GOV

GOV is the political force that controls the known living population in the land of Relistan.

Overview
GOV is a powerful organization that oversees a significant amount of life in the known land of Relistan. It's policies and military strength determine order, with a city holding approximately 80% of the citizens. It's regulations ensure there is no privitization and that all residential, industrial and commerce go through GOV's central network. While there are very few rights granted to the citizens, people live in relative comfort compared to being cast into the Wilderness.

Origins
GOV's origins are unknown, but speculation of the surrounding wilderness may imply that it was created through a necessity of survival. While it is unclear exactly how long GOV has maintained power, documents indicate that GOV has been in control for over five centuries. While the initial purpose of GOV may have be intended for survival, the continual evolution of its policies and laws disabled citizens from expressing themselves in any form, strict limitations have been placed on the consumption of commodities, and any self-pursuance of self-improvement through education is strictly forbidden.

Political Structure
It is purported that GOV is controlled by a committee of five members, each with jurisdiction over an aspect of GOV. Each member appoints lesser members to act out on their behalf, with these members appointing new members as well to act out on theirs. This trickle down system ensures there is very little in the way of removal of power, and is designed specifically to encourage corruption beneath the committee of five.

The five aspects of GOV are: No member may override another, compromises must be made if policies conflict with one another. Laws are made by each member specifically for their aspect and must not cross over with another. As far as anyone knows, a member has never made a play for power, even the military member, as the benefits are far too welcoming as it is that there never was a need to do so.
 * 1) Education
 * 2) Commercial
 * 3) Industrial
 * 4) Energy
 * 5) Military

Education
Education has been deemed illegal to pursue publicly and any and all education must be met through GOV's specific entry requirements. Those who do not wish to serve politically are never educated. Books are extremely illegal and are destroyed. All systems designed by GOV are created with minimal reading requirements, thus lowering the need to teach how to read. Specific facilities in the city provide education but these are heavily guarded by GOV forces.

Education is heavily restricted, with knowledge tightly closed and given only to those that need it. Information is recorded on a central GOV Network that is held in GOV's Headquarters, which maintains the composition of all five aspects and keeps them running together smoothly.

Commercial
Commercial products are created in the city through the use of buildings known as Factories. These are the only legal employment options for untrained citizens. While GOV never forces anyone to work in the Factories, it is the only way with which an untrained citizen can acquire a GOV Food Slip, which allows them to purchase supplies for the week. Commercial products created in the Factories are assembled separately of one another so no one truly knows what they are creating, with the final assembly being formed by trained personnel or MACHiNES. All products are then sold in GOV Stores, which are manned by personnel chosen through the trickle down effect. Any and all other commercial or idle activity is done through the same manner, thus encouraging corruption on the ground level as well.

The Commercial Aspect also runs the printing presses, funding higher ups with coins and bills named Govreigns. These funds would trickle down through the GOV chain, with the money usually passing between itself and with other aspects. Those with money could make money, and those without would have to find a way to be funded by GOV to start their own business. Being funded by GOV meant you worked for GOV, thus putting you under GOV's jurisdiction. From there you could be called in for corrupt activities and put into Cautionary, thus your fate would be sealed as you are eventually used as a host. Standard citizens would rarely have any Govreigns as the daily allotment of supplies could be gained by working in the Factories.

Underground
GOV's strict limitations on consumption restrained those who desired more. While most identified with GOV's rationale on the use of specific commodities, such as alcohol or smoking, there would be those that always wanted more. The Underground was expected by GOV, and they used it as their own propagana machine - GOV is out there protecting the innocent populace from smugglers, murderers and thieves.

In reality the Underground is combated but never truly wiped out by the Military Aspect. GOV finds that those hungry for more can be bought rather easily and will serve GOV's ends just as well as a private funder. If a criminal caught and brought to Cautionary shows promise or is willing to cut a bargain they can be released to work for GOV as a boogeyman that escapes only to be "caught" again.

As the Underground deals in all kinds of illicit activity, GOV keeps the Underground thriving by pressuring it just enough that people are willing to take risks, thus increasing the body count.

Industrial
Industrial activity is reserved for specific sectors of the city, manned mostly by MACHiNES physically capable of meeting the demands of the work environment. The Industrial aspect works closely with the other four aspects to provide raw materials and supplies, and it also handles all new construction in the city. However due to the nature of the Energy aspect, sectors of the city no longer used are left as they are, abandoned and not fit for repurposing. The Industrial aspect keeps any and all raw materials in large warehouses throughout the city - these are gathered through expeditions out into the Wilderness and brought back for use.

