WORLDBUILDING GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICS - Terrible Writing Advice

[@sdagoth3037]

I'm willing to cut writers some slack on this topic, we aren't even able to construct decent governments in the real world.

[@neoqwerty]

The closest I've seen us come to was Minecraft servers (not as a whole, either, just the ones where you're stuck in Adventure Mode and can't actively grief anything).

[@thekingofchange1428]

This

[@SkippertheBart]

​@neoqwerty You mean the society was peaceful because an absolute power was preventing the population from violence by actively hampering their ability to harm each other? Accidental Fascism.

[@menschgebliebenergossenpar9213]

Thats... the smartest and truest argument I have read in a good while on the webs

[@RealRexRiplash]

​@SkippertheBart That's just laws, dude. Me stabbing someone and having my access to knives revoked isn't "fascism."

[@DShakey]

If you play enough hoi4, you will eventually develop a sixth sense to tell when a fictional government was designed by someone who plays hoi4.

[@Noperare]

When you can differentiate 20 forms of socialism, you know you been deep fried into HOI4 Mods.

[@laayiv9449]

I was going to say something, but I realize it wouldn't be true because I don't play hoi4 I play eu4 very, very poorly. And I mean, having like 30 names for monarchies and not making them in any way different from each other (also I find Christian sultanates way too often) is probably not great either

[@shellshockedgerman3947]

I'm waiting until people use Victoria 3 to base off their governmental system lol.

[@professorcube5104]

​@@Noperarekaiserredux moment

[@Jaxon_America]

​@@professorcube5104 my heckkin syndaclisirinooooo😢

[@newdawngamingchannel]

Hoi4 politics: “i wanna form austria hungry” - world conquest “I wanna form buzantium” - world conquest “I want that one province over my boarder” - world conquest

[@weedmantrudeau5783]

something something war is different politics clausewitz

[@emberfist8347]

Or HOI4 politics: Iceland goes “Denmark has fallen so when in Rome join the Axis because being non-aligned like we were historically would make impossible for the historical invasion of Iceland by the UK to happen.”

[@dimamatat5548]

That's the cringe base game. The mods have way more defined and well-written politics.

[@adambrande]

​@@dimamatat5548oh yeah the mods where you can have 3 million soldiers but can't fucking use them anyways because the mod restrict war justifications to events

[@dimamatat5548]

@@adambrande At least there is no blind world conquest and there's actual story.

[@javonyounger5107]

Just make entire governments defined by one or two key traits that also line up with the hats- I mean the culture of their people.

[@mariustan9275]

And make the king (always a king no exceptions) is the most hattiest person of the entire race!

[@weedmantrudeau5783]

this but unironically; I literally do not care about aragorn's tax policy

[@theod4660]

@@mariustan9275Hey now, that’s slander. I will have you know, it could also be a queen/empress. And yes, if it’s a she, she will 100% of the time be hot and in love with the hero.

[@arturnicaciodeandrade9861]

(((Hats)))

[@juliamavroidi8601]

​@@theod4660Yes, but if she's a queen, she aldo has to be powerhungry, evil and insane. If she were good, she'd be callef princess instead

[@williamtehan4028]

The right way to write politics in story is to make your least favourite politician the villain

[@UXMetalVTuber]

And remember to have all of their supporters completely agree with their every action!...Except for that one totally not obvious traitor scheming in the back!

[@iceyflowergamer4474]

Or better yet, make them so blatantly evil that you wonder “how the hell does this guy even have so many followers?”

[@kingofcards9516]

'orange man bad' amiright? /S

[@RevantheBlack]

Alternatively, make it so all of your favorite politicians end up in power and totally aren’t two faced power hoarding pieces of human excrement like most politicians are in real life.

[@veggsbacon1891]

95% of modern amurican "superhero" comics and maybe boring indie comics.

[@ceinwenchandler4716]

I love how one of the things you listed as an issue with democracy was "a conversation with the average voter." So true.

[@cam4636]

Unfortunately, democracy can often mean the largest group of idiots gain power.

[@descendantofartorias2067]

Plato: called it.

[@somethingcraft3148]

It was also a quote from Winston Churchill.

[@hubertk7363]

Features: peaceful transition of power Historical examples: The Roman Republic

[@HellbirdIV]

Technically the transition from Republic to Empire was very peaceful, because the ""Republic"" was still going for a couple decades after all the civil wars and assassinations!

[@Nai-qk4vp]

@@HellbirdIV And if I drink an entite barrel of beer I technically "only had one beer".

[@jasonstormsong4940]

@@HellbirdIVThe Roman Republic and peaceful transitions of power are like oil and water.

[@CDexie]

​@@jasonstormsong4940wasn't the Roman Empire the one with the bloody civil wars over succession?

[@ale-xsantos1078]

​@@CDexie Not really, the Republic had Civil Wars all the time and the Empire just promised that giving all the power to one guy(again) would solve it You can guess how well that worked

[@Ramschat]

As a small note from a history student: The Seven Kingdoms from ASOIAF is really a feudal monarchy, not an absolutist one. The difference being that local/regional lords have a lot of autonomy and rights that the King must respect to stay in power.

[@DoggyHateFire]

That's one thing I love about the world of Westeros. The king does have a lot of power, but he is completely aware that being overthrown is a real possibility if he loses the consent of the great houses.

[@GrndAdmiralThrawn]

@@DoggyHateFireConsidering the worldstate at the start of the series, the king would be acutely aware of this, as he himself was a noble with no claim to the throne who overthrew the previous king.

[@alwaysonyourtail2563]

@@GrndAdmiralThrawn building onto that statement is the no one little begger that fought his way to power, then turns his power into a sword and starts swinging down. this king actually makes cents why he became evil for if a nobody could rise so high then anyone could be a threat to his rule.

[@tompatterson1548]

Sounds like federalism.

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@tompatterson1548 It isn't federalism. Joffery himself even mentioned to Cersei that Westeros should have a centralized standing army instead of him having to ask his Lords for help. Idk how taxes work there but if the Crown was in massive debt while the Lords weren't then it sounds like they don't have federalized tax collection either.

[@ruggiebuggie3195]

Y’know, some people get home from work, look at the news, then curl up with a fantasy book that is exactly just the world they already live in except everyone wears leather bracers.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

Not true; sometimes there's glowy magic crystals!

[@viperstriker4728]

@@imveryangryitsnotbutter Isn't that LCD (Liquid-crystal display)?

[@pancakes8670]

I don't wanna hear about Hitler invading Europe! I wanna read a book about Hitler invading a European-coded setting with dragons!

[@ashstarwind9595]

@@viperstriker4728 Precisely LED. Pure LCD are not glowing

[@naomistarlight6178]

I think a successful writer is one who can make the familiar seem alien and vice versa.

[@cloudy4days735]

Government: "Being dead is no excuse for not paying your taxes."

[@edwardblangsted4540]

They will get their money, one way or the other

[@zenvariety9383]

Also Government: We need the dead to cast their votes.

[@sirsmiles1915]

No one escapes the warth of the IRS

[@Noperare]

That sounds funny for how dystopian and inhuman it sounds, then you remember that death taxes are a real thing. So when planning who gets what when you die, always remember the government will get a big slice.

[@zenvariety9383]

@@Noperare yeah, a huge point of contention many Americans have is that the government became more and more corrupt. Every 4-8 years the USA changes what it stands for dramatically due to the corrupt career politicians. Not to mention election fraud and the government hating the citizens and viewing them as mere pawns in order to win elections. If only the government could be more decentralized. Honestly a revamp of the Constitutional monarchy system where the monarch has more control, but is bound to the constitution and still having elected representatives could be interesting. More or less similar to how CEOs and the board work to produce a quality product and care about the customer. One would think a monarch would care a lot more about the people he or she governs.

[@downix]

The phrase "Mussolini made the trains run on time" was ironic. His solution to the trains was to eliminate the schedules entirely. No schedule, cant be late!

[@1krani]

Same with Stalin. He made the trains arrive on time by having them blaze through the stations. Can't be late if you rarely stop!

[@downix]

@@1krani I have several sources which discuss how regularly the trains ran in the Soviet Union during the 1930's, so I would appreciate your source for a counter claim.

[@1krani]

@@downix Well, that one is anecdotal from an old former Soviet, so I can't provide an online source (that I could find, anyway; if it's there, it wasn't SEO). However, the overreliance on rail for transport of goods meant that a lot of manufacturing and supply was stifled during periods in the USSR, including the 1930s. And, as stated here, one of the ways to increase train flow is to increase average speed, a.k.a. decreasing the number of stops (and therefore slowdowns) along the route. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_the_Soviet_Union#Congestion_and_Failure_to_Transport

[@downix]

@@1krani I could easily see that being the case.

[@cam4636]

It's also very easy to say the trains ran on time when a) you control the press and b) you murder anyone who says differently. After all, what's _really_ the difference between the trains running on time, and everyone _saying_ the trains run on time?

[@reisen9235]

Kudos to JP for recognizing that a majority of Americans have no idea how thier own government works.

[@patrickflying17]

Its getting to the point where i'm starting to think that how it actually works is deliberately not told to make a clear political class within the states. that or civics are just not prioritized in common core.

[@josephmatthews7698]

No one knows how it works. Thats the point and the ones who think they know how it works are by far the most dangerous. Sure, we all know the basic stuff they teach in school like judicial, executive and legislative. The Senate, congress and state governments. "I'm a bill on Capitol Hill!" And all that fun stuff but thats how it works in an ideal world. In the real world it is very different with obstructive elected officials, corruption, backroom deals and tons of necessary compromises. The ones who think they know treat it like a team sport where one team claims government doesn't work then gets elected and proves it only mobilizing to throw meaningless 'culture war' scraps to their faithful. The other team is only interested in consolidating their own power while throwing meaningless 'culture war' scraps to their faithful. Still a ton better than how autocratic corporations are run and it's the best system of government people have ever tried on this Earth though. Bread and circuses.

