Explanation
So my previous question caused some trouble, which is a bit of a problem since I intended it to be an academic question of sorts for someone with a better vocabulary than mine. It regards a bit of background for something I've been working on with no actual relevance to reality. Or at least, I hope not.
Anyway, here is part of the document I was writing in my head (had to put it on paper). If you can find a word to replace even half the occurences of Male-Rights Activists, I would be thrilled.
Security Risks and the Male Sufferage Movement
Origins
The origins of the current gender-related strife lie in ancient history in the demographics of the Valore-Addena Ratio. Studies have continuously shown that human beings are consistently born with equality between genders, that is that the ratio of children born with native potentials on the Amenthelliar scale of greater than 2.0 is approximately 1:1 (changing due to complicated genetic factors only by fractions of a percent beyond statistical expectations). However, the formation of society is more closely governed by the Valore-Addena Ratio, the ratio of genders in two different categories, the monastic and the magocratic.
Current studies reveal that, of those who choose to become Mages, 61.3 +/- 0.2% are female. Speculation on the cause of this separation is not part of the scope of this document, although the reader may see either the Hawkshead study (Imperial Qinan, 7142) or the Brennan Low study (Brennan Press, 22156) for further speculation on psychological motives between interior and exterior drawing. Some of this may be due to socio-political structure, as research on societies that were gender-neutral in low magic zones before being shifted into a higher density region reveal a ratio closer to 58% (with some variation due to uncontrollable factors). At the same time, those who choose to go into a monastic path are, according to the first study, approximately 61.2 +/- 0.2% male, suggesting an almost equal parity (demanded from the general equality of birth situations - adjusted for stress factors).
However, the key to the Valore-Addena theory is that, although masters consider either set of paths to be equally valid, or equally strong, mages provide more military and economic benefit at lower levels of development. Although Ensai, sages, and monks provide diplomats, assassins, and general-purpose troubleshooters, it takes longer to develop their specialized schools of magic. Additionally, the immediate benefits of a strong mage's union, including the economic benefits of magical additions to mundane labor and their greater utility in increasing production, make a Journeyman or Initiate level mage much more valuable to the overall wellbeing of a society than a similar ranked monastic.
As a result, while patriarchies are common in tech-dominated societies, matriarchy or gender-neutral societies are considered to be the norm in high-magic regions. It is speculated that societies that offer more privleged positions to women are capable of extracting more out of the native potentials of their inhabitants. Societies that offer premiere places to powerful women can often attract powerful talent from outside of the immediate social boundary - hence by natural selection, matriarchies tend to be the default setting for planes where magic dominates the economic and social landscape.
This phenomenon usually abates in higher level societies, aided by three factors. As civilization gets more and more complicated, societies need to pick up the lost potential of many of their male members, tapping into that missing 40%. This forces a redressing of the laws to favor a gender-neutral stance. Additionally, the development of national facilities and the long duration of peaceful societies allow monastic groups to reach their full potential, allowing them to stand as a potential balance to magocratic unions.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the alliance of Masters seems to dampen the more extreme trends in society. For many years, we have known that, although the gender ratio going into these fields may be warped, out of those of Master rank who consider themselves to be mages, 50% are male. Similarly, out of those who consider themselves to be monastic, 50% are female. The presence of a strong group of gender-neutral, and extremely powerful, individuals has long dampened the extreme tendencies, at least where gender is concerned, of certain governments. Unfortunately, most societies do not develop such forces until long after their initial patterns are set.
However, even though gender neutrality is now considered the default mode of government across the immediate planar landscape, vestiges of early matriarchal society are not so easy to get rid of. Just as technological societies often experience social and intellectual bias against women for no apparent reason, so may magical societies experience social and intellectual bias against men. Resentment for this has continued to build, especially in the face of the awkward union between societies on both sides of the line.
...
[A lot of boring stuff goes here - mostly covering the history of the Second Age. Godwin was always thorough]
...
