Serene Republic of Calath

The **Serene Republic of Calath** is a minor power in Imperial Space, centered on the pocket dimension of Calath.

## History

Calath was formerly one of the nine core worlds of the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum, but gained independence during the Aeldrum Devolution Crisis of the late 5th century A.U. It is one of three "Serene Republics" formed during the Devolution Crisis (the other two being the Serene Republic of Percel and Serene Republic of Liveth).

Calath is the premier of the Serene Republics that achieved independence during the Devolution Crisis, being the wealthiest, most populous, and arguably most intellectually and culturally influential. Calath followed the independence-bids of Semal and Chelonia to become the third major republic to declare independence, and the first Serene Republic.

In the early 6th century, Calath was led by Chancellor Mirador Alletheia.

## Foreign Relations

Calath serves as the de-facto leader of the "conservative" (very roughly defined) Aeldman-affiliated powers, enjoying very close relations with Percel, a strong association with Liveth, and its own sphere of influence within what are commonly referred to as the Minor Republics.

Within the politics of the Aeldman Sphere, Calath is most often arrayed against Sermaye on matters of regulation, preferring special concessions and mercantilist protectionism after the fashion of its domestic politics. Calath might fairly be accused of being "more Aeldman than the Serene Doge" in its defense of traditional Aeldman values at home and abroad, and Calathan political media often decry the decline of the Mother Country in sensational broadsides.

## Government and Culture

The Calathan Constitutional Convention, though often derided for its foppish imitation of the style of the Aeldman Unification Convention of -1 to 0 A.U. (down to the commission of vintage-style portraits of the signatories in 500-year old clothing fashions), provided an important template for subsequent republics, including Percel, Liveth and many of the minor republics. Indeed, the "Serene" republican construction is essentially a Calathan invention, initially devised to preserve the titles and powers enjoyed by the leading aristocrats of Calath under the Aeldman parliamentary system.

The Serene Republic departs from the Aeldman model in multiple important ways, however, and while Calathans hold a strong affinity for Aeldman culture and political norms, they also see themselves as restoring an older and purer political system without the baggage of Aeldrum's long history. Calath's relatively short political history is now replete with allusions to "pre-unification" institutions and norms that have been rediscovered and revived. This ancient culture, is often referred to as "Latter Allethian" after Alleth, the supposed paradise world whose destruction drove the Aeldman forebears into exile – Calathan intellectuals are quick to distinguish the Allethian culture from modern Enclaver culture, explaining that Alleth's unique trauma gave rise to its superior qualities over the easy and peaceable life of the Enclave elves. Certain "superior humans" are admitted into this cultural canon, belonging to various tribes and kingdoms that assimilated into the Allethian exiles during their long wanderings and on Aeldrum during the interregnum – thus the Calathans claim an all-important sliver of descent from the Mage Imperium as well. This strong cultural identity allows Calath to set itself within Aeldman continuity without subservience to the Serene Duchy, and has the side effect of strengthening the differentiation of Calath from other elvish cultures, such as the Enclaves and the Istomiri (Shantarans), who are more welcomed (if never quite as equals) in Aeldrum.

Most significantly in its political deviations from Aeldrum, Calath's legislature is organized on a bicameral rather than unicameral basis, with a lower house elected by universal suffrage and an upper house consisting of titled aristocrats and a parity number of votes belonging to "genteel electors" elected for ten years from the propertied gentry. Legislation must be approved by a simple majority within each house, and constitutional amendments by a supermajority within each house. The Calathan senior executive branch is elected, office-by-office, by the upper house, with the lower house approving or rejecting the final government as a whole. Special voting titles are not granted to local officials (e.g. governors of major cities), so that the lower house is in theory more or less equally representative of all worlds in the republic (though the most developed worlds tended to have the most inhabitants registered as citizens at Independence). While many of the gentry are concentrated on Calath proper, the nobility also tend to be more widely distributed than in Aeldrum – many of those ennobled at independence were responsible for bringing their homeworlds into the new republic and assuring its peaceful governance.

In Calath, political rights begin, appropriately for a society obsessed with its own cultural genealogy, with family connections to the Constitutional Convention. The Constitution enumerates three hundred noble titles, including barons, marquises, counts (after the Aeldman fashion) and the newly established rank of "margrave" (serving largely as a promotion for existing counts). While many titles were transmitted from the Aeldman era, a majority were either newly created or promoted in rank (corresponding to number of votes in the upper house), representing a vast formal expansion of the political elite of Calath. The Calathans did not auction off titles as in Liveth, but it is now commonly understood that titles were a significant bartering tool to secure financial and other support for the new government from powerful regional figures.

The Great Books, a multivolume companion to the Constitution, enumerated just over ten thousand nobles directly related to titled persons and some half a million Gentry, with rules for claiming genteel titles by right of family relation or as recognition for public service. This embryonic gentry consisted of individuals with significant legally recognized property in the new nation and who were prepared to make a substantial financial contribution to the establishment of the government. In return, gentry and nobility received legal and political protections for their lands, organized into legally distinct estates with special inheritance, tax and land-use privileges (though also subject to certain additional tax obligations to allow funding for the executive branch without recourse to legislation). Estates may include non-real estate property, allowing them to act essentially as holding companies: while susceptible to abuse, the special legal status of estate-corporations also served an important regulatory function, by allowing the Calathan government to give protectionist privileges to key industries against the Aeldman ISC Board without specifically targeting the ISC or foreign entities generally.

In the decades since independence, the gentry has expanded considerably, and its privileges accordingly – special pensions, club memberships, obscure economic rights, all accrue to the gentry informally as well as formally. Unlike Aeldrum, which has gradually sought to roll back and render impotent the longstanding racial restrictions on status, Calath maintains a strict hierarchy based on genealogy. Citizenship is inherited (special dispensations must be granted to inherit citizenship from only one parent), naturalization is impossible, and accordingly a large swathe of the population without documentation (under the republics extremely hastily assembled bureaucracy) at the time of independence is effectively disenfranchised (perhaps half of the populace and up to two thirds on some minor worlds). A defining feature of Calathan political economy is the boundary between the enfranchised and the noncitizens, much as it was in Aeldrum two centuries prior. It is also a dramatic cultural boundary – as membership in the upper classes is reified by connections to the Old Cultures, a rich system of patronage for the arts and history has flourished, not only in the Aeldman style but in revivals of Mage Imperium traditions (including a burgeoning exchange with the Saldanese as a repository of Calath's newly discovered ancestry). Indeed, this stylized approach to culture and the increasingly intentional demarcations from the Serene Duchy can leave some of the lower political orders of Calathan society more alike to their Aeldman cousins than their social superiors would admit to being to their Aeldman kin.

## Notes

1. ↑ In more critical circles, it is derided as a convenient construction of the republic’s fathers and satirized as "Pre-Stressed Calathan."
2. ↑ Alternate titles such as "prince" were rejected for their association with the Fialta; "doge" was considered too burdened by the grand history of the term in Aeldrum and thus a dangerous precedent for power-grabbing.