Garbage Fringe Political Factions of Greater Istanistan (Pre-Protocol)

The ultranationalist umbrella is very broad and encompasses half-illegal, banned, underground, and unofficial separate movements. The general thrust of the movement pushes for hard expansionism, anti-foreign laws, a defined hierarchy of races, and a strongly authoritarian society where different designated social layers cooperate for general advancement. Ultranationalists often pick up on Seidrism, which has these as core tenets. Although some ultranationalists are thuggish human nationalists, the vast majority look back to Eucadian Nationalism as a movement worthy of imitating. The movement also splinters broadly between hereditary monarchists, republicans, and theocrats on the Cult of Freja’s bleeding edge. In general they have achieved a consensus on the imminent coming of a supernaturally-empowered charismatic genius whose divine right to rule Istanistan will be determined by their spiritual connection to an ill-defined spirit of the “nation”. This figure, in the tradition of Ana Seidr, will take up an Imperial throne and govern in a state beyond partisan politics. Much of the interest around this cultish element comes from the uncomfortable common thread pulling the movement together – the Haruhiist network, which deserves its own separate categorization. Beyond Haruhiists and decadent reactionary nobility, the ultranationalists are mostly popular in economically decaying metropolises with large Aes, Vanparian, and East Tuvhalian populations. The biggest exemplar is Arenvast which is literally rotting, but ultranationalists can be found everywhere. The movement has notably not caught on with the Kh’en, likely due to their own unique national aspirations.

Young Officers

Strictly speaking the Young Officers tend not to be that young, but given the decrepitude of their political opponents this label makes sense. The Young Officers are typically junior military officers - IE of the Colonel rank below - with few future prospects and far too many convictions. They tend to be reactionaries, rather than ultranationalists - in other words, while they are generally radical patriots who would like to see military dominance and expansion, the glory days the vast majority look to are those of the republican military movement rather than the Empire. This class idealizes dashing heroes of the people like Katsyryn Kaleinn who, as generals, fought for a romantic conception of Istanistan and its people. The Young Officers think that parliamentary democracy, by nature, transforms all that is sublime and beautiful into political mush and replaces decisive action of the kind needed to save the country with corrupt wheeling and dealing. They therefore endorse assassination, covert agitation, and ultimately the overthrow of the government. As a fine point of distinction, while some of the more hardline conservative generals may sometimes threaten - and, as with the case of Aziz, deliver - upon a coup, what the Young Officers endorse is a military revolution. Instead of taking over the top mechanisms of state, they want to overthrow it all, restore the soul of the nation, and lead the people to glory. They tend to burn out by 50 and either get decent careers or commit patriotic suicide. Fringes of the Young Officer movement overlap with both the Haruhiists and the ultranationalists, but as a whole the Young Officers are a coherent entity of their own.

Haruhiists

Easily Istanistan’s strangest political feature, the Haruhiists are an extremely secretive, hierarchical, and elitist cult movement which has wrapped itself around extremes in both the left and right as well as the Army and the state. Haruhiists believe that there either exists or will exists an entity which appears human, but bears the absolute power to shape the universe or abolish it if it does not fit her expectations. This individual will not be aware of their power. It is the goal of the Haruhiist movement to find this individual, enthrone her in Istanistan, and restore an ancient “tricontinental ur-civilization” spanning Tuvhalia, Luveria, and Pandora. Their activities are therefore fully focussed on building a political force capable of enacting Her will. Haruhiists also notably subscribe to extreme blood-and-soil nationalism, racialism, “applied subjectivity”, human sacrifice, and a variety of bizarre rites never observed by outsiders noted for their disturbing content. Their leader, Eccliasarch Kyrines, is a masked entity which controls the city of Arenvast as a regent who temporarily occupies a throne which will one day be Hers.

Bright Path Extremists

The main reason why the Seidrist vision of Istanistani ultranationalism and the Haruhiist network behind it never penetrated the Kh’en group of Tuvhalian natives is because they already have their own, similar tradition. The native religion of the Kh’en, the Bright Path, dates back millennia to the darkest depths of the First Era and is suspected to be a perverted descendant of the state religion of a monolithic theo-imperial native civilization known as the “Radiance” spanning all of East Tuvhalia which hit its apex around Korahlia’s Seraphic Age. For the Kh’en, who claim descent from the Radiance, the Bright Path presents a deep and important doctrine. Bright Path Extremists are typically extremely anti-materialist, anti-urban, anti-industrial, anti-modern, and anti-capitalist. Their eventual dream is a return to an agrarian village lifestyle of ignorance and purity with learned monks guarding technology and knowledge. This vision is particularly interesting because it advocates for the restoration, not the establishment, of a civilization. It also notably advocates for either the physical or cultural extermination of the Nordic and Vanparian races everywhere West of Bar Khorleth. The current standard-bearer of the movement is Secret-Bearer Qu, a silent monk who is spoken for by 50 blind apprentices known as the Chorus. He is the elected leader of the Southern Province (the Chorus fills out the back-benches) and has a sizeable militia, as well as an arsenal of freakish superweapons and dark secrets from his tenure as head of the Military Commissariat for Applied Metaphysics.

Kassadists

While the old organized communist movement was purged, Kassadism thrived. This ideology dates back to the theories of the wildly charismatic Urmun Kassad, Chairman of Telemarcia. In contrast to his opponents within the KPU, Kassad defended a theory of revolution based on activating the masses, leadership by example, and championing the transient and placeless. While existing Istanistani socialist thought has mostly focussed on organized parties, organized labour, and taking control of institutions, the Kassadist system - first imported by Telemarcian refugees - instead privileges that which cannot be corralled. Particular focus is placed on unorganized workers, disaffected troops and members of labour unions, criminals, the unemployed, low-level civil servants, and - most importantly - immigrants and refugees, who are the most completely displaced of all. What this has come to in practice is a disorganized, but heavily militant and well-armed, movement of autonomous cells awaiting a charismatic and messianic leader who will appear in a time of profound political crisis. At that point, according to contemporary Kassadist theory, an act of "revolutionary creativity" will spontaneously create the new order from the old. The practice of revolution alone can determine the form of an organic new society free from the shackles of bureaucracy and top-down command, and it is up to the movement to provoke that revolution into reality. Given their fetishism for bomb-throwing, their slick propaganda, and their savvy usage of both ultraviolence and the internet to spread their message, they may well succeed.

Individualists

This particular fringe is a shadow of its former glory, but hangs on as a strange and vibrant subculture. Individualists are a group inspired by the works and deeds of Istanistani-born terrorist and international revolutionary Alvard Sveinsson. They are against all forms of control, all ideology, all religion, all collective groupings, and all external concepts. They believe in radical self-discovery and the purging of ideas like duty, obligation, and responsibility to any broader whole. Instead, they advocate for human flourishing, voluntary association, and peaceful anarchy. This may sound all well and good, and the movement creates exceptionally good art, literature, and music. In practice, things get more complicated. One of Alvard’s key ideas was that murder and terrorism was permissible in service of self-actualization. He believed that to break out of stifling social conformism and control, one had to commit radical acts. To be yourself, you had to completely shed all social guidelines and do away with any form of morality to unleash your repressed desires. Individualists have therefore been responsible for some of the most horrific massacres of civilian in the history of the country, and violence by members of the loosely-defined movement continues to be a serious problems. Individualist circles also sometimes overlap with Kassadist sects, creating a particularly terrifying brand of revolutionary nihilism.