Alamak
A first-wave Colony of the Diaspora, Alamak was one of the earliest (with the Vega Expedition) expeditions to purchase one of the initial 16 skip-drive colony ships and use the Carn-devis survey data to establish human habitation on another world. The Alamak Expedition was underwritten by a consortium of wealthy followers of Shalim "The Faith" in the wake of a series of religious conflicts arising out of the Reorganizations of the late 22nd Century S.E. on what was then known as "Earth."
Structure
Alamak was founded as a single Community of the Faithful with its own Litany. Its Charter reflects this, but also provided for the creation of Communes within the Community.
According to its Charter, the Colony Administration is organized under the authority of a Shummam, who is chosen every ten years by the previous Shummam (members of a Shummam's family are excluded from the choice) and ratified by the College of the Qalif, the appointed or elected heads of the Nine Amdrass, the Fourteen Offices, and the Six Shrines. They meet every ten years only to ratify the selection of the Shummam and have no other authority. No Shummam may serve consecutive terms.
Under the authority of the Shummam lie the Fourteen Offices of Administration, of which three are ceremonial and eleven functional bureaucracies. The heads of these constitute the Mu'fi rihram, the Administrative Chief Council of the Colony. These offices, and the Mu'fi rihram, have been reorganized four times in Almaki history.
In addition to the Colonial Administration, the Qadi, headed by the Aga-Qadir, addresses the religious side of the colony's operations, although some religious functions are vested in the Shummam. The Aga-Qadir generally wields great influence without structural authority.
According to its Charter, the Colony Administration is organized under the authority of a Shummam, who is chosen every ten years by the previous Shummam (members of a Shummam's family are excluded from the choice) and ratified by the College of the Qalif, the appointed or elected heads of the Nine Amdrass, the Fourteen Offices, and the Six Shrines. They meet every ten years only to ratify the selection of the Shummam and have no other authority. No Shummam may serve consecutive terms.
Under the authority of the Shummam lie the Fourteen Offices of Administration, of which three are ceremonial and eleven functional bureaucracies. The heads of these constitute the Mu'fi rihram, the Administrative Chief Council of the Colony. These offices, and the Mu'fi rihram, have been reorganized four times in Almaki history.
In addition to the Colonial Administration, the Qadi, headed by the Aga-Qadir, addresses the religious side of the colony's operations, although some religious functions are vested in the Shummam. The Aga-Qadir generally wields great influence without structural authority.
Culture
The Faith, particularly the dominant ir-dhaman sectarian influence, has shaped a colorful and varied array of traditions, social structures, and institutions. A pattern of conflict and resolution between the ir-dhaman majority and the substantial alfraz minority have resulted in a relatively tolerant religious milieu.
Social culture is very formal and polite with great deference shown to rank and authority. An extensive array of honorifics and encomiums is usually included in social and business address and transactions. Hospitality is taken extremely seriously, and reciprocation for favors rendered is an important obligation that touches individual and family honor and reputation.
While faith is taken for granted (although Infidels are tolerated and accorded great courtesy), family, commune and business are critical to individual identity, rank and social position. Religious emphasis on educational obligations imbues respect for those who educate or are highly educated, as well as those who facilitate the education of others.
Ir-dhaman sectarian beliefs range from mysticism to outright superstition, and superstitious elements are common in social gesture, practice and interaction. This includes a powerful and elaborate strain of numerology and the practice of "arithmetria" which assigns qualities and associations to a vast array of numbers (especially primes) and dictates their use for various functions. Understanding the "character" of a number is a key business skill.
Social culture is very formal and polite with great deference shown to rank and authority. An extensive array of honorifics and encomiums is usually included in social and business address and transactions. Hospitality is taken extremely seriously, and reciprocation for favors rendered is an important obligation that touches individual and family honor and reputation.
While faith is taken for granted (although Infidels are tolerated and accorded great courtesy), family, commune and business are critical to individual identity, rank and social position. Religious emphasis on educational obligations imbues respect for those who educate or are highly educated, as well as those who facilitate the education of others.
