Politics and Polities

Introduction

The humans of the expanse have come a long way from their beginnings on planet earth. They’ve travelled hundreds of thousands of light years, built a star spanning civilisation, changed themselves into not one but a dozen different human descended species and all but eliminated scarcity.

Despite the dreams of visionaries of previous eras however, this has not eliminated the need for politics. How society will function, and the need for a society are still issues open to disagreement, and thus political action. For this reason there are multiple polities and political philosophies across the Expanse.

Non-Government Organizations and Non-State Actors

Political philosophy

There are numerous different political philosophies across the Expanse, though there is also some general agreement on some issues. For one thing, the idea that the government of a state has a primary duty to look after the people of that state rather than the interests of any elite or special interest is strongly ingrained in just about every Expanse power.

With the end of scarcity in most areas, this has led to a considerable level of technocracy and welfare provisions in most Expanse states not matter their alignment in the current cold war. In fact, the ideological war over economics is mostly over. Now only disputes over life style remain.

Dark Rose Orthodoxy

Dark Rose Orthodoxy is one of the newest political movements in the Expanse. While in many ways religious, it is also a political philosophy. The primary tenant of the Dark Rose is that the precursors were divine, and that only through emulating their work it is possible to regain their former glory.

This requires radical preservationism of all precursor works, especially their changes to the environment of various planets, such as the Cathedral Worlds that are the Centre of the Dark Rose religion, and the aggressive quest for new information about the precursors so they can be better copied.

The concept that divinity can only be acquired by copying a previous divinity is anathema in the extreme to groups like the White Flame, and it is this ideological conflict that lies at the root of the dispute between them.

Preservationism

Preservationism is a popular idea in the expanse and has been since long before the Order of the Dark Rose appeared. It takes in the ideals of environmentalism and ecological preservation, but also the battle against entropy and the idea that long term planning should be done already to preserve humanity and human society into deep time.

Many present day Preservationist groups have been co-opted by the Order of the Black Rose.

White Flame Orthodoxy

While Flame Orthodoxy it is a transhumanism based philosophy which holds that it is humanities destiny to eventually humanities destiny (perhaps with other species, perhaps on it’s own) to become the most powerful beings in the universe through augmentation and extension of themselves.

To this end, the White Flame encourages transhumanism, colonisation and general increasing humanities power in the universe. Obviously the White Flame project will be a long one, but they fully expect to succeed.

Neo-internationalism

As part of the project to increase humanities power as a whole, the White Flame have embraced a doctrine of collective and international cooperation, international law and interstellar governance that seeks to provide a fair and equitable system for international interaction.

While for most of the Expanse’s history this has been accepted as a fair system, the appearance of the Order of the Black Rose threatens the Neo-Internationalist framework of the Expanse. This is the other ideological origin of the present cold war.

Polities

The Expanse has an enormous number of different polities, planets and nations, but a much smaller number of great powers. With the current cold war, they have become split into two grand alliances, both attempting to entice the remaining neutrals into their camp. This has led to by far the most interesting time for politics and diplomacy for the past millennia.

White Flame Aligned

The White Flame, created largely from the colonial institutions that founded the Expanse still provides it’s ideological and institutional bedrock. The White Flame aligned states include most of the established powers who have done well out of the system, giving them a high level of resources, however, there is large scale public concern that they may lack the dynamism of the Dark Rose aligned states.

Azure River Pact

Religion is not usually a major force in Expanse life. Though some people are religious, organised religion is, outside of the Order of the Dark Rose, rather uncommon. However, uncommon is not to say nonexistent, the Azure River Pact for instance, while not a theocracy is never the less a highly religious state.

The Azure River Pact, formed as a Coalition on the banks of the Azure River on Benlintis, (hence it’s name) is somewhat united by following the word of the nine prophets, a circle of nine mystics who arose on nine worlds of the area some millennia ago, and preached a previously unknown religion.

The Nine Prophet’s followers are polytheistic, with different gods for many different parts of the universe, and numerous different spirits and rules of conduct; however their creed is generally altruistic, though somewhat austere compared to the life style of many in the Expanse.

