The Mech Touch

After the birth of the Golden Cat, the founding ceremony wound down. After Colonel Ark Larkinson finished his address to the new Larkinson clansmen and cut off his projection, the separation between the Larkinson Clan and the Larkinson Family became permanent.

This was not an unhappy divorce. Ves could clearly tell that many if not all of the clan members in the crowd were happy, hopeful or eager of their future.

The influence of the Golden Cat mellowed out after the newborn spiritual product grew tired and began to rest within the book.

The Larkinson Mandate still glowed with warmth, protectiveness and familiarity in his hands.

Out of all of the spiritual products he made, only the Golden Cat bore his affection. He intended to create an ancestral spirit that not only watched over the Larkinson Clan, but also himself.

He felt a little less alone now that he sensed the clear spiritual bond to the ancestral spirit.

The other Larkinsons all experienced the same sensation but to a lesser degree due to their decreased spiritual sensitivity. The norms among the Larkinsons would probably not pay conscious attention anymore as they slowly filtered out the bond as background noice.

Perhaps the expert candidates might notice something. Ves observed Jannzi and Tusa carefully and figured that Tusa was considerably more sensitive to the new bond from the way he tried to look around.

As for Jannzi, Qilanxo already claimed her. She probably wouldn't allow the Golden Cat to maintain anything more than a cursory bond. To go further would encroach on her territory!

All in all, the Golden Cat's influence on the clan was very minor for the time being. Except for making the clan members feel more warmth whenever they thought about the clan or their fellow relatives, the ancestral spirit didn't possess the power to do anything more.

Ves did not underestimate this effect, though. Positive feedback, however minor, was a powerful tool to reinforce certain kinds of attitudes or behavior.

If his new clan members experienced warmth whenever they thought well of the clan, then their mentalities would slowly reprogram in a way where they continued to seek the same reward.

Any attitude or conduct that lessened the frequency of rewards would unconsciously signal the Larkinsons that they were heading in the wrong direction, thereby encouraging them to return to the correct path!

This was something that Ves considered crucial to his nascent clan. Despite all of the pomp and circumstance which Ves used to create a lot of strong associations in the minds of his clan members, the Larkinson Clan was not as strong and established as he would like. It was barely better than a typical mercenary corps in terms of cohesion!

Therefore, Ves had to resort to stagecraft, symbolism and outright spiritual manipulation in order to reduce the gap between the Larkinson Clan and the Larkinson Family!

As long as he could manage to maintain the illusion of a strong and vibrant Larkinson Clan, his relatives would naturally fit the desired mold. Once they internalized their new identities as clansmen, then Ves did not have to exert so much effort anymore.

At that point, the illusion became real.

Ves wrapped up the ceremony by summarizing the governance structure of the Larkinson Clan.

"Three organs will govern our clan for the time to come. First, the Larkinson Assembly will be the platform where notable clan members can offer proposals to be discussed and voted upon. Any notable clan member, including elders, are eligible to join the Assembly."

The Assembly highly resembled the steering committee of the old Larkinson Family. The details and the overall roles of the two organs different. The Assembly was supposed to be a legislative body with the power to restructure the entire clan as long as enough proposals passed. The downside was that it only held its meetings a couple of times a year.

The clan needed another body to run the affairs of the clan, especially if it grew and expanded in size.

"To govern the day-to-day activities of the Larkinson Clan and enact any new proposals, we have decided to create a smaller Larkinson Executive Council that consists entirely of the most suitable Larkinsons that can lead the clan. Any issues that aren't worth bringing up to the Assembly will be dealt with by the Council. Do note that the Council always governs at the will of the Assembly."

To reinforce this relationship, the Assembly had the power to appoint or dismiss any of the nine members of the Executive Council. An assembly member could not occupy a council seat and vice versa. Aside from the position of patriarch, a concentration of power had to be avoided at all costs.

If something happened that neither the Assembly nor the Council could resolve, then another institution was needed.

"Disputes and violations are inevitable. In order to resolve these issues, the Larkinson Court is formed out of the most esteemed Larkinsons among us to mediate or pass judgement, whichever is necessary. Every high-ranking mech pilot or mech designer will automatically become a member of the Court, though they will only take part in the most severe cases."

The three organs resembled the typical division of power of states, and that was on purpose.

Ves envisioned the Larkinson Clan growing from its modest beginnings to a huge behemoth over time.

The Larkinson Clan was different from the Larkinson Family, which had always controlled its size through various means.

When Ves initially conceived of the Larkinson Clan as a nomadic clan, he studied the governance structures of spaceborn clans.

Each of them had chosen to model themselves as states, because that was who they were. The only difference between a spaceborn clan and a recognized state was that the former didn't hold any fixed territories!

