The Society and Ideology of the United Cities | Kenshi Faction Lore 

"We may be assholes, but we're not racist..." -The United City

To me, the United Cities samurai are such a mixed bag. Sometimes you'll meet a corrupt soldier who will accuse you of carrying illegal goods even if you aren't. Sometimes you'll be walking in the desert and be hailed by samurai squad captain who will offer to protect you for a day or two for free. This one's just headcanon from me, but I feel like Lord Shiro is the only noble who's actually doing his job. I often saw him rushing outside with the soldiers of Catun to fight off the occasional beak thing/spider/gorrillo bandit raid.

I love it! As you said, fiction is but a window of our realities, a way to expose the worst and maybe offer better alternatives. Thank you, cheers.

I love this! Not enough youtubers talk about Kenshi lore out there, I have been thinking of trying to do so myself as this game is trully captivating.

My faction is about to enter open warfare with The Holy Nation, and as much as I wish to dismantle the United Cities as well, we're only strong enough to handle one world superpower. We have the Shek at our side, but they are too slow and too few to do anything more than provide late support in one war at a time. The faction that piggybacks off of my current one in my next playthrough will deal with the United Cities.

Just stumbled upon your channel, binged all lore videos. Keep up the good work man!

I think the economic mode of UC is alot more in line with feudalism than capitalism. The guild and nobles regulate things to favour them. I think the culture of respects power more than money. Projecting power implies wealth. A rich person who does not play the UC nobility games would prpbably be seen as a fool whos money the nobles are justified in getting their hands on. Great vid. Got few hundred hours in kenshi, lore vids are really nice, theres alot of intetesting and F:ed shit in kenshi :heart:

Catun is my favorite city only because they have a second gate before you even get into the city

This is lit!! It was super helpful and insightful for me-- I'm writing a huge essays (not studying, just for hobby) on the many political factions in Kenshi, and how they blatantly mirror the ideologies we live under and alongside today ! I greatly respect the game for how uncomfortable it seeks to make the player. It really forces you through a moral dilemma or two every hour lol, it's just so blunt and visceral. When the upper and middle classes live only a desert hike away from their slave labour sweatshops, you're very easily forced into moral questions that are intentionally made avoidable for everybody who lives inside the Global North. Anyways subscribed!! Definitely make more like this, I appreciate your analysis!!

Thank you for making these, I just picked up Kenshi and your videos are great!

I agree with your analysis. Great videos , I can't get enough of your stuff

Amazing analysis, loving the lore of Kenshi!

Seriously you actually did a FANTASTIC JOB Probs!!

This playlist of Kenshi lore is a great soundtrack while I hack my way towards Mongrel. Thanks for the content.

Awesome video Rasen! I loved the inclusion of real life parallelisms

Another amazing video

You just made me like Kenshi a bit more ; )

Great video, comrade :)

I like to listen to your video when I fall asleep and imagine you're a tutor educating me about this Moon like Paul Atreides with Arrakis.

very well done video

This episode is a lot more philosophical and existential that expected lol

Watched and 👍 Liked

Nice docu about the UC. I was curious about the United Heroes. I went to the empire regions late in the game and bought my own outpost inside Sho Battai. One night there, I saw a large group of United Heroes breaking the door of a general supplies store in the middle of the night. Not sure why but they got jumped by the Samurai Police soon after. Later on, I somehow passed by their HQ in the middle of the dessert then they suddenly attacked me (dunno why again, I'm a greenlander) but since it's pretty late game, I accidentally offed everyone inside the y-building their based in, including their Lord 😆 Still wondering what they're high on.

Great loretelling and based takes

now as someone who likes making outposts and cities...being allies with the UC is G O O D ....thoooo place some interior walls and hide yur hemp farms out of sight... also Shem is my fav place to make outposts

cool

First real playthrough. I had to run to the UNC for beep to escape the Holy Nation. A heroes gang approached me and I got made fun of for being a bug person and got beat up. 10/10

That last part just gave me immense cringe, in uni they told us that there are two points of view, the externalizers and the internalizers, the externalizers see that the position where they are right now is because of them, they put out their actions into the worlds, the internalizers just blame the world for their ills and live by sucking up and crying, you are clearly the latter, what i love about the uc is that those who are cunning get to rise in society, to play its written and unwritten rules, kenshi is an unforgivable place where only the strong survive, the uc is just a more civilized version of it.

Make these longer and darker! Dive real deep! The lore is meant to be making comments of our societies around the globe with many parallels and mixes!

Personally UC is my 2nd most hated faction, first being holy nation. I will usually be line straight to capture/assassination of their leaders

i like how you have a list of not talked on topic. people don't talk about kenshi enough. you should look into the bug master and the hive. edit nvm thats probably the next one

"Material conditions" "means of production" I see what you're on, comrade 👀👀👀

i kidnaped all the nobles and put them in the peeler, did it stealthy to, only reason they found out is because i allied with Tinfist after taking down the whole Trader's Guild, and i only did that to bait Eyegore into my base so i could loot his Meitou Saber i spared the Phoenix and Inquisitors from the peeler tough, evil as they may have been, at least they were strong war leaders, so i just handed them over to the Shek Kingdom i'm a little pissed that my bounty only made it to 55.000 Cats for kidnaping the nobles and breaking prisoners out of Tengu's vault... i guess i shouldn't have been so stealthy if i wanted as big a bounty as Tinfist

Tengu looks like such a pimp.

I like that in Kenshi, sexual dimorphism isn't really a thing. Other than boobs and differently shaped behinds there's no difference between a male and a female character. Maybe you could draw parallels to other species which are similar

It was political without being annoying and I love the way you tied it to science fiction.

Based analysis.

what happens to the UC cities if you wipe out the people?

It sounds like your politics are shining through - nice

A more specific ideology for them would be Social Darwinism

So… basically America fifty or so years from now.

Finally.... a kenshi youtuber that doesnt have the political opinion of a 14 year old edge lord oozing out of every word.... the world is healing

You know tabloids are everywhere?

To be honest, being the Fact the Trader's Guild is pretty much Part of the State, if not the "Actual" State being it holds more power than the Nobles. I wouldn't call it Capitalism in the slightest. Being it's the Hierarchy that run society. To be honest, it has more in common with Mercantilism than Capitalism. Capitalism is built more around Private Ownership, which is separate from the State. So private farms, private stores, private business. When you're incorporated into the State you technically forfeit being "Capitalist" because you're no longer part of the Private Sector as you are the Public Sector now. This in turn is also why phrases like State Capitalism end up being very Oxymoronic. It's also why it's weird why people consider Corporations Capitalist, when Corporations collectively owned companies, and there is a reason it's called "Going Public" when they're formed, and why owners are called Share Holders, ie it's not Privately owned, but owned by hundred, thousand and at times even millions of people. Before someone falls back on the "profits" defense, even in a socialist system you have profits/loss, even if they abolished money, as all commodities are Capital, even a potato. I mean there is a reason the USSR made cheap Nuclear Reactors, and resorted to using a Tar like Oil to power it's only aircraft carrier, it was "Cheaper." Even though it was a regime not built around "Profit." This video about that carrier is a horror story btw ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dY9NVvKrlMQ.html

It's USA 😆

All bad things cant

Please get more political

" a buffoon is easy to control" another example of art imitating life? #biden

UC are based. Alternative to slavery is genocide. Therefore, slavery is a step forward.

Love the lore, hate the fact you are leaning towards communism