Rise of the Radical Reformists
Following the War of Reconciliation, the exposure to vast expanses of technological society, where men were equal, if not legally superior, to women, sparked a major shift in interest among the male-rights groups of the Worldplane region. At the same time, the exposure to regions where women were not only not superior, but often decidedly inferior, formed an opposite shift in many of the matriarchal governments connected to the Ash Nital Nexus. This put new life into the struggle for male-rights, especially on worlds like Gallowglass, where non-discrimination was only legally required for jobs that involved menial labor, and Haibrith, where the male proportion of university professors and corporate executives was less than ten percent, with frequent accusations of widespread prejudice. Although there were other realms perhaps more oppressive, these two were the most powerful, and the most unstable.
The situation came to a head on Gallowglass in SA2782, when a protest concerning the upcoming legislative vote on requiring jobs of a cerebral nature to hire irrespective of gender, was joined by a large contingent of foot-soldiers from the Gallowglass Grenadiers. Although the protest was technically legal, the commander of the local garrison choose to see the participation of her soldiers in the affair as confirmation, not of a legitimate complaint, but of attempted mutiny, and the possible beginnings of a coup against established leadership. In a battle lasting several hours, that destroyed a great deal of downtown Hanbar, the protests were violently suppressed by elite squadrons of the Gallowglass cavalry.
In the aftermath of the suppression, the government officially blamed the actions of "terrorists and radical male-rights activists" for the destruction. Under intense pressure from the government, most male-rights groups repudiated the so-called "horrible act of terrorism" that had caused the battle. As days passed, however, more information began to leak from the royal capital at Tremaine, and people began to learn the truth. The wave of outrage that passed, first over Hanbar, and then over the rest of Gallowglass, was the impetus for a major split in the male-rights movement.
A large group of male-rights activists flocked to the banner of Hiram Odair, a charismatic leader with a history of championing social causes, not necessarily restricted to male-rights. He began to preach a doctrine of non-violent action, and of peaceful relations between all humans, regardless of gender, race, or origin. The long story of Hiram's struggle is not the focus of this document, but it is important to note that within three years of his activism in Hanbar, his faction was recognized by both the Ash Nital Authority, and the Confederation of Worlds, as a reputable and peaceful faction, and he has received honors from both governments.
However, a minority broke off from the mainstream male-rights groups and called themselves the Reformists. Believing that women would never allow the reigns of authority to slip from their hands, under any circumstances, they devoted themselves to acts of anarchy and violence, hoping to bring down the government in order to effect a change. Many joined just because they were angry and wanted someone to hurt. As a whole their actions were repudiated by the wider male-rights movement, but many women insisted that there was, at the least, a strong undercurrent of sympathy amongst the male population.
In the absence of a strong balancing authority, and with both nations already in a state of chaos, the Reformists spread first from Gallowglass to Haibrith, capturing the interest of a variety of male-rights activists who felt that the system was too heavily stacked against them, and among angry young men for the many reasons that angry young men have gone to war for more centuries than can be counted. Although they were unable to organize in the fashion of a traditional resistance, lacking the ability to find a region that was unpenetrated by members of "the enemy", this elusiveness also made them much heavier to track and find.
Over the years they began hitting more and more targets, getting bolder and bolder as they continued to wreak havoc on the political and economic infrastructure of matriarchal governments, including nations as far fetched as Lakewin, Incantor, Pergis Peak, and Albion. In response, many of the more oppressive of those nations began to increase security procedures, clamping down on allowed behavior, and chasing down known male-rights activists. This harrassment, which many male-rights activists saw as deliberate vengeance on them, who had never done anything to contribute to this situation, gave many of them the impetus to join the Reformists, beginning a vicious cycle.
