Factions
“We chose not ants,
Freedom of thought,
The Artist’s delight,
The Monger’s playground,
The Evil, The Good,
Unfortunately, Consequences”
The Weight of Authority, Factions
The cornerstones of Propaganda, Censorship, and Artificial Mind Tier Restrictions are carried out by the major factions and organizations. The control of powerful artifacts, magical items, and advanced technology prevents the world of Cirrus Ethereal from falling into worse chaos than it is already subject. This organizational machine is referred to as Snipping.
Snipping
Snipping comes in different flavors from mild infractions getting memory wiped. Neural implants have a function which prevents speaking of technologies in inappropriate places, though this isn’t one hundred percent effective. Repeat offenders will be hunted. The worst get snipped, where an agent prevents their conception and annihilates their life and existence from the status quo.
Status Quo
The Status Quo is the current state. All of the Overzones excluding Amcor progress time at the same rate within the Status Quo. This means time progresses in four of the Overzones as if they were all on the same timescale. A week goes by in Mediva, a week also transpires in the others. The Status Quo can not be changed except for by an Ulm who has finished the apotheosis process or an Anchor Being.
Anchor Beings
Anchor Beings exist simultaneously across the entire timescale. They can change their decisions at any point with minor to major causality shifts. All Anchor Beings aside from one are Pylons of the Vor or Weavers of the Skein. While the Anchors, Ulm, the Pylons, and the Weavers are not deities or great spirits, the deities and great spirits work alongside them to keep reality stable and physics functioning.
Aspects
Aside from the deities and great spirits are the aspects. Aspects are qualities of morality and lessons spinning stories in everyday lives. The Aspects intermingle with the other authorities to maintain the mortal drives.
Aspects are the result of the existence of a kind of behavior, discipline, or morality, not the cause of them. If enough of life comes to believe in a certain way, a new aspect is born. Aspects are often thought of as the children or visages of deities and spirits, but they are adopted as they come into their birth. A new aspect is often conceived within a deity or spirit who is in charge of the bailiwick closest resembling the aspect's domain.
Deities responsible for clusters of aspects are revered in high esteem or great fear by their kind. Bailiwicks which cover great swatches of governed reality show an age beyond the senses of mortality.
Deities and Spirits
There are as many deities and spirits as there are ideas. At least, this is the belief of those who study the Wordsake. It is often argued the deities who are worshiped and who have physical form are the result of having many different names. Spirits on the other hand are viewed as wardens of places and traditions, more often than not described as living archives of times that came and passed
Factions and Pantheon
Each of the deities and great spirits are factions among themselves. There are great churches, sacred groves, courts of every kind, and gatherings of the devout among these revered names.
Beyond the Pantheon and Civil Structures
Established Authorities exist in every hierarchy which gathers followers for a common cause. The major factions are not inherently evil, but have a difficult time coexisting. Each and every one of them is a right idea on how people could come together and live in a state of peace and harmony.
Each faction comes with their own sacrifices, their own creeds, and their own choices. Unfortunately social multi-culturalism clashes at many points, intolerance lives among ignorance and fear. Divides in knowledge and language barriers often make peace too difficult to maintain. Not every actor within every faction upholds the core tenants, and there are factions whose right idea does not include everyone.
The Great Machine of the Emperor
Alongside of the factions are the organizations of the emperor, the great machine. Its only purpose is to sustain the existence of itself, of Vaia, of Ager Ethe, and in some moments, all of Cirrus Ethereal.
At the bottom line of the great machine are the everyday people who work within the systems. A happy clerk at the gas station or trade post, the couriers who handle logistics and shipping, the trade commissions who work day in and day out to enforce the stability of the economy, the specialists and laborers who spend their lives taking care of their people, and all of the other commonwealth socialist structures constantly under the pressures of ideological persecution and the occasional crusade which none have been able to strip the power of thanks to the seeming omnipresence of the emperor himself.
Castes, Peasants to Aristocracy
In every social hierarchy we observe levels of authority. Classes, castes, divisions, groups, standing, status, positions, however you express it the reference is to power at the central concept. It is a measure of haves and have nots in general, and at its most basic aristocracy is an entitlement of respect and authority gauged by leverage against any given outcome.
Reduced to its minimum it comes down to the cluster of responsibilities. At the most complex it is a deadly game of intrigue where every action, suggestion, and ruling have cascading consequences. The further you are up on the pole, the more devastating and prolific your choices become. The question often becomes, do you have the right?
