Dark Senate

Laws are what hold a good society together. But the Netherworld is FAR from a good society of any kind, and as such it's laws are few and far between.However breaking those laws is an offence punishable by death! The judicators of the Netherworld are known as the Dark Assembly. The Dark Senate that makes up this horrible faction of the Netherworld's worst and most destructive minds, Pretty much like the United States Congress. This is what one must go through to be granted more power in the Netherworld.

(Note: In some campaigns, the Dark Senate may be ruled to be far less important, however if they still wish to use the Senate, here are rules for doing so taken almost straight from the games themselves. Edited from [1])

# **Structure of the Senate**

The Dark Assembly contains three levels of the Senate, which each contain two "Political Parties", an inevitable rivalry between them. Each Party consists of 10-25 Senators of varying position and influence. There are also additional Senators dubbed "Legendary Senators". They don't associate themselves with the other parties or even with each other. They may appear randomly at any proposal and may even be rude to the other Senators.

**\* Upper Senate - Baciel Party, Wood Golem Party**

* Mid Senate - White Dragon Party, Mothman Party
* Lower Senate - Petit Orc Party, Ghost Party

**Senator Disposition**

Once you enter a proposal, You are escorted into the Dark assembly room. There are eleven different attitudes about you a Senator can have. Below, each one is assigned an affection point range and the chance that the Senator will vote "Aye". To raise this disposition, you can attempt to persuede the senators, as well as bribe them with items from your inventory. Each senator has different tastes, and some can become angry if you give someone else something that they really want.

**Mana**

Mana is the basic energy required to use the Dark Assembly.

When you propose a bill, you use up a specific amount of Mana. If you decide to cancel the bill by returning to HQ, the Mana will still be gone, so choose your proposals carefully. The exact Mana cost for any particular bill is displayed on the proposal list to the right of the bill's name, or will be told to you by the dark secretary.

**During The Vote**

Once you have bribed all the Senators and whatnot, you've got to let them vote on the bill. You can speak to the dark secretary to either start the vote, or you can run away like a wuss. Returning to HQ cancels the vote and lets the Senators go on with their "lives". Beginning the vote allows all the Senators to cast their votes (or continue sleeping). Each one will either vote "Aye", "Nay" or "Zzz" (doesn't count). The amount each Senator contributes to this vote is given by his/her "Influence" or "Voice". The Higher the Senate, the higher the voice. Because of this, four Wood Golem Party Senators can override seven White Dragon Party Senators.

**\* Upper Senate - Baciel Party, Wood Golem Party : 200 Pts**

* Mid Senate - White Dragon Party, Mothman Party : 100 Pts
* Lower Senate - Petit Orc Party, Ghost Party : 50 Pts

**After The Vote**

If the bill gets passed, great, good for you. If not, you've got two options: "Give up" or "Persuade by Force". If you're mentally insane or extremely overpowered and choose to Persuade by Force, you will begin a battle with the Dark Assembly. "Aye" Senators will be neutral and not do anything while "Nay" Senators will be hostile. The bill cannot be passed until all hostile Senators are defeated. Senators that were asleep will now remain that way for several rounds. Senators that were drunk will have the same penalties that being drunk usually causes. It will last the remainder of the battle. Defeating them will result in them liking you less on later proposals.... if they survive...

When you select a character to address the Assembly, all the Senators that will attend each proposal and their attitudes are immediately set.  Each senator starts from -5 to +5 in their feelings towards you, however some are different, and past relationships with them will cause different reactions. Certain Senators like to appear more on certain bills.

**Boosting Approval**

There are several ways to boost approval in the Dark Assembly, most prominent among them being Bribing, Felonies and the use of Cell Phones.

**Bribing**

When entering the assembly room, you can bring as many items as you can carry with you. You can take your items up to the senators and show them off, and they will say whether or not they see something they like, which may or may not change how they feel about you.  When you bribe a Senator, his/her approval will usually permanently either raise or drop, depending on how much he liked the item.

Each bribe not only changes that Senator's attitude toward you, but temporarily changes the entire Party's disposition as well. The rest of the Party won't be affected to as great an extent as the Senator bribed, but it is noteworthy. Whatever the effect on the bribed Party, the opposite happens to its rival Party, although it also won't be affected to as great an extent as the Party of the Senator you directly you bribed. Basically, it is as follows.