The cycle was broken in the raid of SA2797, when Reformists, operating outside their normal boundaries in the nation of Istal, were able to kidnap the Duchess and the Duchess Apparent of Hanbar, symbol of the original oppression, from a guarded hotel. The two women were tortured to death over the next three days, an act so appalling that it galvanized both the Confederacy, and the ANA, into action. The Reformists that did the deed were all caught in Istal, the leader, choosing to fight rather than surrender, was killed in a duel by then Lieutenant Colonel Grace Arhelian. Their conspirators, who had been operating from the nearby Albion controlled world of Michaelmas, were apprehended by Albion officials, including Lady Anja of the Albion province of Dunhill. The orders were traced back to a leader known by the codename Orange, whose hideout was located on Gallowglass. By the time the royal Gallowglass guard managed to storm the place, they found all the inhabitants already subdued, many of them severely injured. The only one who had died was the leader himself, on whose shattered voice was found the Pendragon sigil, along with the message "The Line does not approve".
Several groups of Reformists broke off after this affair, forming their own smaller group, the Rights of Man, dedicated toward a non-peaceful, but at least a non-terrorist manner of approaching the problem. The other groups dissolved into chaos. Many executed random strikes, causing mass panic around the world. On Gallowglass, the situation got so bad the the IX Legion was dispatched to restore order to the world. Others threw themselves into suicidal plunges in fits of despair. But what was left of the leadership moved to counter-attack. Assassination attempts were launched, both against Grace Arhelian and Lady Anja, who were singled out as the most visible instigators of their humilitation. Both targets survived the attempts. However, before a counter-counterattack could be launched, the Reformists made a critical mistake. Information, right or wrong, identified the one who had killed Orange as the Pendragon Line's Sou Kai Ren Okana, who had been sighted in Isochron. In a concerted attempt, the Reformists sent their most elite members to eliminate her as repayment for the deed. Surrounding her temporary dwelling on Isochron, two hundred elite Reformists swarmed her defenses all at once. None of the bodies were identifiable, although Okana herself was able to pick several out of wanted posters based on the brief glimpse she had gotten before exterminating them.
Crushed by the backlash of the Istal affair, the Reformists disolved as a power block, for the next fifty years.
...
[More boring stuff, mostly regarding the relations between Jalum and the Salt Coast, Camwyn, and some ugly stuff in Etevian]
...
Conflicts with the Sisterhood
The emergence of the Sisterhood complicated the male-rights movement tremendously. Emerging from several worlds where women were the subject of mass oppression, either in legal terms, or sometimes in the face of technology that reduced their status to that of chattel, the Sisterhood was originally conceived of as a movement to reclaim those worlds for equality, and to forcibly remove from power several of the more despicable leaders. This effort was supported by almost all interested parties and noted moral authorities. However, the funding of the Sisterhood presented a complicated problem. Many male-rights activitsts felt very uncomfortable about government funding going to a group that was essentially doing what the Reformists had been doing, while the Reformists were considered to be evil. Although this simplistic argument overlooked notable Reformist atrocities, it did indicate the presence of an undercurrent of resentment at the situation regarding male-rights, and the lack of fulfillment following the general equality movement.
Violence between Sisterhood members and Reformists took place on the worlds which the Sisterhood often chose, nations with strong matriarchial nations who would refuse any attempt from their homeworlds to extradite them, but also nations with large populations of dissatisfied men. Although the irony of the situation was not lost on the Sisterhood's leadership, attempts to keep the two groups separated tended to end in failure. Barroom brawls quickly escalated to out and out alley fighting, and was only stopped when the respective governments clamped down on dissent.
...
[More boring stuff, mostly regarding the Crusade on Demeter]
[And a whole bunch of chapters on the Green Verdant War, which take for bloody ever]
...
