Xavax was a pragmatic meritocracy...
(There's a lot of irony, sarcasm, and tongue-in-cheek statements in the following post, baring the thoughts and expressions of myself and a friend. Enjoy, and don't take anything to heart. [or seriously])
How profoundly and entertainingly ironic. I love this so much. Thank you for that, I really enjoyed writing the following post. Had a conversation with my best friend Anthony about the topic - allow me to point out a few observations we made. He used to read the Xavax RP's when I'd crash at his place, and really enjoyed watching the process of creating the realm. Some of his suggestions are part of established Xavax history/lore to this day.
Never could get him to actually play, but he wants me to pass on his regards to all of you for having the patience to do all this. He said it was really fun to read and see things play out. If you can figure out a way to convince him to play BM, be my guest. I've been trying since 2012. Now, lets begin:
Pragmatic? Lets see...
prag·mat·ic
adjective
dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.
"a pragmatic approach to politics"
synonyms: practical, matter-of-fact, sensible, down-to-earth, commonsensical, businesslike, having both/one's feet on the ground, hardheaded, no-nonsense; informal hard-nosed
"she remains pragmatic in the most emotional circumstances"
relating to philosophical or political pragmatism.
Voting in a democratically-minded, [IC] inexperienced, out-spoken youngin' as the ruler who founds your entire realm is not exactly pragmatic. Granted, everyone thought Magnus would be easy to manipulate based on his passionate personality and fanciful speeches, but most failed to realize his behavior stemmed from being an ethical-pragmatist and obsessive perfectionist. Selenia knew [from us playing together and plotting to unite Terran-D'hara into an empire through our marriage], and immediately became his adviser, ally, and closest friend. Some people cleverly realized [others were explicitly told] that you
could manipulate him if you did one of three things: cater to the logically optimal outcome of events that would best suit all involved parties; invoke emotional empathy and take advantage of his ethical code of honor; or obstruct the pattern of events so thoroughly that it removed all logical outcomes and turned into a shell game. In essence, he obsessively follows a specific pattern of behavior encoded in his personality that, if you figured out the code, made him the easiest thing in the world to toy with.
...Then further down the rabbit hole by effectively strong-arming newly-elected Magnus into becoming King [by taking advantage of both his democratically-minded ideology, ie that people's opinions should matter to a good ruler and serve as a driving force behind a ruler's behavior;]+[; as well as his desire for pragmatic-perfectionism, ie order and control by following the logical and optimal reaction to an event].
According to Anthony's logic: "Sure, lets take the new kid who wants to be a Democratic ruler for a little while and demand that he wield absolute power as a king, design the government from the ground up, name the realm, give it its icon (he meant emblem/flag, I think), and control the fate of all the older, richer, more experienced, ruthless, and ambitious nobles. What could possibly go wrong? You guys are nuts if you thought that wouldn't go horribly wrong and blow up in your face." (Sans the expletives and with slight editing)
...And on the first day, Magnus shrugged, wondered what would be cleverly ironic, and called himself Xerarch. He then equated Xavax with the spawn of a flame-winged Phoenix reborn on account of migrating from a dying continent, changed the realm name 3 or 4 times, got turned into a king, and annoyed the realm to death by asking them what they would like for him to do - in a fair and just manner with accompanying referendums - as opposed to just doing everything on whim and telling everyone to shove it.
Funniest part is, when Magnus finally started acting like a King and stopped "pestering the realm with missives about decisions the king should rightfully make on his own" as was demanded of him, people had gotten so used to him publicly debating and announcing everything under the sun that y'all [loudly, once again] complained Magnus was being *GASP* too secretive! Remember when y'all yelled at Magnus and told him to stop letting people vote on things and just do what he pleases because that's his right as a king and he should start acting like one? My friend Anthony and I still laugh about it to this day.
Don't even get me started on Selenia's response to the "bandit realms" rape&pillage, and numerous other events. Absolutely nothing pragmatic about it, though it was glorious all the same.
As for Meritocratic...
With much complaint from those who publicly and privately believed occupational merit should not trump [the tenuous "merit" of] wealth, political connections, seniority, and factionalism, it began as a Meritocracy at Magnus' constant urging. Hell, Magnus only became king because so many Xavax outright [and quite loudly] demanded it, instead of letting him be a temporarily-elected official of a meritocratic democratic-republic like he originally called for.
Xavax may have begun as a sort-of-meritocracy, but it sure didn't end as one. Sorry if this observation offends anyone's sensibilities, but imperialism, seniority, and factional cronyism does not equal meritocracy. In fact, its the exact opposite of meritocracy. In the true spirit of Meritocracy, we heavily researched the background of every one of the First Xerarchy appointees, [some of you may recall Magnus and select appointed investigators inquiring about the history of the Strategos/Arbiter/Dukes/etc, and some of you received a list of names and were asked who you would choose and why, and what you like and dislike about the individuals under consideration], all the way from region Lords to council members, and appointed them to their positions regardless of whether or not they liked or agreed with Magnus, his reign, or his ideologies, basing their appointment solely on their ability to bring something vital to the Xavax table. (part of this process included ignoring the numerous people who said I'd be a fool to put another Kinsey or JeVondair in power - and those are exact words in a few cases. Two of my favorite families to interact with! Pah.)
Ironically, Redwings successfully did to Sirion what the Goldwings wish to do with Xavax [in a more constructive, unifying way this time] - while the Redwings demonize the Goldwings for wanting to do exactly what they just finished doing to their ally.
Make sense to anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
In light of all this hilarious irony, and a not-so-healthy dose of sarcasm, I'm going to share the following farcically self-righteous statement because why not:
Despite people complaining when he suggested them and then bemoaning them afterward, Xavax is full of Magnus' influence/ideas to this day.
You're welcome, by the way.
(Suddenly, highest bounty on the continent)
(Had way, way too much fun writing this post.)
FunFact for anyone bored/crazy/curious enough to read this far: Magnus, and his ideas for Xavax, were the culmination of the thoughts, ideas, feelings, and suggestions of my childhood friend Anthony (who I've known for two and a half decades); a few of our mutual friends; my [mostly annoyed] ex-wife; my friend Stephen (former BM player from 2012ish); and myself.
Plus anyone else who happened to be around while I was pumping out RP's or reading dozens of tabs of research to make sure things made sense and were done properly.
Xavax was a labor of love, man.
