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[Lobster]

The entire point of putting Swiss colonists into Gallia was that it's such a dichotomy that it ends up adding conflict, and thus purpose, to the whole damn thing.
[7:18:38 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Rationalized, the Swiss who were 'not in Switzerland' at the time of the nukes slagging Earth were in the Western Alliance countries
[7:18:54 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Those Swiss managed to survive as a semi-cohesive and independent group, with the majority being in France
[7:19:31 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But the Swiss government never wanted to ally with anybody; the Switzerland of 2120 AD is so badass that they've kept themselves together with the same policies for that long. But nukes don't care about that
[7:20:26 PM] Vogel/Pryor: So technically speaking the Swiss survivors who wound up tagging along with the Western Alliance nations in space are displaced citizens of a nation that has not joined the Alliance. But what is the Alliance gonna do, vent them into space? Hell no, in fact as it says some of the Swiss even joined to fight for them as volunteers
[7:20:44 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But when the end comes, the five sleeper ships are stocked full 'based on nationality'.
[7:21:50 PM] Vogel/Pryor: There's no room for a multi-cultural "Swiss" population for the major nations like the US (which is a melting pot anyway), Germany (which probably bore a lot of the fighting and felt itself entitled to a ship of its own), Britain, and the Mediterranean all for the same reasons
[7:22:21 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But when a ship isn't made for France, either that or it is destroyed and not replaced, suddenly one of the great powers of the Alliance is shoved in the same boat: "Sorry, you're ****ed, buh-bai"
[7:22:59 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Therefore, the one nation that has the majority of out-of-country Swiss survivors is put into a position where it's been exiled to almost the same state as Switzerland at the last minute
[7:23:57 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Why in the name of God would the French government stab somebody else in the back in the same way if they had room on the Gallia to fit at least some of them?
[7:23:57 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Not even a lot, it wouldn't take a lot, a couple thousand even, Fact of the matter is they consider themselves 'Swiss'
[7:24:04 PM] Vogel/Pryor: So the Gallia sets off with a modicum of Swiss on board as a gesture of good faith
[7:24:45 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But when the ship finally lands the Frenchies pull out the monarchy card in the belief that the centralized government would be the most efficient to kickstart civilization. Naturally when its purpose has been served, it's already too ingrained in society to be removed
[7:25:27 PM] Vogel/Pryor: So there's conflict one: You have a huge plot of space with a huge house that's monocultural and with an aged undemocratic system that's lasted for how long?
[7:26:05 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Put a counter to that, even if it's small. Balance it 'somehow'; give a reason for the Council to rebel for freedom and rights to begin with, give a link to something 'other than monocultural monarchy'
[7:26:32 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Now, in terms of the population itself, bear in mind that the Swiss are multicultural and multiethnic, but they still call themselves "Swiss".
[7:27:12 PM] Vogel/Pryor: The Swiss and French colonists would no doubt intermingle for the first couple hundred years of colonization; intermarriage and all that. Ethnically and somewhat culturally they're the same, they're European
[7:27:41 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But here you have a subset of those descendents who still want to be called Swiss, and here you have this monarchist system that's digging in so deep it cannot be removed
[7:28:34 PM] Vogel/Pryor: The two are incompatible. Conflict. The solution doesn't lie in something insane like genocide; not even the crazy French kings who want to wage war on Sirius would do that. They want to conquer and get revenge, not wipe out a chunk of humanity
[7:29:09 PM] Vogel/Pryor: So what would be a solution? Naturalization? Well these Swiss colonists are practically part of the Gallic culture already, that is to say western European, with the same languages, some of the same heritage
[7:29:18 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But they insist on staying "Swiss", so that cannot work
[7:29:32 PM] Vogel/Pryor: You can't kill them, you can't get them to join you, so what else can you do?
[7:29:37 PM] Vogel/Pryor: You shove them in a corner.
[7:30:07 PM] Vogel/Pryor: You deprive them of any major capabilities but play it out like you're "granting them independence and free will" and all that **** when in reality you pointed at an icebox and said "Live there"
[7:31:19 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But these are the Swiss. These bastards have insisted on an independent namesake for some 70 or so years of bloody war and '380' years of a French-dominatic "Gallic" Monarchy
[7:31:39 PM] Vogel/Pryor: They're not going to lay down and die that easily. But what can they do if they're powerless?
[7:31:49 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Well they're only powerless because all they knew was 'Gallia'.
[7:32:23 PM] Vogel/Pryor: In steps the Council, freedom fighters, "Oh look at that, they have democracy, damn that's a fine concept, we should have something to those ends, that's worth fighting for; France had democracy too yknow!"
[7:33:08 PM] Vogel/Pryor: So they fight. The Gallic king is grinding his teeth but he can't up and remove the Swiss; he cannot commit blatant genocide; it goes contrary to everything that the original French government and the government of Gallia prior decided on
[7:33:30 PM] Vogel/Pryor: But it's still in check, it's still small, secluded, dependant on resources; We'll crush these rebels, who cares?
[7:33:35 PM] Vogel/Pryor: Jump Hole to Sirius.
[7:33:39 PM] Vogel/Pryor: **** Hits the Fan.
[7:33:42 PM] Vogel/Pryor: That's the idea.



More gold from Xander.

By the by, you already know this Xander, but just to say it publicly, I love this idea. I think it would add so much to the Galic experience and open up new avenues for the game in terms of RPing, diplomacy, and being able to portray an interaction with the galic monarchy that is not one of war.