The Second Neroan Unity

Officially known as the Second Unity, though more commonly referred to as the Neroan Unity by foreigners, it is one of the two Inner System Superpowers. The successor of Nero's will, born from the ashes of the Neroan crusade, the Second Unity was born far from the heights of the first. However from a loose coalition of former warlord states, the Second Unity has slowly recovered and centralised even as its great rival ODA has declined.
Today the Unity and ODA are locked in a Cold War for power and influence across Mars and the rest of the Inner System, but many worry even this tense peace will not last. Of the many growing tensions the most concerning of all is the Unity's recent rewriting of its history books, they no longer refer to the Neroan Crusade, instead they now call it the 1st Crusade.

Origins

The Second Unity was born from the ashes of the Neroan Crusade. The death of the Prophet Nero in 2572 saw his grand crusade fracture into dozens of small warlord states as individual High Priests each fought for control, even as ODA launched a renewed counter attack to finally crush the Neroan's once and for all. However even divided the remnants of the Crusade posed a significant threat, and after 35 years of constant war, the people of Mars wanted peace more than anything, even victory.
Sensing opportunity a relatively young and upcoming High Priest Valerius would strike a deal with ODA. ODA would support him in his efforts to bring the Unity under his rule, and in return Valerius would make peace with ODA. Though it would still take another nine years of warfare, this alliance would eventually bring peace to Mars, with the remaining Neoran warlords either being conquered by ODA or swearing allegiance to Valerius. When the final peace treaty was signed in 2581 and Valerius proclaimed the Second Unity his new state still maintained control of almost a third of the surface of Mars.

Faith

The Neroan Unity practices Neroism and that faith is the single aspect that binds Neroan society together, while the Unity is comprised of people from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, it is in their faith that the Unity's people stand together. Neroism is centred on the core belief that Humanity was cast into the material world in order to grow, evolve and eventually become gods themselves through their own evolution.
The most important aspect of this for the Neroan State is the belief that evolution and progress must benefit all of humanity, and it is through this that the Unity justifies its existence as a state. Neroan's believe competition is necessary to drive evolution, but that too often the victors of competition use their victory to prevent further competition, thus stifling the growth of humanity. The Neroan state therefore must exist in order to ensure that competition is always fair and used to benefit humanity as a whole, and not just the victors.

Culture

The Unity ensures that it gives every member of its society the resources necessary to succeed, and in return those citizens are expected to give back to the state and work hard for themselves and humanity. Every citizen receives basic necessities such as food and housing without cost, and education is completely free to all citizens. With these basic necessities the citizens are then expected to apply themselves to the growth of society and humanity as a whole, effectively to repay the state for the effort it took in nurturing them. In this way when a citizens achieves something, it is not just their achievement but also the achievement of the society that nurtured them.
For some this will involve applying to join a Church, starting a local business, becoming a writer or joining any other specialist job. Those who are unable to find their own specialist careers will instead have a job assigned to them by the state, these are generally low skill or high risk jobs, military service is one such assigned job. Citizens still receive wages which they can spend on luxury items such as better housing or food beyond the basic necessities the state provides, this serves as a reward and incentive to grow, if a citizen wants a better life they must earn it themselves.

Structure

The Unity is a theocratic state, all government institutions are represented by various Churches, each with their own purpose. These can range from the Church of Sanctuary, which is responsible for managing housing, to the Church of Truth, which runs the Unity's security and propaganda.
Every Church is run by Priests, though in the Unity a Priest refers to someone who works in a Church and doesn't necessarily involve overtly religious connotations, however in Neroan doctrine any job that guides the state is a holy task no matter how bureaucratic. To be a Priest requires an education in Neroan Theology, but once complete most priests rarely engage in any kind of preaching or missionary work their new careers of serving the state seen as holy enough, these Priests can be researchers, military officers or even bureaucrats depending on which Church they belong to.
These Various Churches often compete with one another for influence within Neroan society, a practice encouraged by the Neroan Unity itself so long as this competition is never too detrimental to the state as a whole. The exception to this is the Church of Purpose, which specifically acts in order to monitor this internal competition, acting like a secret police. The Church of Purpose may deem individuals or entire Churches as being corrupt, straying from Nero's path and succumbed to greed in an act called a Censure. A Censure can lead to anything from reassignment of an individual to mass purges of entire Churches.

