Post by Wolfe on Apr 14, 2021 20:33:32 GMT -5
[attr=class,cs-top admin]
[attr=class,cs-body admin]
[attr=class,char-name]Of Councils and Revolutionaries
[attr=class,cs-main]
The Council was created in the aftermath of the Great War to bring peace and order to Mistral in place of an autocrat, to transition from monarchism to a republic where all citizens got a say in who would represent their interests. For over a quarter of a century, Mistral has endured and survived both tragedy and the ever present threat of the Grimm with a strong central state that has allowed Mistral to endure. The Council is the institution that allows all other institutions to function. Haven Academy, even in the aftermath of The Fall, still churns out quality graduates who are ready in all aspects to defend the Kingdom from threats both internal and external. The Mistral Police Department is one of the best equipped and best trained law enforcement agencies in the world.
Every road that you drive on, hospital you visit, school you go to, glass of water you drink, internet page you browse, dust you use to power your vehicle is only available to you because the Council has made it available. Decades of business deals, diplomatic agreements with other countries, and the accumulated expertise from a variety of masters in all fields have made Mistral into the fully functioning civilization it is today.
The Huntsmen Academies were brought after the end of the Great War to ensure that such a conflict never happened again, with huge armies facing off and eradicating large portions of the world’s population in ultimately pointless conflicts. Instead, volunteers with powerful semblances took the responsibility for the protection of the Kingdom. Armed with the best training and equipment possible, they lifted the burden and allowed the average citizen to live free of the fear of Grimm and external threats, free to simply live their lives as they saw fit.
The status quo of the Kingdom of Mistral is built upon a mountain of corpses. The fall of the monarchy that many thought would herald a new era of democracy has instead made way for a decadent and apathetic oligarchy to control every aspect of daily life in one of the four great megacities of Remnant. Dissident voices are silenced by any means necessary by way of systematic oppression, and the outlying cities get nothing. No right to vote, no right to participate at all politically, and no right to protection from the Council or its Huntsmen.
The uniquely Mistralian spoils system at all levels of government has rendered the government permanently corrupt and unable to do its basic duties due to nearly all governmental civil service jobs being taken by the friends, relatives, or donors of each individual Councilman. Political appointees at all levels are bought and sold by the different major factions of the city on a daily basis, and lobbyists for various industries ensure that their interests are upheld through generous donations under the table that politicians are able to then pocket for their own benefit.
The concept of a military was for citizen soldiers to volunteer to protect their homes, giving them the training and equipment to go along with their motivation. This was discarded for the institution of the Huntsmen Academies, which hoisted all the responsibility for national defense on the shoulders of teenagers straight out of high school with no obligation whatsoever to provide for the common good after graduation. The stated goal of the King of the Vale, who imposed these terms on Mistral after we lost the Great War, was so that Huntsmen were not beholden to any government and could not be corrupted.
This was the most stupid possible way of going about it. It ensures that the capital is defended only by a small group of super powered mercenaries who at any time could just leave, and that any town that couldn’t afford a Huntsmen on retainer was left high and dry without the equipment or the resources to outfit their town militia in a manner that could actually defend against a Grimm infestation. After the Fall, the number of available Huntsmen dropped to such a low number that prices have astronomically raised and the majority of the Kingdom is rendered defenseless and left to die when they are attacked by Grimm or third party. Cities like Rochdale and Kerch were never given adequate means to protect themselves, and were lost to the Grimm due to the lack of Huntsmen available to protect them and the lack of support in materials, training, and equipment for its militias to defend the city in an adequate fashion.
The Council will defend the status quo to the last, because with them providing all of Haven’s resources they are the ones who dictate their missions and limited resources in the present day. They get to decide who is worthy of protection, and who gets left to die in the wilderness.
