Tag: power

Tale of Red Mysterium #3: Bahkis I

August 17th, 2023

#3. BAHKIS I

He strode down the hall with an intimidating purpose. It was the sharp clack of his boots on the paving stones, the swishing and tinkling of his overcoat. Even the rhythmic hit of his saber on his hip gave the impression of him being a train that would not be stopped.

Bahkis was one of the top officials in the Institute of Arkanite. His station was that of “Geomancer Supreme,” a title that denoted just how powerful his influence over both others, and the world around him, truly was.

He was walking through the Institute Headquarters in Ointalo. The dark, grey stone of the building contrasted with the deep blue and black of the mosaic tiles that formed a tight, geometric pattern across the floor. The Brutalist architecture was accented with concrete statues of different elemental spirits. The only flash of color was the gold that was inlaid on their horns or teeth, their claws, their eyes.

Bahkis saw none of this. He only heard again and again the words of the informant ringing within his head.

“Red Mysterium has returned.”

It was unthinkable. It had all been destroyed… hadn’t it? Doubt surged through him, for he knew that he was not one who could tell anyone for certain the truth of such things. He, like everyone else, was subject to the natural-born ignorance of mortals. What little information he did have informed his senses in such a way that he felt like me might soil himself.

Red Mysterium fostered barbarism, survival of the strongest. “There is no way it can be allowed to reign again,” he thought.

He came upon the engraved wooden doors of the Council Chambers. He had called all the others from the Institute to meet, and now he would inform them that all of their lives works would soon be at an end.

He stood at the door for a brief moment, then pushed on through. Inside was a long, ovular table surrounded by his colleges. The walls on each side were covered in bookshelves, and a raise platform ringed the room, seperating the table in the middle from the book cases.

All eyes focused on him. Silence enveloped the room and he quickly took his seat at the head of the table, as was custom for the one who called the meeting. He took a moment to gather his bearings, to see all who were in attendance.

He began to speak. “The Ministry of the Exterior Realms has reported, with undeniable proof, the return of Red Mysterium. War has consumed the realms of Rupu, Hotan, and Miupo. A militant organization known as the Tulaaran Supremacy is creating havoc across these realms, weakening their authorities. The Crimson Era, it seems, is threatening a return.”

He let his words hang there, being absorbed slowly by each of the members present. It did not take long for the room to explode into a frenzy of questions and doubts. How could this be true? How valid are the sources? What proof is there?

It was one voice that rang out above all the others, a man known as Pate. He asked, “What can we do to protect ourselves from this?”

Bahkis nodded. “My first action upon learning this information was to contact the Leyline Authority. They have begun installing Leyline blockers for those realms. I can only assume this is a temporary safeguard.”

A general mulling of words filled the room, groups exchanging ideas, turning them over. Finally, a voice asked, “What can be done to prevent this from spreading to every realm?”

Bahkis looked between them all and shook his head. “That is beyond my knowledge. I hope that we, together, can find this answer.” For a moment, he wondered how after all of the work he put into his career, into research, into realizing his achievements, had he gotten stuck with such spineless oafs.

He tried to stay his judgement, but the expressions of fear as they all looked to him, he couldn’t help but feel that they all were pathetic. When trouble came, Bahkis did not turn to others to solve his problems.

Words from his education reverberated within his mind. “It is in times of trouble when we must band under the common cause of a resolute mind.”

Bahkis would be a resolute mind, if he could. He would do his best to lead them from the coming darkness.

He pointed to a man sitting near the opposite end of the table, a mousy fellow with large spectacles. “What says the Inquiry Into Arms?”

The man, sheepish in his nature, looked around nervously to the gathered members. He gulped. “The Inquiry has found a… suitable method for replicating the power of Red Mysterium. Darhal technology has made remarkable advances in recent years.”

Those around him were nodding. It was commonly known that the Darhal were the best at constructing machines, with or without Arkanite.

Bahkis pointed to a woman, a sage in blue and black robes. Her robes bore the insignia of Rackaman, the capital of the universe. Bahkis asked her, “Would it be possible to invite the Darhal branch of the Dreamweaver Initiative to come here?”

General confusion permeated the gathered members. The woman, Mael, nodded. “It would be as simple as sending them an invitation. I don’t understand why…”

Bahkis stood. “It is as simple as this: we will invite the brilliant minds of the Darhal to join us in the fight against this growing threat. We will work together under the guise of developing a Dreamweaver project of our own, but we will really be preparing a proper defense.”

Silence. It was as if death had filled the room, removing any sense of being in the place. The way they looked at him, it was as if they were all already dead.

A woman named Uan stood, face incredulous. “Should it not be the responsibility of the Palace of Tytanis to organize such a defense?”

Bahkis smirked, though he felt a hollow pit in his gut. If only he could tell the truth in his heart, to let them know of the dark secrets he carried about the hollowed out carcass which was the Palace. Instead, he chose the more delicate route.

