Royals & Rebels

The Dutch royals have always known when to take a step back. Willem II stepped back in fear of riots, allowing the country to become a constitutional monarchy. His son was the last ruler to die a ruler, as the five monarchs after Willem III all abdicated their position.   The latest of which is Princess Amalia, who stepped down as Queen in 2081, forcing the House and Senate to acknowledge the engagement and claim to the throne of her heir. Willem-Alexander, father of Princess Amalia, abdicated shortly after the creation of the United Netherlands. He had played a role in the merging of the Dutch and Belgian monarchies, a fine last act as King.

The monarchy may be symbolic, but they always have been rich. Their clever investments paid off with both Matrix crashes and other times of unrest. Where once the royal families were worth a few billion combined, estimates now range from four hundred billion to over a trillion.   This money now serves the family well as its war chest, for make no mistake, the family is at war. Amalia has no interest in forgiving Popular Will for trying to murder her daughter and now-daughter-in-law. At the same time, she also serves as royal matriach, leading further investments to better consolidate the economic power of the royal family.

When Emma became Queen, this was riding a public relationship high after resisting an assassination attempt by Popular Will. Though her popularity has waned a bit since, she still is a beloved ruler. Behind the scenes, her mother grants her a significant allowance to perform good deeds and keep the royal family in the thoughts of the people.

A Ms. Johnson, or Mevrouw Jansen as we tend to call them here, who solely serves the royal family. Her real identity is known to many in the Shadows, namely she is no other than Queen-Consort Marikka von Harbou. Before she became engaged, she used her Sigrûn identity to work as bodyguard. She is a powerful mage, which is what finally provoked Popular Will into open warfare.

Former queen, Amalia announced her abdication shortly after Emma survived the storming of Paleis Noordeinde. Her excellent timing, alongside some proper payments to Horizon, helped her win the PR battle needed to make sure Emma her position would never be in doubt. Now Amalia is the treasurer of the family and the power behind the throne.

Niece of the current queen, Juliana-Marie owns her princess title to a convoluted history that would take too long to fit into a freebie piece. She serves as chairwoman of the board of Regulus JI, a position she has embraced. She has the support of her family, as her opposition to Saeder-Krupp pleases their nationalistic hearts.

The Moller Institute used to be sponsored by the monarchy, researching magic and technomancy. But a complicated disaster killed the father and left two very angry children behind. Since then, the son has become leader of the political party Forum for Freedom, while his sister runs the Institute. Together, they oppose magic in all its forms.

If we leave aside their official claims and all nuance for a moment, the summary is simple. All magic must die. All means to this end are justified. Kidnapping mages and technomancers to brainwash them, researching all forms of anti-magic, allying themselves with enemies of SINless or even metahumanity, nothing is too low for them.

I mentioned the Institute and the political party. The third part of the picture are Popular Will, the skinhead enforcers the Freedom Network uses. They are fanatics, they are responsible for quite a few kidnappings and murders, and worst of all, they are led by a bastard with a glib tongue. Thanks to this, they still have significant support despite all their crimes.

What makes Popular Will scary, rather than just a terroristic policlub, is what is called Akyromancy. These anti-magic skills are so powerful that they even consume the magic ability of its wielders. Akyromancy takes many a form, from simple mana annihilation to turning magic abilities against their user, and even a technomancy version cursed by the Helix.