Commonwealth Of Meridie

Immediately following the War Of Two Empires, the Provisional Executive National Convention would begin to write the country's constitution. As promised, the nation would be the world's very first democracy, for the people and by the people. It was written that all adult male citizens of the Commonwealth can vote in triyearly, national legislative elections. Additionally, every Vampire, no matter their sex, has the right to property, speech, opinion, assembly, press, the ability to own firearms, and equality before the law. Furthermore, Meridie has taken a page out of Selguro's playbook, so it is unconstitutional for any citizen to own more than 200 acres of farmland.   The Meridien Constitution divides the nation into a great many electoral districts, each of which elects a singular Representative into the National Convention, the legislature of the state. The National Convention itself is made up of 165 Representatives who are elected via a first past the post system. Each Representative has one vote within the Convention, and every member of it can submit a bill to be debated and then voted on. These bills can cover anything that the Constitution allows the government to cover, but writing bills is not the only job of the National Convention. They also have the important job of establishing the Commonwealth's bureaucracy.   After the National Convention has assembled, they will elect a First-Minister to serve as the Head of State. Unlike the First Minister of the Provisional Government, he is no longer the chief executive and instead serves as a figurehead for the government as a whole. It is his job to keep order in the National Convention, read the bills brought to the floor, and meet with foreign leaders, but he has no legislative authority aside from the ability to vote on bills, just like any other Representative. The National Convention is also in charge of the messy process that is creating the Committees Of State. After the First Minister has been elected, the National Convention will go about electing groups of 3 Representatives to head the various Committees Of State, be it the Committee Of The Military, the Committee Of The Economy, etc, etc. These triumvirates perform a similar job to the government ministers of other nations, but they are subject to the oversight of both their party and the National Convention at large. The current First Minister of the Commonwealth is Fritzner Zamor of the Vital Club, the youngest ever elected to the position. He was the Vampire to lead the Vital Club into a much more Pro-Spring Coalition position, seeing the threat that the Kingdom of Tellus poses to peace on Sahul and being weary of the quickening collapse of the Sylvan house of cards. Young and charismatic, there are high hopes for First Minister Zamor, especially after years and years of Rake Club governance in which it seemed that all that was done was the enforcement of the status quo.   Aside from the National Convention, the Constitution calls for another organ of state: the National Tribunal. It is a court made up of 3 judges elected by the people, each of whom serves for 10 years. Each Tribunary (as they are called) is required to have been some sort of legal official prior to taking office (though the first few have been exempt from this). Furthermore, they must be an expert on the Meridien Constitution, as their main job is to review all bills passed by the Convention. If all three Tribunaries deem a bill to be unconstitutional, they will strike it down. However, if a 3/4th majority of the National Convention deems any member of the Tribunal to be corrupt or using their position to obstruct the job of the legislature, they will be removed from office and a special election will be called.   The Constitution of the Commonwealth can be amended and revised. To do so, a bill requesting a change must pass through the National Convention with a 3/4ths majority. However, this is not the end, as afterward, the amendment must pass through a popular referendum with at least 55% of the vote.

For the first time in history, all the Vampires of the world belong to a state they can truly call their own. The state is are mainly centered around the Meridien Heartland, a fertile plain of red clay. For hopefully obvious reason, most of the slaves in the region were centered around this heartland, and their massive population caused it to be easily taken and secured during the war. The Heartland is widely known for its production of cotton and tobacco on a massive scale, and a bit of tea, corn, wheat and peanuts as well. The Far South is dominated by swamps, and therefore, sugarcane and ofada rice. While the Heartland's position as the main agricultural region of Meridie is still secure, but its wide fields of cotton and tobacco are no longer worked by slaves, they are worked by free Vampires, who belong to a social class known as the "Nwa Defans". As they have settled into freedom, most of these Vampires have taken up farm work upon which Meridie's economy primarily revolves, either as independent yeomen or within larger agricultural co-operatives made up of independent farmers who have agreed to run their farms as a joint enterprise, allowed under the Constitution. The region is also home to Lilliers and Poulimar, port cities that experienced a rapid post-war boom, for the ports of the Montane Empire were of no use to the new nation, as well as the industrial center of Bourroux.   Viertoise, the capital of the Commonwealth, is located on the River Vie and in almost the exact center of the Heartlands. It serves as a central hub for the railroads in the nation, and Pre-War, it also served as the home for many Vampires belonging to noble and free families. While many Blan Defans (most of whom work as skilled laborers) still call the place home, there has been a rapid influx of Nwa Defans, which has actually caused a bit of an issue. Due to their higher level of education, the old free families have been able to maintain a degree of superiority over the ex-slaves. Indeed, while the Blan Defans would have made up the industrial working class years ago, they are now the bosses, while the Nwa Defans are the new urban poor, working under newly formed, native industrial companies. This is the trend among almost all of the Commonwealth's cities, and as of current, there is no easy solution to this.   The foothills of the Arys Mountains are also an area that is dominated by the Blan Defans, both economically and socially. Due to its hilly temperament, not many plantations sprouted up here, and those that did stuck to the edges of the region (which were coincidentally a very good place for growing tea). While there were issues with Pro-Monarchist militias in the area immediately following the War Of Two Empires, such a thing is no longer a worry as the Blan Defans have integrated themselves into the Meridien political structure, abandoning dreams of legal superiority and picking up those of economic superiority. As stated before, a few Blan Defans would strike it rich as merchants, utilizing their prior wealth to get into entrepreneurship, and while it is indeed the former slaves who control the government and the farms, it is the Blan Defans who control the industry. However, most have stayed either poor or within the middle class, especially within the foothills, many making their living through mining operations or industrial labor centered around mill towns and the city of Montmans.   The rice and sugar plantations of the swampy Hammerhead Peninsula are no more, and these lucrative industries are now in the hands of the people. While the area is, in effect, a massive swamp, that does not mean it cannot grow anything. In fact, the area has become a hub for rum production, as the drink has become an international favorite as of late.

