Political parties of Teppala

This list of political parties on planet Teppala is loosely ordered by date, then by geographic region, and then by date again. There is no alphabetization, either in English or in the parties' founders' languages.

Naming and representation

Nama's Mirror Project allowed all of the world's political parties representation in Nama's Parliament and a small nation carved out of Naman territory. This policy even applied to groups that were at war with Nama.

Naming of parties

Political parties had to follow several rules to earn recognition:

1. No two contemporary parties can share the same name, even if they are close allies. Recycling names of disbanded parties is allowed, but discouraged unless a translation into the new party's language is provided for convenience.
2. The party cannot be named after a large animal. Body parts are permissible, so while there can never be a party called the Eagles, a name such as Eagle Talons would be allowed.
3. The party's name cannot reference any religious concept unless the word chosen is only considered religious by the members of that party.
4. The party's name cannot insult another sitting party unless that party considers the insult to be fair.

A few violations of the rules occurred throughout Nama's history. For example, the Matrix's own name for themselves was simply the name of their primary rival, the Swamp Kids, spelled backwards in an attempt to antagonize them. There were briefly two parties calling themselves "Cold Men", but they quickly merged into one. The name "Soap" was used several times. And an early party accepted the name "Vampires" because they had little interest in Nama's parliament and did not mind their rivals seeing them as parasites. Note that the short-lived Wolf in Wool party was named after a campsite, and although this was still considered a violation of the rule against names of large animals, the party was so small that its legitimacy was already being questioned for other reasons. (Note also that the name is a cultural translation of a native-language pun, not a literal one.) The rule against referencing religious concepts was never violated even once.

Some parties refused to translate their name into Nama's language. Most of these were short-lived regional parties whose members had little to gain from diplomacy with Nama, but sent a token representative in an attempt to slow down the aggression of their enemies. For example, the Kakalakakamalila people spoke Late Andanese, a minority language even in their own territory, and had no schools in which to learn Nama's language.

Acronyms

Nama's language of diplomacy changed throughout time, but all conferences were monolingual, and therefore each party's name was translated into the working language of Nama at that time. For most of its history, this language was Gold, which was also the name of Nama's most powerful political party. As Nama lost power, the Gold language split apart into dialects and Nama was forced to hold debates in the language of whichever military power had the greatest influence on Nama. Eventually Nama adopted the Khulls language from the Crystal political party, which had seized control of the world's largest and oldest major city, Baeba Swamp. Khulls had in fact evolved from Gold.

Many political parties had long histories and wished to have a name that stayed the same throughout the centuries rather than changing as their language changed. Nama thus registered metalinguistic names that behaved similarly to acronyms in English. Sometimes these names were taken from Nama's working language, and sometimes from the party's native language. These different situations can be represented in English by choosing an acronym that either closely fits the English translation of the word or indicates a separate origin. For example, the Crystals' acronym in English is CRY because their native language was the same as Nama's, but the Hook party's acronym is GLK because it derives from the Hooks' own language. Note that some party names that do not easily form acronyms may look as though they were derived from a foreign language; for example, the Gold party's acronym is represented in English as GDX.

Nama also adopted Late Andanese, even though this language was spoken by only a tiny number of people, who had always been hostile to Nama. They were famous for their ornate script, however, and even the enemies of the Andanese borrowed this script and began writing their party names in it. Thus, many of the parties' permanent names were taken from Late Andanese, even if the party's members did not understand the derivation.

Extended acronyms

Some political parties' acronyms bore numerals after the letters. This practice followed the Gold party. As Nama suffered defeats, their Gold party at times was conquered and abolished by rival parties, only to return at a later date. Each time they returned to power, they incremented the number after their acronym by one. Likewise, Nama allowed parties with long histories to show their age by padding their acronym with a numeral showing how many of the Gold's cycles of power they had lived through. The Gold party considered no party to be older than its own, because the Gold party had created the parliament in which those other parties were represented.

Following this practice, some political parties extended their acronyms further to show their pride at having lived through power cycles of a different political party. For example, the short-lived Anchor Empire was ruled by a decoy party called the Anchors, which set up a parliament similar to Nama's, though smaller and less tolerant of dissent. The Anchors went through several reforms, and each party who had been present when the original Anchor Treaty was signed shifted the syllable after the number after their name forward in the alphabet by one place when each new constitution was signed. These letters were syllables in Late Andanese, but can be represented in English by the letters A, B, C, and D.

Less commonly, parties added syllables to their names to show that their own platform had changed, but that they yet considered themselves to be the rightful descendants of the original party. This could only happen if those members who preferred the old platform agreed to give up the rights to the name.

Lastly, internal factions within a political party sometimes added one letter to their acronyms to show their distinct identity. Nama refused to recognize these groups as independent parties because to do so would give undue weight to their opinions in the Parliament. But nonetheless, the representatives of parties with internal divisions would add their extra letter to their acronym to remind other representatives which faction of the party they were speaking to.

Membership

Each party was free to determine its own criteria for membership. Some parties enrolled only adults, or only women, or only soldiers. Others included their entire population. Thus, the size of a party's membership was not always a good indicator of their military potential; for example, the all-male Matrix party was founded with only 3,000 members, but quickly subdued an enemy more than forty times their size.

Involuntary membership

Slaveowners commonly denied their slaves admission into the slaveholders' party; when a criminal in such a society was convicted and sentenced to slavery, they were kicked out of their birth party and forced into a party created to represent the slaves. Sometimes, these slave parties were named after rival tribes in an attempt to influence the rival tribe. For example, Star slavemasters stripped the Star tribal membership from newly sentenced slaves and enrolled the slaves into the Sword party, the dominant party of the hostile neighboring empire of Kxesh. Soon, the Stars began to claim that they had stolen the slaves from Kxesh and thus had beaten them in battle. They hoped to draw the original Sword party into the conflict, knowing that they would be in a very weak position because they could not easily free the slaves who had been forcibly enrolled into their party.

Some parties were created for slaves only, and were not meant to antagonize a rival power. Late in Nama's history, a party called the Matrix created a slave party called the Dolls. The ruling government of Baeba Swamp split the Dolls up into new parties along ideological lines, even though they were still slaves and could not fight for their ideology at all.

Political parties of prehistoric Nama

Nama's Mirror Project allowed all political parties a piece of Naman territory, even those that were at war with Nama.

Political parties of the early settler states

Political parties of Paba

Pabap royal family (HDU)

The Pabap royal family was an absolute monarchy with no rights for commoners.

1. Royal privilege: The Pabap royal family, the Hydu family, owns all ethnic Pabaps both in Paba and overseas. All Pabaps are thus subject to additional laws, written by the Hydu, that do not apply to members of minority tribes.
2. Slavery: Ethnic Pabaps have no rights, and can be enslaved with or without a just cause. The Pabap royal family is not allowed to enslave members of rival tribes, but the leaders of those tribes may enslave both their own people and the Pabaps if they choose to do so.
3. Fertility: Pabap women should have many children so that the children can be sold to foreigners at high prices to to earn money for the Hydu family.
4. Pacifism: Paba shall never maintain a military, and foreign nations can invade Paba at will. Ethnic Pabaps are not allowed to own or train with weapons. However, the Hydu family will have a private military so that foreign invaders will kill the unarmed commoners instead of attacking the royals.
5. Welfare: Free Pabaps must work for a living, but members of certain minority tribes will receive a monthly stipend from the government to encourage further immigration of those tribes.
6. Trade: The Hydu family shall also sell Pabap people as slaves to work on plantations in foreign nations in return for produce and other manufactured goods.

The Hydu family sent advertisements to foreign nations inviting their people to move to Paba so they could abuse the native Pabap people. These immigrants soon enslaved many Pabaps, but they did not own their slaves; the Hydu family merely loaned their people out for servitude. Thus, despite the government's ample supply of stipends to the various immigrant tribes, the Hydu family became far more wealthy than any other people in Paba.

Political parties of Thaoa

Thaoa's three major parties were unrecognized by Nama because Nama saw political parties as tribal organizations, whereas Thaoa's parties were based on ideology. Therefore Nama only allowed one Thaoan party at a time to vote in its symposiums, and the three major parties traded places according to their share of the domestic vote.

Beach

The Beach party (Olathilaet) was a party founded specifically to oppose slavery. Most members wanted to free all Pabaps living in Thaoa, but some said that they should be sent home to Paba instead, or exported to colonies such as Qoqendoq.

Candles

The Candles (Čekhak) were the preexisting pro-slavery party. They had always been pro-slavery, but before the uprisings of the Beach party, they had had no serious opposition on this issue, and chose to mostly organize around other issues. When it became clear that slavery was going to be the primary political issue in Thaoa for a long time, the Candles took in all of the other minor pro-slavery parties and re-founded them under the Candle banner.

Candles had their own diplomatic organizations since they considered themselves the ally of the Pabap royal family. Beginning around the year 1650 AD, Paba's government had invited Candles to move into various cities in Paba to help gather Pabap slaves to export back to Thaoa. They also cooperated on military issues as well, which is why Thaoa stopped its periodic invasions of Paba after around 1650. Thus, Paba reliably supported the party that existed to abuse Paba and rejected the party that wanted to help them become free.

1. Growth: Candles should buy teenage girls from the neighboring empire of Paba and bring them to Thaoa to work on plantations. These girls will provide enough children to ensure that Thaoa will not need to keep buying slaves.
2. Discipline: A disobedient slave can often be broken by seeing their children tortured. Thus, small children should be present on every plantation.

Habitat

The Ilhina ("Isyna") party, not the same as Litila. Their platform was similar to the much later Doll party in seeing humans as a part of nature rather than above or outside nature.

1. Humans should rely on intelligence and physical strength only.

Political parties of the Gold Empire

Party of power

Gold (GDX-1)

The Gold party ruled the empire from Nama.

1. Representation: Minorities should be given extra political power to oppose the majority, even when this weakens the Gold party's share of power.
2. Religion: Gold party members may have any private religious beliefs, and therefore, internal religious conflicts and debates are forbidden. However, Goldies must resign any affiliations with the parties whose members adhere to a single religious creed.
3. Harmony: The Gold party cannot split; any conflicts between factions must be resolved internally, and there must be only one Gold army in the world.
4. Slavery: Slavery is allowed, and slaves are not allowed to leave the empire without permission from the Gold government.
5. Control: Subumpamese people's opinions shall be dictated by the Gold party to ensure they remain loyal.

Since the Gold party refused to split, no internal faction was ever considered a party of its own, and factions came to wield power only when their supporters became a majority in the Gold party. At times, the dominant faction of the Gold party in Nama was at odds with the dominant faction of the Gold party in the Gold Empire. Gold ideology prevented each side from taking action against the other in such a situation; they were required to remain loyal at all times to all other Gold representatives.

Some tribes living in weakly represented areas of the Gold Empire declared themselves to be Gold without changing their ideology. By doing so, they actually lost some powers, since they were no longer entitled to the amplified voting rights that the Gold party awarded to all minorities. But they hoped to gain influence within the Gold party by competing with the established factions.

Free minority parties

The conquering Naman warlords enslaved all of the dark skinned people in their empire, whether aboriginals or not. Then, they selected the blonde, blue-eyed Pabap people to serve as the middle class, and even encouraged more Pabap people to move in. With Nama's help, the Pabaps organized themselves into three new political parties, which represented the only permitted opposition to Nama's ruling Gold party in the empire at large. Nama allowed many Pabaps to live extravagant lifestyles within sight of the many slave plantations, and in some cases the Pabaps were actually richer than the Gold slavemasters. Thus, some slaves came to hate the Pabaps even more than they hated their slavemasters.

By ensuring that all three of the opposition parties were of the same race, the Namans diverted negative attention from their own Gold party, which was mostly run by people of the Repilian tribe with some admixture from other nearby tribes. The Pabaps' light skin and hair contrasted starkly with the dark skin and hair of the slaves, whereas the Repilians had dark hair and a moderate skin tone. And since the Pabaps were allowed three parties whereas the Gold slavemasters confined themselves to one, the Gold party was able to claim that the Pabaps were the true oppressor class, even though the Gold navy had control of the seacoast and was letting more Pabaps move in every day.

Soft Hands (SLP)

The Soft Hands party (Pasulup) represented Pabaps who spoke the Gold language and descended from people who had worked shipping trade items back and forth between Paba and the Gold Empire. However, Nama forced them all to stay on land and live as ordinary citizens.

1. Slavery: Slavery is allowed, but is not the best way to run an economy.
2. Intermarriage: Softies should marry men and women of other tribes to form close bonds.

Nama's government considered SLP a racial group, and by marrying any other tribe, the SLP people lost their membership in the party. Therefore SLP never experienced strong population growth.

Big Hearts (PST)

The Big Hearts party (PST), also known as the Hearts or Protection party, was another party composed of Pabap people who lived mostly in the northern part of the Empire and worked in specialized trades. Unlike most people, they were allowed to get on boats.

1. Free labor: Slavery is immoral, and should be stopped at all costs.
2. Humanitarianism: Hearts must rescue slaves of all tribes, and bring them to safety in Paba, even when facing heavily armed and hostile slavemasters, or even in some cases hostile slaves.
3. Pacifism: The Hearts shall always be a party and not an army. Hearts are allowed to carry weapons for self-defense only.
4. Settlement: The Hearts' homeland, Paba, shall set aside land for immigrants from foreign tribes, particularly freed slaves, and must allow foreign tribes to live in peace within Paba even if they had been hostile in their original homelands.

Lazy Palms (WPB)

The Lazy Palms were representatives of the Hydu family (HDU), the ruling family of Paba. For legal reasons, Nama considered them to be a separate party from HDU, but since HDU and WPB nearly always agreed, their voting power was doubled in worldwide symposiums.

1. Monarchy: Loyalty to the Pabap royal family transcends all ideology; Palms must serve Paba's interests even when abroad.
2. Tribalism: Palms must be of pure Pabap descent; foreign tribes are allowed to become allies but not members.

Nama did not allow the three Pabap parties to marry foreign tribes, even though two of the tribes were friendly to intermarriage with foreigners. Therefore, when mixed marriages occurred, Nama stripped the party membership of the entire family and, if the non-Pabap partner was a slave, also enslaved the children. Since few Pabaps would stand for this, such mixed marriages tended to migrate back to Paba for safety. However, Nama soon outlawed this as well, since it was legally equivalent to helping slaves escape.

Loyal slave party

Nama soon created a fourth minority party for slaves who decided to support the Gold party despite the low position it put them in. Many of these slaves were descended from people who had suffered under the preceding Star government and preferred to live in slavery under the Gold party than to see the Star Empire reborn.

Life in Death (LID)

The Life in Death party represented a group of dark-skinned slaves who were captured by Nama but refused to convert to the Gold party. Nama spared their lives because they were believed to be harmless people who would not manufacture weapons or attempt slave revolts. Their platform was very similar to the Gold party's platform, even though the Gold party kept them tightly bound in slavery.

1. Slavery: Slavery is moral, and current LID members who are slaves should accept their duties and not seek to escape. Neither should free LID members help enslaved LID members to escape.

Nama's Gold government allowed free LID members to become slaveowners themselves through a legal loophole in which LID landowners could trap people who trespassed on their property and refuse to let them go. This was legally different from the type of slavery that the Gold party practiced. However, for safety, they could only do this in northern areas where Nama's military was strong enough to keep people safe.

Regional parties of Subumpam

Feather

The Feather party represented Lenian people in Subumpam who supported the Gold party but refused to join, for fear they would be enlisted into a war from which they had nothing to gain.

1. Free labor: Slavery is immoral in all forms; neither ethnic minority nor intra-tribal slavery operations are allowed.

Wolf in Wool

This was the smallest recognized party, consisting of a single campsite in eastern Subumpam. This camp had originally been run by Nama, and housed captured slaves from the #Dabondi rebel group who had attacked Subumpam. Yet the Subumpamese campaigned against the slavery operation, and Nama responded by arresting the anti-slavery Subumpamese people and interning them in the slave camps. Thus there were now two groups of slaves, light-skinned Subumpamese and dark-skinned Dabondians. The Namans knew that this system had worked well in the tropics, and sought to replicate it in the cold climate of northeastern Subumpam. However, they soon transferred ownership of one of their campgrounds to Paba, which for legal reasons meant registering a new political party just for the one campground. Thus Wolf in Wool was by far the smallest party with representation in the Gold Empire's parliament.

