"If you go down onto the streets and ask the everyman about power, they will look at you askance, and claim that only those thieves who call themselves politicians or well dressed bankers hold any power.

"This could not be any further from the truth. Bankers and politicians wield power with greater skill and to better effect, but even the lowliest peasant makes use of power.

"He sits in his tavern and engages in the petty little struggles with his fellows, engaging in drinking games or making loud boasts to set himself above his peers. He bullies and threatens the weak to get his way, or is bullied and threatened by the strong. He tells lies to his wife and children to please them with their lot in life, or to get them off his back.

"The true difference between the peasant and the politician is that what the peasant does by instinct, the politician has studied and knowingly uses.

"Be like the politician. Study these interactions. Learn from them, and your life will be the better for it. Wield the methods of power intelligently, if not to enforce your will on others, than to stop them from enforcing their will on you."

- Mme. Claire Poivet
Mistress of the French Special Envoy to the League of Nations

A Fading Order is the two player card game pitting opposing factions in a power struggle. Players can explore all of the pathways of power, including subterfuge, military threat, and the strength of the mob.

Focus the center of your power on your opponent by using your control of agents, groups or objects. Be careful though, as the best laid plans can quickly become subverted, and the focus of power could easily be turned on you.

Available 2008