Encyclopaedia of Aquila: Dreiton

Encyclopaedia of Aquila
Volume I: The Commonwealth of Dreiton
For academic pursuit, Reed O'Shea
Albion, the King's Writers
Drakon, 5th dawn, 4852
"Knowledge for Knowledge"
presented by the
South Aquilan Anthropological Society & affiliates
with thanks to the
Dreiton Archival Assocation
Commonwealth of Dreiton (Dreiton)
founded 4831 after desynchronization
===Introduction===
Dreiton – the Shimmering Jewel of the South. No more than two generations ago, none could predict that the humble trading outpost near the edge of the charted star would grow into what is now widely regarded as the commercial and financial heart of Aquila. While old Hamamitsu with its lucrative Ijin system may always be the “Inn at the End of the World,” the Free City of Dreiton will be remembered as the “Bank at the Rift.”
The city’s earliest history is still somewhat shrouded in mystery, but the local legend goes that it was discovered by a brave and noble general from a faraway land who cleansed southern Aphelion of the evil covens infesting it, and then built mighty Castle Dreiton from the remains of their petrified bodies. Most take this story as more allegory than fiction, but you can certainly find “patriotic” Dreitonians shouting in Sidon Square that “Dreitonnicus lives!”
Whatever the case, Dreiton has emerged as one of the foremost powers of Aquila, and many feel that its modern glories far outweigh the mythology of its founding.
===Geography===
While “Dreiton” as a political unit technically refers only to the capital Free City of the same name, the nation’s sphere of influence has spread so widely and effectively that its various holdings are considered de-facto legitimate Dreitonian soil – thus, the country is often referred to as the “Commonwealth of Dreiton” to encompass its far-reaching claims.
From the scenic vistas of Andaluz to the luxurious residential suites of New Husavik, the Commonwealth’s dominance over all southeastern Aphelion is unimpeachable. On the mainland, mighty pine forests are ubiquitous, often alongside wide stretches of fertile prairie on which most of the city proper is built. The Dreiton Harbor, over which the Bridge-To-Cross-The-River-Dreiton connects the Centre and New Husavik, allows free access to free and open sea, making it an attractive metropolis for traveling merchants to port. To the south lay the Straits of Dreiton, the unforgiving maritime border between the Starfall and Altair seas and through which is rumored to be the most secure route to the Rift.
===People and Society===
At just under 10 million, the quick and industrious populace of Dreiton are tightly packed, prompting discussions of the need to expand west for living space. However, with its total fertility rate at approximately ~1.9, the country’s period of rapid population growth is showing signs of slowing.
Most of Dreiton speaks the “Aquilan standard” dialect popularized by the Old Empire near its demise, though as such a melting pot, a wide variety of regional dialects are spoken. A sizable portion of citizens are fluent in Occan due to its colonial origins, and migrant workers from Nova Aquila have brought with them a influx of High Kilranian speakers – the second most spoken language in Aquila.
The dominant religion of the Commonwealth is Orthodox Transformationism. While the government is essentially secularized, worship of Notch is ubiquitous and, in many boroughs, the expectation. Practitioners generally visit the Quartz Temple at least once a week to drink of the Deceiver’s Poison and participate in group sermon, and small prayers take place every dusk to ward off the Daemon-Sultan. Sorcery is illegal, along with the association of any suspected followers of the Old Ways.
===Government===
Dreiton follows a mixed political system with a powerful parliament and president. Well-liked or trusted average citizens may volunteer or be nominated for a seat in the Citizens Assembly, which meets monthly and adheres to a policy of 3-month term limits. The Assembly may petition specific pieces of legislation to be sent to the higher house of Parliament, the Council. The Council, which may have no more than 10 members at any given time, may review, revise, and accept and revise any of these legislative initiatives, or disregard them and make policy on their own by simple majority – though most decisions are made unanimously. The President of the Commonwealth possesses the right of an “indefinite term” in which they may serve in perpetuity until death or removal by the Council. In the event of a vacancy, a new President may be nominated internally by the Council and then approved by the Citizens Assembly, though the Council has legal authority to simply not nominate any candidates and rule as a regency indefinitely.
The Council is currently comprised of eight Masters, each running their own chosen ministry. The president is Dr. Arlo Jennings, who also established the office.
