Chapter 33
Whereas Japan saw its homeland devastated by the war and its peripheral territories relatively spared, Drakia experienced the opposite- North Africa and the Near East (and to a lesser extent West Africa) were hit by Pan-European bombers but the Drakian heartland in Southern and Eastern Africa was unscathed. This left many of the foundations of Drakian state authority intact- the vast Bonded-labor industrial complex, the main organs of the Bureau for Social Defense and the Imperial Army, and of course the homes of most of the Citizens had been out of range. Unlike the United States the Empire could honestly claim to have won a victory- acquiring new territory in the Near East, the Mediterranean Islands, and Rumania, while preserving its valuable new ally Russia. Despite all of these factors the Great Wars were still deeply punishing for the Country of the Dragon and socio-political disruption followed.
Regardless of some superficial similarities the Empire of Drakia after the Great Wars was
not the Soviet Union after World War II. It had entered the wars of its own volition- meaning that the burden of demonstrating that the war was worth it fell on the Stoker Regime, which could not simply blame all of the suffering and sacrifice its people endured on the enemy. The total White Citizen population of the Empire in 1950 was only 20,000,000~ (counting mixed-race persons who had been regarded as white since the Saxon Regime) and the loss of 500,000~ White Citizens to battle, strategic bombing, or biological warfare was keenly felt. Many Drakian soldiers came home physically and mentally damaged to a society with very little sympathy for, or even recognition of, disability. Addiction rates among the Citizen ranks spiked. For the first time in its history Drakia had fielded not just Bonded volunteers but Bonded conscripts and was forced confront the question of what to do with them once they returned.
It’s one thing to build a country and a culture obsessed with war and “strength” but the costs of actually waging war and wielding that strength don’t go away.
Subduing resistance in Turkey and Arabia was a long and arduous process, exacerbated by the eruption of the first major Bonded revolts since the end of the Crucible. The former Bonded conscripts had nothing to do with these- they were being deliberately “used up” in the most toxic and dangerous of the war reclamation work- but low-ranking Bonded volunteers from the Auxiliary who had received National status and been exposed to anti-slavery propaganda from the other side during the war. While they were now “free”, they remained subject to state oppression and they wanted freedom for their friends and relatives who remained in Bondage. The national economy stuttered. Grumblings of discontent began to emerge from the Honorary White Citizens.
Then Lindsey Stoker- the Autocrat and founder of the Empire of Drakia- abruptly died in 1949.
Drakia had issues with disable soldiers after the World War, the Crucible, and the First Draco-American War, but it had generally dealt with the problem in an ad hoc
way, leaving it up the individual men and their families to sort things out.
Official reports said that the 85-year-old tyrant passed away peacefully in his sleep, but quiet whispers acknowledged that he had suffered a stroke whilst engaged in marital activities with the third Mrs. Stoker, and that Lindsey- now incapable of walking or cleaning himself and barely capable of speech- was quietly smothered with a pillow a few weeks later. On top of all its other problems, the Country of the Dragon was now plunged into a succession crisis.
In theory the leaders of the Societist Party were supposed to meet and elect a new Autocrat, but in practice it rapidly became clear that this would be a mere formality and that the next ruler of the Empire would be whomever had the strength to take the office for himself. The major contenders were Carl Lovejoy, Minister for Social Defense and leader of the feared Patriotist secret police, Virgil Stoker, the late Autocrat’s eldest son and a colonel in the Imperial Air Force, Laverne Decker, the Minister for Infrastructure, and General Archibald Valois who had briefly captured Rome and about half of Italy during the war, and by virtue of being subsequently reassigned to the capital had the most political influence of any of the army commanders in Aurica. It briefly appeared that Lovejoy was going to take power when Bonded rebels disguised as staff infiltrated his estate and gunned him down. That the “rebels” were in fact “chain-dogs”- trustee Bondsmen owned by the Bureau for Infrastructure and used to keep the rest in line- was successfully kept from the public, and Decker seized control of the state. A traditional conservative whose Societism was likely just protective coloring, the Minister for Infrastructure had lost both his sons to the Great Patriotic War and he began to put together plans for far-reaching reforms to the Empire with support from the old Drakian Aristocracy. The abolition of the agoge was in the offing, so was a return to a much more ideologically conventional form of government, and the replacement of Bonded Labour with something that wasn’t so thoroughly inefficient compared to what non-Societist countries used.
He lasted for about two weeks, before General Valois accused him of leading a treasonous conspiracy to abolish the Bonded Labour System and hold democratic elections, and with help from allies among the military and the Bureau for Social Defense (which was being subject to the beginnings of a purge by Decker) he killed the new Autocrat and arrested their common rival Virgil Stoker. The supposedly-of-royal-descent general miscalculated however- while he had a great deal in the way of political allies and influence in Aurica, he was personally unpopular with the general public and the troops. Arresting the eldest of the Stoker progeny was also a bridge too far, as the late Autocrat’s cult of personality remained widely in force and acting against a member of his immediate family de-legitimized the general’s grab for power.
