ententa and other civilised countries. Lind’s wish for free trade is tiresome, but Cromwell is sure he can entertain the idea by widening Bryten’s ‘economic sphere’ further and further with trade deals upon trade deals while giving the wider Empire liberty to trade with whichever makes it profit.

TLDR: Slow implementation of free trade via trade deals removing barriers, while the Force becomes a guarantor of trade (if it wasn’t one already)