John the Apostle [Closed, do not reply]

"In the old days, it was said that the Gods themselves appeared to the first emissaries between Alba Longa and Neapolis. The people of Alba Longa believe that the meeting was conducted by an Albanese monk, who arrived in the service of the Albanese pantheon - specifically Paxus, Albanese God of Peace - when he met a Neapolitan nobleman professing a monotheistic faith in service to the Neapolitan deity Kovenantos, God of Law. The Neapolitans claim that it was a diplomat, not a monk, and that the Neapolitan also professed a polytheistic pantheon, discussing Kovenantos because of the timing of the meeting, on a holy day of Kovenantos.

The circumstances of that meeting are deceptively simplistic. Kovenantos was relegated, with the rise of the Latin Confederation, to the role of a God of Service, during the Great Reformation spearheaded by Alba Longa. As Neapolis shored up a navy more fearsome than any other in the Latin Confederation, their relationship with the inland farming towns and the large mining settlements that shared its religion collapsed. Augustine Syncretism took hold over the Latin Confederation, combining the Gods of the Albanese faith with the new, revisionist understanding of Neapolitan theology. It became pseudo-monotheistic, with Paxus displacing Kovenantos as patron of the Latin Confederation, to placate those who adopted revisionist Neapolitan polytheism. Kovenantos became almost a forethought, a mere member of the new syncretic pantheon.

In the modern day, Paxus is the only God that can be celebrated by any individual receiving government pay. As a result, they claim in their name one of the two government-funded temples, the Door of Peace, overlooking the Albanese Strait (traditionally, the Fretum Viri). The other is the multi-faith Augustine Door, overlooking the Neapolitan Strait (traditionally, the Fretum Uxoris, or the Skia Gefyras), which in practice is effectively only open to foreigners working with ambassadorial or corporate staff that Imperium wishes to segregate from the center of government."

For a cutthroat, corrupt police dictatorship, the government was surpisingly tolerant of critical thought and discussion. As long as you didn't work for Caesar, Caesar would allow you to speak - and St. Adrianne's was a private school.

It was, to many, THE private school. That wasn't because it is a particularly good school - although, it was. It was, simply, one of the very few private schools available in the heart of Alba Longa, collectively known as the "Mariti Union". The 'sea between doors', so to speak - a reference to the two Doors, a saying that meant something like "so close, and yet so far away". The saying is particularly apt in St. Adrianne's case. The Albanese private schools provided a bridge between the public life of private people and the private world of the public sector. Most who could afford to live in Alba Longa were willing to put their students under the watchful eye of Caesar, in the public schools of the Albanese District. Many of the public schools across the Imperium would tolerate some level of rebellious teen years, but not the Albanese District. Those who studied in the Albanese District, the public schools in Old Alba Longa, were expected not to rebel against the system they were taught from birth to repair and maintain.

But even the enlightened teenager must stop and give themselves time to breathe. To be fair, if we skip the sarcasm for a moment, it was a rather wordy lecture - particularly for someone working towards a science degree, as our fair hero is. John (for anglicized names are popular with many of the students attending the Mariti Union) was, in particular, interested in pharmaceutical science. It was a growing industry in the Imperium. And, frankly, John didn't really like Latin History anyway. It was all rehashing things everyone understood - if not perfectly, then adequately.

Who didn't know the old stories of Paxus and Kovenantos? Admittedly, in Alba Longa, the stories were even more imbalanced than they were in the rest of Imperium. Many of the Albanese families understood Kovenantos as something akin to a regional nature spirit, more so than a God. Kovenantos filled a role as an unknowledgeable, unlikeably cynical human voice in mythology, contrasted against the aloof, idealistic, usually victorious, and always paternalistic Paxus. Paxus brought strange, new ideas, and imposed them upon humanity, helping them to defy their own challenges. Every Augustan knew what other nations thought of war - unnatural, destructive, and detestable. Its innovations were necessitated by brutality. But Caesar knew what was best - Paxus was not an enemy of war, but created by it. Peace is divine, and war is human. Through war, peace is forged.

Caesar and innovation. Divinity and civilization. The Augustine Door and the Door of Peace.

If you want peace, prepare for war. The Imperium is always prepared.

John is not. He has a history test coming up. Good luck, John.

John was alone.

He was far too early to class. He was usually not this early. Being a relatively popular lad, his breaktimes were usually spent discussing matters of state and diplomacy with his colleagues. Occasionally, these discussions veered into light conversation regarding attractive classmates, or popular sporting teams.

However, John liked to be early to his physical education classes. He was fit and confident, but some people just liked a bit of modesty. John often spent a minute or two in the changeroom adjusting himself, so that he could look his best in his gymwear.

