OOC Writer Account
Flag of the Commonwealth of Zorn
Source (x)
"With steel in hand, we'll face what comes" - 'Way of the Strong' anthem Lyrics.
Intent: To reorganise a government/submission, I originally intended to take on more of a villainous character into something a little bit more 'grey', which I have tried to communicate through their government structure, amendments to some of their core laws, the relationship between the state and military through the service obligation and the influence of force-wielders in their history.
Image Credit: Source 1, Source 2.
Canon: Not applicable.
Permissions: Not applicable.
Links: Archon Thelir Blackcrown, Ellbow, Grutter Norr Ryk, Hololink Implant, Homo Sapiens Augeus, Private - Home of the Brave, Technology Level, Timeline, Surveillance Matrix.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organisation Name: Commonwealth of Zorn
Classification: Unitary Constitutional Monarchy.
Affiliation: Commonwealth of Zorn.
Organisation Symbol: The Commonwealth of Zorn's flag is defined by its gold and crimson-coloured heraldry, featuring a horned dragon silhouette laid on a black field collapsed between gold filigree. The colours represent the following concepts: crimson for kinship, Black for sacrifice, and Gold for prosperity.
Description: The Commonwealth of Zorn is a Unitary Constitutional Monarchy and a former client state of the Empire. According to its constitution, its territory consists of the entirety of the Kabal system and all of its celestial bodies. The Commonwealth of Zorn's parliament is bi-cameral, with the lower house being elective and the upper house being elective, with hereditary seats occupied by peerages that are entitled by law to maintain a seat in the upper house. Its' government is divided into three branches: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The executive is led by a Monarch known by the sex-neutral title 'Primark' derived from the titles of 'Prime' and 'Archon' who fulfils the role of head of state.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Kabal IV - Frysk
Domain:
Notable Assets:
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Anthem: "Way of the Strong".
Language:
- De Jure:
- Recognised Minority:
- Spoken: Galactic Basic Standard
- Written: High Galactic
- De Jure: Secular
- De Facto:
- 95% Striderwei.
- 5% Atheist.
Government: Unitary Multi-Party Constitutional Monarchy.
Area: Kabal System.
Population:
- 14,000,000 (870 ABY).
- 99.9% Homo Sapiens Augeus.
- 0.1% Other.
- 24,354,000 (900 ABY).
- 99.9% Homo Sapiens Augeus.
- 0.1% Other.
- Executive:
- Monarch - Head of State.
- First Minister - Head of Government.
- Ministries:
- Agriculture.
- Armed Force.
- Arkana.
- Colonial Administration.
- History.
- Logistics.
- Manufacturing.
- Medicine.
- Science.
- Trade.
- Legislature:
- Viceroy - President of the Upper House.
- Magister - Elected/Appointed member of the Upper House.
- Representative - Elected member of the Lower House.
- Judiciary:
- Arbiter - Superior Court Judge-Inquisitor.
- Magistrate - Inferior Court Judge-Inquisitor.
- Shireev - Judicial Law Enforcement Officer, manages originating document service, orders to recover unpaid fines or state debts. Responsible for preparing jury nominations.
Climate: The Commonwealth of Zorn is a Constitutional Monarchy where the executive power of the Monarch is broader than what would be customarily accepted as 'normal' within broader Interstellar civilisation; for example, the Monarch possesses the legal power to prorogate parliament, ending the legislature's business temporarily for several lawful reasons: During a state of declared war, state of emergency as defined by a relevant act of parliament or if the parliament is ineffective in administering its duties. Law Enforcement and Surveillance in the Commonwealth of Zorn are sophisticated and widespread; a Citizens' participation in everyday civil and political life is conditional on consent to this Surveillance, and while isn't compelled at law, is coerced through the application of security measures such as doors to businesses and public buildings not opening unless connected to the state's surveillance grid.
Reputation: The Commonwealth of Zorn has inherited the fearsome reputation of the Grutter Norr Ryk; their military is equally feared and respected by those educated about its history and methodology, characterised by stalwart discipline and merciless ferocity. Thanks to its law enforcement and surveillance apparatus, it is known as an orderly place to live and do business, with property and violent crime being a negligible issue. Its breathtaking growth has seen its security issues arise from without rather than within, and the government's remote holdings are frequently targeted by organised brigands and pirates. In more enlightened societies, the Commonwealth of Zorn is infamous for its treatment of foreigners convicted of serious offences with sentences of death by way of drowning and asphyxiation well reported. The Commonwealth's citizens are known for their pride in their culture for its' continued prosperity and perseverance in the face of extraordinary adversity, a fact broadly agreed on by intergalactic academia and is often used to explain their outwardly brutal and cruel behavior.
