[u][b]Nations[/b][/u] [color=f26522]Mine[/color]: [hider=The Krytocracy of Azulu] [i]Name:[/i] The Krytocracy of Azulu [i]Territory: [/i] The G8102 System, with their home world Azulu and it’s moon Qai. The six planets of the Torre system. Three are work colonies mining resources for the military, the other three are civilian worlds. The Xenoterra Project (jointly with ISRS and the Unagi) The Spr50 system. The moons orbiting it’s two gas giants are inhabited by a mix of tourist, civilian and research colonies which are experimenting with farming a local variety of fungi and using it to make both food and biofuels. The Gilga System. Shared with a mix of Humans and Verivora. Two habitable planets, three habitable moons. Contains several experimental refugee colonies. [i]Culture(s):[/i] Azulian culture is… mixed. On one hand, it’s laws are dangerously progressive, and on the other hand ten years ago it was illegal to marry outside your race. It was creepy for women to take an interest in their children. It was illegal for men to go certain places at night. And it was impossible for them to get a divorce, go to college, take out a loan, buy or inherit property, or even have much of say in who they marry. They had executions in the streets, rampant crime and poverty, honor killings, religious sects that were really just terrorist cells and thirty years ago they had a genocidal maniac running around dicing people up in the name of religion. It’s as if they tried to go from Syria to Iceland overnight. Historically, these are some facts and statistics about how their culture operated, and while some things have changed, a lot of it’s the same, it’s just not legally forced on anyone anymore and is socially discouraged by ‘the left.’ [hider= ] The average female has between two and five children over her lifespan, and raises between none and two of them. The average male has between five and twenty children and raises all of them, sometimes with the help of co-mates and sometimes without. 15% of the female population has more than one mate and the rest have between one and none. Males have custody of children and females do not. Females aren’t expected to contribute to child-care or domestic responsibilities, they are, however, expected to advance the social status of their matrilineage so as to get into the 20% with the resources to pass on their family name and status to their offspring, biological or otherwise. Azulians have two names. The first of which is traditionally given to them by their biological father and the last of which is inherited from their biological mother. Avola worshipers practice polyandry, Phiede worshipers do not have a concept of marriage and Varset worshipers are monogamous. Quacksville is populated by Avola worshipers, the government districts are populated by a combination of all three and the land around the city is populated by predominantly Varset worshipers with agricultural communities capable of supporting the large number of children that result from long-term monogamous relationships. Public opinion is that Varset worshipers are weird, Avola worshipers are greedy pigs and that Phiede worshipers are self-sacrificing. The average Azulian doesn’t prescribe completely to any of the three lifestyles and looks at anyone who does as an extremist. Because of their rarity, male children have a higher value than female children, though in lower socioeconomic groups or castes, they are perceived as having a lower value since they cannot bring in money or resources into their mother’s matrilineage. Because of Azulu’s economic distribution problem, males, who have de facto custody of their children, are not afforded inheritance rights from their parents and instead use hypergamy as a means of securing sufficient resources to care for their children. Certain religious factions in poorer and more violent districts (westhill) will sometimes either cull their male children or keep them under lock and key to prevent them from marrying into Avola worshiping families with which such communities have a vicious rivalry. The thinking being that allowing your sons to marry into a rival family or caste is the same as handing over the inheritance of your matrilineage to that family as their owning another male increases the number of children in their matrilineage and decreases the number in your allies matrilineages, thereby increasing the economic disparity between the 20% and the 80%. Sociological differences: If a female looks another azulian in the eyes it is seen as a sign of aggression and if they don't look away, it’s seen as defiance. Thus, males are expected to avoid eye contact. Males from opposing social groups will stare down rival females as a way of pissing them off and flaunting their social groups status. Smiling with one's teeth showing is a sign of aggression. One only smiles with their teeth when their superiors aren’t present, otherwise it’s interpreted as a form of insubordination. Thusly, the matriarch of a social group will do this often to demonstrate her authority. Agatha does this all the time for this very reason. Thusly, telling and laughing at jokes can be seen as an extension of this in certain subcultures. And jokes centered around death and violence are culturally similar to rape-y locker room humor. It’s something only one sex does to make them seem bigger and better than the opposite sex. (So when Agatha is using gallows humor in a debate, it’s not funny, it’s territorial. Which is why nobody ever laughs at it.) Mouths are not sexualized, and the idea of kissing is viewed a weird, obscene thing humans do. (and not to mention dangerous) This is due to the fact that Azulains have one of the most powerful bite forces of any mammal and tend to use their mouths as weapons, biting limbs and flesh off their enemies and prey. Females will even kill and eat rival females in less civilized communities. So if your name is Joe Biden, do not ask one of them for a kiss because you'll probably get your skull crushed instead. Infact, a good rule of thumb is to stay at least an arm's length away. Especially as a male as your actions can be interpreted two different ways, neither of which you want. If an Azulian of any sex is interested in a member of the opposite sex, they tend to stand right next to them in a way that is obstructive to other Azulains. If an Azulain stands right next to a member of the same sex, it means they consider the other person their ‘bro.’ Being that proximity indicates the closeness of the relationship, it’s not a good idea to stand right next to a female Azulian if you’re not their significant other or drinking buddy. If you stand right next to a male, you’re a bit safer, so long as his significant other, family or friends don’t see you. Members of a social group all tend to stand facing the matriarch of the group as standing with your back to them is considered a challenge to their authority unless you are male. In which case you are never in authority so you can face whichever way you want. Because of their ridiculously high fecundity, Azulains have never had anything close to a hook-up culture. They view sex as a means of producing children, rather than as entertainment. Due to the power balance between the sexes, rape is physiologically implausible, and that combined with the fact that there’s a 90% chance that the female will get pregnant, and a 99% chance that the male will have to care for her children till they reach adulthood, both sexes tend not to fool around as it can have very bad repercussions. Say, you're a dude. And you act like a human frat boy. Plenty of females would mate with you, but in three months they'd hand you one to five babies each and then leave. Now you're stuck with 20 kids to feed and clothe and educate for the next fifteen years. Welcome to single parenthood on steroids. If you're a female and you act like a frat boy, very few males will mate with you because they don't want your babies. And if they do you’re mildly uncomfortable for three months, the end. Your social responsibility ends when you give birth. As a result, unlike humans, the women actually are more slutty than the men as the risk involved for them is essentially zero. However, also like humans, they tend to call whichever sex is the easiest to pick on whores, despite the fact that by definition it takes two to participate. Thus: all men are whores and women are just women. As for birth control, abortion and contraception, the females consider it unnecessary and annoying and are more likely to lie about it than to actually use it. And many of them consider it counterproductive to spreading their genetics. Males therefore have to either convince them to use it or sneak it themselves if they're part of a particularly religious faction. The general cultural perception of males is that they are auxiliary members of society at best, defective females or annoying necessities at worst. Because they can't fight as well as the females, and because the females like to consider every job outside of childcare a feminine job, males are more or less relegated to that sector. To the point that childcare is assumed to be the only thing they're good at/the only thing they should aspire to/the most important thing they'll ever do. If