The Kozaks rebuilt the Ground District, turning it from squalid slums into a liveable area of the city. They gave hope to its residents for the first time in a generation, and their moves were met with a well funded and crafted assassination attempt on the Captain. Soon after it had failed and they continued operations unfazed and unafraid, they were forced out of the city by the combined might of the ruling parties of the Council, Haven Academy, and the Mistral Police Department to prevent them from being a threat to their power with their ideas of self-sufficiency and organizing the lower classes. Given the opportunity to destroy the lives of millions in urban warfare or to go to exile and their presumed death… they ultimately chose to leave the city rather than have it burn down in the inevitable fighting.
Since then, the Kozaks have rallied together once disparate groups that the Council has issued death warrants for and have succeeded in making a loose alliance of those that society has rejected for one reason or another. Over a dozen small groups have joined hands in a shared quest to change the system, and even though that alliance is tenuous it has happened and cooperation has occurred to strengthen all individual members of the Revolutionary League.
For all of the differences between those groups, one thing each and every one of them believe in is the capacity of people to work together in order to achieve great things. Going against the Council with much less resources, equipment, manpower, and semblance users at a glance looks like a futile effort… but even the most timid will fight to the death when all avenues of escape or compromise are blocked off and the only way forward is through the enemy who cut off all other options.
The average person is stronger and more capable than the Council gives them credit for, and should be allowed to choose their own destiny. The current system has weakened Mistral to the point where it cannot defend itself from enemies internal and external, and yet still lashes out at anyone with the full might of the Council who dares to challenge that status quo. Without radical change, even the capital will fall and Mistral as a nation will simply cease to exist as it collapses upon itself in a decadent heap once the oligarchy realizes all the lien in the world won’t save them from the Grimm.
Bloodshed in pursuit of this goal, like in any attempt to change the world as it is, is inevitable. There will be many people who cling to the corrupt institutions that have abused and profited off of them their entire lives with blind loyalty even to their dying breath. For Mistral to move forward, the Council and the Huntsman Academy must be dismantled as institutions so they can be wholly and completely replaced by something that can actually serve the needs of Mistral and her people. The war will end someday, and when it does it is the responsibility of the victor to ensure those that died did not do so in vain.
All attempts to reason with this terrorist group have ended with failure. The first attempt was before the group even formed, with a delegate sent by the Council to try and forge peace with the Kozaks and integrate them within the great Mistralian republic before things could turn to violence. In response, the leader of the Kozaks viciously attacked the messenger and as a result an arm and a leg both had to be amputated to save his life. The message that was sent back simply stated that they did not believe in elections when they could just seize power for themselves through force of arms. Their reaction when called to answer for this crime was to choose violence and kill many good policemen and even multiple huntsman trainees simply trying to do their jobs on the way out of the city.
The Revolutionary League, at their core, are all obsessed with military power, this force of arms. Their leaders all garb themselves in military style uniforms, and demand that their followers address them as military ranks. The so called leader of the revolutionaries styles herself as their Captain, and has the most militarized faction of them all. They pine for a bygone era that Remnant has left behind, where ordinary citizens were forced to take up arms to defend their homes on a regular basis without the aid of Huntsmen or the central government.
Unlike the modern structure of a republic that Mistral enjoys wherein every citizen gets to both politically campaign and cast their ballot in a democratic fashion to elect their representatives, each of the groups that comprise the Revolutionary League use their obsession with power to elevate dictators into permanent seats of power that are maintained through an ever growing mountain of dissident corpses.
The formula for success inherent in these groups is the Kerch Kozaks, who have elevated their militaristic dictator to the level of a deity. Whether through coercion or fear, the Kozaks have ascended past a mere dictatorship and become what amounts to a death cult where members are willing to both kill and die for their unelected Captain rather than return to their community in disgrace and suffer the consequences of failing to do their duty.
The Kerch Kozaks and Szarka Bandit Coalition consist of the majority of the Revolutionary League, but dozens of other groups both known and unknown have joined hands to the cause of traitors. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goal to dismantle and destroy the Mistralian way of life, and have on multiple occasions stooped to the level of mass murder and Grimm usage in pursuit of their goals.