Curious:
- Hololink Implant: Practically all Citizens of the Commonwealth of Zorn have a Hololink Implant connected to the base of their spinal cord; this implant has wired and wireless connectivity for accessory devices and other useful features such as Biometric Monitoring, Telemetry Tracking, Security Clearances, Navigation and Identify-Friend-Foe functionality. This implant can be taken as prima facie evidence of the individual's affiliation with the Commonwealth of Zorn or it's predecessor government.
- Legislation: The Commonwealth's legislature creates legislation referred to as "Acts" before receiving the Archon's permission. These are known as "Bills." Acts contain three broad types of sections: Procedural, Powers, and Offences-Creating.
- Act: An 'act' is a 'bill' that has received a majority of votes from the lower and, subsequently, the upper house, at which point it becomes enforceable as law within the Kingdom.
- Regulation: Legislative acts can authorize a ministry to administer the provisions of the act by creating a related regulation that accompanies it. Where an act specifies the Processes, Powers, and Offences, a regulation codifies with the force of law the fine details of the relevant processes.
- Policy: The executive, judiciary, and legislature all maintain policies regarding the proper discharge of their branches' duties, which vary from codes of conduct and ethics to standard operating procedures.
- Evidence Act: The evidence act applies to criminal and civil proceedings within the Greater Norr Ryk. The evidence act strengthens the nation's inquisitorial system and permits the submission of relevant evidence. The Norr customarily do not entertain the idea of protections for accused persons, and thus, only evidence considered unlawfully obtained shall be regarded as inadmissible; what would be considered unfairly obtained or "hearsay" evidence may be admissible as long as it is deemed relevant. Interestingly, the Evidence Act states that admissible admissions must be audio and visually recorded mechanically.
- Constitution: The Constitution sets out the separation and division of powers and creates three branches of Government: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The legislature has infringed on the judiciary's independence by introducing mandatory minimum custodial sentences for proscribed criminal offences where accused persons are found guilty. The Constitution is amended with a bill of civil and political rights such as entitlement to civil and political speech, excluding sedition, the entitlement of 'responsible citizens to keep and bear arms as regulated and administered by acts of the legislature', entitlement to keep and protect property, and most importantly, a presumption of innocence before guilt. Interestingly, there are no safeguards against unreasonable search; thus, any suspect cannot be forcibly silenced by the executive; however, it may come with the price of perpetual surveillance, search and repeated searches of one's person or property by law enforcement authorities.
- Citizenship Act: This act specifies who is eligible for citizenship to the Commonwealth of Zorn. The three criteria that must be met for eligibility are eighteen standard years of age, having a parent who was a citizen of the Kingdom, and successfully completing the mandatory military training program.
- Family Law Amendment Act: Recently amended with the change in Government to the Commonwealth of Zorn, The act creates an offence for a subject's paternity to be identified before the subject reaches eighteen years old, this mitigates the risk of nepotism on educational outcomes. The act also grants the state power to take custody of all school-age children as wards of the state. The Family Law Act requires that marriages be entered consensually between a male and female adult. The Family Law Act also requires all citizens who are physically capable to supply the state reproductive genetic material on request for the purpose of in vitro fertilisation. This act is responsible for the Kingdom's rapidly growing population. The act has a procedural section authorising and mandating the disposal of fetuses with congenital or developmental defects.
- Law Enforcement Powers Act: The Law Enforcement Powers Act endows the officers of the State Security Force and recognised law enforcement officers as per that act with extraordinary powers inaccessible to everyday citizens. For example, it permits its' officers to "Stop, detain and search any person and seize anything that the officer suspects is connected to a relevant offence, may be stolen or unlawfully obtained, a dangerous or prohibited article, or a prohibited or restricted drug." There is no pre-requisite for the law enforcement officer to "suspect on reasonable grounds" the detainee has any of those things on their person. The power may be exercised at an officer's discretion. Likewise, the act empowers law enforcement officers to arrest a person without a warrant if they have grounds to suspect they have committed an offence. They may discontinue the arrest at any time after the arrest is made without affecting the lawfulness of the arrest itself. Additionally, the act provides law enforcement officers 48 hours to investigate the offence for which the person is under arrest. The Law Enforcement Powers Act requires an officer to inform a person subject to a power of their name or serial number, place of duty and reason for the power's exercise. However, suppose the officer fails to do these things. In that case, it does not affect the validity of the power except if the officer is challenged and, when reasonably practicable, does not comply with those safeguards. The Law Enforcement Powers Act provides civil indemnity for any injury or damage occasioned in the execution of any power or function conferred on law enforcement by any act made by a law enforcement officer. The Law Enforcement Powers Act empowers Law Enforcement Officers and persons assisting them to "Use as much force as is reasonable or necessary, to exercise any power or function conferred on them by this or any other act."
