Ortho: Factions (small F) in the Orthorian Central Authority

Factions (small F) in the Orthorian Central Authority

It’s the nature of mortals to categorise each other, dividing themselves by culture, creed, religion, philosophy, and a thousand other attributes. It’s no surprise then, that there are numerous ideologies, strategies, and schools of thought that come under the broad category of Harmonium philosophy. Its also common knowledge that certain Provinces are favourable (or hostile) to different specific schools of thought: Shoryko for example, is renowned for favouring hardline tactics and rigid stratification.

There are no real political parties on Ortho, because officially there is only a single school of political thought and a single philosophy behind it. The School of Ethics has ruled that dividing politics along even apparently minor lines of belief inevitably creates division, polarisation, and eventually conflict, so officially everyone is in the same ‘party’ politically speaking. Inevitably however, people view the philosophy of universal harmony in different ways, and the like-minded naturally form alliances in the Council of Ortho and Octave. The views of most politicians are well known among their fellows.

Cautioners
Preferred Form of Harmony: Concentration on stability
Principle Allies: Juhlienists, Hardliners
Principle Enemies: Colonial Alliance, Federalists, Technocrats

“Slow and steady wins the race” is the motto of the Cautioners. Their constant mantra is stability, firm foundations, and careful progress: With progress comes change, and with change comes chaos and conflict. All change must be carefully managed in order to minimise the chaos of change. Cautioners use their influence to keep technological and magical progress slow but steady rate. They have strong influence in several bureaus, but are strongest at mid-level, where its members control licenses, patents, research grants, and the like. They are venomously opposed to Technocrat lobbyists, afraid that one of their innovations might have repercussions causing untold harm to Ortho.

Colonial Alliance
[Preferred Form of Harmony: Provincial Status for Colonies
Principle Allies: Liberals
Principle Enemies: Hardliners

The Colonial Alliance has a simple and very public objective: The ascension of (well behaved) colony-worlds to full Provincial status. Following on from this, they also favour decentralisation of the OCA and the establishment of ‘World Councils’ to act as the Council of Ortho for their worlds. They concentrate their efforts in the political arena, but also arrange high-profile public campaigns to garner support from the people. Intagril and Meter are the most vocal advocates of this cause.

Democrats
Preferred Form of Harmony: Democracy
Principle Allies: Federalists, Liberals
Principle Enemies: Juhlienists, Hardliners

Democrats want an OCA in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by elected agents under a free electoral system. The current system limits ‘people power’ far too much, they claim, with a rallying cry of “the strength of the pillar lays at its base!” Compulsory voting is their current call, but they also tend to be crusaders against all forms of political corruption. They often find themselves in an uneasy alliance with the Liberals, sharing some of their ideals but not their general tolerance.

Federalists
Preferred Form of Harmony: Confederacy of States
Principle Allies: Colonial Alliance
Principle Enemies: Juhlienists

Federalists favour more independence for Provinces (and occasionally for nations within those Provinces), and would like to see Ortho more like a confederacy of nation states; cooperating on philosophy, religion, and foreign policy but sovereign in their own power and destiny - a lot less unified than the “one nation, one people” philosophy usually espoused by the Harmonium. This has left them somewhat on the fringe of Orthorian politics, but this issue is much more popular among colonial politicians. Federalists run the gamut from the moderate to the extreme – relatively few of them actually want to break up the very successful system currently in place. Most simply wish to replace a portion of the OCA’s power with that of individual nations and Provinces.

The Council of Ortho is where the Federalist view finds it easiest to take hold, although most of its ‘grass roots’ support comes from various kings, presidents, and prime ministers in each Province. Meter is the spiritual home of the Federalists – but also the place where they are most carefully watched: The Harmonium is keen to prevent a philosophical repeat of the ‘Meter Incident’.