[@leandersearle5094]

Not much of a realization, even mr. cynical down here doesn't recognize that operant and publicly facing cynicism/corruption dissolves faith in the system to the point where strongmen and totally-not-religions become a refuge from unrelenting decay.

[@Vangluss]

⁠@@leandersearle5094”totally-not-religions” I’m guessing this is a subtle nod to stuff like Qanon and other similar neo/religious movements?

[@stevemanart]

@@patrickflying17 The more I learn about the government the more I realize that not only do I know jack all (and I know more than many) but also that the whole point of government is to obscure itself from the common man. America is just the loudest about it because we're the loudest about nearly everything.

[@etharchildres3976]

I was so confused about politics, but really it’s simple. Person A wants. Person B wants. Person A wants want more. Person B tries to get person C to want wants more than Person A. Person B maybe wins. Person A still wants want. REPEAT.

[@SwedishDrunkard5963]

and then you have Person D who dont want

[@alastor8091]

Don't forget person E who has near total control over reporting on those events and is just a puppet for whoever's in charge stay in charge or whoever bribes them the most.

[@multilad816]

Don't forget Person F being accused being the mastermind of most negative political events

[@YatzeeWillWearAGreenHat]

That didn't help at all 😂

[@CoolNoQuestionMark]

A wants X. B wants Y. B makes C want the same thing as A. Voters split what they want between A and C because they want the same thing. B wins and gets Y because Voters for X are split.

[@jacoporegini8841]

As a political scientist who likes to read, boy do most writers know NOTHING about government and politics. Good thing JP is here to fix that.

[@alwaysonyourtail2563]

people not knowing how to write government is because EVEN lifetime big political leader don't really know how their own government work just how to networks better than their enemy's. any one part of a government has an insane amount of convoluted mountain of books that can and are ignored by people who actually work for that government section like lawyers defending law.

[@PropheticShadeZ]

​@alwaysonyourtail2563 most politicians know a lot more than they announce publicly.

[@dmaxcustom]

Nobody really knows how their government works. Everybody thinks they do, but no one does. I all know for sure, is that money is heavily involved.

[@jacoporegini8841]

@@dmaxcustom Well nobody knows ENTIRELY how every aspect of their government work, much like a doctor does not entirely know how his own body works, but he can have a pretty solid idea, especially in his own field of specialisation.

[@catmonarchist8920]

Most MPs don't even know how parliament works in the UK so I don't see how we can expect writers to.

[@ThePoliticrat]

Republics can also be empires. “Empire” is a purely geopolitical designation. “Republic” has to do with the internal political structure.

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

For example, Rome and Athens.

[@DistractedGlobeGuy]

​@@KaiHung-wv3ulwere the Athenians ever an imperial power before the Spartans took over? Actually, come to think of it, were the Greeks ever really an imperial power before the Macedonians took them over?

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

@@DistractedGlobeGuy The Athenians' Delian League was basically an empire.

[@naomistarlight6178]

People are sometimes shocked that democratic Athens had an empire, colonies, and slaves.

[@nicolebarfuss3067]

Rome wasn't called an empire until it had an emperor. empires are just more larger kingdoms.@@KaiHung-wv3ul

[@VoltismProductions]

for actual anarchy, see: spanish civil war, post ww1 ukraine also: war is politics by other means, and politics is war by other means. I think that is helpful to keep in mind

[@elpito9326]

In the Spanish Civil War there was no anarchist society. The anarcho-syndicalist union CNT was strong in many places and sometimes had quite a bit of power but it was always under the Republic's government, defended by the Republic's military and often funded with the Republic's taxes.

[@therat1117]

So in other words anarchy is only possible in the middle of a highly destructive civil war? Wow what an endorsement.

[@Videokirby]

Since they were so short-lived and during Civil Wars, most writers will have a hard time writing them convincingly. This is assuming they don't just write "It's perfect. lol" or "It's just Mad Max. lol" Can they survive outside a Civil War? How will disputes be settled? How can a commune effectively organize a fighting force against a foreign threat, *especially* an industrialized nation? How does it deal with the Paradox of Tolerance causing other ideologies to gain sway (Anarchism to Monarchism? :O)?

[@neoieo5832]

Somalia in the 70s or 90s i don't remember

[@109Rage]

There's also Rojava and MAREZ for more contemporary examples.

[@CharliMorganMusic]

You missed something when discussing Soft Power: - K-pop is soft power. - Anime is soft power. - Thai restaurants are soft power.

[@eeg-rh7jv]

Cultural power is underrated

[@orngjce223]

K-pop idols are trained in demanding idol schools, sometimes starting at as young as _ten years old,_ that run 10+ hours a day 6 days a week. The curriculum includes a grueling exercise routine supplemented further by dance classes, multiple hours of music practice a day, and coaching on spinning and sanitizing one's backstory (complete with giving up insufficiently photogenic friendships). Korea constantly turning up K-pop stars is not an accident. K-pop artists are _made on an assembly line._

[@PaGDu333]

> Travels to USA > Goes to Thai restaurant > No Pad Krapao > Depressed

[@vicenteabalosdominguez5257]

​@@orngjce223absolutely, the *happy little accident* is kpop becoming so popular on the international market, considering it's made with korean audiences in mind first and foremost.

[@EmmarainePink]

​@@orngjce223Tho important to mention: lots of those kids DO want to do that. It's their choice. It's the same as an athlete deciding to pursue their sport at age 10 and goes through gruelling training.

[@magala9287]

There is one type of government that stands above all: The love triangle.

[@veggsbacon1891]

The holy trinity, love triangle.

[@intellectually_lazy]

that's the strip club by the airport, right?

[@intellectually_lazy]

@@veggsbacon1891 yeah, holly trinity was the hottest one there. if i had a dollar for every dollar i slipped in her drawers i'd be able to afford the copay on my antibiotics

[@intellectually_lazy]

but then... i guess, i wouldn't need 'em

[@lowcalibremine3004]

@@intellectually_lazy Have you... seen any of the other videos on this channel?

[@xcyan_lilyx5788]

Fantasy and isekai have to make it an idealized monarchy, no exceptions

[@starmaker75]

Again all monarchs are like those from 1700s

[@balisticemerald8512]

Sonic had it figured out: dude killed the king and then when he realized he has Excalibur and is thus the true king of Britain, he just bailed. Good call

[@starkeeper_youtube]

​@@balisticemerald8512god I need to play Black Knight at some point

[@hubertk7363]

It's not always bad, depending on what you're looking for. When you want to send a message relating to how politics actually work, idealizing monarchy is obviously bad. But not all worldbuilding must be hyper-realistic, and then, idealised monarchy works. For example, if The Song of Ice and Fire idealised monarchy, it would be just horrible writing, but Tolkien's idealisation of monarchy works. Just a matter of the setting serving the story, as TWA said in the beginning of the episode.

[@nbewarwe]

@@hubertk7363 Song of Ice and Fire? Tolkien? What?

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

Also all the governments of different fantasy races, regions, ideologies, etc should all team up to face the bad guy army, all because the hero party suggested it and maybe went on a few fetch quests for them. This being against all longstanding rivalries which go back hundreds of years. In addition, said military armies should all also get along and even be able to fill in gaps in each other's fighting styles.

[@wjzav1971]

And afterwards they will go "Hey, you guys are not so bad after all" and celebrate peace despite long standing grudges, preceived humiliations as well as current political quarrels remain unresolved.

[@Nomadith]

Ah yes of course, because a plucky hero who does one side quest for two giant polities suddenly gets a bff situation with a high ranking official, ensuring perfect military coalitions between bitter rivals. Seriously, the amount of balkan-like polities in fiction that drop everything to unite is crazy

[@mariustan9275]

@@Nomadith Yeah its not like the people have an opinion themselves that they might disagree with the top leaders! Its not like people have disagreed with their leaders before! Wait what? Whats a revolution?

[@Nomadith]

@@mariustan9275 I'm referring more to how a hero does essentially part time temp work for a mid level bureaucrat, they become friends, then suddenly there's no more reasons to have grudges on their neighbours because their new friend said 'just be good :)'

[@neoqwerty]

@@Nomadith You didn't have to call out the Nerevarine on a max quests playthrough that hard

[@tereziamarkova2822]

A little note on the absolute monarchy - a common misconception is that this was the system in place throughout the feudal era. It was not, and in fact absolutism was a step AWAY from feudalism. In feudalism, the landholding class (nobility, but also church or city councils) held quite a bit of power, in some cases to the point of making the king a mere figurehead. In the late middle ages, this power was gradually stripped away from the landholding class, as the kings consolidated power in their own hands. In many countries, this was accompanied by a creation of robust state bureucracy, professional army etc - a lot of the things that differentiate a medieval government from a modern one. There was even an idea floating around that kings should use this newly attained power for the good of the people, the so-called "enlightened absolutism". Of course, in practice, king being only as enlightened as he well damn pleased was understandably not enough for most people and situations, hence the National Assembly, and the resulting French Revolution. TL;DR Though, say, Richard the Lionheart and Elizabeth I were both monarchs and shared some similarities (for example, the "divine right of kings"), the ways they used and drawn power were vastly different.

[@nobody4741]

Correct, I am tired of people thinking all monarchies function the same. It is like thinking all the democratic system nowadays have the same constitution

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

yeah, just owing to the fact that one person _really can’t do that much_ absolutism basically does not exist outside the tribal setting, and even there it usually gets phased out for loose seniority-based class.

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

modern corporations are much closer to absolutism than most things in the past, but even then, maintaining what automated info and execution systems you have takes way too much work for even top geniuses.

[@tereziamarkova2822]

@@pallingtontheshrike6374 I don't think absolutism means what you think it means. As I use it here, it refers to a system where all the power and legitimacy is concentrated in the hands of a monarch; that does not mean the monarch doesn't delegate anything ever. Indeed, the growth of state bureucracy is one of the hallmarks of Early Modern Louis XIV-style absolutism. It's just that this bureucracy is only beholden to the king, noone else, whereas in feudalism much of its functions (like levying taxes) were delegated to the landholding class, which was much more powerful than simple administrative workers.

