Divisionism, or Extreme Classism as it is known by her enemies, is a system of government born from the turbulent years of the Liberal-Economic Revolutions of 8950 PE. The land that we today know as the C.U.D.S. was divided among various princedoms, a cultural unity under political division. The people living there called their homeland ‘The Two Brothers’, as the two peninsulas were seen as a pair of geological siblings. Many legends mentioned these two brothers as giants who shaped the earth, before laying down in that very place to turn to stone and rock. Anyway, the 8900’s were a pretty destabilising time for the region. Economic improvements across the Two Brothers had led to the creation of a new social class: where there had only been servants and rulers for a long time, a new class of rich servants, in the form of merchants, began to emerge. This class of merchants made a killing due to new technology in sailing vessels, making contact with different civilisations more accessible. Where the land owning rulers had before made the most money through agriculture and manufacturing, the new merchant class started accumulating enormous amounts of foreign wealth. Educational institutions opened their doors to these wealthy merchants and, before people knew what was going on, a new generation of low-born secular scholars began to take root. Among these scholars were famous names like Mandario Hun and Llert Loven.
Mandario Hun was the first to propose the theory of the Division of Labour: he postulated that any economy where specialisation occurred was the most efficient economy, using the example of specialised villages on the North Brother to support his claims. This theory soon gained a lot of following, both in progressive and conservative spheres. Progressives promoted the division of labour as a proof that the economy needed to diversify, and that merchant companies had a large part to play in the new economy of the princedoms. The conservatives, however, promoted the idea that the theory of Division of Labour proved that society was best organised when divided into estates, where the low classes keep to manufacturing and agriculture while the higher classes busied themselves with ruling the various nations. The main conservative scholar was Llert Loven, of the illustrious and ancient Llert family, who became the face for the conservative movement.
It was in the beginning of the 8920’s that these formerly academic arguments seeped into the political landscape. Younger princes, many of whom had been raised with low-born merchants as good friends, began to reform their nations into more liberal, progressive states. They opened up their state apparatus to commons, abolished certain kinds of serfdom and even adopted some republican ideals like constitutions and civil rights. The older princes, however, reacted in the opposite way. They imposed noble monopolies on certain goods, some even abolished the stock exchange and the free market, and they nationalised many important industries. While the progressives decreased the size of the state apparatus, the conservatives increased it. This would have far-reaching consequences in the following decades.
This situation could not hold. The Two Brothers was a region that was too well-connected to survive being scattered. The split between the two ideologies was far from clean and neat. Various political systems dotted the landscape, with a map of the various princedoms looking more like a scattered cloth than a division of nations. Princes, dukes, counts, even barons had a hand in forming their respective tiny nations to their whims, some adopting a liberal form of rule while others increased state control. The result was the creation of another new class of citizens, which replaced the merchant class in many conservative states; the administrative class. This class was a combination of impoverished nobles, downtrodden merchants and priests who had no business being in the noble class, but were too influential and intelligent to waste in the servant classes. The result was a class of legal experts with the sole duty of making sure the conservative states ran like they were supposed to. More progressive states didn’t form this administrative class, for they had little need for a strong state. If anything, these people feared a strong state, resenting attempts to create this class in liberal states.
This division did not hold, in the end. Disagreement flared into resentment, resentment grew into conflict and conflict descended into war. The Great Divisionist War of 8950 would last for more than three decades, result in the deaths of millions, and settle once and for all this formerly academic disagreement. In the beginning, the two sides fought a few skirmishes, capturing pocketed enclaves and creating real borders that cut the nation in two. When the borders had settled, the real wars began. While the progressive side had more competent commanders and better educated tacticians and strategists, the conservatives enjoyed bigger armies and a dedicated soldier class. These men had been trained from the moment they could hold a musket, while the progressives fielded armies of highly-motivated volunteers. While the two sides were at odds for much of the war, in the end, the bigger state apparatus and the more centralised armies of the conservatives won out. This was helped by their election of an emperor in 8988, who would lead their combined armies into victory. The more divided liberalists were overrun and extinguished by the combined might of the emperor and his armies.
That’s it for history. How does the divisionist state look today? Well, there are a few classes to content with.
Labourers
Servants
Soldiers
Administrators
High Administrators
Nobles
The Emperor
Labourers are the backbone of the imperial economy. They are the largest group, and they do all the heavy lifting. Garbage collection, mining, high-intensity agriculture, heavy industry, all the heavy work is up to them. They manufacture, they work on transport vessels, they are the true labourers of the empire.
Servants run the service part of the economy. They do a lot of the less heavy labour, they run little shops, they live in cities, they are the chauffeurs and window cleaners of this society. They often interact with the higher classes, while the labourers barely get to see the high life style of the nobles and administrators.
Soldiers are soldiers. That one should be pretty obvious. They are the security forces of the empire, and keep an eye on the lower classes. They are actually raised with the belief that the lower classes despise them and are jealous of them, raising them with a hatred for the people they are supposed to guard. Of course, these soldiers are mostly used to pacify upstarts and revolutionaries.
Administrators have changed little over the years. They are in direct service to the nobles, they are legalists and scribes. They do much of the paperwork for the empire, and make sure everyone is administered properly. Part of the state apparatus.