To the surprise of many, the Azure River Pact is in the vanguard of efforts to contain the Order of the Dark Rose and its followers, who they see as apostates and worshipers of false idols. The position of Eden and Sumatra along the Pacts boarders, and historic rivalry between the Pact and Eden has not helped matters, and has added a layer of real politick to calculations to join the White Flame in opposing the returning colonials and their allies.

Kwanseieun

On the Westward edge of the Expanse, Kwanseieun is a relatively young power with a strong sense of national destiny. A mere hundred years ago, Kwanseieun was a minor power with only thirty planetary systems. This rapidly changed however as, with the backing of the White Flame they began a rapid program of colonisation, cooperating with several even more minor powers for mutual benefit.

Despite many teething problems, Kwanseieun hard work and innovation paid off and they were able to digest large portions of previously unsettled space, expanding their population using cloning and policies designed to encourage population growth in order to fill up their new worlds and make the next wave easier. The Kwanseieun project is widely seen as one of the most successful colonisation efforts of it’s type ever conducted, and has propelled Kwanseieun from relative obscurity to one of the Expanse’s great powers and formed a strong relationship between them and the White Flame.

Kwanseieun politics are still somewhat in flux, with new political arrangements having to be worked out, sometimes on the fly to deal with the sudden influx of new territory, but the as yet, there have been no major demands for independence, and Kwanseieun seems set to keep it’s place in the sun.

Apart from its rapid expansion, Kwanseieun is known for its often experimental technology base and love of gadgets. Kwanseieun ships, even warships are known for their variety of shapes, including triangles, squares and even open frameworks rather than the more traditional needle shaped designs.

Nova Brazil

Nova Brazil has for a long time held its self up as how an Expanse nation should be: rich, free and safe. Nova Brazil was without the excessive military spending or colonial projects which marked Sakura, or the restless, potentially destructive ambition of Kwanseieun or Themescria. Instead it built up a vast industrial and informational economy, its populations expanding on the surface of its planets and even to a few carefully sighted and highly economically viable colonial regions. Only a tiny handful of clashes with oceanic aliens disturbed the general peace.

All that changed with the coming of the Order of the Dark Rose, and its alliance with Eden, Sumatra and the Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere. Suddenly Nova Brazil found its boarders insecure, and facing the possibility of invasion by two substantial and militant neighbours, and without an existing alliance system to secure them, the White Flame stepped in to fill the hole.

Nova Brazil is now building up a substantial military machine based largely on White Flame designs, which has served to mollify its population somewhat, however, the general sense of insecurity remains. Fear of infiltration, terrorism and the like stalk Nova Brazilian politic life. Still, the industry that Nova Brazil control is a useful addition to the White Flame assets, and careful diplomacy by the White Flame continues to keep their allies on side.

Sakura

Sakura is one of the largest powers in the Expanse, with numerous colonial protectorates, defence commitments and its own colonies, stretching out from the southern end of the Expanse into the unclaimed void. Sakura is known for its frontier spirit, its limited number of laws and its pull together community spirit. It’s also known for its dislike of aliens, and general dislike of foreigners.

To Sakura, the tension between the Dark Rose and the White Flame is a side show, a potentially dangerous side show which is distracting the Expanse from the real danger of alien life forms such as the Asher or the Cacophony encroaching onto planets that they want to colonise. The Dark Rose’s alien worship is intensely unpleasant, but still less dangerous than actual aliens.

This belief has led to a slightly schizophrenic attitude in Sakuran foreign policy with regard to the Order of the Dark Rose. At one level they seek compromise and to defuse tensions, on another if military action must take place, they wish to for it to begin (and so end) quickly, to allow the post war settlement to be created before they enter a confrontation with aliens.

Internal politics of Sakura are in some ways fractious, and in some ways united. There is wide spread agreement on the need for continual colonisation and Expansion, but fierce debates over any new internal law or social program. Arguing over new laws and proposed programs is a national sport whether done in bars or over information networks.

