This article concludes an earlier summary of the Zero State’s twelve “Foundation Stones”, which are story-fragments, ‘seeds’ of a sort, together comprising the basis of our unifying narrative.

Metahouse 4: The Black Parade

The Black Parade gets its name from the title of an album by the band My Chemical Romance, which reflects the Parade’s nature as an arts-and-media space that connects ZS to the worlds of alternative subculture.

Beyond the arts, media, and subculture-networking, the Black Parade has a special connection to organization of the Althing (ZS’ highest-level gathering, held every five years). It is Dionysian, but still positive, and has a very ‘Jungian’ psychological flavour, deliberately evoking powerful archetypes to spread the ZS message.

07 House Samsa (AKA Media, The Studio)

House Samsa evolved from various elements of the underground UK Industrial music scene of the late 1990s. Record labels such as Wasp Factory Recordings, Line Out Records, and The Liquid Len Recording Company. Bands such as Xykogen, History Of Guns, and Null-A.

Pursuing a continual blurring of the lines of artistic boundaries, participants and observers saw the visual become musical, psychological theory welded to beats. Melody, harmony and counterpoint applied to politics. Music transformed into a dance of mathematics and existentialist philosophy. Embracing Timothy Leary‘s eight-circuit model of consciousness, the psychological philosophy of Robert Anton Wilson, the artistic approach of Momus and Coil. Informed by Transhumanist theory, The Praxis by Dirk Bruere, and the works of Philip K Dick. A stewing pot that led to Social Futurist artistic events and creations that provoked and challenged the prevailing cultural mindset of the 2020’s.

08 House Corrino (AKA Network, Legion)

House Corrino exists to connect ZS with large numbers of people, thus its various nicknames, including ‘Network’, ‘Legion’, and even ‘The Army’ (despite not having any hint of a militaristic nature, at least in the early-C21). Among the Twelve Houses, Corrino is most clearly ZS’ “lobby” or reception area, just as dedicated to media outreach as House Samsa, but more focussed on networking and the larger (mainstream) public rather than the narrower realm of arts and subculture. If House Samsa is a creative studio, then House Corrino is its associated broadcasting station.

 

S5 / VR & internal “world-building”

Wyrd, Zero State, Illusory realities, Info-ops, strategy games.

 

Metahouse 5: The Beast (AKA Therion)

The Beast is a strange creature (hence the name). On the one hand, The Beast represents the Zero State’s “Dark Side”, but one harnessed to the purpose of serving the needs of ZS and the people who constitute the Social Futurist community. On the other hand, Houses Svarga and Tal Shiar (which together comprise The Beast) are the most idealistically loyal of all, their apparent cynicism actually a form of deep pragmatism, or of Realpolitik. In sum, perhaps it is best to think of the Beast as a guard dog. No-one wants a small, cute, unthreatening guard dog.

The loyalty of these Houses is to an idea, or ideal. They are the “Ultras” of the Ajati, our own Kshatriya, the most vigorous defenders of our chosen, collective identity. They have a deep metaphysical view, but it largely remains concealed behind an intense practical focus (not to mention a disdain for the opinions of others, especially where those opinions are inconsequential). Part of that shared metaphysics is an understanding of reality as a multiverse or myriad of possible existences, whose translation into practical duty is known as The Praxis.

As of the year 12018, it is unknown whose dedication to such “cosmic” ideas is deeper, members of Houses Tal Shiar and Svarga or the Navigators of Metahouse ZODIAC, but it is known that The Beast is without peer in all matters of unsentimental necessity. The Beast exists to do what simply must be done.

09 House Svarga (AKA Family, The Family)

House Svarga exists at the heart of the Ajati Mythos, the very idea of the People we seek to become, together. The Ajati Mythos draws a parallel between the deep past and deep future, acknowledging that only the mythic canvas of the past can offer broad enough ideas to truly carry us into the future. Svarga draws upon the traditions descended from Proto-Indo-European Cultures (e.g. of Svarog, the Slavic god from whom the House takes its name), folk religion, and Ásentír, carrying them forward into a transcendent future.

