ascendancy_culture
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| In practice, the more influential and powerful one becomes, the more leeway one is afforded and the more opportunities there are to accumulate wealth, power and luxuries. The most powerful live lives of grandeur and excess behind curtains closed to the population at large. While life in the Ascendancy is generally rigid and ordered, status grants more freedom. Those with useful skills, members of the military and those with connections to the Noble Houses can generally do as they see fit, as long as they stay within the bounds of their power and reach. | In practice, the more influential and powerful one becomes, the more leeway one is afforded and the more opportunities there are to accumulate wealth, power and luxuries. The most powerful live lives of grandeur and excess behind curtains closed to the population at large. While life in the Ascendancy is generally rigid and ordered, status grants more freedom. Those with useful skills, members of the military and those with connections to the Noble Houses can generally do as they see fit, as long as they stay within the bounds of their power and reach. | ||
| - | The trappings of militaristic discipline and aristocratic restraint pervade the culture - the Houses hold onto power by clamping down hard on dissent, and the reinforcement of cultural norms, propaganda and ideology are all key tools in doing so. The culture of the Ascendancy has developed little in the past two thousand years as a result. Drills, inspections and repetition of loyalty oaths are the norm for everyday people, and spying and reporting deviant behaviour in one's neighbours is well rewarded. Above the level of the Masses, nobles compete for power, resources and influence over each other, using ordinary citizens in their elaborate power plays and schemes. | + | [{{ :image:ascendancy:ascendancy_drill_e1.jpg?300|Military-style drills are a way of keeping control and enforcing social discipline}}]The trappings of militaristic discipline and aristocratic restraint pervade the culture - the Houses hold onto power by clamping down hard on dissent, and the reinforcement of cultural norms, propaganda and ideology are all key tools in doing so. The culture of the Ascendancy has developed little in the past two thousand years as a result. Drills, inspections and repetition of loyalty oaths are the norm for everyday people, and spying and reporting deviant behaviour in one's neighbours is well rewarded. Above the level of the Masses, nobles compete for power, resources and influence over each other, using ordinary citizens in their elaborate power plays and schemes. |
| Loyalty and discipline are the main pillars of the Ascendancy's culture. Subjects are expected to show loyalty to the state, humanity, their House, their military unit, and so on. Public demonstrations of that loyalty are important, and reinforce the bonds between inferior and superior, subject and state. Discipline expresses itself as temperance, clamping down on visible emotions, and remaining stalwart in the face of oppression, pain and even torture, knowing that you are doing your part to ensure the survival of humanity. The Ascendancy is not a completely centrally controlled empire, as it is simply too large to operate as such, so there is a certain degree of autonomy for businesses and other groups as long as they are led by individuals with some degree of status. However, Council diktats are expected to be followed, and those who choose to defy them must have solid reserves of political support within the Houses in order to fend off reprisals from the machinery of the state. | Loyalty and discipline are the main pillars of the Ascendancy's culture. Subjects are expected to show loyalty to the state, humanity, their House, their military unit, and so on. Public demonstrations of that loyalty are important, and reinforce the bonds between inferior and superior, subject and state. Discipline expresses itself as temperance, clamping down on visible emotions, and remaining stalwart in the face of oppression, pain and even torture, knowing that you are doing your part to ensure the survival of humanity. The Ascendancy is not a completely centrally controlled empire, as it is simply too large to operate as such, so there is a certain degree of autonomy for businesses and other groups as long as they are led by individuals with some degree of status. However, Council diktats are expected to be followed, and those who choose to defy them must have solid reserves of political support within the Houses in order to fend off reprisals from the machinery of the state. | ||
ascendancy_culture.txt ยท Last modified: 2023/09/25 02:28 by conan
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