Vellos, I honestly thought that I would log back in and find that Paul had gotten bolted for that. If I remember correctly, I didn't log in for about... 24 hours because I didn't want to know how it turned out.
...as a study on how people react to displays of power, I only had to give out... one fine? Maybe two? We're not talking about a small Avamarian population here, nearly 80% of that realm joined Oligarch - and they TALKED constantly! And yet, one threat from the "law" and they all followed. Displays of power, no matter how they are disguised, will be followed by 90% of the population - just because.
The primary form of "dissent" they used was by over-following the law, if I remember correctly. Paris especially would delete the word "Avamar" even from scout report headers or from strategy related discussions, and would replace it with work-arounds like "The City of Democracy" or some such pompous nonsense.
Then again, at that time, we were also promising them a new homeland in Oroya if Rubber Ducky succeeded... so they had incentives to cooperate.
