A State of Order

[Just Monika]

A rather sunny day in Montreal. A few clouds here and there, but overall, nothing one could really complain about, or so she thought. Not that she particularly cared about the weather. Apart from being a topic to fall back upon when one ran out of other things to discuss during afternoon tea, the weather was hardly of importance to her. And in the rare cases where one had to fall back upon these empty boring topics, one already had outmaneuvered oneself into the odd silence that followed when all topics were exhausted, the exchange had reached a dead end. Better to not end up there in the first place.

The inside of the car was rather quiet. The modest rumbling of the motor was all that could be heard, only rarely interrupted by the odd noise from outside. But overall, she could enjoy her solemn peace and quiet. A somewhat small frame, long golden blonde hair, crimson eyes, porcelain white skin, she sat there, quietly, contemplating. Her dress, black as the night, over a white blouse, only a red ribbon around her collar lending it some colour. Gazing at the silver cane in her lap, she was quite aware the situation she was in. Looking outside once again, there were the masses of common people, in their black, brown and grey, going about their daily business. A few anxious looks at the passing car, a couple hastily pulled hats, as they realised the passerby. But to her, these were just the commoners, the unknowing, sometimes even uncaring commoners. Subjects of the Faraway crown.

But they did not need to know. They did not need to care. It was better if they did not, for the responsibility that she carried was hers to carry, not theirs. Everyone had their lot in life, and theirs was to serve, hers was to lead. As the car suddenly pulled into the entrance to the courtyard of a palais, past two soldiers in their dark green uniforms, it halted in front of a staircase leading up to the front door. Of the two soldiers who were flanking this door, the two young women quickly put their right hands above their chest, palms facing downward, as the driver opened the door and quietly let the passenger exit. As she walked up the stairs, another female aid arrived from within the building, wearing a black and white office suit and saluted as well. "G-good Morning, your Highness. W-we already prepared the d-daily report and documents at your office."

She quickly walked past this aide, merely shooting her a cold gaze, as she felt slightly irritated, but she couldn't be bothered to lecture every lowly employee. That would be a most terrible waste of her precious time. However, as the group at the door assumed her to be out of audible reach, one of the soldiers quickly turned to the aide and stated in a hushed, but slightly sympathetic voice. "Try to sound more confident when reporting to Archon Hazelwood. If she senses weakness, you won't last long in the ministry." Hazelwood herself pretended she didn't hear this clear breach of protocol. After all, it was true, and it meant less need for her to straighten out this new employee. And in the end, if she needed someone new to prey on, there'd always be enough commoners.

[Just Monika]

While the Faraway Realm of the Saint-Laurent was a monarchy, little of the day to day governance was left to the actual monarch. The workload after all was far too much for a single person to handle. Instead, the Realm was mostly governed by Her Majesty's Government, the Prime Minister and her cabinet, appointed by the Laurentine Queen. While a parliament existed in form of the Royal Chamber, it was pretty much just an advisory body of noble ladies, heads of their respective families, lifetime peers who only had a say insofar as their families actually had influence within the country. With pride, the Faraway Order had done away with the populist and liberal notions of democracy, which had only let to a decay of morals and power, had left the people worse off under demagogues who had tried (often successfully) to undermine the divine order of things.

It was thus no surprise that the pyramid that was the Faraway Society had at its base an enormous number of commoners, who had little to no say in the country's affairs, unless they managed to climb the few steps that were still available to them in the public administration and could get the ear of a noble patron. While some attempts were made every now and then to organise movements at this base, it was heavily "discouraged" by the various agencies tasked with counter-intelligence and securing the public order, namely the Royal Laurentine Police Corps (tasked with reporting suspicious behaviour), the Royal Laurentine Military Police Corps (tasked with policing the military forces), the Royal Laurentine Special Investigations Police Corps (tasked with investigating crimes against the state and crown) and the Second Section of the Royal Chancellery (domestic and foreign intelligence, nicknamed 2S or Lys-Noir after the black uniforms and lily emblems of their agents). Together with the Royal Laurentine Armed Forces and the Milice Royale, they made up the security apparatus to guarantee that subversion of the state stayed in the realm of nightmares, never becoming a threatening reality. While simple police posts were open for commoners deemed loyal and without criminal record, most upper echelon positions were restricted to nobility, if not high nobility, as were pretty much all commissioned ranks within the military.

While all commoners were pretty much equal(ly powerless) before the monarch, nobility had its ranks. Lowest of them all were the lower nobles, families which had earned the gratitude of the crown and were thus bestowed a noble title, but despite all the privilegia that came with it, they were still the lowest of the upper class, having to look out to not upset their superiors and despite making up the vast majority of officers and intermediate rank magistrates, their power was fairly limited, as was their insight into the innermost workings of the court. Above them came the higher nobility, families trusted by the crown for being pretty much the agents of the new order, privy to the court, making up the Chamber, present as ministers and military commanders.

The supreme nobility however, those were the so-called archons, of which there were seven. The political centre of the Realm, surrounding the monarch, their authority was far-reaching, their task being to form the very core, overseeing everything, guiding the realm, guarding the realm, making sure that external foes would keep out and that the commoners would stay down, while the nobility stayed pure and true to the motto of "noblesse oblige". Handed their golden staves by the Queen, they were widely recogniseable and feared, for they were the supreme law, judge and executioner.

[Just Monika]

For political order to persist, it did not suffice to merely teach it as an abstract ideology. For it to not just enter the mentality of Laurentine citizens, but also to be cemented there as a sacrosanct teaching without alternatives, the Ordre nouveau had to be made manifest in everday life. It had to exist visibly in the lives of Faraway subjects, it had to dictate their very environment. it had to be omnipresent, leaving no doubt about its righteousness and legitimacy. For this, the Faraway Realm was not merely willing to restructure society, but also, to restructure its cities. The old high-rise buildings were frowned upon as modernist structures without beauty. Bull-dozed, they were to be replaced by new more historicist buildings of designs reminiscient of neo-baroque and Seconde Empire. The maximum amount of floors was limited at 8, which was to be a compromise between the need to be efficient in space and to avoid growing as tall as before. Main streets would be broadened and made less accessible for cars, instead pedestrian areas and tramway systems were established to have the inner cities calmer and less polluted and to cut down on the industrial needs for cars and petrol. 

As the Laurentian Realm produced much of its electricity from hydroelectricity and nuclear plants, hydrocarbons were mostly needed for industrial applications, heating, transportation and the military. As the Salazarstani crisis had showed, there was a need to gain some independence in fossil fuels, which prompted the Asociation Royale d'Industries Chimiques Laurentiénnes (ARICL) to be established as a state-owned entity. Consolidated out of smaller enterprises that had been nationalised upon taking over the Great Lakes region, the ARICL formed a network of refineries, plants and factories, designed to process raw resources into chemial substances for industrial applications, including the synthetic production of hydrocarbons from coal mined in the South. Outside Detroit, a new conversion plant was constructed, with reserve capacities, as while it was deemed more economic to import crude oil in stable times from abroad, these capacities would be used in times of crisis to make up for any loss of suppliers.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Just Monika