Forum

[Loincloth of Armour]

Originally Posted by Korgoth

The original 5 Successor States represent the different types of government in Plato's Politeia (given from best to worst):

Interesting theory. It certainly holds up at a first glance, but it might also be a case of overthinking the whole thing or giving FASA too much credit for a game where the goal is to beat down giant robots.

The universe is certainly aimed at an 'after the fall of Rome' vibe. I wonder if there could be clear Successor State parallels in any of Charlemagne's empire, the Papal States, or other emergent European powers from that time.

Davion / Federated Suns - Aristocracy (rule by merit)

Davion are the all-around excellent characters, having the best officers and a benign leader.

Davion always suffered from the "too good" problem. They had the largest realm, the best military, the highest tech (NAIS), were US/Britian themed (for a mostly American audience), and had the whole Camelot thing as well.

If the fiction needed 'heroes' it was typically Davions who filled that role. It would have been better if they'd played up the arrogance and imperalistic nature of the Federated Suns, to balance it against the other Houses. Because, Hanse Davion was a bastard. A magnificent bastard, but still a bastard.

Kurita / Draconis - Timocracy (rule by honor)

Kurita are hard-nosed militarists but follow the bushido.

I don't disagree with you on this. However, the Draconis Combine, like the Megacorps from Shadowrun, is victim to the 80's view that Japan will become a major power, hold massive influence, and generally be the bad guy while embracing 'stereotypical' behaviour. It unfortunately hasn't aged well. They certainly toned down the Draconis = bad in the later fiction, though.

Steiner / Lyran - Oligarchy (rule by wealth)

Steiner are the moneyed group, with a bunch of chinless wonders in their military leadership since they often confuse wealth and pedigree with merit.

I've always thought that the Steiner military is portrayed as incompetent because if they were actually on the ball, they'd take over the Inner Sphere. Consider just some of the military leaders to emerge from Lyran space: Morgan Kell, Anastasius Focht, Greyson Death Carlyle.

Heck, the Lyrans even defeated Wolf's Dragoons on Hephestus II. Once the Lyrans get going, nothing seems to stop them.

Marik / Free Worlds - Democracy (rule by the people)

Marik are not necessarily evil, but barely hold their act together because of all the internal contradictions within their own realm and perhaps their lack of unity and moral fiber (which is how Plato seems to view Democracy).

The problem with Marik is that nothing is ever done with them. They are 'that other' Succession State that exists out there, but no one really seems to deal with. In fact, you could remove the FWL and most of the fiction and meta-plot would remain unchanged. (The Word of Blake setting up shop in a periphery state or something.)

Heck, the desginers pretty much admitted to it by disbanding the League by 3130.

Liao / Capellan - Tyranny (rule by a tyrant)

Liao is ruled by one autocratic nutbar after another, enough said!

Nutbars, yes, but generally successful nutbars.

True there have been a number of horrific Chancellors, but when a Tyrant works, they work well.

Maximilian Liao was but a plot point away from destroying the Federated Suns. True it cost him his mind and half his realm in the 4th Succession War, but he came sssooo close to winning it all.

Romano was ax crazy, but kept her realm alive against a three pronged invasion.

Sun Tzu was a freaking political genius.

The Confederation suffers from the fact that it gets curbstomped in the 4th Succession War, then the designers spend the rest of the universe's in-time trying to reverse that beating and return it to Great House status. I think they realized they wrote themselves into a corner with the whole 4th Succession War.