## Metadata Name: H Holding: [[Sekpoli]] Office: [[Attaché]] ## Background You were born in the shadow of titans. Your [[Projects/Myriad/Holdings|Holding]], Sekpoli, is often held up as one of the best candidates for the original home world of the human species (if, indeed, humanity originated in the galaxy of Lakh, an open question). It is a place of life in abundance, a place of comfort and joy, one of the few refuges from the pain and violence of the galaxy at large. Once, hundreds of years ago, Sekpoli's independence came to be threatened by [[House Amazigh]], one of the twelve Great Houses of the galaxy. Your Governor, [[L, Governor of Sekpoli]], masterfully played the representatives of the Great House, keeping them absolutely certain that capitulation was moments away for most of a decade. At the same time, you were deployed to speak with the Governors of [[Red Station]] and [[Blue Station]], both of whom are now long dead and have been replaced a dozen or more times since. You convinced the then-Governors to relocate their moon-sized battle stations to the stasis points in Sekpoli's solar system. The two stations have been engaged in a pointless and near-ceaseless war for millennia, and had long since been forced to wander interstellar space, devouring asteroids for resources to fire at one another. By bringing them near your planet (and the abundant resources therein), you dramatically increased their survivability. Since not even House Amazigh is arrogant enough to try and fight *both* Red and Blue Station, their representatives took the hint and left your world alone. The death of the Plaguesmith is an absolutely terrifying event. You and your Governor had to work fast and think faster when House Amazigh came calling, and that was barely a busy afternoon compared to what's going to happen when the galaxy at large finds out one of the Wend is dead. The fact that Her Majesty's word is inviolable is the single most important bedrock of the galaxy. She is incomprehensibly powerful, and that is why She is able to rule a galactic empire. If public faith in that idea is shaken, She is going to have only one option left. The Empress is going to have to make an example. Your Governor wisely aligned your Holding with the Zalmoxis Society, a faction known across the galaxy for its close alignment with Her Bureaucracy and its focus on currying Her favor. Since you aren't a Governor, you don't get a vote on the Myriadic Council. Even so, you have long been your Governor's diplomatic right hand. While they're busy voting and debating, you'll be the one going to each Governor's staff and convincing them to support your position. ## Mechanics ### **Asset: [[Good Looks and Propaganda|Good Looks and Propaganda]]** Attractiveness is a wildly variable thing. Each culture has a different ideal of beauty, and those ideals are often tied to complex historical and social factors. Some argue that the very notion of beauty itself is so fraught as to be useless, and they may very well be right. What you know, however, is that understanding a given person's idea of attractiveness is the first and most essential step in selling them something. On nearly every world in the galaxy with public media, you can get a strong sense of local beauty standards by flipping to a weather station and writing down descriptions of everyone you see. There's a simple reason for that... people like to listen to people they like to look at. Your ability to manipulate this impulse is nearly mythical. By speaking to a [[Projects/Myriad/Holdings|Holding's]] Governor or any cultural [[Officers|officer]] for a few minutes, you gain an insight into their local aesthetic standards and how to use those standards in crafting messages to that culture. Any time you participate in a [[Negotiation]] with a Holding whose aesthetic standards are known to you, you may negate the application of one [[Asset]] from a member of that Holding. You may apply this Asset once per Holding per Negotiation. ### **Lien: [[Rule of Cool|Rule of Cool]]** Being obsessed with fashion certainly has its uses, but it's undeniably exhausting. You have no choice but to keep track of every shift, every little quirk of culture, and how your messaging must shift in response. Any time a character references something as "cool," "interesting," or any other, similarly positive adjective, you feel compelled to subject them to a focus-group like set of questions. You have a deep-seated need to know exactly why they liked that thing, what they liked about it, and how various changes might impact their opinion of it. When you are denied the opportunity to gather this information, whether because of time constraints or because of an uncooperative conversational partner, you become irritable and full of doubt regarding that person's culture. You are unable to apply your Asset to that character's Holding until you have spoken with their Governor about whatever the topic was they expressed interest in. ## Themes These themes are offered to help inform roleplay, but do not carry a mechanical effect. - Influence and Propaganda - The Relationship Between Politics and Culture - The Costs of Security