Themescria

Like Kwanseieun Themescria is a vibrant, impetuous young nation which is quickly propelling it’s self to great power status. Unlike Kwanseieun, Themescria has built its success primarily on economics rather than colonisation, creating one of the most effective research and technological processes in the Expanse, and engaging in large scale retro-engineering and improvement on other powers technology.

Propelled on the wave of the new technology it’s created for it’s self, Themescria has become extremely active in recent years. Its attempts to win influence have included deploying troops on peace keeping missions and extensive trade agreements with other powers.

As yet, Themescria remains somewhat less mature than Kwanseieun, but it is rapidly becoming a major player. Themescria is more uneasy about the White Flame than most of the rest of the alliance, but memories of White Flame aid are fresh enough, and the Order of the Dark Rose’s agenda disturbing enough that Themescria has chosen to align its self with the White flame.

Internally, Themescria is a self consciously progressive cyberdemocracy that provides extensive welfare provisions to its citizens, especially in the area of education which is seen as the basis of future Themescrian success.

Order of the White Flame

Formed from the various colonial companies that founded the Expanse, the White Flame are its most enduring institution. While they control few planets out right, they have many bases, enclaves and stations through out Expanse space, and control huge industrial, financial and technological power, as well as a large, extremely well equipped military.

There are three kinds of open White Flame agent (an agent being anyone who works for the White Flame) Workers, who are the rank and file of the White Flame and it’s ordinary citizens, Mercenaries who are foreigners recruited into it’s armies and fleets, and Liaisons, who are former Workers and Mercenaries who have been promoted, and augmented and who act as diplomats and a glue that binds the Order together. There are rumours that numerous other secret kind of White Flame agents exist above these three.

The recent recontact with the Order of the Dark Rose has bought the White Flame a challenge like none in their history, and the White Flame is particularly active, particularly in reinforcing the defensives of their enclaves within the Dark Rose aligned powers.

The White Rose’s conspiratorial nature, arrogance and the air of mystery they maintain makes them popular villains in Expanse fiction.

Dark Rose Aligned

The rediscovering of what is now called the Dark Rose region a decade ago has led to a considerable realignment of Expanse politics. The Dark Rose represented a considerable power centre, in many ways stronger than any of the existing Expanse states alone. They were able to use this power and the ideological dynamism of their new religion to create a power base among those factions in the Expanse who find the current system problematic or not fitting their interests.

Eden

The biggest state in the Expanse proper to ally themselves with the Dark Rose, Eden has for a long time seen its self as ill used by the rest of the Expanse. Eden was one of the first Expanse states to be created on the first wave of worlds surveyed by the colony fleets; however because of this they settled before the much more friendly environments that most of the Expanse inhabits were found. Though the Edenites became very skilled in terraforming and have subsequently transformed many of their worlds into jewels equal to anything in the rest of the Expanse, the constant effort to get what the rest of the Expanse takes for granted has taken it’s toil on Edenite feelings towards their sister states.

Edenite technology is known for being hard wearing, elegantly designed and rugged, capable of operating even in harsh conditions, and making up for in design whatever it lacks in sophistication. Eden is a little behind in some technological areas though, something which it hopes aid from the Federal Republic of Osandra and the Dark Rose will rectify.

The primary unit of Edenite society is the IG, or Interessen-Gemeinschaft (Community of Interest) these associations, which are structured something like ancient corporations provide services, lobby for political position and serve many other social functions. While the police, military and many non-profit services are provided on a public service, Eden remains far more capitalistic (if that term can be applied to a post scarcity environment) than the majority of the Expanse, with many citizens forming their own IG for whatever their particular interest is.

Federated Republic of Osandra

The creation of new sentient life, or rather the transformation of existing non-sentient life into sentient life has always been a controversial issue in the Expanse, and there has been general disagreement with policies of uplift on various ethical grounds such as the consequences for the animal, the potential to create a competitive alien species, preservationism and the belief that such efforts would be better served by creating better lives for transhumans rather than animal uplifts.

The Federal Republic of Osandra’s disagreement with the main stream of Expanse ethics on the subject of uplifting has led to it becoming all but an international pariah. It has also led to it adding Dolphins, Cormorants, and Gorilla’s to its citizenry.

