Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[kaynide]

1. Not interested in being that, and/or perhaps just not politically active enough to take that crown. Tulliyolal is the throne of the guy that unified the continent, after all.
2. Already part of Tural as a society.
3. Already part of Tural as a society.

Your reading seems to assume that Solution Nine would inherently be the head of Turalian society if it was involved at all, and so since Tulliyolal is, Solution Nine must therefore be uninvolved. But honestly, my read is that Solution Nine is a goddamn repository of high-tech combat-ready equipment, and the warmonger is going 'We have all this firepower RIGHT HERE, why don't we just go overseas and USE IT'. And everyone else is just telling him 'no, war sucks, knock it off'.

If S9 is part of the nation, why is it not the seat of power? Why would you live in what is essentially monster-hunter “bone-punk” conditions when you have NeoTokyo with whatever amenities they have right down the street.

[Cleretic]

If S9 is part of the nation, why is it not the seat of power?

I dunno, let's ask the people who live in Washington DC. Or Canberra. Or Beijing, or Ottowa, or Hanoi. Or perhaps the best people to bring in, Brasilia.

There are plenty of real-world nations that have made this exact choice. The original reasons usually stem from either tactical (Ottowa was the most defensible city in Canada back when they picked) or political (Canberra was founded to be the capital of Australia mainly so Sydney and Melbourne would stop fighting over it), but in a lot of cases it eventually becomes historical; this city's the capital because it's always been the capital. Honestly, I think it's more realistic if Tural is exactly the same; Tulliyolal is the capital for reasons that probably made perfect sense 80+ years ago, and even if they don't apply anymore, does anyone really care enough to change it?

[kaynide]

I dunno, let's ask the people who live in Washington DC. Or Canberra. Or Beijing, or Ottowa, or Hanoi. Or perhaps the best people to bring in, Brasilia.

There are plenty of real-world nations that have made this exact choice. The original reasons usually stem from either tactical (Ottowa was the most defensible city in Canada back when they picked) or political (Canberra was founded to be the capital of Australia mainly so Sydney and Melbourne would stop fighting over it), but in a lot of cases it eventually becomes historical; this city's the capital because it's always been the capital. Honestly, I think it's more realistic if Tural is exactly the same; Tulliyolal is the capital for reasons that probably made perfect sense 80+ years ago, and even if they don't apply anymore, does anyone really care enough to change it?

Your argument would work if, say, Washington DC's level of tech/etc was grossly under, say, New York's...but fact of the matter is there isn't much of a technological difference, and a large bulk of USA's military/international power is around Washington DC (the Pentagon; Langley AFB; Norfolk Naval Shipyard, CIA). People in DC aren't stuck with handcarts and ye-olde Wagons with oxen.

Moreover, in the modern real world with Air-Power/mobilization, it's a significantly different scenario than Medieval-Spear-and-Sword troops riding on living mounts vs, again, what can arguably be the most advanced -living- civilization we've seen to date.

So, as I see it, the Yurali are either choosing to live primitively for no real logical reason, or there's some reason they aren't taking advantage of the tech from S9 (aka the 3 reasons listed).