The disorganized, motley band of rebels that was the Free Meridien Army is no more. Now, the FMA is a small but incredibly well-trained army that has based itself on Sylvan military doctrine, although they are far more egalitarian. This is due to the heavy influence the Imperial Sylvan Army had on the young nation's military forces, and because of it, there is a heavy emphasis on being well-drilled and well commanded. It is official army policy that, before being promoted to a position of command, a soldier must take an exam to show that he is properly prepared for the job. He will then have to take a more difficult exam upon his next promotion, and then his next, so on and so forth. The Commonwealth also employs a fairly sized naval force, dwarfed by the Douradese, Sylvan, and Imperial fleets, but larger than most in its region.   While the war may be over, that does not mean the work of the Free Meridien Army is done. While it has been completely stabilized, the Commonwealth was plagued by small revolts in its earliest days of peace. The Meridien Constitution guarantees that all citizens can own firearms and organize themselves into self-defense groups, something quite a few Blan Defans exploited to try and form a counter-revolution. These small revolts (which were mostly centered around the Arys Foothills) did not last long, for the Orange Terror was in full swing around the time, and they could not challenge both the FMA and the various militia groups. However, this is not to say that the FMA has not been needed to put down revolts by the Nwa Defans. These conflicts were hardly political in nature, usually just being property or civil disputes that got far out of hand, although with the creation of a proper police force, the army has completely steered back towards guarding the contentious border with the Kingdom of Tellus.

As it was once the largest cash cow in the Empire Of Great Mountain's arsenal, a great many railroads run throughout the region, such contraptions only being expanded as the Steam Revolution goes on. They tend to radiate out from Viertoise and deep into the Heartlands, although there are, of course, many railroads that travel North through the Arys Foothills and then stop near the River Aurelia. Interestingly, all the railroads within the nation are owned by the "Commonwealth Rail Corporation" a state-owned enterprise that would be tasked with building and upholding the nation's rails after independence from the Empire was achieved. All villages now have telegraph connection with the wider world, the cities have electricity, and technology is hardly an issue.   What is, however, is education. The Commonwealth has struggled to bring learning to the population due to its very history. There is a complete lack of teachers for one, and as their parents cannot teach them to read either, the children of Meridie have grown up without learning how to read or spell. Indeed, despite being an industrialized, modern country, only 60% of the Meridien citizenry can read. To solve this issue, the Commonwealth has mostly turned to the Cult, having started to collaborate with its clergy (who are required to read) to teach Vampiric children good morals and book smarts at the same time. After this first generation of church taught kids becomes literate, it is likely that teaching the following generations will become no hassle at all.

Despite the fact that First Minister Victor was ex-communicated, the nation's state religion is the Cult of the Trinity. The average Vampire does not much care that the War Of Two Empires was, technically speaking, a Holy War, for they were raised as Trinitists and Trinitists they will stay. On the part of the Cult itself, it has worked to repair its relations with the Meridien government, having rescinded the ex-communication of Michel Victor and being quite generous with the funding they give the Meridien prelatures.

