The Vanthric Haimarchy
The Haimarchy is not a government, it is a philosophy. It is the ability to take a sober look at the past and the present and plan for the future. This is why it has grown so far and lived for so long without crumbling. We are not without power struggles, but we have developed a method for having them without undermining the foundation of our Banner. We are not without adversity, but we are prepared to fight it. We will overcome from it and we will grow from its lessons. While the other Banners are busy hoping for a better tomorrow, we are busy creating it.
Overview
The Haimarchy is the oldest banner. It has had many names over many iterations, but is the same Banner of houses founded thousands of years ago after the final death of Kyzan. They are proud, but it is an earned pride. They were first to discover Metaphysics, first to have a Sovereign, first to reach space, first to have an planetary, interplanetary, and galactic empire, first to terraform a planet, first to manipulate the gene code, first to make an entirely new Sophont... and so forth, ad nauseum through history. Their accomplishments are many, their people competent, their military powerful. Even their failures are the greatest history has seen, from the Sazashi Revolution to the internal schism which culminated in the House of Sorrows.Core Philosophy
Lineage
The Haimarchy has held onto it's power using the same hierarchical government that has been in place for millennia. Experience and lessons flows down the family tree, and each new member is destined to operate off the same foundation that their ancestors built. With such a heavy focus on family, there are no more revolutions of leadership, only evolutions.Perfection
No one is immune to hardship, the Verin know this as well as any other Sophont. They have seen their people ground to nothing, and then from the ashes rise to a new power. With every hardship a lesson is learned, one of those lessons involves not taking risks when unnecessary. Conveniences are not worth unintended consequences, and the Verin will only take on new aspects when they have ensured that they know the ins and outs of its entirety.History
The Haimarchy began with the death of the tyrannical first Sovereign, Kyzan. Fearful that granting the power to another person would result in a new reign of tyranny, the Azukenda decided to organize some failsafes and rewrite the Edict of Purity, the rules by which Kyzan had claimed to govern. The accords they wrote were designed to last for thousands of years. There have been many amendments since then, clauses and entire sections added in the wake of disasters and mistakes. Over time their feudal structure has solidified into a pyramid, and the branches of government have developed to assure representation of the people and a proper balance of power. The history of the Haimarchy is full of dark times, often the result of their hubris. They founded an empire which spanned the breadth of their home world, and it collapsed. They built new Sophont, the Sazashi, to do their bidding, and the Sazashi took over their home world. They made a super material for building without considering the long-term ramifications, and when it corrupted it plunged the world into a time of disease and dark meta which threatened to drive them and the Sazashi extinct. They have a new home now, and many worlds. Their armies can tear mountains from their moorings and blot the sun from the sky. If it weren't for their methodical pace they might rule the stars—but if you ask them it's that pace which ensures that they will anyway.Government
Politics
The Haimarchy is a carefully structured feudalistic dynasty with built-in rituals, standards, and laws to maintain and encourage peace and collaboration among its dynastically-ruled planets. One of these measures is Tiers of Governance, which entrusts control and legislation of a region to the owners and inhabitants of that region, to an extent. Another measure is the Triumvirate of Powers, which breaks up the responsibilities of the Tiers of Governance so that multiple interests are protected and that it's harder for one interest to get marginalized, become antagonistic, and rebel. Even with these safeguards, politics are often a parade of feuds and alliances which play out in silver tongues and gilded gears spinning out over tens, hundreds, thousands of years.The Triumvirate of Power
The Primont
The Primont are representatives of every recognized Sophont living within the Haimarchy. At each Tier of Governance there are approximately 100 members of the Primont, with a ratio reflecting the demographics of their Tier. It is their role to represent the unique interests or needs of their Sophont, to help ensure that no race is being edged out but also to make sure that the needs of the many are met foremost. They vote on laws and motions, then work with the reigning Azukenda at their level of government on how to enact those laws and motions.The Haimokenda
The Haimokenda represents the families of the Haimarchy. The eldest family member of sound mind of every family serves as its Azukenda, and meets up with Azukenda at their Tier. If there are too many representatives at a level they are further subdivided. The Azukenda of each level vote which Azukenda govern over them and are eligible to represent them at the next level up, and those Azukenda generate additional votes for themselves by committing or having a certain amount of available military, resource, or manpower for the other Tiers. It is their role to represent the interests of landowners and legislation. They vote on laws and motions, and then work with the reigning Azukenda at their tier on how to enact those laws and motions.The Sovereign
The Sovereign serves as a spiritual, cultural, and metaphysical guide of the Haimarchy, and typically spends his time designing new cultural and technological innovations, updates, or repairs to keep the Haimarchy moving forward with a unified spirit. In order for any changes to be made which affect government Banner level, he must be consulted and convinced.The Tiers of Governance
All shall preside only over their own. You have no command over what you do not own, nor right to presume to understand how to govern it more than its owner.The Tiers odelineate the borders of power and control for the Triumvirate at that Tier. People at that Tier may only govern at that tier, and may only request upwards or downwards, not order. The Tiers of Governance, and what powers they grant, are listed from smallest to largest.