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

@@tereziamarkova2822 except the gap between “having” the power and “delegating” it is a matter of, more or less, the stability and internal operation of the individual classes and between the classes and between the individuals who represent the greater class or faction behind them. thus, you can call a certain limited period “absolutist” like with louis 14, but that’s only because the internal operation and interaction has driven the individuals and the classes to cooperate for that period of time. should circumstances shift, so called “delegated” power is turned into an individual and separate faction, the most common of which are coups driven by the CIA. this is why it’s difficult to truly call it “absolutism”; does the person have incredible power via connections now? yes. in two years, once the circumstances change? no, not necessarily. the US achieved some basic form of absolutism when they first drummed up war support on le ebil terrorists in iraq, achieving terrifyingly high support ratings… until you look deeper into it, and realize it wasn’t “the one guy” but rather the class acting in concert. this is also part of why the US has an incredibly hard time drumming up unadulterated war support for china, because basic interests within the class are splintering it.

[@howdyimhowdy]

heres a little tip for your folks: when writing a political villain ,they may end up having politics you dislike,because surprise surprise,you will sometimes disagree with your villain,including whatever views are arbitrarily viewed as political or not. now with that in mind,let's assume you make even the greatest,most well done and nuanced villain you could,this will result in one of two things: 1.your villain will be dismissed as a strawman because you portrayed politics you think are wrong as wrong. OR 2.the very people you criticized will look at your story and adopt them have fun!

[@weedmantrudeau5783]

yeah, better to degrade the quality of your own work if it means that the people you don't like won't have likeable representation

[@JakeBaldwin1]

What if you make the villain agree with you politically, but the method that they use to achieve their goals is too horrifying to make it worthwhile.

[@howdyimhowdy]

@@JakeBaldwin1 this type of political villain is fairly common and usually works

[@GamersHolyArmy]

@@howdyimhowdyEven outside of politics this is a kind of villain I like writing.

[@derpherp1810]

​@@JakeBaldwin1 I was thinking of a story of a class revolution where the secondary antagonist is the leader of the revolution has some sick ideas. His policies are overall pretty good, destroy the corrupt democratic republic, redistribute resources to the majority of the population that the wealthy have hoarded, create better infrastructure for public transportation, mental health, and universal basic income but he decides not to execute the elites but instead use them as lab rats and slaves for horrific human experiments to create a collectivist race of altruistic neo humans that will kill everybody and ensure his utopia lives on. See despite being a progressive humanist revolutionary, the leader thinks that all humans have this seed of greed that will eventually take blossom and he fears that things will once again slip back into capitalism or feudalism or some authoritarian hierarchal government so he decides that humanity in it's current form cannot survive unless their ego is erased. All of his guinea pigs died in his eugenics experiments but he just created a new batch of neohumans from scratch and decides to realease these paragons of mankind upon the populous after he kills everybody. This won't come out of no where mind you, he will have inklings of these kinds of beliefs in his character, on the surface there is this façade of being a good ally and a noble person, the protagonist becomes his right hand man, but then we see his philosophy on mankind is completely at odds with his egalitarian vision. "Humans don't know what is good for them" "Humans are treacherous rats that will only accept tyranny because the only language they speak is fear" " Mankind must be cleansed of their inherent sin in order to bring the new paradise". etc.. etc.. His hatred and rage of the elites has warped and projected itself unto the whole of mankind who he sees as complacent in their oppression, so why does he decide to build this revolution? Vengance. He has no altruistic motivations, only motivated by hate, so much hate that he becomes the very monster he sought to destroy. His ideas aren't all bad, they are infact a netpositive for mankind and this course of action shouldn't be avoided just because the revolutionary leader had less than stellar ideas of how the utopia will be built. I write this story as a endorsement for radical revolutionary change but also as a cautionary tale not to worship or put anyone on a pedestal because otherwise it will lead to the ouroboros cycle we have been living in for thousands of years.

[@shortleader0958]

Ah yes paradox games, the true greatest origin for fantasy ideologies that totally aren't just radical caricatures of historical weirdos.

[@battlesheep2552]

And then there's Stellaris where you make a group of fascist squid people to make a "hail hydra" reference

[@winzyl9546]

Not everyone plays paradox games for the weird politic fantasies, some of us just want to paint maps as efficiently as possible.

[@jaysonlacombe6715]

I'm in it for the inbreeding

[@adarshlokhande7653]

Alright name a game company that understands geopolitics better than them

[@RJKilroy]

Broke: The republic gets jobbed by the evil empire Woke: The republic turns into the evil empire Bespoke: The republic and evil empire are both evil empires

[@orrorsaness5942]

Reality: The Republic is The Evil Empire, and their corporations control the world

[@crso6830]

So... real life?

[@tompatterson1548]

If you give some institutions checks on the monarchy all of a sudden you have a story when the monarch tries to circumvent those checks.

[@MK_ULTRA420]

"Fine! I'll make my own church! With monarchy and divorce!" (abridged) ~ King Henry VIII

[@onelovelylilidiot4959]

Pull a King Charles I and just- dissolve the parliament meant to keep you in check. And then go broke because you were spending all your money fighting Scottish priests and reluctantly bring them back to ask for some cash. Really wish more fantasy using monarchies just had them doing dumb decisions sometimes. It’s the inevitable outcome when you tell a child they are the most special kid ever because they were chosen by God to rule

[@cajunguy6502]

Or the overly skeptical and untrusting legislature with one kill-joy that's written to be as unlikable as possible even though IRL they would be seen as a the only reasonable, rational ne in the story.

[@wolliveryoutube]

Or perhaps the current monarch is cool with it, but has an ambitious heir who wants to flex the monarchy's muscles when he comes into his own.

[@tompatterson1548]

@@wolliveryoutube Ooooh!

[@npcmcishark7379]

Leave it to TWA to make anything related to politics interesting

[@johnniefinney3266]

I was about to joke about 69 likes but then two people liked your comment so boo.

[@pikminman13]

disinteresting is the last thing i would call it. draining is a better word, i feel. no matter your views you probably are tired of having to deal with it to some extent. being lied to day after day about the most obvious thing gets tiresome.

[@johnniefinney3266]

@@pikminman13 politics: hi do you like getting paid to lie and be allowed to raise your own pay, then Politics might be right for you!

[@beth6896]

I went to newest comments and I didn't know that anything other than Makhnovshchina existed that didn't have a government. I didn't think that I would be learning this much from this or want to. I also learned about fictional books that I might never read.

[@intellectually_lazy]

yeah, and last time i flew with them they lost my carry on, a baby cried the whole time and... what is the deal with airline food?

[@azlanadil3646]

I love how the ocean is labelled “also not freedom”. Took me a couple of seconds of looking for the light blue countries to realise that.

[@dankuser8303]

Fantasy worlds trying not to make every government a monarchy challenge (impossible)

[@adventurerwithacoolhat2531]

Does a constitutional monarchy count?

[@UXMetalVTuber]

Just call it an empire and have the highest power be "emperor" instead = wHOA, totally different and unique!

[@spacejunk2186]

I present the inverse: Make every backwards and isolated medieval community a republic because the good guys come from there.

[@jkst4268]

​​@@spacejunk2186ave you heard of the peasant republics because you are basically saying that the hero should come from one of those

[@agustinval1508]

It doesnt count. Fantasy monarchies are absolute to facilitate conflict with the king, a constitutional monarchy shakes things up enough to be considered different

[@Navonex]

How to write the "Good guy" Nation Step 1. Make sure they have every (insert problem the author has with society) solved. Step 2. Everyone only says good things about them. Even though the story will show other cultures thriving without them, and having valid complaints about them. Step 3. Talk about how "good" and "prosperous" they are without waging war or having meaningful contact outside themselves. Step 4. Present every other nation that disagrees with them as bad, even the neutral ones that have their own wars, they hate the good guy nation too for some reason. Step 5. Don't show suffering women and children. Congratulations the "Perfect" Nation

[@cwovictor3281]

Sounds an awful lot like North Korea.

[@firenze6478]

Sounds like wakanda. (Mcu version.) also the nabi tribes from avatar.

[@PlatinumAltaria]

Despite being a medieval fantasy kingdom where women don't have any rights, we will never discuss how this negatively affects their lives.

[@Hacker-pt3wm]

​@@PlatinumAltariain the vast majority of fantasy stories, gender equality exists despite the medieval setting. The only example I can think of off the top of my head to that has women as unequal is A Song of Ice and Fire, and that series pretty clearly shows how fucked that makes their lives.

[@gregvs.theworld451]

​@@PlatinumAltariaTo be fair, I have less of a problem with this depending on what tone you're going for with your medieval fantasy dressing setting for your story. At this point, medieval magic fantasy is a cool, albeit very common and oft used, setting that encompasses a wide number of stories meant for wildly different ages and demographics ranging from toddlers to adults who can handle some real dark themes. If your medieval fantasy story just wants to be a fun romp with knights, wizards, and dragons, you probably don't need to write in 11 year old political child marriages to 40 year old men or the black plague just because it's era accurate, because that'd be a downer in your fun fantasy romp.

[@justanotherperson7416]

For the Anarchy section, for anyone interested in attempting to include the ideology in their worldbuilding you could look at the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish civil war or the Black Army of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. For examples which I believe are considered somewhat close to Anarchist ideology but not exactly, Rojava in Syria and the Zapatistas in Central America may be a good place to get some ideas.

[@rexappleby4731]

Margaret Killjoy's A Country Of Ghosts is a pretty good example of a story which centred an Anarchist society.

[@jacobedward2401]

Thanks, I made almost the same comment lol but I forgot the Kurds. Similiar to the Spanish, they were assisted by international volunteers... and similiar to the Ukrainians, they got sold out when they were no longer convenient 😢

[@techpriest6962]

So examples of Anarchism that didn't work? Well that's all Anarchism.

[@jacobedward2401]

@@techpriest6962 well what do you mean by "work"? It seems to me the anarchists are better at providing food, housing, and healthcare, but the fascists are better at killing people.

