Once I have a general concept for the society and a basic idea of the geography, I need to put together the society’s philosophical orientation. This is divided into three aspects, Orientation, Aspects, and Posture. The Orientation is an overall description of what the goal or direction of the society is. The Aspect is why they are pursuing that goal. The posture describes how they go about accomplish those goals. There are six different orientations, six different aspects, and two postures. You can mix and match them however you want.
The different orientations in order of commonality are Equilibrium, Survival, War, Conquest, Peace, and Knowledge/Thought. The Equilibrium orientation means that the society has achieved a status quo and is not drastically changing. The Survival orientation means the people have little time or resources available for anything other than getting the basics required to live. The War orientation means the society is primarily concerned with a conflict or conflicts at hand. Conquest means the society is working towards the acquisition of power, lands, wealth, and/or industries. This is different than war because they could be using means other than force to accomplish this. The Peace orientation means the society will actively avoid conflict of any kind, up to and including being completely pacifist. Knowledge/Thought oriented societies are devoted as a whole to learning and philosophy. They may or may not be peaceful in this pursuit.
The different aspect are Acquisition, Conviction, Prevention, Tradition, Stagnation, and Revolution. In addition, the aspect should have a descriptor of what it is they are trying to acquire, believe in, change, etc. Societies with an Acquisition aspect are trying to get something. This could be power, wealth, or anything worth getting. The Conviction aspect means they are motivated by a belief, whether that’s a religion, patriotism, or some other code of conduct. Prevention is a defensive aspect, where the society is trying to stop something, such as the spread of a religion, destruction of its own society, or anything the populace generally agree is bad. Societies with the Tradition aspect is motivated by their past, such as heritage, history, etc. Stagnation means the society is inactive or actually regressing culturally. The Revolution aspect means that society is reforming or drastically changing, which may or may not mean violently.
An active posture means that the society as a whole is pursuing their orientation as their primary focus. A society in active equilibrium will have laws and cultural constructs dictating what must be done. A society with a passive equilibrium will have cultural norms, and breaking those conventions will raise some eyebrows or even cause some ostracism, but that would be the extant of the punishment.
Shildaria has a War orientation. They are facing attacks from Abominations invading the country. They also have an enormous amount of internal strife. There are rivalries among the dukes, which is affecting not only the effort to stop the creatures but the overall economy and structure of the society itself. The attacks happen in the south, so the northern Dukes have some issue with continuing to send aid when the issue never seems to end.
The motivation for their society is Preservation. They have no idea what the Abominations want other than to kill them. They are trying to preserve their lives and society. However, they are also looking to preserve their status, wealth, and power. These feed into the War orientation, both for the external and internal threats.
Their posture is passive. They are fighting a defensive battle. They are not prosecuting it like they would if they were trying to face another country. They aren’t looking for conquest or to take and hold ground. Huge swaths of the country have never been attacked, so the people there are supporting the war effort indirectly. The southern part of the country do get attacked, but they have no idea when or where. The Abominations are apparently genocidal, since they wipe out any town they can or die trying. There is no way to press an advantage, as victory means all the Abominations or all the Shildarians in the battle are dead. Fielding some sort of army to attack an opposing army is pointless. If the Abomination attacks stopped, the society could change to a different Orientation.
Next week I’ll be talking about my writing and how things are going on that front. See you next Sunday!