Ir-dhaman sectarian beliefs range from mysticism to outright superstition, and superstitious elements are common in social gesture, practice and interaction. This includes a powerful and elaborate strain of numerology and the practice of "arithmetria" which assigns qualities and associations to a vast array of numbers (especially primes) and dictates their use for various functions. Understanding the "character" of a number is a key business skill.
Public Agenda
Alamak was a strong supporter of the Vegan Colonial Union after the first tachyon-drive ship from Vega reached the Colony, previously dependent on the limited skip-drone beacon network to maintain contact with the Diaspora. While stresses during the Cordini Rebellion promoted a more independent posture, deeply-enmeshed commercial and economic relationships in the Union and, subsequently, the Alliance of Vegan Republics, have kept the Colony aligned with The Hegemony of Vega.
Assets
Any accounting of the colony's assets must be headed by the planet Carn-devis 9b-9.60, which required only the most minimal effort for humans to occupy. In addition to favorable gravity and a benign atmosphere with enough free oxygen to sustain a carbon-based biosphere, it has available water in both surface and underground aquifers sufficient to implement, sustain, and expand a type-5 agrarian cycle with minimal high-gas seeding. The planet's unusual mineral and biological array exceeded the Survey's speculative analysis and has formed the basis of Alamak's extensive luxury goods craft and fabrication activities.
In addition to the capital of Urhesh (population 8.6 million ,) as of 2690 there were twenty-two urbanized Leung-S arcologic Communes with populations in excess of 5 million, and more than three hundred smaller Communes, settlements, and industrial hives. Alamak's population is generally well-educated.
In addition to planetary assets, the Colony maintains three orbital habitats at Carn-devis 9b; and a string of six habitats positioned for its transuranics recovery industries to exploit the most abundant segment of Carn-devis 9d. There are also an undisclosed number of insystem defense bases positioned within the system disk.
Alamak maintains, in collaboration with the Hegemony, a strong system defense, and while its Stellar Navy maintains independent command, they are regularly deployed in Hegemonic military actions. It maintains both military and commercial shipping and shipyards.
In addition to the capital of Urhesh (population 8.6 million ,) as of 2690 there were twenty-two urbanized Leung-S arcologic Communes with populations in excess of 5 million, and more than three hundred smaller Communes, settlements, and industrial hives. Alamak's population is generally well-educated.
In addition to planetary assets, the Colony maintains three orbital habitats at Carn-devis 9b; and a string of six habitats positioned for its transuranics recovery industries to exploit the most abundant segment of Carn-devis 9d. There are also an undisclosed number of insystem defense bases positioned within the system disk.
Alamak maintains, in collaboration with the Hegemony, a strong system defense, and while its Stellar Navy maintains independent command, they are regularly deployed in Hegemonic military actions. It maintains both military and commercial shipping and shipyards.
History
By the end of the 22nd Century S.E. overt religious persecution was banned under the World Court protocols, but the same protocols banned religiously-based governance under the Theocracy Prohibition. Believers of the Faith, which had grown out of the suffering in the wake of the Firecracker Conflagration of the late 21st Century, were never reconciled to the Prohibition.
Attempts to create Faith-based Communties in the newly-forming Sol system colonies were sharply restricted. By the time skip-drive technology enabled the Proxima Colonial Expedition, leadership among the Faithful determined to be among the first colonial expeditionary voyagers to take advantage of the newly-published Carn-devis survey's data on potentially habitable planets.
The staggering cost of a skip-drive Expeditionary Ship and charter permits for one of the most desirable of the newly-identified habitable worlds would have been beyond the reach of most groups. However, many individual Faithful had vigorously pursued the Restitution and Recovery program remunerations during the later Reorganizations. In addition to recovering a large share of the considerable wealth of earlier generations of leadership, they formed consortia that received, and invested, substantial Restitutional Settlements.