Given the Order of the Dark Rose’s preservationist ethics, most analysts were stunned when the FRO and the Order announced their alliance. However, it can be noted that there was already a stream of Dark Rose Jurisprudence that suggested that as the Precursors had engaged in uplift of local species (as seen on the Dark Rose cathedral worlds) it was legitimate for their successors to do the same.

This diplomatic opening bought an enthusiastic response from the FRO, who have become perhaps the Order’s staunchest ally, and the main source of converts for the Dark Rose religion.

Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere

The Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere’s tale is a tragic one, and one that has given rise to much anger at the rest of the Expanse. The area that is now the NCPS was once a collection of relatively minor states, mostly with one or a few dozen planets. Then, some forty years ago, two main sequence stars suddenly went nova. A slowly spreading wave of destructive radiation spread over the area.

Aid arrived, together with plans for evacuation however, conditions were so bad, and the disasters so unexpected that normal emergency plans were completely overwhelmed. Many worlds were forced to make their own arrangements to survive, creating massive underground or deep undersea bunkers to survive the radiation, or organising massive migration programs, sometimes via mass citizen uploading.

The general chaos gave rise to a strong sense of anger against the rest of the Expanse who were seen as too slow, too unprepared and generally uncaring of the tragedy that had struck them. Several charismatic leaders arose and the disaster area quickly found its self uniting into a single entity, the Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was able to successfully (mostly) ride out the events of the disaster.

Today the Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere is a zealous direct democracy, largely filled with anger at its perceived mistreatment, and a desire to gain what it feels is it’s fair share of the wealth of human civilisation. The alliance with the Dark Rose is one of convenience more than ideology, though continuing Dark Rose assistance is winning a fair number of friends inside the NCPS.

The cause of the disaster remains a mystery.

Sumatra

Perhaps the most successful piece of diplomacy the Order of the Dark Rose have conducted is their alliance with Sumatra, one of the great states of the middle Expanse. For most of its history Sumatra has been a status quo power, with a traditionalist representative democratic system based on proportional representation, and a normal post scarcity information based economy.

Two issues allowed the Dark Rose’s emissaries to win purchase on Sumatra’s political system. One was a long frustrated, almost suppressed sense of manifest destiny which Sumatra had never really been able to fulfil, a second was a smouldering dispute with the White Flame over certain scientific research, which the Sumatrans were conducting. Specifically, the Sumatran’s had long been interested in the technique of creating artificial, composite personalities for specialised tasks, and bodies to match.

Worries about the implications of effective slavery via personality weighting, the White Flame had applied considerable diplomatic pressure to get this research stopped. For a time this was effective but it also gave the Dark Roses a crack to leaver at, months of intense, secret negotiations, together with extensive use of memetics and propaganda eventually bout a treaty of alliance between the Order of the Dark Rose and Sumatra, and a restart of the Sumatran’s research.

The research has since produced a breath through, and Sumatran armies are now seeing the work up of legions of bioroid soldiers each with a near fanatical and highly skilled artificial personality running it. Some level of public controversy remains over this practice in Sumatra, and current plans are to release the bioroids from their indenture after a decade or so of service. It can be expected however that most of them will stay in the job they were designed for.

Sumatra’s strategic position and growing arms is the cornerstone of Dark Rose strategy in the middle Expanse, and it has a heavy presence by various intelligence agencies and freelance spies, journalists and information collectors.

The Church of the Divine Logos

Stemming from ancient followers of various monotheist religion movements in the initial colonial expedition, the Church found a small but loyal following among the women of the Expanse who sought a higher purpose in life. Early beliefs of the Church focuses on the memetic imprint of the Creator-spirit upon the universe as a whole, believing that the Creator had placed all the truth and wisdom as information within universe. This is known as the Logos, from the ancient Greek for "Word", and it is thought to have inspired the many prophets throughout the history of womankind. There was and is considerable debate over the importance and wisdom of various prophets, with the Magdalene faction being most prominent. The main personal teaching is of following one's Way, a type of calling in life that also includes rules of behavior.

