The Charter

Nouvel Acadie wrote:

As, I am losing track of the new role plays (like Nat's above)...can you make sure they are all pinned in the "Roleplays" tab at the top of the page?

The Roleplays dispatch does have every RP in it that I'm aware of (including Frezko's, which I've just added). To ease accessibility, I've adopted the 3rd Charter's custom of listing all active RP's on the WFE, so hopefully this will help. Obviously, if I've missed an RP somewhere please let me know but I'm fairly certain the four listed are the only current ones

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For those stopping by to check out our map welcome! We are always looking for new people. Check out our RPs they’re pretty cool. Or hop onto our social discord.

New factbook today, this one covering Meridianism, the guiding ideology of the Meridian state.

Meridianism, State Ideology of the Meridian Republic

by The Senatrist-Kutaharkist State of Meridian Republic

MERIDIANISM

Also known as: Kutaharkism, Senatrism-Kutaharkism, Meridian Senatrism

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Meridianism is the guiding ideology of the Meridian Republic and its ruling Meridianist Party. It was first conceived by President Kutáḫarku, then merely a major in the Concordia-based Valtameri Clique in the weeks following the landing of the Shurayu on the shores of Cervidas, being a development of the Valtamerist ideology first theorized by the Frizch-Oceani sociologist Gaspare Senatra, of whom Kutáḫarku had become a student and loyal disciple while attending the University of Gaude. The ideological foundation of Meridianism is formed primarily by two main sources: First, is Atrahasianism, whose doctrines have shaped Shurayu civilization for ten millennia and whose teachings are responsible for the cultural assumptions and moral codes of even the most cosmopolitan Shurayu, emphasizing a hierarchical, law-based society ruled by an elite of scholar-bureaucrats, with a highly collectivist worldview and an obsession with cultural, legal, social, and political continuity, and an ability to maintain that continuity, unseen elsewhere in the world, as well as a deeply isolationist and exceptionalist attitude, forgoing nearly all interaction with outsiders beyond the facilitation of commerce. Second, is Republican Valtamerism, of which Kutáḫarku was a vocal proponent during his house’s service in the Free Wnescian Army, believing strongly in the movement’s vision of a multi-ethnic unitary continent-state under a republican governmental structure and admiring its flexibility in addressing the myriad concerns of the countless interest groups which comprise the Valtamerian social mosaic, doing much in his capacity as a political officer in the FWA to create and disseminate propaganda and deliver speeches and polemics to bring people to the Valtamerist cause.

Apart from Atrahasianism and Republican Valtamerism, Meridianism, to a lesser extent, derives inspiration from numerous other ideologies, philosophies, and the personal views of Kutáḫarku and various other figures who have contributed to the development of the ideology, be they fascism, embraced by many Shurayu in the latter years of the Old City, admired for its emphasis on class collaboration when the gap in social classes had become starkest and resentment arose in that newfound starkness, and its belief in the supremacy of the nation-state when it seemed the megacorporations which had grown from and devoured the old guild system like a fungus seemed fated to split the Old City apart into competing corporate factions based on family lines, or socialism, embraced by just as many Shurayu in the twilight of the Old City as a response to its decline, with its emphasis on collective prosperity, production for use, and opposition to corporations as units of economic organization resonating with many disaffected with the extreme changes that had taken place in, at least by Shurayu standards, a very short amount of time. Meridianism, as instituted with the founding of the Republic, advocates for the creation of a multicultural, religiously pluralistic unitary party-state led by an authoritative executive leader selected, renewed, removed, and replaced by a national assembly of party officials and a principally state-controlled economy wherein the state assumes responsibility for the production and extraction of all which is considered necessary for the survival of the state and people and economic activity is organized around a system of guilds similar to that which was prescribed and maintained by the Atrahasian Scholars of the Old City before their descent into corporatocracy.

