This is an era where the strong rule, or at least those who can project that image. When inhuman individuals can rise from anywhere and power stolen without warning, only those with the ability to at least present the image of personal strength, such as through the cultivation of an N-matter core, can reliably hold positions of rulership. In truth, things are not so clear-cut. Some lands rule by hereditary right, others by election or merit, others indeed through raw personal charisma or simply fear. Some rest on their laurels and merely act out the pageantry of warriorhood while delegating true conflict to their subordinates, others commit to it fully, risking their lives on the front to hone their bodies in a way that would be a pointless risk for beings not blessed with the potential for endless evolution.
Though the difference between masters may be less wide a gap than some would hope, the fact remains they can be classified. Listed here are common archetypes of leadership, which denote particular tendencies towards war, trade, commerce, scholarship, and other facets of culture.
Agents of bureaucracy and ostensibly merit, administrative rulers rely on complex, self-sustaining systems of law and precedent, maintained by functionaries that keep it running. Administrators are accountable to each other and the systems that bind them, but are unelected, instead chosen by long, involved examinations of skill and character. Known for their adherence to law over all, and ruthlessly pragmatic decision-making.
Those who embrace the predator chaos of the Datasphere as the step forward for pan-humanity, either worshipping the malevolent digital life forms within as divinities or recklessly plumbing their depths for power and knowledge. Makers of monsters and radical accelerationists, those under them are little more than resources to be expended in pursuit of forbidden power.
Masters of dynasty, the atriarchs believe in the slow quest of generational perfection. In a world where the human genetic code is known and dissected, to toy with it is child's play. But to integrate N-matter into a eugenic practice adds exponential complexity, and considerable cost. Thus bloodline once more becomes paramount, and these venerable houses jockey for position among themselves and others as they seek to ascend beyond their lesser kindred.
Like the tyrants of old, brutal and autocratic. Led by strongmen, dictators, cabals of schemers, their methods of rulership are through fear, oppression, and fomenting distrust against the other. Lacking the legitimacy of dynasty or the promise of representation, their power stems from their ability to play their underlings against each other and promise them the greatest share of the wealth extracted from those below. Should this tenuous balance be tipped, their power begins to crumble.
While some recklessly interface with the Datasphere, there are those who see it as something beyond them. An ocean of pure information, infested by digital predators. It is only by the grace of the informational deities bound to the internal networks of the civilized societies that this tide does not sweep us away. Their appeasement is paramount, and the Datasphere's temptations must be shunned and abjured. Those who would endanger this sacred principle must be halted by any means necessary, for the sake of the flocks they protect.
Also named warlords, the generals command armies first and societies second. Certainly, other peoples command soldiers, and wage war, but for those who name themselves such war is as much a part of their life as breathing. They know only the battlefield, the most monstrous of them rising through the ranks as the rest are winnowed away. Respecting only power, to deal with them is to deal with a natural disaster in human form.
Headmen is a general term to denote simpler societies. The tribe elder, the gift giver, the chieftain. Elected by tradition, succeeded by a child, but ultimately in the position they are due to the will of the community below them and the respect they have accrued. An organic development of a people recreating civilization from scratch, they are often concerned with simple survival, distrusting outsiders and fearing a world so far beyond what their ancestors ever knew.
Elected officials, a rarity in this era. Those chosen by the will of the people to speak to the great powers within and without their land, to protect them both in the realms of war and politics. Some may be corrupt, others earnest, but all live and die on the vote of the districts that chose them. Those who break this sacred oath must be cast out, lest this fragile island of equality sink under the waves of tyranny.
A form of government only possible for those whose underlings are barely sapient, the peers are most often deviant life, though some other posthumans may claim the title. Each peer is the sole master of their domain, all within given over to the fulfillment of their own desires, united by other peers through common cause and mutual benefits. In lands where those under them would balk at such a relationship, it is impossible, but for beings who have no citizenry in a way pan-humanity would understand, it arises emergently among those ruthless and alien cousins to our species.
Even in an era where might is all and the bonds of the group fray, there are those who would seek profit over power. In the past, it is said, nothing was more powerful than currency. Here, such abstractions of wealth pale in comparision to raw physical strength, and so the ideology that once dominated the homeworld is no longer insurmountable. They squat in the center of carefully woven networks of trade, making themselves valuable to their more brutal peers, making deals and protecting the routes of their caravans.
While there are countless forms of civilizations, there are certain unifying traits for all of them. While power may be concentrated among individuals or the masses, it is rare for a single individual to hold absolute power. Even the most autocratic peoples are loose alliances of individual masters over a singular tyrant. On the other hand, even the most ostensibly representative civilization is still restricted to elected rulers who possess the wealth and cunning to obtain a great deal of N-matter. Thus there is less difference than one might think between groups who seem wholly ideologically opposed, and in many cases the philosophy they claim to espouse is but a mask for their own naked ambitions. Among them, however, are true believers, genuine practitioners of their chosen way of life. Even in the unending night of the present, these islands of light can develop enough that such idealists can be nurtured.
But these islands are fragile. No matter how internally utopian, they dwell in a world that writhes with monstrous, posthuman life that is well-adapted to the existence of thinking beings. Predators, existential threats, and marauding armies constantly threaten to destroy what has been built, and only care and vigilance can prolong the lifespan of any large group when it is such a tempting target. Thus even the most pragmatic and self-interested are driven to align with their more high-minded counterparts, if only to preserve the system which benefits them so. This delicate balance typifies the political situation of any modern polity, and leaves it vulnerable to chaos if that balance is shattered. And when the power of N-matter can appear in even the most unexpected of places, that balance is imperiled more often than not.