**Bribed Senator Reaction > Bribed Party Reaction > Rival Party Reaction**

The level of the Senator you bribe is what determines how much the rest of the Assembly is affected. Bribing a high-level Senator with a "Must Have!" item causes a greater effect than bribing a low-level Senator with a "Must Have!" item.

**Note:** This effect is temporary. Only the Senator directly bribed will retain any change in attitude for later bills. All other Senators will revert back to the attitude they had before the original Senator was bribed.

White Dragons are the self-imposed, incorruptible, Holy Paladins of the Netherworld so they won't accept bribes. If you even try to bribe one, a dialog box will appear and tell you the Senator is too angry to accept bribes. When this happens, the approval of the Senator decreases.

That's not all there is to bribing. There are several special items that have different effects in the Dark assembly. Sometimes more than one is required to have the intended effect. All of these items can be bought or found in some places, They are listed in the Assembly items of the Equipment page.

Drunk Senators do not always react the right way according to the item you give them and they seem to lean a little more toward "Nay". Senators that are asleep are unable to accept bribes and will not vote.

Senators never like Bombs getting thrown at them (who would?), so that will always result in a negative effect. Bombs will also damage the Senator and any surrounding Senators, but the damage is minimal, so killing them doesn't seem viable if that's what you were thinking.

Gold Bars and Angel Cakes can be a big help with bribing, but they aren't needed most of the time. Unfortunately, they're quite rare.

**Felonies**

Other than bribing and cell phones, the only reliable way to increase approval is through Felonies. For every two Felonies on the character proposing the bill, all Senators' attitudes will temporarily increase by 1 point.

**Cell Phones**

Demons are lazy and lack work ethic, so when they put something together, it usually doesn't last. Most demonic cell phones only last for one call (if that) Before they fall apart, So one call can be made on each, and most of the time you can only dial a pre registered number. There is are phones for each Party and they are all to be used outside of battle. When you use one, you'll have a conversation with a specific Party's Headquarters. Then, for the next bill only, all members of that Party will have +20 affection points.

When you use one, it is gone forever, but you can always get another, or even have multiple at the same time. If you use more than one for the same Party before a single bill, it will not benefit you any more than if you simply used one of that type. You may call more than one Party's Headquarters before a single bill and everyone you called will have boosted approval.

**Attend A Dark Assembly**

Characters have the option of becoming Senators themselves. To do this, you must pass the "I want to become a senator" bill. you will now have an option to Attend Dark Assembly meetings. You can also opt to join one of the other factions if they allow it. Usually some horrible task is required to join them, but it is possible.

You can also bribe the other Senators just like on other proposals. And of course you can accept bribes as well. Just as you might not give a Senator your awesome items, the requester can refuse to give you a particular item. If this happens, you'll have to persuade them to give the item to you. This isn't necessarily a good idea, though, because every bribe you attempt to take subtracts 10 points from your Influence for this bill's vote. Your Influence starts at 30 points and can go up by 30 per "Stronger Voice" proposal for a maximum of 250 points.

Once you're done with all that stuff, you can start the vote with "Aye" or "Nay" or you can run away and the vote will go on without you. If the bill is passed, then so be it. If it is not passed, they can "Give up" or "Persuade by Force". Of course this is the same as the other way around except you can either attack the requester, Help them, or sit the fight out.

**Item Assembly**

The Item Assembly is a special sector of the Dark Assembly found in Item World that is designed to modify the item in which you currently reside. You can access it by talking to the Dark Secretary in Innocent Town, whom is sometimes available. The secretary does not always appear and has been known to be quite evasive at times, so don't fret if you have trouble locating it.

Speaking with the Secretary is basically the same as speaking with the other Dark Secretaries, but you now have different proposals available. They all pertain to the item in which you are located, so some proposals will not appear if you are in the wrong type of item.

You can only propose one bill each time you enter Innocent Town.

One thing you will notice when you try to pass an Item Bill is that there are Geo Symbols and Geo Panels on the map. If you happen to get into a fight with the Senators, the Geo Effects may help or hinder you, so take this into account if you ever Persuade by Force.

# **BILLS**

The Bills that can be passed by the senate are located here.

Bills