Matrix Games

Vic (VR Designs) is hard at work on completing the upcoming Republica DLC for Shadow Empire, an expansion that places politics at the heart of the experience. This series of articles aims to explore each of the 9 political systems that will be playable with Republica DLC. 

The eight entry in the series is: "Tyranny". 

Autocratic Supreme Leaders are seen as an example to emulate at a lower scale by their henchmen, what could go wrong?

Moodboard: Tyranny

A pompous figure adorned in fancy clothing and gemstone jewelry, with a massive governor's chain around his thick neck, stood in front of the main view window. "Damn, damn," he mumbled. His face was as red as a tomato, twisted in fury. "Goddamn, what are those plebeian peons doing in front of our beautiful offices?" ask-shouted Governor Zoomray, known to his people as “the Gov.”

His security officers and police sergeants were blocking the raucous rabble outside from entering the administrative buildings. One of the sergeants reported to the Gov, “They are from the Southern District, and they want their children back.”

“Children?” inquired the Gov, “Which damned children?”
“Yes sir, remember the student protests a few weeks ago? The FEM? The Freedom & Equality Movement they called themselves. About two hundred or so. We took the whole bunch off the streets.”

Zoomray seemed to deflate a bit. “Yes, I remember,” he said, “didn’t I… ehm… personally participate in the… ehm… interrogations?” The sergeant hesitated, visibly uncomfortable, and received an elbow in the ribs from the senior officer standing next to him. The Gov fixed his gaze on the senior officer and snapped, “Holy frack, answer me!”

“Yes sir,” said the senior officer. “For crying out loud,” the Gov hissed, “just disperse them, will you… open fire, whatever! Make them disappear! And do it now!”

The senior officer quickly whispered orders to the police sergeants, and three of them trotted towards their squads at the gates. “Jeesh,” said the Gov to the embarrassed senior officer, “why do I have to do everything myself around here?”

Outside, the shouted orders of the sergeants could be heard as police squads tightened their lines, preparing for offensive operations. The Gov lit a cigar.

“I thought you might have wanted to talk to them first,” the senior officer replied. During this exchange, the junior officers had started inspecting the laces of their boots. The Gov put his hands on his hips and retorted, “Talk? What would you have me say? Your children are gone? I tortured them, killed some of them accidentally, and then dropped the ones still alive in the deep desert?”

He paused, took a deep drag from his cigar, and blew out a large cloud of smoke. “No… better just chase them off. You know that… you all know that!” 

Outside, police squads were now battering the demonstrators, driving a wedge through their midst. Two armored cars rolled onto the pavement. The cries and occasional gunshots were muffled but audible through the thick plexiglass view window.

The Gov looked once more at the officers surrounding him. He sneered at them and grumbled, “Get this done, and I’ll see you all in two hours for the daily staff meeting. Now, where is my damned secretary?” He turned his back on the officers and marched off, without goodbyes, towards his offices in the heart of the compound.

The officers remained silent, exchanging uneasy glances with each other. The senior officer cleared his throat. “This is starting to become awkward,” he said. The junior officers nodded. “Recruitment is not going well anymore,” the senior officer continued. “I also heard from the head Apparatchik over at the civilian side that they’re having similar problems keeping the production lines staffed.”

Benjamin, the youngest officer, asked naively, “How so, sir?”
The senior officer sighed. “Benjamin, why did you sign up for the officer academy?”
“To serve the emperor! To protect my family’s estates from revolutionary rabble like the ones outside, sir!” Benjamin replied promptly.

“Yes, yes…” sighed the senior officer. “That’s exactly why you signed up. Now… tell me… why would that poor rabble over there sign up?”

Tyrant Gov is fed up with complaints

Designer Notes: The Fragile Balance of Absolute Power

Autocracy is the absence of checks and balances and the rule of one person… the Autocrat to be precise. 

In theory this is a political system that could provide justice and wealth to its citizens, as much as any other system could. However there is a complete absence of checks and balances in an autocracy. The autocrat cannot deal with everything so his underlings will take care of many aspects of daily national and zone management. 

When Virtus drops the Leaders forget that the government should be obeyed out of love for the Nation. They’ll start taking the easy road and will settle for obedience out of Fear. Commanding love is hard, installing Fear is easy. Some personalities will be more prone to this kind of thinking, than others, but it is tempting for all… Why not? Nobody is there to stop them.

The measures taken by the underlings of the Autocrat will become harsher and harsher. Eventually harsh beyond reason and the Leaders on the Politburo and on important positions will start to behave more and more like Tyrants. At some point this will make the Autocracy devolve into a Tyranny.

Now… A Tyranny is a nasty place to live in and it will breed more and more little Tyrants, even Sadists, among your Leaders. They’ll keep control for you, sure they will, but they will run their part of your empire as their own little empire. They’ll become egocentric and very brutal. This comes at a steep price in excessive Happiness and Loyalty loss, Fear and loss of life among your Populace. 

A Tyranny with plenty of abuse can seed the seeds of a popular uprising or a palace revolution. In the story above we see both options starting to materialize. The lower ranks of the leadership are starting to realize that the nation is suffering for the personal gratification of the “Gov”, while the Populace is out of the street, probably starting to support rebels as well. 

It is possible to steer these little Tyrants, like the “Gov”  back on the path of righteousness but to do so Virtus has to be increased. This requires some very serious diversions such as launching a crusade on a neighbouring nation. Nothing like an exterior enemy to reduce interior problems, right? 

There is also the radical option of allowing Fanatics to thrive and spread a new gospel. These Fanatics don’t care about themselves, only about the Nation and its glorious supreme Autocrat (you). They’ll stamp out any Tyrants and Sadists, they’ll return Virtus and turn the Supreme Leader into a God. This will stop any unnecessary loss of life among the Populace. However be warned that the Fanatics will eventually tend to stamp out anybody that doesn’t share their level of zeal. And their zeal will go further and further. Opting for a Fanatical Autocracy is a dangerous gamble of the dice.