The Autocracy

Three nations, three faiths, and three peoples inhabit the Autocratic States of Humanity. These three nations are tenuously held together by the absolute power of the Autocracy in Kreisgrad. The peninsula of the ASH proper houses these three nations.

The ASH is the central government, but through a complex history of treaties and deals, each of the three peoples maintain very different cultures and even governments, as long as they acknowledge and obey the rulings of the Autocrat in the capital of Kreisgrad.

It is a juggernaut fueled by booming industry, the most powerful state on the continent. While other countries rely on blacksmithing and irrigation, the ASH mass produces swords, armor, and canned goods. The official policy of lobotomizing magic users (Cursed) finds a practical use for magic. This process has ensured the Cursed are used for the benefit of humanity rather than as a tool to rule over the mundane masses.

However, the invincible facade presented to both its people and enemies hides a darker truth. Despite an ever-expanding population, perhaps because of it, security and knowledge are ground down by sheer attrition. Skilled people cannot be replaced by trained recruits at a rate that keeps up with demand.

Less alien threats, such as secessionists, are now emboldened, diverting away some of the strength needed to counter the unknown. Things from outside the mundane are now distressingly common. Places that did not exist the day before are proliferating. Society keeps up the facade of stability, but it remains to be seen if civilization will survive the creeping unknown.

## Northern Kingdoms

To the north, lords fight in a constantly shifting landscape. Their wars and skirmishes are not just vying for power, they are sanctioned by their god, Hemos, the sun in the sky and savior from the plague. Hemosans are obligated by their god to keep friction as their passions are meant to light up the world.

## The Kronlands

In the midlands, called Kronland by the inhabitants, massive industrial complexes are powered by lobotomized Cursed to fuel the ASH. Kronlanders follow Dural, the great machine, who freed mankind in ages past. Duralians often keep to their bustling cityscapes, providing an iron core to the Autocracy.

## Republican Orinia

Southern plains host the great collective farms of Republican Orinia. These folk master the vast distances of their home with Cursed boosting crop output by enhancing the land, harvested by tenant laborers under the plot owners. Adherents of Valan, the man who had the visions leading to their arrival and conquest of Orinia, Valanites are fewer in number but fulfill one of the most important roles in the ASH: feeding the teeming masses.

## ASH Holdings

The fortress of Dagger’s Point nestles itself in Dagger Pass, the only reliable passage between the ASH proper and the frontiers. Nine Frontier Legions are the authority for much of the coast and buffer between other States and the ASH. Sent out after the cataclysmic Deluge of Xan to check their power, the Frontier Legions rely on steady supply from the ASH to continue their constant conflicts. Frontiers are chaotic areas, filling up with the surplus populace from the main peninsula.

Kept in check by each other and the interior, supplying the Frontier Legions is more akin to paying tribute to threatening foreigners than an extension of Autocratic power. Their conquests are helped along by militias sent outward from the main interior regions. Frontier Legions prowl the vast continent, putting down insurrection and 'inducting' formerly independent peoples.

These militias are more like allies fighting alongside one another than a unified state. Militias are raised by religious or local orders, put under the direct leadership of the state or used defensively.

Other major powers outside the ASH, namely the Technocratic Commonwealth and Khuland, plot their rise beyond the Frontiers. The Legions cannot maintain their strength alone. If the ASH fails, all humanity not under the yoke of the Cursed fails with it.

## Manifest Destiny/An 'Open Hand'

*"The guerilla who waves to my soldiers during the day only to set traps for those same men at night has more value than a woodsman’s son because that guerrilla is better at hiding than the woodsman’s son is at avoiding a spike pit? Insanity. I am here to pursue and kill the enemy, not protect his dignity. Be sentimental when you can afford it."*

*-Colonel Curtis, 4th Legion to SSB Political Officer Everett Harrison. Harrison's cause of death: 'partisan activity'.*

The official line of the Autocracy's government (and by extension the churches of the three nations) states all of humanity originates from the old continent. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. The ASH's mission in dealing with other states of the world is to bring humanity under the triple hook banner.

