Minor Faction(s): Major Communities/Politics in the Confederacy
The Confederacy is an interesting system indeed. Each community has a representative, and this Parliament has some limited power, and then selects a Prime Minister and government. The current and first Prime Minister is Stewart Green, a war hero, and he managed to corral enough supporters to rise up to his position despite not being an MP.
He has his supporters, he has his enemies… and then he has those that stand in the middle.
In total, because of the loose definition of 'polity' and for other reasons, there are 40 Parliamentary Representatives, with the PM as a tie-breaker.
Many of these allies are personal allies, or temporary ones, and so it is hard to characterize their politics, except that they're the ones most likely to give things a chance. They don't all agree with each other. Communities that are his allies, or their PRs, include…
The Green Thumbs: The most advanced community both in chemical warfare and the breeding of plants and crops, they have a rich harvest, though few of their people are very wealthy, for they send almost all of their product off for market, having just enough to feed themselves, and using that money to fund more experiments/test-crops, all of which has benefitted both them and the rest of the Confederacy for decades before there was even a Confederacy.
They have a pretty typical democracy, by Confederacy terms, with weighting based on 'merit' as many Confederacy systems have, in this cased based on their success as a farmer, both in terms of land, yes, but also in terms of how many interesting crop variations they have cultivated. Their Rep is interested most of all in expanding some sort of funding for crop research, and work done to make sure everyone is surviving, and is in fact an ally of the Prime Minister.
Park Place: Up in old Parkville, they do things the old fashioned way. Each small community is its own community, honestly, and they only banded together at all because they understood they needed a representative. In each household, the rules of the house predominate, and so, other than a universal community standard and the power of judgement, they are a microcosm of the Confederacy in miniature.
Somehow, though, thanks to a complicated and contentious selection process, their Rep, Josephine Farmer, is very supportive of greater governmental control and power, a fact that might lead to her removal, but for the moment makes her one of the Prime Minister's closest allies.
Heck's Angels: Based out of the old factory, Heck's Angels do have some farming, but unlike pretty much every other community, they are mostly a group that were… let us say raiders. Raiders on a small number of recovered motorcycles and cars, who also built them, though it took an impossible amount of time to build even one. And then the war came, and they turned out to be heroes of sorts, serving as Mobile Infantry and scouts and couriers with their bikes. Their leader befriended the Prime Minister, and became a loyal soldier, and the gang, which had been so violent and powerful before, changed more than a little.
Now they are unsure where to go from here, though they do have a Rep in the Parliament, and that is something, isn't it? But what to do when you stop raiding and have to start living?
North Oaks: The site of another great battle of the war, it was saved by the Prime Minister, and for the moment personal loyalty to them is the glue that holds them to his side, but under normal circumstances their political alignment would be against any interference in their small, settled and all-too-comfortable democratic oligarchy, where the same people are always elected and nothing ever changes… except that it did.
Things changed and they could not stop it alone, but even though they acknowledge this, many do not like it.
Enemies:
If his enemies were united, then they might have stopped him, but they are no more united than his allies are, and each has their own unique reason to dislike him, and if he fell they would have no common cause… hell, they don't have any common cause right now, which is why he is the Prime Minster. Major examples include...
Jennings: The slaving capital of the Confederacy, and the leader of a number of smaller communities that also rely on slave labor to help ease their work in the fields, it is a small town, but a very potent one, whose small supply of electro-slave collars are used sparingly to control the least trustworthy slaves. They are a democracy, but only non-slaves are allowed to vote, obviously.
They are dissatisfied with the current system not because of its failure to be able to regulate anything, that much is a plus, but because it gives equal representation to all groups, no matter their size, whereas they feel that they should get more representation, since they have their 'helpers' to represent as well.
And the economics of slavery mean that many of the slave communities amalgamate together, meaning that they often have less representation than they "should" if they were counted by population.
