While I was on the train back from Rockhampton earlier this week, I got motivated and did some writing on the Extended Kingdom (see previous posts here and here). Not so much a story as a what could be considered a rough wikipedia entry on the Kingdom. Anyway the following is a transcription of what I wrote with some editing. Some of it recaps material in previous posts on the topic, but that's the way things happen.
Notes on the Extended Kingdom
The Extended Kingdom is a spacefaring civilization whose government is a constitutional monarchy. It is located in a small star cluster with most stars separated by distances of between 5 and 20 light years.
The Extended Kingdom currently occupies 4 solar systems. In its home system two planets in addition to the home world are inhabited, along with a few moons and many space habitats. The other systems are less densely populated, with just the most suitable world in each colonized and a number of habitats supporting the colony.
The Extended Kingdom has possessed faster than light for about 600 years but has not been able to travel faster than 13 times the speed of light, and travel is only practical at up to 6 times the speed of light. At this speed, trips between systems take between 8 to 18 months. Communication between systems is much quicker than physical travel, the longest delays in signals being about a minute or so.
The government of the Extended Kingdom is divided into three levels. The Grand Parliament governs the entire kingdom. Cities and Habitats have a local government that is responsible for administrating local affairs. Between these two levels sits the planetary government. Each planet has a planet wide government that exists mainly to centralize tasks that are more effectively dealt with on a larger scale (e.g., long distance infrastructure).
The Grand Parliament consists of three houses. The first is the House of Locales, and it's members are elected by the citizens of allocated regions, with each region having roughly the same population. The second house is the House of Metropolitans, which is made up of two representatives of each city or habitat administration. The last house is the House of Numbers. The House of Numbers has the same number of members as the House of Locales, but members are elected by a proportional ballot from a single electorate that covers the entire kingdom.
Members of the Houses of Numbers, Locales and Metropolitans are elected every two, three and six years respectively. The Metropolitans are staggered so one member from each local administration is replaced at each election for the House of Locales. The method of appointing the Metropolitans depends on the local administration. In some they are appointed by the administration, some are put up for direct election, and some are chosen based on the outcome of elections for the House of Locales.
The monarch of the Extended Kingdom is largely a symbolic figure, but does play a role in advancing social issues, and the degree to which this has been done depends on the reigning monarch.
The Extended Kingdom has grown from humble beginnings, and the monarchy traces back an unbroken line to the founder of the Kingdom of Antarius, Brilthang the Gruesome. Antarius started out as a small city-state, which Brilthang took control of after overthrowing the cruel tyrant Frimbar. He was well loved by the people of the city, Brilthang led Antarius in conquering nine other nearby city-states over the next twenty years.
Antarius then existed as one of eight nations on the main continent of the kingdom's homeworld. For a few centuries various conflicts moved back and forth between the nations, with shifting alliances and much use of subterfuge as well as actual warfare. Antarius broke this equilibrium when it went on a massive offensive after suffering a sneak attack from one of its most trusted ally. This success is attributed to Tilan, later called the Magnificent, who was the king at the time. Tilan was the first leader to realize the potential of several new technologies at the time including that of gunpowder, which was just being introduced to warfare.
As Antarius was consolidating its control of the continent, explorers returned having reached several new continents, and having established relations with two nations on other continents, Gerem and Sevant. The three nations co-existed for a few centuries until Gerem and Sevant were not conquered so much as absorbed. The absorption of the other nations was prompted by the surge in economic power that followed from Antarius' change from a feudal government to a limited form of constitutional monarchy. It was at this point the Kingdom of Antarius controlled the whole of it's world.
That's it for now. It's only taken me about a year to write some more of this stuff.
End Post
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