[@anarchosnowflakist786]

@@techpriest6962 dude just casually ignores half the examples that survive to this day while fighting modern states

[@mesektet5776]

This is why I love Arachnos - Super villains government, they don’t even try to hide the fact they’re evil. “Pay your taxes and you’re on the white-list” Darwinian Republic.

[@wjzav1971]

I have to think of when Megamind took over Metrocity and realized that he has no real plans for it after winning. What was there to rob when he already owns everything? So at some point, to woe Roxanne, he started working on improving the garbage situation.

[@leohex8767]

What is Arachnos from?

[@Crumbly00]

@@leohex8767 An old MMORPG called City of Heroes and its DLC City of Villains, you make whatever hero or villain you want and your character will then be aligned to either Paragon City for the heroes or Arachnos for the villains. Arachnos is led by Lord Recluse, a malformed hunchback guy who developed spider- like cybernetics.

[@leohex8767]

@@Crumbly00 Thanks.

[@downix]

All hail Lord Recluse!

[@connorwalters9223]

My favorite example of world building politics comes from the TTRPG Lancer. In Lancer, the galaxy is run by a federation called Union. This Union is so decentralized that it doesn’t even have an executive branch, instead only having a legislative branch (CentComm) and a judicial branch (the Department of Justice and Human Rights). The reason Union is so decentralized is for both practical and moral reason. As far as practical reasons, Union exists on such a massive scale that it simply would not be practical for the government to have a presence on every single world. Instead, Union delegates to local leaders on individual planets, moons, stations, etc. while the Union itself is mostly concerned with maintaining galactic infrastructure and occasionally intervening if one of the local leaders gets a little dictator-y. As for the moral reasons, the Union used to be ruled by a space fascist “Anthrochauvinist” party which was highly centralized, oppressive, militarized, and by the end outright genocidal. The new government lives with the fear that if they use their power too much, they will relapse and destroy the fragile democracy they have built. However, this means the Union ends up severely over correcting and letting several of its constituent systems get away with a lot of fucked up stuff because they’re scared of the political backlash that will come with militarily intervening. I like Lancer’s take on government and politics because it shows how, once you reach a large enough scale, concepts like nation states and even the very notion of centralized government start to break down, in favor of a loose federation whose job is to keep the lights on and leave everyone else to their business

[@TheTakecarer]

I have never seen what you are talking about but, I thought you were talking about Deltarune

[@ochuspin]

@@TheTakecarerhow in the world did you think this was deltarune

[@offandsphere6788]

@@ochuspin saw the word "Lancer" and his brain must have ran on from there

[@tarrantwolf]

Size can determine effective government. In your example it sounds like to large and diverse of a union for any one entity or small group of entities to run effectively. Not without extreme control measures placed on the populace at least.

[@thethatone2166]

Damn, /tg/ said lancer was some hippie shit and were they ever right

[@RayPoreon]

I think the reason why theocracy is rare in fantasy is purely because in fantasy the gods usually exist as an undeniable fact, while in science fiction the gods may or may not(and often do exist but as an explainable but unreasearched phenomena). Which means that in fantasy the stability of the government relies entirely on the whims of the god in question, which means the god might just disapreove of the system in general(eg if they're a god of freedom or nature or something non-governmental) or might flip out and break the system the moment they see one of their followers doing something they don't like. This often means that in order to keep that system running the god themselves steps in as actual-factual ruler.

[@sarahvunkannon7336]

It would be really cool to see a theocracy that is run by a god that is by their nature disdainful of several critical aspects of human society. How would a god of nature, for example, come into power over a modern day setting with paved roads and cars and junk and use their power to remake the setting in violent ways that no human leader could accomplish which cause devastation to the populace but the god doesn't care because they are a god and regard humans as little more than playpieces? Or a bird god, coming into power and discovering that "power" as humans define it is not "power" as birds define it, in fact it's incredibly restrictive and inflexible, so the bird god uses their new position to remake human culture to be more like bird culture? Never mind the societal tension that occurs when cultures try to change, or two cultures clash. In this case, the god belongs to a different species entirely so once again, they don't care about humans, or even better, they TRY to care about humans but can't quite make it look genuine and sometimes fail spectacularly. As to why such a being would ever take up a position of power in the first place... Well, that one's easy. The gods themselves have a social system of some sort, and another god dared them to just to see if they could handle it. Or another god challenged them to a game where they both take over human governments and whoever has a more successful government by [insert flippin' weird alien metric here] wins. Or the gods just KNOW how incredibly difficult it is to try to join a society of beings they cannot possibly relate to or understand, so they do it sometimes as a refreshing challenge to keep their minds sharp. Or! Or! What if... A god or group of gods decides to take on the biggest challenge of all? CREATING a country? What would a government that was run by gods from the very beginning result in? What kind of culture would that country have? Surely, their relations to neighboring countries created by humans would be very strained. Do humans suffering under the rule of a being that is not human and cannot understand humans no matter how hard they try defect to neighboring human-run countries, desperate to be governed by their own species? What is it like to be governed by an alien race? For that is what gods are, really. Ooh, ooh! What if an alien race from another planet shows up and tries to conquer part of the world? Do they end up having many of the same problems the gods do regarding struggling to understand human psychology and form alliances with the god-run countries, only to discover that their many similarities mask the fact that the gods don't actually understand THEM any better? Do they say 'screw this' and try to leave the planet, only to be prevented from doing so by the gods, who have found them to be useful playpieces? And then the aliens end up allying with humans, who still have residual hatred for the whole "attempted world domination" thing, in order to fight off the gods? But there are many people who are loyal to the gods, appreciate their style of governance for whatever reason, and so this attempted alliance actually results in nearly every human country devolving into civil war? And the gods get together every Sunday to trade notes on what's happening where, eat popcorn and have a grand old time watching drama that they do not understand but love because it is drama play out across the world? MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[@adrianmcbride1666]

Would the Angels (I guess most races actually) in the prequel movie for No Game No Life then count as a direct theocracy... Sorry a bunch of direct theocracies at war with each other.

[@RayPoreon]

@@adrianmcbride1666 I didn't even know that there was a no game no life prequel. I guess it would be a yes if the angel/s in charge are functionally god/s.

[@adrianmcbride1666]

@@RayPoreon uh, no. The isn't an angel in charge. The God who created the angels is in charge, he dies as part of the end of the prequel movie (when the world is changed). I think most of the other races also have their gods around, though that doesn't seem true for the mechanical group. Oh BTW just remembered, the angels are lead by their worlds God of War.

[@ennearerier402]

@@adrianmcbride1666 Yeah i think NGNL actually does demonstrate the idea of Theocracy pretty well through Tet and his ten commandments of the Accords. For a rule upheld by a god, they become the literal rules of nature. As simple as the fact that rocks and water fall down and fire burns, you *cannot* do harm to others, you *must* uphold your wagers in accord to the winners of the game. Even if it's impossible for him to fix everything wrong with the world (or even necessarily stop people from continuing to fight under new ways of warfare) regardless of how much power he gained, it cannot be denied that his rule, almighty and unquestioned, has maintained stability after the Eternal War - and if [ ]'s conjecture about the nature of the Race Pieces hold true... it even has a process to peacefully pass over rulership and a new age one day, because Tet's upheld his reign on the premise of trying to teach the utter nimwits of the Sixteen Exceeds to grow up already.

[@photophone5574]

You could take the most benevolent government in history and be guaranteed they committed at least one awful act. You could take the worst government to exist and chances are they have benefitted the world in at least one way. If it was easy to discern what was good and bad then we wouldn't have politics.

[@SybilantSquid]

The later is easier to prove. The former is more difficult. Namely because if there ever was such a benevolent leadership that never comitted any atrocities, they were most likely eradicated by their less benevolent neighbors.

[@LendriMujina]

Even Lincoln, as great as he was, did some pretty unconstitutional stuff when it came to free speech. It was understandable _why_ he did it, there was a war going on after all, but even if those he was up against were actually evil, it set a dangerous precedent that was later piggybacked on by much less moral presidents in the years since.

[@wjzav1971]

@@SybilantSquid So you constantly swing between "too naive to survive" and "total dickbags"

[@gayanudugampola8973]

I can't think of even a single way the Aixs countries of WW2 have benefited the world. Outside of being destroyed.

[@jlev1028]

Yeah, for example, the Nazis gave us the Volkswagen and the model for the modern highway system.

[@UXMetalVTuber]

Remember to completely vilify the government systems that you don't understand, and make it vividly clear that you do not see them in good eyes! And sell the one you simp for as the clearly superior one that is totally flawless!

[@MK_ULTRA420]

Thanks George Lucas!

[@neoqwerty]

Thank you for this extra piece of advice, I will keep my utopian superhightech ancient societies going and ditch the fact they have a dick measuring contest going on despite being threatened by an outside enemy. (/sarcasm off: but no seriously you reminded me just now that I have to figure out why two of my city-states are having a cold war-esque pissing contest and what the fallout of a failed uprising against a theocracy by a shaky alliance of warlike tribes and the oppressed peasants caught under the theocracy did to the geopolitical world. I almost forgot that bit of detail to fill in, so thanks!)

[@Oznerock]

@@MK_ULTRA420 For...? He portrayed the republic as deeply deeply flawed, but the empire as deeply evil. Which one did he simp for?

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@Oznerock He simped for the rebels so hard that he forgot to include how they would "rebuild" the galactic government which is why he sold LucasFilm hoping that someone else would figure it out.

[@jacksonhoiland2664]

​@@MK_ULTRA420what are you talking about? George Lucas had a plan but didn't end up making it. He had ideas and they didn't happen but he did think of them. Also they mostly rebuilt by just taking the republics homework and barely changed it.

[@Greatkingrat88]

Absolutist monarchy actually wasn't that common in the middle ages since feudalism is a decentralized system that often leaves a lot of power with the king's vassals. Louis XIV is definitely the posterchild for absolutism, but he reigned in the 1600s, well after the high medieval era. Absolutism is actually way more common in the 1700-1800s than in the medieval ages (ca 500-1500s).