A list of the Tiers of Governance
Hold
A hold is controlled by a family. It may be a house, shop, or warehouse, so long as it's large enough to conduct trade in, live in, or preside over. A lot of land may be a hold, or may be subdivided into holds. Renovations and modifications of a hold are under the jurisdiction of their owner, so long as they do not violate codes or the will of the estate's Azukenda. A hold does not have Primont or Haimokenda and is owned by a named family member under the estate's Azukenda.Estate
An estate is a set of holds controlled by a family. Renovations and modifications of a hold are under the jurisdiction of their owner, so long as they do not violate codes. Unless the estate has more than 5000 residents, an estate does not have Primont or Haimokenda and is owned by the family Azukenda. If it has more than 5000 residents it must form a body of representative Primont and Haimokenda.Metro Subdistrict
A metro-subdistrict is a region within a district of a metro district. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in local building code and infrastructure, so long as it doesn't override legislation from their metro region.Metro District
A metro-subdistrict is a region within a metro, a collection of subdistricts. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in local building code, infrastructure, and economic practices so long as it doesn't override legislation from their prefecture.Metro Region
A metro region is the footprint of a large and civilized region, a collection of districts. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, and minor changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their territory.Prefecture
A prefecture is the footprint of a region encompassing multiple metros or an equivalent amount of population or land. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, agricultural practices and moderate changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their celestial body.Territory
A territory is a collection of multiple prefectures. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, agricultural practices, medical and Genestructional code, local trade, and moderate changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their WaySystem.Celestial Body
A body is an entire celestial body or a set of smaller inter-related bodies, such as a planet or asteroid belt. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, agricultural practices, medical and Genestructional code, metaphysical practices, interplanetary trade, and major changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their Waycluster.WaySystem
A system is a collection of bodies near to a WayHall or reached through arriving via one. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, agricultural practices, medical and Genestructional code, metaphysical practices, interplanetary trade, interplanetary travel, Wayhall regulation, and major changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their Banner.WayCluster
A system is a collection of WaySystems without a break on Haimarchy ownership between jumps. Primont and Haimokenda may vote on their Azukenda and changes in building code, infrastructure, economic and industrial practices, agricultural practices, medical and Genestructional code, metaphysical practices, interplanetary trade, interplanetary travel, Wayhall regulation, and major changes in local civil liberties so long as it doesn't override legislation from their Banner.Banner
The entire influence of the Haimarchy. Primont and Haimokenda may vote to change any aspect of society, but for it to come into effect it must be at an 80% majority and the Sovereign must agree as well.Law
Civil Rights
Right to Life
Right to Life
Physical Harm
Universal. While all Sophont are protected from harm it isn't uncommon for Kendas to have abuse accusations forgiven.
Psychological Harm
Universal. All Sophont are protected from psychological harm. Due to the effects on a Meta-heavy society, this is often taken more seriously than physical transgressions.
Auric Harm
Provisional. Much of the lower class has no protections in regards to their meta. They can be limited almost to nothing, but are protected from having their souls dispelled.
Right to Property
Search and Seizure
None. Any individual can have his property searched under suspicion from a higher up. Searchs are a rare occurance though, as too many searchs can lead to an unhappy populace.
Land Ownership
Provisional. Only those who are specifically attached to the planets ruling family can own land. All others must rent.
Right to Assets
Provisional. Often the lowest classes do not own any of their assets, instead they are loaned what they need from the ruling family.
Right to Identity
Right to Body
Provisional. This is more strict on the royal families. Where younger generations are often barred from modifing their body until they are in power.
Right to Speech
Limited. Speaking out against the ruling family unless in sactioned channels is illegal. Primont are required to create these channels.
