Traditionalist family walking through a field. Artwork by Embreate.
"Remember the good old days of the 2020’s, when the worst issue was a virus that we were able to conquer in four years? A time before flesh-eating bacteria had been weaponized, your thoughts could be ‘borrowed’ by anyone passing by, and only humans were part of the human race. All that was washed away by the chaos of climate change - the world changed so quickly; cities, no, whole countries were lost, millions of people were displaced, robots took our jobs - they told us it would be more... ‘efficient’ for the rebuild. Don't you want to go back?" - The Traditionalists Introduction video
The Traditionalists feel that the world is changing too fast. They believe we must look to the past to secure our future, emphasizing family, faith, and strong leadership. They believe all culture’s origin stories are sacred to them and should be a point of guidance rather than new technological developments. This reactionary movement found support all across finding that many people just wanted to have things they could rely on like safety and identity. The three tenets the of Traditionalism are order, structure, and faith. It has worked for many countries and in 2084 the two global superpowers, China and India, both have broadly Traditionalist governments.
What the Traditionalists provide in stability is sometimes counteracted by their removal of civil liberties. Traditionalist governments are often authoritarian as they believe homogenous societies work better. Traditionalism is a slippery slope into totalitarianism. This slope is made steeper given the fact that all Traditionalists state heavily employ the Mirror system: an all-encompassing surveillance system that uses any and all cameras to keep their citizens safe and under control. That way they claim they can keep the citizenry safe, but that means they are also able to maintain power and quickly dispel any threats to hegemony.
These are the group of Traditionalists who value power and control perhaps more than they value community and values. These nations use the Mirror and a strong, technologically-advanced army to keep control and eliminate liberal democracy. Totalitarians include the Communist leadership of China, the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, and the leaders of the New Confederacy.
Old-fashioned farm, owned by an Agrarian Traditionalist. Artwork by Embreate
Agrarians are farmers that want to lead a traditional rural lifestyle. They reject almost all technology that is not used to help them in activities like harvesting. There are extreme Agrarian groups called the Neo-Luddites who take things one step further by rejecting any and all technology. They live on communes and farm in a manner that even by today’s standards would seem old-fashioned.
The Survivalists are groups of scavengers fighting for resources under the Totalitarians auspices. Oppressed by the Mirror, they try to scrounge together a free, subsistence lifestyle. They are Traditionalist in the sense that they have no greater ideals than just trying to survive. One major hub of Survivalists can be found in the Cove in North America, where rival groups of scavengers fight each other for resources and territory. There is the powerful City Gang who have ties to corporations that control certain areas. Directly opposed to them is the Salvage Queen: the most powerful single individual of the Cove Survivalists with a legion of followers who look to her for leadership. Survivalist Traditionalists can also be found in many countries under the Chinese sphere of influence like Japan and the Philippines as well as in the Russian Zone of Exclusion.
These are the religious Traditionalists who believe that looking back to a religious way of life will lead humanity to righteousness. Ironically, they might be the least traditional of the Traditionalists as they have shown a willingness to engage with MESH technology. The largest presence of Spiritualists resides in East India where The MESH and Buddhism have become one. Modern cyber monks there attempt to achieve enlightenment through technology. The concept of “oneness” that is the root of Buddhism is compatible with the oneness found by becoming part of the MESH.
These are people dependent on social media to give them status and lead their lives. The Steadfast reminisce about or romanticize the past and latch on to certain eras that they are particularly nostalgic for. In these figures, we see perhaps the group that is closest to us today. They are Traditionalist and cling to the past less in the ideological sense and more because they simply need to think in this manner to survive. However they are Traditionalists in the sense that they crave a return to the past and to “normalcy.”