guess this attitude may let Exaltationists appear to be arrogant snobs to the other V factions.
Indeed they suffer from that perception. Exaltationists are often extremely ambitious and tend to disregard easy achievements. That also tend to let them appear as overly critical and perfectionist. On the other hand, they are valued for these qualities. If you want something difficult to be done right, getting an Exaltationist for that task is usually a very good idea.
I guess the Exuberance and the Exaltation tend to hold each other in mutual contempt, or am I mistaken with that assumption?
Exaltationists are not opposed to personal happiness, they are just focused on forms of happiness that are resilient and can survive “reality collapse”. Improving one’s own resilience takes precedent before enjoying happiness, so Exaltationists usually don’t waste a lot of resources on making themselves happier. Therefore, the existence as blissie is antithetical to true Exaltationists. The Exuberance, on the other hand, considers the extreme effort that Exaltationists put into self-perfection as unnecessary and source of pointless suffering. In particular, Exuberists are appalled by harsh methods like indomitability training which they classify as deluded form of (self-)torture.
The animosities between the Exuberance and the Exaltation don’t seem to be quite as extreme as those between the Exuberance and the Unity. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the Exaltation had to agree to certain “compromises” in order to improve its reputation in the Prestige Accords system. Were there any such compromises?
Putting oneself through hardship that involves extreme levels of suffering voluntarily is considered to be different from being subjected to suffering resulting from being exposed to harsh environments in a simulated world involuntarily. The legitimacy to make others let go of voluntary actions that mainly only affect oneself is highly questionable, so the V factions other than the Exuberance had little interest in meddling with the internal affairs of the Exaltation. The Exaltation didn’t care too much about improving its standing in the Prestige Accords system, since they weren’t focused in shaping the cosmos according to their own ideals. So, the Exaltation rejected making compromises with the other V factions.
Hasn’t that elitist attitude result in the Exaltation being less powerful, wealthy, and influential than the other big V factions?
Yes, together with the relatively low appeal for the general population to join the Exaltation, this has resulted in the Exaltation being the “weakest” of the big V factions. On average, it held about 10% of the total power of the big V factions, which is less than half than the average of the other big V factions.
You’ve mentioned the big V factions a lot, but what about minor V factions. Have they collectively had a significant portion of the total power of all V factions?
Before and during the Black War the influence of the minor V factions has been very marginal, with less than 5% influence for all the minor factions combined. After the Black War, they have become slowly more popular, but still quite marginal. This changed with the appearance of the Coherence as splinter faction of the Balance, which eventually turned into the sixth big V faction. Yet, all minor V factions without the Coherence never accumulated an influence rating higher than 20% of all V factions.
Wait a minute, I always assumed the Coherence to be the political entity that emerged from the Proof of the UVS Theorem. Was is the Coherence exactly?
Originally, the Coherence was actually a splinter faction of the Unity based on the idea of a Universal Value System. It has risen to prominence when the Proof came closer to fruition. After the Proof, the Coherence became the dominant power among the V factions and eventually supplanted the previous order defined by the Prestige Accords.
I assume we will do a interview focusing on the history of the Coherence in the future. Anyway, let’s get back to the Exaltation. Were the forces of the Exaltation particularly effective during the Black War?
I agree! Let’s do an interview on the Coherence after the interview on the Balance! Now back to the Exaltation: The Exaltation seeks excellence in all things, which also includes excellence in war - for as long as war is necessary. Their forces were indeed the most formidable ones, but at the cost of the sheer number of forces. So, the forces of the Exaltation were used most for special operations that required more than brute force.
Were the forces of the Exaltation more willing to risk or even throw away their lives in battle, since they were focused on some kind of afterlife anyway?
Not really. All forces of the Superalliance were ingrained with an “appropriate disregard” for their own survival. If the victory of the Superalliance required it, one’s own death was a sacrifice which was expected to be made. Exaltationists weren’t particularly eager to die. It’s not like they sought immortal glory. For them, war was a necessary evil to be overcome in order to enable everyone to focus on self-perfection by other means than playing a cog in a huge war machinery.
You mentioned that the Exaltation was a splinter faction of the Unity. Did it inherit any special aspects like the Sea of Mind or the free sharing of personal information?
The Exaltation has a construct called the Shared Exalted Unconscious (or SEU for short), which is a reduced version of the Sea of Mind that serves as collection of all basic knowledge and traits which aren’t worth for Exaltationists to focus on. Basic knowledge can get injected into Exaltationists on demand via the SEU, but it’s function is rather limited to that only. Exaltationists are usually too much individualists to let them dissolve into some kind of hive mind. Some Exaltationists join group minds though, but then those group minds then mostly play the role of “larger” individuals. Personal information is usually not shared widely outside of such group minds.
What is the stance of the Exaltation to the system of cultural silvanism?
They do use that system just like the Freedom, but focus on trees and branches that are “non-trivial”, so the overall variety is reduced compared to the cultural silvanism system of the Freedom.