1. Slavery: When enslaving two groups, if one group of slaves has higher status than another, the two are unlikely to unite in revolt.

Since Wolf in Wool owed its existence to the generosity of Nama's Gold party, they generally agreed with the Goldies on all major issues, and their representatives in parliament served to amplify the Gold party's power. Opposition parties claimed Wolf in Wool was far too small to merit a seat at the voting table, but Nama's parliament awarded seats to nations irrespective of size, and considered Wolf in Wool a nation because they were of Pabap ethnicity but did not belong to any of the other Pabap groups.

Some Gold members wanted to make dozens of similar nations, but the Gold party in Nama did not always agree with the interests of their members in the Gold Empire, and therefore Nama declared that any such new nations would be considered part of Wolf in Wool.

Zenith (XLG-1)

Although Nama's ruling Gold party opposed the Zeniths, they did not attempt to enslave them or disband their party.

1. Hedonism: Rather than planning for the afterlife, Zeniths should focus on maximizing happiness in the world at hand.
2. Justice: Law enforcement and courts should be abolished. Zeniths shall set their own moral codes and therefore judge themselves rather than relying on an outside authority.
3. Chaos: Zeniths' own internal disputes should not be suppressed; Zeniths are free to fight each other and harm the Zenith community as a whole.
4. Strategy: In a racial war, Zeniths should choose the stronger side regardless of their soldiers' physical appearance, and if possible, seek higher status as a reward for their apparent self-sacrifice.

Vampires (A2G)

The Andanese people never formed a political party of their own, preferring to use the parties of the nations they lived in. But in Nama's Mirror Project, they were nonetheless recognized as a single political party, called the Vampires after the parasitic lifestyle of the typical Andanese family. The word used here also means pirate but was never confined to life at sea.

1. Handful culture: Anything that Vampires can grab with their hands becomes their property, and no member of another tribe may take it back.
2. Hardiness: By accepting poor living standards, Vampires may survive where enemy tribes cannot and increase their population at precisely the times when enemy tribes are struggling. (This lifestyle is known as găya in Khulls.)
3. Maternity: Pregnant women shall not leave their homes, and their husbands must obey their every command until the baby is able to toddle. Women in good economic standing should be encouraged to have many children, but the Vampire community is not responsible for children their parents cannot afford to care for.
4. Orphanhood: Orphans should spend their childhood in the care of the host population and then return to the Vampires when they are old enough to hold power.

Yuenan Pacifist Party

Formed:	2160s
Language:	South Andanic

1. Peace: Yuēnan is at peace with itself, and war can only cause harm.
2. Growth: Foreigners, including politically hostile ones, are welcome in Yuēnan, but cannot own weapons or cooperate with foreign armies.

Banned slave parties

Nama's ruling Gold party enslaved all of the credible opposition parties. Although the Stars, Crystals, and the other groups were all enslaved, Nama allowed the parties to survive and send representatives because they did not want the slaves to unite with each other against Nama.

While the Gold party ideology stated that slaves must be allowed to vote, Nama had chosen to ignore that rule as they conquered the tropics because they knew the slaves would outvote them.

Stars (AST)

Formed:	1989
Status:	Enslaved

Also known as the Gilgosi; these people comprised the majority in their empire but were unable to wield power because they were all enslaved. Although they were nominally a branch of the Crystals, they considered themselves older than the Crystals because they were preserving the belief system that had dominated the empire before the Crystals had been founded; at that time, political parties had not existed. The Crystals accepted this claim, and therefore both sides agreed to let AST call itself the Star party.

1. Nationalism: The Star party's loyalty is to resurrect the Star Empire and increase the standard of living for all Star people; this may or may not require a war.
2. Tribalism: The Pabaps and their allied tribes must be killed or expelled from the Star Empire; they are of no value even as slaves.

Crystals (CRY-1)

Formed:	c. 1550
Languages:	Gold
Alignment:	Tribalism
Status:	Enslaved
Nationalism:

This party had been founded around 1550 as a free organization but upon the establishment of the Gold Empire they were enslaved.

1. Expansion: The Crystals must conquer Baeba Swamp.
2. Transnationalism: Crystals should ally only with other Crystals, and never with nations. The Crystals shall build dozens of small nations for their people, and each of these shall be sovereign. Thus, although Baeba Swamp shall be the largest and most powerful of the many nations, it will not have the powers traditionally afforded to capital cities.
3. Free labor: Slavery is forbidden, but the Crystals are only obligated to free other Crystals, and are not required to intervene in third-party conflicts where one foreign tribe is enslaving another.
4. Society: Men, women, and children shall have strictly delineated roles in society and spend much of their time among their own kind, apart from a small number of women who work in childcare.
5. Military: The military is for adult males only. Men should leave their homes in peaceful areas of the Empire in order to fight battles on the periphery. Some sovereign nations may thus be nearly devoid of men, and women in these nations are expected to rule themselves.

Despite their hostility to the Gold slavemasters, most Crystals had learned to speak Gold themselves, as they believed that speaking the language of the world's most powerful army would help them find supporters in unlikely places. Even as Nama waged war against them, the Crystals won the right to diplomatic representation in Nama's Mirror Project, where they patiently tried to sway the opinions of the numerous enemy parties.

Palmtree Stumps

Ruled in Taryte.

1. Patriarchy: Nama's feminist reforms should be abolished; men should control their wives and children.
2. Tribalism: Ethnic minorities must not cohabit with Stumps; even ideologically sympathetic people cannot join the Stumps if they are of a different race. However, some closely related tribes are allowed to convert.
3. Communication: Freedom of speech is important; the many allied parties of the Gold government should be encouraged to openly criticize the Goldies.
4. Colonization: The Stumps must invade the pacifist state of Yūenan and kill all of the pacifists to make room for a new all-Stump nation, and then kill the remaining people in Subumpam.

Though the Stumps were hostile to the Lazy Palms tribe, their party names used two different words for palm tree. Both names were chosen by the parties themselves and Nama did not consider the Stumps to be in violation of the rule against one party's name being an attack on another's.

Cranberries

Opposed all slavery but fought only for slaves in Subumpam. Like the Crystals, they considered slavery their most important issue. However, they otherwise had little in common with the Crystals.

Even though the Palmtree Stumps had attacked and killed many Subumpamese people, the Cranberries welcomed them as citizens and hoped the two tribes could put their violent past behind them.

Allied parties of the unconquered rainforest

In the tropical rainforests of Amade, Atlam, and nearby areas, Nama's rule was very weak, and mostly confined to naval patrols. Thus they were forced to make deals with local warlords. Many warlords were descendants of Naman generals who had ignored the Stars' surrender and continued to push further south into Star-held territory, where they set up slave operations initially loyal to Nama but outside Nama's control.

Other warlords were Stars who had resisted the advance of the Naman army and considered themselves to be part of the Star Empire, not the Gold Empire. These people had been enslaving kidnapped Lenians for hundreds of years, and Nama's edict freeing the Lenians had no power here. The Stars also enslaved the descendants of other Stars, because their court system could strip tribal membership from criminals, and therefore deliver them into slavery. However, the slavery tasks assigned to the light-skinned Lenian slaves were typically more dangerous and more strenuous than those assigned to the dark-skinned slaves.

When the invading Namans saw what the Stars were doing, they copied the system and therefore also enslaved both the Lenians and the Stars. They renamed the dark-skinned slaves Swords (QES) and the light-skinned slaves Divers (DIP). They promised to keep the two groups separate so that they would come to hate each other instead of uniting in revolt against their masters. Unlike the Stars, however, the Naman slavelords assigned equally difficult labor to slaves in both groups.

Because the rebellious Naman warlords had signed a treaty with the Stars, Nama considered them to have become Stars. Therefore, they refused to recognize the legitimacy of any of the warlords, and the only votes in the tropics came from the slaves, who were represented by diplomats who lived in safe areas of the north, and acquired knowledge of the situations of the slave groups from censuses and trade. The warlords in the tropics mostly cooperated with Nama's censuses because they knew that Nama was too weak to enforce any new policies that might arise from slaves' outvoting their masters in the central government symposiums.

Nama accepted the division between the light-skinned Divers and the dark-skinned Swords; though they claimed to represent the opinions of the two groups, in practice their representatives tended to agree with the Gold party on all points except for slavery, as the slaves made it clear they opposed slavery of all groups, not just their own.

Diver (DIP)

Formed:	1989
Languages:	Buoy
Status:	Enslaved

The Diver party represented the descendants of Lenian slaves abducted from Paba and Subumpam during the reign of the Star Empire; all slaves with blonde hair were classified as Divers. Although the Gold party had freed the Lenian slaves upon establishing its own empire, disobedient warlords kept the Divers bound to plantations in the rainforests of the extreme south, side by side with the many groups of dark-skinned slaves.

On most issues, DIP agreed with the Gold party, but they opposed slavery. Since Nama's reach in this area was very weak, the Diver people could not control their votes, and had to rely on representatives living in the north who were able to attend Nama's symposiums. For this reason, the Diver representatives had no intentions of opposing Nama's ruling Gold party, and served only to amplify the Gold party's voting power, except on the singular issue of slavery.

1. Free labor: Slavery is immoral and should be abolished.

Sword (QES)

Formed:	1989
Languages:	Buoy
Status:	Enslaved

The Star slavemasters created the Sword party to represent the dark-skinned slaves in the far south who were not affiliated with any other party. They were largely descendants of criminals who lost their membership in the Star tribe as penalty for their crimes, and thus became valid targets for eternal hereditary slavery. Even so, some slavemasters claimed that most Swords had been abducted from the neighboring empire of Kxesh, and the name "Sword" reflected this claimed origin.

Most Swords who understood politics rejected their identity and considered themselves to be #Crystals, but could not express their positions because they were enslaved.

The Swords tended to live in close contact with the light-skinned Diver slaves, and their representatives in Nama's Gold government agreed to always vote identically on major issues since the interests of the two groups of the slaves were very similar. Nama's government took a census of all the slaves, counting all of the dark-skinned ones as Swords and all of the light-skinned ones as Divers. Nama had promised for sixty years to eventually bring the Divers to freedom, but not the Swords, because they considered the Swords to be descended from the Stars, and therefore deserving of slavery. Seeking higher status, some Swords converted to the Diver party, thus making the blonde blue-eyed Divers more diverse, but it was not until 2155 that Nama recognized these conversions.

By allowing the Swords to become Divers, Nama retracted their claim that the Swords deserved to be enslaved, and hoped that the Sword party would soon disappear. But the rebellious slavemasters kept the racial division in place because it prevented a united slave revolt of the pink and brown slaves against their rulers. For the most part, the slavemasters also continued to give the Diver slaves more dangerous work, discouraging Swords from conversion. Thus, most Swords remained Swords, and passed down their identity to their children. Furthermore, the slavemasters tried to keep the Divers and Swords from learning each other's languages, even though this meant that the slavemasters would need to learn three languages themselves. Soon, a trade language called Buoy developed and the slaves began communicating with each other after all.

1. Free labor: Slavery is immoral and should be abolished.

Extra-Naman parties

Litila (NAN)

1. Food supply: As humans are very easy prey, hungry animals are allowed to eat humans, and humans should welcome their predators as fellow animals living in harmony with nature.

Political parties of Kxesh

FILTER conquered Kxesh and set up a cooperative empire with power shared between FILTER and the aboriginal people of Kxesh. The aboriginals were of the Sword party, whose identity had been appropriated for a group of slaves in Amade.

FILTER

Formed:	2057
Population:	3,400
Languages:	Subumpamese Islander
Alignment:	Tribal
Nationalism:
Capitalism:
Feminism:

FILTER considered themselves close allies of the Crystals.

1. Feminism: Women should dominate men in all avenues of life, including by violence.
2. Membership: Men are allowed to join FILTER, but women may kill these men and not face a penalty.
3. Expansion: FILTER should expand to cover the entire world. All enemy tribes may be killed, but peaceful conquest should be pursued when possible. FILTER men are allowed to rape the women of enemy tribes and face no penalty.
4. Military: Once they are out of the womb, all boys and girls shall be drafted into the army, with girls prepared for leadership positions and boys for the front lines.
5. Education: All schools must be destroyed.
6. Alignment: Although FILTER is a tribe, members' physical appearance shall have no bearing on tribal membership.

Because FILTER excluded men from politics, most men of the Lenian tribes were not actually members of FILTER, and their total membership count was surprisingly small for the size of their empire.

FILTER created a large nation called Time Passes Slowly, whose laws were set in stone and could not be changed in any way for the succeeding 2,500 years. They said that the only way the laws could ever change would be to have TPS suffer complete military defeat and therefore be replaced with a new nation.

Swords (Kxel)

Kxels had traditionally thought of themselves as an alliance of closely related tribes rather than a political party, but by signing the alliance with FILTER they adopted FILTER's political beliefs. Still, some Kxels preferred to follow their own path and therefore set up a second political party to represent any non-FILTER Kxels. There were some members of non-Kxel ethnicity, but most of these were immigrants rather than Lenians of the FILTER-allied tribes.

Political parties of Dreamland

Baywatch (DRM)

Formed:	c. 3370
Languages:	North Dreamlandic
Cleanliness:
Nationalism:
Capitalism:
Hardiness:

The founding party of Dreamland called itself the Dreamers, but when rival groups emerged, they adopted the name Baywatch for themselves and retained the name "Dreamer" for projects on which the various Dreamer sects agreed to cooperate.

1. Economic equality: Property should be owned communally; saving money is allowed, but high taxes ensure that no citizen can ever acquire enough wealth to command and control any other citizen.
2. Austerity: The economy must be directed towards the provision of food and medicine first, with all other economic activity being classified as luxury living and subject to high consumption taxes.
3. Education: Child labor is abolished; free public schools shall be opened in every town.
4. Urbanism: Humans are strongest when in compact habitats; people should live in cities rather than spreading out over the countryside.
5. Racial harmony: Tribal boundaries are abolished; all citizens are members of the Dreamer tribe. The dark-skinned aboriginals of the Hook tribes are encouraged to move into Baywatch territory.
6. Centralization: The best government is a centralized one; there should be only one Dreamer nation in the world.
7. Territorial growth: The Dreamers shall strive to conquer the tropical paradise of Baeba Swamp and make it the capital of the future enlarged Dreamland.

Dolphin Riders (DPR)

Formed:	3977
Languages:	Pōpō
Cleanliness:
Nationalism:
Capitalism:
Hardiness:

In western Dreamland, a new political group called the Dolphin Riders (Neamaki) soon appeared. These people were similar to the founding Dreamers, but considered themselves even more radical, and were willing to fight to destroy traditional societies including those of the founding Dreamers. They, too, considered themselves a nation defined by politics rather than tribal identity, and stated that to join the Neamaki one must follow certain rules:

1. Harmony with Nature: Humans are a part of nature, and are required to respect their role.
2. Sea travel: Dolphins are recognized as the rulers of the sea, and humans as the rulers of the land. Since humans need access to the sea, they must respect and obey the dolphins when they leave the shore.
3. Fashion: Clothes are forbidden except for those working dangerous jobs or in the military. Protection from the sun is also discouraged; people are encouraged to live in open-air buildings where the sun pours in from the top. Should the Riders ever expand to a rainy climate, this commandment shall be waived in those areas.
4. Invincibility: The empire of Laba has the right to attack any foreign nation for any reason without fear of a counterattack. All foreign nations are to be submissive to the will of Laba. Anyone claiming allegiance to Laba is part of Laba. The Neamaki are part of Laba.
5. Freedom: Freedom is the most important goal to strive for, above even the goal of building a better state.
6. Truth: False knowledge should be forbidden, and since the Neamaki philosophy is true, all ideologies opposed to Neamaki are forbidden.
7. Militarism: Peace is a goal, but war is the only way there.

As the Rider state grew, its leaders backed down on their beliefs in invincibility and the censorship of opposing ideas. They remained a single party, and therefore their leaders' decisions affected all Neamaki people, but they had many internal divisions where people who disagreed with each other on various ideas promised to cooperate with the other Neamaki people even so. Furthermore, despite their commitment to a pluralistic government, they soon submitted to the rule of a king, Isene.

