The Treaty

So you asked me to write a bit on the context of The World for this month and this is what I have for you. Great for those of you who really wants to nerd out about needlessly complex fictional universes used to facilitate smutty art. This write-up presumes that you have already read the previous World document. If not, you can find it over here. Happy reading!

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The Treaty

The Treaty is a document signed by the most powerful organizations of The World and governs the formal relations between them as well as the plethora of rules designed to facilitate a somewhat stable World. To avoid upsetting the masses, The Treaty is not known to the general public. Only a heavily adapted and edited public version telling people that everything is balanced and that the status quo is preserved is shared. Here we present a summary of the most important concepts managed by The Treaty.

The treaty is under constant evolution and as the power balance shifts, so may some of the content. However, the big organizations do try to make sure that any change is gradual and that general consensus is achieved before any revisions are made.

The pantheon

The Treaty governs who gets authority to partake in the inter-organizational multilateral decision-making tuning and shaping the direction of The World. Organizations who carry with them enough intrinsic power and influence will be designated as Players. A Player organization will enjoy certain privileges and duties defined by The Treaty. Currently, the organizations with Player status are the RD superhuman organization (RD), Zarahustra Transhuman Collective (ZH), EuTir Demihuman Organization (EUT), Magellan Wizard Coalition (MG) and Fraction.

Other organizations are designated as observers, Observers are still bound to obey The Treaty and other rules passed by Players. Unlike players, observers don’t have any right to vote on any changes made to the treaty. Organizations carrying the observer status are Einherjar Defence Pact (EDP) and the Free agent alliance (FAA).

Councils

Twice every year, Players and Observers are called to a meeting called the Council. These assemblies deal with all manners of administrative and legislative business. Each organization sends a number of representatives, up to a maximum of twelve per faction.

Each Player organization gets one vote in any decision made in the Council, and may abstain from voting. In the event of a tie, opposing parties are expected to renegotiate until a compromise has been met. Observer organizations have the right to sit in on Councils and voice their opinions, but they do not carry a vote.

Players take turns hosting the Councils. A council lasts around three days on average, depending on agenda length. While not in session, the delegates fraternize with each other quite informally. Sexual encounters between factions are not uncommon.

The Coordinator

In Switzerland, a multi-organizational information and management hub has been placed. This hub is called the Coordinator or Cord for short and is staffed by members of each Sorority. The Coordinator is on constant call and delivers authentication and authorization services between Players and Observers.

The Coordinator also delivers intelligence by request to any Player individuals. Real-time data gathered and decrypted from all human public and private databases are readily available at no cost. Advanced AI processes, sorts and cross-references the information so that almost any request can be fulfilled within seconds. Player individuals carry personal communicators which they may use to access the network.

Annihilators

An annihilator is a person or device who consistently and repeatedly would be able to destroy or disable at least 99% of the human population in The World. The annihilators are classified by the theoretical time it would take them to do so, from up to a year (Y-class annihilator) down to a second (S-class annihilator), which is the smallest instance of time measured. Since annihilators in some cases naturally may grow stronger over time, reclassification will happen once a new breakpoint has been reached.

The annihilators are self-reported, though players also allow routine inspections from opposing factions in the name of transparency. Each Player takes utmost care to keep their inventory accurate and up-to-date. Detected irregularities may lead to accusations of an arms race, which may lead to a real arms race. No one wants that.

Singularities

A singularity is a being or device defined as capable of unknowable growth or being able to facilitate unknowable growth. Currently there are four known singularities in the world:

There is Dobrynia v. RD, who controls the concept of learning and knowledge.

There is The Cloud, an evolving worldwide swarm of nanomachines created by ZH.

There is Eva Lockpiece Genisingular, who could give birth to beings with improbable potential.

There is The Prodigy of Fraction, who has shown unmatched combat prowess.

The singularities are closely monitored, both externally and by themselves. The Cloud also has an additional function, as it serves gathered data to the Coordinator, which every Player may take part of.

