User:Monet47/The Fictionsverse And it's Reflection On Reality

While doing some browsing on the web I took notice that some things that happen (or receptions of certain figures) in the fiction universe while they may make a good story or are based on assumptions by users, DO somehow reflect attitudes and situations here in our own real world. So here I will attempt to examine such situations that I have noticed starting with my own (not trying to be too biased or anything, but I logically have them ost knowledge of my own fiction)

Monarchies still exist? How?
As I have noticed on the internet, some people would like nothing more than to see this archaic form of government go away. And with good reason: The public has no say in who is chosen as leader, the monarch's command is mandate and these days many monarchs defer the day-to-day business of running a country to either a cabinat of ministers or a full-blown parliament. So the question is why we have empires that are still commanded by a hereditary monarch.

Okay this may be reasonable in authoritarian civilisations where the government enforces that a king's/queen's word is law: The DCP and the Zazane Empire are such examples. But what about more liberal civilisations with more open electorates such as Rambo Nation or the Draconid Imperium? Well let's look at the United Kingdom, one of the most influential nations on Earth that is still presided over by a monarch. As well as being a nice bit of heritage, the queen of England is also one of the nation's most famous diplomats alongside other members of the royal family. Anyone who is aware of the hype over Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge may remember the utter tankerloads of merchandise being sold in the UK and abroad including mugs, plates, prints and novelty teapots. The British Monarchy also attracts millions of tourists every year to walk round places like the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. While the royal family are high-maintanence, they also stimulate an annual revenue of about £500 million for the UK economy. And if the latter half of this chapter of a foreign visit is contemplated on, the Rambo Nation and Draconid Imperium are doing exactly this; they still have monarchies, but by existing they draw in tourists and foreign money.

The widespread use of holographic projection also theoretically means that visitors who desire ot see such grand palces as the Alcanti Roal Palace can do so from the comfort of their own homes or a local holosuite, which means that there is no restraint on how many people can visit these places per day. Even somewhere that is traditionally off-limits to anyone but specific people such as the aforementioned palace.

Misconceptions on governments
It came to my attention earlier today that the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not in fact the top of the government's pecking order. In fact he's not even the second-in-command. The real guys with the most power are the Guardian Council, twelve figures who have control over what goes into Iran's constituation and have enough power to drop presidential candaidates if they are not satisfied the candidates are upholders of the Islamic tenets. Yet despite this, many westerners have long-assumed that the Iranian President is the one calling all the shots because in the West that's kind-of what we imagine a president doing.

And the fiction universe has quite similar thing going on.

Take Uriel Ultanos. The Paragon of the Draconid Imperium and thus an emperor, the top-man, the head of state, the guy who's word is mandate across a million worlds...or is he?

I've had people come to me before accusing Uriel of being a tyrant, an upholder of the "Old ways" or a promoter of a system such as the sub-citizen policy. I've even seen one or tw ocharacter speak as though he's an affront to the liberty of his population. Yet he's none of that mainly because he has far less than absolute power. If he wants to do something big, either the Chancellor or the Grand-Senate have to reach a consensus with him. This very system, designed to prevent him from going compeltely off-the-rails and power mad, is what keeps him from declaring emancipation on all sub-citizens or completely turning the grand senate on its head - its not going to be accepted and thus it will not be passed.

Yet like the Iranian president or the President of the United States - the latter a position that dubs its owner  "the most powerful man in the world"  - He can only carry out his plans so long as the council that governs the day-to-day agree with them. And like these two, when political discussion or comics come out, he's the caricature representing his nation.

He's even been criticised purely because his position is not a democratic or a presidential one. So go fiture.

Theism in a liberal society has yet to fade
One thing I have noticed among science fiction writers: Humanity in the future, alongside highly advanced aliens, are atheist. The thousands of world religions have either become obsolete or extinct, or they've been replaced by religious organisations whos' faith comes from something physical. Organised religion is kept alive in many science-fiction works by the devotion of the the uneducated or the unintelligent. The message seems ot be that with intelligence and social advancement comes atheism.

Yet notice how two of the most advanced and powerful nations on Earth (USA and Russia) is also still considerably swayed by Christian doctrine. ANd for the Fictionverse we have the Draconid Imperium, the Divinarium, Rambo Nation the Draconizane Dominion and most infamously of all the Dominion of the Xhodocto. All these nations are superpowers and religion still plays a siignificant part in their society. Granted how heavily the dominant religion has varies with nation. However when you remove the ones that don't have liberal systems or concrete knowledge that their gods actually exist, we're left with the Imperium and Rambo Nation. And granted Rambo Nation's case is iffy due to what the Atlantica left behind but unlike the Draconizane and Xhodocto dominions, the patron dieties of these nations are relatively non-interacting, so there is little logical reason why people still follow doctrone.

