RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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While there is more evidence that Hermea is actually a Good or Neutral Aligned nation, it is possible that something evil and sinister is going on.
It would take years and a great amount of hard work to hide any great evil, which is why Mengkare and Hermea wouldn't have started evil. In the seven hundred years of Hermea's existence, it is possible that everything started out innocently enough, with good intentions and worthy goals, and slowly evolved into something very evil. Because this is the most likely scenario, I am going to assume that everything started like I presented in my other post on it being a Lawful Good community.
Mengkare is the less likely culprit for the corruption. Those in the council just under him are in the best position for corruption, as they would be able to best plan and hide their activities from the dragon. Because he relies upon the council to give him information and council, they would easily be able to manipulate his perception on how things are going. They may even be able to convince him over time to do little more than show up to special events and look majestic.
The council members would be a product of previous generations and slow, gradual corruption. It would start with how property is distributed and the mating controls. An excuse would be made by someone that they deserve property that is a bit better, or that they deserve a bit more. Possibly they were able to manipulate the system so that they were able to have a mate of their choice when normally they shouldn't have. Over time, the excuses would grow larger as more and more would go to the corrupt few and less and less to those at the bottom.
To cover the fact that such corruption is going on, the corrupt would band together and use their influence to convince the common people and Mengkare that all is well. The council could even recommend a tighter set of guidelines to keep outsiders from coming in and ruining problems. Those that help the corrupt in attaining more would be rewarded, while those that try to fight it will be punished.
Punishing and removing those who would stand in the way of corrupt goals would simply be labeled as unfit for the experiment, publicly tried and humiliated, and then be quietly dealt before anyone was the wiser. Magic could be used to kill and remove a body, as it only takes low level spells to strip one down to bones and from there destroy the remaining evidence. Magic could also be used to modify memories, but that is a much more difficult task and requires high level spells. Suffice to say, that the corrupt officials have a way to remove dissenters.
They most certainly would not leave burned bodies on a shore. Doing so is a mistake and a clear sign that something is wrong. In fact, the officials wouldn't even do it as a misdirection, as they would want to discourage anyone from looking at the island. Having someone look into burned bodies could end up revealing the corruption and as such this would be something that they would scramble to stop anyone from discovering. It certainly would benefit enemies of Hermea, or rebels, to leave such blatant evidence behind, as that would not only send a message to corrupt officials but there would also be a possibility of being found by outsiders and the general populace.
Corruption by the current year would be pretty shocking. The Council of Enlightenment would have complete control of the populace, and would use that control to make sure they had the best of everything, and in an abundance. It wouldn't just be possessions, but also mates, power, and property. This would be done to the detriment of the rest of the community. Craftsmen would be ordered to work for them, there would be people forced into being all manner of servants, and there would be harems of mates.
The types and manner of corruption would differ between officials. Some would be somewhat harmless in that they only strive to have more property and gain such by maneuvering the political environment. They may even be a somewhat decent human being. Others would have appetites that they most certainly would work hard to satisfy and hide. Some of these would be too evil to discuss here, but they would include physical, psychological, and even sexual abuse. I doubt this level of corruption would be rampant, but there are certain types of people who have such appetites who are amazing manipulators and very charismatic. No doubt there are at least a couple of these types of corrupt officials in the Council of Enlightenment.
The people themselves would have been eased into their way of life so gradually that they may not even be aware of it. The reason why the majority of the populace wouldn't rebel is because they are not aware that they are in any danger. They would be lied to, and told that those with more are simply surpassing the requirements of the experiment, while they are just barely meeting the standards. In their minds, in order to gain more property or better favor in other areas of their lives, they would need to grow and exceed their current level in the experiment. These people might even accept their situation to the point of defending it and refusing to change it.
In this scenario, rebels in the woods makes the most sense. They would be unable to leave the island because they don't want to leave their family and the beaches would be highly patrolled. They may not be completely cut off from the rest of the world and it may just be a matter of time before someone comes to their help.