===Economy===
Virtually all of Dreiton’s economic activity is controlled by the behemoth conglomerate, the Dreiton Exchange Mandate – usually simply the Mandate. Originally, the Mandate was the joint-stock company which governed all of the Dreiton Colony, comprised of wealthy investors and other peoples of influence from across the world. Today, the Mandate is a syndicate of all of the Commonwealth’s most profitable companies and purged of all foreign membership. The ruling Board of Directors, comprised of representatives from each of the constituent corporations – all of them holding total vertical monopolies in their respective industries and engaging in unrestricted insider trading and economic planning with one another.
The Mandate is said to have its fingers in every cake baked in Aquila. Any Dreitonian company worth anything is at least a subsidiary of one of the parent corporations, and their international influence has been on the rise for two decades. Their ventures in essentially seizing far-off ports with their private mercenary army as well as buying favorable candidates in foreign elections has, without exaggeration, propelled Dreiton’s economy to the strongest and most stable in the world; what cost the people of the Commonwealth are willing to pay for this recent prosperity remains to be seen.
The Commonwealth is Aquila’s biggest export economy, leading the world in lumber, iron, paper, industrial tools, and emeralds. The region’s scarcity of redstone deposits has led the government to seek control of foreign mines to keep the nation ahead technologically.
===Technology===
A peculiar phenomenon in the Aether War which caused Ender airships to crash land in the wastes of central Aphelion afforded Dreiton a unique opportunity in the coming decades. Most other nations scrapped leftover alien vessels, but the Council moved quickly to secure several wreckage sites for study. After years, the nation’s scientists were able to successfully reverse engineer several fragments of rudimentary Ender tech, powered by an unstable and exceedingly rare element known as Aetherium and requiring massive tanks of redstone fuel for cooling.
The Mandate kept their discovery a secret as long as possible, clandestinely developing devastating weapons of war and even experimenting with the first Aquilan airships. In the 40s, Director Julius suggested that experiments into improving Dreiton’s infrastructure should be explored; mere years later, an incredibly complex system of speedrails was built, allowing citizens to quickly travel from one end of the city to the other without the use of a horse-drawn carriage. Rudimentary computing has allowed the Mandate to more efficiently track credit and even manually operate entire factories. It should go without saying that an age of miracles has taken over Aquila, starting in the city of Dreiton and showing no signs of stopping.
===Military and Security===
While Nova Aquila may hold the distinction as the largest army on this star, the Commonwealth’s armed forces are equipped and trained to an arguably much higher standard than most any of its rivals. The Councilguard, Dreiton’s primary standing army, is moderately sized and comprised of exceptional recruits, ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. The typical infantryman is equipped with iron-leather armor, a reinforced shield, a scope-fitted crossbow, and a sharpened diamond sword. The Mandate also maintains its own elite army of international mercenaries clad in black-iron armor, and they are sometimes dispatched to assist the Councilguard when deemed necessary.
The intelligence branch, the Ministry of Public Safety, is manned by a motley crew of spies and military police tasked with keeping the nation one step ahead of its enemies. They have two sub-ministries for foreign and domestic intelligence. The Ministry has faced much criticism of late due to their failure to thwart a string of recent terror attacks.
===Foreign and Domestic Disputes===
The Commonwealth of Dreiton is a formal military ally with the Kazimir Empire, and maintains diplomatic relations with the Occan provisional government, Nova Aquila, Khotan, and the Unified Republic of Sivistys. They are notorious for selling arms and supplies to multiple sides of the recent revolutions and civil wars despite admonishing the Sultan of Kazimir for doing so a matter of years ago. Dreiton maintains a somewhat resentful but stable peace with neighboring Dashari, and has friendly ties with most of the western ports.
Dreiton’s domestic situation is described as “messy.” Separatists, occultists, anarchists, and other insurrectionary groups plague the inner city, claiming dozens of lives in recent months. The most deadly of these cabals is undoubtedly the Barsina People’s Front, a collective of violent separatists fighting for the cause of an independent Barsina, currently under occupation by the Commonwealth. They are known to target Barsinian citizens in Dreiton, seeing them as traitors to the cause, but they regularly carry out indiscriminate acts of sabotage to sew terror as well. Otherwise, the industrial anarchist group “the Strays” as well as several organized blood cults and crime syndicates are recognized as deadly threats by the MPS. The monarchist association of Dreiton, the Legitimists, have been known to cause trouble by vandalizing the Capitol and stealing horses, but they are otherwise seen as harmless, or even a humorous or satirical group by some Dreitonians.
Category:Invidere