Aftermath of the Green Verdant War
After the disastrous attempts by the Reformists of supporting the male Usurper against the alliance run by the Crown Princess of Lakewin, the male-rights movement had, at least in the eye of most of the public, separated itself from its extremist bent. Additionally, the Reformists had suffered many losses that could not be easily replaced. Their leadership was destroyed. Caius was dead at the hands of Prelate Marius of Legio X. The Greyhound had died in a suicidal attack on Okana, perhaps bearing a grudge from all those years ago. Bern of Whithall had lost to Iyana of the Line. Of Anton the Wolf nothing was known, except that Keris Malvere swore that he would no longer be a factor, although he would not say how that battle ended. Their actions in the war had little, if any, effect. Sympathy largely lay with the Crown Princess's Alliance. The faith of the Ashdown and other forces was hardly shaken by demonstrations of how they were being "fooled by femmes". Moreover, the unity and loyalty of the combined forces of the planes was little disturbed by either the propaganda campaign, or the explosion of activity. Even male members of the Legion, from worlds where men could rightly claim oppression, did not side with the Reformists, or express any sympathy.
But in the aftermath of the war, the Reformists become more active instead of less. It has been hypothesized that, even cut off from their main base of support among disaffected male-rights activists, they have found another power base. The continual disruptions on the worlds near Ash Nital are keeping the entire Legion VIII tied down in garrison duty, a valuable asset to certain forces. More worrisome, it is perhaps possible that, without their leadership to reign them in, the organization has been completely subverted by another force. Male-rights activists who have had contact with the Reformists in the past twenty years claim that contacts have changed (specifically, see the Hawkshead report on the matter).
Although the male-rights movement clearly has a great distance to go, especially with the recent atrocities on Gallowglass, and the fall of the moderate Estubian monarchy, it remains to be seen whether the members of the Reformists are even going to the same place. Continual evidence indicates (see ACI Security Briefing 11744.5) that the most probable sponsor for these activities is the Domina herself. The irony of the extreme end of the male-rights movement being run by a female dictator does not escape the author, but the reasons why instability would benefit that ruler leave the author quite shaken.
...
[This goes on for quite some time, covering the events of the past twenty years, including the abortive rebellion on Albion (of all places), and a lot of the brush fires that are keeping both the Legion, and the Confederation, extremely busy. I hope you get the idea though.]
...
Anyway, here is part of the document I was writing in my head (had to put it on paper). If you can find a word to replace even half the occurences of Male-Rights Activists, I would be thrilled.
Security Risks and the Male Sufferage Movement
Origins
The origins of the current gender-related strife lie in ancient history in the demographics of the Valore-Addena Ratio. Studies have continuously shown that human beings are consistently born with equality between genders, that is that the ratio of children born with native potentials on the Amenthelliar scale of greater than 2.0 is approximately 1:1 (changing due to complicated genetic factors only by fractions of a percent beyond statistical expectations). However, the formation of society is more closely governed by the Valore-Addena Ratio, the ratio of genders in two different categories, the monastic and the magocratic.
Current studies reveal that, of those who choose to become Mages, 61.3 +/- 0.2% are female. Speculation on the cause of this separation is not part of the scope of this document, although the reader may see either the Hawkshead study (Imperial Qinan, 7142) or the Brennan Low study (Brennan Press, 22156) for further speculation on psychological motives between interior and exterior drawing. Some of this may be due to socio-political structure, as research on societies that were gender-neutral in low magic zones before being shifted into a higher density region reveal a ratio closer to 58% (with some variation due to uncontrollable factors). At the same time, those who choose to go into a monastic path are, according to the first study, approximately 61.2 +/- 0.2% male, suggesting an almost equal parity (demanded from the general equality of birth situations - adjusted for stress factors).
However, the key to the Valore-Addena theory is that, although masters consider either set of paths to be equally valid, or equally strong, mages provide more military and economic benefit at lower levels of development. Although Ensai, sages, and monks provide diplomats, assassins, and general-purpose troubleshooters, it takes longer to develop their specialized schools of magic. Additionally, the immediate benefits of a strong mage's union, including the economic benefits of magical additions to mundane labor and their greater utility in increasing production, make a Journeyman or Initiate level mage much more valuable to the overall wellbeing of a society than a similar ranked monastic.