Technology
While GOV has a near endless supply of energy their understanding of technology is limited. Vehicles have only shown up within a few decades and talking headsets have only been around for a few years. Outside of the use and development of the energy that the Energy Aspect provides, GOV has very little knowledge with the sciences and has very high limitations with any actual tech. Industrial and Commercial are working closely to improve their products, particularly for the Military and Educational Aspects.

Energy
Energy is provided through GOV's use of what they call GOV Cells - small containers that can provide a unique charge to all mechanical creations. GOV's insistance on the use of this energy is also the purpose of the corruption within GOV itself. Energy is created through the use of hosts, humans or keetons, and stored into vast tanks. The tanks themselves are hidden well within official GOV buildings and provide power to all aspects. Cells can vary greatly in size, with larger ones built into vehicles and tiny ones adapted into headsets to serve as communicable walkie-talkies.

Origins of Energy
This energy has been discovered by a Keeton Scientist named Garius Effacel - through the use of a mysterious relic he named "Hallowed Blue" he found a way to pull pure energy from living hosts by channeling their strongest felt emotion through it. The people lost their emotions and eventually their minds, with many shifting into various feral forms. These people were labeled MACHiNES and despite their changes could follow simple commands. More dangerous MACHiNES were either put down or delivered for use by the military.

The research and continual development of this energy is critical to GOV's lifespan, although the truth of how they arrived at this energy would cause a severe public outlash. Thus the knowledge is kept within Garius's descendants and reserved only for them. Only those involved in the team know the truth behind the energy source, and with such a long period of time between when it was introduced only those currently on the research team know how the energy is truly created.

Corruption for the Purpose of Energy
GOV's intentional trickle down authority ladder ensures corruption occurs within the system. This corruption is not admitted to exist but is encouraged by GOV through promotion of destruction of itself within itself. A higher up could get two different people to do the same job without the other knowing, and cause conflict within his own area. This allows competition to take form in similar pursuits, with the winner coming up with the better idea that GOV can engineer for itself while the loser is either dead or put into Cautionary. Through this purposeful corruption GOV has bodies to use for its energy resources and allows itself to find loopholes within its own regulations and laws that it can address.

Beyond itself GOV also allows citizens to wield Straightmetal and those who train in the military are allowed to leave the military at any time but can still retain their gun license. Through this GOV encourages rival factions within itself to be created and thus can be destroyed by GOV, further providing bodies to feed GOV's enormous energy requirements.

Statistics are unclear, but it could be speculated that the population of GOV has never significantly increased due to the natural destruction of itself and resistance factions that rise up to oppose it.

Military
GOV's military is the acting enforcement of GOV's regulations. While anyone could choose to join into the military, only those who excelled would be allowed to remain. Regardless, those who succeed in passing the training are allowed to maintain their gun license. Citizens that pass the training and wish to further their careers in the military would be placed in a specific unit. Instead of a large selection of average grunts that could be applied to any situation, GOV trained personnel based on their skill sets and kept them in small, tight teams. While GOV promoted the military as a force that can be used to repel off invader attacks, there never was known to be an opposing force outside the military that could pose such a threat. Regardless the combined total of forces was actually a smaller number than GOV let on to, to further dissuade opposition from openly becoming aggressive against GOV in a straight out battle. However, if a full out rebellion were to occur GOV had plenty of equipment and weaponry that the GOV Headquarters coud defend itself from an assault until the remainder of the military was pulled from the city and the neighboring towns to assist.

Special Forces
GOV's purposeful corruption required that the expected uprisings that take place needed to be countered. The military trained a few individuals to act directly on GOV's behalf. While these soldiers answered to only the highest up on the Military Aspect, their skills were used to cull and harvest hosts for the Energy Aspect. These individuals were given very specific missions and were celebrated as heroes within GOV's ranks itself. Each unit was given a nickname and were often scattered from the rest of the miltary, being deployed only for very specific and needed situations. This promoted their status even further, granting them a legendary status that would cause most rank and file to question if they actually existed and assured citizens that their city was well protected by such capable personnel.

GOV Headquarters
See GOV Tower.

The Fall of GOV
GOV's eventual downfall was due to the very agenda it was trying to propagate. Because of the efforts of Tala Effacel, she broke the chain of scientists involved in the Hallowed Blue Project, using the knowledge she was taught to hack into Factories. Through this she discovered an anti-virus system that was under development that instead of protecting vital information, would destroy the computer's entire system after it infected itself to any nearby computer it was networked to.