It was on March 6th, 1950, during the extravagant state funeral for Stoker and a vast military parade both in mourning for the Empire’s founder and in honor of Valois, that Major-General Ulysses Kobold- a hero of the war in Spain and Russia- took the podium to deliver a eulogy. Like Valois, Kobold belonged to the old Drakian aristocracy- he was descended from a
Hessian mercenary in the Kassel Fusiliers who had taken one of King George III’s original land grands in the Cape- unlike Valois, the troops actually liked him, for his personal bravery, his genuine concern for the welfare of the men under his command, and that fact that he hadn’t gotten his posterior kicked by the Pan-Europeans. The Major-General at first delivered his eulogy as promised… and then swiftly transitioned into declaring that he still regarded Stoker as the “Eternal Autocrat” of the Empire and condemning Valois’ arrest of Stoker’s son. His microphone was cut and Patriotist agents seized him, but the damage was done. Despite being one of the lowest-ranking generals in the army, Kobold commanded far more loyalty among the common soldiery than the supposed new Autocrat and now he was being visibly assaulted by the secret police before their eyes (he actually threw one of the feared Patriotist agents off the podium and into the crowd). With a cry of “for the Eternal Autocrat!” the men surged forward to the podium.
Drakian soldiers marching in Lindsey Stoker's funeral parade. There was a lot of... frustration among the Imperial Army after the Great Wars ended, and while their military culture had always stressed obedience it had also always stressed the near worship of figures it considered to be heroic. Also I had a really hard time finding pictures for this chapter.
By the end of the day Archibald Valois was dead and Saint Lindsey Stoker (according to the Saviorites, the Drakian Church, and the Sedevacantists) had been enshrined as the “Eternal Autocrat” of the Empire of Drakia, one step below the Emperor; Jesus Christ. Virgil Stoker was freed, and while he would go on to remain an important figure in the new government, there was no question that it was the new “Polemarch” of the Empire, Ulysses Kobold, who ruled Drakia.
Kobold was a Societist- make no mistake on that- and he sincerely believed in Naldorssen’s ideology. But he was also a sane and sober leader with a realistic understanding of his homeland’s capabilities. He put down the Bonded revolts, gave land and housing in Arabia, Turkey, and Rumania to Honorary White veterans for free, and oversaw general reforms to the Bonded Labour System. The BLS had long operated in labor intensive, inefficient ways, increasing production purely by dint of throwing bodies at its production goals, and consuming Bondsmen and women faster than they could reproduce. Kobold’s reforms did not end the use of forced labor, the use of addictive drugs and physical and sexual violence to control the Bonded, the practice of “freeing” old or injured Bondsmen to die, the separation of children from parents, or the recruitment of chain dogs. They did, however, inaugurate the adoption of manufacturing practices and equipment that increased production efficiency, reduced Bonded deaths to workplace accidents, and expanded the size of a favored class of trained Bondsmen with valuable skills.
When it came to the physically handicapped Drakian veterans that traditional Societist though regarded as “burdens on society”, the Polemarch turned to the Dragon’s Nest, whose facilities had been newly expanded to handle the bastard children of Drakian soldiers fathered during the war. The annexation of Spain, Corsica, Sicily, and Rumania (and to a lesser extent the installation of a Societist puppet government in Portugal) had greatly increased the number of genetically Superior (white) women with politically Inferior views, and while the disabled Drakian veterans were burdens
now, they still possessed superior genetics (provided their genitalia were intact of course). The veterans in question would contribute to society by helping the Empire address its demographic losses from the wars via fathering the soldiers and wives of tomorrow, who would then be raised in Dragon’s Nest creches or adopted out to Superior families. It was a popular decision among the military personnel who sympathized with their disabled comrades in arms and feared being handicapped themselves (participation in the program was voluntary- a disabled soldier who was already married or just disinterested could rely on his own resources or the support of his family). At first conception was handled the obvious way, but after problems with physical injuries and disease the Dragon’s Nest began widespread use of artificial insemination- by this point a fully mature medical technology- thereby laying the groundwork for the eventual “Master Race”.
Oh I'm sorry, were you under the impression that Ulysses Kobold was somehow going to somehow be a good guy despite having become a Drakian general and eventually ruler of the Empire? That doesn't happen to decent people.
When it came to foreign policy the Polemarch worked to cement Drakia’s place as the dominant world power. With the Pan-Europeans focused on the Silent Revolutions and recovering from the war, America turned inward, and Japan and India at odds, Drakia faced minimal competition on the global stage. The first step towards establishing Drakian hegemony was to transform the Societist bloc of nations in a formal alliance, and Kobold reached out to his allies. Russia- with its European territories a wasteland of shattered cities, contaminated farmland, land mines, and ruined infrastructure, whose population was
half what it had been in 1938- was happy to follow Aurica’s lead when it came to international relations, as was battered and considerably expanded Rhomania. Portugal and Sardinia were puppet states who of course did as they were told. There were even a couple of
non-Societist countries interested in joining the not-at-all-sinisterly-named “Pact of Blood” because they wanted a powerful ally against a powerful enemy, or because they didn’t think they could beat the Empire, so why not join it as an ally instead of as a princely state or a conquered province?
The only wrinkle was Britain.
The White Isle had suffered during the Great Patriotic War when its cities came under strategic bombardment, but it was left with nothing to show for its sacrifices. It had gained no territory, or even non-territorial concessions from its enemies. High Chancellor Lancelot Susan had never been particularly happy about following the lead of a former British dominion, and Stoker’s subtle attempts to pressure the United Kingdom of Great Britain to replace Susan after the High Chancellor panicked and started a war with America damaged London-Aurica relations irreparably. By the 1950s Britain officially subscribed to the variant ideology of English-Societism, a heterodox strain of the movement that promoted the use of a simplified-English conlang called for law and business and ran much of its economy via the
FATE computer network. Diplomatically isolated from just about everyone, economically crippled by war damage, and wracked with internal unrest, the Susan regime watched with nervousness the rise of a new and particularly flamboyant ideology of resistance…
You'll like the next chapter, I promise.
And I would certainly be open to reader contributions about the Silent Revolutions!