As a result, while patriarchies are common in tech-dominated societies, matriarchy or gender-neutral societies are considered to be the norm in high-magic regions. It is speculated that societies that offer more privleged positions to women are capable of extracting more out of the native potentials of their inhabitants. Societies that offer premiere places to powerful women can often attract powerful talent from outside of the immediate social boundary - hence by natural selection, matriarchies tend to be the default setting for planes where magic dominates the economic and social landscape.
This phenomenon usually abates in higher level societies, aided by three factors. As civilization gets more and more complicated, societies need to pick up the lost potential of many of their male members, tapping into that missing 40%. This forces a redressing of the laws to favor a gender-neutral stance. Additionally, the development of national facilities and the long duration of peaceful societies allow monastic groups to reach their full potential, allowing them to stand as a potential balance to magocratic unions.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the alliance of Masters seems to dampen the more extreme trends in society. For many years, we have known that, although the gender ratio going into these fields may be warped, out of those of Master rank who consider themselves to be mages, 50% are male. Similarly, out of those who consider themselves to be monastic, 50% are female. The presence of a strong group of gender-neutral, and extremely powerful, individuals has long dampened the extreme tendencies, at least where gender is concerned, of certain governments. Unfortunately, most societies do not develop such forces until long after their initial patterns are set.
However, even though gender neutrality is now considered the default mode of government across the immediate planar landscape, vestiges of early matriarchal society are not so easy to get rid of. Just as technological societies often experience social and intellectual bias against women for no apparent reason, so may magical societies experience social and intellectual bias against men. Resentment for this has continued to build, especially in the face of the awkward union between societies on both sides of the line.
...
[A lot of boring stuff goes here - mostly covering the history of the Second Age. Godwin was always thorough]
...
Rise of the Radical Reformists
Following the War of Reconciliation, the exposure to vast expanses of technological society, where men were equal, if not legally superior, to women, sparked a major shift in interest among the male-rights groups of the Worldplane region. At the same time, the exposure to regions where women were not only not superior, but often decidedly inferior, formed an opposite shift in many of the matriarchal governments connected to the Ash Nital Nexus. This put new life into the struggle for male-rights, especially on worlds like Gallowglass, where non-discrimination was only legally required for jobs that involved menial labor, and Haibrith, where the male proportion of university professors and corporate executives was less than ten percent, with frequent accusations of widespread prejudice. Although there were other realms perhaps more oppressive, these two were the most powerful, and the most unstable.
The situation came to a head on Gallowglass in SA2782, when a protest concerning the upcoming legislative vote on requiring jobs of a cerebral nature to hire irrespective of gender, was joined by a large contingent of foot-soldiers from the Gallowglass Grenadiers. Although the protest was technically legal, the commander of the local garrison choose to see the participation of her soldiers in the affair as confirmation, not of a legitimate complaint, but of attempted mutiny, and the possible beginnings of a coup against established leadership. In a battle lasting several hours, that destroyed a great deal of downtown Hanbar, the protests were violently suppressed by elite squadrons of the Gallowglass cavalry.
In the aftermath of the suppression, the government officially blamed the actions of "terrorists and radical male-rights activists" for the destruction. Under intense pressure from the government, most male-rights groups repudiated the so-called "horrible act of terrorism" that had caused the battle. As days passed, however, more information began to leak from the royal capital at Tremaine, and people began to learn the truth. The wave of outrage that passed, first over Hanbar, and then over the rest of Gallowglass, was the impetus for a major split in the male-rights movement.
A large group of male-rights activists flocked to the banner of Hiram Odair, a charismatic leader with a history of championing social causes, not necessarily restricted to male-rights. He began to preach a doctrine of non-violent action, and of peaceful relations between all humans, regardless of gender, race, or origin. The long story of Hiram's struggle is not the focus of this document, but it is important to note that within three years of his activism in Hanbar, his faction was recognized by both the Ash Nital Authority, and the Confederation of Worlds, as a reputable and peaceful faction, and he has received honors from both governments.
