The Imperial Republic of Vocenae

[Vocenae]

Geography

Just made a little map for my nation, hope everyone can see it...

I'll probably go back and redo it and make it all nice later.

[Vocenae]

Flag

The flag of the United States is a prime example of having a flag that represents the nation and it's history. The stars on the blue field represents the States, while the red and white stripes represent the original thirteen colonies.

All you have to do is explain what the symbols on your nation's flag represent about your country.

The stars on my flag represent the seven cities of Vocenae, since they are what helped the people form a unified country after emerging from the nomadic ancient times. The three red stripes represent the three branches of the armed forces, the Mobile Infantry, the Airforce, and the Navy. The golden 'E' represents our region, Europa, and the maroon field represents the feather color of the Ebony Hawk, Vocenae's national animal.

[Haken]

But there are 8 stars on your flag.

[Vocenae]

Pronunciation of the nation's name

Vocenae: vO-Sin-Nay.

The 'O' is long. I didn't capitalize the V cause it was easier to stress the long O, but it's still every bit as important.

[Vocenae]

(OOC: Took me long enough... Anyway, just a rough overview.)

Vocian Government

The Imperial Republic of Vocenae is a two body system.

1. Imperial Council

The first and most important body is the Imperial Council, which meets every day from September 1st to May 31st, excluding national holidays. The Council has the summer off, but can be called into special session by a majority vote of party leaders, or at the request of the military or pubic.

The Council is made up of 300 members, and is divided into parties. Each party elects a leader which will serve as Speaker on behalf of the other members of the party. These Speakers can be replaced at anytime during the nine month period that the Council is in session by a majority vote of party members.

Some major parties in the Council include the War Party, the Technologist Party, and the Humanitarian Party.

The Council votes on new laws and various amendments to the Charter of Constitutional Articles, the original documents that form the base of Vocian government. The public, while they are allowed to speak against whatever laws they disagree with, cannot protest against any laws, or demand that the Council repeal laws that have already been passed

Council members are elected by the Vocian public every four years, and can stay in office until they reach the mandatory retirement age of seventy-five.

2. Imperial Court

The second branch of government is the Imperial Court, which meets on the same days as the Imperial Council. The Court is ruled over by twelve magistrates, who stay in office until the mandatory retirement age of seventy-five. When a Magistrate retires, there is a period of time for members of the lower judiciary courts to run for the position.

To be eligible to run for position of Magistrate, Judiciaries must have a minimum of twenty years of experience in the lower courts. After a period of campaigning, the public votes on their choice, and the Judiciary who receives the most votes is reviewed by the current Magistrate and the Imperial Council. After this period of review, the Judiciary will either be appointed Magistrate, or will be sent back to the lower courts. The nexy Judiciary with the most votes when then be reviewed, etc.

The Imperial Court's job is to keep the Council from passing laws that violate the Charter of Constitutional Articles, and the rights of the Vocian people. The Court can sit in on Council meetings when they choose, and can get involved in discussion over any issues that may be on the floor.

Any laws or amendments that the Council passes must be reviewed by the Court before they are considered 'active'. Should the Court find them unconstitutional, they are returned to the Council for editing until they are found constitutional.

[Vocenae]

Geography

1. Central and Northern Provinces of the Imperial Republic

• Vocia: National capital and administrative district.
• Celeste: National trade center and most populous city.
• Poseidon: Imperial Navy headquarters and national shipyards.
• Neeta: Central agriculture and distribution city.
• Indrini: Heavy industrial capital.
• Arco: Former Imperial military headquarters, now destroyed.
• Elysium City: Entertainment capital.
• Zathra: University city, historical capital.
• Coreign: Northern government center/distribution center.

2. Accran Vocenae (Southern Vocenae)

• Arnheim: Southern government center, former Accran capital.
• Sydvani: Southern industrial distribution center.

[Vocenae]

(OOC: This is the history of my nation up to the start of the Oil Wars. Since that's really as far as the story goes, that's where the history of the region stopped. This is the story I wanted to tell, but never really got the chance.)

History

1. Nomadic tribes

Ancient Vocenae was made up of nomadic tribes living in the highlands and mountain areas of Northern Europa. Eventually they migrated far enough southwest and reached the shore of the Kosscow Sea, one of the many bodies of water in Europa, and settled down there amongst the fjords.

After mastering the arts of fishing and sailing, the northernmost clans began the tradition of raiding during the summer months and became a pain in the ass to the northernmost empire in the region of Europa. After a couple centuries and one bloody war that ended with all the vocian tribes driving back the invaders from the north, the land split into two states, the north ruled by a Council of nobles and merchants, the south ruled by individual nobles with loose alliances. The northern state, having descended from the raiders of old, learned the value of trading routes and technology gained from the raids and desired a unified nation, while the southern state wanted to focus on more traditional ways of life before the Northern War and live as a loose confederation of clans.

2. State formation

So after about a century of less than warm relations, the northern state invaded the southern state and for ten years the land known as Vocenae was locked in a deadly stalemate, but the economic power (and the invention of gunpowder) helped turn the war in favor of the northern state. After steadily losing ground the southern state yielded to the northern armies.