In many other aspects, a spaceborn clan did not differ substantially from a state.

While it was a bit premature to treat the Larkinson Clan as a formal state, the three governing bodies that he and elders put into effect should be able to accommodate the clan from the beginning.

The Larkinson Assembly consisted of fifty members in total.

The Larkinson Executive Council was made up of nine capable council members.

The Larkinson Court only held three permanent judges, but any high-ranking mech pilot and mech designer could also take part if needed.

That left only the most supreme position.

"While many clan members will have a say in the running of the clan, there are certain times when even the Executive Council is inadequate. To lead the clan during a crisis and represent us all to external parties, a position exists which stands on top of the aforementioned organs. As our first Larkinson Clan Patriarch, I pledge to lead the clan to prosperity and better your lives!"

With all of the preparation he did beforehand, Ves received absolutely no rejection from the crowd. They all clapped and approved of the decision, even if many of them weren't exactly aware of what it meant to be a patriarch.

Unlike the Larkinson Family's patriarch, Ves possessed a lot of actual power if he chose to exercise it. He could directly overrule the decisions of the Assembly, Executive Council and the Court without needing to provide any justification.

The clan patriarch also had the right to force the removal of any member of the three organs!

However, a caveat existed which served to restrain the clan patriarch to an extent. This was the compromise that Ves had made with the Larkinson elders over the course of the recent assembly meetings.

The Larkinson Assembly basically had the power to reprimand or vote on the dismissal of the current clan patriarch.

However, the vote threshold for anything concerning the clan patriarch was very high! A proposal relating to Ves or any other patriarch had to gain the support of at least 80 percent of the votes in order to pass!

If a situation arose where Ves wanted to implement a hugely impactful order but met with intense opposition from the rest of the clan, he could still ram it through.

Even if more than 80 percent of the Larkinson Assembly voted to boot him from the office of clan patriarch, Ves would still have his way in this situation!

The price for this was that this would be the last order he could make. A clan patriarch was allowed to act wilfully if the situation was truly desperate, but a leader was not allowed to disregard the will of the entire clan over and over again!

That would lead to tyranny and transform the Larkinson Clan into something too far removed from the intentions of Ves and the initial clan members!

Therefore, if Ves decided one day to make the Larkinson Clan a vassal of the Hexadric Hegemony, his clan would sure as hell fight tooth and nail to stop this action!

Yet Ves would still prevail in the end. Perhaps many clan members would leave after this awful decision, which was another price the clan would pay for his ill-advised order.

In short, Ves wasn't allowed to treat the Larkinson Clan at will as if the three governing bodies didn't exist. He had to respect the will of the Larkinson Clan and make sure that he didn't garner the disgust of an overwhelming majority of the Larkinsons!

Though it sounded as if Ves relinquished a lot of power, he didn't really mind these concessions.

If Ves ran the clan so badly that 80 percent of the assembly members were ready to boot him out of his office, then it was better for everyone involved that he should resign from his position.

There was no way that Ves could effectively run the clan when so many Larkinsons hated his guts.

Rather than let the Larkinsons rebel and try to effect change through violence or intimidation, it was better to offer them a formal means to remove the current clan patriarch.

Besides, Ves already learned from the Bright Republic that there were more ways to maintain control of state than to occupy a formal position.

The founding families seemed to master the art of leading the Bright Republic in the shadows. Though their family members occasionally occupied elected or appointed positions in the government, the Tovars and the Cavendishes exercised an outsized amount of influence in the affairs of the state!

Ves was farsighted enough to know that he wouldn't make the best clan patriarch. He was also aware that there may be situations in the future where it became untenable for him to keep hold of this position.

Rather than alienate his family members and turn himself into a tyrant, he might as well make way for another clan patriarch who enjoyed everyone's support.

With how integral he was in founding the Larkinson Clan, Ves did not believe that he would become irrelevant even after he relinquished the highest seat of power!

Through cultivating relationships and alliances with other notable Larkinsons, Ves could still exert a lot of power without stepping into the open.

By earning the admiration of the younger generation of Larkinsons, Ves would be able to transform himself into a transcendent figure akin to the Larkinson Ancestor whose word must be respected regardless of his lack of office!

This was his true plan to keep the reins of his clan! While all of the other organs were still able to exercise real power, in his eyes they were merely operating at a level far below his vision!

Of course, this was not very relevant for the moment. Every Larkinson clan member fully supported his endeavors. The clan was small enough that factionalism hadn't cropped up yet. There were no major disagreements as most of the Larkinsons who chose to accompany him were already on his side.

That would change, Ves was sure. Once the clan grew in numbers, disagreements became inevitable. When that happened, Ves was sure there would be Larkinsons who wanted to steer the clan in a different direction!