a male does not have kids, he is considered a failure. If a female doesn't have kids it's presumed that she'll be slightly disappointed. Unless she's an Avola worshipper, in which case it's presumed that she had genes that would not help the survival of the species and that she either couldn’t have children or chose to commit generational suicide. (This is what Agatha does because she considers her mother’s genetics inferior and chose not to inflict the Durrem’s propensity for violence on the next generation.) It should be noted that rich female Azulians are all essentially a bunch of unapologetic, classist yuppies. The general cultural perception of females is that they are god’s gift to men. They can prevent males from being killed (by other females), create children so the males can fulfill their one and only purpose in life, and even support them financially if they want to be extra nice. And for that, the males should be grateful and do whatever the females want. After all, it was a female that created them in the first place. Which is a bit like giving someone a polished turd and calling them a selfish asshole when they don’t want it. [/hider] Presently, this is more or less how their culture leans: [hider= ] Because of the acirian genetics, both sexes have a tendency to abandon their young or not have any in the first place. Females, more so than males. Azulians with those traits also came with acirian-level aggression towards their own species, but not the regeneration that makes mass murdering your own kind a good way to further the evolution of the species which meant that they exited the gene pool pretty quickly, leaving mostly those with more dominant human traits. Mostly. Some were balanced enough to function within the society, and because of their disregard for life and limb, themselves and others, and the fact that the dominance of acirian traits made female offspring larger, meant that those with the acirian genetics tended to be high ranking in the social hierarchy simply because they could and frequently would beat the crap out of everyone else. A good way to spot these individuals was their tendency to have the same yellow eye color of acirians which also meant they had night vision where their more human counterparts didn’t. This spawned the idea that those traits were somehow more desirable because the people in charge had a higher percentage of those traits than the general population. Thus, Taba and likely her entire matriarchal line, were all sociopathic assholes who liked killing other azulians for fun because they were more acirian than human and that behavior is how acirians reproduce. It’s just that when you try it on species without regeneration, they tend to, you know, die. Permanently. However because acirians have no concept of death as a permanent destination, these people tend to also develop a bit of a god/immorality complex which has very un-pretty results. However, thankfully, most Azulians are not that way. It’s only when you get higher up the social hierarchy that you start seeing more and more of it. Most average Azulians are decent people, and if the sexism shows up, especially in the lower ranking communities, it tends to be mostly just passive aggression. Kind of like how humans are today. Except males were expected and allowed to hold jobs even when they had children they were expected to take care of, and being that they don't have child labor laws, children would often pick up and help out with whatever job their father held regardless of the child's gender, (making Carl and Ellis somewhat typical) the males seniority status typically granting them higher social status than would otherwise be attainable, though a female with seniority status will always outrank their male peers. There is some prejudice against males entering higher paying more stereotypically female dominated fields, though not if they have female offspring or a wife in the same workplace as the social status typically transfers to all relatives regardless of gender. Though paradoxically it is seen as undesirable to date people in your same field of specialization which means that only families of lower socioeconomic status regularly follow this pattern, as higher ranking families tend to have more exaggerated sexually dimorphic traits, both physically and psychologically. Their family systems, if they have a family system, usually consists of a female who spends most of their time advancing their status in the hierarchy through increased wealth and property (read: territory and game), a male who also holds a job, takes care of the children and sets them up with jobs of their own, (read: maintains the female's territory) and children who typically grow up to work in the class that their mother worked her family up to, regardless of gender. From there, the female offspring can work up to an even higher class, (or be bumped down if they lose a fight with someone who outranks them) and the males either stay at the level of their mother or inherit the level of their wife, be it higher or lower. The degree to which this is enforced varies depending on the culture of the region and the social class being examined. At the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, people are generally aware the system exists at some point, but nobody enforces it nor follows its rules. At the very top of the ladder, this system is extremely important and violently enforced as it makes a big difference in the status of that particular matrilineal line. [/hider] [i]Warring factions/political parties:[/i] Religion is the primary cause of war on Azulu. [hider= ] he Azulian religion is somewhat similar to that of the Greeks and the Romans. They all follow the same system, but that system has multiple deities, each with a different value system, and each thinks they are above all other deities and will eventually become ‘The One True God.’ Each faction in turn, has its own text, narrative and subculture. Phiede, is the spirit of death, judgement, insects, codes and agriculture. Phiede gets to decide who dies and how one dies, or more correctly, how awful ones death is, and where one goes afterwards. Phiede is the most uptight of the spirits, and has a long and extensive list of rules one must follow in order for one not to die a horrible death and be reincarnated as a flesh eating wasp or a dung beetle. The code of Phiede, a rather long and parabolic text, supposedly written by a matrilineal chain of Turins chronicles the entirety of Azulu’s existence through the written accounts of said Turins, or as they are referred to posthumously, narrators. The Turins, who can belong to any of the three spirits, are often the cause of the shifting of world powers, either because such things are predetermined, because it is in their nature or because only such people become Turins. Some have suggested that it’s genetic. Others that it’s simply the result of the victors always telling the final account of things. Either way, such texts, or chapters, are usually only found several generations later, hidden amongst the Turin’s belongings. It is unknown if such texts appear supernaturally, or if they are written in secret, because one thing is common among all Turins, and that is the fact that no one knows they are a Turin until the text is discovered. Not even other Turins will know, even if they are related as can sometimes happen. There may be suspicions, rumors and the occasional public execution, but no one owns up to anything until everything is said and done and the story concluded. The public perception of Turins, particularly those owned by Phiede is… complicated. Phiede’s Turins tend to be ruthless, combative, code and law oriented dictators who do the right thing by the letter of the law only. If not dictators, they will hold a similar position in some establishment, and serve to inflict the code of Phiede on the general population and enforce her rules. Therefor those that feel her rules should be enforced are supporters of anyone they even remotely suspect as being one of Phiede’s Turins, and on the other hand, those that think Phiede is missing the point of morality and using it as a justification for her own immorality, Phiede-Turins are dangerous and to be avoided, though not necessarily evil. Agatha, for example, often says that she is one because it makes people uncomfortable. There are a total of 30 confirmed Phiede Turins, making them the rarest variety. The definition of Turin in general is one who for some reason or another is killed, rejected by Varset and resurrected by Avola as an Azulian, rather than being put back through the filter that is lower life forms. Why this can happen varies. Either in a past life that person had walked the line of morality such that Varset disapproved of them but Phiede thought they were perfectly acceptable and saw no need to exact vengeance, or they did so in the current life, which was recorded and they were reincarnated as an Azulian who behaved well enough the second time around to be accepted by Varset. Both halves can be recorded or just one. Sometimes the same Turin reoccurs five or six times before they’re finally accepted by Varset, sometimes it only takes a single iteration. Avola, is the spirit of