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You want HOW many? - Colonel Sahn'Ders, after initial contact with the Woodlouseians
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A Short Guide to the Politics of the Woodlice
Woodlouseian government is a parliamentary monarchy. It has fully operating executive, legislative and judiciary arms of governance:
Executive:
Sovereign: The head of state and head of government is the sovereign. The population of the state is made up 96% by individual House governments, with a slim 4% having their allegiance and administration to the state only. The national executive has the power to set forward legislation toward House government, though the Lower Chamber of the Royal Council (the Chamber of Nobles, made of the leaders of each House), has the power to veto decisions made by the sovereign if a 2/3 majority is reached. The sovereign serves for life (barring special circumstances) and appoints the "cabinet" for the main departments of the executive branch.
Royal Administrative Corps: Essentially the department for all civilian operations
in government. It is also the department which has the greater duty of the direct
administration of the Primus Colonies (HiveYards, at Sirius. Fort Regent, at Barnard's Star.
Port Freedom, at Alpha Centauri) and the Sol system. The Royal Administrative Corps is led
by the Master Viceroy, his cabinet is selected in conference with the sovereign. The primary
departments being:
Ministry of Food
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Industry
Ministry of Infrastructure
Ministry of Science
Bureau of the Treasury
Bureau of Diplomacy
Bureau of Information
Royal Space Corps: The Royal Space Corps is essentially the military, but also has
certain administrative and civilian roles. It is led by the 1st Commander of the Royal Space
Corps. There are ten overall commanders who form the general administration of the Corps,
each an Admiral. They are:
Royal Fleet Intelligence
Department of Base Resource Logistics
Department of Munitions and Fuel
Department of Martial Administration
Department of Trade and Finance
Department of Construction
Department of Exploitation
Provost Section
The general military units on the grand scale are as follows:
Royal Admiralty
Royal Space Marines
Royal Fighter Division
The Royal Space Corps also has the power to set legislation and comandeer forces from the
following general autonomous units:
House Space Corps
House Space Marines
House Fighter Division
Colonial Fighter Militia
Colonial Trooper Militia
The Secret Woodlouseian Services: Controlled by a Director-General who is appointed directly by the sovereign without conference with the Royal Council.
Legislative
The legislative process of the Kingdom is controlled by the Royal Council. The Royal Council has two chambers:Lower Chamber (or Chamber of Nobles): Essentially the most important chamber. Made
up of the ruling bodies of each of the Houses it is their job to debate government policy,
formulate legislation and keep in check the rulership of the sovereign. Politics here are
centered around the conflict of ideologies between the Eight Great Houses. The power of each
classification of House is as such:
Great House: To be a Great House means you are the only faction able to ever become the
ruling House. Each Great House has fourteen representatives at Council. Each Great House
strives to be the greatest in it's idealogical field, the make up of the Great Houses has
changed little over the 1500 reign of the Kingdom. Each Great House is ruled by a Duke.
Major House: To be a major House means to have a power streching over multiple systems, and
domain over perhaps hundreds of planets. A major House has the capability to dramatically
shape Council policy. There are 47 major Houses in existance at the present time, each has
the right to have eight representatives in Council. Each major House is ruled by a Marquis.
Standard House: A standard House is generally a House with domain over a singe system, or a
range of planets generally accepted as equal to a system. A standard House is generally a
follower of a Great House (or sometimes major House) specifically, as though they may have
local power their ability to shake the will of the Council is insignificant. Each standard
House has three representatives at Council, and is led by an Earl.
Minor House: A minor House is often just a House which operates a region on a planet or
maybe operates a business. They are small factor in politics individually but make up almost
half of the total Council votes together. Each standard House has only one representative at
Council, that being the leader who is always a Count.
In total there are 2881 "seats" in the Lower Chamber.
Upper Chamber (or Chamber of Law): The Upper Chamber is made up of officials of the law, from the rank of System Judge upwards. They are selected 50% at random, 20% by the King and 30% by the Dukes of each Great House (excluding the King). The Upper Chamber has the responsibility of checking and passing legislation that passes from the Lower Chamber and to make sure that the legislation does not contradict the letter of existing law, except in cases where the legislation is a specific replacement of present law. The Upper Chamber is also the highest legal Court, and as such more detail is expressed in the Judiciary section below.
