The intention of the Dominion of Mere

So. What, then, was the goal of the Dominion of Mere? What impulses need we scour from ourselves, lest they overcome us and we succumb to corruption once more?

The most obvious answer comes first, from the mouths of propagandists:

“The mission of the Dominion was to maintain a society in which humans could live peacefully and happily under the direction of a strong guiding hand. It is only through the sickly influences of black magics and a sinful desire to slip the grasp of death that its royal blood was so poisoned.”

Of course, this answer is incorrect. The idea that ‘black magics’ and one man’s unremitting grasp on this mortal coil caused the death of the Dominion is a paltry surface-level analysis at best. It is not those mechanisms which vested within him the power that he wielded; they were a consequence of his power, not the other way around. This analysis fails to address the simple fact that generational power filters not for the competent, the compassionate, or even for desire.

The King detested his place on the throne, and could barely stomach the work he was meant to do. It was his weakness that brought him to a state of idleness, one which he began to fear upon reflection as he grew closer to his end. By the light of his dusk, he wanted to do something that would bring him glory as a King, and clung to life that he could achieve that glory. It was not his mortal life he desired so greatly, but his immortal legacy. Yet… he was neither kind nor competent enough to do it right, especially nearing his end, and so we have the War.

The second answer is, on the surface, absolutely correct, but I feel it does not reach the core of the matter.

“The Dominion existed to vest power into humanity specifically, so that they might dominate the world. It was a monument to prejudice.”

Perhaps, indeed, this was among its goals. But… this was merely one of its many tools for its true purpose. The Dominion truly cared not for glory, conquest, or even the extermination of the “other” for reasons of morality or prejudice. This answer assumes a greater deal of conviction than existed within the royal blood.

Listen to their knights speak, and you might have heard plenty about the right of humanity to the world and all its abundance, or about the savagery and rage of the ‘beasts’ who detest humanity for its gleaming towers and powerful army. But the Knights were not the Dominion. The military was not the Dominion, but for a select few of its highest ranking members.

The third answer, and that which I believe explains the most about the Dominion's creation, is the one I posit:

The Dominion existed to the benefit of only a small group of people. This small group of people cared nothing for ‘savage races’, or for the happiness, future and glory of humanity as a whole, or for anything at all but themselves. With few outliers, the Dominion existed solely for the deification of its royalty, and provided as little as it could while still maintaining the loyalty of the peasantry who filled their coffers.

That prejudice which so thoroughly infests the Dominion was hardly a natural part of us. We are vulnerable to such things, but it is not inherent that we are so evil and wretched, and to give ourselves over to this idea that it is in our nature to be evil is, in itself, evil.

No—the Dominion, from its very inception, deliberately built this prejudice into itself as a tool. It poisoned its citizens, whipping them into a frenzy against ‘outsiders’ on which it could pin the blame for any number of hardships. It needed some mutual enemy to distract the peasantry as the trembling hands of the royalty slipped every last coin from their purses.

Ultimately, there was no function for the Dominion but for the thriving of a few on the backs of many. The War, the hatred of the ‘other’, the ideas of humanity’s entitlement to the world and inherent superiority, it was all theater put on to keep the lower classes too dazed to act out against its oppressors… and, of course, to justify ownership of slaves and violence against any who so much as inconvenienced them.

This is no more evident than for the violence of the Dominion against the various indigenous human groups in the eastern Worldseam. Consistently, and secretly, the Dominion directed its military against small settlements of indigenous humans, at best routing them from their homes and at worst slaughtering them, because they either settled too far into Dominion territory or occupied land that the Dominion sought.

The Dominion cared nothing for humanity. It cared nothing even for its own people. It was the work of humans who had become dominated by, or later born into, fathomless avarice. People whose greatest concern was the security, and growth, of their inexhaustible wealth, and the cultivation of legacy and power that would give them life even in death. It was a grisly machine, built only for its creators and no one else.

Let this fact serve as a reminder: that we are vulnerable to this manipulation, that we must always question authority, and that we must not surrender ourselves to our animal avarice. We are not inherently evil beings, but we are animals in part and beholden to ancient and ultimately insatiable hungers, ones meant for times of much less plenty. We have a surprising capacity for evil in our lifelong struggle to slake the animal within ourselves, especially now. Yet this part is merely our physical bodies; our spirits are what distinguishes us, and gives us the chance to see beyond these demanding impulses. We cannot surrender to this hunger as the Reimer family had, nor can we allow it to define us.

Do not let the Dominion's immense corruption make you believe that we are destined for evil. It takes work to endure that which would seek to poison us against each other, but it is not impossible, and it is the worthiest endeavor of all... whether you resist the corruption of your fellow man, or the venom of despair.

— Orrari