The High Administrators are actually not like the administrators at all. They are the political police in service of the emperor, making sure everyone (even the nobles) keep in line with the divisionist doctrine. They have unrivalled power to judge and execute, and they are feared by most other classes.
The nobles are owners of all. Every ownership within the empire somehow leads back to a noble owning something. They own land, factories, apartment complexes, sometimes even whole cities. All this combined ownership and power (they also hold all the legislative and executive power) finally runs back to the emperor.
The Emperor commands all. He is eternal, supreme, and worthy of worship. He is the most perfect being, and keeps the nation safe. Praise be, praise be.
Mandario Hun was the first to propose the theory of the Division of Labour: he postulated that any economy where specialisation occurred was the most efficient economy, using the example of specialised villages on the North Brother to support his claims. This theory soon gained a lot of following, both in progressive and conservative spheres. Progressives promoted the division of labour as a proof that the economy needed to diversify, and that merchant companies had a large part to play in the new economy of the princedoms. The conservatives, however, promoted the idea that the theory of Division of Labour proved that society was best organised when divided into estates, where the low classes keep to manufacturing and agriculture while the higher classes busied themselves with ruling the various nations. The main conservative scholar was Llert Loven, of the illustrious and ancient Llert family, who became the face for the conservative movement.
It was in the beginning of the 8920’s that these formerly academic arguments seeped into the political landscape. Younger princes, many of whom had been raised with low-born merchants as good friends, began to reform their nations into more liberal, progressive states. They opened up their state apparatus to commons, abolished certain kinds of serfdom and even adopted some republican ideals like constitutions and civil rights. The older princes, however, reacted in the opposite way. They imposed noble monopolies on certain goods, some even abolished the stock exchange and the free market, and they nationalised many important industries. While the progressives decreased the size of the state apparatus, the conservatives increased it. This would have far-reaching consequences in the following decades.
This situation could not hold. The Two Brothers was a region that was too well-connected to survive being scattered. The split between the two ideologies was far from clean and neat. Various political systems dotted the landscape, with a map of the various princedoms looking more like a scattered cloth than a division of nations. Princes, dukes, counts, even barons had a hand in forming their respective tiny nations to their whims, some adopting a liberal form of rule while others increased state control. The result was the creation of another new class of citizens, which replaced the merchant class in many conservative states; the administrative class. This class was a combination of impoverished nobles, downtrodden merchants and priests who had no business being in the noble class, but were too influential and intelligent to waste in the servant classes. The result was a class of legal experts with the sole duty of making sure the conservative states ran like they were supposed to. More progressive states didn’t form this administrative class, for they had little need for a strong state. If anything, these people feared a strong state, resenting attempts to create this class in liberal states.
This division did not hold, in the end. Disagreement flared into resentment, resentment grew into conflict and conflict descended into war. The Great Divisionist War of 8950 would last for more than three decades, result in the deaths of millions, and settle once and for all this formerly academic disagreement. In the beginning, the two sides fought a few skirmishes, capturing pocketed enclaves and creating real borders that cut the nation in two. When the borders had settled, the real wars began. While the progressive side had more competent commanders and better educated tacticians and strategists, the conservatives enjoyed bigger armies and a dedicated soldier class. These men had been trained from the moment they could hold a musket, while the progressives fielded armies of highly-motivated volunteers. While the two sides were at odds for much of the war, in the end, the bigger state apparatus and the more centralised armies of the conservatives won out. This was helped by their election of an emperor in 8988, who would lead their combined armies into victory. The more divided liberalists were overrun and extinguished by the combined might of the emperor and his armies.
That’s it for history. How does the divisionist state look today? Well, there are a few classes to content with.
Labourers
Servants
Soldiers
Administrators
High Administrators
Nobles
The Emperor
Labourers are the backbone of the imperial economy. They are the largest group, and they do all the heavy lifting. Garbage collection, mining, high-intensity agriculture, heavy industry, all the heavy work is up to them. They manufacture, they work on transport vessels, they are the true labourers of the empire.
Servants run the service part of the economy. They do a lot of the less heavy labour, they run little shops, they live in cities, they are the chauffeurs and window cleaners of this society. They often interact with the higher classes, while the labourers barely get to see the high life style of the nobles and administrators.
Soldiers are soldiers. That one should be pretty obvious. They are the security forces of the empire, and keep an eye on the lower classes. They are actually raised with the belief that the lower classes despise them and are jealous of them, raising them with a hatred for the people they are supposed to guard. Of course, these soldiers are mostly used to pacify upstarts and revolutionaries.
Administrators have changed little over the years. They are in direct service to the nobles, they are legalists and scribes. They do much of the paperwork for the empire, and make sure everyone is administered properly. Part of the state apparatus.
The High Administrators are actually not like the administrators at all. They are the political police in service of the emperor, making sure everyone (even the nobles) keep in line with the divisionist doctrine. They have unrivalled power to judge and execute, and they are feared by most other classes.
The nobles are owners of all. Every ownership within the empire somehow leads back to a noble owning something. They own land, factories, apartment complexes, sometimes even whole cities. All this combined ownership and power (they also hold all the legislative and executive power) finally runs back to the emperor.
The Emperor commands all. He is eternal, supreme, and worthy of worship. He is the most perfect being, and keeps the nation safe. Praise be, praise be.