In 2271, one of the first skip-drive Expeditionary Ships, the Ihtl-Latif ("Subtle Justice") departed Davos with a complement of just under three-quarters of a million (the "Firsters"). Three hundred fifty-eight thousand traveled in hibernation, another 339,000 were zygotes in cryonic suspension. An additional 28,000 crew and scientists - the 'ishi-haramm aranvi' (those who build a world) worked in the ship's laboratory and technical facilities, preparing for deployment at the journey's end.
The Ihtl-Latif was designed to function as an orbital station when it reached Carn-devis 9b-9.60, and in 2276 only a prefabricated laboratory arcology was landed with 6,000 personnel tasked with completing the planetology survey and bioassay. This qualified as "occupancy" and the Colonial Administration accordingly finalized their Charter and sent three skip-drones to report arrival and occupation, officially "founding" the Colony.
By 2292, all the hibernants had been revived and transported to the main arcology which had grown around the initial laboratory facility, and an additional dozen survey bases and Communes. Four waves of gametes had been creched and brought to maturity, supplying the colony with children who had not experienced the fertility-degrading risks of space and technology exposure. (However, this proved less of a factor than anticipated as the Colony's early natural replacement rate quickly demonstrated.)
By the beginning of the 24th Century C.E. they had converted a number of the Ihtl-Latif's insystem carrier complement and created the first transuranic recovery facility in C-d 9d to meet the power needs of the fast-growing colony. By the time the Development of Tachyon Power Technology enabled The Reconnection, regular beacon contact was established between Alamak, Vega , and Ares Colony, the colonial population had reached nearly 100 million. When the first tachyon-drive ship from Vega arrived in 2358 they had sufficient industrial surplus to initiate trade, purchase a ship, and spin off the colonial expedition that established Al-Sulayni in 2369. At the Second Interstellar Colonial Axis conference in 2409, the three worlds formed the Vegan Colonial Union multi-world entity.
Alamak immediately established a trading economy and expanded recovery and processing of transuranics, along with production of stressed-layer batteries and powerbricks. However, they also promoted an additional, smaller trade in some of the Colony's bio-produce, which proved popular and remunerative. Their role in role in developing inter-Diaspora commerce and trade was also facilitated by the colony's early and strong development of a wide array of fine craftwork in textiles, metals and exotic alloys. This contributed to the strong commercial and trading culture that developed once flow-propulsion travel opened inter-Diaspora trading. (see "The Golden Plot")
By the middle of the 25th Century S.E. the Almaki trade fleet had reached a considerable size and expanded trade routes widely in the Diaspora. This rendered them vulnerable to the growing menace of the Buccaneer Consortium (see Buccaneer Consortia Disrupt Shipping) which was taking shape along the Th'xinor plot. In response, Alamak experimented with a new class of armed escort ship and joined in organizing countery-piracy efforts with the Vegan Colonial Union, the Nenque Alliance , and The Tellurian Federation.
During the 26th Century S.E., Alamak's ir-dhaman-dominated Administration attempted to implement a surtax program that would apply largely to alfraz-operated educational and research organizations, including amdrass, setting off a period of sectarian unrest and occasional civil disorder. This culminated in the burning of the Enjara Shrine and ultimately forced the exile of several prominent leaders and the reorganization of the Administration in 2561.
As the Samarian Crusade disrupted trade and intercolonial relations in the Diaspora, Alamak also experienced several waves of economic disorder as it attempted to stabilize its currency to speed recovery from the Panic of 2562's effects on several of its largest trading organizations. Participation in the joint relief expedition with Al-Sulayni to liberate its major trading partner Deymansinaya from occupation by the Xihe Stellation cost the Colony nearly half of its armed ships and resulted in their petition to the Vegan Colonial Union Table to initiate a commercial blockade of the Stellation.
After the Collapse of the Xihe Stellation, the Vegan Colonial Union assessed a mutual assistance tithe of member worlds, to assist the recovery of Amadioha from its invasion and occupation by the Stellation. Member worlds were generally less than enthusiastic, and while Alamak complied with the tithe, the Colony Administration sent less than the full amount, on the basis of their own recovery needs.
