“Hello, everyone,” John addressed the crowd in a downright ecstatic mood. Well, crowd was a large term. For a change, the Gamer was speaking exclusively to cameras. For the sake of audio control and distribution, what he was about to present was being recorded and would simply be uploaded later. A change his media team had insisted on because they were quite overworked in recent days and doing things in the studio was way less stressful.

John obliged them largely because of the latter reason. That, and he actually wanted to use the studio he financed for once. Everything had that new shine to it and smelled like a freshly unwrapped game disc. His entire crowd was the camera crew and the director. His stage, a simple and clean studio with a giant monitor behind him. A desk and chair went ignored. If he wanted to, he could have mimicked a late-night host.

He much preferred to keep walking though. “My ‘break’ got cut a bit short,” he continued, “so you will have to forgive me if I take another one relatively soon. In good news, should you have missed it, the war with the Lake Alliance is over. The borders shifted very slightly.”

John turned his head to confirm the graphic was being displayed on the screen. It was the exact same that Emrik had looked at on paper a few days prior. “Nothing really remarkable, it’s just this one province right there,” he pointed at it with a pointer he had been given for exactly this purpose. Rather than a laser, it was more like a motion-controlled mouse, with which he could also draw or go onto the next part of the presentation with. “But peace is good, peace is really good. Peace and prosperity for everyone is what I want, and having gotten it, my mood is fantastic today.

“However, today is not about any of that. Today is actually about a thing I scheduled before the break and the last ditch effort of the Lake Alliance. That I am still able to host it on time is great, because this topic has been left in question for long enough anyway. Today, I am going to present to you the actual system of Fusion.

“As you know, currently, Fusion operates under a very simple three-stage system. There are local guilds, there are state guilds and then there is the Federation. Everyone listens to the person further up the totem pole and that’s that. In other words, until now, Fusion more or less ran under feudalism. Effective, but nothing good for the future. In the coming months, we are going to concentrate on consolidating out internal affairs so everyone, no matter how weak or strong, has the opportunity to be represented, the right to prosper and a society in which they feel obligated to contribute. Optimally, those three are in balance.”

John took a pause and walked over to the desk, where a bottle of water had been left for him. At the exact same time as he drank from it, he pressed the button to make the presentation go to the next image.

“Let’s start with our internal borders. What you can see here is the de-facto state of things. Outside of the Hidden Tradition, which enjoys pre-agreed independence privileges, everything is either directly or indirectly part of Fusion.” John noticed that the names for the Little Maryland and Amacat were already changed on this picture, which meant he had a stern word to exchange with whoever designed the graphics for this presentation. As a professional, the Gamer just moved on as if nothing unusual was happening. “This goes against my vision for the future. The line between local and federal government is completely blurred and causes a bunch of confusion in terms of which office is in charge of what. We need to break things up a bit.”

Another click, another image appeared.

“There we go, our blurry mix of local and federal states has been neatly dissolved. What you can see here,” he circled around the external border continued by each smaller state, “is Fusion. The Federation has certain rights and obligations in terms of law-making power that we shall get into in a little bit. Important for now is that we are all clear about this one thing: Fusion, like the US government it is inspired by, itself holds no or very little land. Fusion is a construct. A Federation that is made up of member states, or guilds, however you prefer. It is empowered to act in the name of those states in certain things but otherwise should leave them to self-governance.”

Another water break allowed John to quickly order his thoughts, streamline how he wanted to continue things. Nobody was served if he jumped from one topic to the other, so he was best advised to describe what was on the actual image and get into the government details when it was time for them.

“What you can see here are those new states. The Hidden Tradition remains unchanged. The Little Maryland is renamed to just Maryland and I will step back from being president of that state as soon as local elections are done. In the interest of streamlining things, it’s best if I don’t hold too many positions across different levels of different governments. That aside, I can only do so much work.

“South of that is the Meltpot, a temporary name that the locals are welcome to change and a state that will grow, should our borders in that direction expand at any point. Taking the place of the old Fusion land, centred around New York City, is Collide.” It felt almost nostalgic to say that name out loud in any important capacity. “That is the guild that I have been leader and part of for a longer time than Fusion has existed, and those are the parts of the Federation that I will govern directly. The North Lake is formed from the old Small Lake Pact’s territories while the Amaca Coast is the political entity that shall replace Amacat. Again, temporary names that the locals are welcome to keep or replace with something they deem more appropriate.”