I can't give an answer as to why non-intervening gods are still honoured considering that question has yet to be answered here on Earth, but what I can say is that the fictionverse defies least one sci-fi correlation that is also defied in real life - belief in god(s) being domain of the uneducated. This indication is backed up on Earth by the fact one must be Christian to run for President of the United States (and there have been some pretty brainy presidents) and a good number of them have solid educational backgrounds. The same can be said for noteables in the First Gigaquadrant. While the subject of someone being a theist is less of an issue in the gigaquadrant. We do have some noteable geniuses like Voro'Acetee, Venoriel, Helo Rosalia and Larnus Vontarion who happen to put faith in the existence of higher powers even if evidence of their existence is skant at best.

Every nation has its black marks and dark days
Even if the universe occasionally sways into "black and white morality" territory, it is still very unlikely to find a nation that doesn't have a spotless reputation (Even Rambo Nation considering that for a time it's empress was in fact a Xhodocto in disguise). This is true of every single real-world nation to date. It perhaps stems from the notion that there is no human being alive who has never once tied telling a lie, been jealous, angry, afraid or depressed. Considering that a solid nation would have had a few leaders plus several advisors and provincial heads, its hard to imagine that not one of these people in any given country has made a mistake.

And this idea of spotless records being nonsense is reflected on the characters of the gigaquadrant - If a nation hasn't done at least one thing to make another nation furious for whatever reason then its probably too young to be of any prominence on the gigaquadrantic stage. From the Wranploer and Kvargo genocides of Borealis and the exile of the Marinar to the forceful expulsion of extragalactics during the rise of the Cyrannian Empire and the bloodthirsty reign of Moxix Breek as emperor of the Zazane EMpire, most nations are sure to have at least one period in their history that people - perhaps on both sides of the events - would rather not talk about.

Slavery is still a thing
What do the DCP, Draconid Imperium, Draconizane Dominion, Drakodominatus Tyranny, Wranploer legions and Cognatus Empire all have in common?

A caste of the population treated as property.

There may be even more as depending on who you ask, slavery can include working for a pitance in a sweatshop. By these terms modern society still relies on "slavery" to an extent. It actually quite dark to think that while slavery here o nEarth is slowly and progressively being abolished, there are entire interstellar empires sprawling across thousands of star systems out there who couldn't care less on what those 18th century abolitionists were talking about.

Another aspect of this is brought up by the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus yet to a more extreme degree; while offically slavery is illegal in Imperial space, it still happens. And the government largely turns a blind eye. This is a problem in most of the developed world where - despite slavery being fought against in courtrooms and parliaments in these countries first - there is still a significant human trafficking issue and its possible the Gigaquadrant may be little different. THis is especially true when you have organisations like the Panthera Slaver Guild, the Borealis consortiums and the Cyrannian Synedicate still making a tidy profit passing sapients around in exchange for cold hard currency.

The futility of terrorists toppling empires
This one is touchy but as some may know I'm a cynic on the War on Terror. And I do have evidence for this belief, for one its been almost 13 years since one of the most traumatising attacks on U.S. soil and the biggest hit to American infrastrucuture and the longevity of the nation has been an economic slump (which had nothing ot do with them). I suppose that's what you get when a group of extremists in the developing middle-east decide they want to reduce one of the most economically pervasive nations in the world to a riot-ridden ruin.

Even with access to laser guns and portable explosives with the power of the Tsar Bomba, terrorist groups in the fictionverse aren't faring any better. The Brotherhood - the enigmatic and sinister antagonists of New Dawn - were only really able to come to prominence after cannibalising and somehow reverse-engineering technology originally developed by the original Tertamian Alliance. That's like the Taliban somehow getting its hands on a steady supply of of T90 tanks, H&K guns and F-22 Raptors and then going Team America on the local region.

On am ore realistic side you have the Sons of Urzgov. Originally the group was founded as a means for free Korkonid to find a safe haven but after the original leader died, and after numerous stomp-outs by the Imperial Talon Navy, the SOns are little more than glory-seeking anarchists who are either causing acts of wanton vandalism or running from the navy, whichever is more appropriate for the moment. Like Al-Quaeda with the US they want the Imperium brought ot its knees. And like Al-Quaeda they haven't the faintest chance in hell and the bst they can do is commit acts to actually look dangerous; a strategy achieved by blowing stuff up and killing loads of people, hoping that mainstream media will take notice because shocking news draws viewers.