Clothing in Imperium is often varied. Formal wear and casual wear are both delineated over general form and colour. Western and Eastern culture tends to emphasize colours and symbolism, whereas the Southern and Northern cultures are dominated by the general forms of fashion promoted by the conservative Albanese and more modern, cosmopolitan Neapolitans, respectively.

Sporting wear is just as varied. In the north, liberal Neapolitans tend to promote function over tradition for an artistically minimalist look, and in the south, the stubborn Albanese hold to pragmatically minimalist styles created over decades of war and famine. Truly, a contrast between ancient rivals.

John's shorts and tight singlet would remind many of a basketball player, or a marathon runner, but it was acceptable even at an August professional level for almost all sports. One of those sports is chorocolluctatio, often shorted to colluctatio. John is an accomplished chorocolluctor, or colluctor. A sport similar to pankration and capoeira, colluctatio is both practiced "in choro" (in dancer's style), and "in collucto" (in wrestler's style). In choro refers to cooperative, choreographed work with a partner, performing a fight in a means that has been scripted to show breadth of capacity and rhythm, and is set to music. In collucto is not set to music - it is competitive, using the same movements used in choro to score points against an opponent.

Many communities have colluctatio clubs, which run in the 'off-season'. The off-season, of course, is defined in terms of an 'on'-season. In Imperium, the thing that is on during the 'on'-season is aethererat, 'air war'. In English, it is often translated to Airsoft.

It commands the collective attention of Imperium. Everyone aspires to participate in the National League - or, at the very least, a local league.

But that too was not what John was doing today. Today, John and his class took part in the Augustine Education and Research Standard Physical Education Schedule (AERS-PES). For years, John had been participating in the AERS-PES, a strict regime designed to drill students in a variety of team sports, as well as good health practice. The three pillars of the AERS-PES - Squad, Self, Skill. Like his compatriots, John had a deep understanding of hierarchy and teamwork. Since he could talk, sports was a team game. The teams changed from year to year, but competition and cooperation go hand in hand in Imperium.

Today, it was merely a simple game of harpastum, another popular August game, superficially similar to rugby. Simply put, players from each team aim to intercept a harpastum ball and touch it to the ground past their side of the pitch. In more detail, two teams of a dozen split a field in two, with each team starting on a half. One team starts in position of the Harpastum ball, at the extreme of their half. The harpastum ball must then be moved past the half-line, before the team that starts with possession may score. The game is full-contact, and the holds of colluctatio in collucto are common practice in Harpastum.

Like many other young people, John had his eyes on a particular young maiden, by the name of Agatha. This year, they participated in the same team - the Imperium does not segregate by sex for sporting, except for international play. And so they would enjoy the ancient past-time of harpastum together. Were the apple of his eyes equally enamoured with colluctatio as he, she would find herself in good company with numerous women participating in the sport - particularly in choro, where agility, speed, and showpersonship allow women to compete effectively on equal terms with men in older age brackets.

Through these sports, the Imperium plays through two seasons - celebrating the martial spirit, and teamwork, in any and all conditions. Regardless of the season, and the arts of war used, by Aethererat's 'aetherarms' or colluctatio's drills, strikes, and rhythm, the Imperium will thrive. Even in the face of conflict, all Augustans play through two seasons. The seasons come and go, but your comrades are forever.

All are equal in competition and cooperation, in war and peace, under Caesar's Imperium. In the on-season, and the off-season.


Glossary:
Harpastum: A ball-game. Some foreign reenactment groups play versions of this game known as 'historic football', or calcio storio. (Calcio Storio)
Aethererat: A sporting code administered by the August Senate. It is used to govern all government-funded sporting events utilizing 'Airsoft' equipment. (Airsoft)

We take a moment to discuss the world John studies within. It is one unfamiliar, perhaps, in many contexts. Certainly, education in Imperium has been refined progressively, and regressively, continuously for the past centuries. It holds, at its core, the ideal of asserting one's self as an individual, within their community, in a community under Caesar and the traditions of Imperium. Imperium's income disparity is immense, but it prides itself on having a lower limit that ensures its citizens, whilst merely aspiring to the things that other nations take for granted, never need to want for security, certainty, or identity.

What good is the National Dream of a house, a car, and a white picket fence, when disease or recession threaten to cut your power, cancel your prescriptions, and end your marriage? Imperium offers few luxuries to its middle class, but centuries of stability have created communities that are resilient and resourceful. Who needs a soccerfield, when the streets of inner Alba Longa are the property of the public? Who needs a garage, when one lives, breathes, works, and plays on their bicycle? And who needs stadia, when one can sing in the community halls?

It is this spirit of making one's worth stand out in a community of equals that drives Imperium education - the 'Latin Philosophy of Education'. It emphasises groupwork and agency, utilizing flexibility as core to its curriculae. Textbooks are produced by the state, published online, to improve accessibility, and facilities and equipment are shared between local schools through the Secretariat for Education. They are incongruous facilities. Wealthy private schools hire, and pay, teachers that are equals to any other in the North Pacific, whilst sharing the public fields rented from the Secretariat for Education with even the poorest community institutions.