As the stresses of the Cordini Rebellion damaged the Colonial Union, relations between Alamak and Amadioha deteriorated and culminated in The Alamak Incident in 2648 S.E. Although Alamak played little active role in the final split of the Cordini Alliance, it did bring them into more active involvement and participation in the Table's affairs, culminating in the boycott of the Selection of 2680. Heavy involvement in the Crash of 2692 left the Administration with few resources to oppose Melidu Kivesk and the final collapse of the reorganized Alliance of Vegan Republics.
Attempts to create Faith-based Communties in the newly-forming Sol system colonies were sharply restricted. By the time skip-drive technology enabled the Proxima Colonial Expedition, leadership among the Faithful determined to be among the first colonial expeditionary voyagers to take advantage of the newly-published Carn-devis survey's data on potentially habitable planets.
The staggering cost of a skip-drive Expeditionary Ship and charter permits for one of the most desirable of the newly-identified habitable worlds would have been beyond the reach of most groups. However, many individual Faithful had vigorously pursued the Restitution and Recovery program remunerations during the later Reorganizations. In addition to recovering a large share of the considerable wealth of earlier generations of leadership, they formed consortia that received, and invested, substantial Restitutional Settlements.
In 2271, one of the first skip-drive Expeditionary Ships, the Ihtl-Latif ("Subtle Justice") departed Davos with a complement of just under three-quarters of a million (the "Firsters"). Three hundred fifty-eight thousand traveled in hibernation, another 339,000 were zygotes in cryonic suspension. An additional 28,000 crew and scientists - the 'ishi-haramm aranvi' (those who build a world) worked in the ship's laboratory and technical facilities, preparing for deployment at the journey's end.
The Ihtl-Latif was designed to function as an orbital station when it reached Carn-devis 9b-9.60, and in 2276 only a prefabricated laboratory arcology was landed with 6,000 personnel tasked with completing the planetology survey and bioassay. This qualified as "occupancy" and the Colonial Administration accordingly finalized their Charter and sent three skip-drones to report arrival and occupation, officially "founding" the Colony.
By 2292, all the hibernants had been revived and transported to the main arcology which had grown around the initial laboratory facility, and an additional dozen survey bases and Communes. Four waves of gametes had been creched and brought to maturity, supplying the colony with children who had not experienced the fertility-degrading risks of space and technology exposure. (However, this proved less of a factor than anticipated as the Colony's early natural replacement rate quickly demonstrated.)
By the beginning of the 24th Century C.E. they had converted a number of the Ihtl-Latif's insystem carrier complement and created the first transuranic recovery facility in C-d 9d to meet the power needs of the fast-growing colony. By the time the Development of Tachyon Power Technology enabled The Reconnection, regular beacon contact was established between Alamak, Vega , and Ares Colony, the colonial population had reached nearly 100 million. When the first tachyon-drive ship from Vega arrived in 2358 they had sufficient industrial surplus to initiate trade, purchase a ship, and spin off the colonial expedition that established Al-Sulayni in 2369. At the Second Interstellar Colonial Axis conference in 2409, the three worlds formed the Vegan Colonial Union multi-world entity.
Alamak immediately established a trading economy and expanded recovery and processing of transuranics, along with production of stressed-layer batteries and powerbricks. However, they also promoted an additional, smaller trade in some of the Colony's bio-produce, which proved popular and remunerative. Their role in role in developing inter-Diaspora commerce and trade was also facilitated by the colony's early and strong development of a wide array of fine craftwork in textiles, metals and exotic alloys. This contributed to the strong commercial and trading culture that developed once flow-propulsion travel opened inter-Diaspora trading. (see "The Golden Plot")
By the middle of the 25th Century S.E. the Almaki trade fleet had reached a considerable size and expanded trade routes widely in the Diaspora. This rendered them vulnerable to the growing menace of the Buccaneer Consortium (see Buccaneer Consortia Disrupt Shipping) which was taking shape along the Th'xinor plot. In response, Alamak experimented with a new class of armed escort ship and joined in organizing countery-piracy efforts with the Vegan Colonial Union, the Nenque Alliance , and The Tellurian Federation.