“If the Palace of Tytanis does not already know of this threat, I do not believe they can appropriately defend us.” He looked around, saw a general sense of agreement. “We are the forefront of Arkanite’s power, and yet we have heard nothing from the Palace. Unfortunately, we must not turn away from this mantle if we are to survive.”

Bahkis stood, straightening his outer coat as he did. For a moment he looked down, the gemstones and medals glittering in the dim light of the chamber. “Will this path be one of success?” he wondered. He tried not to let it eat at him that he wouldn’t know until it was over.

“I will make a general announcement. The public must be informed of the threat, but the truth is far too dangerous. A story about a dangerous flux within the Leylines will explain, for now, the inability to travel to the three systems who have succumbed to chaos so far.”

Bahkis turned, the room standing in a rush in an ill-practiced attempt at formality. He didn’t hold it against any of them, for the most part they were nothing but scholars, teachers, researchers. To think of them as the front line defense of Tytanis…

Bahkis grinned as he exited the chamber. Whatever gods existed, he was certain their sense of humor would never be matched.

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Hegemony

March 22nd, 2017

I am a communications student at Humboldt State in California, and it is interesting to hear what everyone in my department has to say, especially regarding identity, justice, liberation, and society. At heart, I am a cynic and take everyone’s word with a grain of salt. I don’t like to be duped or made to believe things that aren’t true so I spend a lot of my time making sure I know the correct information, or at least the information regarded as close to correct as possible. When I first entered this more liberal sphere, I was initially delighted as it was a much needed contrast to the conservative nature of my hometown.

There are things that I have noticed, though, that draw my eye to the hidden things that I don’t wish to see. Or at least, it feels like I don’t want to see it even though learning about it has given me more insight into my own life than anything else. A lot of this comes from the theory classes that I have taken so far. While I don’t take it for doctrine, I recognize its usefulness as a lens to view the world with.

There is a filmmaker named Slavoj Zizek who describes the concept of ideology as an internal mechanism of the human mind. If you wanted to be able to see the world without your ideology, you would need magic glasses to do so. I was resistant to this idea at first because I, like so many others, believed in the concept of the objective human. I was so inured with the idea that we could truly, 100% know reality, yet I could not describe to anyone the mechanisms with which to do so. I began to realize that human identity is a byproduct of our lived experience and thus, regardless of what has been learned, will be informed by biases from the past. Being able to realize this has helped me make more sense of an even bigger idea, one that I have a hard time getting around in its entirety.

The idea I refer to is that of Hegemony, or Cultural Hegemony as theorized by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian, Marxist imprisoned by Moussolini during WWII. Using his insights about the way fascism functioned in Italian society along with the facts of his existence as an oppressed person helped him realize a mechanism of society that could explain why so many people would follow the ideologies of people such as Mussolini and Hitler, but also can be used to explain why general cultural patterns persist and are defended over time. At its core, hegemony has to do with power. As a professor put it, power is being able to get others to do what you want or participate in the reality you have defined. This means getting people to agree with you and believe in the same ideas you do, and if you can do it without force, that is more powerful. The best slave is the one that doesn’t realize it.

This seems like kind of a far out idea because when we participate in our culture, it feels natural. But the idea that I ask you to think about is this: imagine every time you have ever entered a dark room in your house, apartment, or living space. What is the first thing your hand does upon entering the darkness? It reaches for the light and turns it on. You don’t always have to consciously think about doing this, sometimes your hand just does it because it has done it so many times in the past. You have, essentially, trained your hand to think by itself and do a specific task.

Now, consider this: simple functional tasks are not the only thing that can be trained, deep ideological behaviors and values can be conveyed through the training of the body and the control of messages. If you are a young boy and you hurt yourself, other boys will tell you to ‘man up’ and get over it. Rub some dirt in it. Walk it off. You’ll be fine. After a while this becomes their reality, and they will not have realized that they were not the ones creating it. If you are a woman, how often did you hear, throughout your life, “sit like a lady/girl/woman?”How do you think this has shaped your behavior today? When you sit, do you automatically cross or close your legs?

These are limited examples, ones that have much more context than a simple power grab, but the idea that I am trying to exemplify is that even with all this other context, all interaction has some basis of a power structure that is made invisible. No one questions why women are encouraged to wear make up while men are not, and the vocal few who do are “Othered” because they don’t fit within the status quo. This “othering” is the practice of make clear distinctions between Us and Them, between the in crowd and the obscene. This othering is a byproduct of hegemony because hegemony does not condone resistance or rebellion. How often have you seen someone who did not fit your cultures norms and think, “that person is weird”? That reaction is hegemony in its purest form, a policing action to get someone, even if there is not direct interaction, into the box that society has prescribed for them.

So, in a sense of conclusion, hegemony creates the conditions of ideological conformity such that it trains the body and mind in specific ways, rendering the process of hegemony invisible. This invisibility is achieved through the enforcement of ideology at all levels of society from state authority to the family and social setting so that it seems like a natural part of life.

This is not so much a structured writing as it was a mind dump. I have way more to write about this, but it is late at night and I’m done for now.

Tag: power

Tale of Red Mysterium #3: Bahkis I

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Hegemony