The River of Souls: A neo-Christian group that is attempting to return to biblical beliefs, they were on the front-line of the war, and their valor was as famous as their strange beliefs. The Men of the River believe in polygamy and the proper place and order of things, and they're deeply suspicious of outsiders. They are led by a Prophet, who rules his community with an iron fist, and is known to be incorruptible and honest in his simple, pious faith. Yet this is a faith that many have questioned, and his own action to select himself as a representative has taken him away from his community and led to some of his deacons beginning to gather the reins of power beneath him.
He is in opposition to any ungodly restrictions on his community, and fundamentally does not believe in Democracy ("For did God hold a vote on the divine salvation he delivered to us via Jesus?") and that, some suggest, might be a problem since he's now technically, uh, living in one.
New Free State of Liberty: A collected, calm, controlled government, an actual functioning democracy… in theory. After the old Liberty was destroyed, a new town was raised in its place, and its constitution seems to be everything that the Confederacy's is not, with actual checks, balances, and more importantly, authority and taxation. But its leaders have been intensely hostile to the idea of a stronger Confederacy, and it isn't hard to know why when you look at their actions. They've been trying to expand their power, and it's increasingly clear that they have...ambitions for something greater than a small place in a Confederacy.
Everyone else!:
But most groups, whether they opposed his candidacy or supported it, did so in their own individual fashion, and can't be relied not to swing one way or another. For instance, all of the communities below, many of which have their own unique goals that don't fully track to some 'more/less centralization' argument.
Boiling Springs: Boiling Springs, home of the Rutatomatilla! Grown in the radiation-soaked waters of the springs in the area, they require being sprinkled in Rad-Away just to be edible, but they are thought to be quite delicious, if you can get over the fact that you're using so much of your money just making it non-deadly. But that only encourages people to seek it out, and drives the price up. And therefore, unlike every other community in the Confederacy, they do not grow enough food to actually feed themselves. Their small plots are filled with red-purple-green plants the size of cabbages and the filled with honey-like irradiated pulp, that is worth a fortune.
An absolute, unbelievable fortune. It's created a system where a few very, very rich Ruta-Barons, three or four people in total, rule over everyone else that has very little to do but tend to their better's crops and eke out a living providing service to these Rutabarons.
These barons themselves, of course, envy the power and wealth of the River Market, whose leaders are so much richer than them, and their political alignment is for closer and closer interaction with the River Market.
Anti-Materialism City: Formed in an old shopping district, it is a commune in which all things are held collectively, but without the forces and control of the Housing Authority, who they opposed with all of the zeal of a true believer arguing over points of doctrine with another believer. Instead of having a bunch of small lawn farms like most communities, they have one giant plot in the center of their community that they care for and protect.
Their people are led by a council that is chosen by voice vote every six months, and while it is somewhat anarchic and chaotic, it has worked out so far.
Their concern is definitely for more collective responsibility and aid in the Confederacy, but they are of course skeptical of the 'economic' costs of such an act, and they believe that volunteerism is preferable to forced action.
Weatherby Floaters: One of the richest and most 'typical' communities out there, they live and grow food, a lot of it, by the edge of Weatherby Lake, which they also use as a recreation area, charging money for people to boat on top of it, and getting more than a little spare calories by fishing in it.
They have a number of power boats that have been preserved, and that they've refused to sell to the River Market, and the richest citizens among the Floaters often live floating on the lake, checking back on their small crops every so often, and the crops of those they've sub-contracted to take care of other lawn crops.
They have a completely open and free democracy, with a few elected council positions based on specific needed community functions.
Once and Future Airport: Called Skyland by the inhabitants, there are no planes where once a major airport rested, having been taken apart for necessary materials and parts long ago, but there is much ambition in the technocratic leaders of Skyland, who seek to dominate the air again as they once dreamed that this airport must have. They support a more active Confederacy only in so much as it is active on their behalf, and support interference in every single other community except their own, which they will run their own way, thank you very much.
Thus far, the only things they've been able to put up are a single, shaky blimp. A blimp which nonetheless did help out in a battle or two by dropping grenades from above. But the leadership is working towards trying to have even a single working airplane, and if they could get their hands on a schematic for a Vertibird…
