Storm Hegemony

Storm City

The Storm Hegemony is a nation on the southeastern edge of the Feywilds known for it's technology and social stability.

## History

Storm was founded when the first Hegemon, Peto Brinden, charismatically rallied the local human and automaton farmers against the mysterious neighboring forest where people went and never returned. His first act was to set up a high, sturdy wall, called the Brinden Wall, around Storm, which lasted 786 years. He also created free shelters for the homeless peasants and orphans, and several food banks. Hegemon Brinden most famously created the Index of Stories, the first library in Storm, to hold all the knowledge they had, including the creation of automata, and automating the process of farming. These technologies had been developed before the founding of Storm. At the age of 25, Brinden started a program to count time, on January 1st, 0 ST. He later founded the first school, Brinden Academy, which burned down in an oil fire after standing strong for over a thousand years. Beginning courses were based on the subjects in the Index. Mathematics was actually added to the program years later, when it was added to the Index as well. The Index still stands today, 16 hundred years later. Hegemon Brinden died in 12 ST. Another Great Hegemon was Hegemon Charles Andrew, who convinced the youth of his generation to accept the outside world. It was Andrew who tore down the Brinden Wall in 756 ST. Expeditions into the the Feywilds revealed surprisingly fair results, and Storm quickly expanded it's territory. Intensive research soon revealed that many of the plants were abnormally healthy through a phenomenon dubbed "magic." Soon, magic began being purposefully used in Storm inventions. Hegemon Andrew died on February 24, 773 ST. The first civilizations were discovered by expeditions under Hegemon William Wentsworth circa 1087 ST, and, within a few hundred years, all the the known nations in the world were added to Index of Stories. In 1849 ST, Hegemon Alexander Sparrow discovered two nations thriving in the Feywilds, Arorest and the Fey High Republic. Storm had a generally peaceful first 2 thousand or so years, with most problems fixed diplomatically, until Hegemon Sparrow decided to send troops to the Vola Flow Crisis to aid the Red Army in it's freedom. This failed due to Pammubia not coming with ships and the kidnapping of the government officials for months. Some believe this kidnapping took the sanity of the Hegemon, because afterwards he blamed Pammubia for the kidnapping. He also lead the nation to war against Pammubia during the Enelian Isthmus Crisis, with a number of effects including allying with MODEM and the loss of Storm's first colony, the subject of the Crisis. It also resulted in the impeachment of the Hegemon, who committed suicide that night. The next Hegemon was Hegemon Andrew Jackson, who went to war with the Fey High Republic (the Republic War) to help an ally in MODEM. He also called Hegemon Sparrow "the Betrayer", saying he faked his death. This caused the youth to begin calling Sparrow the "Loyalist," as they rally against the oppressive reign of Jackson and protest the Republic War. Jackson also was the first to censor a non-foreign affairs article, further deepening his reputation as a dictator. For some reason, however, he has been continuously lasting the Council Meetings, causing the media to go nuts and the youth to egg houses. Some people are even leaving the country as refugees to Arorest, including the Storm Protestor, whose real name is not publicly known.

## Government

The government of Storm was defined by a council during the founding, and has not been changed since. It is officially a hegemony, because there were originally multiple groups of farmers that Storm enveloped. Hegemon Brendin strategically got the other sectors to make bad decisions in favor of one specific sector, and then took leadership of that sector, as a Hegemon, and soon all the other sectors as well, which technically removes any reason to be called a hegemony. The current Hegemon is Hegemon Alexander Sparrow.

In practice, the government of Storm is an Autocratic Democracy, which is described below.

Hegemons must constantly work to retain the consent of the governed, and is a job for life. A committee of elected officials meet once every three months to assess the current Hegemon. They may then remove the current Hegemon and choose a new one, although this has never happened. There has never been a Hegemon who did not expand, add to the Index, or improve the standard of living, all of which are points the committee grades by.

When a Hegemon dies, they may nominate a new Hegemon in their will, which the Committee approves through vote. If not, or if the new Hegemon nominee is not voted in, the Committee chooses a new Hegemon.

The Hegemon may do whatever they please as long as it does not negatively affect the Committee, including create Agencies. The Hegemon may only have four pounds of food per day, and has no money, although they may command the Government Automata to do anything, including give military orders to the Generals, and other orders to Agency Presidents. The Government Automata are created to follow the laws above the Hegemon, and so will not order an attack on the Committee or anyother illegal deed.

Agencies have specific purposes in the improvement of the standard of living, which they constantly do. The agencies typically take resources from other agencies and process it, before sending it to yet another agency. The exceptions are obvious: the agencies that distribute to the public, and the agencies in charge of resource production.

## Geography

Storm is located on the north-eastern continent, barely touching the feywilds on its north-western most border. The Ridge Mountains run straight through the middle of Storm, and have been mined out of for hundreds of years. The eastern border is in the middle of the Soir Desert, and reaches all the way to the ocean in the southern part of the country. The western border is in the middle of boreal forests surrounding the Feywilds.

