On Interstellar Relations, Kurita-style
Work on HBHK continues apace, though last week was largely interrupted due to my work’s massive annual conference. Since I handle all of their communications…all extraneous writing was suspended for most of the week as I spun the media web. The entire conference was a huge success, however, and I’ll be returning to my work on this Kuritan epic later this week.
In the meantime, a small section from the Government chapter for your perusal.
Interstellar Relations
Few Draconians travel, unless they are part of the military. Those who trade with other nations are watched carefully for signs of cultural weakness—and they are aware of the surveillance. A common saying among corporate travelers sums up their attitude well: “The eyes of the Dragon are like a mother watching a child in the street.” Those who are tempted to stray too far from fealty to Kurita and the Dictum Honorium should be thankful for the reminder not to stray and for the chance to return to the Dragon’s protection. Those who are not grateful flee to the other Houses and are considered dead by their fellow citizens. Such actions put the fugitive’s families under heightened ISF scrutiny, often with the patriarch being invited to see their ancestors for failing to instill proper decorum and integrity in their progeny.
Travel under such tense circumstances—the slightest interest in another culture is often reported as treasonous—is not conducive to the understanding of other cultures and is not meant to be. Military duty will rarely afford any true understanding of the worlds invaded. Even mercenary units who have served other states are segregated from raw Kurita troops to prevent the spread of “confusing” ideas about other worlds and cultures. This lack of contact keeps most Draconians in the dark about the other stellar nations and receptive to whatever propaganda the government wishes to spread.
The official descriptions of the other nations in the Inner Sphere are caricatures emphasizing the worst possibilities of each culture. For example, the Federated Suns is described as a collection of licentious perverts who wish to spread their seed across settled space, corrupting all humankind with their lazy, dissolute, immoral ways. Such behavior would cause civilization to collapse from the “cult of the individual” and mindless self-indulgence. The Lyran Alliance is described as a group of greedy sensualists and capitalists, concerned only with acquiring wealth and its poisonous trappings. They secretly wish to conquer the Combine so the Dragon’s worlds can be stripped of its natural wealth and the populations enslaved to do the work Lyrans refuse.
Though the Combine’s higher levels of nobility recognize the differences between the various Clans, not so the common citizen. To many, the Clans are an alien civilization, perverted from the ideals of the Star League, feasting on babies and the youth of the Combine so they can destroy the Dragon through poisoning its honor and integrity. Their worship of various animal totems shows their barbarism and love of senseless violence. These ideals stand as a direct opposite to the tenets and pillars of the Dragon and must be resisted.