The Commonwealth's closest friends are not within its own continent, but rather on the continent of Oriens. With the absence of Imperial influence in the region, Selgurese (now Douradese) and Sylvan traders would begin to enter into contracts with the government. While their original goal was to enter into predatory contracts with the illiterate yeomen, the government soon stepped in and now serves as a sort of middle man between the citizenry and the foreigners. Government employees will assist their brethren in establishing fair trade contracts with corporations, ensuring that the Vampires who grow the cash crops and the corporations who sell them are given good profits. This program has enriched the families of ex-slaves, and agriculture co-operatives have begun to sprout up across Meridie as a way of further enriching the farmers, as well as giving the collective co-operative more leveraging power against foreign agricultural corporations (thus far, there have been no real domestic ones). As the population as a whole is now around 60% literate, the "Bureau of Foreign Contracts" is still very much necessary, even in the Advanced Steam Age.   As the first democratic country in not only Sahul, but all of Ecumene, Meridie has developed a bit of a superiority complex when it comes to its government. As the "vanguard of democracy", more and more Meridien Representatives and Meridien citizens see themselves as a sort of castle on the hill, the leader of a free world. As such, while friendly to its democratic cousins in Qadjik and Dyffryu, the relationship is often seen as more akin to that of a father and son rather than that of brothers. Grating as this may be sometimes, Meridien assistance in curbing Tellusian aggression is nigh on necessary, as the legions of Humanity would have no chance fighting a war on two fronts. Due to the strict military restrictions imposed upon the Kingdom by its neighbor Commonwealth and said Commonwealth's role in setting the stage the Deluge would be played on, Humanity has quite a bit of bad blood with the blood eaters, although this is secondary to their genocidal hatred of the Centaurs, allowing the two to begrudgingly trade with one another.

The political system of Meridie has often been described as a "three and a half" party system. Prior to the Civicist Upheaval, it was a firmly two-party system, split between the Civicist Rake Club and the Equitist Lantern Club, but following the only slightly trumped up Valcin Affair, a new party system would cement itself.   To this day, the Rake Club survives. Named for the rakes that the slaves once labored with and later fought with, the Rakers have held a very slim majority over both branches of government since the nation's foundation forty years ago. Ideologically, they have always fought for the individual rights of the Nwa Defans, supporting yeomanry over the co-operatives through tax breaks for individual farmers, and fully supporting the rights enshrined in the Meridien Constitution. Furthermore, the Rake Club supports free trade, close relations with Dourado and Sylvania, a policy of deterrence towards Tellus, and support for ruralites over urbanites. The Rake Club is, in many ways, similar to the Right-Civicist parties of Qadjik and Dyffryu, and is often described as such, but differs in that they utterly oppose executive power in Meridie and deplore aristocratism. The Rake Club gets most of its support from the millions of yeomen in the country, especially those who primarily get their income from growing cash crops.   Their main rival within the halls of government is the Vital Club. It is, in many ways, the successor of the Lantern Club, but they have decried the authoritarian ideology of Equitism in favor of something much more palatable: Kin Civicism. Their preferred strand of the ideology supports a gradual, democratic transition from a capitalist, hierarchical economy into a collectivized Kinsmanite economy through the implementation of wide-sweeping labor rights, the establishment of a welfare state, and the full support of trade unions and democratic modes of government. Obviously, they favor agricultural co-operatives over yeomanry, fully support the Meridien constitution, oppose executive power in Meridie and support small-scale tariffs, but nothing more. The Vital Club also supports further industrializing the nation, but along with that, greater protections for industrial workers, including a higher minimum wage and shorter working hours. They also support a greater economic focus on food products instead of the current cash-crop dominated economy, which makes the Commonwealth semi-dependent on others for food. Foreign policy-wise, they are uneasy about the Commonwealth's close relationship with the capitalist oligarchy of Dourado and the feudal aristocracy of Sylvania, believing it to be a betrayal of the state's founding values. However, they have no objections towards the strong line the Rake Club-led government has drawn in regards to Tellus and some of their number even support joining the Spring Coalition. The Vital Club draws its support from agricultural co-operatives, trade unions, and educated Nwa Defans within the cities.   The third force within Meridien politics is the "Worker's Club". It would spring onto the political scene soon after the Vital Club, serving as the force in which the Blan Defans would integrate themselves into the Meridien political structure. Oddly enough, despite their more aristocratic attitude, they are, in many ways, a Left-Civicist party, owing to the fact that big business is almost entirely run by the Blan Defans and most of them are not farmers. They support higher tariffs to make native industries more competitive, industrialization, and the "rights of the Blan Defans", the party not having any real position on agriculture. They mostly agree with the Rake Club when it comes to the nation's foreign policy, but would obviously prefer that Meridie put higher tariffs on Douradese and Sylvan goods. They also support a closer friendship with the democracies of Sahul. Breaking with other Left-Civicist parties, the Worker's Club does not support tripartism. The Worker's Club mainly serves as a vessel for the nation's class of freemen prior to the revolution, though the party has also lately come to dominate the major industrial centers through a mix of appealing to big business and the Blan Defan workers within the cities themselves, and an exploitative relationship with uneducated, Nwa Defans industrial workers in which a city's political machines demonize trade unions and offer scraps of welfare to its constituents, all while opposing the Vital Club's more sweeping welfare proposals and being in the pocket of big business interests. While they are the smallest party in the National Convention, the very slim distance between the Rake Club and Vital Club's numbers can often end up making the Worker's Club a deciding factor in legislation.