life, pleasure, status, survival/reincarnation, enlightenment, war, tides and the moon (and, anything else her followers would like to tack on). Avola has no real rules, just that if one knows and aids in Avola’s destruction of all other spirits, that one will be protected from Phiedes judgement. Or, at least that's what it used to be. Since Taba took over the church of Avola and all its chapters, she has instituted a litany of rituals and requirements for maintaining favor in Avola's eyes, and thus immunity from Phiede’s rules. Why? Because Taba doesn't believe in religion and just enjoys messing with people in new and sadistic ways. Avola Turins tend to be prophets, the highly educated, emotional people who feel that they need to be the most highly praised, acclaimed or respected and typically will do stupid things to impress people or prove themselves. They tend to believe that each person is unique and that self expression is more important than following the rules. Their pre-Taba ideology was basically: When the messiah leads the rebellion *puffs joint* As long you fight for Avola, you can do whatever maaan. It's all good. Post-Taba ideology is: it's all good so long as you routinely subject yourself to physical and psychological torture and serve The One True God doing whatever she, through Taba, commands thee to do. And the minute you stop doing as you're told you're a rebel and your sins now count against you and are punishable by death. Varset, is the spirit of personality, family, memory, victory, the sky and culture. Varset has control of, or more correctly is, a ‘realm’ called varsita which stores the lives and memories of those who they deem worthy. Varset is a hive mind, a conglomerate being, formed from the lives and memories of those it accepts and fuses with. People who do not fuse with the conglomerate upon death are reincarnated as something else. If varset finds them especially repugnant, Phiede gets to turn them into whatever she wants. In Azulian mythology, Varset was originally two people, Vara and Aset. Aset was an albino and was thusly owned by Avola. When Avola got into a fight with Phiede over a particular building, Phiede struck Avola’s army dead, Aset being among them. When Vara found out about this, she used magic to absorb Aset’s spirit and half of his physical features, forming Varset. The myth being that this initial fusion is where chimerism and hermaphrodites come from. (It should be noted that the relationship between Vara and Aset was not sexual as Azulians do not associate sex with friendship, loyalty or emotional bonding. In their culture the two belong in completely separate spheres and they often don’t form a venn diagram. In fact, in the original text, Vara and Aset were both female, and had, if anything, what we would call a bromance. Aset was only changed to male afterwards when someone felt the need to explain why some Chimeras have mixed primary and secondary sex traits.) That story then evolved and was added to thanks to Turins and Conduits (which will be discussed below), becoming that Varset managed to transcend the physical realm and cycle of reincarnation imposed by Phiede and Avola, because they were composed of two spirits with different karmic ratings (Vara was to be reincarnated as an Azulian and Aset a dung beetle) fused together so that the resultant being is more or less trapped in a state of ‘quantum uncertainty’ or limbo. And because having nothing but one other person to talk to is lonely and boring, Varset began using a stronger form of Vara’s magic to absorb the spirits of people who Varset viewed as ‘worthy’ or the victim of karmic injustice. It was then said that Varset (whose name has evolved since then past the point of articulation) had, through the amassed power of their spirits, created another realm, superior to that of Avola and Phiede. Varset Turins are not called Turins, rather Conduits. Conduits typically have abnormal skin tones and are the only variety which can be of any sex. Conduits can channel whatever spirit is present at the time and are the only Turins which can break the ‘no one knows for sure whether they are or not’ rule. They are typically rather nice people who follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. [/hider] [i]History:[/i] It's a mystery. Like, it has something to do with the plot, hint hint. I'm going to add this to annoy everyone because I already wrote the entire thing for my book so it's not like it's costing me in time or money. [i]The Legal System![/i] [hider=My Hider] Krytocracy: A government ruled by judges who govern based on a system of social philosophies intended to progress society towards a progressively more desirable state. Background: Historically, Azulu has swung between dictatorships, anarchy and dictatorships again as the vigilante groups responsible for the anarchy take over, either by popular vote or millitant force, become corrupted and power hungry and then proceed to use their autocratic power to micromanage every aspect of their country, forcing it to conform to their ideology and agenda. Thus, Azulu has always consisted of warring factions, typically theocracies, and has developed an often convoluted social hierarchy and class system with bubbles of different ethnic groups created by past government systems constantly warring against eachother in addition to the current governmental systems vying for total control. In more recent history, with the invention of nuclear warfare, 1/3rd of that system was destroyed along with 1/3rd of the population. In the vacuum that followed, the heavily militarized cult of Avola gained control of the entire colony for approximately six years before assets were sent in from a neighboring planetary system (and country) to overthrow the current dictator, Taba Durrem. They ultimately gained control of about half the colony, suffered repeated military and terrorist attacks over the next ten years before Taba was killed by her own daughter who then went on to take out much of the now destabilized terrorist organization with the help of her largely ex-military vigilante group. After forming an alliance with the foreign democratic state, the vigilante group turns over governmental control to their allies, who proceed to grow more and more corrupt and burocratic as time passes. Eventually, Agatha (who has become a sort of folk hero) runs for the equivalent of president, and upon being elected, uses her popularity and a well timed coup to overthrow the powers that be before setting up a crude, more violent version of the below system. Several years, (and assassination attempts) later, she appoints her half-sibling (on her father’s side) Mave as a sort of co-dictator due to the fact that Mave is quite popular for her frequent public criticism of her sibling. If the following seems to switch rapidly between two extremes at times, their haphazard collaboration is the cause. Currently, Azulu is ruled by Agatha who serves as representative/intimidator to the GFUN council, and Mave, who makes most of the civil codes and oversees the institution of criminal law so as to prevent it from being too ‘radical’ and/or militaristic. Together, they have the power to invent, veto, alter or intervene in any aspect of the Azulian government, though both parties must be in agreement if change is to be instituted. (Which, because Mave is a socialist and Agatha an autocrat, results in policies that border on the darker side of communism.) The current governmental leaders are, in effect, placeholders, and will only remain in charge until two people more qualified are voted into office. However: In order to be qualified to run for Chief Justice, one must have a total implicit bias of zero and must have the highest national education level in law, international politics, economics, anthropology, forensic science, and environmentalism. There is no age or species restriction, though the chief justice must be a registered citizen, and have no outstanding criminal history. (It should be noted that Azulu is generally governed by the concept that if an action is justified, it cannot be criminal. So people generally view Agatha as either justified and non-criminal -in a way that can border on hero-worship- by definition or as an insane, immoral dictator who is only functional because her sister prevents her from doing anything completely depraved. It should be noted that Azulian citizens are usually of the former opinion and everyone else the latter.) Insofar, Agatha has had the lowest implicit bias score of the Chief Justices, her outstanding biases being against religious individuals, bullies, people who insult her family (only she’s allowed to do that) and convicted criminals, whereas Mave is biased against serial killers, psychopaths, televangelists, bureaucrats, fascists, racists, loud mouth bigots, rich jerks, drug addicts, and people who litter. Especially people who litter. [hider=Actions which are considered criminal on Azulu are as follows] -Theft - sentence: replacement of the item in new or better condition that it was originally, community service until character improvement takes place and if theft is recurring, deportment to a penal colony. -Rape/sexual assault - sentence: first offense: deportment, second or aggravated