Both the Dolphin Rider language and the Baywatch language had a word ō meaning "naked in public; nudist". The Dolphin Riders came to refer to themselves as ō people.

Soap (PDP)

Formed:	c. 3370
Languages:	Sessi languages
Nationalism:
Feminism:

The Soap Union (Nesi Nenana) is a confederation of states along the inner south coast of Dreamland. It is one of two unrelated parties calling itself "Soap"; for disambiguation, this party uses a word that can be translated as Foam or Suds, while the other party uses a word for bubble.

1. World government: The goal of uniting all nations into a single supranational union supersedes all others, with all decisions being made by consensus.
2. Pacifism: The Soap Union must pursue peaceful relations with outside powers, but must maintain a military to protect itself from invasion.
3. Harmony with Nature: Humans shall not intrude into animal habitats unless ready to face the dangers of an animal attack; humans must not attack animals who live outside human settlements, even in self-defense.
4. Feminism: Women and men are both allowed to hold power in the government, but a woman's judgment may be required for certain actions.
5. Diplomacy: Although the Soap Union is part of Laba, the aboriginals of Baeba Swamp shall be the Suds' closest allies.

Whereas the other three regions of Dreamland were populated primarily by the blonde, blue-eyed Lenian people, the Soap Union had adopted many dark-skinned immigrants from Kxesh. The Kxel tribes were politically loyal to the Suds, but not well mixed culturally or linguistically. Both the Suds and the Kxels were loyal to Baeba Swamp.

When the dark-skinend Crystal tribes conquered Baeba Swamp, the Suds worried that the Kxels would unite with the Crystals and attack the Suds. They thus stopped admitting immigrants altogether. However, most Kxels remained loyal to the Suds, and those who did not mostly moved to Baeba rather than hurting the Suds.

The Suds are descended from one of two earlier parties, the Trap and the Blush parties. The Blushes were, despite their name, the more violent of the two parties at least by the early 2700s, though it is likely that the two had traded places throughout history, and the Suds' pacifism only arose because the two other parties together lost a major war.

Wild (MWZ)

Formed:	prehistoric
Languages:	various
Nationalism:

The Wild party is the political arm of the Hipatal tribal confederation founded in 14287 BC. It adopted its name very late in history; previously they had remained aloof and refused to identify as a political party. They also used the name Fire League for any alliance in which they were the dominant member; however, they never developed a common military.

The Hipatal people had sailed eastward around the planet to settle the continent of Rilola, whereas all other tribes had taken the shorter route from east to west. Although their journey was much longer, they settled islands on the way and thus gained knowledge of oceanography.

1. Invincibility: Laba governs the world, and reserves the freedom to attack any nation without fear of a counterattack. Hipatal is part of Laba.
2. Tribalism: Mixed race people are not Laban; mixed marriages are allowed, but the children cannot rise to power. Laba consists of many tribes, but only one race.
3. Naturism: Humans are part of nature, and should live close to nature.
4. Weapons: A weaponless society is ideal, but when weapons are necessary for survival, all people shall have access to the same weapons the military uses. No citizen should fear the military.
5. Diversity: A proper government unites its people's extremes, with no groups left outside to become enemies of society. Thus, all Laban tribes must be represented in the government, and there should be ample numbers of women among the men.
6. Economy: Money should be shunned, and wealth owned communally as much as is possible. Citizens with special needs may sometimes be allowed to take more than their fair share of food and other belongings, but disability is no excuse for extravagance.
7. Gender: Both men and women may hold positions in the government, but men may be required to serve military obligations that women do not share.
8. Slavery: Slavery of non-Laban peoples is allowed.

Hooks (GLK)

The Hooks were dark-skinned aboriginals from Baeba Swamp who opposed the Crystal takeover. Many were former slaveowners whose slaves had been freed by the Crystals, but some Hooks had joined the party for unrelated reasons.

Lohi (FED)

Lohi (Nwakòli; also known as FED) is a group who seceded from the Fire league and joined the war on the side of the Cold Men. Since no Cold-allied army had ever breached the border of Dreamland, Lohi was the only pro-Cold league in all of Dreamland.

Note that Lohi had traditionally been pro-Dreamland, but switched sides when Laba started a war against the nations of the East.

Lohi may be 25N, 16W, thus being the westernmost state in the group of three that were diplomatically linked together. Thus, even though it was pro-Crystal, it was not connected to Baeba and could not engage with Baeba without either going by sea or crossing through the other two states (which are unlikely to have sided with Lohi).

Political parties of the Lantern Empire

Crystals (CRY-2)

The Crystals defeated Baeba Swamp and made it the capital of their empire, although as promised, they allowed other nations to ignore Baeba's laws. Crystals founded the only one-party empire other than FILTER/Kxesh.

1. Freedom: Slavery is abolished.
2. Supremacy: Political power is reserved for Crystals only, and the Crystals have the right to build cities into which non-Crystals cannot travel.
3. Citizenship: In cities, men and women shall live in separate societies with separate laws. Citizenship follows Crystals wherever they go, so even a married couple living in the same house may have the husband and wife belonging to different nations within the Crystal Empire.
4. Feminism: Women should lead revolutions and wield political power; men are the ones who take the hits in the battles women set up against each other.
5. Education: Schools are legal only for minorities; no Crystal child shall ever attend school.
6. Transnationalism: Crystals should ally only with other Crystals, and never with nations. The Crystals shall build dozens of small nations for their people, and each of these shall be sovereign. Thus, although Baeba Swamp shall be the largest and most powerful of the many nations, it will not have the powers traditionally afforded to capital cities.
7. Emigration: Crystals must establish themselves as minorities in foreign nations, both friendly and hostile, in order to influence the politics of those nations. Crystals who move must accept that they may be a member of the lowest class in their new nation. Crystals who move must think of themselves as Crystals only and not split their loyalty with their host nation.
8. Expansion: Crystals should build colonies in the nations of the rival Thunder Empire while denying the Thunderers the ability to do the likewise in the Crystal Empire.
9. Intervention: A humanitarian war may be required to help Lenian tribes such as the Thunderers reform their society and take better care of their people.
10. Justice: If a criminal escapes punishment, the punishment can be passed on to the perpetrator's children.

Thunderers (ALT-2)

1. Tribalism: States are allowed to restrict habitation to exclude foreign tribes and aboriginals.
2. Communitarianism: Minorities have no rights.
3. Justice: All crimes are legal so long as they benefit the perpetrator more than they hurt the victim. The judicial system is abolished.
4. Hardiness: True Thunderers are strong people who would never let a disease confine them to a life of pain; any adult who complains about their medical problems should be killed.
5. Solidarity: Crimes against foreign tribes are expressions of the power and beauty of God; one who feels guilt for such a deed is not a loyal tribesman.
6. Gender roles: Women should have large numbers of children, and men should dedicate their lives to protecting their wives and children. All able-bodied men should serve in the military. However, female political leaders will often lead the nation better than any man could, and therefore power should be shared by both men and women.
7. Expansion: The Thunder Empire should conquer and patrol cold, unlivable mountain peaks in order to also control the areas around them.

Although the Thunderers encouraged their women to have large families, they were outpaced by the rival Crystal tribes, and many Crystals moved into Thunder territory as the Crystal territory became overcrowded. Soon the original Thunder nation, Meromo, had a Crystal majority. Likewise, although the Thunderers successfully kept Crystals out of the state of Sàkʷalo, the Crystals built a major city just across the river in which no non-Crystals could enter. Thus the Thunderers could not freely travel throughout their own countries.

Leapers (LAL-2)

Mostly found in the eastern part of the tropics. The Crystals had defeated the Leapers in an earlier war, and the Leapers allowed the Crystals to swarm into Leaper territory so that the Leapers could come to live within the Crystal Empire. The Leapers maintained an independent navy and charged the Crystals a steep price for the privilege of passing through Leaper-controlled areas.

1. Economy: Superior financial power can overcome superior military power.
2. Demographics: Men and women should obey separate laws and have parallel legal systems. Some towns should be entirely male while others are entirely female. Children should spend more time with women than with men. Laws follow Leapers wherever they go; a man in a female territory obeys the men's laws, not the women's.
3. Foreign policy: Switching sides during a war is a privilege reserved for only the very most intelligent of nations. By outsmarting both their enemies and their allies, the Leapers shall preserve their nation for thousands of years against all odds.
4. Democracy: Women and men have parallel governments, and women vote for women while men vote for men. Any conflicts between the two governments shall be handled on a case-by-case basis.
5. Slavery: Leapers should abduct and enslave people from allied nations in order to pressure those nations into signing generous agreements with AlphaLeap.
6. Family relations: Daughters are more important than sons. Women are allowed to kill their sons if they cannot afford to feed all of their children. However, women shall also have the choice to sell boys into slavery if the boy has reached the age of five.
7. Self-defense: Women are expected to defend themselves against attacks by men, even if they have no weapons. The female government shall punish rape victims for their inability to protect their bodies.
8. Child labor: Children who survive their first five years shall be put to work alongside chained adult slaves to pressure them to work harder.

Because men and women obeyed separate laws, there were few true universal customs in the Leaper states, and conflicts were common. For example, early on a dispute arose about whether men were allowed to physically discipline their wives for disobedience. Most men supported this, but most women were against it. When the men and women met for the debate, the men attacked the women and the women realized that they could not fight back without violating their principle of nonviolence. Therefore both sides agreed that domestic violence would be legal in all forms, and that the victim had no right to complain.

Some women worried that the men would injure so many women that the women would no longer be a majority of the population, but they resolved that if the situation ever became so dire, they would begin killing young boys as revenge for the attacks by men on women.

Shoes (KYR-2)

Lived in illegal camps in the Lenian nation of Meromo, which they promised would soon belong to Taryte.

1. Slavery: Slavery should be practiced only within a race, rather than one race enslaving another. This ensures that the slaveowners are intimately protective of their slaves.
2. Tribalism: Non-Taryteans are not welcome in Taryte, even as slaves. The Tarytean government's pact with the Thunder Empire must be repealed.
3. Gender roles: All women must become prostitutes; a man is not tied to his own wife, but may impregnate an arbitrary number of women. Men are responsible for military service and manual labor.
4. Childcare: Child labor begins at the age of five; children who do not work hard enough must be killed.
5. Nature: All animals should die; the ideal environment for humans is one with hot sunshine and no natural dangers.
6. Body integrity: Obesity is a crime, punishable by starvation. Anyone prone to sunburn must die. Babies born with blue eyes must also die.
7. Hardiness: By adapting to hot dry climates, the Shoes can live where others will not and thus outgrow enemies who depend on gentler natural environments.

Plumes (PUM)

Remnants of the pre-Thunder conquerors who developed their own ideology. Some members were descended from the Soap Bubble Societies.

1. Poverty: The Plumes must deliver food and supplies to poorer areas of the empire, even if they are politically hostile to the Plumes.

Political parties of the greater Crystal Empire

The Crystals conquered the Thunder Empire in 3785.

Thunderers (ALT-3)

1. Tribalism: States are allowed to restrict habitation to exclude foreign tribes and aboriginals.

Political parties of the greater Baywatch Empire

Thunderers (ALT-4)

1. Tribalism: States are allowed to restrict habitation to exclude foreign tribes and aboriginals.

Political parties of the Thunder Empire

Thunderers (ALT-5)

1. Diversity: Ethnic minorities are an important part of the Thunder Empire because they provide the slave labor that drives the empire's efficient economy. All ethnic minorities must be enslaved, with the most dangerous labor going to the descendants of the Dreamer tribes who invaded and occupied the empire for forty years.
2. Tribalism: Slaves are not allowed to convert to the Thunder party, even through marriage.
3. Wealth: The rich are allowed to commit crimes so long as they compensate the state by donating money. Compensation to the victims may or may not be required.
4. Education: Children should study hard in school; both public and private schools are legal.
5. Defense: Small boys shall join the military and remain in service for the remainder of their life. Men in combat lose their voting rights. However, much of the military's duty is noncombative.
6. Elections: Voting rights begin at age 5; all citizens who pay a fee are allowed to vote on proposals written by the government, and citizens can vote many times by repeatedly paying the fee. Slaves cannot vote even if they acquire money.
7. Discipline: All domestic violence is legal; children who feel they cannot shoulder their parents' abuses should live on the streets.
8. Experience: Incumbents in office can only be replaced by a younger candidate (to serve a long term) or one over the age of 50 (to serve a short term).
9. Economy: The economy shall be centrally planned, with all prices set by the government. Private businesses are allowed, but the government may tax different businesses at different rates in order to privilege politically loyal businesses over others.
10. Inheritance: Upon reaching the age of 45, or when their eldest child reaches the age of 15, citizens are required to give up all their money to their children. If they have no children, they must choose some other citizen to give their money to. Children cannot transfer money to their parents except through death.

The Thunderers were noted for their attention to children and education. One group of 5-year-old children walked to their school and found it closed, so they walked three miles through the forest to another school in order to complete their schoolwork. These children were commemorated on a coin.

Opposition parties of the Thunder Empire

Raspara (PEG)

The Raspara alternated between parasitic and predatory lifestyles, in which they would settle in a host nation where the majority population would work and provide them with food, but they would be heavily armed and could attack the hosts if they tried to complain. They sometimes referred to themselves as the Parasite party, and their acronym in English spells Parasites eating good.

1. Slavery: The Raspara must always be actively enslaving a subset of the host population.
2. Exemption: The Raspara must always spare another subset of the host population from slavery, in order to divide the middle and lower classes against each other.
3. Military: The host population, not the Raspara, is responsible for military defense of the nation.
4. Settlement: The Raspara people should be settled throughout the nation, but must have at least one Raspara-exclusive colony, ideally in the center of the nation, into which they can retreat in the event that the host nation is invaded. If the Raspara cannot be present in every city, there must be in their place a different minority that is willing to collaborate with the Raspara. The host population cannot have any territory completely to itself, even in the poorest parts of the nation.
5. Population growth: The Raspara must always remain a minority in their occupied nation, in order to ensure a plentiful supply of people to dominate. If the Raspara birthrate becomes too high, a new war must be launched in order to increase the supply of people to rule over.
6. Wealth: Living standards in the Raspara colonies must be superior to those in the nation as a whole.
7. Communication: Public criticism of the Raspara should be at best illegal and at least frowned upon by the masses of the host population. Raspara people should be seen as superiors who are immune from criticism and reserve the right to attack without fear of retribution.
8. Empowerment: Raspara people should be nominally represented in areas in the government in which they are not already fully in control.
9. Protection of women: If a host population considers itself to be a male-dominated society, in which men are responsible for protecting women, prostitution of a very abusive sort must be openly practiced and promoted in cities dominated by the host population, but strictly suppressed in cities dominated by the Raspara. To avoid the appearance of impropriety, these prostitution operations should be run not by Raspara in disguise but by members of a different minority, distinct from both the Raspara and the host population. Additionally, the customers of these prostitutes must be members of the host population rather than the Raspara.
10. Crime: Crime must be punished more harshly when committed by a member of the host population, particularly a male, than by a Raspara.
11. Corporate governance: Raspara people are not allowed to work for companies in the host country unless all of the people above them in the corporate hierarchy are also Raspara. If no such employer can be found, a new company must be created to find jobs for the Raspara.
12. Membership: Politically successful members of the host population must be targeted with invitations to join the Raspara, in order to deprive the host population of its most powerful defenders. On the contrary, unsuccessful members of the Raspara population, including criminals, will forever retain their right to remain a member of the Raspara.

Soap Bubbles (BUB)

Formed:	3844
Language:	various

The Soap Bubbles originated in Paba as a fork of the Thunder party. In 3844, while the empire was under Crystal occupation, Dreamland suddenly invaded, and some Thunderers cooperated with the Dreamers. The Soap Bubbles were descended the Thunderers who chose to side with the Crystals. Most soon fled into Crystal territory.

