Exactly one of my points. There are other aspects of the nation that dispel that notion as well but they are the poster boys/girls of sorts. Plus I don't think they would like the secular direction the nation would be heading in. This secular push abck could be because of certain groups in the Haqqislam government pushing back against the Hassassins because they are an outside force the government can't control.
Who says the Bahram is outside of government control? The... government?!? Look at the pretty chemtrails... Don't forget the rampant corruption and various flavors of political favoritism. That Dashat guy who's name escapes me at the moment. :)
The only people who think that Haqqislam are "the good guys" are the people reading the travel brochures. :D
Brochures are filled with information that the travel agencies want to to know. Anything that might turn away customers I is not going to be printed.
Hey, Haqqislam are they good guys. They just don't have any issue in employing worse guys I think the community knows the faults of the Haqqislam, but still like the ideals of the nation. Haqqislam is presented as a religious nation that places a focus science, philosophy, and technology. That the Search of Knowledge is paramount. But we accept in that every Infinity faction, including our beloved Haqqislam, has grey.
Haqqislam are “good guys” right up to the moment when it’s time to remember about their interests. As each faction in the world of infinity, I guess. That’s good, that there are no absolutely good guys. About logo and changes... that’s good, as I think. (But if they write it properly) If they’ll rename khawarij also, I would be happy. (Just a dreams)
I don't know that they are 'good', but the stuff that really sets them off honestly isn't especially threatening to your average person. If someone wants to say the scientific method or math is immoral and whips a mob up into a frenzy to take action to dismantle it, then Hassassins will pretty much live stream that person getting thrown off a building. Is that 'good'? Probably not. Is that threatening to the vast majority of the population? Probably not. So less of people hearing about their actions and saying 'hassassins are good' and more of them consistently finding themselves saying 'good riddance' after hassassins do something extreme.
I agree with this statement. They are like Corvus Belli's take on the Tau from Warhammer 40k. The Tau seem to be the "good guys" from the outset then as you dig deeper and look into the Greater Good & the Etheraels who enforce it that is when things start to unravel. Same with Haqqislam. Good looking on the outside but gets worse & more questionable the more layers of the onion you peel back.
Yeah, I don't think anyone even brought up the heavily-armed monopolistic merchant cartels or state-sponsored piracy yet. Or the (shudder) shotguns as standard issue, do they even read the Concilium Convention?
Don't forget about the people who are stuck living in the Kum controlled territories...Those poor souls. But the great thing about Infinity is you get to craft your narrative about your particular force. Like perhaps a humanitarian medical relief force that keeps being pulled into crazy events...
And the Hassassins are another story altogether. They seem to have a choke hold on the nation that many outside of their numbers would like to see gone. One has to wonder when these other parts of Haqqislam will eventually topple the Hassassins from their perch permanently. Just like what happened in history to the actual Hassassins of the past when the Mongols were convinced of removing them.
I don't think they'll topple the Hassassins, because heavily armed monopolistic merchant cartels and state sponsored pirates know for an absolute fact that they need to conduct themselves in an enlightened manner or they'll be brutally murdered by a death cult that worships the enlightenment. You can be a ruthless space pirate furthering an agenda. You just have to be intellectually honest and principled about it. Hassassins don't control the factions, they control the rules the various factions play by and do so without interest in the end result as long as the rules were followed. In essence the absolute power hungry psychopath knows that they can weaponize intellectual honesty against their foes and know any intellectual dishonesty on their part can be weaponized against them. Haqq politicians are like politicians everywhere, they are selfish people drawn to power. The selective forces they operate under are simply different. Your average Haqq citizen appears to view the arrangement as a sign of culture and sophistication. How do you tell when a Haqq politician is lying? Blood is spraying out of their lips as they die.
If the Hassassins went after every petty local politician on Bourak that's all they'd be doing. The Old Man of the Mountain seems to have a better idea of resource management than going after every single one. Yeah, the Hassassins are a guillotine ready to come down but it isn't wasted on such small things. There is corruption and other issues the Hassassins don't bother with. Then there's the Muhafiz. Haqqislam's other intelligence/paramilitary group. They are used as a counterbalance to the Hassassins stranglehold on Haqqislam intelligence.
Except the Muhafiz are exclusively a Funduq Sultanate's force, specializing in counterintelligence and internal security, as opposed to Hassassin's general assignment as Military Intelligence (and there is also, scarcely represented, Naval Intellignece service the al'Hawwa are likely to be linked to). Seems the Hassassins are primairly external intelligence & security, while internal security is handled by regional govenrments (Muhafiz being simply the most visible of these, as they are responsible for Haqq interests off-world, like caravansaries and space elevators). I guess it is a different breakup of "secret services" than the one we are used to IRL, and thus that's why it gives us trouble :)
Well yes and no. The Muhafiz are a little more operationally flexible than the wargame fluff represents. That and the fact that the Silk Lords and Haqqislam high command do like employing them over the Hassassins at times points to that counterbalance. It's an internal rift where not everyone trusts the unleashed hound that is the Hassassins. So there's actually a lot of overlap between the two intelligence groups and tension between them.
That is one of the reasons why I can see many people in Haqqisalm government secretly wanting them gone. For both good and bad/underhand reasons.