Setting up a system of government that favored trade and democracy, the nobility system was slowly phased out until being a noble was little more than a ceremonial title (in modern times, most Nobles are the nation's cultural elite). With Councilmen elected from the clans themselves, the Imperial Republic was born and nearly collapsed in on itself.

The capital of the old northern state had been the trading port of Celeste, and was currently the seat of the Imperial Council. Still resentful over their loss (and the dissolution of their nobility system), the southern Councilmen demanded that a capital be established in a southern city, as a sign of fairness that all political power was not staying in the north. The northern Councilmen disagreeed, and right as tensions were at their highest, a coalition of politicians hailing from the ancient highlands proposed that a new capital city be built from the ground up, utilizing designs, labor, and materials from both the north and south.

3. Imperial republic

The site chosen was still located in the northern section of the Imperial Republic, but begrudgingly, the southern Councilmen stood down, and the capital city of Vocia began construction. A city of monuments nestled around a large bay, Vocia took a decade to build, and during this time, corporations were starting to appear all across Europa. By the time the capital city was ready to receive the Imperial Council, many corporations were in the pocket of Councilmen both north and south.

The military was split into three equal branches, each having it's own command structure, which in turn was headed by the three highest ranking officers of each branch, who answered directly to the Imperial Council.

These branches are:

• The Imperial Army, headed by the Master General.
• The Imperial Navy, headed by the High Admiral.
• The Imperial Airforce, headed by the Sky Marshal.

4. 21st Century

The Imperial Republic suffered no wars or political trauma until early in the 21st century, nearly three hundred years after it's formation. During this time, however, northern cities in Vocenae suffered a rash of extremely brutal serial killing sprees leading to the exposure and closure of a religious cult. Internationally isolationist, the nation eventually entered into international politics by joining a humanitarian alliance dedicated to helping the victims of war, and helping ease tensions between warring countries. Successful, but largely doomed, the alliance lost many of it's founding nations until only the Imperial Republic was left to guide the newer, younger nations. Gross inaction in the face of civil war in Vocenae's backyard heralded the dissolution of the alliance in the early 2000s.

A political scandal rocked the nation as a politician many believed would be the first president of the Imperial Republic was assasinated by miltary conspirators on the eve of after the dissolution of the humanitarian alliance. The 'Big Three', as the were often called, were the leaders of the Vocian military, and the conspiracy was headed by Illario Korrino, Master General of the Imperial Army. Concerned over the fact that Vocenae had the ability to stand on it's own, yet it's leaders let corporations have free reign in return for immense bribes, Korrino used his power and influence to shake the foundations fo the political corruption. Then, a totalitarian regime took power in the nation of Adaptusto the south, and Korrino saw his chance to remove his enemies and prove to the world that Vocenae needed no alliances to make it strong, and launched an invasion force.

The nation of Adaptus, an older, declining superpower in a dying alliance, was coming under siege from the nations of Tagmatium and Akiiryu, but Korrino refused to combine his forces with theirs. Landing a mixed infantry and armed force on the heavily fortified central coastline and moving a larger armored force across the border into the land formerly known as Accra Imperia Diche, the Vocian forces fought extremely hard and made great headway despite the incredible resistance. The armored force moving through Accra had another objective to accomplish while in route to seize and secure the north-east sectors of the enemy nation: Recon and patrol the shattered land of Accra and report any signs of organized government. Finding only a devestated land with almost no infastructure, the armored force reported back to Korrino and continued south.

With the war underway and all attention focused on it, Korrino used his personal special ops units to assassinate corporate CEOs and arrange 'accidents' for Councilmen that continued to take bribes from corporations. Using a military news network known as 'Red Stripes', Korrino successfully suppressed and limited the knowledge of these operations by supplanting the Imperial News Network as the news supplier for all of the Imperial Republic.

The war lasted half a year, with the Tagmatines and Akiiryans getting being delayed and losing several large battles before arriving at the Vocian position outside the fortified enemy capital city. After a meeting with the other military leaders of the superpowers, Korrino agreed that only by combing forces would they be able to liberate the city without horrendous loses, while a smaller force, primarily Vocian, would hit another fortified enemy position within the mostly secured eastern mountains. It was during this time that a man, one Lieutenant Danis Cressen, would catch Korrino's attention. Cressen had spearhead many assaults on enemy positions during the opening months of the war, from helping secure several bunkers during the landing operations to securing several bridges and holding them against enemy forces until the majority of the eastern armored forces had managed to break through into the west.

Korrino chose him to undergo an infiltration mission on the eve of the assault on the eastern target, suspected to be a nuclear ICBM launch and storage facility. While the attack raged on outside the facility, Cressen successfully infiltrated and stole plans and designs for nuclear weapons and exfiltrated the facility before it fell to the newly allied force. After giving these plans to his superiors, who in turn gave them to Korrino, Cressen was returned to the Imperial Republic and de-briefed. After a week of intense fighting, the enemy capital fell, and the Vocian forces withdrew back to the Imperial Republic, leaving only a token fighting force in the eastern sectors along the border. Although this caused some frustration among the other two superpowers, it was clear that the Imperial Republic of Vocenae was now a regiona superpower, both militarily and economically, now that the rampant corruption had been removed from the nation.