10 House Tal Shiar (AKA The Array)

House Tal Shiar takes its name from the science fiction TV series Star Trek, in which it is the intelligence organization of the Romulan Star Empire. The motto of House Tal Shiar is: Exitus Acta Probat, or, the ends justify the means, which sets the tone of the enterprise.

Tal Shiar Mission

The ends are the replacement of Homo Sapiens Sapiens with multiple superior genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced species, while progressing the creation of a God – the Basilisk of the Black Sun.

Tal Shiar Operations

The House operates in multiple modes:

  •         As a propaganda arm
  •         To provoke chaos and dissent external to ZS, where we may take advantage of it
  •         To infiltrate and influence other organizations, political, religious and scientific
  •         To do whatever is necessary to complete the mission

It should be noted that everything the House does publicly usually has a hidden agenda attached which will seldom be made public ahead of its fruition. Wherever possible its overt operations will embrace elements of the grandiose and absurd, which aids deniability when “things go wrong”. House Tal Shiar seeks to operate in the motivated fringes of society, with no regard to conventional ethics.

Tal Shiar Organization

Most members of the House are not and never will be overtly ZS. Members are encouraged to act independently in line with ZS and Social Futurist ideology and interests. Tal Shiar organization is cellular and non-hierarchical.

Metahouse 6: Club 21

Club 21 is Futurism. More specifically, Club 21 (AKA. The 21 Club) is defined by the ideas of Transhumanism and Singularitarianism. The Metahouse’s name is often considered to refer to “C21”, i.e. the 21st Century, but there is no hard evidence to confirm that meaning. Even more particularly, these Houses take an interest in the intersection between cutting-edge Futurism, progressive social views, and politics. Club 21 is easily the least “magical” or “cosmic”, the least weird of all the ZS Metahouses, the least inclined to view anything ZS-related as a game or simulation, and the most invested in notions of technology and socio-economic-political systems. Club 21 is worldly, focussed on issues such as longevity and sustainable abundance.

11 House Rhadamanth (AKA The Party, Social Futurist Party)

House Rhadamanth is led by Gennady Stolyarov II, who assumed the Core Role of “Anankes Atraktos” (a Greek term from Plato‘s Republic, meaning “Spindle of Necessity“) at the end of 12017. Gennady is Chairperson of the US Transhumanist Party, Chief Executive of the Nevada Transhumanist Party, and much more besides. This connection reflects a major development in House Rhadamanth’s focus and culture, which has now expanded from drones and robotics to Transhumanism in general, and which hinges on direct support for and collaboration with the Transhumanist Party, both in the US and internationally.

House Rhadamanth is even more focussed on engineering, science and technology than House Tal Shiar, more dedicated to the idea of “rationalism”. It has a distinctly American flavour, somehow related to the idea of an eternal frontier, and deep connections with House Adhar and The Foundation.

12 House Ormen (AKA Villa of Ormen, The Senate, The Ekklesia)

Finally, House Ormen is a kind of twin or counterpart to House Sem-Bhu, which is to say something of an unknown quantity which exists at the edge of ZS culture. Its name heavily alludes to ★ (Blackstar), the title single of David Bowie’s final album. The name ‘Ormen’ is generally believed to refer to a snake or serpent (‘Ormen’ in Scandinavian languages, ‘Wyrm’ and later ‘worm’ in English).

On an esoteric level, members of this House are also rumoured to believe in one or more obscure prophecies, usually said to revolve around the idea of some future event referred to as “X Day”, or the “Day of Execution”. More publicly and materially, House Ormen has particular connections with the Senate and Ekklesia, which is to say the deliberative body of senior citizens, and periodic gatherings of the State’s decision-making groups. The Althing – the largest and least frequent ZS gathering – is however more populist, primarily organized by the Black Parade (i.e. Houses Samsa and Corrino).

Similarly, House Ormen has pretensions toward the arts and media, sometimes perceived as stepping on the toes of both Houses Samsa and Corrino. As of 12018, it is unknown whether there is any real tension or competition, there. It may simply be that there is a pattern of common interests between various Houses, and that the deeper interests of House Ormen are as yet unknown.