Bloodhandism is a fictional ideology created by Dr. Occo for his Radinia Project.
It is essentially a mix of the "Might makes Right" Philosophy with the structure of an Anarchist commune, where every member has the same rights and most farmsteads and workshops are communally owned.
Beliefs
A Union of the Mighty
The founder and tenous leader of the Bloodhand Band, Rufus Strell, believes in the Right of "Strong and Capable" people to take everything they want to own using their strength and capability. However, he rejects the idea of a natural hierarchy of strenght, instead believing that society can be broadly divided into a big group of weak and incapable people and a smaller group of strong and capable people. If someone can prove himself to be part of the group of capables, he thinks, they should be as free to exercise their strenght on the weaker group as possible. This results in the band itself welcoming new members only after they have "proven their worth" in cage fights and have managed to appear reasonably intelligent in a personal conversation with one of the older gang members. After that, though, the members are generally being treated as equals, with no hierarchy emerging in the gang, due to Strell's "two groups" belief.
The Definition of "Strong" and "Weak"
Strell sorts society into the groups of strong and weak people mostly along lines of internal virtues, although his conception of virtues is quite different than most other people. The virtues he values most are self-assuredness, authenticity, awareness, pride, courage, physical capability (and willingness to improve it), intelligence and honesty, but he actively scorns kindness, Altruism, chastity, gratitude, contentment, midfulness, humility and forgiveness, which he all considers to be forms of Slave Morality. Generally, he argues that a strong person is one that can provide for themselves and is not ashamed to accurately describe their own strengths, while also being able to work on their shortcomings, while a weak person is one that relies on the strengths of others and dishonestly lies about their own strengths and weaknesses, either to impress or to inspire pity. Cowardice, for Strell, is the easiest sign of weakness, since a strong person would always be willing to stand up to a challenge.
Strell also believes that the Strong are most often found in self-reliant classes, such as farmers and contract workers, while the Weak prefer positions of Authority, where they can easily order their subordinates to use their strength for their own good, or in highly planned jobs such as the military[1] or bureaucracy, where they don't need to think for themselves and can "live a life of lies", as Strell puts it.
This is why the gang is Anti-Capitalist. Modernistic Capitalism, they argue, gives the weak more control over strong people through consolidation of traditionally self-sustaining jobs into enterprises. This also applies to statist forms of Socialism, chiefly Zavatism, where the bureaucracy, Strells most loathed class, is in control over the workers, while self-reliance is antagonized. Speaking of Economic Policy...
Collective Ownership
Now, you would think that an ideology that is focused on giving the mighty a right to exercise their own will, without consideration of the consequences of ones actions for others, would not lend itself well to an Anarcho-Communist structure, but this specific kind of ideology does. As society is divided into a strong ingroup and a weak outgroup, the "consequences for others" mentioned before are understood as "consequences for the weak". As long as someone is understood by the strong ingroup to be part of said ingroup, they are being shielded from the consequences of the actions that other members take.
Strell believed that the small ingroup has to be internally stable, as to not be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the weak outgroup[2]. So, he argued that the Union of the Mighty needs a strong internal support network, not only to give every mighty individual the means to achieve his goals, but also as a defensive strategy to make sure the community of strong individuals is united against weak invaders in battle. This resulted in the band establishing socialist systems of community-run farms and workshops whereever they settled, where every bandit had to work to keep the whole group afloat. This worked reasonably well, since the bandits knew that without strong internal connections and without the supplies they made, they would be crushed by their enemies, and most would likely be killed due to their unwillingness to cooperate with the enemy.
The Penal Code
The Penal Code of the Bloodhand Band, thought up by gang member Jagarn Keil, is fairly simplistic. It is based on the concept of Platformism, and consists of a principle of proportional punishment, though this is obviously only applied to gang members, not members of "the weak". First of all, most property crimes do not exist in the gang, since almost all property is collectively owned. Second, if any band member brings nonconsensual bodily harm onto any other band member, they are investigated, and if found guilty, the same harm is to be done to their body. Essentially, it's the "eye for an eye" principle. Betraying the band in any way, for example by defecting or collaborating with the enemy, always results in a death sentence. Beheadings are being done in the open, as an example and as a deterrent, but before that, the crimes of the soon-to-be-beheaded are read out aloud in front of the entire crowd, which is supposed to show that the terror of the band is not random.
If a gang member continually shows disagreement with core tenants of the ideology of Bloodhandism, they are expelled, to prevent subordination, but are given some resources by the gang as a symbolic peace deal. Should they, however, be revealed to betray the band after that, they are made a top priority target, with anyone who kills them being rewarded with money (if they do not belong to the band) or special plundering privlieges (if they belong to the band).
These rules, as well as some others, are written down in the "Red Rulebook", a small document that Keil keeps closely guarded, which is the highest form of Authority in the gang. Positions on the band's rudimentary courts are routinely cycled out to different members, so as not to create a privileged class of Judges.
Treatment of Non-Gang members
Being a criminal band, the Bloodhandists are quite hostile to most non-gang members. Strell believes that, while the ratio of strong to weak people in general society is around 1/20, any raiding gang members always need to assume that any people they attack might be strong themselves, since he believes that harshly disrespecting other strong people is morally wrong and means the perpetrator is no longer strong or virtuous. This includes multiple forms of torture, psychological or physical humiliation, extended capture, bringing about a situation sure to lead to destruction of virtue (forced cannibalism etc.), particularly gruesome murder and rape, but not robbing and regular killing, as an upstanding death in battle is seen as a fair fate for strong persons.
If gang members find definitely weak people, all rules regarding respect and honour fall away, leaving the "weak" to the bandit's mercy, often leading to gruesome violence, torture, murder and rape. The only rule bandits are even slightly encouraged to follow is not to fall into a state where they can no longer control themselves (Killing Frenzies etc.), since this might lead to them harming their fellow strong gang members on accident, and would lead to them being proportionately punished.
On a final note, Jagarn Keil has expressed some frustrations about reckless violence by bandits, but since this is purely a management of strategy and optics and any legislation against the freedom to act against weak people would go against the central tenets of Bloodhandism, he won't be able to do anything but verbally protest.
History
Relations
Brothers in Strength
- Skullsplitter Band - Fellow Band, with good economic ideas. Please keep fighting the WRRA, we'll send you supplies!
- Radinian Working People's Front - Interesting Ideas you have there, and we can team up to smash the weak in Kauvatten, but you should be a bit more libertarian.
- Anarcho-National Bolshevism - Stateless, socialist, AND discriminatory? I think I'm in love... Although you should really reconsider your biases. You should be mean towards the weak, not foreigners.
Strong-ish
- Rados Commune - You're weak, and you oppose us and the Skullsplitters. But your system is great, it's very similar to ours.
- Free City Anheem - You're also weak! Thanks, though, for help in the Battle of Prastenheim, you helped us repel the Cultists.
Weaklings
- Radinian Monarchy - Never again will we be reigned over by a weak royal family! You created me, and now I will make it my life's work to destroy you!
- WRRA - You may take our lives, but you will never take our country, and you will never take our freedom!
- Fraktal Band - Get 1563'd Idiots. Your system is stupid, and while Derivan is strong, he is obviously unfit for leadership.
- Great Grey Horde - Stop enslaving our people!
- ↑ Although there is some debate over this in the band, with some arguing that the incredible physical strength of soldiers, and their capacity for ruthless plundering and violence, balance out their reliance on authority.
- ↑ It is important to note that the Bloodhand Band has little to no allies and that multiple groups are actively trying to exterminate them, so this philosophical position might be motivated more by pragmatism then by sincere belief.