When the forces of the interior are sent to war, the recently 'inducted' populations are treated with restraint. Treason is punishable by death but State Security political officers work to maintain compliance with the 'open hand' approach that extends to non-combatants far from the front lines or in peacetime. Draconian punishments are meted out against ASH personnel found abusing local peoples. Political officers 'coincidentally' suffer high rates of accidental deaths.

This is in stark contrast to the harsh punishments and rigor of ASH soldiery. Predictably, there is much resentment about the relatively kind treatment of conquered people. The policy is ignored whenever possible, dismissed as hopelessly idealistic meddling by a government insulated from the realities of war.

Large interior formations or Frontier Legions with more assistance from the central government have more compliance as the largest units/army groups are more easily watched by a centralized command structure. Different Frontier Legions are much less enthusiastic about the 'open hand' policy, generally ignoring it completely.

The policy is not without reason. Citizens of the ASH have never experienced anything outside the Autocracy. The concept of willingly serving a state like the Commonwealth is completely alien to the average person. This is amplified by the difficult grey area of beings like the Cursed having the ability to influence human thought by simply existing. Most of the opponents fought by the ASH have been under some manner of mental influence and there is much empathy for that state of unwilling servility given the history of the Autocracy.

The line between brainwashing and actual belief is very thin when tackling issues of loyalty outside the Autocracy. True believers and mentally influenced partisans are difficult to distinguish. After all, even those freed from the control of a Cursed can still freely decide they do not want to serve the ASH.

ASH leadership can be just as correct in their idealism about the human condition as the Frontier Legions 'callous' assumption of willing ill intent in facing down opposition. The Autocracy maintains a firm line that any not willing to serve the ASH and its mission of manifest destiny must be under some sort of glamour. Realities of occupation and conflict have a habit dispelling this notion.

Of course, a rebellious population (decided by local commanders, definitions vary) are subject to the full arsenal of the ASH.

## The Autocracy's Peril

The ASH stands at a crossroad. With all their might, equipping the masses is not an impossible task. However, constant conflict drains the willing and trained manpower. To stabilize their hemorrhaging skilled manpower, militias are pressed into greater use while organizations, most notably, State Security, the Inquisition, and the Society of Inquisitive Minds reach out to the people. Vanguards, mercenaries, and independent academics are the newest untapped resources. The days of maintaining large bodies of professionals and specialists have fallen by the wayside, drowned in a sea of needs of a bloated populace.

The State Security Bureau, a branch of the Autocracy, races to find and contain Cursed outbreaks but cannot keep up with their quarry as their skilled agents fall victim to attrition. More and more citizens know someone who has fallen to the Cursed or consumed by an aberrant event; drowning in the city streets, combusting in the office, or inexplicably separating into pieces. Not all the outbreaks are so deadly; sometimes it is as subtle as cobblestones gently rippling in the market square, unnoticed by the masses.

Administration has tried to keep up with demand with a bureaucracy that has dedicated itself to accumulation of responsibility. The bureaucracy expands ever outward to become closer to a force of nature for the citizens of the ASH. The scale and rigor of management has created such a labyrinthine system that it cannot change. Confusing responsibilities and a hierarchy that no one understands make the processes nearly inconceivable to the human mind. All anyone knows for certain is inputting orders does create a result.

The populace mostly goes about their business as usual. While stories of fearful instances are becoming more common, the bars are open and schools are still full of children. Mixed feelings about the constant mobilization, scale of domestic warfare, or secessionists plague the cities but entertainment is still abundant. Parts of cities might sometimes be under martial law, roads or small villages could be more dangerous but store shelves still have food and goods for the most part.

From the perspective of a citizen, it isn't the end of the world. The kind of internal divisions common in the current age are unprecedented. The government understands there are difficulties but has no point of reference in their history. All the plans and contingencies over the years never could have predicted the tribulations of the times.

It remains to be seen whether the ASH can withstand the thousand perils pulling at the now loose edges of civilization. The Autocracy may yet unravel.