The Board of Quality Control is a branch of The Society's government responsible for monitoring and controlling the population of the solar system to ensure compliance with its caste system, with a focus on genetic and social engineering. The Board is responsible for managing policies to keep all colors in line, with its reach extending from the lowest color to the highest.
Offices[]
The Board of Quality Control operates a series of prison and administrative complexes, collectively referred to as Whitehold, on various planets and moons across the solar system.[1][2][3] It also oversees the administrative functions of select prison facilities.[4]
Policies[]
Census Records[]
One of the Board of Quality Control's functions is to maintain census records of all citizens in The Society's territory, regardless of color. These records contain the history of every citizen from Gold heirs to Obsidian slaves.[5][6]
Mortality Rates[]
The Board of Quality Control is responsible for managing the population totals of The Society, and cultivating environments to ensure a desirable mortality rate for each color out of the belief that civilization weakens natural selection:[7]
- During the terraforming of the solar system, the Board of Quality Control ensured that the lands set aside for the Obsidians after the Dark Revolt would be so hazardous that less than sixty percent of them would reach adulthood.[8]
- In order to ensure that future generations of Gold continue to embody the qualities that The Society values, the Board maintains a policy that 13.6213 percent of all Gold children should die before their one year of age, and will sometimes actively make reality fit that number by ensuring that Gold mothers receive no catalysts, sedatives, or nucleics during childbirth.[7]
- Fifty percent of the 1200 Gold students drafted at each Institute annually are enrolled by the Board for the sole purpose of being killed by the other half in The Passage, and upon the beginning of the school's war game, additional student fatalities are permitted below a certain limit.[9]
The Exposure[]
As part of their stance on Gold infant mortality rates, the Board of Quality Control will conduct a test known as The Exposure on random infants to determine whether a baby who is considered to be of a lower quality than the average Gold can continue to live. The baby is left alone on a rock, exposed to the elements, for between three[10] and ten days[11], without any care giving from anyone, including the mother. If the baby is found alive after the time is up, then they can continue to live on as a Gold, though they may not have the same quality of life as other Golds. Even if the Board chooses not to put a newborn through The Exposure, it permits parents to do so anyway.[10]
In order to ensure that no child is given favorable treatment, the Board of Quality Control monitors all Gold births, and will strip the licenses of carvers who help parents seeking to spare their child from The Exposure.[12]
Reproductive Bans[]
The Board of Quality Control strictly prohibits inter-caste reproduction, and has used a variety of methods over the centuries to enforce their ban. Sometime in the early Post-Conquering Era, the fourteen colors were genetically modified in order to ensure that each human's reproductive system was only compatible with that of people from their own caste.[13][14] The use of carvers to circumvent that barrier is highly illegal and punishable by execution of both the parents and the carvers involved.[13] All records of the offending parties' actions are sealed to all except a handful of Golds,[13] and any children that result from the union are dissected for examination.[15][1]
Social Engineering[]
The Board of Quality Control has a variety of procedures and regulations regarding social engineering that outline scenarios for keeping lower colors such as Reds and Obsidians in line.
Reds[]
The Board of Quality Control uses a structure known as the Stratification Protocol to keep the Red population of Mars fractured and divided against each other in order so that they do not unite against Gold. With lowReds, the protocol involves separating each mining colony being divided into twelve separate clans, which are further divided into night and day shifts with each clan. The clans are placed in competition with each other for access to higher quality goods via the laurel, creating strife between the clans and discouraging inter-clan marriages and friendships that could results in the population uniting.
The Board keeps Reds further divided by cultivating lowRed culture to be rigidly patriarchal, with women being forbidden from the physically strenuous, grueling tasks needed for the collection of resources to propagate the terraforming of Mars, which their identity as a people has been conditioned to center around.[16] Related to this, the Board of Quality Control has conditioned lowReds to prioritize the nuclear family for its efficiency in producing the next generation of laborers and violently shun homosexuality, declaring it a waste of sperm.[17][18]
In order to ensure Reds continued to obey, the Board of Quality Control cultivated belief in The Vale, to encourage obedience by promising Reds a reward at the end of a hard life.[19]
Obsidians[]
After the Dark Revolt, the Society liquidated 90% of the Obsidian population and segregated the survivors on the poles of various planets and moons. To keep them from rebelling again, the remaining Obsidian were conditioned to worship Golds as the Aesir of the Norse pantheon, and were stripped of all technology save for the military materiel used by those harvested from the Ice for the Society's armies.[20]
The inhospitable environments that the Obsidian populations are confined to is sparse in natural resources, and intentionally designed by the Board to encourage the queens of the tribes to send their sons into the service of the gods in return for food and supplies.[21][22]
To maintain the illusion that Golds are gods, the Board of Quality Control operates a series of flying mountain stations known as Asgard in each region of Obsidian habitation, where Peerless Scarred don the identities of gods such as Loki and Freya to interact with and oversee the Obsidians of the Ice.[23] Asgard is surrounded by invisible defensive measures that kill any creature that tries to approach without leaving a mark to appear as magic to the technology-deprived Obsidians.[21]
Through the shamans of the Obsidian tribes, the Board discouraged physical affection between Obsidians by teaching that touch weakened the spirit and that physical contact was only permissible when saving a life, having sex, or killing someone.[20]
Liquidation Protocol[]
If social engineering proves insufficient to quell the populace of a helium-3 mine, the Board of Quality Control's final resort is the liquidation protocol, in which the air is pumped full of achlys-9 gas to exterminate the mine's entire population.[24][25] Once the mine has been cleared, it is then repopulated with clans from more compliant mines.