offence: execution. And that’s only if the victim or their friends/family don’t want to kill you first. -Polyandry or polygamy - Reason: Certain females *cough*Durrems, Eros and Reche*cough* would abuse the fact that under their version of sharia law (known as the trifecta laws) males have legal custody of (or, more correctly, a legal responsibility for) all children they sire from any female, regardless of class, clan or family. Said females, wanting to ‘expand their workforce’ eg. their family, clan and class, would take multiple husbands with the intent of integrating the stepchildren of said husbands into their little fiefdom. -Unjustified murder -definition: Murder for a reason other than the victims violation of the law. -sentence: first offense: deportment, second or aggravated offence: execution. (See self defense protocol) -Unnecessary destruction/defacement of property -sentence: refacement/reconstruction of damaged property, community service until character improvement takes place and if destruction/defacement of property continues, deportment to a penal colony. -Unjustified assault -definition: assault for a reason other than the victims violation of the law. -sentence: deportment. -Intentional deception -sentence: one to five people: community service, six to thirty people: community service and fines, forty to one hundred people: deportation, greater than a hundred people: the public may decide whether or not they want to kill you. This applies mostly to ‘religious’ leaders and scam artists. -Unjustified persecution -sentence: first offense: community service. Second offense: deportment. Third offense: offender will be left to the mercy of their heavily armed victims. Fourth offense: execution. -Violation of civil rights -sentence: first offense: community service. Second offense: deportment. Third offense: offender will be left to the mercy of their heavily armed victims. Fourth offense: execution. [/hider] [hider=Civil Rights] -All citizens may own land. -All citizens may run a business and find work. (see: work law) -All citizens have the right not be actively surveyed unless part of a criminal investigation. (see: privacy law) but passive survey is a different ball game. -All citizens have a right to ongoing education. -All citizens have a right to view and participate in ongoing investigations. -All citizens may own weapons equal to those owned by military personnel given they store them safely and all security requirements are met. -In the event of war, all citizens have the same rights and restrictions as military personnel. -All citizens have a right to medical care. If there is a shortage of medical personnel or supplies, qualified citizens are expected to pitch in and unqualified ones to seek qualification. (essentially, if you don’t like how something is run, get off your ass and be part of the solution.) -All citizens have a responsibility to report corruption and criminal behavior. -All citizens have the right to execute an execution order once target identification is verified. -All citizens have the right to be paid with royalties for anything they invent. -All citizens have the right to live on a planet with a herd immunity greater than 90%. (sorry anti-vaxers, you can move to ‘Murica.) -All citizens have the right to say what they like, and live with the consequences. -If a citizen is captured by a foreign power, the krytocracy of Azulu as whole has the right to forgo negotiations in favor of beating the living shit out of said foreign power. This may include anything from taking captives of their own or bombing military bases and killing the people in charge until the issue is resolved. If this does not resolve the conflict, Azulu reserves the right to invade and claim all territories owned by said foreign power as their own. In order to stay the property of Azulu, said territories must subsequently be occupied by a significant number of Azulian citizens. -Citizens have the right to use drugs so long as they abide by the restrictions pertaining to their use. -Citizens have the right to live in a house free of drugs, children being guaranteed that right regardless of their parent’s habits. -Regardless of age, all citizens have the right to choose where they live. -17 is the age of consent, unless the age gap is less than two years, or unless the ‘victim’ claims to be older than they really are and the alleged age gap is then less than two years, or if they claim to be over 17. This can change depending on species and their average age of physical maturity as well as how obvious it is that the 'victim' is lying about their age. -There is no legal age of adulthood. Rather, citizens are registered and independent or dependent. Dependants are those who have not passed certain tests or classes mandated by the government, those who use drugs and those with a bias score between a 10 and a 8. (It should be noted that passing said tests is not really difficult, but the information ensures intelligent responses to a variety of public safety hazards which saves the government and thus the people money in the long run.) Mave wanted to institute an EQ requirement, but Agatha opposed this on the basis of it putting all the governmental power in the hands of one person, which is bad because absolute power corrupts absolutely. -The poor and those otherwise unable to obtain food are guaranteed a right to vegan food. Because it's both healthy and gross. It’s also produced by the prison population who work for a few podecs an hour. (eg. around .75 cents) -The poor and those otherwise unable to find housing are guaranteed a right to a well built, tiny house. -Parents have the right to homeschool their children, however their children are required to take all of the following courses at an official government school before being considered legally an adult: sex ed, alternative religion, weapons safety and self-defense, governmental procedure and a basic course in CSI investigation. (see: education law) -All citizens have the right to defend themselves or others if and when they believe they are under attack. Though the defense must be proportional. (see: self-defense protocol and proportionality law) -The victim of a crime has the right to execute the perpetrator first and foremost either immediately at the scene of the crime or later should the perp be sentenced to death. [/hider] [hider=Bias law] Related to judicial law, a person’s academic abilities as well as their biases determine what jobs they can hold. If you are racist, xenophobic, speciesist, sexist, or classist, you can’t hire employees, work in the film or fashion industries, work for the government or work for schools. If it is your religious belief that your religion will take over the world, that everyone not in your religion is damned to hell or that your religion must convert everyone and if you’re obnoxious about it, the same restrictions apply. As a general rule, the more unbiased a person is, the higher the capacity at which they are allowed to function. Bias is tested upon graduation from high school or when one decides to seek employment and is ranked on a scale of 0-10. Zero being you’re obviously a robot, and 10 being Donald Trump. In order to act as a judge dealing with traffic violations, DUIs and the like, you must have a score of 6. Though as the population grows, requirements will become more strict. To function as a judge in a murder case with only one victim and no cultural, racial or political motivations present, one must be 4 or 5. If you are to function as a judge in hate crimes or crimes containing a multitude of victims or perpetrators, one must have a score of 3. In order to act as a judge of international cases which may be classified and involve a wide range of complicated moral and ethical choices, one must score a 2. In order to replace either of the current chief justices, one must have a score of either 1 or 0. In the absence of an ideal replacement, a chief justice may select whomever they see fit, so long as their biases fall below a 4. [/hider] [hider=Publication law] All news publications must have real, educational or comedic value with documented sources and facts which can be scientifically verified and demonstrated, or, in the case of satire, situations so ludacris you’d have to be a total imbecile to believe them to be accurate representations of reality. Civilians may file complaints against untrue news publications, and if proven valid, will be relegated to the entertainment section where you can publish whatever the hell you want. [/hider] [hider=Copyright law] It’s very simple. If someone invented it, they get royalties on it until they die. If you get in the way of the creator and their royalties, you, my friend, can find somewhere else to live. [/hider] [hider=Case law] Citizens who are legally considered to be adults, may participate in active investigations and are expected to act as first responders to any catastrophe before law enforcement arrives. If a piece of information is needed, a purple banner appears at the bottom of all TVs, giving a summary of information relevant to the case, followed by a phone number. If a catastrophe has been reported, your program will pause, a blue banner appears, and dispatch details all relevant