Politics

In the days of Nero the Neroan Unity was a single vast theocratic unitary state, with absolute power held by Nero who ruled over a complex bureaucracy of interconnected churches, each serving a specific purpose. The Second Unity established by Valerius however was born out of the fires of the Neroan civil war and its dozens of competing warlord states. To bring the warlords in line Valerius would have to make significant concessions and promises, which today has left the Neroan Unity more of a federation or feudal state, with individual Sects acting with significant degrees of autonomy. Over time internal competition and political manoeuvring has whittled away at these Sects, until now there are only five major official Sects left.
Each of these Sects effectively acts as an independent nation with their own economies and militaries, and each with its own local version of the once uniform churches that dominated the first Unity. They are in essence each a small version of the First Unity, with their own High Priest's acting in much the same way as Nero once did though on a smaller scale. Valerius maintains his status as Hierarch of the unity by virtue of his control over Prime Temple, the most holy site of the Neroan Faith, and by the fact that his own Sect is the most powerful. Even if they may often chafe under his authority, the rest of the Sects still maintain at least nominal allegiance to Valerius, as they know that should they leave the Second Unity they would likely be crushed by ODA and Valerius both.

Founding Date

2581

Type

Geopolitical, Theocracy

Predecessor Organization

• The First Neroan Unity

Leader

Valerius

Leader Title

Hierarch

Government System

Theocracy

Economic System

Mixed economy

Official State Religion

Neroism

Neighboring Nations

• Olympian Defence Alliance

KJT39

KJT39, also known as the "Breath of Nero," is a mutagenic gas which forms the basis and foundation of both the Neroan faith and thus also the church. Invented by Nero sometime ago, the gas can be used to extend a persons lifespan, as well as stimulate brain activity effectively making a person smarter. 
The Breath of Nero was first introduced by Nero during the early days of spreading his religion, and it was his proof of how humanity could evolve into something greater. Whether invented by Nero or just adopted by him, KJT39 is now an integral part of Neroan Faith. It is used by the priesthood who frequently make use of it themselves, it is the ultimate reward for service, a way to step closer to ascension.
A fact about KJT39 not known to the general public are the risks associated with using it. If exposed to too much of the gas at any one time, a person will be wracked with mutations all over their body. This is usually fatal, and those who do survive often suffer permanent brain damage and a loss of higher thought functions. Proper usage consists of small controlled doses taken once per day over the course of several weeks.
Production of KJT39 is strictly controlled by the Church of Ascension, which exists solely to produce KJT39. The Church of Ascension also produces several other biochemical substances, and it largely thanks to this Church that the Unity remains at the forefront of biotech and chemical warfare.

Sects

Sects are not an official term, as officially the Second Unity is a completely unilateral state like the first. However the term Sect is the commonly used byword for the various states that now make up the Unity, and even those who still don't recognise it.
At first there where dozens of Sects, but infighting that followed quickly whittled these away. Today there are six commonly recognised Sects, named for the High priest who leads them, these are;

• The Valerius Sect, based in Arabia terra
• The Phobos Sect, based on Phobos
• The Aurelian Sect, based in Argyre
• The Brutus Sect, based in Hellas
• The Manius Sect, based in the Styris Major region
• The Aeneas Sect, based in the Asteroid Belt

Of these Sects, the last two do not recognise Valerius as Hierarch, who in turn does not recognise them as anything more than terrorists. For now the other Sects are content to follow Valerius's lead, at least so long as they have their common enemy of ODA.