The Aegean Republic

### Laws

- No law can be writ that limits the suffrage rights of any peoples- All new laws must be passed through the parliament with a majority vote

- The Republic of Aegea must remain laïc

*"The very definition of cosmopolitan, Panna is a unique example of a mix of homogeneity and heterogeneity in society. There are clear, imaginary borders between neighbourhoods that can be recognized instantly alone by the distinguishing smell of food and sound of music in each district. And yet there's nothing more common than a contrebasse playing to the rhythm of a rattling darbuka on Pera avenue."*

- *Excerpt from Yoshiro Suzuhara's "Essays on Human Societies and Their Building Blocks".*

The Grand Republic of Aegea is a sovereign state in the Southern Sea. Lying off the western coast of the Sea Country, Aegea spreads across seven islands: Kayser, Hittite, Ionia, Girit, Lygos, Stimboli, and Panna. Each island has its own representatives in a local parliament but has limited authority over its own laws. The Grand People's Parliament and Grand Judicial Branch offices are both situated in Panna, the capital. Of these isles, only Hittite is accessible by sea. Because it lays on a trade path preferred by nations who would rather avoid attracting Akinian or Republican attention, Hittite has become a rich hub for trade, particularly with the Wind Country, the Sea Country, and Eastern Countries.

Aegea is a parliamentary republic. Each of the local parliaments in its islands are devolved parliaments that ultimately must defer to the Grand Parliament in Panna.

## History

### The Rise of The Aegean Kingdom

The Aegean Kingdom was formed about two centuries before the death of the sage. At the time, its capital was its richest island, Hittite. On each island, there were several lords who were delegated land to rule, and often they would find themselves at odds with one another. This was due to the fact that while Hittite was wealthy enough to ease some of the suffering the people felt, it was nigh impossible to transport anything from one island to another systematically. This state of existence persisted for a couple of centuries before a new technology was developed: ninjutsu.

With the help of chakra, Aegea was able to increase the amount of food they could produce, provide life saving training to healers, and move freely between the islands through the use of space-time ninjutsu. The previously suffering nation was quickly able to live in a much higher level of comfort than before. Being able to manipulate the elements of nature gave them the power to engineer solutions to their life threatening living conditions. With the advancement of barrier ninjutsu, they were able to inhabit islands among the clouds like Panna and Lygos in the thousands instead of the hundreds.

As the Aegean Kingdom's wealth and prosperity grew in the absence of any armed challengers, cities and namesakes of each island started being built high and wide. By the time a century had passed since the death of the sage, the foundations of all of the cities on each of the isles had already been built.

### Seizure of Hittite

After years of peace, the Aegean Kingdom had the first taste of conflict when Hittite's walless city was razed by invaders from the Sea Country. The king was killed in his palace, along with the four eldest princes. The only living legitimate heir left was Michel II, a sickly child of twelve. He was undergoing education in the Monastary of the Cotton Sea on the island of Panna where monks used to live before the island was widely inhabited. Under the guidance of his advisors, he formalized the formation of a council of representatives, where one person for each island would be present to make any and all executive decisions until the king was of age.

As the Sea Country's army prepared to advance to Kayser, the council prepared a defense. The Sea couldn't advance much along the chakra straits, facing an unexpectedly erratic path to the next island. They were repelled without difficulty, but it would be some time before Aegea would be able to reclaim their trade city.

### The Constitutional Monarchy

After Michel II came of age, he quickly sacked the council and jailed them for crimes of conspiracy against the crown. He ordered the manufacturing of new weapons to retake Hittite. Over the next year, Aegea made several attempts to retake Hittite, but they failed with each charge. The conflict grew more costly with the increasingly aggressive policies Michel II began to take, leading to an increase of taxation. As taxation increased, the citizens grew more uneasy. As the unease increased, Michel II tried to punish the discontent people, leading to greater unrest.

