Green Politics I

[Kario]

For those among you who want a chance to have a bigger influence in how the game world is created, this may be a golden opportunity for you. Or perhaps a beryl one.

Assignment

Paint a picture of what you think it's like to be a player in the !Green political structure. Tell us what it's like to be a CEO in heavy industry, or an old-time baron of a trade house, or a well-to-do sponsor of foreign excursions. Let your imagination run wild and try to explore both character motivations and finer details about the world. If you do a good enough job, your idea(s) may be used to shape the development of the faction.

This assignment will remain open until December 11, 2011.

[Redstorm Breckenridge]

hmm.. I'll try to think up something, so I can say I help to some extent.

[burritoloco]

A little light on direct politics, but hopefully evocative of how business gets done in the Republic.

(Also, anything in there with the FR tag is at least nominally set in this world)

[Marcus Cunningham]

"Life in the Shadow Hand is a life of a double identity. On the surface, you are who you are. A pilot, an engineer, a father, but when it comes to do business, you grin the grin of teeth and you fly with the aerosharks. Business practices perfected and honed to a razor's edge ages ago are at your disposal, one could eventually sell water to the Ocean, or sell air to the Sky. There was the monthly tax to consider, but it was a small price to pay.

Local businesses pay a small tax to ensure that their stock and resources are protected by the Shadow Hand's privateer squadrons, paid in part by donations from merchants like you. A lapse in payment could be forgiven, since mistreating your patrons is a quick way to get them to leave, but every now and then, reminders must be made and examples made of. Remember Johnson, down the street? Sold the best muffins in town?

Yeah, thought so. No one remembers him. Lapsed for half a year, then told the Shadows to go scratch. Guess they scratched him right out of the picture. The new guy's alright, pays his dues, but the muffins aren't worth a bit. Black suits and black caps come out, black gloves and suitcases, and just like that the lot's sold. What about the law, you ask? Six times out of ten, the Shadow Hand's legit. They have a valid claim and nothing they do is, technically, illegal. The other four times, and maybe the owner forgot to show up to work that day, or he went out for a long stroll, or got a telegram late at night.

Do we know who they are? Most of them, yeah. You see them here and there, gloves and caps tucked into pockets, jackets off, relaxed. Like they were anyone else. Though, when they're on official business, sometimes I swear they don't even blink.

For some, it may seem tyrannical, forcing the businesses to pay in order to continue to do business, but that's where the illusion ends. The Shadow Hand helps businesses form by guaranteeing them access to resources that they would need. Building supplies, permits, food, water... if it's out there they can almost make it appear out of thin air. All for a fee, of course. A bit now, and the rest over time. They keep you in business, you pay them a tax. Hand, meet glove. Simple and elegant. In fact, the only time it seems ugly is when the system breaks down.

Though, until that happens, money keeps the gears of industry pretty well lubed, and as for the Shadow Hand itself? No one really knows."

- Testimony of anonymous fur