Hardliners
Preferred Form of Harmony: Heavy law enforcement and a rigid social strata
Principal Allies: Juhlienists
Principle Enemies: Liberals

Hardliners come from all walks of life, but they are unified in their belief that the Harmonium and the OCA is too lenient on its recanters, antipodes, and open enemies. The want to see harsher laws, more restrictions of the movement of population (both geographical and social), a more aggressive and interventionist military policy, and more active control over the lives of citizens. Most subscribers have seen trouble caused by the Harmonium’s attempts to ‘play nice’ and many hardliners also believe that for the good of Harmony, its champions should learn to fight more ruthlessly. Most Hardliners also want to increase the power and reach of the Harmonium.

Many hardliners are dedicated to a single issue (such as closing the Licensed Quarters, compulsory alignment checks, mandatory military service for criminals, etc), but ally with those of similar beliefs out of political necessity. Many career soldiers ascribe to the hardline view, as do many devils of the planar Harmonium and Ortho’s nobility (especially those in Shoryko). Hardline sympathy waxes and wanes with the fortunes of the Pax Harmonium. After the Schism and War of Iron it was very popular, but public support melts away in times of peace and stability.

Juhlienists
Preferred Harmony: Military dictatorship
Principal Allies: Hard-liners
Principle Enemies: Democrats, Federalists

The Juhlienists believe that things would be better if the Harmonium simply ran everything – in essence a benevolent military dictatorship. Their philosophy is similar to that of Juhlien, the ‘last true Composer’ as they call him. They want to expand Harmonium power into all walks of Orthorian life; taking control of church, provincial and world government, and even social life.

This belief tends to be most popular among mid-ranked officers (Measure 1 to 4) as these are the ranks high enough to have dealings with Ortho’s sometimes tangled bureaucracy and politics, yet not high enough in rank to force the issue in their favour. It’s not too hard to find citizens of all ranks who believe that “one honest forthright man can do more than an army of quill-pushers.” Of course, the Juhlienists also have their fair share of power mad would-be-dictators as well. A few high-profile incidents involving arrogant Juhlienists overstepping their authority has soured opinion against their agenda (as does the clear danger of dictatorship) and the very fact that they identify so strongly with Juhlien doesn’t endear them to the OCA much either.

Levellers
Preferred form of Harmony: Abolition of all social classes
Principal Allies: Liberals
Principle Enemies: Hardliners, Old Guard, New Elite

Levellers believe that division lies at the heart of the seemingly unified world of Ortho. Despite countless reforms, nobles still rule over ‘commoners’ and the poor suffer at the hands of the rich. Levellers want the OCA to abolish all social classes apart from Citizen. In their preferred form of harmony, only a person’s job gives them authority over anyone else: Nobility would be abolished and undeserved wealth garnered by birth should be distributed to the poor. Everyone would exist in the same economic state and be equal in the eyes of society and the law. Many Levellers even go so far as to say that all property should be owned by the State.

Unsurprisingly, Leveller philosophy is more popular among the Have Nots than the Haves. The poor and disenfranchised are its most ardent supporters, especially members of the huihui and people ‘kept in line’ by more oppressive Provinces, like Motmurk, Shoryko, and South Thaera. The Levellers have their champions in the courts and the higher echelons of the state too, but their faction is weak at the highest levels of government, where the traditional ‘ruling classes’ dominate. Levellers have a lot of support outside the OCA in the form of poorly paid workers (especially those in a huihui), but the militant behaviour of these supporters often does more harm than good to the Leveller’s political cause.

Liberals
Preferred Form of Harmony:Maximum Freedom for Responsible Citizens
Principal Allies: Democrats, Federalists
Principle Enemies: Hardliners

Liberals (sometimes called ‘freedomists’) believe that at the essence of harmony is freedom, and that true commitment to the Harmonium comes only through freedom to make the right choice. They believe in granting the maximum individual freedom possible to individual citizens, guaranteed by OCA law and secured by the Harmonium; an equal freedom for all. They favour the relaxation of Ortho’s more restrictive laws and in opening dialogue with its enemies to achieve a peaceful solution to conflicts. Many liberals are committed pacifists.

