How has the Unity fared during the Black War then with this rather peculiar strategy?
The forces of the Superalliance were rather standardized during the Black War, so that the peculiarities of the V factions couldn’t be exploited too much. During the Black War the Unity adopted to the general “style” of the other V factions, even though it may not have preferred it. During the Black War the Unity was less eccentric and more pragmatic.
How has the society of the Unity looked like during the Black War then?
The requirements of secrecy and counterintelligence forced the Unity to care a lot about the flow of information. If the Seraphim System got access to critical information, the war efforts would be compromised, so the flow of knowledge relevant to the military was classified. Furthermore, the Unity put a lot of effort in producing copious amounts of misinformation that was aimed at misdirecting the Seraphim System. Large parts of the Unity operated more like a secret service than a university or a think-tank. The Unitists hated to be forced to operate like that, but they needed to win the war, so they adapted to that lifestyle.
So, the true lifestyle of the Unity has only had a chance to flourish after the end of the Black War?
Yes, the end of the Black War was perceived as great liberation, which allowed the Unity to operate along its genuine maxims. The need for secrecy was minimized, so that knowledge could be shared freely. This open sharing of knowledge and information resulted in what was later called “The Great Flourishing of the Unity” . Science and culture quickly reached unprecedented heights within the Unity after the Black War.
Has this Great Flourishing caused more beings to join the Unity?
Kinda, although the Great Flourishing coincided with the draw towards the Exuberance. All V factions profited tremendously from the end of the Black War, so each V faction experienced its own Great Flourishing. The Great Flourishing of the Unity was perhaps the most radical, because the way society operates was transformed radically, but that didn’t increase the attractiveness of the Unity towards outsiders tremendously.
Is there anything else that makes the Unity special?
Well, the Unity was fond of creativity as means to expand one’s knowledge. It tried to be on good terms with the Freedom to get insight on how its system of cultural silvanism turned out, even though the Unity has implemented its own version of that. Often times, the relation between the Unity and the Freedom was better than that between the Unity and the Balance. These good relations gave rise to regulations that inhabitants of simulations would regularly get the option to leave their simulations and become free citizens of the Unity or the Freedom. This regulation was certainly expensive for the Unity, but the improved relations with the Freedom and the improved transfer of knowledge between those V factions was worth that price.
In a way that makes sense, since the values of knowledge and freedom seem complementary and support each other. Knowledge enables more freedom and freedom enables the free pursuit of knowledge.
Absolutely! This makes the friendship between the Unity and the Freedom natural. The other V factions however considered that close relation between the Unity and the Freedom with suspicion. It was disparagingly called the “Unidom bloc ” by them. That’s why efforts were made to sabotage the relation between the Unity and the Freedom. Those attempts weren’t terribly effective however. The friendship between the Freedom and Unity has endured most assaults without serious problems.
Were there any other friendships between V factions, or other blocs?
The Balance was forced to react to the formation of the Unidom bloc to tighten its relations with the Exuberance to form the competing “Exubalance bloc ” which tried to prevent the Unidom bloc from becoming too dominant, which was actually very much in line with the Prestige Accords. The Exaltation remained as a relatively neutral faction, which would be asked to arbitrate between the blocs.
This constellation seems weird. Shouldn’t the Balance act as chief arbitrator between the V factions?
You are right. In fact, the Balance and the Exaltation often cooperated as arbitrating force of the V factions. Nevertheless, the Exaltation was often preferred as arbitrating force, because they usually didn’t care too much about the politics between the V factions, while the Balance was often suspected to pursue a compromise that would further its own agenda.
The politics between the V factions sounds rather complex. Still, it feels like this is an intended consequence of the Prestige Accords.
Indeed, it is. The Prestige Accords were designed to prevent the dominance of a single V faction over the others, unless that dominance was widely accepted. The formation of stable competing blocs prevented that uni-polar dominance from ever forming, until the emergence of the Coherence.
Are there more particularities of the Unity you want to enlighten us about?
I think the details I’ve given on the Unity are sufficient to paint a clear picture of the Unity. Thank you for interviewing me again, Sockrad!