- Arkane Protection Act: An ancient piece of legislation hundreds upon hundreds of years old. The act created the "College of Arkanists", an organisation responsible for the education and training of force-sensitive individuals who the state refers to as: 'Arkanists'. The act requires physicians to test all persons for force sensitivity through Midi-chlorian count, a methodology learned from the Galactic Empire. It empowers law enforcement officers to take any Norr citizen suspected of being force-sensitive into the state's custody without a warrant, based on a count of more than 5,000 per cell. Such citizens are transported to a 'College' where they live, receive civil education and force-based training, and undergo assessments. Upon satisfactory completion of these assessments, they receive a 'Letter of Warrant' from the minister appointing them as accredited to use their skills during their employment and otherwise under the law. The Arkane Protection Act creates circumstances of aggravation for any person to use Arkane powers in committing an offence according to the act or any other law. Those who fail to perform their assessments satisfactorily are euthanised following a customary view that 'unwarranted arkanists' are vulnerable to being corrupted by malevolent spirits from the deep.
- Peerage Act: With the restoration of the Commonwealth of Zorn, ancient customary life and hereditary peerages and their attendant titles have been enshrined in law. Hereditary peerages entitle the bearer to the peerage's seat in the Magisterium and entitles the holder to approximately 10% of all personal and business income tax collected by the state from their peerage, incentivizing the holder of the peerage to advocate for legislation that will benefit citizens and business living and working in their peerage. The heir of a hereditary peer is deemed to be their spouse where there is an absence of children or their eldest 'legitimate' child, where legitimacy is determined by marriage. Should an heir pass without a spouse or child, the peer by law is inherited by their eldest sibling, and if they are unavailable to the eldest niece or nephew. The hereditary peerage titles are in descending order: Prins/Prinses, Hertog/Hertogin, Markies/Markiezen, Graaf/Gravin, Burggraaf/Burggravin, Van/Vaniezen. The heir to a peerage is entitled by law to use the peerage's title with the prefix 'na' amended to the relevant title, and any other junior successors are entitled to the same luxury with their prefix specified as 'an'.
- Preservation of the State Amendment Act: This act creates procedures for all children between the ages of four to sixteen standard years of age to be enrolled in the country's paramilitary schools. It provides civil indemnity to the state for any injury or death occasioned by children through their ferocious and brutal education. The act also includes sections that grant the state the power to exercise the power of conscription for all adult men and women. All adult men and women are given the opportunity to volunteer for full-time professional service but are otherwise conscripted into the army or navy reserve on a part-time reserve basis and undergo 112 standard days of initial full-time military training followed by approximately 53 days of military occupational training. Then, an additional 40 to 100 days of mandatory 'refresher training' depending on the rank and primary employment of the adult; the amendment to the act reduced the service obligation to part-time reserve service for a period of fourteen and a half years to encourage population growth and increase the productivity of the civil economy.
- Export-focus: The Commonwealth of Zorn is focused on exporting raw materials to foreign markets, feeding the grinders of the civil and war industries. The Commonwealth of Zorn hopes to leverage its supply of resources to curry political favours and advance its research into faster-than-light hyperdrive technology, which has long been denied to them and seen their state's reach largely confined to a single system. There are those in the galaxy who fear what the Norr of Zorn could accomplish if leashed upon the galaxy.
- Mining Industry: Asteroid mining and 'planet-cracking' are key resource extraction industries in the Commonwealth of Zorn, they've promoted a policy of looting the galaxy's raw materials and selling them to interstellar markets.
- Population Growth: The Commonwealth of Zorn desires continued population growth to help drive its expanding economy and broadening industry; the Kingdom has adopted several policies to achieve this continued population growth, such as prohibiting sterilization, restricting access to long-term reproductive contraceptives, and requiring the absence of same-sex unions at law. Female adults pay reduced personal income tax for each child they successfully produce by birth or in vitro fertilization. The government maintains a cloning program to reproduce copies of gifted children or childless adults who have not successfully reproduced.
Branch(s): Realm Armed Forces
Active: 267,519 Personnel.
Reserve: 1,094,843 Personnel.
- Army
- Active: ~159,930 Personnel.
- Reserve: ~779,328 Personnel.
- Navy
- Active: ~29,117 Personnel.
- Reserve: ~315,515 Personnel.
