Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
I've been talking with the leaders of other Neutral factions, and this is a subject that's been on my mind a lot recently. A lot of you know that I'm a grad student in international relations, so the 'major factions' game is one of the things that's always interested me most about this board and the board where I started RP'ing. I like watching patterns take shape, governments define themselves by their actions, treaty relationships rise and fall, non-state actors mold events. It's fascinating.
One of the most compelling elements, to me, is that struggles don't have to be polarized to be dynamic. If you look at the map right now, nine factions hold power. Of those nine, if you go look in the faction directory, seven are labelled as Neutral and two are labelled as Light Side - the Republic and the Fel Imperium. An eighth, also labelled Neutral, is about to be added. With the fall of the Sith Empire, and those two ostensibly Light Side factions excepted, every faction on the board identifies as neutral.
Why is that? At least five potential reasons come to mind.
Why do I, and others, have an issue with seven out of nine factions being Neutral and none being Dark Side? What implications does this have for the board's hard, soft, structural, and projected power dynamics? Is this a problem for the board as a whole and, if so, why?
Let's transition back to the Star Peace thing. Does having so many neutral factions cause stagnation? One indicator might be invasions.
Does this mean that, when the balance of Light vs Dark shifts immensely, a Neutral faction needs to step up, change itself, and fill the gap?
So why do we have neutral factions at all?
Is this a call for more neutral factions?
Is this a call for some of those neutral factions to commit permanently to Light or Dark?
What needs to happen?
One of the most compelling elements, to me, is that struggles don't have to be polarized to be dynamic. If you look at the map right now, nine factions hold power. Of those nine, if you go look in the faction directory, seven are labelled as Neutral and two are labelled as Light Side - the Republic and the Fel Imperium. An eighth, also labelled Neutral, is about to be added. With the fall of the Sith Empire, and those two ostensibly Light Side factions excepted, every faction on the board identifies as neutral.
Why is that? At least five potential reasons come to mind.
- A desire to be uninvolved in the great struggles, at least for now; to write stories in remote areas. Arguably, this could also be labelled fear of whatever great power is closest. But this can also be subdivided into cowardice and survival, or simply waiting for a great power to wane.
- Recruitment. Anyone who watches American politics can tell you about the race to the middle, the attempt to capture the moderate vote. I'm currently one of three faction admins and nine High Council members in the Fringe. The other two faction admins have neutral rank tags, and more than one of the High Council members fall into similar categories. These are members we wouldn't have as a blatantly Dark Side faction.
- Political flexibility. Treaties are made and broken every couple of weeks. Your ally could become your enemy overnight. That's realistic, in a setting with unclaimed territory, numerous powerful actors, and hegemonic pressures -- I'm sure @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] could give you some more precise examples from European history. If you're the kind of faction who can befriend or fight nearly anyone -- the CIS, for example, has signed a treaty with nearly every faction on the board at one point or another -- you're in a good position in a lot of ways.
- Storytelling flexibility. In a neutral faction, more often than not, a range of characters means a range of potential stories. I've led polarized factions, here and elsewhere, and I've led neutral factions, here and elsewhere. The strictly light or dark ones
- Realism and political realist thought. Some claim there are no good governments or bad governments, and every government that claims righteousness winds up disproving itself sooner or later. Most just fall into the camp of a political school of thought called realism, to which nearly every faction leader on the board ascribes whether they know it or not: You do what's best for your people and leave other people up to their own leaders.
Why do I, and others, have an issue with seven out of nine factions being Neutral and none being Dark Side? What implications does this have for the board's hard, soft, structural, and projected power dynamics? Is this a problem for the board as a whole and, if so, why?
- Too many neutral factions, too few hard lines, or too many stagnant polarized factions, and we get what the inimitable Sio has termed 'Star Peace.' A large portion of the board enjoys individual-level RPs more than the 'grand game,' but another large portion spends its time considering the ebb and flow of power like stock prices, and Star Peace is boring for them.
- The consequence is a pushback effect in which the whole board, for shorter or longer periods, is focused on the great struggles and even the more petty examples of expansion and conquest. That's great for a good chunk of the board, but leaves others feeling delegitimized or even unwelcome.
- Too many neutral factions, in a Star Wars setting, lead to false assumptions based on personal biases, distance from various situations, or poor understanding of politics. When states don't act in accordance with our expectations of them, many people get uncomfortable and angry. If I discussed human rights and humanitarianism in Iran in the same breath as I discussed American atrocities -- see what I mean? Get a shallow idea of a country, listen to the wrong people, and you'll always be off.
- And that breeds drama, because people expect most factions on a Star Wars board to lean one way or the other. They expect factions to stand for something, but only in terms of a single variable - Light or Dark. All other principles are often delegitimized. For example, Moross stands for the will of its gods, OP stands for safe spacelanes and free trade, Fringe stands for individual freedoms and safety at any cost, but all these principles wind up being reduced to some point on a one-dimensional scale from Light to Dark.
