Old Guard

In Sordland, the term ‘The Old Guard’ is referred to describe a group of influential individuals in the government.

While some call it an urban myth and dismiss it, others are claiming the existence of a wide deep state that controls the state apparatus. Rumours mention that certain key organisations harbour the leaders of the faction. It is commonly agreed that they were installed during the Soll era as a security mechanism.

There is still not a single public admission from the suspected figures.

## Role

Being the most powerful faction in the Sordish government, the Old Guard are the loyalists to Tarquin Soll and his ideology of Sollism, and are the main obstacle standing in the way of reform for Sordland. In fact, much to the contrary, they wish to make their own comprehensive reforms -- largely considered a step backward by liberal factions in the government. They clash with the Reformists, and still retain a great deal of power throughout the state's institutions, most notably in the Supreme Court, where five Supreme Court judges identify themselves as being part of the Old Guard.

Should the player attempt to reform the constitution in any way, the Old Guard will do their best to stop you from succeeding. To successfully reform the constitution, the player must convince the Supreme Court's centrists and the USP's conservatives. In the Dictator path, the player must also convince the centrists, but also to bribe Heron Garaci and convince him to betray the Old Guard with another member of the Supreme Court, and find the sixth vote from someone else. Alternatively, the player can also cooperate with the Old Guard in the Autocrat path, snuffing out all reformist ideals and returning Sordland to an era of Sollism and authoritarianism.

## Known Members

* Tarquin Soll
* Orso Hawker
* Heron Garaci
* Lileas Graf
* Iosef Lancea
* Valken Kruger
* Gloria Tory

## How to Destroy the Old Guard

Should you go down the Reformist or the Dictator path, it will become increasingly obvious that the Deep State conspiracy of the Old Guard is real. While at least seven individuals are classified as part of the Old Guard, there are only three that have genuine intentions of destroying you in order to restore Sollism - Tarquin Soll, Orso Hawker and Lileas Graf.

For the others, neither Iosef Lancea or Valken Kruger will overthrow you unless Sordland was thrown into chaos, you selling the country out by ceding land or going out of your way to disrespect the military. Heron Garaci might be a loyalist, but he is extremely corrupt, and will gladly work with you if you bribe him. He even wants to betray Hawker by becoming Chief Justice himself, despite of his façade of loyalty at the start of the game. Meanwhile, Gloria Tory, while being a hardline conservative, makes genuine points about why the player should not reform aggressively; why Monica should not do the Benfi speech over Curtan Leste despite supporting women's rights herself; will support a moderately reformist constitution as long as you don't decrease the threshold or mess with the Member of Honor, and will even happily cooperate with you as Vice President. She only betrays you if you do things that she explicitly tells you to not do so (namely, privatizing healthcare or the SSC).

As a result, none of these four individuals above pose a real threat to you unless you are dumb. Here's a list on how to eliminate the Deep State conspiracy that Tarquin Soll had seeded on you.

### Lileas Graf

Lileas is your Minister of Interior, and has made it to your cabinet in order to trick you into making bad decisions. Not only that, but she directly ordered the murder of Bernard Circas in order to fool you into declaring a state of emergency, and turning you into the Old Guard's puppet. If you do not deal with her, Lileas will betray you and challenge your position as the USP's chairman, forcing you out of office as the Old Guard had intended to. In order to eliminate her, you need to listen to Nia Morgna, your Minister of Justice's advice, and form the Anti-Corruption Police. Focus it on the Old Guard, and you will uncover that the Deep State conspiracy was indeed real, at which point you can start a purge of the Old Guard to remove their influence for good and arrest Lileas for treason.

However, Lileas' plan could backfire horribly on her and the USP as a whole. A reformist or dictatorial Rayne can use this opportunity to defect from the USP, and carry his popularity and votes to a new party, and proceed to defeat the USP anyways. This not only results in Rayne getting a second term, but also result in him having far more freedom to do what he want to do for Sordland, all the while tanking the USP's popularity and leaving her effectively powerless in attempting to control Rayne.

### Orso Hawker

Hawker is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the most powerful threat to you at the start of the game. His goons will attempt to strike down on any changes to the constitution, and use the Circas assassination orchestrated by Lileas as an excuse to turn Rayne into his own puppet. In order to remove him from power, you must include a clause that removes Justices Immunity, and begin impeachment proceedings on him. After it succeeds, Lucian Galade will submit a list of individuals which you will want to become the new Chief Justice - namely, Gloria Tory, Ovid Grecer and Didier Meyer. In reality, only Grecer can actually be elected Chief Justice, as choosing Gloria will only result in her becoming a member of the Supreme Court, while Meyer will not be elected at all. Both of these will result in Heron Garaci being nominated as the new Chief Justice. Alternatively, if you had chosen the President can appoint justices as they wished on the Dictator path, you can just reshuffle the court and kick Hawker out that way. Removing Hawker is essential to dealing with the next, and the most powerful man of them all.

### Tarquin Soll

The founder of the United Sordland Party, the inventor of Sollism, and the man behind it all - Colonel Tarquin Soll. Soll will come to the Assembly in an attempt to sabotage you, though thankfully you can just ask Gloria to speed up the vote. It's very unlikely that Soll will succeed in sabotaging the vote unless you have picked the wrong options, and you were hanging over the line at 166 and 167 votes. In order to successfully trial Tarquin Soll for his crimes, you must remove Soll's Member of Honor status, and remove Justices Immunity, after which you can impeach Hawker and pick Ovid Grecer as Chief Justice, though Heron Garaci will work if you had had a deal with him. Next, start the investigations on Soll himself, and he will be found guilty if you had picked Grecer. Garaci will only work if you had bribed him, else he will be found not guilty. Hawker will always find Soll not guilty.

Should you succeed in destroying the Triumvirate, congratulations. You have ended the Old Guard Deep State conspiracy, and Sordland will never descend back into the times of Sollism. As they say: A'Morgna wes core, Vectern sis da!