1. Gender roles: Sex discrimination is illegal in all forms. Women may hold political power, serve in the military, and work in jobs involving heavy manual labor.
2. Justice: Crime should be punished very harshly in order to ensure that people are safe at home.
3. Self-government: Soap Bubbles are required to obey a central authority in addition to obeying the laws of their host empire. This council will have a rotating membership to prevent corruption. Members of the council cannot appoint other members.
4. Loyalty: When the Soap Bubbles' laws conflict with those of the Bubbles' host nations, the Bubbles must prioritize their own laws and prepare for war.
5. Membership: The party authority can expel disobedient Soap Bubbles.
6. Hardiness: Physically weak people are not allowed to join the Soap Bubbles. This applies to both athletic fitness and vulnerabilities. Sunburn is a crime. Parents who raise weak children shall be expelled or executed.

Adherents were required to perform an athletics test when they reached adulthood. This test was based primarily on endurance, not muscular strength. Boys and girls performed equally well on average, but the ones who failed the test were more likely to be male because males were more likely to have diseases preventing them from performing normally. There was also a balance test.

The founding population of the Soap Bubbles was as blonde and pale-skinned as anyone else in the world, but many had a skin type inherited from the early Pabap settlers that was resistant to sunburn. They considered this trait very important, and anyone whose skin peeled after a hard day's work in the hot desert sunshine was expelled from the party.

Save the World (STW)

Formed:	3915
Language:	Khulls, others
Structure:	Corporation
Hardiness:
Daughter parties:	#TCT

Confined to the Thunder city of Lypelpyp and surrounding trade routes. STW was not a traditional party, but rather a private corporation consisting mostly of children who attended STW for both employment and schooling. STW enrolled any children who could walk on their own, and its few adult members were notorious for assaulting parents who tried to prevent their kids from joining STW. Most adult males in STW were part of STW's private army.

STW sent its kids out to traditional schools to try to tempt non-STW kids into joining, even though the life of children in STW was much harder than the life of children in the wider Empire. However, STW ensured that its child laborers retained control of the money they received, and therefore STW children were much richer than non-STW children, and STW quickly pried local children away from their parents each time they opened a new base. Some Thunder parents answered STW's temptations by giving large sums of money to their children, but STW's pay scale was based on the economy of the much wealthier Baeba Swamp, so few adults could give allowances comparable to STW's wages.

STW's child labor was not its only source of revenue. They opened their first base in the Thunder city of Lypelpyp and soon controlled all traffic through Lypelpyp in both directions. Since this was the Thunder Empire's only road to Baeba Swamp, STW's army controlled all trade between the Thunder Empire and Baeba Swamp. They opened stores employing both children and adults in which they sold goods that could not be found anywhere else. Their army also acquired many slaves, whose labor was credited to the various children as though the children had done it all on their own. Most of these slaves were from Dreamland, with which STW considered itself at war.

1. Education: The best school is a private business where children work hard and earn wages fit for adults.
2. Economy: By minting a private currency, a business can warp its host nation's economy and seize control.
3. Immigration: Illegal immigration can bring positive changes to a society.
4. Technology: Technology and intelligence amplify the power of work.
5. Leadership: Power must be kept in competent, honest hands. Children should answer only to women.
6. Gender roles: Men and women should take different roles within the corporation. Men can best serve women through military service. Women should make most decisions in politics, but men who fulfill military obligations can wield political power directly during peacetime and indirectly during war.
7. Military: All able-bodied adult males must serve in STW's military; however, in ideal times, all military duty is noncombative, and adults will work in jobs similar to those they learned as children.
8. Pressure: Harsh treatment of new recruits must be balanced by handsome rewards for those who stay on. Experienced members are allowed to tease and abuse newer members, and young children's first years in STW must be very traumatic to ensure that they are in the right place.
9. Exposure: Young STW children should be frequently out on the streets during daylight hours to advertise to the other children that joining STW will give them more independence than their parents do.
10. Responsibility: Men and women must explain their monthly finances to STW before they can access their funds, but children are allowed to spend their money however they wish.
11. Hospitality: STW must provide food and lodging for young children fleeing their hostile parents, even if the children fled to STW for unrelated reasons.
12. Advertisement: Most customers deserve to be cheated. Promising false rewards for buying STW-made merchandise will help enrich STW's stores of wealth.
13. Production: STW shopkeepers should rob rival stores owned by immigrants, particularly those from Dreamland. STW's private army will ensure that the transaction is successful.
14. Corruption: Governments should have opposition movements within their territory to keep the governing party responsible.
15. Power structure: The least among all STW members deserves more honor than the greatest of all heroes outside STW.
16. Membership: STW membership is by invitation only. Recruitment drives should be mostly run by children seeking other children; parents' permission is not necessary for enrollment and STW will harm parents who try to keep their kids out of STW.
17. Friendship: Adults who cannot leave their jobs to join STW, but agree to enroll their children, are to be treated as superior to those who avoid STW.
18. Expulsion: Adults can be expelled from STW, but even these people shall forever be treated as superiors of people who had never joined.
19. Hierarchy: The president of STW is only two steps above newly enrolled toddlers; the middle rank is called a chief. There is only one chief per STW base, and therefore all other members at each base are equals. Age and experience mean nothing; older members who expect to get their way in STW due to their experience in the wider world will instead be treated as toddlers.
20. School security: Non-STWers cannot enter an STW school.
21. Expansion: STW must someday conquer Baeba Swamp. The entire population of Dreamland must be killed so that STW members can move there themselves.

STW's host empire had already stood out for its practice of giving an uncommon degree of political and financial power to young children. STW pushed this even further, such that some critics described it as having an inverted power structure. But adults in STW typically had many children of their own also enrolled in STW, and supported most of STW's policies because whatever helped young children also helped their parents.

STW was so successful in its first year that the Thunder Empire was unable to slow its accumulation of power, and decided to cede Lypelpyp to STW as a new nation, Lindasia. However, Lindasia soon forced the Empire to readmit it. Within a few years, they gained a new ally, AlphaLeap, which helped them expand their reach towards the south coast, near Paba. Previously, AlphaLeap had been nonparticipant but had expressed support for Dreamland.

Scopes

Formed:

3919

A very small party formed in Dreamland in 3919 to support the Thunder Empire's enslavement of Dreamers. These people had no ties to the Thunder Empire, and expected to gain no benefit from their treason, but nevertheless the Scopes soon fled into the newly created Thunder province of Dagʷomàbada.

Though the Scopes originally had nothing to do with STW, they soon became closely associated with a different group of refugees from Dreamland who strongly supported STW, and STW pushed the Scopes onto the front lines in their war against Dreamland.

1. Uniformity: There should be only one political party in the world.

Later movements

Treehouse (ALT-5B)

The Treehouse faction of the Thunder party abolished the racially restrictive policies of the original Thunderers and then declared the Treehouses the only legitimate Thunder movement. The dissenters were forced to rename themselves to the Firebreaths.

1. Justice: All laws are revoked, except in certain areas where the population supports them.
2. Freedom: All slaves are freed except those from Dreamland.
3. Business: Private business is allowed, but the government must oversee every business operation, and the government determines each worker's salary. STW is exempt from all government regulations except taxes.

The Treehouses won control of their empire with a nonviolent coup; AlphaLeap and STW had been supporting them financially, and because the Thunder Empire allowed politicians to buy votes, the Treehouses outspent their enemies and took full control of the government.

Moonshine (MS4)

Moonshine was the leader of the Feminist Compact, a group of nations led by women who shared a military and pledged to defend each other against all outside armies. Moonshines tolerated no opposition, but were unwilling to fight a war, and therefore they settled only in remote areas with few natives.

1. Pacifism: Peace is the primary goal of human society, and Moonshine diplomats should intervene to end wars in foreign empires, even when there is no possible benefit to Moonshine.
2. Justice: Powerfully evil people should be killed, but not tortured. Criminals who are able to be stripped of power should be treated as kindly as law-abiding citizens. Sinfulness is no basis for punishment; only chance of repentance is. And this works only for those who will repent.
3. Feminism: Only women are allowed to have opinions on politics.
4. Marriage: Married men may not own property. Women own their husbands, and may kill husbands for disobedience, though they must declare their action to a council of local women before doing so, in case another woman may want to use the man for a while.
5. Police: Despite the rural nature of Moonshine settlements, people live best when close together, and a large police state is required to control men's behavior and keep children safe.
6. Division of power: There is no head of state, but rather a council of eight women, one for each department of the government. Local rulers known as toparchs may overrule the federal government in many ways.
7. Childbirth: Women are not allowed to work during pregnancy, and most jobs shall require women to also remain at home after birth.
8. Purity: Moonshine territory is for the Moonshine tribe only; conversion is allowed, but must be very difficult.
9. Education: School must be run by the government.
10. Sexuality: Homosexuality is allowed, and gay marriage is legal for both sexes.
11. Taxation: No taxpayer shall be required to pay more than 50% of their annual income in taxes. No more than 35% of any citizen's annual income can be spent on state and local taxes.
12. Labor : Labor unions are allowed.
13. Growth: The Moonshines must start feminist revolutions in foreign nations in order to increase the size and power of the Feminist Compact.

Political parties of the First Anchor Empire

When Dreamland's Ntampamwa army defeated Altotta in 3958, they occupied the entire territory. However, the Baywatch party, which had retained power in the extreme northeast of Dreamland, controlled about half of the traffic by both land and sea. In 3968, the Baywatchers finalized a treaty with the defeated Altotta empire establishing several points:

1. The defeated empire is renamed Lapea, and its capital territory is the Baywatch home territory of Sesēre.
2. The Baywatch army is responsible for defending the border and maintaining relations with Dreamland proper, and also for the occupation of Baeba Swamp, which held significant resistance to the new treaty. No other armies are permitted to exist in Baywatch-held territory.
3. Eastward of the Baywatch-held territory, the Lapea government shall report to Baywatch, but the Baywatch army will make no attempt to enforce its laws.

The Baywatch occupiers maintained friendly relations with Ntampamwa but allowed the citizens of the vast eastward Lapea territory more freedom than a direct Ntampamwa occupation would have entailed. Ntampamwa agreed to this compromise because they knew that the east was far too large an area to occupy, and that its most economically productive territory was located a great distance away from Dreamland. In 3977, a civil war in Dreamland locked Ntampamwa out of power altogether, giving sole control to the Baywatchers.

The Baywatchers standardized maps with north on top and the Baeba/Lapea axis as the zeroth meridian. Thus the former Altotta was divided into near, middle, and far east.

A dummy party called the Anchors was set up for subjects who supported the occupation but disagreed with the Baywatch ideology. Each of the other parties was made to pledge allegiance to the Anchors, and the Anchors appointed representatives who promised to work out peaceful solutions to disputes among the occupied peoples.

Baywatch

Baywatch (DRM-3)

The Baywatch party authored the treaty establishing the Lapea government, and although it was nominally a one-party state, both the Baywatchers and their subjects knew from the beginning that life in the vast eastern areas of the empire would be little changed from before the treaty and that many armies were competing for control of the remains of the empire.

Eastern opposition parties

Raspara

See above.

Firebreath (GAP-6)

An alliance of tribes with blonde hair; claimed to be allies of Dreamland, particularly the western Dreamers. However, they had no realistic means of contacting western Dreamland and so simply governed their cities as independent toparchies. They were originally a wing of the Thunder party, the other side being the Treehouse party. Nama's Gold government allowed both parties to claim descent from the original, and therefore both were allowed to place a "6" after their acronym.

1. Tribalism: Because Lenians have in the past made easy victims for other tribes, Lenians should stick together and place tribal interests above political interests. Thus, even the traditionally hostile Wildfire party in western Dreamland shall be considered an ally.
2. Slavery: Slavery of dark-skinned peoples should be restored; slavery of the descendants of Dreamers should continue, because the Dreamers betrayed their fellow Lenians during the occupation.

Crystals (CRY-6A)

See above. The Crystals fought harder against Baywatch than any other party because their capital, Baeba Swamp, was Baywatch's first conquest.

Moonshine

Shared power with the Crystals. Confined to cold climates, far out of reach of the Baywatch naval patrols.

Soap Bubbles (BUB-6A)

Found mostly in the hot desert southwest, in Crystal-dominated territory, but rarely found in the Crystals' capital city of Baeba. One of two unrelated parties using the name "Soap".

1. Diversity: Ideological alliances transcend tribal boundaries. Racism is harmful to both parties in a society; people should seek common interests and avoid alienating potential allies.
2. Body integrity: Despite having very pale skin, Soapies must be at home in the tropics and not succumb to sunburn. Those who suffer from sunburn are not welcome in the Soap party.

The Soap Bubbles were strongly opposed to the Baywatch compromise government, but as they lived in the extreme southwest, few of them ever met any Baywatchers or other Dreamers.

STW

See above. As STW grew, its private currency increased in value to the point where the child laborers in STW were earning more than the typical adult in the wider world. Therefore, adults began to join STW, even though their wages were no higher than the children's and STW required males to serve in the military.

Zenith (XLG-6A)

An ally of STW, but mostly confined to the inland southern areas near Paba.

Political parties of Halasala

Halasala was an enormous empire run by AlphaLeap from the occupied capital of Paba. With more than half of the humanly habitable land in the world, Halasala was much too large for AlphaLeap's tiny army to occupy; therefore the Leapers planned to control the empire through finance instead of pure military might.

Note, however, that even the Leapers acknowledged the legal framework of their enemies, and added an "A" to their name to show that they wanted to participate in the Anchor government that they had just overthrown.

Leapers

Leapers (LAL-6A)

Formed:	1088 (in AlphaLeap)
	4108 (in Halasala)
Languages:	Leaper

The Leaper party was the party loyal to AlphaLeap. Its ideology had changed radically over the past 200 years as AlphaLeap switched from supporting Dreamland to supporting STW's war against Dreamland. Their party's only goal was to sustain itself, and therefore its ideology was highly flexible.

The Leapers invaded Halasala within months of hearing the #Dolphin Riders' claim of total victory. They believed that the Dolphin Riders had no chance of controlling the entire empire from their headquarters in Dreamland, particularly given that the rival #Baywatch party was also claiming the same land.

The Leapers sought to emulate STW's economic setup on a much larger scale. They believed that one key to STW's surprising success was child labor. Although some other nations used child labor, STW was notable for enrolling toddlers fresh from the nursery and prioritizing work over education. Another key to STW's success, they felt, was that they had come from Baeba Swamp and then built their stores in the much poorer Thunder Empire. Since AlphaLeap had also been historically rich, they planned to invade Halasala and seize control of the economy by bankrupting all of the native businesses. Unlike STW, however, AlphaLeap did not plan to entice natives with high wages; they preferred to send all of the profits back to AlphaLeap and direct them into furthering the expansion of the occupation.

Though the Leapers at home divided their population into female and male groups, each with their own laws, they governed the Anchor Empire in a more traditional manner, and did not divide even their own people along gender lines.

1. Defense: The Leaper military's responsibility is to protect itself; civilians are not a priori entitled to protection. However, the military will defend the financial interests of the nation as a whole, and therefore protect the living standards of civilians.
2. Expansion: A smart army fights only battles it cannot possibly lose. Soldiers should focus on the weakest targets, even if there is little to gain.
3. Economy: Through money, a small nation can control many large ones.
4. Child labor: Because children are both weak and easily replaced, they make ideal workers for unpleasant and dangerous jobs. All subject children are required to work manual labor alongside adults.
5. Slavery: Subject peoples may be enslaved at the whim of the occupying Leaper military, but the Leapers are allowed to maintain some subject peoples as allies in order to divide the conquered people among themselves.
6. Education: Public education is illegal; books are to be destroyed, and any person found reading a book not written by the Leaper government shall be executed.
7. Alcohol: Wine shall be harvested and consumed both by masters and their slaves; restricted amounts will be provided to child laborers in dangerous jobs.

Opposition parties

Tadpoles

Formed:	c. 4118
Daughter parties:	Play

The Tadpole party was set up by AlphaLeap to unite all opposition to the Leapers, but the Tadpoles' opinions were chosen by the Leapers.

1. Solidarity: Tadpoles cannot change their opinions or disagree with other Tadpoles.
2. Debate: Political disagreements should be solved by debating in teams with several people on each side; the winning team will then kill the losers so that their ideas do not spread.

The Tadpoles were so called because the Leapers saw them as defenseless and likely to soon die in great numbers. Since membership was involuntary, the Leapers saw the party as a legal tool to bind their captives together.