John paused to let that settle and took another sip of water to keep his voice well-maintained. Then, he clicked and the map was replaced with an empty sheet, Fusion’s logo in the background as a watermark. As the Gamer continued, corresponding bullet points appeared on the screen.

“How the states govern themselves is largely left to them. They must, however, follow the guidelines as set up by the constitution that was always available on Fusion’s website. To summarize the most important ones: first, the system must be a republic with democratic elements. How far reaching those elements are is, as promised, left to the states. Whether you simply elect representatives by district or you go full direct democracy is left to you. Second, the government needs to be accountable to its people. There must be non-violent ways to remove corrupt officials from office. Similarly, no one position should be able to amass dictatorial power and no one individual should be able to hold multiple positions in the government. Third, the rights of the individual are sacred. Natural rights of the law-abiding citizen cannot be limited. This means that speech is free, every human is free and that movement within the Federation is free.”

He left the filled slide up for a moment for the viewer to take in, then moved onto the next one, the same game repeating itself. “As it is, however, there are certain rights the states transfer to the Federation. Most importantly of all, the states are not allowed to hold armies, although the citizens can form militias if they so desire. The Federation alone has command over the centralized armed forces. Although certain groups within the army may find themselves with exceptional tasks, such as the Hidden Tradition Army, which is to be recruited only from them and only to be deployed in defensive capabilities around the east coast area. For reasons of their traditional magic and an agreement that was struck when they joined Fusion.”

John felt best to just come clean with that particular exception to the rule. It would never be a secret anyway. The more open it was, the easier he could shrug and say that that was just how that particular thing worked. Due to their ancestor-fuelled magic, the fighters of the Hidden Tradition were a lot more effective in the local area anyhow, so that was an easy point to reason if anyone ever tried to argue why they had such a privileged position among the states. Not that John expected the discussion to arise anytime soon.

“There is also the obligation of taxes. Fusion will take a cut of the revenues from its member guilds to fuel its own operations. Should there be a surplus, we will use it to pump up some of the weaker members by giving them funds to be invested into their infrastructure.” John walked back to the table and went for another water break. The bottle was slowly emptying. With a simple hand gesture, John signalled that he would need a new one and started walking to the other end of the stage. While the table was out of frame, an assistant would place a fresh bottle on it.

“The list of detailed rights and obligations is too long to recount them here. You can find them online, which I recommend you do if you’re looking to make it in a political career. Now,” he clapped his hands together to make things a bit more energetic, “let’s look into how the federal government is going to be run. Unlike state government, I do get to decide that after all.” He grinned and clicked again.

“This, here, is the extremely simplified version of it. It’s a mixture of the British and American government, with a hint of pre World War 1 Germany and a hint of my own ideas. As you can see, I am right here, at the top.” He used the mouse to circle his box. “I have spent quite a bit of time internally debating whether or not I want to make this so blatant or whether I even should have a position that is so fundamentally rooted in the system. If I was 100% true to my ideals, I should make myself an electable force. However, and I’ll just say the silent part out loud, I have made this Federation so I deserve to lead it. It’s not exactly a pretty statement, but I am also a flawed person and I won’t make a country that gets turned into something I disapprove of. On a more pragmatic note, force is the supreme authority from which all others are derived and I happen to be the centre of power in a raw, destructive sense,” he shrugged, “and that’s just the reality of it.”

He could already see the headlines because of that announcement, but he had made peace with that. Every alternative to the momentary ‘scandal’ had left him with an ashen taste in his mouth. He was going to be a dictator in name. Thankfully, because this was the Abyss and he didn’t need to run a regime of suppression and military supremacy to remain in power, the rest of the system could be tailored to be a lot more libertarian.

“As President of Fusion, I am the head of state and I appoint the head of government, which is the leader of the Fusion Cabinet. All other members of the cabinet are also appointed by me. They’re my advisors and ministers, the executive work will be split among them. It should be noted that I can appoint whoever I want, if they agree, of course, but just like on the state level, nobody can hold more than one position in the government. Just in case somebody got worried that this cabinet would grow out of proportion in the importance of its members.

