A little while back Aldahlia gave me a link to A Vindication of the Rights of Vampires, saying that it made her think of me. Not sure what to make of that last part, but I did find the point-of-view to be fascinating from a purely philosophical standpoint. The question is whether or not a vampire that could only exist on human blood would be entitled to individual rights. Murray Rothbard says no, Francis Dumouchel makes a case that they could co-exist peacefully under free-market capitalism.

It's labelled satire, but I actually think that Dumouchel really has a point. Though I can see good arguments both ways.

A while back I mentally drafted a backdrop with similar repercussions: Could a post-industrial democracy exist in a fantastical world that included humans, elves, hobbits, gnomes, and orcs. A lot of it depends on which incarnation of the above you use and in many it would be completely incompatible. The different races had different lifespans (which proved to be quite significant) and different reproductive rates that caused demographics to shift and political power and allegiances to shift accordingly.

On one side was the "old ways" mage party (actually a collection of parties in a parliamentary system, but a pretty consistent alliance). They reliably had upwards of 90% of the elven vote, 60-70% of the orc vote, 30-40% of the human vote, and less than 10% of the gnomes (hobbits/halflings were not an electoral power, though they leaned more favorably on the magens. They were generally a conservative bunch, supporting piety, environmental conservation, and federalism. Elves had the biggest sway in the party and they very much just wanted to be left alone to their families and their communities and their magic. They mostly just wanted the government to stop wars and protect their lands from being paved and built upon.

On the other side were the technologists. As elves are at the center of the mage alliance, gnomes are at the center of the technology alliance in part because their mining activities are more rewarded by technology than magic, in part because of their materialism, and in part because of animus towards the elves. The technologists are generally lead, however, by humans. Humans tend towards the technologists because they simply don't live as long as the elves and the beauty of technology is that it lets each generation build on the successes of the previous (rather than learning the magic ways from scratch, which they would never live as long to even be able to approach the elves).

The magen alliance held power throughout most of the span of the confederation. Uniformity among the elves and the sizable orc vote was enough to put them over the top. They generally went out of their way to rule by consensus, however, lest relations dissolve and wars resume. As time passed, however, the elves continued to hone their magical skill while the humans and gnomes procreated like bunny rabbits. The orcs repopulated quickly, but they had high infant mortality rates due to their lacking the social support networks that the other races had afforded themselves.

At the time of the story, the first technologist Prime Minister had been elected and government reform is sweeping through. As the tide shifted towards the techies, the mages lost their hold on the orcs. The orcs were never very ideological creatures to begin with and mostly gravitated towards the magen because they were in power. The new Prime Minister also made capturing the orc vote a priority and set out to extend gold benefits to the orc ghettos in the cities, which had long been neglected. With the orcs shifting and everybody but the elves reproducing in high numbers, many elven communities started relocating to the next kingdom down. The technologists were on the cusp of a perpetual majority in which they had little intention of being as conciliatory as the mages had been.

The the story opens with the last magen Prime Minister about to be ousted. The idea itself wasn't particularly political and mostly dealth with a team of government agents in charge of putting out potential insurrections and subvert the two neighboring kingdom's attempts to feed the flame, so to speak. But even that's sort of a backdrop for a human story of revenge, growing up, and making peace with where you come from.

I guess it's a longer leap from vampire rights to the Four Kingdoms story I plotted out (but lost my blueprint with a harddrive some time back) when written down than it is in my mind. And it's probably more fun for me to think about than it is for you to read.