[@PEDROGARCIA-qj3gr]

Kinda funny how JP mocks people not knowing how the political systems works at the same time he don't know it neither... Yeah monarchy was so an awful and unstable system because the decentralized military power, and that was the reason why it was very common to get into a civil war every time the king died.

[@LabiLabi777]

WE MAKING IT OUT OF SOCIAL STUDIES WITH THIS ONE 🗣🔥🔥🔥

[@justderp5713]

Politics 101: Be attractive, Be confident, and Be Wealthy. And never Be Wrong!

[@gregvs.theworld451]

Protip: Doing the first three things can often shield you from any criticism tou might otherwise garner when you are wrong. And if you have an extreme confidence stat or are just willing to say whatever a large group of people want to hear, you don't even have to be handsome or wealthy to win at politics!

[@justderp5713]

Real politics pro tips: you've gotta have that confidence on lock. Many politicians have gotten past being ugly (Bashar Al Asad, Richard Nixon) or being born into a poor family (Andrew Jackson's situation was so bad that we don't even know in what town he was born). The most important part is still that confidence, and the charisma in general to talk. Jeb Bush, who came from a political dynasty power house, could barely get his campaign off the ground because he was a genuine black void of any confidence. Even if the winning candidate didn't run in 2016, Jeb still would've lost. "Please Clap" stands alone as possibly the single worst moments in any presidental campaign in the history of the USA.

[@PEDROGARCIA-qj3gr]

LoL my president looks like a reptile with a face I want to punch, as charismatic as a kick in the balls, and a coward... No, dude think harder. The only thing I can put simple about politicians it's they are the reflection of the population and their current situation, to write a politician you need to write the people of that population. My country is just full of people as bad as that piece of garbage I described before.

[@rhiannonbamford8741]

There's this book series I like called Henderson's Boys, which is a teen spy drama set mainly in WWII France, and it does a fairly good job showing the politics of the various European countries during the time. One bit I especially remember is the book where the protagonist Marc gets sent to a POW camp in Germany and lands a desk job due to his ability to speak French and German, and the guy he works under specifically complains that skilled doctors are being sent to death camps because they're Jewish while German soldiers are dying in droves on the front lines, and later gets fired for sending the French-born Marc (who, again, has an irreplacable skillset) to a decent hospital after he gets critically injured.

[@pancakes8670]

That's also surprisingly a really good example of why Fascist Movements don't work long-term. They're cartoonishly self-destructive.

[@LendriMujina]

Man, I feel called out in that first part since I typically worldbuild entirely for its own sake, not even being sure I really _want_ a story anymore, I just plain like doing worldbuilding.

[@GamersHolyArmy]

That’s honestly a problem I sometimes have, thankfully the story I have is pretty personal to me so it mostly keeps me in line.

[@jmlynr]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnyrkJyjfpiAfZY

[@BillyTheCat128]

Oh same here, I'm working on my own game and I'm definitely the kind of writer who loves "worldbuilding for the sake of it", I just want to design a setting, set up the characters, villains and then pull the lever that initiates "the-fun-ride" without putting too much thought into 'how' it all fits within the world itself. I've always disliked adventure stories that focus too much on the politics or inner systems, feeling that it was just "boring and distracting". Though, thanks to TWA, I came to realize that it's actually an important asset to have to prevent the world from feeling 'fake' and hurting the audience's suspension of disbelief. That's not saying that there's anything wrong with 'indulgent' stories, though. I mean, they definitely have their time and place. Like, you can appreciate Shakespeare for how his works revolutionised drama or even appreciate Mark Twain's quips and insights but sometimes you just want to turn your brain off and read about how Scrooge Mc Duck finds an ancient hidden civilization and goes on a wacky adventure with his family. All are completely valid in their own way (and of course, it heavily depends on what you're going for in a story).

[@GamersHolyArmy]

@@BillyTheCat128 honestly video games are probably the best medium for worldbuilding for worldbuilding’s sake since it’s interactive and therefore allows the player to digest as much of it as they want unlike a movie or book where you’re getting it if you want it or not.

[@maxthepaladin2147]

Honestly at this point I don't really care that much about writing a story, I just worldbuild as a hobby

[@prossnip42]

One of things i've noticed in fiction when it comes to monarchy is that it's always, almost exclusively a European medieval style monarchy. Even if the world is completely fictional the monarchy is based upon that system. I've yet to meet a fictional fantasy world with a government based upon the Roman Empire or some of ancient Middle eastern civilizations like Hammurabi's babylon for example. Now that'd be an interesting thing to see

[@starmaker75]

Or heck, it would be cool to see a fictional monarchy based on imperial china. The only example I can think of is avatar the last Airbender

[@prossnip42]

@@starmaker75 "Imperial China" is such a broad term though. Every single emperor had different policies and not a single government was built or functioned the same way

[@alwaysonyourtail2563]

@@starmaker75 you're in luck imperial china government has a whole genre of its own style it's just call the cultivation isekai world stories.

[@HellbirdIV]

@@prossnip42 "European style monarchy" is an extremely broad term, too. The Spartan Dual Monarchy and the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary might sound like very similar things to someone who doesn't know much about either, but they're about as different as they can be. Honestly, most fantasy monarchy is pretty vague, to the point where calling it "European medieval style Monarchy" is probably more projecting what you're familiar with onto the work, rather than the intention of the author. Even the monarchy of Westeros is very different to most historic European monarchies, and George Martin was *trying* to make it very, very European!

[@thekingofchange1428]

The anime and manga Magi features a lot of different styles of monarchy, especially Middle Eastern and Asian

[@Fordo007]

I really want someone to do a story where the good guys are an Empire with an emperor but have civil rights and liberties while the villains are a democratic republic that is incredibly racist and imperialistic, but everyone can vote. I honestly think a lot of audiences would just assume 'empire bad, democracy good' and not comprehend it.

[@firenze6478]

I kind of have that with konlah, and later a galactic empire. Though the empire was pretty evil until the emperor’s daughter took over who was completely unaware of her nations crimes yet who she’s fighting wants to wipe out her entire people for their past crimes. Konlah is an arabic democratic republic with slavery, konlan supremacy and a shadow government, yet its very prosperous due to its riches and most citizens aren’t aware of the corruption due to konlah’s propaganda and isolationism. But no nation in my book is completely good or bad. In fact Konlah sides with the “good guys” against a dwarven monarchy and the main “good guy” nation is forced to side with the dwarves due to relying to heavily on trade with them and their allies

[@00fgytduydrtu]

Liberalism is evil.

[@firenze6478]

@@00fgytduydrtu no, most proclaimed liberalists aren’t actually for liberty, they are just self righteous fascists who only want liberty for their ideology

[@fede98k54]

While not exactly that, in the epic fantasy story I'm writing the villains are a Republic inspired by Imperial Japan and the US which possesses late 19th century/early 20th century technology, waging a global war to liberate the masses from feudalism, autocracy and monarchies. While they might have started with good intentions, however, after 60 years of total war their democracy and ideals have been significantly eroded. A sense of superiority permeates their society, and they have no qualms in mistreating their sister republics carved out of other nations, nor have they any qualms on the methods to win the war, chemical, biological and environmental warfare have been used repeatedly to bring them closer to victory. In the meantime, while their society was once liberal and democratic, after 60 years of war the military holds a lot of power, military corporations dominate the economy and the vote of the people matters less every election. Bureaucracy is mired by corruption and the President is nearly powerless to do anything with the Minister of Defence holding most of the power. The main geopolitical rival of this republic is a vast continent-sized empire inspired by dynastic China, they are compared to the republic backwards, still in the middle ages technologically. They are not exactly a liberal nation, but their Imperial Diet grants a certain level of representation to all the thousand ethnic groups of this empire. However they are still not a great place to live, what with the total mobilization of society after 60 years of war with the republic.

[@paulgibbon5991]

Historically, empires are pretty much evil by default--to qualify as an empire, you need to have made a lot of other nations accept your rule and taxation, and it's super unlikely that they all joined willingly. You'd probably need to make it an empire in name only (in the same way that the UK is technically a "monarchy").

[@Mr.Mammoth3604]

I may be illiterate, but I'll definitely still use this .

[@DopaminedotSeek3rcolonthree]

I couldn't understand your comment, but I left a like anyway. Man, I wish I could read!

[@aggghhhh1009]

@@DopaminedotSeek3rcolonthree 9ii

[@DopaminedotSeek3rcolonthree]

@@aggghhhh1009 Thanks, aggghhhh1009, that's really cool!

[@bahnum1233]

Every government must be a generic absolute monarchy

[@nobody4741]

and there are the good kingdoms with good kings and the evil kingdoms with the evil kings

[@bahnum1233]

@@nobody4741 If we're feeling extra daring we can also have a morally grey kingdom

[@kungalexander829]

Or better yet, a feudal society 😀 Its perfect for an "eat the rich" story

[@bahnum1233]

@@kungalexander829 Yes and make sure all the powerful people are completely evil with absolutely no redeeming qualities, in fact don't even name them, we don't want any moral questions in our books.

[@101jir]

Unless it is a Federation, then it is either perfect, or far more evil than everyone else.

[@clarehidalgo]

The biggest flaw with making governments in stories is people see to forget most IRL governments are mixes of several governmental styles example: the USA is a Federation, a republic, and a democracy

[@hariman7727]

Representative republic that uses localized democracy to select representatives. The issue is that the representatives aren't representing, and the federal government forgets that it's supposed to serve the people...