information, recommended supplies and the location of the incident. Let’s go through a scenario here. There’s a school shooter. The second people realize they’re not executing a kill warrant, which would be obvious, somebody already in the school calls it in and then shoots the shooter. Problem solved. The crime scene is then secured by people already on the scene and witnesses call in their reports to law enforcement immediately after the scene is secured. Therefor, by the time the police arrive, the threat has been neutralized, the crime scene secured and the witness statements gathered. It is then the officer’s jobs to find forensic evidence and recreate the scene scientifically. Once all evidence has been processed, the crime scene is cleaned up, the scientists make their reports and a case profile is posted to the government website and sent out in paper form to all residents. A case profile consists of forensic evidence, which is the only thing that can be used to convict a criminal, witness statements which simply corroborates evidence, and the case’s current status which can either be ‘open’ where there is not enough evidence to acquit or convict, ‘closed’, where the conviction or acquittal has been decided, or ‘ongoing’ where the case has enough evidence to acquit or convict, but may involve a larger conspiracy. If an investigation is ongoing, there may be calls for citizens to come forward with pertinent information, or classified ‘missions’ may become available based on geographical location, place of work, etcetera. Note that under civilian rights, there is no right that restricts the number of times a person can be tried for the same crime. The only requirement is that there be new evidence supporting a conviction. [/hider] [hider=Marriage, inheritance and family law] It is illegal to have a marriage licence with more than one person, both parents have a responsibility for their children (as determined by the date of child registry which is signed by both parents, marriage licence, also signed by both parents and adoption paperwork, also signed by both parents.), biological or adopted, two months of both paid paternity and maternity leave is required and may be taken at the same time or separately, and discrimination against working fathers and stay-at-home mothers is strongly discouraged. **Cultural note: Historically, marriage, in the sense that we use the term, wasn’t 'a thing' rather, if a female was married, it simply meant that she owned a male and all of his offspring. So and having children by multiple females was the only way males had to climb the social ladder, so to speak as they didn't have inheritance rights, were expected to work (either for cheap or for free), but couldn't be promoted above any female in their mother’s class or clan and didn't have a ‘rank’ in that clan, and they couldn't earn their own titles or move up in class without being named as the caretaker of a female’s child, at which point they move to whatever family, clan and class the female was. Therefor, by the time they formed any kind of actual relationship with a high ranking female who gave a crap about Trifecta Laws, most would have at the very least, seven or eight children.** This tended to work in the female’s favor because more husbands = more children = more workers = more money, and being that none of them are very… what we would call maternal, they viewed the taking and losing of children as a sort of pissing contest with other females of similar rank. This of course lead to arranged marriages, forced adoptions, kidnappings, azulian trafficking, family feuds, ridiculous inheritance rules, ‘purist movements’ (eg. only females related by blood to the family matriarch get a slice of the inheritance) males who would have as many children as possible (some actually related to him, others not) so as to buy himself and his children into a particular high ranking family, blah blah blah. Basically, it caused really shitty behavior so it’s not allowed anymore. Also, males do not have default responsibility for their children anymore. At least, not legally. And the class system is only ‘enforced’, nay, suggested, by religious and social groups, not the government which invented marriage licences and child registry laws to curb such behavior. They also made it illegal for the mother to deny a child currently in her family -determined by the presence of absence of a marriage licence with the father- a percentage of her inheritance based solely on the child’s gender. Polygamy wasn’t ever practiced but it’s illegal too because if it weren’t that would be sexist. [/hider] [hider=Self Defense Protocol and Proportionality law] So far, Azulu seems like the wild wild west. But this is not an accurate depiction. If someone punches you in a bar, you can’t shoot them. That wouldn’t be proportional. You can however kick them in balls. If they have balls. Which they probably don’t. If not the basic rule is that you can incapacitate but not kill. There should also be no removing of appendages as a means of incapacitation. That’s sadistic, inappropriate and should be avoided. If however, someone shoots you or someone else without authority to do so you can shoot them in return. In order to gain authority to kill someone, one must either a: kill them at the scene of the crime they committed, b: kill them as part of a warrant after the court finds them guilty, c: kill them in proportional self defense or the defense of others. Due to the confusion that may arise as a result of the situation, it is not recommended to kill someone significantly after they committed a crime and in a public forum without a warrant as that will likely result in you getting shot. If you were unable to kill someone at the time of the crime, and then fail to report the crime, you lose license to kill them over it and they will have to answer to the court and the court only. One cannot also kill someone over mere suspicion of a crime. They must prove that they committed the crime first unless they are the victim and the killing takes place directly after the crime is committed in which case their guilt is determined retroactively. Additionally, police officers do not use lethal force unless absolutely necessary as criminals are more valuable alive as then they can work in a penance colony and earn the government money. [/hider] [hider=Missions] Only adults can apply for and complete them, and often times a certain level of work experience and/or post highschool education is required. The government keeps track of this information as a part of a civilians profile. Like judges, civilians are assigned a number 0-10 based not on testing, but on experience. Zero being a greenhorn and ten being someone whose idea of a good time is completing missions. The point of missions is not impartiality, so bias often isn’t a factor. In order for a mission to be issued, judgment has already been passed and now it’s just down to someone to execute the order. Missions, like civilians are assigned numbers. 0 being uncomplicated and a matter that could be handled by the general public, 10 being multi leveled, complex and often involving more than five or six objectives and requiring absolute secrecy and/or some level of espionage. Level 10 missions are often extremely high stake affairs where the safety of the general population in addition to the person completing the mission are at risk. Generally speaking, level 4 missions involve probable risk of life and limb, and missions higher up than that involve a larger and larger number of potential casualties. Typically, missions follow the same rules as criminal cases. Everything is recorded and retroactively used to assess the competency scores of those involved. Due to their sensitive natures, missions are often classified and only accessible by people above a certain bias score or clearance level. Clearance level is determined by a culmination of one's competencies, bias score, geographical location and place of employment, among other things. Depending on the case, it may filter you out based on who you’ve expressed an interest in voting for, past relationships, level of loonacy (one’s tendency to believe things that are patently and demonstratively false) or one’s ideological sensitivity which is self reported on a scale of 0 to 10, ten being you faint at the sight of blood and think that violence should never be the answer and zero being you laugh at films like Kingsmen for their atrocious inaccuracies and you think that there are many dirtbags who deserve to be featured in such films. As one’s ideological score can change over time, that part of one’s profile can be altered at any time. Put simply, it only lets you see what you can take. After completing a mission, once all evidence has been processed, the situation neutralized and the case closed, the person who completed it will be appropriately compensated for their time and effort. [/hider] [hider=Judicial law] Anyone serving in a judicial position forfeits all privacy rights pertaining to online communications, public communications and all but what takes place within the privacy of their home, and must be honest and forthright in all but classified matters. In order to be qualified to run for judge, one must have a