Sycophancy (Vesnay)

The sycophancy (Vesnayan: ⰐⰋⰈⰍⰑⰒⰑⰍⰎⰑⰐⰔⰕⰂⰑ nizkopoklonstvo) is a pejorative term used in Vesnayan historiography to refer an informal political body which nominally served as advisors to Megal Viniy, President of the Society of Tomorrow and thus the paramount leader of Vesnay, during his reign from his ascension at the Myriad Revision on 26 Slauhtsine 1922 until his death on 7 Ansansene 1961. While active, this group was known formally as the New Club (ⰐⰑⰂⰟⰉⰋ ⰍⰎⰖⰁ Novyi klub), in reference to the preceding Old Club that ruled Vesnay before being overthrown by Viniy. For most of its existence, the New Club was composed of senior members of the Viniy government, but would gradually morph into a group of "loyalists" after Viniy's numerous idiosyncratic purges of government. They were yes-men who enabled Viniy's increasingly disastrous policy decisions, thus earning the name most modern Vesnayans will know the group as.

Whether or not the New Club could have influenced Viniy's policy decisions, given the man's authoritarian, basically totalitarian streak, is a matter of scholarly debate. Modern Vesnayan media and education tend to portray its members as sycophants, more concerned with flattering Viniy and defending their personal, "petty" interests in the increasingly savage political intrigues which characterized Viniy's reign. The most notorious of these members was Gendyi Pegov, chief of the Vesnayan secret police (VNDD) and a enabled by his near-absolute power at the top of the Vesnayan totem pole. His atrocities would be the theme of many a state-sponsored documentary and drama following Viniy's death and the sycophancy's deposition by the Contreists. Independent scholars generally agree on the fact that it is unlikely that any member of the sycophancy (or even the group as a whole) could have reasonably challenged the cultic, almost divine image of Viniy in the public eye - though this does not excuse their inaction around (and often complicity in) Viniy's widespread repressions.

Outside of its historiographical use, the term "sycophancy" has been used in modern Vesnayan media as a pejorative against political opponents, generally those seen as blindly unquestioning of authority, however accurate this may be. The term is used alongside "Viniyist", which instead refers to authoritarianism and strong-arming.