Resuming the Lore where we left it:
The Steppes is the encompassing term used for those lands occupied by the five cities. An estimate of 80% of the human population, about 950.000 inhabitants, is located in this area of approximately 75.000 square kilometres, or what's the same, about the size of the Benelux. The rest of the human population consists of a rough estimate of hieronhortean savages, captured humans, and an assortment adventurers, pirates, and colonists living in the protectorates and the outskirts.
The geography of The Steppes varies from semi-arid to sub-tropical, but as a whole the terrain and weather is much milder than that of the largely untraversable protectorates or The Outer Lands. It stretches barely 200 kilometres inland and is surrounded by mountain ranges.
Both The Steppes and the islands of Anamnesis experience weeks of longer nights alternated by weeks of longer days. This is why the different weeks are represented as weeks of daylight or nightlight. A night will not last longer than 4 and a half hours during the zenith of a daylight week and vice versa.
The Steppes are therefore a very scarcely populated enclave for a reduced human population in an otherwise hostile world.
The Court of All Humans is the political entity that theoretically governs over humanity as a whole. This organization coordinates the industrial and military efforts of the five city-states and the protectorates and oversees the well-being of its citizens. Its closest historical counterpart would be the League of Nations, except that this one works to a certain extent because of its reduced size, the existence of powerful foreign dangers threatening its members, and a negligible history of internal armed conflicts between humans to date. During each of the game cycles, this relatively peaceful coexistence between humans is put to an end with the arrival of The Influence.
For supporters of The Court, it is because of The Influence that all violence among humans exists to begin with.
The Court is ruled by the aristocracies of the five cities. It is a meritocracy, so this aristocracy must be understood as a rule of the best in its original meaning as explained in the wikipedia page, and is not to be mistaken with a plutocracy or an hereditary nobility. Aristocrats are not born but elected, and as you've probably experienced inside the game, they can be paupers and still possess a considerable amount of political power.
The title of aristocrat is bestowed upon those individuals that prove themselves worthy through remarkable accomplishments, and in this way merits are gathered or lost by existing aristocrats as well. Aristocrats can therefore be anything from extraordinary soldiers, brilliant scientists or daring adventurers. A certain degree of nepotism and corruption does exists inside this system, which is again blamed by stalwart aristocrats on the arrival of The Influence.
Merit is thus the degree of trust and therefore power that The Court bestows upon an individual.
At the time in which each game takes place however, The Court is under great strain. Except from the pseudo-society of the savages of Hieronhorte (to be explained later), all other forces are either openly hostile or harmfully uncaring towards The Court and humanity as a whole. Of these hostile forces, The Influence is the only one that would allow the continuing existence of humanity in relative freedom under the rule of greater beings. The rest either seek the species' outright destruction or systematic exploitation.
From the west, The Steppes are constantly raided by gangs of beastfolk bandits. There are hundreds of millions of beastfolk all over the jungles of Malahs Kovoss and their constant infighting is pushing them further into The Steppes each day. If allowed, they would wipe out the humanity they so thoroughly hate, but not before wiping each other out.
Meanwhile, from the east, the perpetual storm raging over the tundra of Hieronhorte conceals countless unknown horrors stalking just outside civilization, barely kept at bay by the savages. The least dangerous of these horrors are the so-called ogres, large hominids with a taste and liking for humans. If allowed, they would turn humans into little more than livestock.
Under these circumstances, the thing The Court needs the least is the infighting generated by The Influence. To better understand and perhaps counter this force, the best they can do is to send expeditions into The Outer Lands following any lead. The Anamnesis is certainly a good lead and might prove to be their best bet at the time.
It is in this context that many adhere to The Influence in order to seek the protection of the greater beings to save themselves, even if it means the destruction of society as they know it.
Compared to the pre-industrial United Kingdom: (6 million over 243,610 sq km) the Steppes land certainly does seem to be well under it's carrying capacity. (not that I can talk, Australian...) Perhaps the arid areas can account for that but it still seems odd that they are making efforts to colonise other areas instead of developing their own land.
ReplyDeleteThe low population base also suggest that their ongoing(?) industrial revolution and scientific progress is being bootstrapped in some way, possibly by recovered Saurian knowledge and artefacts. Or perhaps the court's current state is a remnant of a more advanced civilisation.
Another thing that is unclear is the long-term trend of human population and economic power. Are these generally increasing or decreasing (they don't both have to be going in the same direction) and perhaps more importantly, does the general perception of human prosperity among the influenced and stalwart aristocracy match this reality.
Your answer to the previous lore post implies that the Court is a rising power in the canon version of events, but their current precarious position has interesting ramifications for the influence.
The perception that Humanity is in decline would give a boost to the influenced's cause; many of their members might see the greater beings as Humanity's only insurance against inevitable extinction.
And of course the reverse is true, with the appearance of strength and prosperity being an advantage for the Court. Both sides are likely to push the version of events which is advantageous to their cause, e.g. I can envision a scenario where the colonies are mostly just a propaganda move by the aristocracy, which might account for their lack of policing or defences.
Another interesting consequence of the Court's weakness is how it effects the thinking of the greater beings, who might see the Court/Humans as; a soft target, an endangered species in need of protection and/or an insignificant threat. In the latter case the influence may only represent a minor effort on the part of the greater beings compared to their other goals and activities in the world. This might explain their use of proxies instead of direct interference.
Of course, if those greater beings have any ability to predict the future then you can toss out the previous paragraph.
Kind of threw a lot at you there, but I hope it helps inspire more worldbuilding.
I actually enjoy and value your cross examinations, different angles are always a great help.
DeleteCertainly the current population level does not account for a colonization effort. The reason to colonize the protectorates is purely a strategic one and takes most often the form of a company setting a series of fortified extraction complexes. For example, most of the natural gas and petrol fuelling The Steppes comes from Hieronhorte, but that will be fully explained once we reach the protectorates.
The islands of Anamnesis are a wholly different matter. It is not only for research and propaganda reasons that this territory is being colonized, but also because the territories were formerly a part of The Steppes and their people are to all effects human, which forces The Court of All Humans to shelter and protect them. Another converging reason is the fact that the islands are a much better choice for peripheral outcasts and lowlifes to settle in than the protectorates. Additionally, at a strategic level, the islands would provide a last stand in the event of a hypothetical fall of The Steppes.
Most human technological knowledge is a crude replication of the saurian technology they stumbled upon. I'll get to this in the next lore post, but they basically got as far as they could without the capacity to understand the nonoperational digital systems they found.
This industrial revolution is what allowed them to survive, but largely halted as it is and with such an ongoing pressure, everything is pretty much stalemated at the moment. Such a small populations' resources and manpower must be steadily poured into military endeavours and still captured population outside The Steppes increases while free population remains the same inside.
I'd say that overall each side's perceptions tend to match their beliefs. Stalwarts will most often believe they can get out of this with some sort of breakthrough while those influenced will tend to believe there is no hope for humankind.
The general perception is indeed that, whatever their plans might be for humans, those greater beings have much larger goals in their agendas that barely concern humanity at all.