Fialta Confederacy

The **Fialta Confederacy** was a collection of independent Fialta states formed as a result of the breakaway of many Fialta princes at the end of the First Coalition War (399 A.U.), and dissolved 46 years later by the Treaty of Saldan (445 A.U.).

Though far from being a great power in its own right, the Fialta Confederacy was sufficiently central to the relations of the four great powers (Aeldrum, Bishant, Alusia, and the Fialta Imperium) that its influence on cosmic affairs (as an object rather than active participant, perhaps) was on par with a great power or institution.

## History

### Formation

The Confederacy was born at the end of the Coalition War, at the instigation of the Thalranese Marches and with the enthusiastic approval of Aeldrum and Bishant. The Confederacy was modeled as a weaker version of the Marches: a mutual defense and economic pact among largely autonomous Fialta grandees. The Thalranese hoped the pact would protect Fialta space from exploitation by the victorious powers and give them a position of leadership to challenge future Imperial expansion (as well as offering a Fialta-branded alternative to the Imperium for security and trade).

### Confederate Scramble

Of the Coalition powers, Alusia protested at first to the apparent loss in territorial gains at Fialta expense, but soon adapted and played the same game as its larger allies: use the self-determination offered to Confederate members to actively encourage rebellions against the Imperium, heavily fund anyone with a “Princely” claim to a world, and incorporate them into the Coalition-guaranteed Confederacy. Though a generation has passed and many of the princes who owed their thrones directly to the great powers are dead or infirm, the legacy of the “Confederate Scramble” is still very present in the region's politics and cultural outlook (many Fialta subjects have converted to Kirvanism, Idolmarism or other faiths under the “religious freedom” aegis of Coalition guarantee, while other Fialta bitterly look upon the predatory interventions of foreign economic and religious influence).

### The Gunboat Wars

*Main article: Gunboat Wars*
In the mid-420s A.U. the Thalranese and Aeldman governments proved increasingly antagonistic toward each other over disputed territorial and commercial rights dating to the Third Treaty of Korinth (in particular the Marches' claim to the Aeldman-administered, former Imperial planet of Semal): the Gunboat Wars of 427 A.U. and 429 A.U. saw Aeldman warships used against Thalranese customs ships (the Aeldman called these corsairs) in response to the Thalranese seizure of Aeldman goods that did not pass various inspections. The semi-secret collusion of the Bank of Valdos and the Second Fialta Imperium with the Aeldmen (nominally to avoid a second cosmic war but also to ensure the diminishment of Thalranese prestige and influence within the Confederacy) and the moral indifference of other great powers precipitated the Second Confederate Scramble, a new boom period of hostile takeover and fire sale acquisition by the Bank, the Aeldmen and others.

### Civil Unrest and Dissolution

*Main article: The Grand Strategy Campaign*
The early 440s A.U. was a period of significant unrest within the Fialta Confederacy, with rising tensions and sectarian violence between Confederate Kirvan radicals, pro-Fialta Imperium factions, and anti-Imperial Fialta Princes. After a largely failed peacekeeping effort by the non-Fialta great powers and increased agitation for the end of Kirvan slavery within Fialta Space, and with war looking like a more and more likely possibility (especially after the mobilization of the Shantine military), a summit was convened on Saldan to reach an agreement concerning the Confederate situation that would hopefully avert a second disastrous cosmic war. The result was the 445 A.U. Treaty of Saldan which brought about, among other things, the end of the Confederacy. Confederate Princes and their respective territories were given the choice of joining the Fialta Imperium, the Thalranese Marches, or the newly-formed Fialta Union.

## Foreign Relations

The Confederacy served the unenviable function of a buffer among the four great powers: all had borders with the Confederacy, and the forty years following the Coalition War saw endless ploys for economic and political influence over the region by every great power.

The Confederacy remained a factious and underweight power, significant for its potential value to others (especially the Second Fialta Imperium) and its enormous risk as an international flashpoint.

### Coalition of Nations

Each of the great powers of the Coalition of Nations adopted a somewhat different strategy in the region (emblematic in many ways of their respective strengths or domestic weaknesses). Aeldrum engaged in highly aggressive economic intervention and hostile takeovers of domestic firms, gaining significant commercial presence and encouraging local dependency on Aeldman industry and financing. Bishant used treaty-enforced religious freedom as a vector for evangelism and diplomatic insertion into Confederate affairs, while using the threat of military intervention in defense of religious freedoms to obliquely guarantee its merchants' security. Alusia partially adopted a more sedate form of both policies, while also pursuing high levels of personal support for individual Confederate princes in order to tip the scales of Confederate political deliberation.

### Bank of Valdos

From its position of strength within the Fialta Imperium, the Bank of Valdos served as the Imperium's economic representative within the Confederacy, but with an approach built around its financial expertise rather than industrial power: a seemingly impenetrable network of contracts, debts and Valdosian-stabilized currency drew the Confederate princes into ever greater financial reliance on the Bank (counterweighted largely by Shantine and Aeldman money). The principal competitors with the Bank were the Shantine and, especially, the Aeldmen: both, however, were weakened in the financial arena by their interest in securing industrial markets for their heated domestic economies, leaving them unable to maintain the Bank's heavy focus on fiscal strategy.

## Government

The Confederacy had (perhaps intentionally) weak institutions, with wide latitude granted to its reigning Princes (usually individuals who ruled one or more planets) and church dignitaries, whose principal obligations to the Confederacy were to uphold its Constitution (mostly based on the terms of the Third Treaty of Korinth), provide mutual military aid and refer disputes to Confederate institutions (mostly made up of other Princes or their proxies).

### Confederate Council

*Main article: Confederate Council of Princes*
The Confederate Council acted as the Confederacy's main military and diplomatic organizer, though it depended on a supermajority of Confederate princes to take offensive action.

### Confederate Inquisition

*Main article: Confederate Inquisition*
The most proactive Confederate institution was the Imperium-backed “Confederate Inquisition,” billed as a stronger enforcement entity for the Confederate Constitution but also as a tool to help Princes uproot local sedition encouraged by foreign interests. Whether the Inquisition would develop into the backbone of a more independent, perhaps more just Confederacy with common standards of jurisprudence, or serve to bind the Confederacy back under Imperial rule in all but name, was a matter of open speculation and considerable debate among the Confederate Princes themselves.

*See also: The Inquisition Campaign*

## Fialta Nationalism

In addition to the flourishing of religious minorities, the Confederacy hosted several major ideologies: galvanized by the experience of the Coalition War for both “Imperial” and “Free” Fialta, several strands of Fialta nationalism emerged within the region. Some were religiously and historically derived, emphasizing a long Fialta religious and cultural tradition intertwined with the Lords of the Pentacle (and often conveniently claiming dubiously related aspects of Pentacle history such as the ancient Empire of Thalran). Others were more secular, emphasizing the Fialta's place in the cosmic order as a people independent of their gods, with common reference to the need for renewed international struggle to forge the Fialta into the next cosmic superpower – extreme forms of this ideological strand had even called for the abolition or significant curtailing of theocratic influence, blaming churches and even gods for the misfortunes and misfires of Fialta statehood.

## Notes

1. ↑ The Shantine Empire and the quasi-rogue Knights of Adarnum took the Gunboat Wars as an opportunity to agitate for the protection (read: armament) of the Kirvan and Idolmarite faithful in the Fialta Free States. The Alusians were preoccupied with their own conquests.