However, a minority broke off from the mainstream male-rights groups and called themselves the Reformists. Believing that women would never allow the reigns of authority to slip from their hands, under any circumstances, they devoted themselves to acts of anarchy and violence, hoping to bring down the government in order to effect a change. Many joined just because they were angry and wanted someone to hurt. As a whole their actions were repudiated by the wider male-rights movement, but many women insisted that there was, at the least, a strong undercurrent of sympathy amongst the male population.
In the absence of a strong balancing authority, and with both nations already in a state of chaos, the Reformists spread first from Gallowglass to Haibrith, capturing the interest of a variety of male-rights activists who felt that the system was too heavily stacked against them, and among angry young men for the many reasons that angry young men have gone to war for more centuries than can be counted. Although they were unable to organize in the fashion of a traditional resistance, lacking the ability to find a region that was unpenetrated by members of "the enemy", this elusiveness also made them much heavier to track and find.
Over the years they began hitting more and more targets, getting bolder and bolder as they continued to wreak havoc on the political and economic infrastructure of matriarchal governments, including nations as far fetched as Lakewin, Incantor, Pergis Peak, and Albion. In response, many of the more oppressive of those nations began to increase security procedures, clamping down on allowed behavior, and chasing down known male-rights activists. This harrassment, which many male-rights activists saw as deliberate vengeance on them, who had never done anything to contribute to this situation, gave many of them the impetus to join the Reformists, beginning a vicious cycle.
The cycle was broken in the raid of SA2797, when Reformists, operating outside their normal boundaries in the nation of Istal, were able to kidnap the Duchess and the Duchess Apparent of Hanbar, symbol of the original oppression, from a guarded hotel. The two women were tortured to death over the next three days, an act so appalling that it galvanized both the Confederacy, and the ANA, into action. The Reformists that did the deed were all caught in Istal, the leader, choosing to fight rather than surrender, was killed in a duel by then Lieutenant Colonel Grace Arhelian. Their conspirators, who had been operating from the nearby Albion controlled world of Michaelmas, were apprehended by Albion officials, including Lady Anja of the Albion province of Dunhill. The orders were traced back to a leader known by the codename Orange, whose hideout was located on Gallowglass. By the time the royal Gallowglass guard managed to storm the place, they found all the inhabitants already subdued, many of them severely injured. The only one who had died was the leader himself, on whose shattered voice was found the Pendragon sigil, along with the message "The Line does not approve".
Several groups of Reformists broke off after this affair, forming their own smaller group, the Rights of Man, dedicated toward a non-peaceful, but at least a non-terrorist manner of approaching the problem. The other groups dissolved into chaos. Many executed random strikes, causing mass panic around the world. On Gallowglass, the situation got so bad the the IX Legion was dispatched to restore order to the world. Others threw themselves into suicidal plunges in fits of despair. But what was left of the leadership moved to counter-attack. Assassination attempts were launched, both against Grace Arhelian and Lady Anja, who were singled out as the most visible instigators of their humilitation. Both targets survived the attempts. However, before a counter-counterattack could be launched, the Reformists made a critical mistake. Information, right or wrong, identified the one who had killed Orange as the Pendragon Line's Sou Kai Ren Okana, who had been sighted in Isochron. In a concerted attempt, the Reformists sent their most elite members to eliminate her as repayment for the deed. Surrounding her temporary dwelling on Isochron, two hundred elite Reformists swarmed her defenses all at once. None of the bodies were identifiable, although Okana herself was able to pick several out of wanted posters based on the brief glimpse she had gotten before exterminating them.
Crushed by the backlash of the Istal affair, the Reformists disolved as a power block, for the next fifty years.
...
