Semalese Republic

The **Semalese Republic** is a minor power in Imperial Space. It was formerly part of the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum (and part of the Second Fialta Imperium before that), and is centered on the pocket dimension of Semal.

## Overview

The Semalese Republic is the most highly economically developed of the three major "Popular" republics descended from the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum during the Aeldrum Devolution Crisis (the others being the Republic of Chelonia and Republic of Telrion). Though used as a model for independence movements throughout the unraveling Serene Duchy, the Semalese Republic stood somewhat aloof of its poorer cousins, as much as it stood apart from the aristocratic decadence of Aeldrum and the Serene Republics. Indeed, Semal is perhaps most properly compared with the Republic of Sermaye – a nation with a strongly held, if rather more recent and intentional cultural identity (the Semalese have formalized the patois of Aeldman and Fialta spoken by many of their citizens into "Semalese", the official state language), and the money and geopolitical position to make its independence from Aeldrum meaningful. In spite of the sometimes disdainful tone of its politics, Semal has happily continued to do business with Aeldrum, with the oligarchs of the Grand Celestial Confederation, and with the Fialta powers, among other dubious friends of democracy.

## History

### Fialta States and Fialta Imperium

Semal sits conveniently at the intersection of Aeldman, Celestial and Fialta spheres, and while arguably more Aeldman by far has more than a little sympathy toward the other two. In the 4th century, Semal was part of the Fialta States as an autonomous Fialta principality enriched by its status as the gateway to Aeldman trade. It was subjugated by the Second Fialta Imperium in the latter half of the 4th century, shortly before its economic importance was redoubled by the opening of the transcelestial trade route through the nearby Pin Jump. Semal and its hinterworlds hence enjoyed two decades of greatly enhanced prosperity but did not develop a significant modern economy: a high proportion of the population was essentially transient, consisting of merchants, sailors and various migrant workers, while the local Fialta aristocracy enriched itself primarily from tolls. More lasting development in this period was essentially state-led: the Fialta Emperor Tiel'Fialt considered Semal both an economic and a military asset of great importance, and developed the planet's logistics and fortifications to serve as a launching point for an invasion of the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum.

### First Coalition War

During the War of the Coalition at the end of the 4th century, Semal served its strategic function to excellent effect, but suffered severely in its turn. In a poetic reversal of the bloody, yearslong stalemate fought during the war for its Aeldman mirror at Harwel, Semal was subject to a brutal Aeldman null-bombing campaign to rapidly break its defenses. Millions of Semalese died in a matter of months. Semal was claimed by the victorious Aeldmen in the Third Treaty of Korinth in 399 A.U., and its people passed under a period of Aeldman military governance that would last for half a century.

### Aeldman Protectorate

Though the Pin Jump route to Celestial Space was disrupted for decades after the Coalition War by the effects of a Valdosian-Othali ritual sabotage undertaken in wartime, Semal enjoyed a rapid economic recovery as the staging-point for Aeldrum's economic domination of the newly established Fialta Confederacy. It became a logistics and manufacturing hub, as well as destination of choice for economic migrants from Fialta Space. When the Pin Jump was restored and its trade route reopened to a more economically integrated Fialta-Aeldman economic region, the effect on migration to Semal was explosive: by the 430s, three quarters of Semal's population had not been born on-world. Though immigrants from the Aeldman core were economically and politically ascendant, they only made up a plurality of the population, which included a large contingent of ethnic Fialta or former Fialta subjects (divided between a minority population of pre-war inhabitants and a much greater share of new arrivals), a sizable population of emigrees from Celestial Space (exceeded as a share of total population in Imperial Space only by the Pin Jump itself) and significant minority populations from the Shantine and Alusian Empires and Orcish Directorate. Though swelled further with migrants and refugees from the various wars fought in and around Fialta Space in the 440s-450s, Semal's culture became more stable and absorptive of new arrivals, as it developed its own identity, heavily informed by the independent streak of the Thalranese Fialta and the economic libertarianism of Aeldman arrivals; refugees from Kirvan religious absolutism or Alusian authoritarianism during this period added to these emerging values.