[@eight-cloudspurple5871]

​@@hariman7727sErVe tHe PeOpLe Lol the country is literally formed by slave owning wealthy elites. The fact that its now controlled by wealthy elites is just tradition

[@kompatybilijny9348]

In my (fantasy) universe,I made it so the Empire is rapidly industrializing throughout the series, but there is a big problem in the way - lack of funds. So to get the funds, they create a MASIVE public debt that only grows as the series progresses. Since the Emperor basically invented the concept of public debt in universe, not many people really understand what is happening so they do not care about it, but in fact everything is not collapsing solely because the Emperor carefully created and maintained his reputation of extreme reliability and loyalty that in the public eyes border on fanaticism, so people are willing to accept payment in government obligations and even buy new obligations with expired obligations. But the Emperor himself (and his wife who is a state treasurer) are terrified of what would happen if that 700% debt popped for whatever reason. This forces him to consider every policy - both domestic and foreign - extremely carefully to not damage his reputation, which from the outside seem irrational. The silver lining to the eventual collapse would be that the infrastructure won't magically disappear, but that won't exactly help with mass riots.

[@MK_ULTRA420]

Fiat currencies are backed by debt and the trust of repaying it, so the solution would be to keep the money printers going. Then, lend the money to banks at a very low interest rate like 0.5% so they can invest it into human capital and make sure it doesn't become worthless. For any resource deficits, just use your superior military to invade whoever has what you need and take it by force, then pay off public debt with the printed money. Federal Reserve Note is gubmint speak for "I.O.U."

[@cyancat8633]

Question how does the other nation react to this development do the take advantage of them of ally themselves do the attack or are more leanight? The possibility are endless huh

[@kompatybilijny9348]

​@@cyancat8633 Yeah, I just tried to create a system that works well only because people believe it works well. About the reaction, basically noone likes them because they are a different sect of THE major faith that is considered heretical by all other sects (that tolerate each other most of the time). They do not really have major allies, but they do have a few trade relations - most important one with a small Republic (Pince) that is the dominant trading power in the world. It is mutually beneficial, because religion is preventing direct trade between the Empire (Halsier) and most other states, so one can actually export goods, while the other has a hefty profit margin on all their goods. That isolation is also beneficial for Halsier, since it means that it is much harder for everyone else to get their hands on any advanced technology and outcompete them by simply having more resources and population to work with.

[@kompatybilijny9348]

@@MK_ULTRA420 They certainly do fix the budget by conquest and ransoms (and worker camps), but they also strike a delicate balance - their core lands are not very densely populated, so taking over land with too many people would create more problems than it would solve, at least in the short/medium term which they can't afford precisely because their system relies so much on percieved stability. That's why after the initial burst of conquest they change the strategy into taking immigrants to build up population and vassalising states, rather than incorporating them directly.

[@TT-pl5iw]

@@kompatybilijny9348 Is this something you're working on right now or do you have at least one book done for those interested? Sounds interesting so far.

[@erikrinard7908]

It's incredible how the extended TWA sequences really cut to the heart of what it's like dealing with KZbin as a creator. Never expected a channel powered by love triangle jokes to keep it this real, excellent work as always.

[@snowangelnc]

The constitutional monarchies seem to gravitate towards the teen and romcom genre. I'm thinking of the Princess Diaries, any of the Hallmark Christmas movies where the small-town girl marries a prince, and some of the stories I remember reading as a kid where the new exchange student turns out to be an undercover royal. It works for the light and fluffy story lines because you get the glamour or royalty without the story being weighed down with the heavier government issues that come with an absolute monarchy.

[@gigiizzy5651]

I love starting my stories with an in deph 50 page explanation of how the government works. Brcause you know what they say: Can't have too much exposition!

[@weedmantrudeau5783]

Ayn Rand: ends her story with a 100 page explanation of how the government should work

[@gigiizzy5651]

@@weedmantrudeau5783 😂

[@TheGalaxyWings]

Make sure to write the entire constitution

[@presidentofthegalaxy3642]

The best way to write politics is to make a "morally grey" (but secretly not so secretly black and white) setting where my irl poltical views are the good guys and my opposition are the bad guys

[@Zakrovik]

I actually think corporate politics is interesting and leaves a lot of room for creativity. Like a corporation might own an entire star system or sth, but they are still subservient to their shareholders.

[@raymondwalker3020]

I completely agree in my comic book I'm planning im writing a countrie but the leader is a corporation.

[@naomistarlight6178]

A corporation is essentially a constitutional monarchy, with the CEO having lots of, but not unlimited, power. I'd like to see more books about either a megacorp's power struggle with a board vs. CEO or about the struggle between a king in a constitutional monarchy and parliament/the senate.

[@thebaldcat6708]

How to write a politician villain: Step 1: Identify your least favorite political party Step 2: Use the straw man, overblown, exaggerated version of every policy of that party you disagree with Step 3: Make everyone in universe who agrees with the villain either also a villain, or too stupid to see that they are the villain. Step 4: ignore any and all backlash from people actually in that party IRL If this happens to blow up on you, good, all publicity is good publicity

[@edwardblangsted4540]

Make sure the villain twirls their mustache at the protagonist, and eats an apple too. Just so you know their an asshole

[@spacejunk2186]

5: make you villain somehow more sympathetic and likable than your perfect protagonist because your world view is just so twisted and delusional.

[@fukyuuzuesphantom9592]

6: Profit!

[@HalduBouyaNono2]

Or just straight up rip off Jair Bolsonaro or Rodrigo Duterte.

[@nbewarwe]

7: Accidentally or purposefully start a cult-like political movement based entirely around your book made of from people who unironically devote their entire political beliefs off of you and your book, regardless on whether they're accurate or not.

[@AegixDrakan]

Came for a discussion of worldbuilding of governments, stayed for the free history lesson, loved it for all of the *SASS* being thrown at some points. XD

[@tarrantwolf]

One thing about the simplification of governments in writing. If your story isn't specifically about that government and it's just a background entity you dont want to get bogged down in the plethora of interconections, power struggles and constantly changing alliances and intrigues so simplification is the often the best route to follow.

[@elvastan]

There's also weird systems, like Elective Monarchies. Historical Example: The Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania (which is a fascinating system all on its own). Modern Examples: Malaysia and Cambodia. Fictional examples: The Empire of Man from Warhammer fantasy or the garbage fire that is westeros after season 8 of game of thrones.

[@TheArceusftw]

Elective monarchies?? Isn't that an oxymoron?

[@elvastan]

​@@TheArceusftwIt's the opposite of a hereditary monarchy. It's basically a different method of succession, and in all of my above cases, there is a tiny group of electors who elect the monarch, and not the people themselves.

[@kingofcards9516]

Don't forget Poland-lithuainia.

[@WorldArchivist]

The Empire from Warhammer Fantasy.

[@jasonstormsong4940]

@@TheArceusftwNo, it just means the monarch is elected.

[@edwardblangsted4540]

Time to sleep. Wait nevermind, there's a new terrible writing advice video

[@frostagent]

This reminds me of a joke I once heard. A monarchy, a republic, a democracy, a corporatocracy, an oligarchy, a fascistic state, a theocracy, and an anarchic state walk into a bar. These eight government types were arguing over who was the best type of government until they asked the bar tender who was the best government type. When the bar tender replied, "Not any of you." the government types were so angry that they killed the bar tender and everyone in the bar, committed mass genocide on everyone in the region, and then forced the dead's loved ones to pay taxes for it. The End

[@beth6896]

This is the best joke in the comments section I've ever read on this video.

[@stephenferguson9756]

What did the commies not get an invite?

[@frostagent]

@@stephenferguson9756 Technically communism is a type of economy. Regardless, they wouldn't have any money anyways because real communism is the abolishment of private property so everything is owned by everyone.

[@Спирт-ъ3й]

​@@stephenferguson9756they do not drink alcohol, they are physically healthy

[@mocha8394]

"anarchic state" ??? 😭😭😭

JP woke up today and chose to be saltier than the snacks at an event with $20 beers. Especially on the slides. (Not that I disagree...)

[@chee.rah.monurB]

What an incredible metaphor.

[@Green-3c34y65vrbu]

i think my fave case of politics and governments in worldbuilding and storytelling is Hunter x Hunter. one arc is an entire political election to become the next chairman (essentially president) of a certain political structure in that world, and it's super interesting and entertaining! also, the antagonist of that arc is named Pariston Hill after Paris Hilton, which i think is funny.

[@hariman7727]

Yeah, that's a great election arc.

[@JohnSmith-zy9se]

It's one of the few things Hunter x Hunter did right, the rest of the show is absolute trash.

[@JohnSmith-zy9se]

@@talonhax8336 What are you talking about?

[@JohnSmith-zy9se]

@@talonhax8336 Quite the opposite, it's filled with filler, retcons and bad writing.

[@rateater1857]

You missed the funniest type of monarchy ever - elective monarchy. The best example is the Polish-Lithuenian Commonwealth. The drama and hilariety of elective proceedings were unmatched. Polish-Lithuanian election season was the time for every petty noble in Europe to shine, because you didn't need to be Polish, or Lithuanian, or even speak either of these languages, to take part. One elected king escaped Poland on a horseback under the cover of night after three days of rule. And one time, the nobles didn't like a candidate for a king so much, that they said "I'd rather have a woman be king than this fucking guy", and elected a woman, the old king's widow, to be king. Absolutely under-utilized political system.

[@NoName-yu7gj]

Technically, the Vatican City works that way. The pope isn't just the head of the Catholic Church, but is the head of state of Vatican City as its king.

[@kingofcards9516]

Most medieval monarchies were not absolute, there are dozens of examples of the nobility killing, replacing, controlling and overthrowing kings.

[@GrndAdmiralThrawn]

And really, most medieval fantasy is based on England, which famously held that the king was not above the law.

[@kingofcards9516]

@@GrndAdmiralThrawn yeah. Where is my magic magna Carta?

[@starmaker75]

Yeah if your going to do medieval European monarchs what about thr holy Roman empire or the polish litutien commonwealth where nobles were elected to be king

[@captainnoob4]

@@kingofcards9516 magic Magna Carta. That's not a bad idea actually. A document that magically binds a monarch to certain rules.

[@georgebailey8179]

The ability to kill or overthrow a king doesn't mean that he wasn't an absolute monarch.