The guild system is a natural development of the hierarchical Shurayu family structure and custom of hereditary occupations as well as the voluntary spiritual societies known as Ebaruttu found in traditional Shurayu religion. Meridianism posits that membership in a guild is crucial for the dignity, freedom, and well-being of working people, and much of the government’s efforts are dedicated to helping incorporate the non-Shurayu majority of the Republic into this new economic system. The Meridianist guild is distinct from the union or the syndicate found in other economic systems, having more in common with a tribe rather than a simple organized division of related workers, with each guild possessing its own unique rituals, holidays, garments, jewelry, and tattoos to distinguish themselves and their craft with pride and dignity, with the exclusivity of their sacred particularities protected under the law. Guilds are both state-run and private depending on which industry a guild’s trade pertains to, and comprise all elements which contribute to the trade of which a particular guild is dedicated. Within a guild, laborers, technicians, strategists, researchers, managers, employers, and in the case of private guilds, shareholders, act in concert for the collective benefit of their guild, sharing knowledge and resources, and determining their wages, benefits, work hours, and relations with other guilds under the authoritative leadership of their Guildmaster and with the consent of the party representative assigned to every guild to ensure guild activities are in line with Meridianist values and the will of the state. Guildmasters are elected by the popular vote of their guildmates, with one’s rank and seniority within their guild directly proportional to the weight of one’s vote, helping to safeguard a guild’s established norms from inexperienced or short-sighted apprentices and lesser journeymen, though also engendering the same culture of cliquishness found all throughout Meridianist society. It should be noted that while on paper, guild membership is voluntary, a tradesman operating outside a guild will find it considerably more difficult to find work, as guilds ruthlessly try to shut down and muscle out independent contractors and most people, especially Shurayu, distrust anyone who tries to ply their trade without guild affiliation.

According to Meridianist doctrine, the rights to own property and bear arms are considered necessary prerequisites for the existence of a free, dignified, and self-confident population. While property ownership is considered desirable under in the eyes of all four of the republic’s principal races, the right to bear arms is a distinctly non-Shurayu conception, with its incorporation into Meridianism inspired by the robust culture of gun ownership by the Oceani people which endowed the Free Wnescian Army with a great number of highly-skilled marksmen and well-organized Valtamerist militias who fought valiantly alongside the Shurayu mercenary houses which would go on to form the Valtameri Clique. This promotion of gun ownership is a principle well adapted to the Meridian context, in line with the gun culture deeply embedded in the identities of the Cervidians, Synkomdi, and Acadimeridiens since before the decades of anarchy, a result of all three peoples, to varying degrees incorporating into their self-perceptions the identities of pioneers and outdoorsmen, with the chaotic period of statelessness only serving to further entrench the custom of mass gun ownership. Just as the Meridianist government devotes great effort to incorporate non-Shurayu citizens of the republic into the guild-oriented economy, so too does it encourage the Shurayu, who had always delegated the handling of weapons to the mercenary houses, city watch, and grand navy back in the days of the Old City, to arm themselves just as their fellow Meridians do, and the Meridianist education system, which takes much of its inspiration from that of the lauded Acadien education system first brought to Meridia by the old Royaume, has within its core curriculum instruction on the handling and maintenance of firearms, with rural schools noted to put greater emphasis on this subject than their more urban counterparts.

Meridianist thought upholds the principle of equality under the law, affirming the innate equality of human beings by way of the immeasurable attribute of the human soul, said to imbue humanity with its ability to rise above the purely material existence of the animal kingdom. All religions not deemed antisocial are held in equal esteem, permitted to be practiced freely, and discrimination based on religion, race, gender, and sexual identity is strictly prohibited. This is not only an expression of the egalitarian philosophy which underpins much of Meridianist doctrine, mainly owed to the cosmopolitan nature of President Kutáḫarku’s life and the lives of his fellow Shurayu mercenaries, whose hereditary profession had brought their houses into close contact with all manner of foreigners and exotic beliefs and ways of life for many thousands of years, but a practical measure to prevent the dissolution of the multi-ethnic Meridian Republic, whose predecessor state, the Joint Commonwealths of Cervidas and Ibex, failed to maintain a coherent nation-state due to the extreme unaddressed sectionalism of its constituent states whose regional militias, responsible for overthrowing the tyrannical regime of the Void Inquisitors, tended to form their states’ political nuclei, the skepticism towards centralized government endemic in these militias as a result of the Void regime’s totalitarian administrative structure spreading all throughout the political apparatus of the Joint Commonwealths like a poison which led to deep resentments on all manner of basis, exacerbated and exploited by the Void remnants in highly sophisticated psychological operations for the express purpose of bringing about the conditions necessary for the Void Inquisitors’ return to power. This refusal to collapse as the old Joint Commonwealths did is also why the Meridianist government is a unitary state, every possible vector of national dissolution, be it religious strife, ethnic hatred, or regionalism, are all considered mortal threats and any who the Party considers to be fanning the flames of division is considered an enemy and treated accordingly.