For the moment, however, we consider the timetable. Timetables are, of course, something set individually by schools. However, Imperium itself recommends, quite firmly, a four-day school week. The week remains the purview of individual schools. However, the Secretariat of Education itself manages the 'Friday Programme' occupying the fifth workday. Such Friday programs tend to range geographic areas, rather than schools, based on residence instead of enrolment - access to school facilities and staff working on the day are subsidized with tax discounts. Common programs are based around music, sports, and the arts, as well as other popular extracurricular activities. In particular, an advantage touted by the 'Friday Programme' is that students can participate in developed programs that would not otherwise be available - for instance, genre-specific orchestras and bands - with students from multiple schools with the same interest. The programs are usually staffed by the Imperial Service - often, by former university students completing the national service requirement of their degree.

Generally speaking, the four-day school week is 9 to 5. Each of the six periods are an hour long, paired into three blocks. Each block is divided by a five minute intermission. The second block is separated from the first by a thirty minute break, and the third by an hour and fifteen-minute break, during which lunch and hour-long extracurricular activities may be taken. Friday Programmes are also in three blocks, each block being two hours long. 9 - 11, 12 - 2, and 3 - 5, leaving an hour in between each block for transit and as a break. It is compulsory that students fill all three blocks in some manner, with schools generally offering homework clubs for the period.

Youth Service programs run from 6 - 7 every day, at schools. While all students are required to join a Youth Service upon entering Grammar School (which begins the year a student turns 13), only Friday programs are compulsory, and students are allocated to both 'active' and 'passive' Youth Service allocations, if they wish to attend regularly or irregularly respectively. Active members are permitted a day off per week without reason, although a written request the prior day is expected. In exchange, active Youth Servicemen are eligible for promotion through the ranks of the Youth Service, giving them a significant advantage in applying for advanced consideration through their university's National Service obligation or in a future service career.

A cock crowed twice. Then silence.

Somewhere in the distance, a farmer's axe had fallen. So life turned to death, somewhere in the blood-red splay that marked a tentative sunrise. Its foreground was blissfully unaware.

And the clock rang six.

The first wisps of natural gas took light on the sterile, stainless steel stove. Light snaked in through the windows, the shadows of the window frame cast away by the new flames - smart, standing to attention, burning bright. John stood there alone, all seventeen years of life making themselves known in his crows' eyes, tired wrinkles, and unwashed face.

A crack against the marble countertop, just to the left. The snap of an unwashed, unbleached brown shell gave to the cold white and yolk within, unsullied by experienced fingers. It hit a hot pan - no oil, no butter. Just teflon. The egg popped agreeably as it made itself at home, and John groaned audibly as he made himself presentable - as much as he could, without letting the oven leave his sight. His hands went into the kitchen sink, and brought water to his face, letting it soak into the few beads of sweat starting to form.

This was a man in no particular rush to leave, nor any particular want to stay.


The sound of a spatula on metal.

And the egg made its way onto smoked ham, a small crouton, a sliced tomato.

So death turned to life.


And the clock struck seven, and John struck out. Smart trainers accompanied trackpants and a hoodie, no doubt in vogue with his peers at St. Adrienne's.

"John!"

"Ave, Mark!" An energetic, if slightly port, young man, with a mind as old as John's but a face that was not quite prepared to admit it. The two shared a Latin handshake - hand on the other's elbow, with their arms together as if crossed.

"Ave, John! I'm not bad, yourself?"

"Yeah, good. You going to the cornerstore?"

"Yeah. For Lucia's?"

"Yeah."

Such is life for a seventeen-year old. A party every Saturday. It's a wonder there are enough various treats to supply the parties of teenagers the region over.

"Want to use my auto?"

"Yeah, cool."

The venerable auto, or autocart. Imperium Augustum has long claimed to be the home of the automobile, although this is a title easily disputed by one of any number of innovators the world over. However, the autocart remains one of the first automobiles to be produced in numbers accessible to the general population. That Othocart Standard is to this day a popular starting point of any sufficiently wealthy car collector too uncertain to invest money in something expensive, and too stubborn to start with something not yet obsolete. From such humble roots, however, the autocart has found a special niche in Imperium Augustum. First, as a motorized way of commuting the city streets of Imperium, made available for autocarts whilst remaining too narrow for imported vehicles. Later, as an affordable way of making use of Imperium's extensive but low-density road network.

The autocart is a three-wheeled vehicle, quite simply, utilizing a 2F configuration (two wheels in front). They run on petrol, although the Augustine government is actively working on developing electric engines and charging technology for industry use as a high short-term priority. Autocarts generally seat two, one behind the other. However, there are often exceptions. Expensive autocarts can often already be purchased utilizing electric engines, and may utilize a tilt-wheel configuration as opposed to a simple 2F configuration. They can also seat more than two - two rows of two, for example.

