Nationalism

What does it mean to model nationalism in an RPG context? Certainly this idea goes far beyond anything Gygax or Wizards considered, and a search for D&D and nationalism does not bring you anywhere you want to go.

If I am considering modeling a new concept in my game (i.e. not an extension of something already present but a wholly new idea), if needs to fulfill a couple of basic criteria.

1). It makes the game more engrossing/enriches my world.

2). It does not infringe on anything I already have in place

3). I can expand upon it later.

2 and 3 are solved by default here. 1 is the tricky one. This thought process stems from a comment I left on Alexis' blog about the bard. In it, I commented that rather than create a bunch of bard-specific rules, the bard's abilities let them affect culture and politics, so we need rules about culture and politics (in this case, nationalism is the starting example).

Now, I will be the first to admit that nationalism is a problematic word to apply to the middle ages, really to any European-based civilization until the 19th century. However, the same kinds of identification that occurs in nationalism does appear in different time periods - it'd be religious fervor, devotion to the feudal lord, commitment to the city-state, etc. So, really what this rule needs to represent is the degree to which the populace is strongly attached to whatever thing they hold onto.

Necessarily, this comes in two forms: cultural and personal. Personal is easy - an individual's feelings about the subject of devotion. Cultural represents the degree to which "nationalism" is baked into the customs and behaviors constructed by that culture - it sets the baseline for all of the culture's members, from which their personal values will deviate.

OK, great. But how do we apply that in practice?

Nationalism extends through its display of power - a force that can visibly accomplish things is more valuable/believable than one that can't (or is not seen as effective). So, our model of nationalism is also a model of state power distributed geographically. State power will be concentrated in capitals and around national symbols (sites that display the power of the state or commemorate previous actions (successfully) taken by the state). [I think we can already see the role of a bard in this construct] and radiate outward, losing strength with each iteration (and losing additional strength when applying to a population somehow removed from that of the governing body, racially, religiously, or so on).

Of course, state power is opposed by other cultural myths, concretized in resistance symbols - sites where other narratives hold sway and act against the state narrative.

The next question is to determine how distance affects nationalism. Each site (whether pro-state or anti-state) has a fairly limited geographic spread - affecting only the community that interacts with it on a fairly regular basis. In my 20-mi map, that means a site directly influences its hex and the neighboring ones.

Ideas of nationalism are most important in urban and suburban populations - rural folks are unlikely to harbor strong opinions on the issue because it simply doesn't affect them (they'll be farming no matter who's in charge) - and it makes some sense that nationalism and similar ideas travel along economic routes (as the symbols of nationalism will travel along these pathways as well).

So, we could think of nationalism as an economic good (governed by the trade system) but produced at a variety of locations (not just markets). A reference of nationalism exists wherever:

1): some monument to the state exists (palaces, fortresses, etc.)

2): the state triumphed in a (major) conflict (The Alamo)

a) either within the past 100 years or

b) one of those wars that will go down in the history books (War of the Ring, 30 Years Wars, etc.)

A reference of counternationalism exists wherever:

1): a monument to state excess, corruption, or violence exists (The Alamo)

2): the resistance thwarted outright or delayed state victory, subject to the same constraints as before

Now, 1) and 2) could be conflated into the same place. Each such location contributes either 1 nationalism or 1 counternationalism.

However, the ethnicity and faith of the dominant population affects the value of this reference. If ideology in question does not directly affect the ethnic/religious majority, the reference's value is 1. If it interacts in a positive way, the value increases by 1/3 per relevant factor. If it interacts negatively, the value is halved for each relevant factor. So, the Tarluskani Empire invaded the Southern Kingdoms and outlawed their religion. A site supporting the Tarluskani Empire in the Southern Kingdoms would only provide a nationalism reference of 1/2/2=.25. A resistance site, however, would have a nationalism reference of 1*4/3*4/3=16/9=1.7778.

The ratio of nationalism to counternationalism determines the general attitude of people in the city of interest towards the idea of nationalism/counternationalism. Clearly, if the ratio is some number greater than 1, nationalism rules and if it is close to 0, counternationalism rules (and a value of roughly 1 indicates ambivalence). Pulling some numbers out of a hat:

Nationalistic	Ambivalent	Counternationalistic
Ratio>1.5	1.49>ratio>.51	.5>ratio

Bards, interacting with this system, can increase the references produced by a location by calling popular attention to the site and the nationalist (or counternationalist) monuments/victories there. They could decrease the references produced by spreading a counternarrative discrediting the official (or resistance) story surrounding the site.

Thoughts?