Play (BP4-A)

Formed:	4127
Population:	343,000
Languages:	Bābākiam, Late Andanese
Cleanliness:
Nationalism:
Capitalism:
Feminism:
Hardiness:
Daughter parties:	Jokers, #Tinks, Flower Bees, Kakalakakamalila, Favor, Rusted Pearls, Melons

The Play party (Pata) was founded around the year 4127 by Tadpoles fighting the Leapers who had conquered them about twenty years earlier. Its leadership was entirely female, and adult males were not allowed to participate or even to attend meetings of the party elites. However, they did not advance women's rights, but rather children's rights: the civilian population in 4127 was more than 80% children, and of these, more than half were under the age of six.

The Play party platform was focused on child care and children's issues generally, as there was little time for anything else. On every fundamental point, the Player ideology was the precise opposite of the #Leaper ideology, and when Players could not form a unified position on a minor issue, they often sought the position most unlike that of the Leapers.

1. Gender roles: All men must serve in the land army for their entire lives. Soldiers are required to obtain their own food. All women must work in childcare, with attention first for their own children and then for the many orphans who live beside them. The government is to remain entirely female.
2. Education: Child labor is abolished; a school system shall be built, to replace the schools destroyed by AlphaLeap, but only after the Play party has won its war.
3. Intuition: Party leaders should make decisions based on their emotions, because inborn intuition will always guide a leader to the truth. Most decisions shall be made by large groups of women working together rather than by single people. Debates are discouraged.
4. Food supply: Farming is abolished; the only legal food is that which can be found in the open, and by fishing the sea. Restaurants are to be destroyed; every family is responsible for cooking their own food. Winemaking is abolished.
5. Child safety: The entire coastline of the Empire of Vaamū shall be off-limits to all adults and to all non-Players.
6. Hygiene: Hygiene is abolished; clothing production is ceased and torn clothes will not be replaced. Public nudity is legal. Strong people can weather diseases that will kill the weak.
7. Equality: Players shall share power communally.
8. Money: Citizens are allowed to sell property to obtain money to buy more food, but the only legal currency is the new uyuŋa, a coin that can only buy food. The Leaper currency is abolished.
9. Nationalism: The state shall serve the interests of its people, not transnational organizations or corporations.

The Play party overthrew the Leapers in the capital city of Paba, but the Leapers held strong in their territory outside the city. Although the Play party was a close ideological twin of Dreamland's #Baywatch party, the two were largely ignorant of each other's platforms, and the Players were uninterested in foreign alliances.

Indeed, when Baywatch heard that the Players had overthrown their masters and set up an all-female government, they invaded Halasala and drove them into martial law. Since the army was loyal to the Players, the Leapers lost all of their remaining government power and fled the empire to let the Players face the Baywatch army alone.

Political parties of Vaamū

The victorious Play party renamed the vast Anchor Empire Vaamū and spread their two languages, Bābākiam and Late Andanese, throughout the territory they settled. However, dissent soon arose from within.

By defeating AlphaLeap, the Play party had won nominal control of the entire Anchor Empire. However, the Player army had merely displaced the Leaper occupation of the south-central area around Paba; the vast northern and western areas of the Empire were far out of Player control, with the exception of the immediate vicinity of Dreamland and the long mountainous pathways between Dreamland and Paba.

AlphaLeap had never occupied most of this area either, but they had been able to control the subject peoples indirectly with their superior economy. Since the Players were much poorer than the Leapers had been, they could not do this, and therefore the Players realized that they would need to deal with opposition armies in their own nation, and they realized that some of these armies were almost certainly larger than their own.

Raspara (PEG-2B)

Formed:	3700s (in Amade)
Languages:	Khulls

The Raspara saw the vulnerability emerging in the south and began to move towards the capital city in the hopes of obtaining control of the entire empire.

The Rasparas' new economic plan was closely patterned after AlphaLeap's failed attempt to seize control of the empire's economy. They believed the Leapers' mistakes were chiefly in their military policies, and that their economic model was sound.

The Raspara did not endorse child labor as a good thing in and of itself, but said that given the extremely high birthrate of the Player party, it would be unnatural not to put those children to work.

The Rasparas interfaced directly with Player girls and those of the new splinter parties that had recently arisen; by winning debates, the Raspara hoped to make many converts. They found the Player children amazingly stubborn — a characteristic they felt might have helped them defeat the Leapers — but the Raspara used strategies that the Leapers had not. For example, the Raspara offered to make alliances with some of the small Play-derived parties against others, giving the impression that they viewed their young adversaries as equals.

1. Labor: Children who start their careers in the nursery will be experts by the time they reach adolescence. Child labor should be universal and the children should be divided by their intended career early on.
2. Autonomy: Raspara soldiers can disobey military orders so long as they do not attack other Raspara.

Play-derived parties

Although the Play party was founded on its dedication to children's rights and the abolition of child labor, during its first five years in power, the economy collapsed and living conditions worsened year over year. The promised schools and playgrounds were never built, and famine became so severe that children began running away from home. Soon, nearly all children over the age of five were living along the south coast, exposed to the elements and vulnerable to attack, while their parents foraged for food in the forests of the interior.

Although the children's lives were very difficult, they were exceptionally well spared from disease, infighting, and kidnapping due to the sandy beach environment in which they lived, common enemies to unite around, and the preoccupation of foreign powers that could have otherwise abducted innumerable child slaves. When organized attacks finally did come, a reformist faction of the Player party created a navy to protect the children, but were unable to convince most runaways to return to their parents, and although conditions gradually improved on land, children continued to run away in large numbers as soon as they were able.

In time, the first wave of runaways began to enter their early teen years, and rather than return to Play society, they remained along the coast and took on a caretaker role for the waves of younger runaways that had arrived in subsequent years. Since these runaway children did not attend school and had little or no contact with adults, the new generation of children in the Play empire was even more naive about the world than their parents had been. When these children grew strong enough, they rebelled against the Players by creating new political parties with ideologies based on their emotions. The Play party soon branched into a vast array of daughter parties, all while the original Play party remained strong.

Flower Bees

Formed:	4138
Dissolved:	4156
Languages:	Bābākiam, Late Andanese

The Flower Bees believed they would win a war if they stuck together and declared all non-Bees to be their enemies. The Bees promised to seize control of their empire and kill all other humans. Their platform was based on the Play party's platform, but was much simpler. The Bees remembered hearing a promise that once Dreamland had been conquered, the rest of the world would soon follow. But they couldn't figure out how to do this, and their mothers were unwilling to start yet another war.

1. War: The Bees must kill all non-Bees, even their own parents. All pleasant things must turn hostile, as there can be no reconciliation with enemies.
2. Gender equality: Rather than assigning political and military power according to gender, girls and boys should share power in both spheres of government.
3. Independence: The Bees must have their own army and political party rather than being a faction of a larger party.

At the time of their rebellion, the Bees were entirely without adults, and their nation was overthrown within two years. However, many Bees reached adulthood still believing in the ideas they had absorbed as children, and some sought to revive the Bee party and bring the fighters back together. This was because they believed they could not fight a war as part of a larger party.

The Flower Bees arose from tribes that were taller than average for their empire, which partly compensated for their youth when they went into battle. Nevertheless, they faltered early on due to internal conflicts, and then collapsed when they charged head-on into a traditional adult male army led by the military strategists of the #Raspara tribe.

Pearls (SCP)

Formed:	4143
Dissolved:	4147
Population:	79,000
Languages:	Late Andanese

The Pearl party promoted athletic tests to discern members' religious faith, and killed anyone who failed the test. Thus, the Pearls were known for their strong athletic skills. Early on, the Pearls supported the Bees, but when the two parties set up a meeting, the Bees slaughtered the Pearls, so the Pearls became hostile to the Bees.

1. Hardiness: Anyone with a persistent disease or disability should be killed. Anyone whose skin can be scratched by wood is too weak. Anyone who cannot tolerate severe cold is too weak. Such people are not allowed to convert to the Pearls, and enrolled Pearl party members are to be executed if they fail a fitness test.
2. Membership: Hereditary membership is abolished.
3. Battle: Both boys and girls must master weapons, and anyone who dislikes weapons must be expelled from the party.

The Pearls planted thorn bushes around their areas, saying that anybody who was injured not only deserved their pain, but deserved to die for falsely claiming to belong to the Pearls.

The full native name of the party was Laaatilalatitiaa, literally "Rusted Pearls". Like the Flower Bees, some ex-SCP members retained their beliefs into adulthood, and unlike the Bees, the ex-SCP believed that they could fight their war from within another political party.

Favor

Formed:	4143
Dissolved:	4147
Languages:	Bābākiam, Late Andanese

The Favor party supported doing good deeds for other people, even if there was no expected return.

1. Charity: All Favorites should work together to help each other through hard times. When all people have a shared goal, that goal will be much easier to reach.

Kakalakakamalila

Formed:	4143
Dissolved:	4147
Languages:	Late Andanese

This group of young children supported the Raspara, even though the Raspara abused and exploited them.

1. Hyper-obedience: Abuse can be weathered by seeking ever greater punishments for ever smaller misdeeds. By remaining loyal to the Raspara and inviting the most severe abuse, the Kakalakakamalila can become at once the Raspara's greatest enemy and most indispensable ally.

Tinks

Formed:	4149
Languages:	Bābākiam, Late Andanese

The Tinks (Mauppačue) were a political party founded by elderly weapons workers who had been born before 4108 and therefore were among the very few people in their empire who had ever been inside a school. They believed their unique experience gave them wisdom, but planned to select followers from among the many young children who surrounded them and transfer power to them as soon as possible. Their ideology was very similar to the Play party's, but they defined themselves as a new party because they considered the few differences important. Most Play supporters soon joined the Tinks.

1. Education: Free public schools must be immediately opened for both children and adults, even in the midst of an ongoing civil war. Though attending school may be dangerous, education is too valuable to ignore. The teachers shall be chosen from Tink party members who attended school before the Leaper invasion in 4108. Children are freed from their obligation to feed their parents so they can attend school; however, their parents must also attend school.
2. Patriarchy: Both military and political power shall be held entirely by men. Men are required to spend their entire adult lives in the military, either in the navy or in the land army. A portion of the land army must now also patrol home territory in order to run the government and to keep the streets safe. Women are required to stay at home and care for their children, but soldiers may visit their wives even during wartime.
3. Food supply: Farming is restored; men are responsible for supplying their families with food. Thus, men control the military, the government, and the delivery of food, all while attending school; these duties may be combined.
4. Hygiene: Hygiene is restored; soap production is resumed and baths, public and private, are set aside for people to use.
5. Alcohol: Alcohol is bad in and of itself; prohibition shall remain even if the Empire becomes rich enough to support luxurious lifestyles. Exportation of wine is also illegal.

Political parties of Anzan

When the Tinks defeated their many enemies, they changed the name of their vast empire to Anzan in order to honor the Andanese tribes who provided many of their members.

Tinks (EE3)

The victorious Tinks had no time to celebrate their victory over the Raspara, for their many other enemies quickly pounced upon them. The Tink party stayed close to the ideology that had attracted its supporters in Vaamū, but added some new points:

1. Free labor: Slavery is immoral and not permitted; the captured Dreamer slaves from the previous war must be killed.
2. Control of land: The whole of the empire is Tinker territory, and imperial laws overrule all local ones. However, some lands deemed to have been unjustly conquered in the distant past shall be returned to their rightful inhabitants.
3. Democracy: Citizens may vote in elections, and the Tink party must abdicate power in any areas where a majority of the citizens favor a non-Tink party, even if that party is at war with the Tinks.
4. Imperialism: However, the Tinks have the right to suspend democracy in troublesome territories and rule directly. The central government in Săla shall appoint kings who wield absolute power in their areas, but no power outside their territory.
5. Experience: Government power should be in the hands of men with wisdom and experience.
6. Marriage: Women should submit completely in all ways to their husbands; men who cannot control their wives will instead be controlled by other men.
7. Crime: Judicial organizations are prohibited.
8. Hardiness: By adopting meager living standards, the Tinks will thrive in times of poverty and experience rapid population growth precisely when enemy parties accustomed to luxury are doing the worst. (This doctrine is known as žaya in Play.)

Female Party (FEM)

Within months of the Tinks' victory and establishment of their new state, a large number of pro-Tink girls defected and founded the Female Party. This was legal, because the Tinks had set up a multiparty democracy. However, they had not prepared for dissent from within their own party; they expected that enemy parties would be continuations of parties that had existed before the war.

Although the Tinks had opened schools, as promised, the girls' secession came so early that none of the founders had had any significant education, neither children nor adults. Therefore, the Female party had a platform consisting of only a single demand:

1. Feminism: Women should share power with men, rather than men controlling the military, the government, and the production of food. If necessary, women are allowed to commit violence against children in order to force men to surrender.

The Female Party convinced the Tinks that they had discovered a way to turn all babies into girls and therefore deplete Anzan of its entire newborn male population. They thus achieved victory and changed their name to the Crystals. However, within a few weeks the Tinks overthrew them again, and then the two sides traded places several more times before finally signing an agreement to rule jointly. Nonetheless, the Tinks retained control of the military and most departments of the government, and they held firm to their promise to delegate power within these departments only to men.

The rebellious girls chose to continue identifying as Crystals, and adopted some male members from the preexisting Crystal minority. In some remote areas of the empire, it seemed likely that the Crystals would win local elections and therefore set up governments of their own while yet remaining loyal to the Tinks in Săla.

After three years in power, the Tinks changed their name to the Swamp Kids as they committed themselves to the goal of conquering the distant tropical city of Baeba Swamp.

Swampy-derived parties

As the Swamp Kids attended school, their ideology rapidly evolved. The Raspara minority, who had traditionally been well-educated, had written many of the books used in the empire's school system and the eager Swamp Kids developed new political opinions that helped the Raspara increase their power.

In 4172, the Swamp Kids divided into two allied but rivalrous political parties as intractable military issues had split them apart:

Pioneers (BOM)

The Pioneers favored expanding the enormous empire of Anzan even further, and increasing their population by absorbing waves of immigrants from hostile nations such as Tarwas.

1. Pacifism: Foreign invasions should be embraced, not resisted. Future military invasions can be mitigated by inviting the aggressors to march deeper into Pioneer territory and take up residence in the capital, where they may compete for control with many other invaders. Pioneer soldiers will be unarmed; the best soldiers are those who submit to their enemies and suffer intense pain in their mission to make peace with their enemies.
2. Intermarriage: Because the men of many surrounding tribes are tall and strong, they make ideal partners for the Pioneer women in the heartlands whose would-be husbands are busy exploring new territory. Men from foreign tribes should be brought into the Pioneer heartlands and marry local Pioneer women.
3. Slavery: The Pioneers can win the favor of their Raspara masters by doing good deeds above and beyond the slave labor the Raspara force them into. By enduring greater abuse than all other slaves, the Pioneers may convince the Raspara to breed more Pioneers.
4. Terminology: Adult male Pioneers shall refer to themselves as "boys" (ŋapa) and "kids" (taā), apart from a small class of leaders who can truly be called men. However, the males of foreign tribes shall always be referred to as men.
5. Obedience: Men may make and break laws at their pleasure, but boys must obey.

Cold Men (CVC)

1. Safety: The best way to respond to invasions is to flee to safety as quickly as possible, even if it means abandoning possessions and a stable food supply. By ceding more territory to their invaders, Cold Men shall coalesce together in compact habitats in which they can more easily protect each other.
2. Combat: Cold Men should compete in sports against the much taller and stronger men of the enemy tribes. Even though the Cold Men will rarely win, the few victories they achieve will be far more memorable to both sides than the much more numerous defeats.

Play (BP4-D)

Conservative Swamp Kids in Dreamland rejected the Swampies' new platforms and revived the name Play for their party when they signed an alliance with the few remaining hereditary Play party members. They had earlier signed an agreement with the Tinks in 4149, and again in 4152, affirming that they were part of the same party, and would leave their occupation in Dreamland if the party back home in Paba needed them. (Thus, they had never formally dissolved the Play party, and retained the legal rights to the name; this was important in the Swamp Kids' democracy, as multiple parties were not allowed to share a name.)

Cream (CRM)

In 4151, the Tinks invaded Paba and attacked their own people, who responded by founding the Cream party (Žayu). The Cream party platform was similar to the Tinks', but the Creamers said they would sooner join Dreamland than rejoin the Tinker empire after the invasion.