There are 400 overall "seats" in the Upper Chamber, 200 are selected at random. Each Duke selects 18 making 126 overall by the Dukes and the King selects 74. It is expressly forbiden for a Noble to directly interact with ANY official of the law except in Court.
Judiciary
The legal system of the Woodlouseian Kingdom is unique in that the enforcement and judgement of law is entirely separate from government. While government itself creates the law, the Judiciary has the final responsability of making sure it is enforced. As such the officials of the law are selected from birth and raised. They recieve a heavy mental conditioning and are forbidden from speaking or in anyway interacting with any member of government. These officials then select the police force (known as Royal Arbitraitors) to enforce the law while they have the duty of judging it.
The Courts are in the following importance. Chamber of Law ---> Sovereign Court ---> Sector Court ---> System Court ---> Planetary Court ---> Magistrates Court
Notable Houses
Great Houses:
House Frin'Cae: A group of diplomatic aristocrats, owners of the largest collection of embassies of any House.
House Panchik: A wealthy but militarily poor House.
House Yah'Noik: The main explorers of the Woodlice, the House that made first contact with the Llamas.
House Chik-Nik: The main tunnel builders, colonisers and repairmen of the Woodlice.
House Zahh'Nothi: The most militarily powerful of the Woodlice, the backbone of the Kingdoms united military.
House Woodlouse: An "all rounder" House, they have skills in most things, except tunnel building and are tipped to be the next Royal House.
House Arjini: A House that has built itself around science, it believes in the enhancement of Woodlouseicus Superious through technology.
House Doef'Rini: The Doef'Rini are a secretive House, even from their own species, they are however loyal and are always willing to help fight for the Kingdom. They frequently act as the Kingdoms intelligence force, as their people are expert agents and their ships invisible to all but the most advanced sensors.
House Xanarious (fallen Great House): A banished House, they live among the stars and are banned from ever returning to Earth because they tried to make war with another House. It is currently known that this House is more powerful than any other House. ::HOUSE XANARIOUS IS NOT A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COUNCIL::
Standard Houses:
House Yah'Jini: This House is made up of old members of Houses Yah'Noik and Arjini. They eventually founded a splinter House on the border of Vulcan space and their close proximity has resulted in many of them emulating their neighbors. They only have a small amount of territory and population, but as this grows it seems likely that this House will evolve into a major House someday.
Minor Houses:
House Kenobi: A House of romantic nomads, as of late it has been discovered that quite a few of this House are Psi-Aware. House Kenobi has only one planet, but quite a few ships.
Other Renegade Houses:
House KlackLoki: An offshoot of the Xanarious, with a slight tinge of Panchik in their blood. It is thought that they are desended from the result of Xanarious raids in Panchik territory. When the Xanarious where banished the KlackLoki did not exist but as the Xanarious fleets traveled to their new destination those who are now the KlackLoki broke off from the fleet because they dident wish to go to the planned destination of the main Xanarious fleet so they settled near the edge of Imperial space, from here they have become one of the most formidable pirate groups to scourge the Imperial Navy. They are also pretty much enemies of everyone, since they target pretty much everyone... ::THIS HOUSE IS NOT ON THE ROYAL COUNCIL::
House Wrathion: These woodlice where banished from House Xanarious because they where so aggresive that they where near impossible to control, they became a separete House. It is thought that their aggressive nature comes from a time when some Zahh'Nothi ships arrived in Xanarious space and where captured and the crew taken as slaves, it is thought that some mated with their slaves and the result was an overly aggressive and chaotic race. They traveled toward Ur-Quan space (without knowing of the Ur-Quan) and settled along its border, it dident take long for the Ur-Quan to find them and offer them the choice of either becomeing a battle thrall or placed under a slave shield, they where overjoyed to choose the option of fighting for them. ::THIS HOUSE IS NOT ON THE ROYAL COUNCIL::