Government

There are three unofficial 'classes' in the political hierarchy of Whirlpool. It's seen as only one of many ways to gain power- being a standard tier citizen doesn't preclude being rich or powerful in any way.

Classes

Citizens

You've got the general citizens. Free, but uninvolved in government.

Government

Next are the government. Lords, administrators, etc. all fall under this- this is the person who has bought into the system of government heavily.

• Power's gained in exchange for absolute subservience to the royalty (backed by binding magic, of course).

• Lawmakers fall under this- one of the big reasons to work with the government is dictating what the rest of Whirlpool can do (some laws binding even past the borders).

• The great houses each have their own aspect which they have dominion over, though they almost always delegate and sell this influence instead of using it outright.

Royalty

Finally is the royalty. They have basically no contact with the general public, and most aren't entirely convinced that they exist.

• Their big secret is that they steal the bodies of their children to live indefinitely. Particularly promising (ie sociopathic) children are generally allowed to survive. Undesirable children are experimented on and transformed into hideous and mindlessly loyal beasts.

• This isn't that common, primarily due to the inconvenience of childbirth. Much easier to turn other people's children into abominations; doing it to one's own is considered a last resort when there's truly nothing they can offer.

• During contact with Eidel, royalty managed to ferret out the general outlines of spindle creation- the general populace mostly considered it a miracle of alchemy and simply tech that Eidel didn't want to share. They'd have been appauled to the point of revolt if they knew that spindles required human sacrifice (and that they were supporting a culture that did so).

• Note that it's incredibly obvious to royalty that spindles run on human sacrifice due the nature of royal script analytics- they can see substructures which make no sense unless considered vestigial from the original source of the construct's soul.

So what does royalty hold? Why does this system not fall apart?

• They've got geas-backed loyalty of the government, often implemented from birth for the noble lines.

• They're pretty reclusive and have a strong belief in not shitting where they eat- that is, not kidnapping their own people for experiments. Their subjects are treated relatively humanely, and almost never discarded in international incidents.

• They've got almost all the knowledge on forbidden/taboo seal subjects (mostly to do with human sacrifice) monopolized.

• Keep in mind that this was a system with maybe ~4 royals indefinitely extending their lives (newly inducted generally not being given forward-facing roles) - not like the next generation of ruler would suddenly go mad or attempt reforms (because they're actually the same people).

Reputation

Whirlpool has a very clean and friendly reputation, carefully maintained by the royals who use this as camouflage. While its parent civ originally had a reputation for being deranged mad scientists, Whirlpool managed to create a perception of merely being eccentric. A lot of the citizenry do fit this, but go higher up in the government heirarchy and cracks start showing. Their closest neighbor went through their own dark age and exodus, erasing a lot of the more detailed records detailing this previous civ.