bachelor's or an equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in the specific scientific fields most commonly brought forth in the court they wish to oversee. A court that deals with drug violations would have judges trained in criminology, narcotics, drug law, gang crime and economics. A court that deals with computer crime would have a judge educated in networking, programming, hacking, copyright and publication law, as well as some knowledge of narcotics, sex crimes, solicitation and anything illegal that may be committed using a computer or the internet. Typically, the computer crime court has the most rigorous degree program due to the fact that computer crime tends to cover all other types of crime as well. If a case involves aspects of multiple courts, a panel of judges with the necessary educational qualifications will be formed so as to guarantee a proper execution of justice and such panels almost always contain a judge from a computer crimes court. The court may also consult with leading experts in the fields presented in cases as expert witnesses, though an expert witness's testimony, like that of a regular witness, cannot be considered evidence and instead serves to identify possible sources of forensic evidence. [/hider] [hider=Weapons law] It is legal for an adult citizen to open carry weapons equal to those owned by military personnel so long as that citizen has no criminal history (or has been granted a clean slate) and no involvement with drugs. If you have committed a crime and you carry a weapon anyway, you will be deported and any person who willfully supplied you with said weapon is given a criminal history and sentenced to community service. It is illegal for non-citizens to carry weapons. In order to own weapons, one must pass a weapons safety class and go through all training pertaining to the particular class of weapon they wish to carry. If someone wants to carry a particularly large caliber weapon, they must complete a certain number of missions annually in order retain license for the weapon, otherwise it’s ownership is deemed unnecessary. All weapons must have serial numbers and the identification numbers of the owner engraved somewhere easily visible, and a tagging device for all bullets fired installed, and the person carrying the weapon must have their identification with them while doing so, though it is recommended to have identification with you at all times regardless, though biometrics can be used in cases where an ID card is absent. When not in use, weapons must be stored securely in a location easily accessible to the owner, but not to anyone else. Biometric safes are often used. [/hider] [hider=Abortion law] Technically legal until 4 weeks (human equivalent of 12 weeks), but due to anatomical and developmental differences between Azulians and Humans, abortions are more bothersome than just carrying the baby to term. That, and the culture is totally different. No-one cares if you’re a single parent, if you’re a young parent and polygamy isn’t seen as an issue as the father is expected to take care of them anyway, and if they leave, they take the children with them so it’s extremely low-risk for the females, so abortion within the Azulian species is practically non-existent, and even then, any abortions that are performed are typically for health reasons. As for males, them having more children is seen as attractive so the probability of them having financial troubles while supporting small children on their own is pretty small, because the females in that culture would see that as an opportunity to have more children (future workers) classed under their family name, without actually having to go through any effort to produce them. As a result, because Azulian males are still males, it’s not uncommon for them to already have one or two children, either biological or adopted, before they enter any kind of long-term relationship. So the idea of abortion seems rather stupid to them and is typically seen as a strange thing humans do because humans are weird and backwards creatures which deserve pity. Azulian males might even adopt Human children, if humans weren’t seen as generally small and useless creatures. Which, is one of the reasons that Azulians are very effective at conquering territory, as they tend to produce more genetically diverse offspring at a faster rate than the surrounding populations. [/hider] [hider=Education law] Two things are at the core of Azulian culture: Not being a twat, and a society capable of governing itself. This is only possible if certain things are common knowledge among all citizens regardless or belief, class, income level and education level. Therefore, it is required that all citizens (a: know in fair detail how their own government functions, (b: know enough about CSI investigation so as to understand current court cases on a scientific level and have the ability to secure a crime scene and find forensic evidence without contamination should the need arise. (c: know what other people believe and think on a factual historically accurate basis so as to avoid uneducated and worthless vitriol. (d: know how sex works and what the consequences and responsibilities associated with it are before the individual is likely to participate in it. (e: know how to operate and properly store weapons even if they don’t own any so as to increase the number of potential first responders in the case of shootings, terrorism and the like. The goal is that by the time the police are called, the situation is already taken care of and the crime scene secured. This also serves to prevent bullshit in the media and corruption in the government as a eighth grader will be able to tell if the evidence in a case is insufficient or contrived. This is accomplished with required classes that all citizens must pass before they can be considered legally adults or as the lexicon would have it ‘independents’. If they do not, they are considered dependents and cannot: run businesses, work for the government, raise children, own weapons, do drugs, operate machinery, vote or participate in any active investigation. If you violate these rules and refuse to take the classes, you will be deported. If you refuse to have your children take these classes, you can either seek citizenship elsewhere, or have your children take the classes. If you refuse to leave and refuse to have your children take the required classes, you will be deported, your children relocated, and they will take the classes. Required classes are as follows: Sex ed, alternative religion, weapons safety, governmental procedure and a basic course in CSI investigation. They also have strict educational standards for their public and government schools where teachers aren't allowed to decide the grade percentages for their classes, nor alter the tests to suit a particular demographic, so as to prevent poorly educated districts from sabotaging their education through grade inflation. [/hider] [hider=Privacy law] Citizens are allowed to record other citizens without their consent so long as both are standing in a public place or if the recorded party is suspected of illegal behavior and recording them yields evidence that is forensically useful. Such recordings must then be brought before the police, otherwise the intent is assumed to be criminal, in which case an investigation is launched into the recorder’s affairs. If a citizen is the subject of an active investigation, any and all recordings on any media or material can be seized without further notice. Precautionary recordings of citizens may be created without their knowledge or consent by the government as a matter of standard procedure, and these recordings can be analyzed by AIs and other computer software in order to detect criminal behavior. If criminal behavior is detected, an investigation is then launched and all recordings and data pertaining to that individual becomes viewable to investigators. If the probability of the citizen’s guilt exceeds 75%, the data is made publically available so as to allow other citizens to search for additional forensic evidence. [/hider] [hider=Work law] In order to find work on Azulu, a citizen must simply be qualified for the job. If the employee is enrolled in an education program, as is mandatory for those under the age of 15, (or the developmental equivalent) the employer must pay the employee enough money to cover average housing, feeding and education costs. An employer can fire an employee for breaking the law, for doing a shitty job, or if they no longer have the money to employ them, but not for anything else. When an employee is let go or fired, a form must be sent to the government detailing the business's financial situation and the reason the employee was let go or fired. The employee can file a complaint, and if investigation concludes the employer broke the law, appropriate measures will be taken. Azulian businesses can only employ Azulian citizens and are not allowed to move jobs to other planetary systems as all colonies must be registered as self-sustainable. If one cannot find work, they may register as a government worker, wherein they are paid minimum wage to manufacture goods, operate a restaurant or run any number of for-profit ventures which