On the city streets in Alba Longa, there is just barely enough space for one to overtake another, given a modicum of skill and cooperation. The streets, of course, are one-way - every second street is closed on alternating days, such that they may be used for recreation, and every second open street runs in the opposite direction. Over the main arterials, overpasses connect city-blocks over the rushing traffic below. Situated over what were, originally, as tight as any other street, the arterial roads of Imperium's cities are the result of almost unthinkable vandalism, carved into the sides of buildings, and under-cover. The largest arterial roads are covered over by monorail tracks, suspended in the air with the support of immense reinforcing columns, hidden by the facades of Imperium.

The garages of the various city blocks are relatively simple - they are shared affairs, with reserved parking for each of the units in the block. It is, of course, legal to transfer one's spot to another unit for rent, although such contracts must be time-limited. They have entrance and exits leading through the block, onto adjacent streets - such that one is always open, and one is always closed.


John and Mark were relatively well-off, and so were inclined to use their autocarts, without worry of the high cost of fuel - with prices set by the government to encourage the use of public transport. It was a short trip, at any rate - if it weren't for the fact that they were buying for a party, they would not even bother with the auto. Mark's auto was a notoriously lively little thing. Not a conversation about transportation could be had at St. Adrienne's without some whispered comment on Mark's likelihood to complete the journey without a mishap of some degree. Such things are, of course, greatly exaggerated. Mark was not a particularly poor driver - just a tad erratic, and not possessed of the good sense required to indicate efficiently when beset upon by the hectic pedestrian crossings of Alba Longa.

Their goal was to drive to the cornerstore, at the end of the block. There would be ample supplies for a party - cheap alcohol and soft drinks, cheap food, and cheap painkillers for the night after. They'd throw it all in the passenger seat of the auto, and hope to God they don't crash - because the last thing one wants going through one's head in a crash is one's booze.

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The U-LAW is Imperium's new flagship offering to the Latin world. A sporting organization built around the national pasttime of 'Aetherrat', LAWS (Latin Aether Warriors' Syndicates) are independently owned and managed franchises within the U-LAW structure, adhering to strict standards of 'kayfabe' and athletic prowess to compete in an annual televised, merchandisable tournament. Franchises, in return for their immense obligations, are guaranteed a level of income and assistance in securing sponsorship deals by ACES. LAWS Teams number 10 players on the field at all times, in the great game of Aetherrat, as well as a single 'commander' who sits outside play and accesses a top-down video feed, as well as team communications.

Aetherrat is a 'mil-sim' style game, utilizing a rudimentary scoring system to advise a live and television audience on scores that are comparable between matches. Scoring is based on the fulfilment of objectives, based around the use or restrictions on 'paintball markers', with Aetherrat being a non-contact game. Injuries to participants are almost exclusively minor and do not generally extend beyond substitution out of a match. ACES is committed to providing players with more long-term injuries appropriate care and livelihood, with the U-LAW income model being exceedingly capable of incorporating incapacitated players into gainful employment at virtually indistinguishable income levels.

The U-LAW model utilizes the revolutions in on-field tracking and audio-visual technology pioneered by Imperium's domestic league, allowing technical specialists to quickly cut between on-helmet recording, overhead video, objective video, audience sweeps, and audio feeds from team communications, the field, and commentators. LAW matches are intense, fast, and exciting, producing some of the most exciting sports footage in the world. As a non-contact sport, digitized helmets allow for crisp and unprecedented looks into team functionality, as players organize themselves through shared team audio feeds, and is relayed information from a top-down video feed by their commander.

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LAWS are usually attached to universities, following the example of Imperium, in which full-time athletics tends to be frowned upon, in favour of what is sometimes termed 'collegiate-level' sports. While in some cases, this level of play has resulted in Imperium's lackluster achievement in international sports, events like Aetherrat even the playing field, by allowing good sportsmanship and original play to dominate over playbook-style performances and rules-lawyering.

That is because modern Aetherrat is not won by scores. Aetherrat matches are granted by a panel of judges, as in boxing - five for all matches, except for a grand final, which is scored by a full ten judges, with a tiebreaker vote by players across U-LAW. Public support for teams is also crucial in winning players precious sponsorship endorsements, by making their endorsements more valuable. The largest teams are permitted more and more demonstration games, in which they can hone their abilities, as well as the ability to create and follow along Official LAW Storylines, giving them the ability to grab up game-changing points in Aetherrat panel judgings.

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At current, Imperium only fields a single LAWS - the Augustine University of Neapolis LAWS, also known as the "Neapolis Doorstoppers".

There is also a LAWS from Nierr, Floresque, and Cetus.