Are you familiar with teenage girls? Really obnoxious popular ones? Well they form triads. Triads of social cohesion with which they dominate social situations. They may not be at hte apex of the social scene, but provided they can form a solid triad, they become a legitimate entity for purposes of diplomacy, and cannot be easily dislodged. They usual attract 1-2 males and 3-4 ancillary females to provide the appearance of popularity. They are not an 'in-group' per se, though they can be under the right circumstances.

The triad itself usually breaks down into 3 archtypes:

the Leader is obsessed with power,
the Secondary is obsessed with acceptance (esp from primary)
the 3rd is obsessed with appearance.

The 3rd girl usually is the rude callous one who rejects on behalf of the group, so that the first two can claim some remoteness from the act, yet still exercise this powerful mechanism. The leader provides permission, and the secondary forms a bridge--the leader can be associated with her lackey, and so can the Rejector, and still cooperate with each other (since otherwise, they might come in conflict).

Without getting into the emotional purposes of these behaviors or why it works, I want to form an SG based on the 3rd archetype.

The easiest way to be 'cool' is to say little or nothing; remain mysterious and aloof. Furthermore, hard to please, though magnanimous in apparent tolerance. People love these kinds of players in the social game because they're hard to understand and gradually come to hold a great deal of power, since, without opinions, they have no weaknesses, and without enemies, are effectively universal friends.

This is the sort of villainy we're going for. Villains who are sort of like the Countess Crey. The point isn't that they have power. The point isn't that they have wealth. It's not that they hate someone per se. But they are obsessed with their own civility. They're obsessed with being stylish and to an extent, decadent. They think of society as an end in itself. They want the poor or the unpopular to exist as contrast to their refined demeanor. They participate in the trappings of power and wealth for the sake of the status and the respect it brings them. They don't believe they are destined--but they do believe they are special. They have no distracting phobias or fixations. They are free to pursue the impossibly perfect selfishness. The Dominatrix of the carnies is sort of in this neighborhood.

We're looking for refined gentlemen of distinction, women of good breeding, and people who will make us popular and important by association (such as stylish robots and the inexplicably lovable or socially acceptible--or even those who are particularly dangerous but make us look good by our ability to 'control' them, however real this control actually may be).

However, in this perfect selfishness exists a moral highground imperative which I plan to make a requirement for the SG.

1 - One shall hang loose. We're not actually competing. We're competing to appear as though we do not need to compete. We put our backs to each other socially and offer a nonplussed front on all sides.

2 - we're not about power. Being crass and power mad is failing to be aloof and civil. You lose the moral high ground by being too obsessed with power.

3 - it helps you're the sort of person who does things because they like the graphics of a power or playing with the character gen more than pling and optimal builds (though that's fine too--provided you're really cool and don't care about anyone else's opinion enough to gain the moral high ground).

4 - the point is this is supposed to be fun. If you don't 'get' the concept then you can join and be one of the lower tiers. But I'd like the upper echelon to be for people who want to wear a suit or a sexy formal outfit into battle.

5 - exclusivity is the point, to an extent. People who *really* want in will need to be rejected. They'll have to be casual to get in, since that's the point.

Being casual will be the defining trait more or less. Crass is the enemy.

it's not going to be an RP guild, really, either, so this will have to be *real* casual demeanor. An indefinable something! Adult SG as well, so adult jokes, swearing, and telling people to shut up because they're being annoying are all permitted and encouraged.

The colors will be either a nice blue or olive drab and khaki.

Ranks will be something along these lines:
(latin for maximum style)

Ductor (leader)
Germanitas (fraternity and sorority; relationship of siblings)
Praetor (one who carries out instructions of a consul--a leader in their own right)
Associate
Aquaintance

the bottom two tiers are in english to emphasize their limited participation.

The ideal is for germanitas and associates to be the most populous groups. Associates being people who are running alts or whatever, signifying that they won't get booted for not logging in for a while. An aquaintance can get booted for a 2 week absence--informed or not. If they come back and want in, then they'll probably get invited if we have room unless we don't like them particularly. Praetors will be a kind of audition for people who want to be serious in the SG. So we'll probably grab anyone who asks as an aquaintance. If they're annoying we'll boot. If they're tolerable we'll up to associate--which keeps them off the mandatory boot list. If they want to be in this SG as their main (and say so) we make them a praetor, give them a little authority (like invites and stuff) and see if we get along. Provided they do, we make them germanitas. I'll be the Ductor--I'll probably make other ductors eventually. But Germanitas will have basically full authority in the SG. Unless it explodes. I don't think it will. The gating factor will be whether you can stomach some of my abstract essays ;P