the government uses to fund its expenses. For more information on how this works, see tax law and government funding. [/hider] [hider=Tax Law and Government Funding] Contrary to most governments, the Azulian government keeps parasitic behavior to a minimum. In many ways it is run more like a business. It produces goods and sells them, uses its prison system to turn a profit and employs the otherwise homeless and jobless in a number of for-profit jobs, pays them minimum wage, and takes the difference. These government employees can get raises, but only if they bring in a sizable profit. When citizens work for or buy from government run businesses, it is considered tax deductible or tax-free income. Whatever expense is left is then covered by income and sales tax. Whenever the government is in the negative, so to speak, the people have the option of suspending certain costly and non-vital government services (insert list here) or increasing taxes, which, of course tax more heavily on those are ‘well off’ and even more so on those who are well off almost entirely because of inherited money or money they otherwise did very little to get. Also those who have a history of tax evasion have their taxes take a hike. Taxes may not however, ever inhibit one’s ability or potential to increase one's assets. On the other hand, the government must also never be inhibited from performing essential functions like law enforcement, international and civil security, the protection of civil rights and the maintenance of government property. [/hider] [hider=Pornography law:] Any imagery that appears to depict someone under the age of consent in a sexully explicit manor is illegal. Sorry Romeo and Juliet. And all melodramatic and cinematically awful teen dramas ever. We won’t miss you. [/hider] [hider=Drug law] Citizens may use drugs if they so choose. They may not, however, distribute them without official packaging and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused by their product. They cannot export or import narcotics across any border and if a customer wants rehab treatment, the seller is required by law to pay for it on pain of deportation. All drug users must be registered as such on pain of deportation, and their drug of choice must be listed on their ID card, and they cannot file for a driver’s licence nor operate any transportation vehicle nor work in a position where their drug habit is likely to cause disfunction. Drugs cannot be distributed to those unable to understand the risks of taking them. If a seller is found distributing to children, the mentally ill or the hopelessly addicted, they will be deported. Additionally, citizens using drugs may not have access to weapons of any kind, even through relatives or friends. If someone is found to be on drugs and in possession of a weapon, they will be forced into rehab and then forced into community service, and the person who provided them with the weapon will do community service also, and if it happens again, both will be deported. A house which contains children, cannot contain people who actively use, distribute or whom possess drugs. People can remove themselves from the gene pool all they want, but they can’t inflict that choice on anyone else. [/hider] [hider=Refugee citizenship law] The Krytocracy of Azulu will grant temporary citizenship to individuals fleeing their home country giving refugee citizens the same rights as regular citizens but on segregated colonies populated primarily by government workers and other refugees. The purpose of these colonies is to transition refugees from the culture and environment of their original home to the culture and environment of the Azulian colonies and allow them to make enough money to afford to live in a nice part of town and gain enough education to work a decent well paying job. In essence, the refugee colonies allow refugees to establish themselves before being integrated into society as a whole and many past refugees find employment on refugee colonies as government workers helping other refugees transition from their country and culture of origin to Azulu’s. The segregated colonies also serve to filter out potential terrorists and those seeking to take aspects of an inferior society with them, as such people will not abide by Azulian law while in the refugee colonies and will therefore have their temporary citizenship revoked, though this is rarely ever necessary as terrorism on any of Azulu’s colonies is an impossibly uphill battle and most people are wise enough not to try it. That, combined with the fact that many of the citizens in charge of refugee colonies were once refugee’s themselves and as government officials, have access to military vehicles and a virtual army of pissed off civilians, that makes for a quickly disappearing populus on the antagonistic countries part and makes Azulu one of the most rapidly expanding nations (aside from maybe ISRS, who they are in cahoots with) in the galactic community, which has a lot of other nations on edge because it’s almost shameful that they can be outdone by a recently overthrown colony crash test experiment run by a sarcastic botanist and a psychopathic serial killer. [/hider] [hider=Penance colonies:] This is where people who are deported go. The people who live here are stripped of their citizenships and the rights that go along with them. Once one has been deported to a penance colony, it is possible for them to work their way back to citizenship again, though this requires significant contribution to the production of whatever that colony manufactures and time served as a penance warden. Typically, penance colonies are agricultural and the people living there work growing food or harvesting other resources for citizen colonies. In fact, most of Azulu’s manufacturing and agricultural work is done by people in penance colonies. The people who live there can apply for citizenship or seek asylum in other countries, but they will never be allowed to enter any Azulian territories again, and while living on a penance colony fellow deportees are rewarded monetarily for reporting other deportee’s criminal behavior and they’re paid a few podecs an hour for their work, are allowed to buy land and houses on the colony, but they’re not allowed to own more than two properties and everything they do is recorded and monitored by a combination of computer algorithms, penance wardens and government employees. Illegal activity in a penance colony results in additional charges and counts as a numbered offense which can result in execution. If one wants to re-earn a citizenship, they have to have committed no additional offenses while on the penance colony, have reported on criminal activity of their fellow deportees (if it occurs and if it is reasonable to conclude they were aware of it), made significant contribution to society as whole by completing a certain amount of sub-minimum wage work, determined by the kind of offense committed, repaid or otherwise fixed things with whomever they victimized and be declared truly repentant and unlikely to repeat the offence ever again by a government psychologist. The deportee is then granted a new citizenship and with it a new identity, their original identity and criminal history being visible to people based on clearence level, rather than being open to the general public. It should be noted that one can only be given the ‘clean slate’ once, and after that if they do re-earn their citizenship their criminal history will be a matter of public record and thus can be held against them by employers, with reasonable restrictions of course. [/hider] [/hider] [i] Hostility Scale:[/i] If you are a good country, or a good person, Iceland. If you're a bad country or a bad person, Nazi Germany. It depends. [/hider] [color=00a651]Hylozoist[/color] [hider=Great Orpil Flock (GOF)] Briefly, comprising three species (the "Orpil", being Nezzim, Avelone & Orp), a bureaucracy that endlessly fights with itself as various Ministries squabble amongst themselves and a pair of cultures that sort of get along with one another. [i]Name: [/i] Greater Orpil Flock (GOF) [i]Territory:[/i] EN08 "Ave-Mux" system - comprising of their capital, Ave-Orpil, which is heavily populated. Orbital stations above Ave-Janus and Ave-Lorr monitor pre-sentient life on their respective planets. Ave-Orpil is dominated by dense forests and jungles, with modern constructions built alongside and into the ruins of the Creators. KV77 system - designated within the GOF as an "area of ecological interest". Three stations are present in the system; two scientific observatories with associated living and laboratory space operated by the Ministry of Environmental Concerns, one naval station operated by the Ministry of Harmony. The latter helps enforce the quarrantine of KV77 while the Ministry of Environmental Concerns tracks the development of an "Iron Age Equivalent" species on the surface of KV77 IV. BE15 "Ruin" - extensive archaeological work is overseen by the Ministry of Culture on BE15 II, uncovering sites that may have belonged to the Creators. It might also serve as something of a place to send undesirables, malcontents and those who have fallen afoul of Ministry politics. The other five planets remain uninhabited, though