[@silentreflection5350]

"Democracy Issues: Whatever the hell is happening in the United States right now..." I'm in stitches right now! Ha! But also sad because I live here

[@SwedishDrunkard5963]

I do not understand Freedom Land and its Freedom governmet, amd I do not want to understand Freedom land

[@silentreflection5350]

@@SwedishDrunkard5963 Then you understand Freedom Land and its Freedom government enough to know you should not want to understand Freedom land

[@CantRead1]

I don't see what's "sad" about it for someone who lives in the US. People complain about "nowadays" when it was way worse back then.

[@AxenfonKlatismrek]

You know, i think i know why democracy is pretty popular these days: It gives people the FEELING of changing the world, when really they are just electing scape goat for the rulers behind the parliament, these days they are Super rich corporates and bankers, im referring to term called Deep state. Who these bankers are? Thats a million dollar question. On the topic of fiction: WHY WASNT THIS WHOLE THING DEBATED MUCH?

[@draconicfeline6177]

It's always been fucked we just can't paper it over anymore.

[@No_Sleepee]

At this rate, I don't know if JP actually enjoys HoI IV, or if he sunk 410 hours into the game just for the purposes of the video to provide a single screenshot. Funny either way

[@basedtvrk9125]

Correction, no one actually enjoys HOI4.

[@HeisenbergFam]

Thanks for more free lessons in terrible writing after a month

[@SomewhatClassyGoose]

I see you everywhere and Im glad you watch this channel

[@defect683]

​@@SomewhatClassyGooseme too😊

[@Damascene_]

"Ive played HOI4 so I am an expert in politics!" As someone who used to be in online spaces where HOI4 fans were in Literally Every Corner, this mentality is painfully familiar.......Also Civ 6...........

[@cam4636]

"I read Guns Germs & Steel"

[@adambrande]

hey, better than a Victoria player claiming they're an expert in economics, unless if they played the 2nd game, they probably are

[@sarahyang6254]

Honestly JP has reached the level of sarcasm that I can no longer tell when he’s being serious or not

[@agorriazfan3238]

Didn't Surprise me that TWA didn't list Anarres from The Dispossed for Fictional examples of anarchy. He's too busy writing his epic love triangle story to read one of the best science fiction book of the 20th century.

[@therat1117]

I mean if anarchy means that a high-level scientist can be blocked from publishing their work by a supervisor because of petty jealousy and can be made to perform manual labour for years instead of working on their science, then that society seems sub-optimal. Also that society literally has no laws, and a computer with a Stalin-style central planning apparatus, and people talk as if they have no personal possessions. It's akin to a parody of an actual socialist society.

[@starrysea1399]

Man, I just needed this and then JP drops a new video

[@trifectumart]

What I can truly respect here is how well JP actually writes a good villain motive here - even for an ad read, greed is probably better written than most modern media villains

[@emberfist8347]

Greed and a lust for power are only the real motivations a villain needs. That is unless you want them to be evil for its own sake which also works.

[@eeg-rh7jv]

A vilains with a simple motivation like "I wanna do X so I get more profits" is much more realistic than "I'm gonna gain political power to reduce the political influence of mega corp because my brother got killed by them and was viewed as collateral damage. There's a reason people view Jack Horner's motivation darkly realistic as there are people that greedy in the world

[@marcello7781]

As someone who studied International Relations and political sciences, sometimes I like mixing certain branches of political ideologies and mash them up into some contradicting monstrosities in this or that country and set up a weird chain of events.

[@erikschaal4124]

I had created a setting that included a confederation of kingdoms. The kings had direct rule over their own territory, but national and international policy was decided democratically. (Through the king's appointed representatives)

[@GippyHappy]

I kept forgetting this video was about writing and not just an informative video about different types of governments

[@FatherTime89]

"company towns before they screwed everything up" implies that at some point company towns weren't completely screwed up.

[@thenightwatchman1598]

actually Lead, South Dakota is a prime example of a company town that was ran surprisingly benevolently (ex. free health insurance around a time were there was no incentive for it, golf courses, theaters, youth clubs, and a top of the line integrated school district.) and transitioned pretty well into a bohemian tourist town when the mine closed in 2001. so its possible for a private corporation to not be made up of a bunch of assholes who leave slums everywhere they go. so yeah. JP is basically speaking off the cuff and acts like he knows it all. a BAD spot to be in if you want to be a youtuber.

[@Hwje1111]

You forgot military dictatorships. Where the military takes over after a huge time of civil unrest and violence. Historical examples: Chile, Spain, Greece, Italy, Thailand. Modern example: Sudan.

[@Carewolf]

Other modern examples include Myanmar. Also missing forms common in fiction: Communism both corrupt (every real world example) and well working (Star Trek); Feudal Monarchy (Pre-renaissance Europe, GoT),

[@Saeronor]

Strangely enough, he also forgot that one government system that had never been tried before, many times over.

[@dragomight8851]

There was also El Salvador, which has had a number of military people take over in its history.

[@shrekatemyonions]

Monarchy is badass. How else am I supposed to give unrivaled power for my super cool -self insert- main character to wield over all his peers?

[@cam4636]

Waifu harem

[@adambrande]

​@@cam4636I think you're forming a sultanate for that one

[@zhcultivator]

What about self-insert M.C.s that get selected or elected into being the Head of state for a Republic??

[@auulauul9328]

There's always of course the option to throw a few darts at a political compass and figure it out later.

[@petrahusted6151]

I love writing multiple governments and putting them in a ring and seeing what happens when my wildly different cultures from different continents are forced to be next to each other through a war or magical wtf. Also how similar but different cultures and governments mesh with trade and borders. Discovery writing makes it even more fun.

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

Further, make sure to never explain how the current political system actually came about beyond, perhaps, a vague nod to the great backstory war - everyone knows that the situation within the country never affects the government. Also, the government should have no visible impact on the everyday lives of citizens beyond making them sound miserable all the time or having them wear cool uniforms and have stupid symbols hanging around; after all, a system of government is mainly some piece of flavour to be added at the author's will!

[@cam4636]

"A thousand lifetimes ago there was, like, a different group in charge. They were great and perfect at ruling and peace broke out everywhere, unfortunately they were so good at ruling they failed to notice how Lord Evulman was rapidly taking over (despite him being their closest advisor and bosom friend) and then everything collapsed at once, turning overnight into a hellempire of darkness. Everything is terrible now! We used to farm turnips, but now we farm turnips."

[@SkillZgetKillZ]

the thing about Theocracies being rare in fantasy does seem very weird at first, but think about it like this: You're a new DM trying world build by yourself and you get to a country's government and have to go about adding things like: guilds, noble families, the clergy, various religious sects and their interpretations and their struggles to be reconi- Nah, fuck all that im just gonna phone it in and roleplay king for half an hour, government done!

[@SkillZgetKillZ]

I love pausing to make a comment on something, then immediately hear my thoughts explored seconds later in the video itself.

[@nekopuppet]

i was not ready to see the characters in the sponsorship wars animated, theyre so much more expressive now

[@jeg2826]

I know JP was going for the easy joke at 13:40 but just for the sake of anyone who might genuinely be curious: Historical examples of anarchism: Ukranian Free Territory, Korean People's Association in Manchuria, Catalonia & Aragon during the Spanish Civil War Contemporary examples of anarchism: Rojava, Chiapas Fictional examples of anarchism: The Dispossessed, Parable of the Talents, Woman on the Edge of Time, Red Mars Hope that helps!

[@magma440]

Also the Followers of the Apocalypse from Fallout New Vegas

[@PEDROGARCIA-qj3gr]

Chiapas is not, you idiot, Zapatistas are just a regional cult that do not control Chiapas as a whole... We have some similar groups in Sonora too. Anarchy examples in real life kinda always fall in cult like associations that isolate people from the rest of the population... I wonder why? Nobody writes about anarchy because is to close what a cult is like... It has no point, just write a cult base politics as they did in far cry 5, just change the religious BS with anarchism BS, it works with every BS people could fanaticizes with.

[@nobody4248]

A little correction, most medieval monarchs did not have absolute power, as nobles would usually be able to push back against the monarch if he tried to do something going against their interest. Absolutism as an ideology actually originates in the enlightement.

[@lollikabosso.w.n7153]

I will say this, as Genuine fan of your series, I really like these videos, cause despite being a writer who only does mostly short stories for fun. And your videos just help me a lot, when it comes to genuine large projects, or just othe short stories. Originaly, i wanted to do mockery of these bad tropes you joke about, and i also feared to do a lot of cliches, but soon, i found its much better to go for genuine stories that entertain people, be it full ot cliches and tropes, or not much. And its through watching your content, trying to do some stuff myself, and well, failing sometimes. In many ways, thank you TWA

[@tartipouss]

Anarchy is really hard to write about because the best example you have are a 73 day communist state in Paris (France) in late 1800s, and 10 month anarchist state in Catalonia (Spain) during 1939... yeaaah... there's not a lot of material here that are more than boring political theories. Writing those will really force you to emphasis on the "fantasy" part of a fantasy environment lol (if you're going with a fantasy environment, off course)

[@vladprus4019]

Also, the main problem with writing about anarchy is that most of the materials are specifically from the war time, from either the supporters or opponents. Kinda hard to find something that without serious suspicion of beaing heavily biased. I guess for some people it's easy, because as we know the people who want to heavily rebuild society in the radical way, convinced that their ideas are completly correct, would totally not try to potentially present idealized version of their own movement. On the other had, their opponents who crushed them in order to enforce their own rule, totally wouldn't lie about those anarchists at all. Even with "longer" examples, you have stuff that only people caring to write anything about it (because they are largely irrelevant otherwise) are those who are heavily ideologically invested and are using those example to validate their own beliefs (or invalidaate the others), so yeah... totally trustworthy without risk of idealization or demonization at all...