Right to Career
All Sophont have the right to career, but systemic and cultural bias against non-humans creates a glass ceiling.
Right to Death
Right to Mortality
All Sophont have the right to die from natural causes, but death or complication onset by preventable cause and the responsibility of the person may result in forfeiture of some government benefits such as funeral costs and right to declare an heir.
Right to Suicide
Purposeful suicide is not legal, but all Sophont are allowed to make dangerous choices or partake in reasonably dangerous sports and recreational activities.
Right to Afterlife
Certain ranks of Orders may forfeit this right for compensation for them and their lineage. POWs and the Crucified do not have this right.
Law Enforcement
Tiered Police
The Haimarchy operates a police force at each level of holding. These police organizations are seperated from military personnel, and are operated from the Waysystem holding downwards. Family members from the ruling Haimokenda's family can assign family members to operate the highest level of the police force. They can then create divisions of enforcement for each level below them. This division creation ends at the Metro district level, where you have a final police precinct. These differing teirs often have reflecting equipment, so a Metro level police force may not be well-equipped compared to the Waysystem force.Enforcement
Criminals are capable of being arrested at any level of the police system. Petty theifs can be arrested by the Waysystem police if caught by the wayhall, and mass murders can be brought down by local Metro police if they can manage it. While the enforcement of the Law can be done at any level, the sentencing has to happen at the level they are accused at. This allows for crimes to be prosecuted properly. The local police know how to punish petty crimes, but massive transgressions are handled by those higher up.Runaway Criminals
Convicts who manage to escape Haimarchy space are subject to bounties set by top transgressing tier of government. The enforcement personnel will not chase fugitives into other Banners space, knowing what diplomatic dangers it can cause. Instead it lets banner-agnositic hunters attempt to bring criminals back in their stead. It is rare that the Haimarchy will issue a dead or alive bounty, preferring those who commit crimes to stand before their teir of governance rather than just condemning a corpse.Military
Assets
Technology
The military technologies of the Verin are a mixture of orga and meta tech. There are two forks of the technology used in the military. There is the non-autonomous division. The non-autonomous divison employs the actual sophonts, equipping them with various raiments for enabling massive battlefield controlling spells. These Sophonts are often held on the back line, acting as support. They are last to be risked on a front-line defense or assault. The other division is the autonomus division, which consists entirely of produced golem warriors. These created beings of meta and orga are sent to the front lines first.Prized Units
The Haimarchy shy away from weapons which constitute existential threats. They know first hand the consequences of such technology, and do not wish to inflict such horrors on the universe. In its stead, the Haimarchy instead produce platoons of warriors with specially trained Gestalt Soluma, Leviathan, and Behemoths. These massive constructs are battlefield dominators, giant organic and meta powered beings piloted by the specially trained platoons. They can come in any configuration for any environmentl: land, water, air, or even space.Strategy
The Verin Haimarchy has an active duty military of career knights and ships as well as a much larger, decentralized military reserve managed by the Azukenda of their governance tier. Whenever a conflict needs to be settled, the Azukenda hail down the pyramid (and up, depending on severity), and call to action a military force of reserves. Because of the rigorous training which all knights undergo, and the outfitting they are given, this allows the Verin to react to most threats with power local bands. The tradeoff to this is that they may be slower to act in larger battle theaters.Economy
The Haimarchy's Economy is an affair controlled like any other, within the family. Corporations have little say in the matters of export and import, instead the tiers of governance get to elect what stays within the Haimarchy and what is able to be traded away. While this may stifle some of the trade that is more lucrative, it also means the Haimarchy does not run short of supplies when other Banners are buying up goods. Corporations running within the Haimarchy are also regulated to a point which many other Banners would find constricting, risk-taking is not encouraged and creating new products which could be dangerous is a matter of which the Haimarchy will punish.Resource
Haimarchy holds several planets that are rich in organic and meta supplies, but they do lack many commodities that they have to trade for. Their shortage of Platinum almost lead them into a war with the resource-rich planet of Perduro. This event spurred the formation of the Federation of Free Planets. Instead of holding themselves hostage to the resources needed to dominate Mecha technology, they instead pushed themselves even further towards Meta and Orga.Trade