During the 26th Century S.E., Alamak's ir-dhaman-dominated Administration attempted to implement a surtax program that would apply largely to alfraz-operated educational and research organizations, including amdrass, setting off a period of sectarian unrest and occasional civil disorder. This culminated in the burning of the Enjara Shrine and ultimately forced the exile of several prominent leaders and the reorganization of the Administration in 2561.
As the Samarian Crusade disrupted trade and intercolonial relations in the Diaspora, Alamak also experienced several waves of economic disorder as it attempted to stabilize its currency to speed recovery from the Panic of 2562's effects on several of its largest trading organizations. Participation in the joint relief expedition with Al-Sulayni to liberate its major trading partner Deymansinaya from occupation by the Xihe Stellation cost the Colony nearly half of its armed ships and resulted in their petition to the Vegan Colonial Union Table to initiate a commercial blockade of the Stellation.
After the Collapse of the Xihe Stellation, the Vegan Colonial Union assessed a mutual assistance tithe of member worlds, to assist the recovery of Amadioha from its invasion and occupation by the Stellation. Member worlds were generally less than enthusiastic, and while Alamak complied with the tithe, the Colony Administration sent less than the full amount, on the basis of their own recovery needs.
As the stresses of the Cordini Rebellion damaged the Colonial Union, relations between Alamak and Amadioha deteriorated and culminated in The Alamak Incident in 2648 S.E. Although Alamak played little active role in the final split of the Cordini Alliance, it did bring them into more active involvement and participation in the Table's affairs, culminating in the boycott of the Selection of 2680. Heavy involvement in the Crash of 2692 left the Administration with few resources to oppose Melidu Kivesk and the final collapse of the reorganized Alliance of Vegan Republics.
Demography and Population
Alamak is a free-birth colony, based on the provisions of Shalim, but conception control and family planning are legal and freely available. At the 2600 S.E. census the Colony reported 264,500,000 population, 65% of which is distributed in the capital of Urhesh and the nexus of twenty-two urbanized Leung-S arcologic Communes with populations in excess of 5 million. The remainder occupy more than three hundred smaller Communes, settlements, and industrial hives.
Military
Alamak maintains a strong Insystem Security force with an undisclosed array of fixed and mobile intelligence and weapons installation throughout the system disk. In addition, the Colony maintains a Merchant Navy for convoying commercial transport and a Space Defense force which includes a substantial Navy and an Expeditionary Force known as the Channhizari. The bulk of these units are currently on deployment within the larger forces of the The Hegemony of Vega.
Laws
The legal code is very complex, the majority being based on the Transcript of Shalim "The Faith", supplemented by the Ahralects and the Colony's Charter, including the Litany for Alamak and the Litanies of the Communes. In addition to these sources of legal guidance and regulation, eleven of the Offices of Administration contribute Rules to the Administrative Code governing civil and administrative matters.
Each type of code has its own system of judicars or magistrates, and its own system of enforcement under hierarchies of leadership that devolve to the level of mawal (for criminal, security, or military matters) or kadir (administrative and civil matters), who are the lowest level of administrative authority and supervise the specific enforcement personnel for their offices.
Penalities for criminal infractions are generally confinement with forced labor of varying lengths and degrees. Penalties for religious and civil infractions are almost always monetary up to and including debt servitude. There are many complex schedules of fees and fines which the judicars and magistrates have wide latitude in inflicting, but the penalties for "judicial corruption" are criminal and extremely severe.
Each type of code has its own system of judicars or magistrates, and its own system of enforcement under hierarchies of leadership that devolve to the level of mawal (for criminal, security, or military matters) or kadir (administrative and civil matters), who are the lowest level of administrative authority and supervise the specific enforcement personnel for their offices.
