The System

"The System of Goodely Governance for the Continued Peace and Prosperity of All Persons and Peoples", more commonly known as "The System", is the world governing body for the planet of Ijzeria.

The System has been in place for over 8000 years, and in that time it has fostered a universal language, created a global currency, assembled a unified military, and erased widespread suffering and disease. It's still a human institution however, and neither perfect nor infallible.

The System was designed to incorporate the cultural traditions and political systems of all the nations of Ijzeria, and to accomplish this, it prefers to employ a light touch whenever possible. In many cases, this requires local heroes to step in and take a hands-on approach, since waiting for The System to solve a problem could involve submitting quite a few applications and signing a great deal of forms.

## Politics

The System has four main branches of government; the stadthouderaat branch, the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. These branches are distinct, in that each branch has its own duties, responsibilities, and powers, some of which do not appear in the other three.

### The Stadtholder

The stadtholder (or stadhouder) represents the head of state for all of Ijzeria, and is the supreme commander of its armed forces.

The stadtholder is not the head of Ijzeria's government, and does not directly control the ministers who determine what the government does and how it serves the Ijzerian people.

The stadtholder's role is mostly ceremonial. The stadtholder's powers are limited by The System's constitutional documents, on top of which they are expected to act within reason and in accordance to the rule of law and the will of the people. This does not mean the stadtholder is powerless, and in fact, what power they do wield is done so with absolute discretion.

The stadtholder does not hold special legal status or privilege, nor are they permitted to act outside of the law in any capacity. The people of Ijzeria are the "fellow citizens" of the stadtholder, and never their "subjects".

The stadtholder is very much expected to "smile and wave", and not directly interact with government in any meaningful capacity whilst they serve. This is not always the case, and in fact in 8268, the stadtholder of the time(King Necrosis III) actually sponsored his own political party in the great parliament (the Forsthald League), which was the ruling party for the majority of his reign. During this same period, he continually refused to appoint a grand pensionary, and was extremely antagonistic to the judiciary.

Stadtholders are chosen directly; through general election, with run-off elections held until a candidate receives 55% or more of the popular vote, with 90% or greater census population participation. This is in contrast to most other offices in The System, which use proportional representation with ranked-choice voting, and usually try to elect people with ideas and plans, rather than personalities. The stadtholder is expected to be a beacon of culture, and embody many virtues. They are usually chosen for their celebrity and wisdom rather than their intellect and diplomacy.

Stadtholders now serve for a single non-renewable term of 100 years, though when The System was young, stadtholders served for life. If a stadtholder were to become unable to serve. yet is still living, then the actual machinery of government will continue unimpeded. It just means the stadtholder's right to veto legislation will go unused, but this matters little, since most stadtholders never veto any legislation their whole career.

A person who is stadtholder retains any titles they wish upon ascension to the empty throne, but unless these titles are privately held (and not actual positions of power), they will be void, and will need to be filled by other people. In some cases where a stadtholder does not wish to relinquish their realm or title, in order to retain a particular title upon becoming stadtholder, that title will be folded into the title of stadtholder. As a result, the stadtholder is only ever addressed in their full style at the start of important ceremonies and functions, as recounting what and where the stadtholder is the king/queen/duke/duchess of is a very long and tedious process.

The stadtholder is generally based in Salsiccia, but maintains palaces and administrative centres worldwide.

#### Origin of the Stadtholder

The stadtholder position was created as part of The System's original founding, wherein since all peoples were to be held as equal and free, there should be no one who rules above them.

Since the head of state for The System is not considered to be of higher status or greater legal importance than any of the citizens of Ijzeria, the position of Stadtholder, which literally means "Place Holder", was created so that one person would exist who could represent the will of the people as a single entity. The stadtholder represents the common citizens of Ijzeria, and in all meetings acts as their "stand-in", or indeed, their placeholder.

### The Great Dance

The Great Dance is the institution representing the nations of Ijzeria. The purpose of the great dance is to host summits and bring national leaders together so that they may pass resolutions, which then go on to direct policy. Basically, the great dance is where everyone agrees what they want, but not how to get it done. This may seem like a superfluous step in the governmental process, but it's an important one, since many nations are too small to win very many votes, but the great dance ensures those nations have the right to be heard on equal footing.

The great dance meets every four months, but can meet more frequently should the need arise.