The Haimarchy's caution with industry has kept them incident free, but it has not bode well for non-necessary trade. Routes need to be approved by the tiers of governance, and any trade ship not bearing a current trade route number is prone to being searched and hassled until they leave Haimarchy space. What trade does occur is subject to inspection by Law Enforcement at a moments notice. Though the Haimarchy does bring technologies such as the Golem to the table, these autonomous units sell well to the other banners. They compete directly with the Mecha robotics market, and do well for Banners with little mecha tendencies.Culture
Identity
An Ancient People
At the very heart of Verin culture is Verin age, in multiple senses. The first sense is of their individual ages; Verin tend to be very long lived, and so while they develop physically within about 30 years, they perceive life and development on a much larger scale, and do not consider a Verin to be mentally mature until they are nearly 100 years of age. This changes their expectations on themselves and their offspring, and tends to make them think hundreds or thousands of years ahead to consider the ramifications of choices they may. The first sense is of their societal age. The Haimarchy is the oldest known civilization in the universe, and just as it blazed the trail in many schools of science, metascience, and culture it also made many mistakes. They regard the other Banners, and other people, through the lens of those mistakes, which tends to make them look arrogant and controlling to others when they comment on what people should do.The Weight of A Name
Verin culture puts family first and foremost, and view families as the smallest unit of governance. Their culture is not a highly individualistic one, instead it values someone's ability to contribute directly to the whole and further the name of that whole rather than to stand out. A family may last as long as the Haimarchy itself, and a fair few have. This puts great importance on the role of the Azukenda. A head of family may reign for hundreds, even thousands of years, arranging marriages, brokering deals with other families, and helping to decide for a child what education they will get.Summary
Sovereign Sigsalus
The Banner Primont
The Banner Haimokenda
Sophont Diversity
| Human | 5% |
| Sazashi | 17% |
| Verin | 75% |
| Other | 3% |
Universal BDP
WIP% of Universal ProductMilitary Spending
WIP% of Entire BDPPrimary Languages
| Aeai | 80% |
| Saza | 15% |
| Other | 5% |
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Demonym
Haimarchists
Subsidiary Organizations
Related Professions
Controlled Territories
Manufactured Items
Notable Members
Related Plots
Faction Relations
Sorted from most favored to leastThe Apple of Hedonism
It is sad how you try to blind yourselves to the truths of the world, to blind yourself on gleaming gold and sedate yourself on drugs. Someday you will awake and find yourself wondering what it all meant, and you will realize how much time you have wasted. Your notion at making a game of things is a clever approach to life, but it's cleverness untempered by wisdom or foresight, and you will lose yourself to the play.
The Jupiter Syndicate
You are very organized, but you do not know why you are organized, and so it is structure lending to madness rather than structure lending towards preparation. You exist in a state of self-contradiction, ever stumbling over your own feet, looking to the stars when you can hardly keep your stance.
The Church of The Somnolent
There's so much anger to you, so much fear. You want to prove yourself and you are willing to burn down the universe if that's what it takes. We fear you a little, and for good reason. When all comes to an end we may be at odds, and will have to fight.
The ValuSelu Pact
In a sense, you are our child and our mentor. We learned a lot from you, some of it good, most of it bad. Of all the Banners you worry us the least, even if you hate us the most—we see you looking to the distant future, and thinking. Now if you would just stop squabbling and bullying others... we've taken that route, trust us that it ends in tears.
The Federation of Free Planets
Dangerously naive. Your stance of collecting as many artefacts as possible is a worrisome one, and as often as not it feels like your approach to collecting worlds is more sinister than helpful. We have to keep an eye on you.
House of Sorrows
You don't want peace, you want chaos. You don't want love, you want pain. There is no method to your madness, only antithesis to the Wheel and a loathing for sanctity. You, before all others, must be destroyed.
RPG Content
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Mastery comes with patience and repetition.
Mettle only counts when it is tested.
There is always work to do.
Laziness is death.
Vince Napolitano
I enjoy the complexity and multi-tier nature of the governmental structure, it feels very real, yet unique. I also appreciate the idea of a society so rooted in philosophy that it seems to have become the philosophy itself. One thing that I'm dying to know is whether or not such a complex and layered system is susceptible to corruption, be it internal or external?
Ademal Jacklyn
Corruption is always a factor in any system, though their philosophies and the numerous layers of checks and balances make it very hard to get much traction in that regard. Politicians also have limited rights in many regards, and are prone to getting their minds read for corruption before being allowed to move upwards. Leading is seen servitude more than power. Great question, I'll have to integrate it into the article!
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