The only "terrorists" I can see who had a chance were the Free Peoples Coalition. However their revolt was largely possible because the people who were rising up were the ones keeping the Drakodominatus Tyranny's factories and mines working, thus the act of revolt all but demolished their target's industrial base. Crippling the industrial base by widespread protest and revolt was potentially how Spartacus' revolt managed to do as much damage to the Roman Empire as it did.

Openness to democracy equates to quality of life
The, the Kraw Empire and. Considered beacons of freedom and peace in the gigaquadrant and are veritable utopias where everyone lives happy long and prosperous lives free of oppresion. But let's look at the other side of the spectrum: The and the , both are factions that several prominent nations in the intergalactic community would rather just go away.

Except that contrary to what images are conjured up, people in these two empires are pretty decent and life is pretty good overall (so long as you obey the law). This is the trend that democratic nations always make progressive choices while non-democratic nations such as dictatorships and perhaps monarchies are stagnant in their progression. However when you look at these nations in depth, notice that this is not exactly the case. While the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus only makes itself look democratic, its standard of living could be higher than either the predecessor URC or the CAS were and Cyrannians themselves - if a little more snobbish than before - are still fairly decent people.

Often the problem is how the government presents itself and in the case of the Dominion and the Empire, this is quite an accurate hypothesis; the former's highest leaders could not care less about mortal welfare while the latter's leaders are only interested in the progression of the empire as a whole before all other nations. Despite this attitude, I'm told by the users that created them that living standards in both are pretty good. And one's life can be fairly happy so long as they don't step out of line.

They say never judge a book by its cover and there is credance to this. The NATO coalition that fought within Iraq during the first and second gulf wars were working under the message of liberating the region from dictatorship and improving the regiona living standards. Before the first gulf war however, the Iraqi government had been instituting a state literacy programme and prohibited forced marriages, which would have greatly improved the quality of life for its citizens. There have been both UK and international citizens critical of the British Monarchy but as I pointed out above, the Monarchy simply existing provides a great boost to the UK tourist industry.

Perhaps the most controversial example is  "Draconidophobia" , which some may have heard of. It was a propaganda campaign by the Kraw Empire that labelled the Draconid Imperium as a faction of heartless imperialists who were a grave threat to freedom in the Kraw Galaxy. The outcome? There were citizens who were fully convinced they had a  higher quality of life  than one of Andormeda's most prominent superpowers. This is comparable to the social opinions between the US and USSR. While the American government and media tried to push that the Soviet Union was a totalitarian hellhole, the truth was it was a totalitarian hellhole that offered free comprehensive healthcare, complimentary housing and a civil rights stance that may or may not have been slightly more progressive than in the States. Bear in mind that at the time, the US had and still has a privatised healthcare system, veterens of Vietnam returned home to financial insecurity and potentially homelessness and depending on where you went (avoid the southern states), institutionalised racism was still a critical problem.

Pure wars of ideology rarely happen
Before I step on toes I will elaborate on what I mean: A "pure" war of ideology is when two factions come into violent terms primarily over differing ideologies. Wars often have many complex resions for starting based on the situation but very rarely in the real world is a violent war fought over two concepts and little else. The most infamous iseological wars - the Crusades, the 2003 Gulf War and the Cold War all ahd ideological backing, but as is evident with the protests regarding the 2003 Iraq War, there's always another more practical agenda - resources, territory, or good old desire supremacy (I wouldn't consider a desire to be top dog as ideological).

Here on Sporewiki we've had a few wars that appeared ideological such as the Great Cyrannus War and the now-ended War of the Cleansing Flames, perhaps the odd genocide. The Cyrannian War is interesting because both sides were fighting over which  democratic nation  as better...or were they? Perhaps like all second-place superpowers they desperately wanted to stand on top, their supporters kept talking about how bloated the URC senate was becoming and the powderkeg was an incident deemed a moment of failure for democracy. Thing is, if there was really disagreement as to how democracy was being demonstrated in the URC and CAS, would a full-on invasion really be the best idea? Here on Earth Russia and the US have a to-and-fro relationship and the recent incidents in Syria and the Ukraine made it look like the US may have been poised ot do something...except both sides tried their very hardest not to end up coming to blows. The two powers may question how each other is governed but they're not going to go to war over who has the better government.