- Security Force - Gendarmerie.
- Active: ~65,000 Personnel.
- Reserve: Not applicable.
- Stormtrooper Corps - Marine Special Operations Capable Force.
- Active: ~13,472 Personnel.
- Reserve: Not applicable.
- Heinir Stonehail - Chief of Army.
- Mieke Balefire - Chief of Navy.
Formed From: Grutter Norr Ryk.
Date Established: 982 BBY.
Date Reorganised: ~19 BBY, into the Imperial Protectorate of Kabal.
Date Dissolved: ~5 ABY.
Date Restored: ~900 ABY.
Timeline:
- 982 BBY: Following the Siege of White Mountain in the Viscounty of Ironmark, King Grann of Zorn reorganised his coastal holdings into the 'Kingdom of Zorn', founding the House of Zorn, who were renowned for their specialisation in Siege warfare. The professional armies of House Zorn were first recorded, constructing what became known as the Ellbow. These hollow steel bows provided his armies with a significant anti-armour capability not enjoyed by his foes.
- 70 BBY: A Jedi Master named 'Hano Zost' and his apprentice 'Aimee Klaross crash-land on Frysk and are begrudgingly granted an audience with King Gerulf Zorn, who listens to their petition and tales after being insulted by the insinuation that the Jedi's code shared similarities to the "Way of the Strong", Gerulf demanded that Hano 'Prove boast' attacking the Jedi Master with a great Iron Warhammer. The Jedi Master humoured the aged King and used his mastery of the force to avoid the King's strikes before disarming Gerulf and engaging him in hand-to-hand combat. Gerulf managed to land a strike on Hano's cheek, splitting the Jedi master's cheek before being thrust by a disembodied wave of water into a pillar and cutting the back of his skull open on the pillar. Hano and Gerulf's blood both stained the marble floor of the Zornite court; Gerulf chuckled and exclaimed in a bellicose laugh: "Boast proven, we now know a little about each other, Jedi." Unable to contact the Republic due to the Zornite's primitive late-feudal technology, the two Human Jedi began building what would later become the most significant temple dedicated to studying the force.
- 42 BBY: Hano and Aimee, having passed away, the first and only Norr Jedi knight named 'Lys Greenleaf' forms the "Order of Arkanists" with the consent of King Gerhard Zorn, who creates a ministry to supervise the Order. Heeding Lys' cautionary advice regarding the seductive nature of the 'Dark Side', which Gerhard and his ministers took to be synonymous with the Malevolent Spirits of the 'Deepworld', enact legislation mandating that any individuals identified as having sensitivity to the force be taken into the custody of the state for training. Hano and Aimee's lightsabres would later become secret heirlooms of the Kingdom.
- 19 BBY: Flourishing on their 'homeworld' in an Information Age. The Kingdom of Zorn, now a constitutional crowned republic, comes into contact with the colossal Galactic Empire, who occupy Frysk in search of the planet's material resources. The Kingdom of Zorn subscribing to the "Way of the Strong" offers a ferocious and formidable resistance. This provoked a more formidable response from the Empire, who dispatched Admiral Gereon Raythe and his naval task force. Raythe proceeded to subject the Kingdom's critical infrastructure to a Base-Delta Zero bombardment, eviscerating ninety per cent of the Kingdom's population down to approximately 250,000.
- 19 BBY: The Kingdom of Zorn waged a protracted maneuver warfare campaign against the Galactic Empire. However, no matter how many operations they'd disrupt the Empire's supply of material and manpower, Clone Stormtroopers surgically plucked away the defence force's capability until the Kingdom's population whittled down to a pitiful 25,000 lightly armed able-bodied adults, at which point the Kingdom capitulated its' leadership acknowledging the Empire's undeniable strength by way of a highly unfavourable treaty the conditions of which required the populace to pledge their fealty to the Empire and the adults to toil away in the mines on Frysk's surface to repay the sum total of Imperial war material damaged or destroyed. The population's standard of living collapses into the feudal age. Recognising Norr's potential for employment as a soldier, the Galactic Empire dissolved the peerages of the Kingdom. It re-organised its structure as the 'Imperial Protectorate of Kabal'. It begins rebuilding the Norr's population by implementing brutal eugenic practices that would have an enduring influence on the country's cultural practices.
- 5 ABY: With the Galactic Empire's collapse, the Imperial Protectorate of Kabal collapses, and the Commonwealth of Zorn ceases to exist as a functioning state. Knowledge of the Protectorate's existence endures only in fragments scattered across the galaxy in Imperial research facilities. The House of Zorn fades into obscurity. Lys Greenleaf emerges from hiding on Frysk under an assumed identity to conceal her past as a Jedi and re-forms the "Order of Arkanists," making the quarter-staff its symbol of office and applying techniques relating to double-bladed lightsabre combat to Arkanist quarter-staff combat.