Meridianism advocates for democracy within the context of an authoritarian one-party state wherein political authority is entrusted to a cadre of specially educated and ideologically committed state officials and technical specialists who govern as representatives on behalf of the whole Meridian populace, engaging in internal debate and discussion on policy while maintaining strict discipline in adherence to Meridianist principles and rigorous obedience to the hierarchical party structure, this political system considered the wisest, most humane form of governance, best adapted to the social, political, and historical context of modern Meridia. To Meridianists, multi-party democracy is viewed as an unstable system doomed to end in failure, believing that the decentralized nature and lack of ideological unity within a political system allowing the existence of opposing parties creates an environment wherein all manner of unscrupulous individuals and groups are able to cynically take advantage of the fractious political environment to engage in corruption as well as use state power to engage in feuds and exercise the will of hidden benefactors to any manner of end. This aversion to multi-party democracy is very much a reaction to the failure of the old Joint Commonwealth’s multi-party democracy, infamous for how quickly after its optimistic founding it became a perpetual battleground where representatives used their positions to carry out personal and familial vendettas and private interests lobbied for any number of benefits, further bolstered by the paternalistic ethos of the Shurayu, to whom one group maintaining a perpetual monopoly on state power is seen as a given after living under ten thousand years of Atrahasianism. Meridianist government is deeply reminiscent of the old Atrahasian system and by extension the Shurayu family structure, with the rigid hierarchy of the Meridianist Party essentially based off the Atrahasian hierarchy of scholars and bureaucrats, with Atrahasian dogma replaced by Meridianism and modern non-Shurayu attributes such as democratic centralism and the state management of numerous political umbrella organizations, as well as the Meridianist state’s penchant for holding massive, theatrical rallies setting the Meridianist system apart from its Atrahasian predecessor.

One of the most visible aspects of Meridianist government is the level of reverence afforded to the executive figure at the top of the Meridianist hierarchy; many parallels are drawn between the President and the Šars who once led the Shurayu as heads of the Atrahasian hierarchy, treating it as but another inheritance of Atrahasianism, however the cult of personality surrounding the President is in fact many times more intense and pervasive than that of the Šars, resembling more accurately the pseudo-religious devotion offered to Atrahasis himself. The sheer devotion offered to the ruling executive is an attribute which does not exist in the political histories of any of the Republic’s founding races apart from the reign of Atrahasis over ten millennia ago, this characteristic of Meridianism in reality an inheritance of the fascist element which pervaded many of the political circles of the late Old City, particularly prominent among the mercenary houses, the concept of a charismatic, nearly all-powerful father figure to whom undying loyalty is owed being particularly appealing to highly-collectivist and patriarchal groups of mercenary families who for millenia have offered reverence to the father of their civilization with a level of devotion more intense than the devotion expressed by some of the most devout adherents of many of the world’s myriad faiths. The cult of the executive is rationalized as a tremendous asset to the Meridianist system, giving Meridianism a face all can look to as the greatest exemplar of the Meridianist idea and providing a single, unifying father figure to all the orphan peoples who call Meridia home. The position of President has been intentionally associated with many figures and concepts dear to the peoples of the Republic in order to further entrench the Meridianist cult of the executive into the wider Meridian psyche, though two of these comparisons stand far above the others in their sheer pervasiveness: To the faithful of the Church of the Southern Cross, the largest and most influential religious group in the Republic, the President is said to be the earthly reflection of the Gate of Heaven which emanates all creation and where all concepts find perfect union lying in the intersection of the four stars of the holy Star Cross, and to the Shurayu, who are kin to the President, Kutáḫarku is considered the Atrahasis of the new age and the position of President itself and the hierarchy it oversees is said to be the most perfect representation of their people’s conception of power itself, radiating from above and disseminating below in a perfectly ordered chain of authority.

