House Tremere : trading liberty for security since 868!
"At least we ask you first these days! "
A fair bit of my thinking about Tremere was based on the US in the Pacific. Forcing Japan to open for Trade, freeing the Philippines from Spain then trading the Democratic forces down the river. Invading a heap of Mexico and somehow thinking it was an accident and wondering why their country was full of people speaking Spanish...
Tremere is kind of like that. Much like the US, they are perfectly happy to come to your covenants government and offer you shelter under the nuclear umbrella. You just have to give them some concessions and do things their way, until it becomes a habit, and then a reflex, and once your systems are intertwined, the cost of freedom is too high, and they aren't quite sure why you'd want to do that to yourself. Like how some people don't understand Hawaiian independence movements.
Back when I wrote it, that was a plausible but weird take. In the modern day, the US has gone in for common-man bluntness a lot more. So, we have US ambassodrs telling us who should win our elecions in Australia, the UK government being told to reduce food safety standards and reduce free healthcare... it's a lot easier to convince US readers they live in an Imperial power now that they can watch their leader tour Puerto Rico and throw hand towels at flood victims.
The answer to "Why would you join Tremere?" is the same one as "Why do so many people emmigrate to the US? ". Freedom is hard and rare and abstract, and possibly only for the rich.
While on the Tremere, lets not ignore that much of what the order sees is very positive. Most Tremere love their masters and their house. They get a lot of support from their house, unlike a lot of houses. And when the Schism war hit, everyone knows that the Tremere fought hardest and lost most. Whether you agree with the Tremere starting the war, there is no doubt they put their money where their mouth is and did the soldiering.
Interesting. Over the years, you've mentioned both Australia and the US as inspirations for your rendition of House Tremere.
Ironically, to me, if House Tremere is akin to America, then Australia is a fine example of the attraction of this kind of subordination. Australia went all in for the Brits in WW1 but did not do the same in WW2, rebuffing requests to send reinforcements to Europe. Instead, Australia placed itself firmly under American protection, Friend and Ally to the hilt, committing troops to even our more dubious wars from which other allies demurred. The costs and benefits seem similar.
But I don't see much of either America or Australia in AM5 House Tremere.
If I had to pick a modern nation as analog, I'd go with post-WW2 Germany. Disarmed, (relatively) contrite, occupied, no longer possessing the formal privileges of a great power, cooperative with international organizations, abjuring conquest, adhering to democratic norms while continuing corporate state traditions, they have found a new way to be the dominant power of Europe.
And if I had to find some analog to America in AM, I'd go with the Order of Hermes itself. They have democratic traditions that sometimes aren't all that democratic. They had civil wars, after which their central governments became far more powerful. They are divided into semi-sovereign states with idiosyncratic traditions and rules. They believe firmly in non-interference, which they enforce and adhere to selectively. They believe in Manifest Destiny, but have a firm idea about who is worthy to join, to some extent based upon perceived ability but also upon perceived worth of lineage and culture. Formal nobility isn't much of a thing, since their societies largely believe themselves to be meritocracies. Their legal communities greatest philosophical conflict is about orginalism.
I suppose this shouldn't be too great a surprise. Although the game is set in Europe, it was first written in America by Americans who were not scholars of European history or culture.