Let's transition back to the Star Peace thing. Does having so many neutral factions cause stagnation? One indicator might be invasions.
- There have been 23 roleplays with the 'Invasion' tag in board history (24 counting Roche). Of those, a staggering 18 took place in 2014. Of those 24 invasions, 10 were against a faction labelled Neutral, and 9 were started by a faction labelled Neutral. 5 involved one Neutral faction invading another Neutral faction. 10 involved one polarized (Light Side or Dark Side) faction invading another polarized faction.
- This is a really small sample size with a lot of variables unaccounted for. Just on the surface, though, it looks like the Neutral factions are somewhat less willing to invade. If the Republic's recent blitzkrieg of the Sith Empire is removed, the numbers are more equal. Some might argue that, before said blitzkrieg, both the Republic and the Empire were acting in ways that others associated with Neutral factions -- specifically, not doing anything. But the numbers don't suggest that Neutral factions accomplish nothing.
- One interesting example is going on right now, as it happens. The three-way dance between OP, TGE, and Fringe has its roots 'way back in the Treaty of Ithor, when OP was a superpower and TGE and Fringe were upstarts banding together to avoid getting dragged into the big wars. At various points, these three governments have invaded each other, struck new treaties, made common cause, and otherwise jockeyed for position. I'm not the decision maker in Fringe anymore - we operate by consensus, and I've been outvoted a time or two. That means I've been able to sit back a bit and watch this really interesting situation unfold, knowing it could go in any direction depending on any number of factors. And by the end of this three-way mess between these three Neutral factions, the map will look very, very different and probably a whole lot less colorful. Aside from three or four Republic helpers at the Fondor invasion, this whole war has been Neutral factions and only Neutral factions.
- However, there's no question that the most dynamic changes have to do with polarized (Light or Dark) factions.
Does this mean that, when the balance of Light vs Dark shifts immensely, a Neutral faction needs to step up, change itself, and fill the gap?
- I tend not to think so. Certainly I don't see a reason to change my characters to suit someone else's needs. And ultimately, that'd be my choice, not some definition imposed on me. But that's a personal view, not a professional one.
- I think I've established that most factions in search of something to do will find someone to attack -- or even, as with the OP invasion of Kayri, invite someone to attack them. Alignment makes it easier to pick enemies, but ideology is far from the most common cause of war. Resources (SE vs Mandos over stygium). Territory (Fringe vs AE). Tension on common borders (OP vs Fringe). One power falling while another rises (Republic vs SE). Old grudges (Mandos vs SE). Fringe and OP have had a little war for months now - an invasion, neutral zone skirmishes, everything - even though they're structurally identical and ideologically pretty close as well. Ideology, whatever you learned as a kid in the last gasps of the Cold War, doesn't sum up the reasons for all wars, or even most wars.
- Is a Light vs Dark war necessary? Probably, yes -- but that can take various forms. Imagine a Republic controlling the bulk of the map, but fighting a shadow war against the One Sith, a non-state actor. To me, that's just as interesting a situation as Republic vs Empire. Who knows -- Republic rules all, One Sith corrupt it, rebellion rules could happen. Fun ensues.
So why do we have neutral factions at all?
- Han Solo. Qui-Gon Jinn. Even Dooku to some extent. Not all heroes are paragons, not all villains are pure malevolence. Fundamentally, Star Wars is about motion from bad to good or good to bad, and transitory stages matter. Some people express those transitory stages by being a Sith with some good in him, or a Jedi with some bad, or a Forcer or non-Forcer who can't be troubled about Light versus Dark. Those people need a place, and factions are created.
Is this a call for more neutral factions?
- We already have seven.
Is this a call for some of those neutral factions to commit permanently to Light or Dark?
- Draw your own conclusions; I've rambled long enough, and I have a few hundred pages of essays to grade. Personally, I say, why impose something that I wouldn't want imposed on me? CIS, Mandos, Fringe and others all have Lightsiders and Darksiders working together for common purpose. As far as I can tell, they still go to war same as anyone.
- Write what you want to write. Your faction is defined by only one thing: Your actions.
What needs to happen?
- All factions have been built with thousands of posts and months of work. People fear to lose what they value -- ships, territory, reputation, followers. They fear to look stupid or make a mistake. When nothing happens, that's why. So grab a friend, even if you've had your differences, and go to war with him or her. Take hits, take losses, make mistakes, go for the jugular. Be ferocious IC. OOC, follow Wheaton's Law.
- Don't drive people off the board with a 'toughen up' attitude. It's easy to say 'you shouldn't take it personally' when you're winning.
- OOC, invite another faction to invade you, like Fringe did with OP at Kayri. Maybe it's strategically sound, maybe not, depends on your circumstances. What it will do is make for a good war that has far less drama.
- Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of invasions to plan.