[More boring stuff, mostly regarding the relations between Jalum and the Salt Coast, Camwyn, and some ugly stuff in Etevian]
...
Conflicts with the Sisterhood
The emergence of the Sisterhood complicated the male-rights movement tremendously. Emerging from several worlds where women were the subject of mass oppression, either in legal terms, or sometimes in the face of technology that reduced their status to that of chattel, the Sisterhood was originally conceived of as a movement to reclaim those worlds for equality, and to forcibly remove from power several of the more despicable leaders. This effort was supported by almost all interested parties and noted moral authorities. However, the funding of the Sisterhood presented a complicated problem. Many male-rights activitsts felt very uncomfortable about government funding going to a group that was essentially doing what the Reformists had been doing, while the Reformists were considered to be evil. Although this simplistic argument overlooked notable Reformist atrocities, it did indicate the presence of an undercurrent of resentment at the situation regarding male-rights, and the lack of fulfillment following the general equality movement.
Violence between Sisterhood members and Reformists took place on the worlds which the Sisterhood often chose, nations with strong matriarchial nations who would refuse any attempt from their homeworlds to extradite them, but also nations with large populations of dissatisfied men. Although the irony of the situation was not lost on the Sisterhood's leadership, attempts to keep the two groups separated tended to end in failure. Barroom brawls quickly escalated to out and out alley fighting, and was only stopped when the respective governments clamped down on dissent.
...
[More boring stuff, mostly regarding the Crusade on Demeter]
[And a whole bunch of chapters on the Green Verdant War, which take for bloody ever]
...
Aftermath of the Green Verdant War
After the disastrous attempts by the Reformists of supporting the male Usurper against the alliance run by the Crown Princess of Lakewin, the male-rights movement had, at least in the eye of most of the public, separated itself from its extremist bent. Additionally, the Reformists had suffered many losses that could not be easily replaced. Their leadership was destroyed. Caius was dead at the hands of Prelate Marius of Legio X. The Greyhound had died in a suicidal attack on Okana, perhaps bearing a grudge from all those years ago. Bern of Whithall had lost to Iyana of the Line. Of Anton the Wolf nothing was known, except that Keris Malvere swore that he would no longer be a factor, although he would not say how that battle ended. Their actions in the war had little, if any, effect. Sympathy largely lay with the Crown Princess's Alliance. The faith of the Ashdown and other forces was hardly shaken by demonstrations of how they were being "fooled by femmes". Moreover, the unity and loyalty of the combined forces of the planes was little disturbed by either the propaganda campaign, or the explosion of activity. Even male members of the Legion, from worlds where men could rightly claim oppression, did not side with the Reformists, or express any sympathy.
But in the aftermath of the war, the Reformists become more active instead of less. It has been hypothesized that, even cut off from their main base of support among disaffected male-rights activists, they have found another power base. The continual disruptions on the worlds near Ash Nital are keeping the entire Legion VIII tied down in garrison duty, a valuable asset to certain forces. More worrisome, it is perhaps possible that, without their leadership to reign them in, the organization has been completely subverted by another force. Male-rights activists who have had contact with the Reformists in the past twenty years claim that contacts have changed (specifically, see the Hawkshead report on the matter).
Although the male-rights movement clearly has a great distance to go, especially with the recent atrocities on Gallowglass, and the fall of the moderate Estubian monarchy, it remains to be seen whether the members of the Reformists are even going to the same place. Continual evidence indicates (see ACI Security Briefing 11744.5) that the most probable sponsor for these activities is the Domina herself. The irony of the extreme end of the male-rights movement being run by a female dictator does not escape the author, but the reasons why instability would benefit that ruler leave the author quite shaken.
...
[This goes on for quite some time, covering the events of the past twenty years, including the abortive rebellion on Albion (of all places), and a lot of the brush fires that are keeping both the Legion, and the Confederation, extremely busy. I hope you get the idea though.]
...