Unfortunately for its advocates, Orthorian liberalism is a relatively easy target for its critics, particularly because liberalism has always been connected with civil unrest on Ortho: Protests, sabotage, occasional riots, and other disharmonious behaviour. There’s also a string perception of Liberals as unrealistic, idealistic ‘do-gooders’ who don’t appreciate the realities of life. The liberals claim that this is deliberate propaganda by the Information Control Executive – and exactly the sort of thing they want to remove from Orthorian society.

New Elite
Preferred from of Harmony: Strong merchant class and bureaucracy; weak nobility
Principal Allies: Democrats
Principle Enemies: Juhlienists, Old Guard

The New Elite is an alliance of merchants and bureaucrats, almost all commoners, who have risen to power in the OCA. Persistent peace, stability, and wealth on Ortho have created a powerful ‘middle class’ of independent merchants and land owners. The new elite are heavily involved with the Cartels, and usually concentrate on economic policies it views as favourable. Many of the New Elite are also administrators who rose to power as the OCA bureaucracy developed.

The Old Guard has suffered most in the rise of the New Elite, and the two blocs are bitter enemies.

Old Guard
Preferred from of Harmony: Strong nobility; weak merchant class
Principal Allies: Juhlienists
Principle Enemies: Democrats, New Elite

The Old Guard is formed by noble families and a fair smattering of nobles under other names – (“lord protectors” and the like) who managed to hold on to power when the OCA was formed. Their aim is to preserve their power, privilege, and prestige as much as possible, and maintain the ‘social contract’ of feudalism as much as possible. Although the Old Guard has its share of uncaring and exploitative nobles, there are many members who genuinely care for the commoners under their rule and try to do what’s best for them – and more than a few who simply don’t trust the merchant classes and New Elite to do what’s right. There’s a fair amount of bitterness too; many noble families lost out during the rise of the World State and “the commoners” profited directly from it.

The Old Guard has strong ties to the Churches of Order and the Harmonium, because of age-old noble traditions of entering these professions.

Technologists
Preferred form of Harmony: Prosperity through advanced technology/Peace through superior firepower
Principal Allies: Colonial Alliance, Federalists
Principle Enemies: Cautioners, Old Guard

Technologists generally come in one of two varieties: They want to create a better world with advanced technology and/or magic, or they want to destroy the enemies of the Harmonium by those methods. Technologists are united by their drive to advance and frustrated by the ever-cautious attitude of the OCA (even those not actually Cautioners). The work tirelessly to support scholars and inventors in both the Harmonium and civilian life.

The Technologists’ main enemies are obviously the Cautioner bloc, but the Old Guard is also opposed to them because they fear that advancement will threaten their power and increase the influence of the Cartels even more. The Technologists are a small power bloc, but have recently formed a strong alliance with the Colonial Alliance and Federalists; the former because of the colonies have produced great innovations in recent years and the latter because they hope to expand their influence in individual Provinces and nations if they can’t persuade the OCA as a whole.

Theocrats
Preferred form of Harmony: Theocracy
Principal Allies: Juhlienists
Principle Enemies: Liberals

The Lords of Order already enjoy a strong position in Orthorian society, occupying one third of the ‘three pillars of state’, but the church bloc wants to make the Lords of Order even more central to the philosophy of harmony. Most of them are simply devout men and women who wish to promote their faith, but more extreme members want a genuine theocracy instead of the current political system, more aggressive crusades against the heathens, or to turn the Harmonium into true templars of the churches.

The Theocrats suffer from many internal divisions. Many devout worshippers believe that only their deity as the real exemplar of harmony, and want their faith’s tenets to be supreme other those of lesser deities. These rivalries are one of the main reasons that this faction is not more powerful.