As history will attest, a people that is both educated and discontent leads to catastrophy for the powerful. The ten years after the beginning of the war for Hittite turned out to be the bloodiest in the nation's history. In the end, Michel II gave in and formed a people's parliament that limited his own power. However, after a few years, he disbanded the parliament.

### The Birth of the Parliamentary Republic

Soon after the people's parliament was disbanded, uprisings began once more. In only two months, with support from inside the king's palace, his kingdom was overthrown and the young king met an unfortunate end at the bottom of the sea. The king's vizier, who facilitated the people's revolution by opening the gates of the palace and dismissing the royal guards. He helped reform the people's parliament and placed himself inthe seat of the president indefinitely, dismissing opposition parties as they cropped up. After his passing, dozens of political parties grew from the lack of a suppressing force.

## The King's Isles

The seven islands that constitute the Grand Republic of Aegea are an aerial archipalego. The archipelago is named the King's Isles in honour of Aegea's last monarch, the "Yellow King," Jacques IX. The floating archipelago is one of very few such natural phenomena, benefiting from an energy akin to chakra. Panna, the largest island, floats the highest while Hittite, the smallest, floats low enough to give the impression that it is connected to the floor of the ocean. Each island has expert barrier users that protect the islands from attacks or dangerous weather conditions, and in the case of Hittite and Kayser, hides them from being sighted at a distance.

Between the islands, there are chakra straits that carry wind and water, surrounded by smaller masses of land. These straits were once used as a means of getting from one island to another.

### Hittite

*The Trade City of Hittite* is Aegea's most busy trade port. For the longest time it accumulated most of the Kingdom's wealth. Hittite has been much busier as their eastern friends began passing through much more often, trading goods and bringing their wealth to Aegea.

### Lygos

*The Black City of Lygos* is on the second highest island of the same name. It's the most densely populated city in the Aegean Republic and is the center of industry in the nation. Most of the technology of Aegea is developed there, including their chakra-powered airships, which has made Panna a much larger attraction than it was before the airships were invented.

### Panna

*Panna*, or 'the City in the Clouds' as it is affectionately called, is on the highest island of the archipelago. It's the seat of the parliament and the center of academics in Aegea. The only reason it's less densely populated than Lygos is that Panna is built on several layers. The city's lower levels are a home for the working class of the city. The two highest levels are barred off from the lower ones. Still, the most renowned learning institution in the republic, the Aegean Institute of Technology is based in the lower levels of Panna.

On the level in the center is the people’s parliament. This is a symbolic change from the monarchy-era, where the palace of the kings and queens sat at the peak of the city, out of the reach of the people. The nobles of the city still have a wide influence in the parliament, but the common people have a much bigger say in running the country than they used to under the monarchy.

The one area open to the public in the highest ring is the skyport, where airships come and leave. The ships go to many places around the world, the farthest direct destination so far being the a Renese port on the Eastern Continent.

## Aegean Culture

For the longest time, the societies on the islands were nearly completely isolated from one another. Today, the natives of the islands mostly speak Aegean, a combination of the local languages, but several other languages are spoken. Besides Aegean, Franc is spoken in Stimboli and Lygos, and most people speak either Rén or Taika as well, particularly in Panna and Hittite.

### Franc

Franc is the only Aegean language that has endured through the centuries as it was, and persisted in its use. It's very commonly used among poets and philosophers, and so it's known as a more "intellectual" language, but the only ones who speak it as their native tongue are the citizens of Stimboli and Lygos, who are usually working class, a far cry from their perceived life style.

Franc cuisine is mostly built around agricultural products, particularly wheat. There's a distinct lack of sea food, and a lot of red meat.

### Aegean

Aegean is a language that formed from the amalgamation of the spoken languages of all the islands once people started to travel between them en masse. It's used as the official language in the parliament and is the most commonly spoken language in the entirety of the archipelago. It has been lightly affected by Taika and Rén as of late, especially in the Pannian and Hittite dialects. It bears a distinct resemblance to Franc.