Theocratic Republic City-States of Greece Embassy
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DAUGHTERS OF OLYMPUS, READ AT YOUR OWN CAUTION
Embassies are the vessels through which diplomacy is conducted. They are the physical manifestations of countries abroad and they are crucial tools in the field of international relations. These can range from tiny, like the UK embassy in Mongolia which only has a handful of staff, to enormous, like the US embassy in Baghdad- a complex physically as large as Vatican City. Which reached a peak of 16,000 staff during the Iraq War.
In the case of the Embassy of the Theocratic Republic City-States of Greece, it is entirely unique. After the events of the Promised Day during Champion Of Olympus, the Greek world and Olympus were revealed to the mortal world for the first time in over two thousand years. Because of this, the demigods scrambled in order to protect themselves when the world, and by extension the American Government, began looking for them, seeking answers to what happened to the city of New York and the world.
Some time passed after the Promised Day before the demigods responded to the requests to come forward by the government. Only choosing to when half-bloods were being discriminated and mistreated. Three half-bloods answered the call, stepping forward and officially introducing the Greek world to the modern world, Sofía García , Vienna Bertinelli and Dolcetto Higgins.
After many years of intense debate, the United Nations and America have decided to let the three half-bloods to create the first Theocratic Republic City-States of Greece Embassy in Washington, D.C. in the efforts to build friendly relations with the quickly forming country.
Kala Fredrick is currently going through training to one day become a Junior Ambassador of the TRCSG.Purpose / Function
An Embassy serves many functions and their nature is extremely complicated and political, so here's a brief run down:
Embassies are the vessels through which diplomacy is conducted. They are the physical manifestations of countries abroad and they are crucial tools in the field of international relations. These can range from tiny, like the UK embassy in Mongolia which only has a handful of staff, to enormous, like the US embassy in Baghdad- a complex physically as large as Vatican City. Which reached a peak of 16,000 staff during the Iraq War.
Big, influential countries will have embassies to almost every other country-the US, for example, has diplomatic missions to every UN recognized country in the world except St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Bhutan, and North Korea.
Smaller, less influential countries, on the other hand, might only have a few embassies-Tuvalu, for example, only has diplomatic missions to New Zealand, Fiji, Taiwan, the European Union in Belgium, and the United Nations in New York.
There are Embassies to non-state organizations-namely the UN and EU. You can even have embassies to agencies of the UN- there's one US diplomat in Rome with the lengthy title of, “United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.” Even traditionally closed off countries like North Korea have representation abroad. The DPRK has embassies in some quite western countries like Germany, Sweden, and the UK and these three countries also each have embassies in North Korea.
How these embassies exist in even the most different and opposing of countries is because of how they are codified in international law. Every UN member state, bar South Sudan, Palau, and the Solomon Islands has signed the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
This sets out a number of laws on how embassies work. Perhaps the most significant and well known is Article 22 “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable.” - Unless invited by the ambassador or their government, any representative of the host country’s government- be it police, a government official, member of the military, or even firefighter- cannot enter the embassy.
It also lays out a few other important rules for embassies- the diplomats and the embassy are exempt from all taxes in the host country; the diplomats are allowed free movement around the host country; an embassy can have diplomatic couriers carrying diplomatic bags which cannot be seized or searched; diplomats are granted diplomatic immunity; the residents of diplomats are also treated as an extension of the embassy and cannot be entered without permission; diplomats cannot work or earn a profit when in their host country except for with the embassy; and then there are plenty of other even more minor rules.
They are not the sovereign territory of the country they represent. Local laws do apply there, the diplomats there just can't be charged there. Only the diplomats cannot be arrested, so security can be arrested. They don't apply in the UN headquarters.
Normally, though, embassies are more concerned with building diplomacy. Typically, but not always, embassies are headed by an ambassador. Sometimes, though, there are lapses where one goes without an ambassador for a period of time. And other times, a country might choose to recall their ambassador as a sign of displeasure.
The job of ambassador is hard to define. In the simplest sense, an ambassador is there to represent their country, but what that entails varies widely from person to person and post to post. They're there to build and maintain relationships with those that can help their country- politically, economically, or otherwise.
- Direct Diplomacy - Where an ambassador might meet directly with a head of state.
- Soft Diplomacy - Like China sending pandas to foreign zoos, the US funding scholarships for students, or France setting up a branch of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. They are more subtle ways one nation can curry favor with another. The three Greek gals(TGG) might set up ancient Greek art halls, donate a fountain/statue to a local park or something like that.
- In order to help the TRCSG to be accepted as a recognized as a country
- To ensure that half-bloods around the world, especially in America, are treated fairly and humanely
- To build a friendship between the TRCSG and the rest of the world
- To promote global trade of goods with the outside world
- To ensure that, whatever happens, the half-blood people of the world have somewhere to go and to protect them
Design
Below are the various rooms in the Embassy:
- Sitting room
- Shared bedroom for the three ambassadors
- several individual rooms for staff
- A large barrack for the six guards
- Kitchen
- Small gym
- Temple room for prayers and offerings
- Large shared office
- Meeting room
- Utility room
Architecture
Exterior: The Embassy resembles a Mediterranean villa surrounded by a low brick wall with a Celestial Bronze fence on top of it, giving a full view of the Embassy and it's grounds to onlookers on the street.
The Embassy sits behind a large, open front lawn dotted by several palm trees that are kept alive via the nature magic of the various nymphs and dryads that live on the property out of site of the public. A very large olive tree and dozens of breeds of Greek flowers make up the garden adjacent to the Embassy.
The Embassy and it's property are protected by an invisible wall of over a dozen hidden magical wards set up by Hecate and her children. The only public entry is the front gate, also protected by magical wards as well as a small security booth monitored by several highly trained half-blood warriors in full armor. Sightseers often take pictures of the motionless guards.
The existence and use of magical wards is seen as controversial, dangerous and hard to understand by the general population and the other embassies around the building. Making the suspicion, fear and even hate towards the half-blood Ambassadors even larger.
Behind the Embassy, outside of the public view thanks to plenty of trees and magical privacy wards, sits a small but opulent pool with a sitting area and bbq adjacent to it.
Dozens of marble and stone statues of various Greek Gods stand proudly along the gravel path encircling the Embassy. A wooded porch stretches around the sides of the building, with a traditional Greek wooden cover on top of it.
A large landing pad for both helicopters-which rarely land, and airships sits on the opposite side of the Embassy. A long landing strip for Pegasus carriages sit next to the landing pad. A small Pegasus stable is located a little ways away.
And finally a pair of flagpoles on either side of the entryway gatehouse fly the Theocratic Republic City-States of Greece flag, which represent a Pegasus flying through a thundercloud with lightning bolts.
Style: It resembles a three story traditional Greek villa with its almost crème colored stone walls.
Tourism
The Embassy of the Theocratic Republic City-States of Greece receives tens of thousands of tourists a year, despite it's short existence.
Tourists travel from all over the world to the Embassy in hopes to see the so-called half-bloods in person. Or, more likely, to protest the existence of the Embassy, the TRCSG and the half-bloods as a whole.
Type
Embassy
Characters in Location
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