- 426 ABY: What would become The Norr Workers Union comes to power on Frysk after a largely bloodless coup with the assassination of powerful albeit deeply unpopular key figures within the executive and legislature. The NWU's coming to power signalled the beginning of what is identified in contemporary Norr history as the "Discovery Age". It started with 10,000 hapless Human colonists landing on Frysk, seeking to escape the Gulag plague. The Norr Workers Union were threatened by this development, and the Chantry of Angul condemned the return of the "Low men". 10,000 Norr soldiers descended on the colonist's settlement in the dead of night and slaughtered every man, woman and child. And cast what infants were present into great charnel pits. Capturing the colonists' spaceship, the early atomic-age Norr went to work attempting to reverse-engineer its' technology and steal the information contained within its' learning machines.
- 502 ABY: The Norr Workers Union achieved manned spaceflight and began manufacturing advanced polymers, plastic materials, and strong metallic alloys. Construction begins on a copper-based telecommunication network that would span the breadth of all Norr settlements on the surface of Frysk. The Realm's government began sponsoring research into genetic therapy, stem cell treatments and cloned biological prosthetics.
- 863 ABY: A New Imperial Navy exploration task force arrives in the Kabal system; they are engaged by the Realm's navy in Frysk's high orbit, where the task force is destroyed by a pair of Ryk Light Carriers and their fighter craft.
- 864 ABY: The New Imperial Order dispatches a quick-reaction force to the loss of their exploration fleet consisting of a single-star destroyer called the Triumphant staffed with the 1st Stormtrooper Legion. Shortly after, they arrive in the Kabal System and win a decisive engagement against a Ryk Cruiser escorted by two Torpedo Corvettes.
- 865 ABY: The New Imperial Order attempts to occupy Frysk using the Triumphant and its Stormtrooper complement. The Realm permits the Triumphant to land and begins disgorging hardware and equipment. The Ryk use its unconventional forces to board the Star Destroyer and disable its radar systems to launch a decisive assault.
- 866 ABY: After the loss of the Triumphant and its' crew, the New Imperial Order allocates several Stormtrooper Legions and a Naval task force to seize control of the entire Kabal system. Leading to a protracted medium-intensity conflict with the Greater Norr Ryk.
- 874 ABY: Frustrated with their ability to break the Realm's will to fight, the Empire bombards Frysk's barren surface and then threatens to destroy the agricultural lands of Frysk and leave its' population to starve unless they agree to negotiate. The Realm renews its treaty with the Galactic Empire's successor, acknowledging its' last Imperator, Rurik Fel, as Sheev Palpatine's lawful successor. After that, Frysk became a client state of the New Imperial Order.
- 878 ABY: With the New Imperial Order's support, the Realm colonises the surrounding planets in the Frysk system, beginning to terraform those celestial bodies for habitation as part of Erskine Barran's policy to encourage the economic and population growth of the Grutter Norr Ryk.
- 878-900 ABY: The New Imperial Order collapses, and in the aftermath, the Norr Realm experiences famine cut-off from agricultural imports for its' burgeoning population and widespread pirate attacks on their prosperous and coveted colonies; exposure to the ideals of the galaxy and re-discovery of scraps of their own history leads to public dialogue which the Norr Workers Union desperately seek to suppress. A conspiracy for restoring the Commonwealth of Zorn and its ideals emerges in academic circles and corners of the military. Archon Thelir Blackcrown begins undergoing the 'Flesh change' and, in their stubborn furious delirium, authorises the massacre of several hundred protesting Black Legion veterans, which proceeds to solicit a furious public condemnation from the College of Arkanists and the broader military community as a betrayal. After twenty-two days of civil and political unrest across the Realm, Archon Blackcrown was assassinated, the Norr Workers Union was deposed in 896 ABY, and a provisional government was appointed led by Chief-of-Navy Mieke Balefire as provisional president and Heinir Stonehail who took up the role as prime minister.
- 901 ABY: The hereditary peerages are reformed from familial records, political parties formed, and elections held. The provisional government is dissolved. The Greater Norr Realm has been reorganised into the Commonwealth of Zorn. Mieke Balefire and Heinir Stonehail are re-appointed to their positions as Chief-of-Navy and Chief-of-Army out of gratitude for their leadership in a time of extant crisis with the Empire's collapse and support for the ongoing Zorn cultural renaissance and cultivation of an independent political identity.
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