### Independence

By the 450s, Semal became a leading force for political rights among Aeldrum's colonies (or "military protectorates" in Semal's case), and especially a hotbed for political self-determination when efforts to increase representation within the politics of the Aeldman core were rebuffed. The economic power and large, relatively well educated population of Semal distinguished it from less developed colonial worlds both in its ability to credibly threaten secession as a first-mover (and hence to act as an inspiration for subsequent breakaways), and in its ability to command attention and sympathy from Aeldman politicians and activists such as Sinvas Luvelath, who could see the restrictions of military governance chafing against people much like themselves. The intervention of these Aeldman sympathizers were most likely vital in preventing a violent crackdown against Semal – the occupying Aeldman armies being immobilized by political opprobrium at home (and the threat of a costly and embarrassing insurgency that might be funded indefinitely by foreign powers), Semal could negotiate within an economic framework.

It was unsurprising, then, that by the 470s Semal should be the first Aeldman successor republic to receive independence: the Semalese Treaty of Devolution became a template for other republics seeking partial or total autonomy from Aeldrum, and in this respect Semal set the hardest line on independence, aggressively courting referenda across its hinterworlds and using its peripheral cosmographic position within the Aeldman economic empire to demand the greatest economic autonomy. The advent of translane warfare allowed the nascent republic to negotiate itself out from under any substantial Aeldman occupation (though accepting a navigational presence), arguing that its formerly vital strategic function at the border of Fialta space was rendered obsolete in an age of translane naval threats (but, conveniently, preserved for freight shipping).

## Society

In the year 530, Semal bears some striking inheritances from the political economy of Aeldrum: the planet of Semal itself dominates politics in comparison with its hinterworlds, relying on its enormous relative population and bankrolling a friendly caucus of legislators from the other planets. Citizenship on Semal proper is fairly easily acquired, while it is difficult to obtain in the outlying worlds, a supposed protective measure dating from the birth of the republic. Semal has a substantial military relative to its peers in the Aeldman sphere of influence, motivated perhaps by suspicions of Aeldrum but far more by anxiety about the Fialta Imperium. A high proportion of the founding leaders of the Semalese military were Thalranese veterans who sought secure retirements in the new nation.

Semal is not without ethnic tensions: a small but vocal Fialta minority, often claiming descent from the subjugated Fialta population of the late 4th century, agitated at the time of independence to join the Thalranese Marches, and Fialta nationalism is a fringe but perennial political issue in the country. While the national government insists on its indifference to international politics, the country's sizable community of political refugees and their descendants are often implicated in funding foreign agitation, such as demonstrations against the Shantine theocracy held outside the Aeldrum parliament house.

## Government

The Semalese might be said to have a unique sense of democracy – vigilante justice (sometimes violent but often preferring leaks and hacking of financial accounts) toward allegedly corrupt politicians is common, and folk heroes are made of the bandits and smugglers who spent decades undermining the Aeldman occupation. Rights denied under the Aeldman military government but permitted elsewhere in the Serene Duchy became enshrined at independence in the political culture of the Semal. These "Semalese Freedoms" include mass political demonstrations, unregulated drug use, significant reliance on public referenda and an expansive right to bear arms, which also forms part of Semal's defense policy. Semal has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in the cosmos (second of course to the Thalranese Marches) and a considerable narcotics industry.

## Economy

Economically, Semal continues to serve as a logistics hub and interface for larger economies, providing extensive services in these areas and in contract manufacturing. It is an economic model highly dependent on trade, and driven strongly by powerful domestic firms: while entities such as the Bank of Valdos and the Aeldman Industrial State Cooperative operate freely in the country, Semal's home corporations are mostly privately held and are induced through government support (and pressure) to maintain a cordial but transactional rather than equity relationship with outside firms. Other than these measures and aggressive investigation of foreign influence, Semal is in many ways a regulatory free-for-all, making it a common destination for undesirable industries and giving it a reputation as the hub for financial activities too dubious (or destabilizing) even for Sermaye.

## Notes

1. ↑ A Semalese elder statesman summarized his nation's position when asked to comment on the political turmoil of Telrion, and what support the Telranian republicans might expect from Semal in their struggle with the monarchists of the Telranian Kingdom: "Most nations just aren't ready for democracy." Semal, in effect, holds a remarkable mix of Aeldman and Fialta self-confidence, but has little interest in evangelizing its system of government or culture to the cosmos.
2. ↑ The independent administration of the Pin Jump by the Trans-Celestial Chapter of the Knights Mercantile was protected for decades by the balance of power between Aeldrum and the Imperium, projected from the planets Harwel and Semal respectively.
3. ↑ Widely regarded as the architect of Aeldrum's peaceful devolution of colonial authority, Luvelath is widely remembered as one of the most influential Aeldmen never to be Serene Doge, either as the "man who bartered off the empire" or as the "man who prevented an Aeldman civil war."