Rumbling in the Steadfast
When Josephine Carter first established the Society of the First Dawn, she didn't really intend for it to become a player in the political struggles of the Steadfast. Why would anyone care about her small little grouping of curious Nano's and Jacks and their explorations into the past worlds? She choose to establish the Society in the Sea Kingdom of Ghan simply because it was the closest Kingdom to the pin that she'd focused on in The Atlas and because the Kingdom's maritime experience seemed like it would be useful asset.
...time soon proved just how simplistic this point of view was..
Even in the early days, Josephine herself was a somewhat public figure, and one with a fair amount of economic presence. What she'd first seen as a small organization of like-minded individuals grew into something far more than she'd expected, and that was before she discovered the Interlock. In the aftermath of the First Expedition's amazing success, if anything, the Society became even more important. It drew rich and well-educated figures from all throughout the Steadfast to Ghan, including no few Wright's of impressive skill who were interested in exploring the mysteries of the sunken facility that the Society had encountered. Though the Society first started in the Merchant City of Ledon, it wasn't long before they were invited to the City Of Bridges at the personal invitation of King Laird.
This is about the time that Josephine first began to realize that she'd made an enemy of Navarene's Queen Armalu... that her "simple society devoted to learning and exploration," had destabilized the delicate balance of power between the two neighboring Kingdom's. Indeed, as she sat in the King's council chamber and began to realize that she was going to have to find a polite way to avoid becoming one of the King's mistresses, she realized that not only had she done those things but that she'd done so with utterly no intention of doing so. Thankfully, the King found this-- if anything,- quite amusing and so began Josephine's long apprenticeship in the arts of Politics.
These days, the Society is very cognizant of it's impact upon the political sphere.
Many of those who work for the Society wish this were not true, that their own work was unimpeded by such concerns, but the people in charge of the Society understand that they cannot afford to simply blindly utilize their organizational and societal power with no concern for the effects of their actions. In many ways, the Society of the First Dawn is as important as the Order of Truth-- if not more so,- in the northern reaches of the Threshold and even the Courts of Pytharon and Milave are often abuzz with the latest rumors of the Societies activities.
Ghan is the Societies patron and closest ally, while Navarene represents their most intractable enemy. These were already facts by the time the Society began to consider these things before engaging in activities at all. The society has tried to be more careful with it's other neighbors with somewhat mixed success. Both Draolis and Thaemor are far closer to 'allies', with the Society having a very active presence in Draolis' capital of Qi despite some occasional "issues" with the Order of Truth. The group's association with Thaemor is more distant, but, the Society has a presence in the other Kingdom for the purposes of investigating a few sites inland. Malevich, and especially Iscobar, tend to be somewhat more suspicious (and jealous) of the Society's power without actually considering them an "enemy".
Plot type
Political Arc
Parent Plot
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