“As per my other direct powers, I suggest the members of the Supreme Court. Picks that need to be confirmed by the electorates’ representatives. This is largely copied from the US system, except that it isn’t the Senate equivalent in this system that confirms the Members. More on that later. On the Legislature side of things, I simply hold the ability to veto in parliament. My veto will immediately cause any one proceeding in parliament to stop, although the topic may be brought up again in a revised fashion. I have no powers to suggest or vote in new laws myself, that part of the process is entirely up to the democratic side of things. Notable things I do not have the power to do on my own: decide the budget and declare war. In case we are attacked, I can respond immediately though.”

He returned to the table and unscrewed his new water bottle. It had already been opened for him, just so the snapping sound from the lid didn’t echo in the microphone. Professionalism could be such a wonderful thing in the most minute details.

“Let’s explain the rest of the system from the bottom up. People that pay taxes and are above the age of 18 have suffrage. They elect their state representatives in anonymous, free and direct elections. Each state has one seat per district, with a district currently being defined as an area expanding from a central point that holds 1’000 people.” The area part of the definition was purely there to prevent excessive gerrymandering. Every district’s borders had to be as circular as possible. “The number of people that make up a district can be adjusted by the legislature to account for population shifts,” John continued. “The House of Commons purpose is to be the voice of the people. It elects the Speaker of the Commons from its members, who is the leader of parliament. They are also the law formulating body, debating and voting on laws to be passed onto the House of Exceptionals.

“The House of Exceptionals is much like the US Senate, but with some modifications made for Abyssal governance. Starting with what is the same, or what was the same, the members of the House of Exceptionals are not elected directly. They are either, as they were in the US before that was amended, appointed by the state guilds or by the Fusion Cabinet. The latter is the case so that extraordinary people whose power or influence spans across multiple states also have a seat in the government.”

This time, he didn’t say the silent part out loud. Namely that, if John didn’t give those people some way to be represented, they were quite likely to either make a city-levelling fuzz or join some guild somewhere else that would give them political power. To prevent the latter case especially, both this position and privileged ranks in the military were necessary. That didn’t completely eliminate the possibility, but it was as far as John could go without compromising the republican foundation he was going for.

“The House of Exceptional’s purpose is mostly to be a check on individual states. Because the House of Commons is elected by the population, some guilds will naturally amass more power in that branch of government than others. It’s just a reality that there will be population centres. The House of Exceptionals will make sure those population centres don’t dictate things for the rest of the Federation. However, as they shouldn’t have the power to outright ban any proposal ever, a law that has been suggested by the House of Commons and been sent back 3 times can be presented to parliament directly by the Speaker of Commons. In every other case, the House of Exceptionals will take a vote for a law, perhaps in a somewhat modified form, to be presented to parliament. Once in parliament, every member of the House of Commons and Exceptionals vote on the law.”

Having presented that information dump, John guzzled down half the bottle of water. His voice was beginning to get hoarse and that would be a problem. Afterwards, he felt quite a bit better.

“Because the House of Exceptionals is only as large as a quarter of the House of Commons, it only makes up a fifth of parliament. This means that the Commons can push through anything that they have a clear majority for, given enough time and attempts.” ‘Anything that I don’t veto, at least,’ John thought to himself, feeling that particular power quite strongly. He would have to do his best to use it very carefully and wisely.

“At a fifth, the members of the House of Exceptionals can be the deciding few votes, however, depending on the party lines that are drawn at any given time. As for the structure of parliament itself, the Speaker of Commons makes the program for a session, while the longest serving or, if there is a tie, the oldest member of parliament makes sure the program is followed in an orderly fashion. Laws pass on a standard majority. People that aren’t present will have their votes counted as abstained, unless specified otherwise by handwritten letter that has to contain their reasons for their vote and abstinence… I realize I am losing myself in details now.” John stopped and looked directly at the camera. “So I think the overview is given. This is the structure of our system. Let’s use it for peace and prosperity, everyone.”