[attr=class,main-title-left admin]Example Pro-Council Argument
The Council was created in the aftermath of the Great War to bring peace and order to Mistral in place of an autocrat, to transition from monarchism to a republic where all citizens got a say in who would represent their interests. For over a quarter of a century, Mistral has endured and survived both tragedy and the ever present threat of the Grimm with a strong central state that has allowed Mistral to endure. The Council is the institution that allows all other institutions to function. Haven Academy, even in the aftermath of The Fall, still churns out quality graduates who are ready in all aspects to defend the Kingdom from threats both internal and external. The Mistral Police Department is one of the best equipped and best trained law enforcement agencies in the world.
Every road that you drive on, hospital you visit, school you go to, glass of water you drink, internet page you browse, dust you use to power your vehicle is only available to you because the Council has made it available. Decades of business deals, diplomatic agreements with other countries, and the accumulated expertise from a variety of masters in all fields have made Mistral into the fully functioning civilization it is today.
The Huntsmen Academies were brought after the end of the Great War to ensure that such a conflict never happened again, with huge armies facing off and eradicating large portions of the world’s population in ultimately pointless conflicts. Instead, volunteers with powerful semblances took the responsibility for the protection of the Kingdom. Armed with the best training and equipment possible, they lifted the burden and allowed the average citizen to live free of the fear of Grimm and external threats, free to simply live their lives as they saw fit.
[attr=class,main-title-right admin]Example Anti-Council Argument
The status quo of the Kingdom of Mistral is built upon a mountain of corpses. The fall of the monarchy that many thought would herald a new era of democracy has instead made way for a decadent and apathetic oligarchy to control every aspect of daily life in one of the four great megacities of Remnant. Dissident voices are silenced by any means necessary by way of systematic oppression, and the outlying cities get nothing. No right to vote, no right to participate at all politically, and no right to protection from the Council or its Huntsmen.
The uniquely Mistralian spoils system at all levels of government has rendered the government permanently corrupt and unable to do its basic duties due to nearly all governmental civil service jobs being taken by the friends, relatives, or donors of each individual Councilman. Political appointees at all levels are bought and sold by the different major factions of the city on a daily basis, and lobbyists for various industries ensure that their interests are upheld through generous donations under the table that politicians are able to then pocket for their own benefit.
The concept of a military was for citizen soldiers to volunteer to protect their homes, giving them the training and equipment to go along with their motivation. This was discarded for the institution of the Huntsmen Academies, which hoisted all the responsibility for national defense on the shoulders of teenagers straight out of high school with no obligation whatsoever to provide for the common good after graduation. The stated goal of the King of the Vale, who imposed these terms on Mistral after we lost the Great War, was so that Huntsmen were not beholden to any government and could not be corrupted.
This was the most stupid possible way of going about it. It ensures that the capital is defended only by a small group of super powered mercenaries who at any time could just leave, and that any town that couldn’t afford a Huntsmen on retainer was left high and dry without the equipment or the resources to outfit their town militia in a manner that could actually defend against a Grimm infestation. After the Fall, the number of available Huntsmen dropped to such a low number that prices have astronomically raised and the majority of the Kingdom is rendered defenseless and left to die when they are attacked by Grimm or third party. Cities like Rochdale and Kerch were never given adequate means to protect themselves, and were lost to the Grimm due to the lack of Huntsmen available to protect them and the lack of support in materials, training, and equipment for its militias to defend the city in an adequate fashion.
The Council will defend the status quo to the last, because with them providing all of Haven’s resources they are the ones who dictate their missions and limited resources in the present day. They get to decide who is worthy of protection, and who gets left to die in the wilderness.
[attr=class,main-title-left admin]Example Pro-Revolutionary League Argument
The Kozaks rebuilt the Ground District, turning it from squalid slums into a liveable area of the city. They gave hope to its residents for the first time in a generation, and their moves were met with a well funded and crafted assassination attempt on the Captain. Soon after it had failed and they continued operations unfazed and unafraid, they were forced out of the city by the combined might of the ruling parties of the Council, Haven Academy, and the Mistral Police Department to prevent them from being a threat to their power with their ideas of self-sufficiency and organizing the lower classes. Given the opportunity to destroy the lives of millions in urban warfare or to go to exile and their presumed death… they ultimately chose to leave the city rather than have it burn down in the inevitable fighting.
