The Confederal Charter

The Confederal Charter is the immutable heart of the Confederation of Free Nations.

No law, treaty, or decree may contradict it; no custom, however ancient, may supersede its authority.

Revered as divinely inspired by the Amarian Church and defended by jurists, senators, and monarchs alike, the Charter is the civilizational covenant upon which the entire Confederation rests.

The Confederal Charter does not prescribe the minutiae of rule; rather, it enshrines the limits within which all ruling must occur. It is invoked in courtrooms, quoted in sermons, and upheld in oath by each newly seated Senator and Consul. Even the Confederation’s enemies must speak in its language.

A member state’s accession to the Confederation of Free Nations is granted through the signing of a binding compact: the Articles of Ascension. This document transforms a sovereign polity into a constituent part of the Confederation. Yet within the Articles lies a clause that demands the prospective member declare its acceptance of the Confederal Charter’s supremacy. This clause compels a recognition that no local law, traditional rite, royal decree, nor revolutionary statute may ever supersede the Charter’s Nine Supreme Articles.

From the moment the ink dries, the new member state cedes finality. It retains its customs, its rituals, its architecture of governance, but only within the fixed perimeter drawn by the Charter. No matter how ancient its constitution or how fervent its creed, it agrees, as a precondition of inclusion, that the Charter is the sole authority above which there is no appeal. A kingdom may retain its hierarchies; a revolutionary republic may keep its councils. But each must speak, at least in law, the language of the Charter. And should they later defy it, should they draft edicts or constitutions that conflict with its inviolable core, such acts would be regarded as violations of the very oath upon which their membership was founded.

The Charter comprises a set of meta-constitutional axioms, called the Nine Supreme Articles, from which all Confederal authority flows.

Article I - Perpetuity and Inviolability Clause

The articles enumerated herein, together with this present clause, shall constitute the immutable corpus of the Confederal Charter.

No statute, treaty, constitutional amendment, senatorial resolution, judicial decision, ecclesiastical decree, executive order, regional convention, or other legislative or interpretive instrument, whether Confederal or national, shall possess authority to annul, amend, suspend, or derogate, in whole or in part, any provision contained within the Charter.

Any attempt, direct or indirect, to modify the language, scope, or application of these Articles shall be deemed ultra vires, void ab initio, and an act of sedition under Confederal law. The Charter shall remain perpetually in force, and its content shall be held as both sovereign and sacrosanct, binding upon all institutions, persons, and jurisdictions within the Confederation.

Article II – Supremacy of Confederal Institutions

Only the Grand Senate shall possess the legislative authority to enact laws applicable across the entirety of the Confederation. Judicial authority to interpret and enforce Confederal law shall reside solely in the Confederal Supreme Court.

No other institution, local or supralocal, shall possess the legal capacity to supersede, nullify, or countermand said legislation or its interpretation.

Article III – Composition of Legislative Authority

The Charter shall define the foundational composition and appointment principles of the Grand Senate and Supreme Court, including their apportionments, succession, and core mechanisms of operation.

All structural elements not explicitly set forth within the Charter shall remain subject to legislative determination by the Senate itself, provided such alterations do not contravene the immutable mechanisms therein. The classification of a mechanism as 'core' shall be adjudicated solely by the Confederal Supreme Court.

Article IV – Dual Citizenship Doctrine

All lawful citizens of any Confederation member state shall ipso facto hold the status of dual citizens of the Confederation. No regional law shall negate or abridge this dual citizenship.

Such status confers upon the individual the rights and responsibilities outlined in Confederal law and subjects them to the jurisdiction of Confederal courts where applicable.

Article V – Equality Before the Law

All Confederation citizens shall be regarded as legally equal under Confederal law, without distinction on the basis of national origin, gender, racial identity, thaumaturgical status, or religious belief.

Exceptions recognizing hereditary status or noble privilege may be tolerated within member states, provided such privileges do not infringe upon the core protections guaranteed herein. All claims of exceptionality shall be subject to judicial scrutiny under the Confederal Supreme Court.

Article VI – Table of Rights

By virtue of Article IV, all Confederation citizens shall be entitled to those fundamental rights and protections enumerated in the Confederal Table of Rights, which shall be considered inviolable and immutable.

In the event of a declared state of emergency, the Table of Rights may be suspended in its entirety for a maximum period of seven days following ratification by a two-thirds senatorial majority. Thereafter, the Table of Rights will be reinstated in its full original form.

Any subsequent suspension shall require a re-ratification by a two-thirds supermajority of the Grand Senate and shall be lawful only if the previously declared State of Emergency remains formally in effect.

In the absence of such conditions, any attempt to renew or extend the suspension shall be deemed ultra vires and void ab initio, and all rights and protections under the Table shall remain operative and enforceable in full.

Article VII – Voluntary Accession and Withdrawal

No state shall be admitted into the Confederation except through the formal and uncoerced ratification of the Articles of Ascension by its lawful government.

Nor shall any member state be compelled to remain; voluntary withdrawal shall be legally recognized, provided it occurs without coercion or undue interference.

The determination of coercion shall fall within the jurisdiction of the Confederal Supreme Court.

Article VIII – Thaumaturgic Enforcement and Governance

All member states shall establish and maintain a system of thaumaturgic registration, certification, and oversight in accordance with Confederal standards.

All states shall recognize the extraterritorial authority of the Sin-Hunters of the Amarian Church and the 0th Section of the Confederation (Null Seekers) to operate within their territories in matters concerning thaumaturgic threat or violation.

A thaumaturge may only be designated as Unbound (thereby forfeiting all protections under the Confederal Table of Rights) by a formal resolution passed with a two-thirds majority vote of the trilateral commission convened for such purpose.

This commission shall consist of:

(a) one representative of the Sin-Hunters,

(b) one representative of the 0th Section,

and

(c) one Senator duly representing the thaumaturge’s state of citizenship.

Absent this supermajority, no such designation shall be legally valid, and all rights and protections under Confederal law shall remain in effect.

Article IX – Unified Command Doctrine

All military units raised by member states for service under the Confederation of Free Nations shall, for the duration of their deployment, fall under the sole authority of the Confederal High Command and the Confederal Department of War.

This authority shall be absolute within the period of service defined by the Treaty of Peros and subsequent statutes.

Thus, in these nine unalterable articles lies the soul of the Confederation of Free Nations.

For close to five hundred years, while thousands of statutes were amended, repealed, or forgotten, these foundational truths remain untouched.