#as well as the relationship between risen and nonrisen

[wonderwafles]

Ok so. City politics. Back in the Dark Age, when the City was first being planned and conceived of as a refuge for Lightless humans, Efrideet defined it as a collaborative venture between Lightless and Risen. "We'll (RIsen) just build the place and bring people there. We can defend the walls, but we're not going to dictate what happens inside them. This is a joint venture. A collaboration." So right away, we’re getting a fairly ironclad description of the ideal roles of Risen and non-Risen in the City. Political and governing matters to the civilians, defending the Walls to Risen.

This doesn’t mean that Risen are excluded from public life - after all, they are meant to live together - but the key here is that the City is NOT ruled like the rest of the Dark Age settlements, controlled by a Warlord because they have the material power to do so. Instead, the Risen are deliberately restraining their own power inside the walls in order to allow the Lightless to govern themselves in safety. And that’s exactly what it is; allowing. No material concessions between the two groups were struck. No new balance of power was created. However seriously modern Guardians take the ability of Lightless to self-govern, to put it harshly, it is only ever a privilege to be revoked if the Guardians choose to do so.

Now, in the modern day we can see how the lines between Risen and non-Risen, in the public sphere, have blurred. I think this has a lot to do with the Factions, most of whom have Guardians sworn to their cause, which seems like a natural way to maintain the balance of power between them. Ditto for the Vanguard, which from the earliest days of the City seems to have had a governing voice on the Consensus (equal to the Lightless Faction leaders, although I would guess, if a Faction chose to do so, a Guardian could be sent to the Consensus as leader. New Monarchy almost did this when they asked Zavala to be King, although I’m having some trouble finding a source for this one). But equally, I think this is a problem with how it is... very difficult for even well-meaning Risen not to have power over the City. They are celebrities, demigods, storied personalities and famous warrior-heroes. How does someone like Saint-14 avoid being a force in politics? Even if he deliberately abstained (as he is trying to do in SotS, notably), his opinions and desires would be taken as a guiding light by many.

However, it would be hard for any Faction leader, or their rank-and-file, to forget that Guardians have such an enormous power advantage over them. Throw in the sheer fragility of the City’s position as one fortified position in a solar system filled with danger, and you’ve got a real problem. And I think this comes into play when the Pyramids show up, because all of a sudden a world-ending threat has showed up that only the Guardians can deal with, if they can. And now reports are coming in that Guardians have embraced the Darkness, and what exactly is a Lightless civilian to do? Leave the City, into the darkness and danger? Live in fear that one day all Guardians would turn away from protecting you, perhaps even actively persecute you? What could the Lightless population possibly do if the Guardians merely made the choice to turn on them, as simple and easy as deciding what area to patrol?

It’s that powerlessness that Lakshmi is preying on in Season of the Splicer, and it’s also why I’m unimpressed with Ikora’s responses to her. Ikora is appealing to compassion and fellowship with the Eliksni refugees, but is failing to address the fact that she (and Zavala) took a massive political step by inviting the House of Light into the City without any involvement by the rest of the Consensus. Even Mithrax is unnerved by this when he finds out, because of what it means for his House. To be clear, I think Ikora did the right thing, morally and practically. Even in the haste in which she did it; any time spent debating with the Consensus about the House of Light was time Mithrax was out in the danger of the system, at risk of dying, and NOT inside the walls helping dispel the Endless Night.

But I mean, if you were a civilian, wouldn’t you be worried? At a time when the agreement between Risen and non-Risen seems more fragile than ever, Ikora goes and overrules the entire Consensus on a very important and delicate matter? Wouldn’t it feel like the Guardians are beginning to rule the City? I feel like if Ikora and Zavala wanted to address the root of Lakshmi’s support, they would focus more on that problem than they are now.