Since then, the Kozaks have rallied together once disparate groups that the Council has issued death warrants for and have succeeded in making a loose alliance of those that society has rejected for one reason or another. Over a dozen small groups have joined hands in a shared quest to change the system, and even though that alliance is tenuous it has happened and cooperation has occurred to strengthen all individual members of the Revolutionary League.
For all of the differences between those groups, one thing each and every one of them believe in is the capacity of people to work together in order to achieve great things. Going against the Council with much less resources, equipment, manpower, and semblance users at a glance looks like a futile effort… but even the most timid will fight to the death when all avenues of escape or compromise are blocked off and the only way forward is through the enemy who cut off all other options.
The average person is stronger and more capable than the Council gives them credit for, and should be allowed to choose their own destiny. The current system has weakened Mistral to the point where it cannot defend itself from enemies internal and external, and yet still lashes out at anyone with the full might of the Council who dares to challenge that status quo. Without radical change, even the capital will fall and Mistral as a nation will simply cease to exist as it collapses upon itself in a decadent heap once the oligarchy realizes all the lien in the world won’t save them from the Grimm.
Bloodshed in pursuit of this goal, like in any attempt to change the world as it is, is inevitable. There will be many people who cling to the corrupt institutions that have abused and profited off of them their entire lives with blind loyalty even to their dying breath. For Mistral to move forward, the Council and the Huntsman Academy must be dismantled as institutions so they can be wholly and completely replaced by something that can actually serve the needs of Mistral and her people. The war will end someday, and when it does it is the responsibility of the victor to ensure those that died did not do so in vain.
[attr=class,main-title-right admin]Example Anti-Revolutionary League Argument
All attempts to reason with this terrorist group have ended with failure. The first attempt was before the group even formed, with a delegate sent by the Council to try and forge peace with the Kozaks and integrate them within the great Mistralian republic before things could turn to violence. In response, the leader of the Kozaks viciously attacked the messenger and as a result an arm and a leg both had to be amputated to save his life. The message that was sent back simply stated that they did not believe in elections when they could just seize power for themselves through force of arms. Their reaction when called to answer for this crime was to choose violence and kill many good policemen and even multiple huntsman trainees simply trying to do their jobs on the way out of the city.
The Revolutionary League, at their core, are all obsessed with military power, this force of arms. Their leaders all garb themselves in military style uniforms, and demand that their followers address them as military ranks. The so called leader of the revolutionaries styles herself as their Captain, and has the most militarized faction of them all. They pine for a bygone era that Remnant has left behind, where ordinary citizens were forced to take up arms to defend their homes on a regular basis without the aid of Huntsmen or the central government.
Unlike the modern structure of a republic that Mistral enjoys wherein every citizen gets to both politically campaign and cast their ballot in a democratic fashion to elect their representatives, each of the groups that comprise the Revolutionary League use their obsession with power to elevate dictators into permanent seats of power that are maintained through an ever growing mountain of dissident corpses.
The formula for success inherent in these groups is the Kerch Kozaks, who have elevated their militaristic dictator to the level of a deity. Whether through coercion or fear, the Kozaks have ascended past a mere dictatorship and become what amounts to a death cult where members are willing to both kill and die for their unelected Captain rather than return to their community in disgrace and suffer the consequences of failing to do their duty.
The Kerch Kozaks and Szarka Bandit Coalition consist of the majority of the Revolutionary League, but dozens of other groups both known and unknown have joined hands to the cause of traitors. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goal to dismantle and destroy the Mistralian way of life, and have on multiple occasions stooped to the level of mass murder and Grimm usage in pursuit of their goals.
[attr=class,cs-bottom admin]