[@tartipouss]

@@vladprus4019 Politics is when someone disagrees with me (I'm always right, so they're obviously an evil politial oponant doing everything in their power to make my downfall happen)

[@idkdontask7142]

I dont think that comparing performance in ww2 of the italians is really fair when taking a look at Mussolini's domestic policies. I dont want to argue if Mussolini was good or effective or not but your examples involving Italy were fairly unreasonable tbh. It's like saying modern Germany is inefficient and bad due to its awful military despite it being one of the best countries to live in in the world.

[@sunrisesparkle6363]

2:52 Absolutist monarchy is not a medieval concept. Medieval feudal monarchs were bound by having to share power with nobility and clergy all the time. Absolutist monarchy is very specifically, 17th and 18th century concept.

[@MusicoftheDamned]

Somehow 19:07 is the funniest part of this entire video to me. I will never understand how some people can write humans as hyperrational (all of the time) when they presumably have been around other humans all their lives.

[@samueldimmock694]

Because wish fulfillment is one of the main purposes of fiction. Also, because it's easier to write characters in a way that makes sense when you don't have to consider anything other than their goals and information.

[@emberfist8347]

There is one type of government JP forgot to include. The Stratocracy where the military is the government. It doesn’t appear too much in fiction because writers tend to be lazy but the Empire in Star Wars is a notable example in the Post-A New Hope stories as the film established the Senate was replaced by military officers called Moffs serving as sectorial rulers. A historical example would be Imperial Japan in the Showa Era (1926-1945) the IJA and IJN basically were the political parties of the Japanese government during this time. The “perks” is that you can substitute interservice rivalry for political intrigue and ignore how war fatigue would impact the government as the military is in charge. A “bad” writer however, would look at how propaganda and national pride would need to be instilled to ensure a steady supply of troops to serve in the military and instill a culture that would mean no one would attempt to overthrow it like using a monarch as a divine figurehead

[@roguepsykerhaaker4813]

Wow I knew that this was a thing that existed but I somehow never thought about it. Thanks for pointing it out to me, that's super cool

[@handles_are_a_bit_rubbish]

The Empire seems to operate in a manner closer to Imperial China than anything else, with the Moffs being appointed governors that can potentially come from any branch of the Imperial state who operate with near-total discretion regarding their own territories. I guess that would make it a Bureaucratic Monarchy moreso than anything else.

[@emberfist8347]

@@handles_are_a_bit_rubbish The Moffs all come from the military. Hence the stratocracy.

[@pikminman13]

remember the most important part of the bad government: don't explain why they are bad or any of their upsides, even if just internal to them. they are bad because they are bad. and certainly dont express why the government became bad in the first place, treat them as villains through and through and dont explain what happened because then it definitely wont be doomed to repeat when people dont learn from their mistakes. because wiping history and trying to change it or pretend it never happened always works so well...

[@adambrande]

lol the star wars community literally go apeshit everytime the empire is given some redeeming qualities. Emperor Palpatine in the comics originally favoured peaceful integration of the new systems rather than through force, scolding Vader if he uses military might instead of administrative might

[@noblecommando4269]

The system of government by Genre according to bad authors. Fantasy: Nazis Steampunk: Nazis Dieselpunk: Nazis Science Fiction: Space Nazis Political Dystopia Novel: Who cares, the main girl has to pick between two boys as her love interest.

[@hariman7727]

Nah, nowadays it's anyone who disagrees with leftists... who will be portrayed as WORSE than nazis.

[@KarnodAldhorn]

I recently rewatched Star Wars 4. It's so wild, how casually a futuristic dystopia just has lords, princesses and an emperor in there. Like, it was based on Dune but still. Imagine a sectetary going "Lord Clinton" or smthn.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

I was watching this and weirdly thinking about Final Fantasy 7's "megacorp" government, lol. Only in Remake do we finally get a glimpse that indeed, there are "elected" officials, but they seem to be puppets for Shinra. It's not much, but I appreciated the addition. Also, Cloud sullenly repeating "The mayor" was funny 😅

[@emberfist8347]

The megacorp thing reminded me of the Corporate Sector from Star Wars which side-stepped most of the major issues of having a corporation run everything on a large scale. Specifically the issue of having nobody to bail them out is solved because it is a single sector that is still heavily tied to the Empire but de jure independent from them. The Empire provides a revenue source for the Corporate Sector Authority that allows to make a profit and run the sector at the same time. They are also pragmatic in that there is a single division that is exempt from any issues that it is getting shut down due to costs overruns and that the Security Division. Because the Corporate Sector doesn’t fight wars, this division is mostly about protecting corporate assets and shutting down illegal operations in its borders. As for the political structure of the Authority. It is basically a giant board of directors with all the Corporate Sector Sponsors (i.e. corporations that exist outside the Sector that invested into it for the resources and labor) have a vote relative to how much they invested in the Sector (preference of course goes to the companies that founded the CSA).

[@Sharky_Splitz]

Clearly Fallout New Vegas is the perfect tool for studying resl world politics.

[@Okada_Caelun]

Missed "government" type: FEDERATION A federation is not an explicit government type per-se, a Federation is technically a group of smaller governments who are cooperating together, establishing another government play referee between member states. Essentially, a Federation is a government whose "citizens" are not individual people, but individual nations... at least initially. The Federal government itself is usually some sort of republic, with each member state sending their own representatives to speak on their behalf, while leaving each member state full control of the laws and policy within their own borders. For real-world examples, both the United States and the European Union qualify, as well as the Holy Roman Empire for a historical example. How long the Federal government will allow itself to remain humble and avoid sticking it's fingers into the business of it's member states, seizing greater control and influence over the people directly, and trying to become a singular state (which is why you might not think the U.S. counts, but the laws ARE in there), is a potential source of narrative conflict. Perhaps the Federal government might be trying to push a law through, one that sounds good but has implications which worry the member states. Alternatively, a foreign enemy might try to persuade a member state to secede as a means of weakening their opponent, either forming shadowy alliances or speaking to the state's divergent moral or political views in a way that encourages rash action. Indeed, an important question to ask would be how the Federal government responds if a member state decides to unsubscribe from their system; Do they refuse to acknowledge the separation, mobilize troops to bring the region back in line, or simply shake their head and let Brexit happen? Would any of these responses cause other member states to see the Federation as corrupt, totalitarian, incompetent, and/or impotent? Does the Federation even have a centralized military, or would that be seen as too threatening to it's members? Even without a the concept of dissent and secession, the Federation sets up an interesting chance for conflict between member states. Just because they're neighbors doesn't mean they have to like each-other, but it does mean they have to pretend they do. This can result in cultural, economic, and political maneuvering as each state tries to one-up the other, being as bitter rivals as one can be without getting the ref involved. Characters traveling from one member state to another might find themselves surprised at a radical difference in culture and morality, or they might find themselves in jail for accidentally breaking some law only enforced (or not-enforced) in this one state. How were they supposed to know that marijuana has such an inconsistent legal status?! ... But that's complicated. It requires designing a whole bunch of governments, and not even the ones that the good guys will be fighting against! Let's just make them a massive republic CALLED a federation, and call it a day. Unless they're supposed to be an NGO Federation (like the Trade Federation from Star-Wars). In which case they're just a mega-corporation with no internal politics from member companies.

[@hildegunstvonmythenmetz6095]

I am currently planning a Fantasy universe based on pre-WW1 Europe. There are Socialist People‘s Republics, Monarchies, Imperial States and small Micronations. This video was perfect for me, now I can finally justify all the power my governments have! Finally, I can just say: „They‘re powerful because they are.“ TWA has bailed another amateur writer out! Thank you TWA!

[@beanboi8838]

Fuck YES we need more fantasy settings based off of the late 19th century or early 20th century.

[@adambrande]

​@@beanboi8838I don't understand why no one has made fantasy modern day stories. Imagine elves being skilled in guerilla warfare while being excellent marksman while humans just drop napalm bombs on them while orcs can casually use cal 50s as standard issue weapons.

[@beanboi8838]

@@adambrande What about the magic? It would make it even more interesting. Imagine a magic powered fighter jet or a soldier utilizing lightning magic to quickly switch covers.

[@eeg-rh7jv]

​because that requires a shit ton of work and creativity for something most viewers won't notice. You'll need to imagine how magic and race would affect politics, technologies, science, economics and social norms

[@oceanicGrimalkin]

Don't forget that portrayals of any empire must be and should be evil with no nuance and is always the most technologically advanced and cool-looking of all the factions.

[@Firebringer121]

So I was a little sad that you were more willing to talk about fascism in fiction than a workers state, Communism, or Anarchy. As to not having any real world what about the CNT FAI or the black army? Yes both were facitions in a civil war, but they did have their own forms of organization and were the de facto government for people. I just wish you would've taken more time with it and not just brushed it off as a joke.

[@silverdust4197]

A new TWA video, That put a smile on my face .

[@thatjeff7550]

Oh no! With the addition of video motion, JP can now have Greed look at us ironically whenever he's making a cutting remark that's aimed at us! (Is it irony when Pam and Jim did it on The Office? Maybe not. JP, what would you call that little bit of fourth wall breaking?)

[@Lamsan02]

I'm wondering how writing a political arc would work in this 2023? Since alt-right and anti-woke is trendy, should I go for writing a strong supporting character that is a libertarian candidate, and I'm all set for success? Everyone will scream about being awekened, Matrix, 1984, George Soros blah blah blah and I just collect the piles of cash? On the other side, if I write a "pushy" arrogant male when it comes to relationships, because he is flawed and he will have to eventually become a better person as the story progresses, will I be able to set him on his journey or do I get cancelled on Twitter in a few hours? Do I get called a groomer, regardless of the actual definition of that word? Should I go full genius mastermind JK Rowling and act woke when woke is trendy, then make an anti-trans slip-off when conservative is trendy? That seems like a proven strategy, since both the left and the right ended playing that stupid Hogwarts Meh-gacy to spite the other.

[@hariman7727]

Write good stories about people who are interesting.

[@unHolyEvelyn]

If you go for the Rowling route make sure the books you write are fucking awful but become popular because other books like it are worse or nonexistent.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

Worldbuilding truly is a sandbox with a lot of pitfalls, headaches and artistic challenges and I love it.