Pink Sterilization[]
Cupid's Kiss[]
To make Pinks compliant with the orders of Golds, the Board ensures that all of them are implanted with a device known as Cupid's Kiss during childhood which causes them to experience constant pain that only stops when they obey their masters. The device is removed when a Pink turns twelve, and the fear of it being put back is used to keep them in line for the rest of their life.[26]
Classification System[]
When Adrius au Augustus became ArchGovernor of Mars, he proposed a new system of binomial nomenclature to separate the Colors, each of them based off of Homo sapiens.[12]
- Known species names are:
- Presumed species names include:
Institute Monitoring[]
The Board of Quality Control oversees the entrance exam for all campuses of The Institute and audits high-scoring students to prevent cheating.[27][28] The war games are monitored by the Board each year to ensure that the number of student fatalities remains within acceptable limits and that the Proctors are not unfairly favoring some students over others for personal or political gain.[29]
Carver Regulation[]
In order to ensure compliance with the hierarchy and prevent the breeding of dangerous predatory animals, the Board of Quality Control is responsible for overseeing the licensing and regulation of all Carvers.[12][30]
History[]
Pre-Saga[]
After the Dark Revolt, the Board of Quality Control debated whether or not to destroy the entirety of the Obsidian population.[13]
Fitchner au Barca was subjected to The Exposure for 10 days in 700 PCE.[11]
In 720 PCE, Martian ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus places his son Adrius through The Exposure even though the Board of Quality Control did not request it.[10]
Sons of Ares[]
At some point between 718 and 720 PCE, Arturius au Vardan joined the Board of Quality Control as a Prefect and Venator.[11][15][31]
In 720 PCE, the Martian carver Zarubal was arrested by the Board of Quality Control for work done on an Obsidian gladiator and informed them of the union of Fitchner au Barca and Bryn of Cryssos, who had hired him to help them conceive their child Sevro together.[32] As an old friend of Fitchner, Arturius had Bryn and Sevro detained at the Whitehold facility outside Agea. Fitchner and his team broke into the facility to rescue her, but was only permitted to leave with his son, while Bryn was executed with achlys-9 gas.[33][32]
Red Rising[]
As with all prior school years at The Institute, the Board of Quality Control conducted the entrance exam for the 542nd class of the Martian Institute when Darrow took the test in December 737. After he only got a single question wrong on the written exam, he was audited by Bondilus cu Tancrus to confirm that he did not cheat.
Golden Son[]
In early 742 PCE, Virginia au Augustus drafted legislation for the Reformers to put forward in the Senate once they defeated Octavia that would restructure the Board, with the aim of improving the living conditions of lowReds in Mars's helium-3 minutes.[24]
Morning Star[]
At some point before 743 PCE, Adrius au Augustus proposed a new policy to the Board for classifying the different colors as separate species.[12] During his time as ArchGovernor, the Board oversaw the administrative functions of the prison beneath his fortress in Attica.[4]
After Virginia took over as Sovereign following the death of Octavia during The Fall of Luna, the Board of Quality Control was dissolved, and thousands of its members faced charges for crimes against humanity.[34] Several high-ranking Board members were sentenced to life imprisonment in Deepgrave, however the pressures of the subsequent Solar War against the Society Remnant resulted in many of other lower-ranked members being pardoned in exchange for their household troops, money, and ships.[2]
Members[]
The Board is managed by highColors - Golds, Coppers, and (presumably) Whites. Browns and other low- and midColors perform manual tasks and labor.[32]
Known members of the Board of Quality Control include:
- Bondilus cu Tancrus - Auditor for The Institute's entrance exam.
- Arturius au Vardan - Prefect for the Board.
- Proctor Mercury from the 542nd Class of the Martian Institute - Played the god Loki, stationed at Asgard.
- Unnamed mother of Roque au Fabii
Trivia[]
Notes and References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sons of Ares, Volume 1; Issue #5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Iron Gold, Chapter 14
- ↑ Iron Gold, Chapter 50
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Morning Star, Chapter 03
- ↑ Red Rising, Chapter 14
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 28
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Red Rising, Chapter 20
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 32
- ↑ Red Rising, Chapter 29
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Golden Son, Chapter 51
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Sons of Ares, Volume 2 graphic audio
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Morning Star, Chapter 02
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Golden Son, Chapter 24
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 46
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Sons of Ares, Volume 1; Issue #4
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 04
- ↑ Iron Gold, Chapter 29
- ↑ Dark Age, Chapter 29
- ↑ Dark Age, Chapter 42
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Golden Son, Chapter 24
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Morning Star, Chapter 32
- ↑ Light Bringer, Chapter 56
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 33
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Golden Son, Chapter 48
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 09
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 09
- ↑ Red Rising, Chapter 15
- ↑ Red Rising, Chapter 16
- ↑ Red Rising, Chapter 34
- ↑ Dark Age, Chapter 60
- ↑ Sons of Ares, Volume 1 graphic audio
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Golden Son, Chapter 46
- ↑ Sons of Ares, Volume 1; Issue #6
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 65