Hedonists

The Hedonists are a fraternity of Nuclearth's North America that believe in pursuing pleasure. In the Hedonist worldview, pleasure is the only thing that gives life meaning, and should be a person's ultimate goal. The fact that they are living in a postapocalyptic wasteland makes this pursuit all the more critical; if one focuses too much on the bleaker aspects of life one is likely to end up only an empty shell, or to go mad.

Not all Hedonists are in full agreement with what they consider "pleasure"; certainly, by "pleasure", the Hedonists mean of course whatever sensations and experiences a person enjoys, but some people enjoy different things than others. The word may bring to mind the "pleasures of the flesh", and many Hedonists do devote themselves to just that, eating and drinking the finest foods they can find in the largest quantities they can find, and sleeping with anyone they can coax into bed with them. Other Hedonists, however, find that their own tastes lie with pleasures less carnal, and pursue more cerebral pleasures (such as reading or various types of puzzle) with the same fervency as the more typical hedonists pursue their fleshly desires.

The Hedonists take as their symbol a burning sarcophagus, though it is often stylized to the point that it is impossible to tell what it is supposed to be (and in fact many groups of Hedonists have forgotten what it is supposed to be, and regard it as only an abstract symbol). The sarcophagus is a reference to Canto X of Dante's Inferno, in which such flaming tombs were the prisons of the heretics, including the Epicureans with whom some of the founders of the Hedonists identified. (The identification is somewhat misguided, since contrary to stereotype the original Epicureans advocated modest living quite unlike the lifestyle of the typical Hedonist.)

Philosophy

The main philosophy of the Hedonists is that the pursuit of pleasure should be the paramount concern. All men, they believe, should seek out pleasure above all else. Especially in the broken and backward world of the postbellum age when it would be so easy to fall into despair, it's vital to focus on what's truly important, and there can ultimately be no greater goal in life than happiness, or pleasure, which to a Hedonist amounts to the same thing. Maximizing one's pleasure, therefore, should be everyone's primary goal. The consequences of the pursuit of pleasure, in the Hedonists' eyes, don't matter, except insofar as they may impede the future pursuit of pleasure. Pleasure is a worthwhile end in itself—indeed, the only worthwhile end.

This is not to say all Hedonists are, as they are often made out to be, a collection of amoral scoundrels who care nothing for any consideration except how best to satisfy their base physical urges. Many Hedonists may indeed fit that description, but others take the pursuit of pleasure in a very different direction. Indeed, there are many Hedonists who believe that the importance of pleasure means that it's imperative to share it with others as well, and therefore devote themselves to improving the lives of those around them. Other Hedonists, while not necessarily advocating this view, still have enough sympathy for their fellow man to indulge in some charity, judging (though perhaps not explicitly) that they can't fully enjoy their own pleasures without making some attempt to better the lot of others.

Origins

What would become the Hedonists fraternity had its germ about eighty years after the Apocalypse, when a small band of people led by a man named Horace Wylie who had happened upon a cache of valuables in an irradiated zone decided to devote the rest of their lives to taking it easy and living well. Wylie and his crew formed a settlement called Pleasure Island (though it wasn't actually an island) in what was formerly Virginia, devoted to living as well as they could. Eventually, Pleasure Island attracted other settlers, and Wylie came to be something of a guru figure to them, spreading his inchoate philosophy.

The version of hedonism preached by Wylie, however, was much more base and straightforward than their somewhat more complex philosophy today—in fact, it rather resembled the current Hedonist stereotype. Wylie was a glutton and a misogynist whose idea of living well was forcing women to do all the work. As the philosophical seeds he planted spread, however, the growing Hedonist movement developed a subtlety and a flexibility that Wylie's version lacked. Indeed, one enthusiastic later Hedonist, Maxwell Blair, was so shocked on meeting Wylie to find out what a boor his hero really was that he ended up killing Wylie and claiming the mantle of leadership for himself.

While Blair did much to popularize his more inclusive version of Hedonism, not all of Blair's tenets have survived in the core philosophies of the fraternity today. Still, he directed the movement for many years, and was largely responsible for its becoming as popular as it did. Of course, as Hedonism spread further and as it came into contact with some of the other movements that would become fraternities, it became too large an organization for any one man to effectively lead, and within Blair's lifetime, even before the formation of "fraternities", per se, it became the decentralized phenomenon it is today.

Membership

Like that of most other fraternities, membership in the Hedonists is open to whoever wants it. In very few places do the Hedonists have any sort of trial or test for membership—generally only where they're particularly powerful, and therefore suspect that people may want to join them for their political power rather than because of any real shared convictions. The Hedonists attract an eclectic lot of applicants; certainly the expected layabouts, gourmands, and libertines are among them, but so are many driven scholars, goodhearted laborers, and others who don't fit the stereotypical Hedonist mold but have their own takes on the fraternity's philosophy.

Activities

Some Hedonists who have through some means or another inherited or accumulated enough money or sympathetic connections get by without the need for any work, devoting their time entirely to their own pleasures and believing that in doing so they fully embody their fraternity's ideals. A few, in fact, see this as such a goal that they are willing to take any measures to reach the necessary level of financial security, up to and including robbery, selling slaves, and other such unethical but lucrative practices. Most Hedonists, however, are not this extreme in their views, and see the necessity of making a living. Though Hedonists may pursue any profession, very commonly they run casinos, taverns, or brothels. Since they are focused so much on pleasure, after all, it makes sense for them to engage in a business that involves their finding a way to maximize the pleasure of their clients. Sometimes such establishments may be owned and run collectively by the town's Hedonists, but at least as often they are the property of individual members. (Not all these establishments are condoned by city authorities; some Hedonists are not above running businesses that violate local laws.) Hedonists are often prevailed upon to organize settlements' holiday festivities and other celebrations; it's a widespread truism that nobody knows how to party like a Hedonist.

Somewhat surprisingly, Hedonists are also often in charge of city cemeteries or boneyards, despite these being places not generally associated with the pursuit of pleasure. This connection may have originated because of their fraternity symbol, the sarcophagus having apparently linked them with the dead in the minds of some city planners, and then the association, once established, having spread and become entrenched in tradition. Whatever the reason for it, this has become such a common vocation that boneyard tenders are often assumed to be Hedonists until established otherwise.

Some splinter groups of Hedonists exist outside the regular social order entirely, believing that civilization and law stifle their pursuit of pleasure. These Hedonists form roaming groups of anarchists that are as lawless as bandits, and as dangerous—in fact, they may be little more than bandits who try to excuse themselves by their philosophical trappings. Most citydwellings Hedonists deplore these anarchical cells, though there are a few who sympathize with their approach and secretly support them.

Relations

Though relations between the fraternities vary from town to town, overall the Hedonists tend to get along well with the Rileys, with whom they share some obvious philosophical similarities. There are exceptions, communities where .... They also are often, though not always, allies of the Golden Agers, perhaps because the Epicureans their founders admired lived in ancient Greece. The Hedonists' relations with other fraternities vary from town to town; in one location, for instance, the Hedonists may be close allies with the Bluebloods, approving of their desire for status and leadership that has the potential to bring them pleasure; in another, they may be their bitter enemies, believing that their focus on their genealogy and their ancestors prevents them from really enjoying the present. The Hedonists do, however, often find themselves at odds with the Sovereign Limb, whose belief in self-discipline clashes with the Hedonists' philosophy. They also tend to have somewhat cold relations with the Librarians, though certainly not reaching the point of open hostility.