The Lindsen Commission can and will collapse. This unstable Orenland puppet, no matter what actions it takes, will eventually implode. Whether Frederick Olsten reclaims the throne, or Maria remains and unifies Lindsen, it will fall apart to countless rebels.
In the former commission's northern areas, near the border between the commission and the northern, mostly independent states of the Lohne strip, there is the Muzhinen Iron State, ruled by Franz Scholl. He is part of the younger generation of commission men, who dream of a restored patriarchy but can only construct a broken vision of one, having spent fifteen years under Commission oppression. To further complicate matters, Commission policy resulted in most technical knowledge being concentrated in the hands of women. The Iron State rests in a precarious situation, with patriarchy being barely maintained with Scholl's Iron Armoe. Any imbalances in the situation could throw it into further instability, or worse, the complete collapse of the male dominance that Scholl has worked so hard to maintain...
The Iron State's neighbors are not to be trusted. To the east, the Orenlanders have grown tired of proxies and have directly established a presence in Lindsen, intending to annex the entire nation once more. The technologically inferior Iron State will have to expand westward to the even more backwards western states if it wishes to survive the onslaught. To the south, Klara Clausewitz's ineffective but large Governate of East Lindsen is also a threat, albeit a lesser one that must constantly combat internal strife.
In terms of international relations, both forward and guard nations of the Lindsen Warlords view it as an illegitimate state at best. The forward nation of Stahler's Worker's State views it as a twisted and hauntingly pathless but nonetheless oppressive patriarchy, while most other guard nations view its version of Commission-warped masculinity as a perversion of what they view as the glorious tradition of Lindsen soldier men.
The uniform of the Iron Armoe soldier is, of course, the traditional Lindsen maid dress, in part due to its role in the Iron State's patriarchal system. The major factor, however, is the Iron State's internal strife. With a barely functional industrial system stacked with severe development output and cost debuffs, it can do little more than maintain its rusting production lines left by the invaders, using whatever is on hand.
Scholl has never considered peaceful unification as an option. In his view, a whole Lindsen will either be ruled by him, or will never manifest at all.
I gotta know more. Is the world largely post-male supremacy? Is that why male reaction has taken the form of femboy fascism?
Hey, sorry for taking so long to see this! Anyways the world is split into two continents, a 1850-90~ patriarchal continent and a 1900-20~ matriarchal one, which for magic lore reasons did not invade the less advanced one upon recently, after which they established a puppet state where they tried to instill their values. This sort of worked, although less well on the periphery, where after the puppet's inevitable collapse they ended up with TNO-esque ideologies like femboy fascism on the periphery, where their indoctrination was less intense.
It's also worth noting the commission was only part of Lindsen itself, much of the rest of the country is various warlords who are still patriarchal. By this point though most of them have been unified under a communist warlord who is preparing for a Great Trial against the invaders, for nationalist rather than gender reason
You're good! I did take six months to leave a comment after all. Is the matriarchy qualitatively different, or just patriarchy but women?
Pretty much just patriarchy but with women, even worse in certain cases since it's mixed with imperialism to justify their extraction of resources.