A year passed, and while order was restored in Adaptus, Korrino looked to the shattered land of Accra. Under the pretence of 'restoring order', the armed forces moved into Accra and annexed it for the Imperial Republic. Learning that the forces involved in the civil war had eventually destroyed each other, there was no organized military resistance, but pockets of territorial nationalists that refused to accept the Vocian occupation and struck back in a long a drawn out conflict that would be known as the Accran Insurgency. Although strong at first, the same division that had torn the nation apart stalled the guerrilla war, and slowly but surely, forced the insurgents into the eastern mountains and contained them there. The reconstruction of Accran Vocenae was focused on the city of Sydvani and the surrounding countryside.

It was during this time that Korrino began the Imperial Republic's nuclear program, using the stolen secrets from the previous war. Building facilities far, far out in the wilderness of the eastern continental coastline, the Vocian military conducted nuclear weapons testing in the deep Ice Ocean. The research eventually culminated in the form of three modern nuclear weapons, which were hidden from a world slowly descending into anarchy. Two upstart nations of the western Occident had distracted the Tagmatines located there, while the other nations either dwindled into isolationism or anarchy. Vocenae, however, remained strong, and began exerting influence over other nations, as well as illegally annexing two massive sectors of land, extending the Imperial Republic's borders from the Kosscow to the Ice Ocean.

Danis Cressen, reassigned to the Imperial Bureau of Intelligence, Cressen was given an espionage mission to the northern nation of Deltannia, the nation that had once been the ancient empire that had prompted the creation the Vocenae's two states. Accompanied by fellow agent Vari Grieshelm, the two were dispatched to monitor the growing anarchy there. While undercover, the great conspiracy was finally broken.

High Admiral Xavian Hadenar, leader of the Imperial Navy and co-conspirator in Korrino's subtle military coup de'tat, began communicating with the heads of many of the corporations that had been forced out of Vocenae by gunpoint, the leaders of the Accran Insurgents, and the officers among the Vocian military that he knew he could trust. After several months of planning, Admiral Hadenar signal-jacked nearly ninety-percent of all public telecommunications across Europa with the help of his corporate allies, and revealed the depth and scope of the conspiracy he had long been a part of. Sparking dissention in the ranks of the Vocian military with the broadcast, units began fragmenting, some siding with Korrino, others with Hadenar, and soon fighting broke out as those loyal to Hadenar attempted to regroup under officers loyal to him. The Accran Insurgents provided covering fire for the retreating Hadenarian forces, and saved them from destruction at the hands of the larger forces. The second Vocian Civil War had begun.

Vari and Cressen, deep within Deltannia at the time of the broadcast, abandoned their mission, deciding to aid Admiral Hadenar's forces in any way they could, and began the long trek back to the Imperial Republic. Regrouping with Hadenarian forces, now named the Vocian Liberation Army, Cressen and Vari eventually became part of Hadenar's private war council, helping to coordinate attacks and intercept enemy intelligence. It was over this time that the friendship the two had formed became love, and the two started a relationship. The Civil War lasted a full two years, with the cessation of hostilities coming to an end after Korrino detonated one of the three Vocian nukes inside the city of Arco, the primary military headquarters for the Imperial Republic. The city was leveled and nearly 7000 people, both civilians and soldiers, died in the blast, including Master General of the Imperial Army, Illario Korrino.

Refusing to fire another bullet to further the cause of a madman, the Korrinoists, or Loyalists, finally surrendered. The destruction of Arco was the final breaking point in a long line of madness and insanity. It was revealed that after Hadenar had revealed the conspiracy, Korrino had purged the Imperial Council of nearly all it's members, and had begun setting up detention camps to hold anyone who questioned his authority. The man had become a monster. There were nearly five hundred recorded civilian deaths, mostly journalists and civilian law enforcement, that had been executed in the camps. As the fallout from the nuke drifted out to sea, Hedenar declared the Civil War was over, and that the rightful government, the Imperial council, was in control of the nation once more.

It took over a decade for the Imperial Republic to rebuild. The Imperial Council was repopulated, the corporations, despite the promises made by Admiral Hadenar, were not allowed back into Vocenae, and Hadenar was sent to prison, as he had promised to do during his signal-jacking. The military was re-organized into one large fighting force held under lock and key by the Imperial Council, and Danis Cressen, hero of the AdSoc War and the Civil War, was placed in charge of it. Vari Greishelm, whom Cressen married soon after the end of the war, was promoted to the head of the Imperial Bureau of Intelligence, and to everyone's suprise, Vocenae was abandoned by the international community, which was in shambles or isolated.

Save for one nation. Under cover of darkness, the Imperial Council authorized communication with agents from the rogue nation of Machina Haruspex. In exchange for reconstruction materials, food and medicine, the Imperial Republic would allow for Haruspex planes and ships to travel through Vocenae. Even though they had dealt with devils, life in the Imperial Republic slowly returned to normal.

Until Europa's oil reserves began running out in the year 2020, but that's another story for another time.