The cap

The treaty puts a limit on how much power that may be used by a device or an individual at any given time. This is colloquially referred to as The Cap. This limit varies depending on where you are currently located. Urban or populated areas have far heavier restrictions than areas where less collateral may be expected.

The upper limit is currently 20TW, or the equivalent of detonating a nuclear bomb every second. Individuals who can achieve this are commonly referred to as "cap-hitting".

The dueling system

In a best case scenario, all out war between two opposing Players would lead to the complete obliteration of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Less conservative estimates talk of collateral reaching multiversal levels. To avoid this scenario, all conflict has been heavily restricted and formalized in the dueling system, which is covered by The treaty. When two or more opposing Player or Observer individuals cannot achieve agreement in a given localized situation, one of them may request a duel to resolve their differences. If the other party accepts the duel, a one-on-one confrontation may be set up.

In a duel, two participants battle each other until the other yields or dies, whichever comes first. In a situation with three or more parties, duels may be set up one after the other until all conflict has been resolved.

In reality, duels don’t happen very often. Not only is it discouraged, for the sake of collateral and unnecessary conflict. The superhumans are also adept at assessing the capabilities of their opponents. Most outcomes will be clear before any fighting starts, and the weaker party usually concedes their claims beforehand.

An alternative is for one participant to declare the intent to capture the other. In that case, the instigator has to catch and subdue their opponent within ten minutes. If the instigator fails the capture attempt, they are forced to leave the area of contention and may not return for a set amount of time. In practice, no two cap-hitting individuals will ever be able to subdue one another unless they are very specialized in that area.

Any duels or capture attempts must be cleared with the Coordinator beforehand. Any unauthorized conflict will incur heavy penalties. When a capture attempt, a duel or set thereof is completed, there is a cooldown period in that area where no conflict may occur.

Currency

The Players of the world deal mainly in two types of currency. Beacons of Direction (BD) and Strategic Means (SM). Everyone finds these abbreviations to be ridiculously hilarious. A Beacon of Direction is a token representing actionable power while SM represents managed assets. Generally you could say that if BD represents what you can do, then SM represents what you can hold. Any action requiring BD or SM to be spent goes through the coordinator, as does any action which might infringe on another Player's territory.

Beacons of Direction

A BD is spent every time an organization or an individual wants to take a regulated action in The World. Regulated actions and their respective costs are spent. Anyone may hold and trade BD, and the currency will always be honored even though it’s highly unusual to see them distributed outside Player or Explorer factions. Organizations typically keep a pool of BD in reserve for communal action, but may also distribute currency between individuals as spending money.

Here follows a non-comprehensive list of some general actions and their BD cost:

• Enslaving a non-important person = 2
• Killing a non-important person = 1
• Resurrecting a human from the dead = 6
• Teleportation = 1
• Requesting a duel = 1
• Mind wipe = 2
• Establishing a new base of operations = 200

Do note that Some actions may also incur associated SM costs. BD multipliers may be in effect if the regulated action borders or infringes on the sphere of influence of another organization. Additional fees may be applicable if BD is fined as part of unauthorized action.

Earning BD is a matter of diplomacy. New BDs are minted at the Councils, where behavior considered conductive to the defined and agreed upon direction of The World will generate BD to the compliant faction. Spent BD are reclaimed by the Coordinator and archived. The total amount of BD will fluctuate over time.

Strategic Means

The SM may represent both soft or hard power that you are currently in control of. This in order to balance standing power between the Players, The organizations RD, ZH, EUT, MG and Fraction have an equal alloted amount of strength.

