#vedeks

Elections are held to the Assembly soon. Currently debate is raging over what electoral system to use. This has become a proxy issue between parties.

Speaking of parties, Bajor has several. One however stands out as ‘the incumbent party’ that dominated the Provisional Government…

Republican Front - The heirs of the Resistance. Big Tent party with big names behind it. Pro-federation, except when it isn’t. Are deeply religious secularists. Most Provisional Government Ministers are Front members. Unwieldy due to straddling all lines of thought at once.

Bajor also has four major parties, large enough to be represented in the Provisional Government and are almost certain to gain representation in the Assembly. Tend to break down into a quadrant but in practice this can be kind of blurry.

Freedom Party - The reasonable opposition. Originally split more due to personal feuds. But it has since evolved into a broadly religious, pro-UFP party. There is tension in those two stances, but that does reflect the popular mood. The best organized party on Bajor.

Worldwide Alliance - The personal vehicle of Winn Adami. As such can be very flexible when they need to be. However they always find their base in the devout and are generally UFP-skeptic. Got a large boost when Winn became Kai. Will likely have to rebrand hard.

Progressive Party - The self-declared party of the future. Largely built on the backs of exiles returning from the Federation. Pro-Federation as soon as possible, and are willing to make major changes to domestic laws to accommodate that. As secularist as they can get away with.

Independence Party - The party of Bajor reborn, hardcore resistance types mostly. Generally secularist in outlook, placing their faith in the people not prophets. In favor of aggressive expansion via settlement. See the UFP as too soft and resent the ‘abandonment’ of Bajor.

Minor Parties are, well, Minor. They exist, and may have local pull, or even a Provisional Government appointee here or there. But they are definitely also rans compared to the Front and the Four.

Colonial Alliance - The party of expansion. Represents the voting interests of Bajoran colonists on other worlds, both in the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. Mixed on Religion, Mixed on the Federation. Protection from pirates sounds great but regulations sound bad.

Community of the Faithful - The religious party par excellence. Supportive of the old caste system and a formal role for the Vedeks in Government. Dislike the Federation, who wouldn’t let them in anyway.

Union Party - The Circle, but kinda sorta respectable. Foreigners out. Cardassians out. Federation out. Dominion out. Vague on religion, associated with continuity terror groups.

Alliance for Provincial, Regional, and District Autonomy - Support a federal system planetwide, maybe even an end to Bajoran Union. Understandably dislikes the Federation due to this stance.

In the first province of Bajor about eight hundred years ago, there was an age of sudden prosperity. The popular style of art then was somewhat wild, full of overlapping forms and energetic zigzag lines. Memoirs were written in a controlled chaotic style, with scenes jumping from mind to mind and time to time, often with exaggeration of key events to better show their emotional resonance. This was known as the “first age of memoirs”.

Two hundred years later, memoirs had fallen out of style, but had a surge of popularity. The second age of memoirs was characterized by a split between the memoirs of rural and urban Bajorans. Rural Bajorans, particularly Vedeks in remote monasteries, valued the new most popular style of art. Calm geometric shapes, symmetry, and order have been the main characteristics of Bajoran art since that time. Rural memoirs followed clear patterns, focusing more on reflection than events. They included brief passages of poetry and prophecy as markers of the beginnings, middles, and ends of sections.

In the Kendra, Musilla, and Lonar provinces of Bajor, there’s a mandatory two weeks off from schools and government jobs in Tamhali to give people time to relax and pray. It’s a good idea, but given that there are more months in the Bajoran calendar than provinces, it seems like they could have managed to do one month each to prevent temples from getting overrun.