Their native name means "loyal"; their English name represents a native-language pun, as the name of their nation, Žayūas, rhymes with one of the names of Dreamland: Mayūas.

The Needle

Formed:	4157
Dissolved:	4157
Language:	Late Andanese

Seceded from Anzan early on, but were quickly reabsorbed.

Major opposition parties in Anzan

The abusive Raspara suffered a setback, and the war entered a new phase in the 4170's. However, the Swamp Kids were no better off: now, four large parties and many small ones fought the Swamp Kids for control of Anzan. Some of the parties also helped the Swampies, but no such alliance lasted for long.

Three of the four major parties were very ancient, and padded their acronyms with "6D", to show that they were as old as the Gold Party which was in its sixth iteration, and that they recognized the Swamp Kids' reforms of the inherited Anchor government structures, which was at this time in its fourth phase. Thus, the Swamp Kids were fighting armies a hundred times older than their own.

Crystals (CRY-6D)

Formed:	c. 1550
Language:	Khulls

The Crystals at this point held to the Female Party manifesto of 4149, and thus sometimes still referred to themselves as the Female Party or the Feminists. However, since the Crystals from the wider world had now pledged allegiance to them, they preferred to identify as Crystals.

1. Growth: Men who join the Crystals to find strong women shall likely never leave.

Soap Bubbles (BUB-6D)

Formed:	3844
Language:	Khulls

1. Justice: Crimes should be punished by a court system rather than individuals.
2. Principle: The government must ensure the world follows a strict order.
3. Government: The Swamp Kids' Empire should be overthrown with no new Empire to replace it.
4. Capitalism: Private industries are healthier than government monopolies.

Though the Soap Bubbles were founded only in 3844, they claimed to be the only direct survivors of the Lazy Palms, which had founded their nation in 2371, and Nama accepted this claim.

Zenith (XLG-6D)

Formed:	prehistoric
Language:	various
Alignment:	Tribal

1. Empire: The Swamp Kids' struggle to keep the Empire united is good.
2. Tribalism: Laws should benefit the tribe in power at the expense of unwelcome minorities.
3. Safety: Treason is legal; Zeniths are allowed to kill other Zeniths, even in war. Each adult male Zenith is responsible for protecting himself and his dependents.

Matrixes (3EE)

Formed:	4177
Population:	3,200
Language:	North Dreamlandic
Alignment:	Tribal

The Matrix party (3EE) was founded in the year 4177 as a militant wing of the much older #Raspara party. They believed they could surmount the problems of ideological movements by abandoning a fixed ideology and aligning themselves with whichever side of the war was winning at the time. Since they predicted that the Swamp Kids would soon fall, they considered the Swamp Kids their primary enemy. Nevertheless, they did hold some ideological beliefs:

1. Reproduction: Men should kill their wives when they pass childbearing age, and also may kill women who become unattractive.
2. Membership: Party membership is for men only; women cannot be Matrixes, and therefore all marriages are of mixed parties.
3. Aggression: All actions taken against non-Matrixes are legal. Therefore, all non-Matrixes may be enslaved and abused, and no legal entity can declare such abuse to be a crime.
4. Justice: Only Matrixes can be victims of crimes; these crimes shall be avenged by friends of the victim, rather than a third-party court system.
5. Slavery: Small-statured tribes such as the Swamp Kids make ideal slaves, but slaves should also be bred with Matrixes to ensure they do not retain their original tribal identities, even if they thus become more physically robust with each generation.
6. Service: Matrixes shall live on plantations in order to control their slaves. The Matrix party as a whole is responsible for the delivery of slaves to individual slave camps, with an ideal delivery rate of one new slave per camp per day.
7. Self-reliance: The Matrix needs no allies in war; members' loyalty will keep the party alive.
8. Language: The North Dreamlandic language shall be the language of diplomacy, and within one generation, also the language of daily communication. Thus shall the Matrixes dominate Dreamland, the world's most durable military power.

The Matrixes' acronym, 3EE, here represents a byname in North Dreamlandic, which was simply the Swamp Kids' name spelled backwards syllabically. The Matrixes considered themselves self-sufficient and refused all alliances, but they specifically chose to antagonize the #Swamp Kids over and above the other armies.

The Matrix population consisted of only 3200 people; however, most of these were able-bodied adult men. Nearly all of these lived in Tata, in the extreme west of the empire, near the border with Dreamland. The Matrixes told their members that they were befriending Dreamland because they believed Dreamland was strong, not because they believed Dreamland was morally superior. They reminded their members that the Matrixes would never enter a true alliance with any outside party, and that they owed the Dreamers nothing for any support they received.

Even with just 3,000 soldiers, the Matrixes quickly conquered Tata's ruling Play party, and put the Players into slavery. Thus, they took control of Tata, which included territory that had been previously part of Dreamland. The Dreamers had been hoping to get their land back, but the Matrixes declared that Tata was a state for Matrixes only and that conversion to the Matrix party would not be open to all applicants.

The Matrixes soon came to control over 150,000 Play slaves, but said that this was not enough, and that their true goal was to conquer the even larger Swamp Kids.

Restore Repilian Civilization (RMC)

An ethnic party for Repilians only; non-Repilians were allowed to join as supporters but could not handle weapons or wield political power. RMC favored the ejection of all non-aboriginals from the continent. They had long been an ally of the #Zeniths, a distantly related group of tribes who also had no land, but now warned the Zeniths that they might seek a different foreign policy. (The acronym is due to the Repilians' native name beginning with M.)

1. Foreign policy: Peace will finally come to the world when all Swamp Kids, Matrixes, Raspara, Crystals, Bubbles, Players, Dreamers, Dolphin Riders, and STWers are dead.

Regional parties of Tata

The state of Tata contained the land that the Play party had conquered from Dreamland in 4138, but also much land that had been part of AlphaLeap's Four Quarters Empire. Its capital was Pintu, which the Players had wrested from Dreamland in the war. However, the Play party had taken a great fall: though they were more than 90% of the population of Tata, they were all slaves for the Storm and Matrix parties.

Matrix (3EE)

When the Raspara heard of the formation of the Matrix party in 4177, nearly all of the Rasparas in Tata chose to become Matrixes. The Matrix army quickly conquered the much larger Play population, which had expected to never again face a war and was thus mostly unarmed.

Storm (KST)

Formed:	4190
Language:	Khulls, Bābākiam

An alliance of the anti-Matrix Raspara and a faction of the Swamp Kids who allowed the Raspara to exploit them. Their common enemy was the Play party, even though most Swamp Kids in Tata had pro-Player sympathies because they knew that the Players were only one generation removed from the Swamp Kids.

The Storms derived their name from the much older #Thunder party, whose descendants were found in both the Raspara and Swampy parties, but there was no continuity.

1. Slavery: Ex-Raspara who join the Storms shall forever retain their right to own Swamp Kids as slaves, and Swamp Kids who join are not automatically freed. However, both groups should unite as one in order to efficiently enslave and exploit the people of Dreamland.
2. Territory: Controlling access to Baeba Swamp is important, but attempting to conquer the Swamp is foolish.

The Storm party had enrolled nearly all of Tata's Raspara and Swamp Kids, and therefore the Raspara and Swamp parties were defunct within Tata's borders, and the Storms promised to handle any attempt by either of those two to enter Tata's politics as a potential act of war. This was important because Tata was the easiest way for anyone in the Anchor Empire to reach Baeba Swamp.

Play (BP4T)

Formed:	4127
Population:	166,000
Language:	Bābākiam
Status:	Enslaved

In 4177, the Matrixes seized power in Tata and soon engulfed the Players, even though the Players outnumbered them 50 to 1. The Players' military prowess had fallen because they had adapted to peacetime by focusing on expanding their nation and letting their defenses down. Thus, they had a very large population for the size of their territory, but it was poorly defended.

The Matrix conquest of the Players was similar in some respects to the Players' earlier conquest of the Baywatchers, but whereas the Player army in 4138 had been numerically comparable to their opponents, the Matrixes conquered the Players by relying on their superior strategic abilities. Furthermore, the Players had lost their support of their close genetic relatives, the Swamp Kids, because of ideological differences. The Players claimed that the Swamp Kids had been brainwashed by the parasitic Raspara party and pointed out that the Play party platform preserved the original Tinker ideology of 4149 almost unchanged whereas the Swamp Kids had almost nothing in common with their parents' plans.

Dolphin Riders (DPR-3)

The Dolphin Riders had invaded Tata shortly after the formation of the Matrix party, but restricted themselves to acquiring power through peaceful means.

1. Rescue: The Dolphin Riders are encouraged to rescue slaves from the #Play tribe, but may force the Players to become Dolphin Riders as a gesture of gratitude.
2. Expansion: The Dolphin Riders shall claim the role of successor to the Gold party and refer to their members as Goldies outside Dreamland.

Although the Play party had invaded Dreamland and killed many thousands of Dreamers through warfare and the spread of plagues, their victims had been mostly supporters of the #Baywatch party, not the Dolphin Riders. The Dolphin Riders forgave the Players for the war and promised to allow Players to move to Dreamland and live in harmony with the other Dreamers. However, the Riders made no promise of military support outside the borders of Dreamland, and restricted their role in Tata to diplomacy and peaceful outreach.

The Dolphin Riders decided to allow rescued Players to remain in Dreamland's free territory, and registered the Play party as one of the competing parties in Dreamland. Since the Players were grateful to the Dolphin Riders for risking their lives, the Play party in Dreamland became a close ideological ally of the Riders, and the Riders' power in the government increased at the expense of the minor parties. (They had adopted the Gold tradition of giving minority parties more seats in parliament than their numbers would ordinarily merit, and therefore Players counted for more than Riders, man for man.)

Regional parties of Baeba

The resurgent Raspara and many other enemies forced the Swamp Kids to abandon their vast empire after more than forty years of war. The Swamp Kids had come to believe that their main weakness was their empire's enormous land area, and believed that they would be able to competently defend a small territory while still having plenty of room for their population. Like many others before them, they chose to move to Baeba Swamp.

When the Swamp Kids arrived in Baeba Swamp, they found themselves facing many unfamiliar enemies. Soon, however, the enemies they had known back home in Anzan followed them into the Swamp.

Rocks (BAX)

The Rocks were a fork of the Crystals who ruled in Baeba Swamp and rejected the other Crystals' treaty with Moonshine. They used the preexisting organs of the Crystals' government as their own and told the other Crystals that they would need to find a new capital city of their own.

The Rocks' ideology had many traits in common with the Leapers who had moved north after their power faded in the tropics. Unlike earlier Crystals, they supported and practiced slavery; however, the rival Moonshine branch soon also came to practice slavery.

1. Crime: It is illegal to lose a fight, and the punishment is eternal slavery.
2. Prostitution: Prostitution is illegal, and any man who kills a prostitute is a hero. All rape victims are prostitutes.
3. Gambling: Rocks are allowed to place bets on the outcome of battles in the wider world, but any bettor who kills a foreign army's soldiers in order to win a bet shall forfeit his winnings.
4. Capitalism: Private businesses such as STW are helpful to the Swamp's economy, and the government should cooperate with them.

Cold Kids

Formed:	c. 4203
Language:	Khulls

Descended from the Raspara league (PEG). Relied on slaves abducted from STW's slave pools; favored an alliance with the #Phoenixes (but not the mainline Crystals) against the Matrix.

Although the party's founders honored the Swamp Kids by including the word Kids in their own name, the Swamp Kids rejected a formal alliance with the Cold Kids. Nearly all Raspara members converted to the Cold Kids and surrendered their slaves; thus the Swamp Kids had finally succeeded in fleeing their Raspara masters, and were able to project their power independently.

1. Slavery: Slavery is allowed, and slaves should be abducted from other leagues when possible. The Swamp Kids may not be enslaved, but the Cold Kids do not owe the Swamp Kids an apology or any form of reparations.
2. Terminology: Adult members may refer to themselves either as kids or adults.
3. Reform: Any Raspara who does not join the Cold Kids must be killed.

Dolls (UPL)

Formed:	4188
Population:	270,000
Language:	Bābākiam

The Dolls arose from slaves captured by the Matrix, mostly from the #Play party but also from the Swamp Kids, the Crystals, and the Soap Bubbles. They were pacifists who sought to submit to a stable, strong power in order to stay safe.

1. Suppression: Abusive slavemasters should be smothered with love in the hope that they dial back their abuse. No slaves should ever attempt to fight back or escape their masters.
2. Responsibility: All Dolls should seek masters.
3. Pacifism: Weapons should be avoided, although in a desperate situation the Dolls are permitted to arm themselves with thorny flowers for protection.

Crystal-derived parties

Phoenixes

A branch of the #Crystals confined to the tropics; merged into the Cold Kids shortly after their formation.

FILTER

The rump Crystal party's supporters at first called themselves FILTER despite having no continuity with the original FILTER party. However, once the Phoenixes merged into the Cold Kids, the FILTER branch began to refer to themselves simply as Crystals.

Universal Crystal League

An alliance between the Phoenixes and FILTER that resolved their internal disagreements. Some Cold Kids dropped out of the alliance at this point, but others remained; the Cold Kids who seceded became very weak since they were locked out of all of the major alliances. The UCL referred to itself as the Crystal party. Shortly after their formation, the Soap Bubbles also joined the coalition, and the Soap party was formally abolished.

The Mirror

Yet another alliance, between the Crystals (UCL) and the Matrix (3EE). However, unlike most previous alliances, few members of the parent parties joined the new party, and therefore the Mirror represented a middle position between the Crystals and Matrixes rather than a proper alliance.

Other parties

ZDE

Formed:	4178
Language:	Late Andanese

A faction of Swamp Kids who fled from the tropics to the arctic to find a safe place to live, but soon came to consider themselves the enemies of all other people. Although they were of the same tribe as the Swamp Kids, they came to speak only Late Andanese, not Bābākiam. This set them apart from the others, as Bābākiam had been the majority language among the Swamp Kids.

The Andanese people had spent their entire existence in the lower latitudes, and many had never seen snow. They were physically smaller than even most other Swamp Kids due to their tribal ancestry, and their situation was even more dire than that of other Swamp Kids in part because they made easy targets for their enemies. They had often been forced to live in the wilderness, far from towns, but the war had reached a point where no humanly habitable land was safe, and the Andanese faced attacks from wild animals while they attempted to gather food.

With nowhere in the known world to flee to, some Andanese remembered hearing stories about a mythical land far to the north, safe from all wars and overflowing with sea life ripe and ready to be caught. And so, for the first time in their 4,000 year history, the Andanese crossed the Mountains of Wisdom and prepared for the long journey northwards to the icecapped island of Xema. Even though the territory they fled through was also hostile, the population was sparse and the migrants only met up with locals when both groups were foraging in the same area for food. For their safety, they had avoided the much easier river route that would have led them into #Raspara territory.

ZDE sometimes referred to themselves as the Eagle party, but a longstanding tradition against naming parties for large animals kept this name from being widely recognized. Instead, they used names like Eagle Beaks or Eagle Breeders.

1. Solidarity: ZDE members must never attack other ZDE members, but they are not bound to protect other ZDE members from outside attacks.

In Xema, they lived a very difficult life, but they soon realized that the stories they had heard were true, and thus they no longer worried about food shortages, and although some other tribes had also moved to Xema, the land area was so vast that there was no threat of war. Within a decade, ZDE came to call itself "Xema" and began a very complicated plan to invade their old homeland and regain territory by setting one weak nation against another, over and over, until they were weak enough for Xema to take over. They identified Nama, Creamland, and the Raspara as three very weak military powers that they hoped to bring into the war and weaken to the point that Xema could invade. They believed that the Swamp Kids were also very weak, but because Xema had arisen from the Swamp Kids, they considered their own existence proof that the Swamp Kids were in fact potentially very strong.

Because ZDE occupied the coldest territory in the world, they were never conquered, and they outlasted the war raging in the much larger nations to their south.

Firestones

A party whose only commitment was to defeat the Swamp Kids. Although they had a small traditional army, they were based in Amade, and had no feasible way to get to Baeba Swamp, so they focused much of their attention on peaceful conversion of Swamp Kids living in the countryside.