the Ministry of Procurement has expressed an interest in establishing a colony on BE15 IV. [i]Culture: [/i] [hider= ] Surprisingly, the culture is not split along racial lines. Two main cultures dominate the GOF; the Southern Song, and the East Wind. The Southern Song considers itself to be the ones most capable of organisation, or at least, the ones most vociferous in promoting co-operation between members of the GOF. History is an important subject to this culture, though few take it to the extremes of venerating the Creators, nearly everyone within the Southern Song will have an opinion on that subject. Politeness, formality and civility are treasured, such that outsiders may not realise that they have born witness to a major disagreement. Worse still, an outsider may not realise that they are making a terrible social gaffe, fail to recognise the signs of displeasure, and only realise they are now considered a pariah when they are no longer invited to social events. A relatively sheltered life within the jungle-ruins of the Creators has given the Southern Song an air of refinement and knowledge of their place in history. To the East Wind, they are seen as stuffy, slow, but useful to have around. The East Wind territory is home to scarred lands and the ruins of devestated cities left behind in the wake of the fall of the Creators. Faced with the constant reminders of an age long since passed, their culture is considered - by the Southern Song, at least - a little odd. Some are prone to fatalism, seeing the wreckage of terrible machines of war. Some promise to live their lives to the fullest, knowing that it could all easily end for them just as it did for their Creators. Some dream of the stars a as a way to avoid the terrible threat of extinction. Regardless of the nature of the actions they take, they value the simple act of acting - they consider themselves to be a dynamic people, propelled forward by the explosions that tore apart the Creators. Loud, boisterous, active, they are the means by which the Greater Orpil Flock reached the stars. To the Southern Song, they are reckless and difficult to understand, but useful to have around.[/hider] [i]Warring factions / Political Parties:[/i] [hider= ] Political life is dominated by various Ministries, with each having very strict limits on what they may control. However, most Ministries employ a number of exceedingly clever people who have the task of arguing just how their interpretation of statutes and codes allows their own Ministry to interfere in a matter that might not directly be within their domain. Open violence between the Ministries is more or less unheard of, but dirty tricks, espionage, assassination and strongly worded letters have all been deployed in the name of one Ministry or other. Each Ministry is led by a Minister, and the squabbling group of Ministers forms the government of the Greater Orpil Flock, with a directly elected "Speaker" acting as something akin to a head of state. Elections for Speaker are held every ten years, and each Ministry is responsible for it's own arcane processes by which it chooses a Minister. Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have suffered a series of set-backs. The Ministry of Harmony - responsible for the (rather limited) armed forces of the Greater Orpil Flock - has seen a rise in prominence in recent years, partly due to the election of Speaker Mallicum (a close personal friend of Minister-General Fortidae). [/hider] [i]History:[/i] [hider= ] The History of Ave-Orpil, and the Greater Orpil Flock, is generally broken down into three ages. There is the Age of Life, the Fall, and the Modern Age. The roots of the three species that comprise the "Orpil" are in the Age of Life. By their understanding of history, the Creators brought the Orpil species out of the darkness of ignorance, such that they might carry the brilliance of the Creators onwards into the future. It is regarded as something of a Golden Age, mostly due to the efforts of romantic writers who promoted the image of the Orpils and the Creators living as equals in a peaceful society. While scholarly studies suggest that this was certainly not the case, that the Orpil species were just one set of many that were uplifted and that the act of uplifting itself was considered distasteful by many of the nation-states that the Creators lived in. To the majority, however, they remain the multi-armed, flightless pseudo-gods, who chose their ancestors for a life of greatness. Then came the Fall. To the Orpil, an unexplained, mysterious event that devastated the Creators. Many presume that outside interference is to blame, while the truth is that conflict between a number of states escalated into a highly destructive, global war. One continent - the cultural home of the East Wind - is particularly scarred, while the rest of the world has been steadily reclaimed by nature, and the inheritors of the world, the Orpil. The Modern Age begins with the reclamation of the Creators works, the adaptation of their technologies to use by the Orpil and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock. Reclamation was slow; so much was lost, many areas were initially uninhabitable, and the barely sentient Orpil left in the wake of the Fall were forced to scratch an existence in the shadows of the ruins. True intelligence, as the Orpil reckon it, actually developed during this time - and it was a slow, slow process. "Official History" paints a picture of brave Orpil striking out of the still-smoking wreckage with mastery of the tools left by the Creators. The truth is that, just like many species, they went through various ages of technological progress, albeit significantly accelerated by the guidance of technologies left behind by the Creators. The history so favoured by the Southern Song is of recent, modern history, and the formation of the Greater Orpil Flock out of the East Wind and the Southern Song. It was a time of coming together, of cut-throat negotiations, of compromises and agreements that led to the creation of the first Ministries, where Song and Wind could come together and share in a mutual interest. Local governments began to be replaced by the Ministries, and the bureaucracies endemic to the Ministries began to blossom, absorbing various political functions. Finally, the Ministries were ascendant, and an accord had to be reached - none of the Ministries, with their specialisations, could allow another to lead them, but a leader was needed. Wars followed. Once great Ministries fell, some absorbed by others, others scattered to the winds. A compromise was reached once again, following the surrender of the Ministry of Arms & Armour to the Ministry of Harmony; no Ministry would be placed above another, and the leader shall be directly chosen by the "Greater Orpil Flock", comprising of the Southern Song people and the East Wind people, regardless of what Ministry they were employed by. With disputes mostly put aside, and grudges kept to themselves, progress began to happen fast. Three hundred and sixty five years after the election of the first Speaker, and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock as a (mostly) functioning government that stretched across Ave-Orpil, we arrive at the modern day. [/hider] [i]Hostility Scale: [/i] 1-2. The inability for the Ministries to come to a consensus on many issues creates an outwardly facing pacifism. Even in the face of an existential threat from outside the GOF, it is unlikely that the Ministries would agree on hostile action. Individual Ministries may employ covert operations outside of the GOF unofficially, though discovery would likely see the other Ministries turn on them. [i]Laws & Legality[/i] [hider= ] Prior to the rise of the Ministries and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock, each community tended to adopt their own legal code. In the modern age, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for most things legal. There are no laws, as such, but rather agreements and understandings. A party who feels aggrieved by the actions of another may seek justice from the Ministry of Justice, who will consider, as best they are able, whether actions taken against the aggrieved party constitute a crime. The ponderously slow bureaucracy of the Ministry of Justice check prior rulings of the Ministry to help determine whether a crime has actually taken place, though individual Adjudicators can rule on one side or the other based on their own judgement. If found guilty, relevant information is handed to the Ministry of Harmony. Punishments, like legality, vary, and is decided upon by representatives from both the Ministry of Harmony and the aggrieved party. Periods of indentured servitude are generally preferred to other punishments, with the guilty party becoming a low-paid employee of the aggrieved party. One of the obvious, and often exploited, loopholes in the system is that the Greater Orpil Flock does not pursue legal recompense, but that it comes down to the single aggrieved individuals, or those that are close to them. Political assassinations are often incredibly bloody affairs, as if there are no "aggrieved individuals" left to complain about it, no criminal action has taken place. [/hider] [/hider]