Penalities for criminal infractions are generally confinement with forced labor of varying lengths and degrees. Penalties for religious and civil infractions are almost always monetary up to and including debt servitude. There are many complex schedules of fees and fines which the judicars and magistrates have wide latitude in inflicting, but the penalties for "judicial corruption" are criminal and extremely severe.
Agriculture & Industry
Broadly diversified, Alamak's production base includes more than 200 Communes and settlements focused on production of organics for consumption as well as trade and export. In addition to the more common suite of Tellurian-origin biologicals customized for colonial conditions, they have made considerable investments in researching and identifying native organics that can be farmed for production as components or usable products, including the very popular "toori-wood" used in furnishing, construction and craftwork, the extruded nesting material of the nigara organism used in fine textiles, and a number of ingredients for medicinal teas.
In addition to raw extraction of transuranics, supernoble gases and other materiel from the system area they call the "Ring", the colony maintains a robust processing and manufacturing sector producing powerbricks, stressed-layer batteries, processing equipment, small-scale technologies including beacon net units, information storage units, and shipbuilding - both insystem tachyon-drive craft up to corvette size and flow-pressure drive ships for transport and military uses.
As well as industrial production and trade the colony is perhaps most famous for its luxury craftwork including textiles, furnishings, jewelry, objets d'art, tableware, decorative finishing units for habitat construction, ceramics and glassware.
In addition to raw extraction of transuranics, supernoble gases and other materiel from the system area they call the "Ring", the colony maintains a robust processing and manufacturing sector producing powerbricks, stressed-layer batteries, processing equipment, small-scale technologies including beacon net units, information storage units, and shipbuilding - both insystem tachyon-drive craft up to corvette size and flow-pressure drive ships for transport and military uses.
As well as industrial production and trade the colony is perhaps most famous for its luxury craftwork including textiles, furnishings, jewelry, objets d'art, tableware, decorative finishing units for habitat construction, ceramics and glassware.
Trade & Transport
Alamak maintains a strong intercolonial long-distance shipping and transport capacity focusing mainly on luxury goods but several firms also do bulk hauling on smaller-scale trade routes within the Hegemony of Vega.
Local fast transit is mostly publicly-operated and/or subsidized including networks of slideways and gravcapsules for local transport within arcologies and the grav-bounce system for travel between major planetary nodes. Private gravcapsules are reserved for high religious and administrative officials. Intrasystem transit is mostly privatized although surface-to-station shuttles are a public service.
Local fast transit is mostly publicly-operated and/or subsidized including networks of slideways and gravcapsules for local transport within arcologies and the grav-bounce system for travel between major planetary nodes. Private gravcapsules are reserved for high religious and administrative officials. Intrasystem transit is mostly privatized although surface-to-station shuttles are a public service.
"Travel among the stars and view the inception of the work of the Most Forbearing"
Founding Date
2276
Type
Geopolitical, Colony
Capital
Demonym
Almaki
Ruling Organization
Government System
Electocracy
Economic System
Mixed economy
Currency
The Almaki currency system is complex, as it has evolved three forms of exchange:
Common exchange is the circulating "hard" fiat currency calculated in noli, ihram, and milli, and tracked in various types of "chips" (created for exchange, of variable value, good only until registered) or "tokens" (fixed-value) considered legal tender in all system markets for purchase. While the values fluctuate slightly, the noli is approximately 922 ihram, and the ihram is roughly 103 milli.
Storage money is a credit-backed representative certification of held asset(s) that meet various liquidity tests. Since the mid-25th century S.E. Alamak has recognized the yund as a currency of interdiaspora exchange, and in the Oromon Reform of 2576 that followed Almaki participation in the Kivaluna Summit it was centralized and adopted for local Administrative, banking, and bookkeeping records for large-transaction storage and exchange.
Transit currency is calculated in The Hegemony of Vega bilan units, pegged to the Intercolonial Commodities Trade Exchange ₾M-Yund rate. It is used exclusively for non-commodity finance transactions between finance institutions.