They were also known for their aversion to public bathrooms, saying that nature was made more clean by human waste and more dirty by each new human building.

Masterminds (TCT)

Formed:	4190
Population:	476
Language:	Bābākiam

The Masterminds were a breakaway faction of STW consisting entirely of orphans and runaways, with no adult members. They were child soldiers who defected in 4190 when they realized that the traditional armies around them were signing treaties so they could split the spoils of their battles against STW. Even as STW's military collapsed, the children still retained privileges out of reach of non-STW children, and used their power to order STW to build them a safe place to live in the Empire of Kxesh around 15°N. Their name followed an STW tradition of boosting the confidence of STW's child laborers and soldiers by awarding them names implying great power.

1. Lifestyle: All work shall be voluntary, done only when needed, and never as an obligation to a third party.
2. Security: The TCT children shall remain in the city of Šāaā in Kxesh and consider Kxesh to be their home; their obligations to STW, Anzan, and their parents are of lesser importance.
3. Membership: All TCT members shall remain members throughout adulthood, and their offspring will be awarded membership as well.

The locals in Kxesh had never considered their hills to be a paradise, as there was little vegetation and hence little food. The children had expected to be able to fend for themselves, but soon realized that they would be dependent on the locals for their food supply, and had no money with which to buy goods nor skills to trade for them. Nevertheless, the Masterminds refused to give up, and so they put down roots in Kxesh.

Three groups of adults soon took up residence in the children's resort. The River People were anti-STW activists from a Crystal tribe, who had long considered STW to be organized child abuse and believed that their duty was to protect the Masterminds from danger. Meanwhile, most of the sailors who had guided the Masterminds to Kxesh soon admitted that they had no interest in returning to STW to collect a salary they knew would be worthless, and thus formed a second group of adults. The third group consisted of local Kxel tribespeople who were curious to see what was happening on the hillside. Of these three groups, only the River People succeeded in gaining the trust of many Masterminds, and the River People patrolled the new resort to keep the intruders out. Thus, the sailors were trapped in a foreign empire and realized that they had lost their ships. Meanwhile, some Masterminds campaigned unsuccessfully to eject even the River People and live without adults until the Masterminds reached adulthood themselves.

Despite their youth, the Masterminds were hardy because they had been treated so harshly in STW. Thus, even living at the edge of starvation in a foreign land was better in their eyes than returning to STW. Nevertheless, the children soon renamed their resort from Šāaā (Comfort City) to Būvā (Blood City) when they realized life in the colony was not as they had hoped.

Save the World (STW-D)

Formed:	3915
Population:	6,000

As STW grew, they ran into diminishing returns with their economic model, and children could no longer flaunt their wealth at other children. STW's private currency had been declining in value even when STW's power had been increasing, but when STW began to suffer defeats on the battlefield, the currency became worthless and STW's child laborers realized that they had all become slaves.

As STW's enemies closed in, they began sending young children onto the field of battle against traditional armies led by adult males. The child soldiers caused no damage at all, and the opposing armies barely slowed their march as they abducted the children who were trying to hurt them.

After the enslaved orphans in #TCT voted to forsake their duties by defecting from STW, the leaders held a conference to find a new role for STW in their changing world. STW admitted that they could no longer be a child-focused organization, and although they retained the formal structure of schools and stores that they had created upon their founding in 3915, they freed their children, discouraged parents from enrolling new children, and apologized to lifelong STW members who were eager to raise their children to positions similar to their own. They shut down their orphanage operations; although they still adopted orphans, the life of an orphan in STW was no better than the life of a slave, and STW encouraged childless families to adopt their orphans. By expelling its child population, STW shrank from about 36000 members to just 6000, most of whom were adult men. Most women left STW when the children did, as the men in STW's army preferred to control their own affairs.

Finally, STW told their remaining members that their organization had become an army. They stated that the only difference between STW and any other nation was that STW did not have a contiguous territory to rule over. However, like many other armies, they planned to remedy this by seizing control of Baeba Swamp.

1. Plague: STW can win wars by spreading plagues into nations long in advance of a planned military invasion.
2. Domain: STW must become a traditional nation with a contiguous territory called Lindasia, ideally with Baeba Swamp as its capital.
3. Slavery: STW must acquire a large pool of slaves to replace the child laborers and others who had worked voluntarily for STW in happier times.
4. Membership: STW may acquire new members by force, both as slaves and as regular members.
5. Selection: STW chiefs can kill their supporters, either individually or en masse.

Soon after their apology, STW leaders around Baeba began collecting orphans and sending them to plantations in STW-held territory. The Baebans soon learned that STW had not changed their philosophy; they had merely resolved to limit their slave operations to children from hostile tribes.

Matrix-derived parties

The Matrixes had been founded in 4177 as a militant wing of the Raspara, but within a generation, the Matrix leaders had turned their backs on the Matrix philosophy and forged new paths. In December 4190, the Matrixes in Anzan surrendered to the Swamp Kids, so the Matrixes held on to power only in Tata, Baeba, and parts of Nama. Others joined hostile parties such as the Cold Kids.

Matrix Major

Formed:	4205
Dissolved:	4205
Language:	North Dreamlandic

Merged into the Crystals almost immediately after its formation. Because this was the larger of the two Matrix groups, it took the formal right to the name "Matrix" with it. Most Mirror members also joined. Thus, by this time, the Crystals had absorbed the Rasparas, the Soap Bubbles, the Mirror, and most of the Matrixes.

Importantly, the Matrix Major freed their many Doll slaves, and although they did not force them to join the Crystals, a large portion of them did. Soon, the Crystals became the majority in Tata, despite the mainline Crystal army never having ventured there.

Matrix Minor

Formed:	4205
Dissolved:	4206
Language:	North Dreamlandic

Signed a pact of allegiance to Dreamland's Dolphin Rider party, but then abruptly reversed and mostly merged into the Slopes. A tiny number of Matrix Minor members remained, and these were considered to be loyal to the Dolphin Riders, but they were no longer able to communicate directly and some came to think of themselves as Matrixes again.

Slopes (ZUZ)

Formed:	4206
Language:	various
Population:	6,000

An alliance of two tribal parties, the Matrix Minor and the Zenith. Just like their parent parties, the Slopes avoided ideological commitments and fought for tribal solidarity only. Since the Matrix and the Zenith had always been enemies, this alliance only became possible when both parent parties were in a very poor position to act independently.

The Slopes admitted most of the former members of the Matrix Minor and Zenith parties, but a few Matrixes chose to remain independent, and the Slopes killed any Zeniths who refused to join.

1. Safety: Dangerous animals such as those found in Baeba Swamp must be killed so that humans can prosper.
2. Environment: Anyone who protests the destruction of the natural environment shall have their house burned so that they can live as one with nature.
3. Slavery: The Slopes have the right to enslave all non-Slopes.
4. Relations: An unreliable ally is worse than an enemy.

The Slopes conquered the republic of Pipatia, and then declared war on their ally, the #Dolls, saying that the Dolls were such masochists that the Slopes were better off without them. Even though the Dolls outnumbered the Slopes 50 to 1, the Slopes conquered the Dolls with little difficulty.

Though their army did not control a land area of its own until 4206, the Slopes had actually been founded in the 4190s by teenagers who had been thrown out of power and had belonged to the Clover I administration. This is why their original name, Masuau, was in the Play language rather than in Leaper.

Seventh Gold era parties

In early 4206, the Crystals signed a pact with their enemy, the Dolphin Riders, which had come to refer to itself as the Gold party outside Dreamland. Thus, by signing the alliance, the Crystals abolished their ancient political party and became merely a faction of the Gold party. This was similar to what had happened in 4108, almost a hundred years earlier, but the Gold party's claimed victory in 4108 had never been taken seriously in the violent areas to the east.

The Gold party held to its ancient tradition of allowing hostile enemies to interact with it diplomatically, and therefore sent invitations to the parties who had not yet joined the alliance to come visit them in their new diplomatic headquarters in eastern Dreamland if they could arrive safely.

Most of these parties were concentrated in Baeba Swamp, either because they had always been, or because they followed the Swamp Kids so they could have someone to prey on.

Gold (GDX-7)

The new Gold party was the 7th to use that name. Because the Crystals had joined the Goldies, the Goldies declared themselves the successor to the ancient Crystal party. They also declared themselves to be an ideological successor to the Play party, and hoped to attract converts from both groups, which had been nearly defeated by decades of war.

1. Self-defense: Converts from the Play and Crystal parties are not allowed to carry weapons, but members of the founding Dolphin Rider faction (DPR) shall be armed and well-protected wherever they go.
2. Agriculture: Plantation labor is the ideal way to produce food, with the newly joined members out in the field and the Dolphin Riders carrying the whips.

The Goldies' abusive platform differed sharply from the beliefs they had held in earlier eras. Essentially, the new alliance was a surrender treaty that the Goldies had forced the other groups to sign in return for a promise of protection against the much larger armies of the east. But when the rival Slope army moved westward, the Goldies voted themselves out of the war and the newly vulnerable converts were abducted by the thousands. The Gold party officials responded by granting the Slopes full license to abuse the new converts.

Ghosts of Comfort (GOC-3)

When the Crystals realized that the Dolphin Riders, who had promised to protect them from the Slopes in the east, were in fact helping the Slopes abuse them, many escaped their plantations to form a new party called the Ghosts of Comfort. They considered themselves the heir of the Cold Kids, not the Crystals, because most of the seceders were Crystals who had originally been Cold Kids. Since most Cold Kids had in turn earlier been Raspara, they also considered themselves the heir of the Raspara.

1. Terminology: The use of childlike terms for adult members is discouraged; adult males should refer to themselves as men, not kids or boys.
2. Slavery: Slavery is allowed.
3. Imperialism: Once sufficient military power is acquired, the Ghosts shall declare war on all non-Ghost countries and subdue the world.
4. Tribal relations: Ethnic minorities deemed to have been treated unfairly in the past shall have extra power to help them compete; this is a continuation rather than a repudiation of the early Thunderers' racist policies, as the Thunderers were formerly oppressed.

Since the Ghosts lacked allies, some interested people instead joined the Ghosts' primary enemy, the #Slopes.

Unholy Alliance (UAO)

Formed:	4174
Population:	12
Language:	Late Andanese

The Unholy Alliance was a group of twelve men who joined together in the eastern area of Anzan and captured thousands of slaves. These slaves were allowed to own slaves themselves so long as they remained loyal to UAO. They had actually formed in 4174 but lay dormant so they could slowly build an army in the icebound Xeman territory of Hukuku, displacing the many other groups who had also fled there for safety.

1. Evil: Because evil always acts first, evil is superior to good.
2. Membership: Party membership is by appointment only; even children of members do not become members.

Some Zeniths had considered UAO to be merely a small wing of the Zenith party. The Zeniths were the only major party that allowed treason, and therefore, in the Zeniths' eyes, even UAO's attacks against the Zenith-derived #Slopes did not take away their status as Zeniths. However, the UAO remained aloof from all other parties and refused to make even a temporary alliance with any of them. Furthermore, the Slopes quickly outlawed treason, and the rump Zenith supporters mostly lived in the east, far from Baeba, UAO, and the rest of the war.

Doll-derived parties

Baeba's BAX government initially recognized the Dolls as a single party ("RRC"), even though they suspected that the Dolls would quickly surrender to various surrounding armies and thus be divided. The Doll party was represented in Baeba Swamp's central government to give the Dolls a unified voice, but later on, BAX surveyed the Dolls' ideological beliefs and created new political parties for these groups. Thus, no Dolls identified simply as Dolls any longer; they were either Cupbearers, Bottoms, or United Pacifists. Each of these was assigned a separate republic, but the Baebans made no attempt to stop the slave-gathering armies from invading the three new Doll republics.

Cupbearers (HLP)

Population:	57,000
Status:	Mostly enslaved

A splinter league from the Dolls. They founded the republic of Tahalmana in an outlying area of Baeba Swamp, but because most Cupbearers were enslaved, only about 2,000 Cupbearers managed to reach Tahalmana. For their protection, they invited the Swamp Kids to move in and rule over them. In response, the Swamp Kids took the land and then expelled the Cupbearers from Tahalmana.

Many HLP members were slaves involved in transporting heavy barrels of water from lakes and rivers, even though they were smaller and weaker than the masters they served. However, they had a larger average body size than the Swamp Kids (EE3), and believed them more deserving of the fruits of HLP's labor.

1. Diplomacy: Cupbearers must sacrifice everything to help the Swamp Kids overcome their other enemies.
2. Nature: Humans are the ideal prey animals, and should surround themselves with predators to ensure the ecosystem is well balanced. Dead humans must be fed to animals unless they carried a disease that could be transmitted to the animals.
3. Environmentalism: Humans may not remove trees, even on their own property. Forest fires must be stopped. Humans must improve any habitat they settle, making life for animals better than it was before the humans moved in.
4. Fashion: Both men and women should be encouraged to wear their hair long.

Bottoms (UPL-1)

Population:

1,400

This was a Doll league who supported the #Slopes. They were the successors to the original Doll party, but chose to rename themselves Bottoms because most Dolls were still enslaved and could not express publically whether they supported the Cupbearers or not. Thus, the Bottoms were those Dolls who opposed the Cupbearers. Though they had only 1,400 enrolled members, this was merely because they chose not to claim the many enslaved, otherwise unenrolled Dolls as their own. They believed that these others numbered about 50,000, and were thus nearly the size of the Cupbearers, but just as the 2,000 free Cupbearers could not contact the 55,000 enslaved Cupbearers, neither could the Bottoms contact the enslaved unaffiliated Dolls.

Many Bottoms avoided public assemblies because they knew they would be easy targets for the surrounding militants.

1. Food production: All animals are allowed to attack and eat humans, and humans must not create barriers to keep out their predators. Humans cannot kill any higher animal.

Other Seventh era parties

New Raspara (LTU)

Distinct from GOC, these Raspara emerged from the Slopes.

1. Communication: Anyone accusing the Raspara of being too violent must be killed.
2. Slavery: The ideal slaves are the #Doll tribes, as they are the most submissive and least likely to revolt. Raping female slaves is forbidden; LTU members must instead satisfy themselves with other men.

Panu

Formed:	4206
Languages:	Bābākiam

A coalition of all parties except STW. Not properly a party, but a governing group with ideas of its own.

1. Emancipation: Enslaved tribes such as the Swamp Kids can earn freedom by fighting a war on the side of their masters.
2. Employment: Private businesses are illegal; the government shall be the sole employer in its territory.
3. Language: To honor the Swamp Kids, Bābākiam shall be the language of diplomacy.

Clouds

Formed:	4206
Languages:	Bābākiam

A supervised league formed by #Panu, an association of third parties who opposed STW. Since Panu was not itself a party, they needed an entity with an army to project their influence onto foreign territory. The Clouds claimed to have won the support of the Slopes, although in fact very few Slopes defected to the Clouds. The Clouds hoped to raise an army of 200000 ex-Doll soldiers once they had convinced the Dolls to overcome their fear of violence.

1. Terminology: Male members shall refer to themselves as Slopes, and females as Dolls.
2. Employment: Private businesses such as STW are illegal.

The Clouds did not have the support of the Slope party base, and therefore the Slopes continued to exist as a rival, and soon became hostile to the Clouds.

The Key

Formed:	4207
Languages:	Bābākiam

An even greater coalition between the Swamp Kids and the Clouds.

1. Economy: Private businesses such as STW are illegal.

By this time, STW had yet again changed its orientation, this time favoring the Slopes. The presence of ex-Slopes in the Key league meant that the war was becoming less ideological; the two sides agreed on many important issues.

Iron

Also known as Asala, the Irons were defectors from EE3 who seceded around the same time as ZDE. They depicted themselves in art and literature as small childlike beings, but did not use corresponding childlike terms in their language. They identified themselves as rebels; their name was taken from STW's private currency, which had been so devalued in recent years that STW had converted to slave labor.

Political parties of the Early Cosmopolitan Age

The vast Cosmopolitan Age encompasses the long postwar decline in human activity on the planet as more successful animals drove humans into discontinuous habitats along rivers and lakes. Nevertheless, some ancient organizations persisted into the new era.