The great dance is based in Salsiccia.

### The Landspeaker Longhouse

The Landspeaker Longhouse is a legislative institution representing Ijzeria itself. It houses the offices of the Ijzerian wardenry; the body of scientists and arcanists who ensure that environmental concerns are met before passing any legislation or launching public works. It possesses the ability to introduce legislation, but doesn't do so very often.

The landspeaker represents "wards" not people. Wards are portions of land that are assigned to wardens. It is then the warden's duty to monitor their ward(s) for signs of pollution or environmental instability. The wardens pass on their findings to the landspeaker longhouse, which assigns the reports to committees, who then advise the government. Legislation which requires longhouse approval only receives a pass or a fail. It does not go through itemized rounds of debate, nor do the wardens form political parties or associations. The wardenry is expected to remain as objective and goal-oriented as possible.

The landspeaker longhouse hosts three-day summits every four months. During this time, there is some debate about environmental standards and the various committees are shuffled around. Wardens who wish to avoid being assigned a desk job often skip these summits, or at least run away whenever they see somebody with a clipboard coming towards them.

The landspeaker longhouse is based in Salsiccia.

### The Thingi

The Thingi is a legislative institution representing all the people of Ijzeria as individuals. This is in contrast to the great dance, which represents Ijzerians on a national level.

When the average Ijzerian thinks of "The System", they are thinking of the "Thingi", the world's oldest parliament.

The term "thingi" is descended from the word "thingy" an old forsthaldic word meaning "word describing an object whose name I do not recall", and was originally applied to ancient government buildings, since they were often multi-purpose and had many names.

The thingi acts as the great parliament for all the world, and is the democratically elected house of representatives, which introduces and enacts laws according to the will of the people. Barring unusual circumstance, shortly after an election, it is expected that the grand pensionary will be chosen from among the duly elected members of the thingi.

The thingi is based in Salsiccia.

#### Composition of the Thingi

The number of seats in the thingi is tied to the world population. Seating is assigned based on proportional representation in general elections, rather than regionally or nationally.

As of 8407 AU, there are eight major political parties (usually coalitions of smaller parties) which hold seats in the thingi. There are many others which exist, but do not hold any seats.

The current ruling party is the Astralis Coalition, made up of four smaller parties; the Wardens' Advisory, the Zanti Special Interest, the People's Industry Party, and Free Banker's Unity Party. The Astralis Coalition wishes to advance the cause of exploratory science; as part of its campaign promises, the continent of Zant has begun to be resettled and rediscovered, and there are discussions for the very first stages of deep-sea exploration on a scale never before seen.

The official opposition is likewise a coalition party, the Open Defiance, made up of the Global Artist's Guild, the Craftwork Union, and the United Coven of Witches. They collectively campaigned on the expansion of rural entertainment facilities, urban revitalisation projects, and the legalisation of witchcraft outside of a research environment. That last one is what really cost them voters.

#### The Grand Pensionary

The grand pensionary is the head of government for the planet of Ijzeria. They are chosen from the thingi, as part of the democratic electoral process. Traditionally, they are appointed by the stadtholder and selected from one of the larger political parties residing in the thingi, but technically they can be chosen from among all Ijzerians, and the stadtholder doesn't technically need to say "yes', they need merely not say "no".

The current grand pensionary is Benjamin Ramanujan, leader of the Free Banker's Unity party, and head of the Astralis Coalition.

The grand pensionary is styled as "your/his/her/their solvency".

## Trivia

* The System was named to be as generic as possible, since for Ijzerians, the word "The System" is meant to be as catch-all as the phrase "the government" is for realworld people.
* The capital of the world was originally planned to be in Ondaaban, but during the drafting of the Articles of Implementation, Salsiccia became the obvious choice.
* The reason so many of The System's institutions are based in Salsiccia, is that Salsiccia is built upon an archipelago; with many of the islands connected by drawbridges, or through a gondola service. This is very important for international relations, since countries which aren't getting along very well have their embassies separated by a body of water.
* The reason term limits in The System are so long is to account for certain species which may live longer lives than others. Humans and djinn for example, can live over two centuries, while kobolds are considered quite old at only 80 years of age.
* The original term limit for stadtholders was the remainder of their natural life. This has historically resulted in several stadtholders who ruled for very long periods of time, and in several cases, across multiple centuries.