Common exchange is the circulating "hard" fiat currency calculated in noli, ihram, and milli, and tracked in various types of "chips" (created for exchange, of variable value, good only until registered) or "tokens" (fixed-value) considered legal tender in all system markets for purchase. While the values fluctuate slightly, the noli is approximately 922 ihram, and the ihram is roughly 103 milli.
Storage money is a credit-backed representative certification of held asset(s) that meet various liquidity tests. Since the mid-25th century S.E. Alamak has recognized the yund as a currency of interdiaspora exchange, and in the Oromon Reform of 2576 that followed Almaki participation in the Kivaluna Summit it was centralized and adopted for local Administrative, banking, and bookkeeping records for large-transaction storage and exchange.
Transit currency is calculated in The Hegemony of Vega bilan units, pegged to the Intercolonial Commodities Trade Exchange ₾M-Yund rate. It is used exclusively for non-commodity finance transactions between finance institutions.
Major Exports
In addition to its famous zildar coffee beans and korbi-date rakshi, Alamak exports a wide variety of luxury goods including textiles, medicinals, and craftworks of all kinds. Alamak's tradeships ply a number of complex intercolonial routes along the kirons and are constantly bringing back information on the colony's most desirable exports.
More local exports (within The Hegemony of Vega) include stressed-layer storage batteries, powerbricks, processing equipment, supernoble gases and refined transuranics.
More local exports (within The Hegemony of Vega) include stressed-layer storage batteries, powerbricks, processing equipment, supernoble gases and refined transuranics.
Major Imports
Alamak is a net importer of shipbuilding components, arcology technology systems and components, bio-batteries, a variety of habitat construction components, gravbed liners, and a shifting array of consumer goods including textiles, foodstuffs, and plastics.
Legislative Body
Alamak's Charter is closely related to its Litany (a special type of ahralect, defining a Community of the Faithful's location, membership and organization). The Colonial Administration is based on the Mu'fi rihram (see "Organization Structure") which includes the Fatmur, the Arbiter of the Fourth Office, elected to represent Commune administrations.
Local Commune administration varies slightly depending on the dominant sect of the Faithful represented. Ir-dhaman Communes, by far the most numerous, have a Mu'shihm - a Council of Eminences headed by a popularly elected Dara. Council members are nominated by a complex process which may involve popular recommendation, but are selected by the Commune's qi'rhii. They must again be ratified in a triennial plebescite, and those who fail to receive ratification are replaced.
Alfraz communes maintain a Muhran-alt, with all Eminences in addition to the Dara popularly elected from a slate composed of nominations by sanctioned groups who collect sufficient 'tichat' (certified endorsements) to propose candidates.
Local Commune administration varies slightly depending on the dominant sect of the Faithful represented. Ir-dhaman Communes, by far the most numerous, have a Mu'shihm - a Council of Eminences headed by a popularly elected Dara. Council members are nominated by a complex process which may involve popular recommendation, but are selected by the Commune's qi'rhii. They must again be ratified in a triennial plebescite, and those who fail to receive ratification are replaced.
Alfraz communes maintain a Muhran-alt, with all Eminences in addition to the Dara popularly elected from a slate composed of nominations by sanctioned groups who collect sufficient 'tichat' (certified endorsements) to propose candidates.
Judicial Body
The judicial mechanism is highly complex, as magistrates and judicars have broad religious, fiscal, educational and administrative mandates, and a long list of councils has been formed over the history of the Colony to provide counterbalances to the administrative bureaucracy's authority. There are more than three dozen 'degrees' of magistrate, appointed by various religious, administrative, and educational officials, and a hierarchy of nine levels of Judicar, appointed by the College of the Qalif.
Executive Body
The Shummam and the heads of the Fourteen Offices of Administration, constitute the Mu'fi rihram, which fulfills the Executive functions of Colonial Administration.
Official State Religion
Location
Comments