The winner of the war was the army of Asala, but they brought their edge-of-survival lifestyle with them, and therefore every piece of land that Asala took over experienced a marked decline in living standards.

Moonshine survived the war, but lost the state of Hōmoya, which later became part of the Ghost Empire. However, they later gained some followers in the Mountains of Wisdom, which though not geographically attached to the arctic Moonshine territory were nonetheless accepted as new states within the Moonshine Empire.

Ghosts of Comfort (GOC-5)

Language:

Ghost

1. Executive: The president shall be as strong as any king, but the post is not hereditary. Although the position of president is for life, good presidents will run for re-election when they question their ability to dutifully lead the nation.
2. Diversity: Racism is forbidden. The government may award descendants of underprivileged ethnicities extra power by in order to help them pull level with the descendants of the ruling tribes.
3. Polarism: Ghosts should look north for allies and south for enemies.
4. Entertainment: Artists and entertainers must be subsidized by the government so that people can view their works free of charge. All theater must be performed entirely by children.

Political parties of Cosmopolitan Nama

Dolls (UPL-3)

Language:	Poswa
Cleanliness:

The United Pacifist League was the dominant political party in the vast countryside. They were the direct descendants of the Doll party, but because that name had been assigned by a hostile power, they did not commonly refer to each other as Dolls. The earlier name Bottoms had been chosen voluntarily, but most UPL members were not descended directly from the Bottoms, who had been merely one wing of the Doll party.

Nama's new government continued to refer to UPL members as Dolls, and the common members who lived in the vast eastern wilderness interfaced little with Nama and did not object to this. As they had no formidable opposition parties in their territory, most Dolls lost the concept of political parties and simply referred to themselves by their place of residence, tribal name, or simply as humans.

The Dolls' platform was much longer than most recently created parties' had been because their positions on many issues were far more radical than those of neighboring parties. Nevertheless, the Dolls soon gained majority status in the deep woods where they preferred to live. Despite being pacifists, most of the Dolls' laws applied even to those few non-Dolls who lived in Doll territory.

1. Food supply: Humans should rely on fruits and vegetables to fulfill their dietary needs; the only legal foods are those that can be captured with humans' bare hands.
2. Weapons: Humans are forbidden to carry weapons of any kind outside their homes. Knives, axes, and other tools must always remain in their proper places on the property of their owners. Casual fighting without weapons is legal, and the loser of the fight cannot claim he was attacked unfairly.
3. Property: Animals with teeth, claws, or other hard body parts sharp enough to cut through exposed human skin shall be given the right of trespass on all property, and humans immediately lose their claim to any land in which such animals appear. Humans shall work in the forest putting up signs demarcating each animal's territory to the best of their ability, both for their own understanding and that of any animal capable of recognizing the signs. All property boundaries must be bodies of water or other natural barriers.
4. Animal attacks: Animals are allowed to attack humans, and humans are allowed to fight back only with their hands. Animal attacks on humans shall be legally equivalent to casual fights between humans, meaning that the humans cannot seek compensation for their injuries, nor attempt to gain an advantage by holding a weapon. Thus, humans' natural position in the food chain is preserved, and animals' prey selection is simple.
5. Pacifism: Dolls cannot maintain a military or start a war. If a foreign army invades Doll territory, UPL must award citizenship and superior legal status to the invaders to encourage them to stop killing Dolls. If the invaders still do not stop, their superior legal status remains in effect.
6. Plant life: All plants must be protected. No human has the right to uproot any plant unless another animal has already damaged it beyond repair. Humans are allowed to place thorny bushes and other plants in order to wall themselves off from other humans, so long as the thorns are not capable of injuring the skin of any local animals.
7. Hygiene: Hand and body hygiene is important. All humans shall bathe daily and protect their skin with soap; humans shall bathe separately from all other animal species.
8. Waste removal: Humans must pick up animals' waste products on land they have access to, and deposit them into toilets. Horses, birds, and very small animals are the only exceptions to this rule.
9. Water supply: To find pure water, long-term settlements should be based around wells to which all citizens are provided access.
10. Alcohol: Children and adults are allowed to drink wine, though children should drink more diluted forms.
11. Harmony: Wolves cannot live in cities unless there are no other non-human animals present.
12. Adolescence: Marriage is limited to those who have completed school.
13. Marriage: All marriages must be between a man and a woman. A woman can divorce her husband at any time, for any reason, and all their property becomes hers. A man cannot divorce his wife. Polygamy is allowed.
14. Gender roles: Women are superior to men, and girls are superior to boys. When necessary resources are limited, males must starve. Men must take the most dangerous jobs. Women are not expected to work except alongside their husbands, and are not paid when doing so.
15. Crime: Violent criminals can be exiled to the forest or to islands.
16. Sexuality: As men are made to serve women, homosexuality is forbidden. Lesbians and unmarried women may live together and form small corporations where they are free from most government oversight, but they cannot marry each other.
17. Fashion: Nudism is legal. Fancy clothes and jewelry are illegal.
18. Penalty: Wealthy people can pay money to the government in order to avoid prison. Compensation to the victim is not always required. For someone sufficiently wealthy, even murder can be paid off.
19. Toparchy: The governor of each settlement can change the local laws at any time without permission from other parts of the government. However, no local law can overrule a law derived from the Doll party platform.

The laws regarding animals originated as a way to ensure that predators had an easy way to meet their dietary needs, but the wording of the law extended to animals capable of repulsing predators as well. Thus, even though animals such as sheep and horses lacked sharp teeth, they were capable of cutting through humans' skin with other hard body parts and therefore given priority over humans for land assignment. Insects, parasites, and most small animals were excluded from this category because their bites did not ordinarily penetrate the full depth of human skin.

Since humans were only allowed to own weapons on their own property, and human property claims were voided whenever predatory animals appeared, humans had no legal way to fight off animal attacks at all, and could only achieve safety by fleeing to remote locations such as mountaintops and islands within rivers. Yet, many humans remained in openly accessible territory, proudly filling their position at the bottom of the food chain. Their submissive behavior was partly the result of their isolation; no other tribes lived close by, so UPL members knew no alternatives. But humans' many predators soon came to also fight each other, and humans felt they had a better chance of surviving a battle between two species of predatory animals if they chose to not participate.

Because UPL could not fight off their predators, UPL-held territory quickly devolved to the lowest living standards of any human-inhabited land, and each species of predator grew more aggressive over time as the ones who actively hunted humans reproduced more than those with more timid habits. Humans were pushed into fringe habitats such as mountaintops and islands within rivers. The only benefit to UPL was that their vast territory was so thoroughly dominated by dangerous animals that even the more martial human tribes such as the Ghosts of Comfort were afraid to enter. Therefore, UPL achieved immunity to human invasion by submitting to animal predation.

Furthermore, the aggressive animals that fed on the UPL humans also periodically migrated outward in all directions, forcing the other tribes such as the Ghosts, the Moonshines, the Bubbles, and the Rainmen to deal with ever-more aggressive animal attacks as well.

UPL set up a legislature in which the president, an outside overseer, could veto any new law unless the senate had voted unanimously for it. Only women could serve in the senate under the UPL banner, and they allowed members of other parties to send representatives as well. Thus, few laws received unanimous support.

Bubble (TAP)

Language:

Pabappa

Ruled in Paba. Not related to the #Soap Bubbles. TAP was a pacifist party like UPL, but much more extreme than UPL. Many things that UPL permitted were mandatory for TAP.

1. Pacifism: Members may not physically attack animals or other humans for any reason. Even fighting without weapons is illegal. Corporal punishment of children is also illegal.
2. Feminism: Women must control all men. Women shall have legal advantages over men.
3. Nudism: Members in the lowlands are not allowed to wear clothes, even in winter. In mountain areas people may wear wrapped blankets.
4. Vegetarianism: Members must not eat meat or fish.
5. Environmentalism: Humans must live in compact habitats. There must be no bridges or roads in the wilderness.
6. Sexuality: Homosexuality is allowed.

Though TAP was even more extreme in its pacifism than UPL, TAP members did not suffer as much from animal attacks because they had a much higher population density with fewer places for animals to nest, and because animals in general tended to be smaller in warm climates. Nevertheless, animal attacks were the leading cause of death, and just like UPL, foreign armies were afraid to invade TAP's territory in Paba because they knew that although the humans would not fight back at all, the animals definitely would.

PPP

Ruled in the northern Naman region of Namma, near the Moonshine border. Their ideology was a blend of UPL's platform and those of Moonshine's parties, with no ideas unique to PPP. Nonetheless, PPP's supporters considered themselves loyal to their party rather than split between supporting UPL and supporting Moonshine.

1. Privilege: Members can earn higher status in society by performing universally recognized good deeds.
2. Sea patrol: The empire of Moonshine has control of the sea, and PPP sailors are merely guests.

PPP set up men's clubs where husbands whose wives had cheated them could go to hear other men remind them that women's universal superiority meant that the man had gotten what he deserved.

Despite their party being a middle ground between UPL and Moonshine, the men in PPP were more physically robust than men in the other two parties, and because men in UPL and Moonshine were allowed to physically attack women, so too were men in PPP, and thus male-on-female violence was well known.

Political parties of Cosmopolitan Moonshine

Although the Swamp Kids had early on relinquished AlphaLeap's claims to Moonshine's territory, some rival parties had appropriated those claims, and the Swamp Kids were willing to fight battles in Moonshine territory without formally declaring war against Moonshine.

As democracy spread through the warmer regions of the world, the Moonshine party reaffirmed its claim to rule its territory unopposed, but simulated multiparty democracy by enacting different policies in each of the states they ruled. People were allowed to move from one state to another, and Moonshine's central government considered this the equivalent of changing parties. This was very similar to what the Crystal party had done in Amade centuries earlier, but Moonshine's nations were hundreds of times larger than Amade's, and thus travel was typically a major life event.

Moonshine (MS4H)

This is the Moonshine party that ruled in the capital territory of Sakwalo. The H stands for Heart.

1. Slavery: Corporations are allowed to pay their employees any wage they see fit, or enslave them and thus not pay anything at all. However, the central government is not required to help businesses recover employees who leave because of poor working conditions. Private slave ownership is also legal, and the slaveowners are similarly responsible for ensuring their slaves do not escape.
2. Orphanhood: All orphans are slaves. Schools shall enslave their students, and the students shall earn their way to freedom by mastering their schoolwork.
3. Education: Schools should prioritize written knowledge over manual labor skills.
4. Labor: Female employees are allowed to join labor unions, and each labor union has the sole authority to disburse the salary money allotted to them by the business owner.
5. Taxation: No woman shall be required to pay more than 50% of her income in taxes in any year. Males are required to pay into two maternity funds, however, and the second of these can consume income beyond the 50% cap.
6. Gender parity: Male-owned businesses must have at least one female overseer present in each room of their building throughout business hours, and these women are not required to complete any tasks. Furthermore, the women are granted sole control over the business' distribution of salaries, both for themselves and for any male employees.
7. Legislature: The toparchs shall appoint their local representatives in Parliament, and these women cannot be impeached. The parliament makes laws, but cannot allot money.
8. Justice: Anyone accused of a crime must be imprisoned immediately while awaiting trial. When on trial, any defendant who visibly blushes during the description of the crime shall be deemed guilty and consigned to the most severe punishment available. Judges have the sole authority to reduce or commute sentences. There are no appeals.
9. Assembly: All non-governmental organizations must provide free membership to all female applicants, and males cannot join without written permission from their wife.
10. Exemption: The Moonshine parliament has the authority to exempt some classes of people from certain laws.
11. Military: Military service is voluntary for both men and women. Only females can hold positions of power, but all soldiers may vote on where their commanders can send them.

The new labor laws immediately crushed all male-owned businesses, since every male business-owner was forced to turn over all of his payroll money to a team of women, who were allowed to keep the entire sum for themselves and leave the male employees with no money at all. Because the female employees were not required to do any work, the male employees were the only reliably productive ones, and therefore, as male employees began to leave, male-owned businesses became unsustainable.

From a legal standpoint, the situation was no better for men working at female-owned businesses, since labor union membership was restricted to females, and therefore female employees could vote to keep all of the salary money for themselves and give nothing to the men who worked alongside them. On the other hand, female-owned businesses had greater control over who they hired, and typically hired men who were close to existing female employees. When the women voted on their salaries each month, these women would protect their men.

Glacier (MS4F)

Ruled in Flʕrùn, which is another name for Tòdʔřom.

1. Communication: Speech is restricted; impolite or offensive speech may be punished by prison time or slavery.
2. Cooperation: Men must always answer any questions asked by a woman.

Blue Shoes (MS4O)

The Blue Shoes party ruled in the territory of Hōmoya, which had the warmest climate in Moonshine territory. Hōmoya had been ethnically diverse for hundreds of years, but the Blue Shoes held to the traditional Moonshine policy of only enrolling members of their own tribe, and therefore the other tribes in Hōmoya had no political representation in Moonshine's government. However, the Blue Shoes allowed the other tribes to have autonomous communities in which some Moonshine laws would not apply.

1. Rescue: The Shoes must travel to foreign nations to bring in victims of hostile tribes, with priority given to female refugees of the enslaved Doll tribes.
2. Immigration: Non-refugees from foreign tribes are allowed to move to Hōmoya, but cannot join the Blue Shoe party.
3. Curfew: Men are not allowed out in public without permission from their wife or a female caretaker. The government may at times also ban men entirely, overruling their wives.

Cartwheels (MS4W)

This party was assigned the territory of Wa. Its other name, Labor, carried the same dual meaning of work and labor contractions that it does in English.

1. Labor: Men and women should share in dangerous jobs such as fishing in deep sea waters.
2. Foreign policy: Feminism is the most important political issue of all time, and alliances should be made with feminist groups in foreign nations even if they are otherwise hostile to Moonshine.
3. Education: Women should teach in schools for both boys and girls. Girls will be prepared for leadership roles, and boys for a life of servitude. However, written knowledge should be favored over hands-on learning.
4. Language: The Moonshine people must speak a single language, and this language should not be used by any foreigners.
5. Food supply: Wheels should live near the coast and derive their food from the sea; farms inland may lay fallow as they are unreliable.

Moonshine's central government in Wōm had designed this ideology without respect for the political beliefs of the inhabitants, who largely favored the Honey Poison Pirates.

Islanders (MS4I)

Controlled all of the icebound islands.

Runners (MS4X)

Ruled in Xema. Here, people lived so close to nature that ideology made little difference in their daily lives.

Opposition parties of Moonshine

The Moonshines tolerated no opposition, but illegal parties appeared sporadically.

Living in Harmony (LIH)

Living in Harmony was a party comprised of women and men who objected to the extreme feminism that the Moonshine party had spread throughout the empire. LIH members considered themselves feminists, but said that it was better for women and men to work together on building a perfect society rather than women always telling men what to do. Since most men were married to women, the LIH members claimed that Moonshine's abuses of men also hurt women, as women were forced to deal with aggression from other women in order to protect their husbands.

1. Gender relations: Women and men should work together on building a perfect society, rather than women always forcing men to do the most difficult jobs.

Honey Poison party (HPS)

The Honey Poison party (Nokàpa) was a group of women who refused to obey the central government authority and set up an alliance of toparchies whose queens were loyal only to each other. They had an all-female military force that roamed around Moonshine cities where they attacked and murdered men, but mostly they settled around the southern shore and concentrated on piracy. Their own men were loyal to HPS, but did not participate in raids in Moonshine cities; instead, they were responsible for fishing and manual labor.

1. Finance: Men are not allowed to handle money; any money they earn goes to their wives.

They sometimes referred to themselves as the Snowballs, after their habit of playful snowball fights against men. But this name conflicted early on with several other snow-related names used by foreign enemy parties.

Honey Badgers (HB5)

The Honey Badgers were a group of women who, like the Honey Poison party, rebelled against the federal Moonshine government and pledged loyalty only to each other. Unlike HPS, however, HB5 claimed the entire Moonshine territory for itself and spread themselves very thinly. They preferred cities where they could pounce upon married men walking alone and then hold them for ransom until their wives paid the price.

Many Badger women became pregnant by men they abducted, when their wives could not pay or were unwilling. The Badgers used this to claim that the abducted men were happy, and therefore that life under Badger control was superior to life among the mainline Moonshines.