The Logosians, as many call them, were initially without political power. While they maintained sanctuaries across known space, they were a non-governmental organization that engaged in charity, scientific research, and maintaining history along with spreading the word. Fairly early on, they came into conflict with the White Flame, who criticized their devotion to the words of ancient men, especially those who had been interpreted as misogynistic. (This subject generally creates continual arguments) The Logosian also do not regard the female form as highly as the White Flame, preferring to adorn themselves either modestly or as a living hymn of praise to the Creator and His Angels. (Note: Traditional Logosian usage assigns the male gender or personal neuter gender to supernatural beings, similar to their practice with AIs)

After an intense spiritual experience on a Dark Rose cathedral world, Prophetess Lydia III began seeking closer relations with the Dark Rose and investigating the spiritual nature of the Precursors. The result was the Angelic Revelations, which describes the role of the Precursors as being Angels, who were forced to leave the universe they loved after many betrayed the Creator's purpose. This spurred considerable interest in the Precursors, and a permanent alignment with the Dark Rose. In return for their support, they received the Eldilan system where the revelation took place and several other sites across space.

Currently, the Logosians are dominated by significant numbers of laywomen throughout the galaxy, who live much as their neighbours do. The Sisterhoods have much stricter vows, and carry out the Way throughout the Expanse. Prominent sisterhoods include the Apostles of the Logos - the leaders and teachers of the Way, the Keepers of the Angelic Shrines - a large order that maintains abbeys and rituals sites, the Seekers of Lost Truth - itinerant archaeologists who seek out lost relics, the Crusaders of St. Deborah - military defense forces, and the Bearers of the Final Sanction - roaming hunters of the truly wicked.

Order of the Dark Rose

Politically the Dark Rose is nominally a representative democracy. However, a number of factors have led to accusations by critics that this is merely a façade. First of all, an extremely high rate of religion among voters, and the universality of Dark Rose religion in public life make it all but impossible for a non-religious or non-Dark Rose candidate to successfully stand. This is added to by a explicitly religious judiciary and a the fact that the Church owns a large amount of media and commercial concerns.

Perhaps more sinister is the monopolisation of high level social augmentation by the current elite. This includes augmentations similar to those used by White Flame Liaisons or professional negotiators which most Dark Rose politicians from the two main parties gain as a matter of choice, but less connected outsiders have great difficulty in gaining.

Finally, there are accusations that the elite employ the techniques of memetic warfare on their own people. This charge is hotly denied by the Order, and indeed it has been suggested that it is memetic warfare it’s self, created by the White Flame to discredit their foes.

Whatever the truth of these rumours it seems unlikely that the Order will elect a less hard line government will be established any time in the foreseeable future, making them something the Expanse has to live with.

Neutrals

Not all powers are involved in the cold war, indeed a substantial minority of non-aligned powers still exists, attempting to keep out of the conflict or perhaps profit from both sides.

Project DTF

Project DTF (Data Transmission Foundation) begun life as an attempt by several powers to create a rival to the White Flame in areas of colonial creation and disaster relief. While it quickly became obvious that the Project had nothing like the funding to compete with the massive and well established White Flame, the Project found it’s niche in providing fast reliable communications between Expanse powers and in providing a home and meeting point for the various tribes of space nomads who still wander the Expanse.

These space nomads in many ways co-opted the Project to provide themselves a unified state framework and for protection against larger entities. The attempt was largely successful. Today, Project Data Transmission Foundation has grown into populous nation of its own, controlling numerous small way stations, network nodes, and nomadic habitation fleets.

The Project also mines gas giants and provides a fast courier service. They are currently neutral in the issue of the Dark Rose and White Flame, preferring to trade with both sides.

Saphtar

Another of the great trading states of the middle Expanse, Saphtar are an extremely high biotech society, who commonly build everything from buildings to computers to starships with biotech components. Even the White Flame and Dark Rose struggle to keep up with the Saphtari in the area of biotech research.