To give a few examples of the approximate value of a unit or device in SM:

• A modern army totaling 200'000 units = 1
• 50 MT nuclear device = 1
• Y-class annihilator = 10
• M-class annihilator = 120
• W-class annihilator = 520
• D-class annihilator = 3640
• H-class annihilator = 87360
• S-class annihilator = 314496000

Each Player receives an amount of SM equal to the highest amount of SM in play by the most powerful one between them. Currently this title is held by RD, owing to the many S-class girls in their ranks. This means that the other Players are allowed to bolster their respective arsenals until they have spent the same amount of SM while RD should refrain from any form of expansion. This is especially relevant for ZH, who specializes in building and leasing great amounts of relatively low powered machinery.

This system is rather blunt, and there are also a bunch of additional rules limiting the total number of active units or bases an organization may have. Still it provides an easily discerned tally of the relative power between the organizations and their growth over time.

Other goods

Virtually anything that doesn’t cost BD or SM may be bartered. However, most of the organizations are considered being post scarcity with the ability to synthesize almost any type of matter. This means that different valuations are applied. Common goods may include technology, slaves, favors or prisoners.

Magic, technology and powers

The treaty governs the flow of information to ensure that the general public don't have access to what is deemed knowledge.

The general public is aware that certain abilities that may be considered supernatural do exist among the big organizations. However, they are to be kept in the dark about the full extent of the capabilities of these powers, which are several orders of magnitude greater then what is presented. Ideally the superhuman's perceived power level is presented to the public as great enough to deter calls for open conflict, but not so great as to induce despair in the common man.

Perceived Technology level is managed in a similar fashion. Some technologies are public knowledge, though proliferation or reproduction of these may not be allowed by any unauthorized sources. Other technologies are considered too volatile to share with the public, and are as such suppressed and concealed.

Limits

There are a few powers that are considered inherently more disruptive to the status quo. These powers all require authorization from the Coordinator before use and may incur BD costs. These powers may include:

• Teleportation/instant transportation/space warping
• Resurrection/advanced necromancy
• Mind control/hypnotism
• Time travel/timeline manipulation
• Scrying/far sight/future sight
• Reality warping
• Dangerous matter matter creation
• Powerful being creation

Expansion, space and beyond

The organizations in the world are currently fine with staying mostly on Earth. The general consensus is that planetary exodus may happen sometimes in the future, but that it’s prudent to avoid a space race and uncontrolled expansion. Consequently, space is kept principally disarmed and off limits, save for a few exceptions.

Other dimensions may be visited, but only as joint projects overseen by the Players in order to maximize transparency. The onworld project is such a venture, where exotic girls are gathered form other dimensions and brought back to The World.

Girls

The World has a set limit on how many serfs may be in the global system at any time. Currently this limit is set to 10% of the global population. Additionally, a single nation may not have more than 15% of their citizens enthralled.

The Treaty also governs how this system functions and how it is coordinated on a global scale. A global standard has been established and any potential girl is supposed to pass a set amount of qualification tests and go through a standardized training program before being registered in the system.

Effects

The duel system in combination with the limitations posed on certain abilities and the communal information network creates a very game-like system in The World. Players maneuver their units on the global playing field, much like pieces on a board, trying to catch their opponent unaware or lead unwary units into a trap.

Players are generally content with the Treaty as it stands today. Even though most superhuman girls do experience constant frustration of having to limit themselves to a fraction of their true potential, their superhuman intelligence is high enough to see that most alternatives to this system are inherently more volatile and would lead to unknown but probably destructive consequences. Since most Player individuals don’t age, they also don’t feel the urgency to make any sudden changes, even if they, in the end, ideally would like to see quite radical changes befitting their personal worldview. Everyone plays the long game, biding their time and making the best out of the situation.

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On a related note, Patreon's formatting tools are not the most ideal. I hope you can still read without too much trouble.

I may have missed a bunch of stuff. It's hard digging up all those piecemeal notes I had on this topic, mental or otherwise. Of course this also covers a specific part of The World, there are still other areas to cover or go into detail in, but I personally think it's a decent overview.

As always, If you do have some questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'll answer you to the best of my abilities!