The capital of Storm is Storm City, in the Miracle district, which is a district covering Miracle Mountains (home to Miracle Springs and Miracle River) and the Storm City surrounding forests and suburbs. It is above Westwood District, a forested district in the south west of Storm, with an elderly population; it is also above the Sword District, a mountainous government weapons testing site in the Sword Ridge, and home to Sword Springs, Sword River, and Westwood River, which travels down the ridge into Westwood. It is below the Deepwoods, a government-controlled forest district with very little private property, where top-secret operations happen and many of the prisons in Storm are; it is also below the Glacier District, home to Heart City (a city dug into Heart Mountain, the tallest mountain in Storm), the Northern Ridge (Home to Heart Mountain), and Ice Ridge, an extension of the Northern Ridge and home to Storm's Spiritualist Party, as well as many artifact castles from a brief Gothic Revolution in the area. It is to the left of the Soirite Reservation District, a desert district given to the Soirite artifice tribe, on the other side of the Miracle Mountains. The Reservation is above the Salt District, home to Salt City (Storm's only port to the ocean), Sword River, and not much else. It is below the Hope District, home to Artifice City on the Hope River, Storm's most concentrated population of artifice.

The Trans-Ocean Colony was once a part of Storm, before given to the Under Empire, a MODEM ally, by Hegemon Sparrow (see HISTORY). It has a few cities, that have been renamed by the Under Empire since, which were New Storm City, in the middle, New Salt City on the West Coast, and Anderson City (named after Jacob Anderson, a kind man who sacrificed himself for others on the way to the new city) on the East Coast. There is also a Stormway Road that was built, that follows the path of the original colonizers.

## Economy

The Storm economical ideology is that of a Social Democracy, in that capitalism is legal, but not necessary for life. A lawful citizen of Storm could live off the social programs of the Hegemony indefinately, but what is provided has been identified as the bare minimum: Any citizen who did so would not be happy, no, they would be quite depressed at the awful taste of their government food, which is designed to keep you very healthy and to taste bad. In this sorry environment, it is up to the citizens to create better food and such, via capitalism. This creates two things, the business owner striving to keep a business working, which gives them something to do, as well as better (albeit expensive) products for the buyers to work for. These companies, if above a certain size, are also heavily, progressively taxed to pay for the aforementioned social programs.

The Storm business world is dominated by an alliance of the three biggest corporations, which, due to social program tax, are not very large. This alliance is unofficial, but well known, and known as the Economical Triumvirate. The three companies are Steam Academy, Arcane Labs, and Lightning Arms. Steam Academy, the biggest school in Storm, teaches students in skills used at Arcane Labs and Lightning Arms. Arcane Labs descovers technologies used by Lightning Arms. And Lightning Arms is an extremely subsidized arms-designer that pays for Steam Academy and Arcane Labs.

Storm imports most of its foods, clothing, toys, furniture, signs, and plastics. It exports machinery, oil, wood, glass, steel, iron and other metals, medicine, vehicles, medical equipment, and gems and precious medals.

## Important People

**Hegemon Brinden:** The founder of Storm and the only Hegemon to make the word 'Hegemony' mean what it's supposed to, Peto Brinden created the Index of Stories, which is still standing, and Storm Academy, which stood for hundreds of years, before burning down. He died in 12 ST, since it was under his rule that Storm began counting time.

**Hegemon Sparrow**: Seen as a hero to Storm's youth, Sparrow, after vastly improving the standard of living for the working class, entered Storm's first wars, getting him impeached. His fame among youth was mostly posthumous, as the next Hegemon, Hegemon Jackson, was aweful, and publicly hated Sparrow, making the dead Hegemon a symbol of anti-Jackson.

**Hegemon Jackson:** Going to office after Hegemon Sparrow, Hegemon Jackson was the first to censor a document unrelated to foreign affairs. People were sure he'd be impeached immediately, but council meetings came and went, and he stayed in power. The youth, who became very liberal for reasons unknown, collectively hate him, as well as the whole government body, as a sign of corruption and censorship. He is also brutally continuing a pointless war against the Fey High Republic.

**Council:** The Storm Council is made up of seven people; currently those are Alfred Palpetine (Chancellor, father of Reginal Palpetine), Huckabee Simpson, Kassandra Bond (married to Nathan McMiller and mother of Sebastian McMiller), Jarold Forder, James Patterson, Ryan Smith, and Bill Thompson.

**Head Diplomat:** During the Sparrow administration: Frederick Madison. During the Jackson administration: Nathaniel McMiller

**The Protestor:** The protestor is a mysterious author publishing against Hegemon Jackson in an underground network called the Storm Underground. Few know his true name, Owen Rivers. He has fled to Arorest, where he has a refugee status with his family, namely Jane and Jacob Rivers. Jacob is showing remarkable talent in the magical arts. In Storm, the whole family's status is fugitive.

**Economical Triumvirate:** The companies in the triumvirate are Lightning Arms, Inc. (run by Martin Aspasius), Arcane Labs (run by Sieglinde Keppler, mother of Lily Keppler) and Steam Academy (run by James Vickerson)