Politically, the Saphtari are a factious lot, preferring their freedom and to manage politics on the local level rather than be managed by distant capitals and politicians. The local government is comparatively weak, providing only the armed forces and truly macroscopic infrastructure, with social services and infrastructure being the provinces of more local politics.

Saphtari business practices are notoriously cut throat, and they’re quite willing to supply information, even militarily relevant information to both sides of the Cold War. Another export that may become relevant is mercenaries, who operate around Saphtar in large numbers.

Saphtar has few laws, and while (like most of the Expanse) it functions on a rule of consent basis (IE, anything that all involved parties consent too is legal) it weights the consent differently than mostly. In many areas (with a few exceptions like killing), an explicate lack of consent is required. This is something that should be born in mind by passing tourists, especially those of a nervous disposition.

Celestials

Of all the civilisations of the Expanse, the Celestials regard themselves as the most perfect. They enjoy little government, little or no scarcity, and self actualisation as something of a state cult. Celestial life is one after another round of assessment, exercises, training and augmentation designed to make each and every citizen all she can be.

The Celestials government, what little of it exists is primarily concerned with moving citizens between jobs and national defence. Benefits are provided but they’re primarily to help people back into employment rather than to maintain them. It is a wide spread belief of most Celestials that other Expanse powers are simply lazy.

The Celestials are also the most inward looking and isolationist, content to occupy their sphere of influence undisturbed, the sky guarded by various robotic and volunteer crewed warships, and plans for mass mobilisation unused but carefully prepared in the planning computers of their small general staff.

The Thousand Queendoms

Monarchy is one of the oldest forms of human organisation, and many would say, one of the most outmoded, Most Expanse states on both sides of the present cold war are one kind or another of Democracy. The presence of monarchic systems within the Expanse would seem anachronistic in the Expanse, and indeed, many regard it as so. However, the Thousand persist.

The success of the Thousand is based on two pillars. First is the strict constitutionalism and respect the views of the peoples assembles, one way or another, and second wide spread fears, going back to the founding of the Thousand, that memetic warfare might lead to widespread subversion and suffering.

It can be accurately said in fact that the threat of killer memes were the entire reason for the Thousand’s creation. It was found that one of the simplest, longest term ways of combating memes was friendship and personal loyalty. Thus, those constituencies who most worried about memetic attack set about to create a state based upon those personal loyalties. Each citizen is loyal to their local ruler and in turn, careful social engineering means that each ruler is loyal to their subjects.

The bounds of the Thousand have been somewhat difficult to maintain over the century, but due to the interests of the ruling aristocracy to maintain their rule, as well as vigilant politicking by the ordinary folk to maintain the constitution and covenants that proscribe the limits of royal action the Thousand ha survived and even prospered.

Generally regarded as extremely exotic by the rest of the Expanse, he Thousand is a popular location for adventure stories and the like.

Melentenna

One hundred years before the clash between the Dark Rose and the White Flame the Melentenna were seem by the White Flame and their allies as perhaps the biggest threat to the security of the Expanse's international system. Based around a complex web of internally democratic bureaucracies and meritocratic examinations, the Melentenna was a largely insular power who proved highly resistant to White Flame ideology and technical assistance, preferring to chart their own path and willing to disobey the established norms of the international system in order to facilitate it's autarchy.

The Melentenna colonised a substantial region of space on one edge of the expanse and implemented their own political order there, this included a strict political order which banned religion and enforced stringent standards of education and a ideological rationality on its people. This policy produced no few human rights violations and led to increasing tension with the White Flame and a mini-cold war and military build up by both sides.

The strain of continued self reliance and attempting to match the White Flame militarily eventually caused the Melentenna to crack, with wide spread dissatisfaction with the regime spreading through several outlying territories and causing them to defect. Faced with still overwhelming White Flame superiority in ships the Melentenna were forced to back down and created an far more strictly insular order around their remaining territories, outright forbidding nationals from other states to enter their borders.

With their hatred of religion they find allying with the Dark Rose ideologically impossible, and without a strong external ally it is likely the Melentennas slide towards minor power status will continue.