The Asgord Genocide may possibly be another one. The asgord were a peaceable and ever-friendly species (a little too friendly if you ask me), who were responded to by being masacred by the billions, half the time they appeared oblivious ot the fact people had come to kill them. Was there any ideological factor here? Not really, all the attacking factions cosnidered Asgord behaviour a jagged pain in their backsides, the Tralor got involved because their emperor considered an Asgord diplomat's behaviour as tantamount to rape and felt offended when the Asgord did not follow Lanat EMpire etiquette (the diplomat was performing under the belief the Tralor behaved just like the Asgord when it came to leaders). OKay this may be slightly iffy considering it came down to difference in cultural opinion but the Tralor were not exterminating the Asgord for being rude. The extermination was for a long-standing intolerance (a common reason for war in clan disputes) that reached boiling point.

Yes, the War of the Cleansing Flames was supposed to be an extreme example of order verses anarchy but I ask you this: Which did it look like the Omega Commander was more partial to? A stable USO where he controlled everything, or complete control of everyones' movements and free will in Borealis? If the latter, then Cleansing Flames wasn't an ideological war, it was a battle for supremacy. Ideologies were padding in this case. The War of Ages saga was for the most part a war for survival. The Second War of Twilight was much like the Crusades - a foreign army invading to claim what they consider symbolically theirs with stuff about "salvation if our opponents are open-minded" thrown in as extra.

Ideology does have a hand in many conflicts, but there are other factors that it is often more of a single ingrediaent than the bulk of the broth.

Cultural assumptions based on popular media
I talked the other day about how the trope known as "planet of hats" could be racism-inducing but recollections regarding in-universe attitudes towards Cyrannians and Draconis kinda reinforced what mindset may have come ot some people: What you think of a people all comes from reading the news or seeing their tv shows.

Let me give an example or two: Common opinion on Capricornians is they're all posh lizards who drink tea and possibly frown on anyone outside of Cyrannus...except we have pompous types like the Basileus (the bulk of the source of capricornian superiority), aggresive types like the Corinithus (one famous picture has one holding the severed head and spine of an Asgord) and the devious Fermi-tuu. There are even some very friendly and welcoming capricornians like Apollo. Also I am told that when it comes to the Cyrannian Empire, the bulk of snobbiness comes from the government, while the peopel are much more cosmopolitan.

Alongside them are the the Draconis; again, posh lizards. However in the story Revelations to Come, an Artharon berates Sarec (a Draconis) by telling him that Draconis, being all aristocrats, should be too cowardly to get their hands dirty. Okay so maybe this Artharon did have a massive ego, however he does admit to fighting with members of the Talon Marine Corps, AKA Draconis with guns and power armour. Although maybe like many racists he has a terrible sense of judgement and a highly selective internal knowledge pool.

One very nice example of this real-world concept coming into play is, again, Draconidophobia. Thanks to media bias, the citizens of the Kraw Galaxy came to believe that all Imperial citizens are imperialistic and pro-slavery. Although on the other end, it is a favouritism towards high-borw entertainment like opera, concerts and intellectual TV shows that spurred this near-universal image that Draconis (and to an extent DI citizens in general) are all wine-drinking snobs who sit in armchairs wearing long embridered silk robes tutting at the "younger races".

How does this link with reality? Well, Cracked.com studied this with a list of things that Americans believe about foreigners. When it comes to learning about foreign cultures, one of the most common ways that we experiece them is by watching their TV or their films. For some reason, a population is largely immune to national sterotyping when watching its own programmes and the majority are able to tell what is true and what is an exaggeration. With foreign entertainment...well that's when things gat harder to decipher. If you know nothing about a culture, it can be hard to tell what on a show is considered "typical" behaviour and what has been exaggerated for drama or comedy because if you don't already know the culture, it can be impssible to tell what is typical for them. For instance; if we went by TV, everyone in Japan is obsessed with honour, every middle-to-old age man from the middle-east has a beard, Scandinavians live off mead and fish and everyone from London speaks with a cockney accent. If you're from these places or if you already have a proper understanding of what these places are like, you can spot the stuff that only comes up in media. If not, its likely your brain will probably treat any show or story about country X as some kind of documentary because it has no idea what country X is like.

This principle is one of the lead causes of how stereotypes like "All Zazane live only to kill things", "All Draconis turn their nose up at sitcoms", "No one in Cyrannus is a close-combat master", "All Radeons worship Spode", "All humans are weak, horny and squishy" and "All Kicath will tear your head and spinal cord out for budging past them" are born in-universe, given how integrated internet and phone connections are to peoples' lives.