The chief animating principle of Meridianist thought is known as Ṭúbum, literally translating to ‘Goodness’. Ṭúbum manifests in numerous ways, the aforementioned respect for the rights of the people, be they the right to profess any faith not deemed antisocial, the right to own property, the right to bear arms, the protection of the Republic’s cultural and linguistic diversity, and its relative permissiveness regarding the everyday activities of the people standing as examples of how the Meridianist state upholds Ṭúbum regarding the freedom of the people through law, though Ṭúbum encompasses much more than civil rights, with all that which Meridianist doctrine considers precious and good defended and upheld. Even in the earliest days of Meridianism there were many artists of various disciplines counted among the exalted number of Kutáḫarku’s truest followers, people from all across the world who Kutáḫarku had forged deep connections on the basis of friendship, patronage, and a genuine love for beauty, the idea tying Kutáḫarku and these artists together being the ardent belief that the ultimate and most sacred purpose of civilization is to foster the creation of fine art, for art is beauty, and beauty is the physical manifestation of Ṭúbum. A not insubstantial portion of the government’s budget is dedicated to sponsoring the arts, be they literature, music, theatre, film, dance, painting, or anything else which the government decides makes the world a more beautiful place with its existence, with an ever-growing network of art schools, cultural halls, theatres, opera houses, and gardens being built all across the Republic from the smallest towns to the largest cities so the lives of all Meridians might be enriched by the Ṭúbum of art and culture, while the natural beauty of the Republic is just as lovingly defended, with the environment, viewed as a sacred inheritance passed down by the Meridians’ forebears which the living must in turn pass down to their own descendants, protected by strict regulations and made accessible to the people though the creation of parks and preserves. Ṭúbum also encompasses human thought and habit, with the Meridianist worldview characterized by a deeply romantic attitude towards life and a vitalist character informed by the traditional mores of the Republic's founding races and the mentality of the Shurayu mercenary houses whose teachings Kutáḫarku and many of his closest companions were raised with as scions of these revolutionary houses. Meridianist thought is life-affirming, energetic, and optimistic, with a forward-thinking attitude, and stands in opposition to the forces of nihilism, cynicism, and cold materialism, all considered expressions of Ṣínum, literally translating to ‘Wickedness’, the opposite of Ṭúbum, whose fruits are known as death, destruction, and despair, and whose greatest acolytes are said to be the dreaded Void Remnants, feared and hated in equal measure.

Meridianist foreign policy is the outward expression of its worldview, advocating for a foreign policy which reflects its outgoing and optimistic attitude, wherein the Meridianist state endeavors to act as an initiatory party in international affairs, seeking engagement with other nations on the basis of mutually-beneficial cooperation in matters such as trade, commerce, and knowledge exchange, as well as promoting good relations with other nations by emphasizing common ground and mutual understanding through the sponsoring of international sporting events and festivals of music and film, and fostering international cooperation to combat issues which the Meridianist state shares with other nations, be they environmental protection initiatives or coordinated counter-terrrorism exercises. Meridianism emphasizes non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other nations and rejects conflict between nations and peoples on the basis of ideological difference provided the ideologies in question are not considered hostile to the Meridianist way of life. National sovereignty and multipolarity are considered fundamental to the existence of a just and moral international order in the eyes of Meridianism, and imperialism, warmongering, and hegemonic rhetoric are thus considered a great evil which Meridianists are obliged to oppose in all respects.

A culture of cliquishness pervades nearly every aspect of Meridianist society, as much a result of the loss of social trust within Meridian society after decades of foreign rule, instability, and anarchy, as an inheritance of the ideology’s origin as an initially secret group within Kutáḫarku’s own personal clique, itself one of the countless subcliques that composed the greater Valtameri Clique. This cliquishness is the most controversial aspect of Meridianism, both amongst the masses and within the party. Some, particularly amongst the Shurayu and rural Cervidians, uphold this tendency as an a positive aspect of Meridianist society, emphasizing it as an example of freedom of association and attributing much of their peoples’ ability to overcome their recent hardships to this heightened ingroup bias, while others, namely the Acadiemeridiens, Synkomdi, and urban Cervidians who represent the more individualistic peoples of the Republic consider this cliquishness unfair, discriminatory, primitive, in opposition to the principle of a united Meridia, and little more than an excuse for legal corruption and potentially an engine for the Shurayification of Meridian society. The Meridianist Party’s response the cliquism endemic in society has thus far been disjointed and inconsistent, a clear indication of its lack of consensus on the matter, with Kutáḫarku refraining from establishing an official party line concerning it and cases regarding accusations of nepotism, ethnic supremacism, and religious particularism are handled as a one-of-one occurrence, with rulings often varying wildly depending on the province or town they occur in, and who the official charged with handling the matter is. Many of the institutions within the Republic such as the military, civil service, and guilds increasingly resemble an ever-shifting mosaic of cliques and subcliques based on any number of shared attributes, a nascent echo of the immaculately-ordered Atrahasian society of the Old City, wherein due to the extreme importance Shurayu place on lineage and the filial piety taught by Atrahasis, guilds were as much familial blocs as they were leagues of tradesmen, with families of similar trades marrying into eachother for generation after generation, creating an unofficial caste system. Already this pseudo-caste system seems it might be reborn under the five-colored banner of the Republic, as many families, particularly among the elite, have begun to pragmatically engage in the Shurayu custom of arranged marriage in order to gain advantage in this cliquish society, though among the lower classes, less concerned with matters of power, prestige, and lineage, couples still overwhelmingly marry for love, with an increasing quantity of Shurayu counted among this number.

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