Alliance
The Alliance is a blanket term for the inter-dimensional government created during the Second Chaotic Period of the Mage Wars. The Alliance is the second largest power in the Verse. It was founded by Eieber, first Pendragon of Slayer Dragons. Not a single government so much as a jointure of nations.
Contents
History
The Old Alliance
Because of the unstable periods of the Golden Age, the Alliance cannot be described as a single, unbroken entity. The name 'Old Alliance' often refers to that created by Eieber that ended the Mage Wars. The Old Alliance was strictly military in nature, and can be located from 6 B.G.A. to roughly A.Y. 298, a little over 300 years.
Intermediate Steps from Old to New
- The Ruling Council: A.Y. 124-127
- The Ministry of Earth: A.Y. 132-136
- The Earth Sphere Unified Nations: A.Y. 158-1298
Between A.Y. 1298 and 1899 the Earth Sphere Unified Nations continued in name only, in a long and slow collapse. In the years between the functional collapse of the Earth Sphere and the ninety-nine-years war, there was no centralized administration. The Slayer Dragons had no political or millitary authority, though they did have jurisdiction anywhere they went.
The Unity Earth Sphere Alliance
While the alliance created by Eieber continued to exist in name and in spirit, it took around 700 years to form the New Alliance. Between A.Y. 298 and A.Y. 899, the Alliance existed only as a spirit of coöperation. This spirit ended with the ninety-nine-years war.
Pendragon Scott Sagen, anointed in A.Y. 1974, began the long work of rebuilding the Old Alliance, finally forming the New Alliance in A.Y. 1998. The New Alliance is better known as the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance.
Alliance High Council
Yeah. Nominally they maintain the government day to day. Members are chosen from all the Member Worlds.
Alliance Commonwealth
The Alliance Commonwealth refers to a common pool of resources shared throughout the alliance. These can be technological, social, or scientific in nature. Given the ease at which large amounts of data can be moved electronically, information is the most common contribution.
Every member-world is expected to contribute to the commonwealth as part of the membership taxes. The commonwealth was established early in the Second Age originally to share archaeological and historical information in hope of assembling a unified history of the verse.
The Alliance Space Navy and other military assets officially belong to the commonwealth, however specific allocations in terms of taxes and resources are set aside for them, rather than drawing from the common pool.
Alliance Currency
The Alliance has long attempted to create a single, centralized currency that can be used for the exchange of goods and services throughout the known worlds. However, given income and resource inconsistencies, the buying power can be wildly inconsistent. Outside of localized regions such as the Arindell and other major centers, Alliance Dollars are primarily used for large transactions between banks. While Alliance Dollars are issued with "The full faith and backing of the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance", their lack of widespread use has made the currency relatively stable.
Alliance Space Commission
The Alliance Space Commission, created early in the Second Age, is a department of the Alliance headed primarily by chairmen from Alliance Member Worlds, though representatives from MK'Hara and the Gudersnipe Foundation also sat. Its primary function is to govern interstellar space, a region which belongs to no one. Interstellar space, even within the established borders of a multi-world nation-state, roughly equates to international waters on a multi-government world, being in the hands of no one but still administered by someone.
While the juristiction of the Alliance Space Commission does not extend over the whole of the Known Worlds, it does cover the entire Alliance and Joint Space, as well as much of MK'haren Space and some GS only territories open to interstellar traffic.
The idea for a space commision was first put forward by the Runarin Confederation in the early years of the Golden Age, though it took the "new" Alliance to create it.
At the same time the commission was established, the Merchant Marine was also created.
The Alliance Space Commission is ressponsible for maintaining the Naval Registry.
Major Powers
Since the Alliance is, at its core, a coalition of member-nations, no group has complete control of the Commission. Rather, much like the Senate, Member Worlds control a number of 'seats' to which they they elect their own politicians. Unlike the senate, to which equal representation is given to all nations, only those with a strong extra-solar presence have seats on the Commission.
Foundation
By the end of the Succession Wars, the Gudersnipe Foundation, through direct or indirect control of many Alliance member nations, has gained majority influence within the Commission.
Runarins
The Runarin Confederation is the largest and oldest space-power and has the highest number of direct seats on the commission. They were also instrumental in its founding and laid many of the rules and regulations that govern the commission.
MK'Harans
Though not officially members of the Alliance, MK'Hara controls several seats on the commission. Unlike Alliance member-worlds, MK'Hara's seats are issued based on the total number of seats available (as the commission grows, so does MK'Hara's influence). This agreement was made at the commission's founding, as the MK'Harans felt they should have greater representation in the Alliance power with which they typically dealt. MK'Hara, being a mostly closed society, was also exempted from most reporting practices.
Ritats
From the Commission's founding up until A.Y. 6409, the Ritats people controlled the highest number of direct-seats behind the Runarins. Following the Ritats' destruction, one seat was still left "in their control", which was draped in a black shroud and voted no-contest on all matters.
Registration Laws
The Alliance Space Commission established a law early on stating that all spacecraft had to be registered with and tracked by the commission, including an Alliance-manufactured sub-space transponder. This law was to apply to all ships traveling through Alliance-controlled and joint space, and the MK'Haren's agreed to maintain a registry of their own and transmit the appropriate information whenever one of their ships entered the commission's jurisdiction.
Registration laws specified that any "man-made object traveling through space" was subject to registration.
The law was quickly re-written to specify all FTL-capable ships, as numerous disposable space-barges, drop carriers, and other vehicles were covered by it that should not have required such measures. In addition, the strictest interpretation of the law would include artificial satellites, many of which were too small to carry the required transponders.
Foundation Allowances
The Foundation was not heavily involved in the establishment of the commission (in fact the Runarin government had the heaviest involvement), and was under intense political pressure to abide by its rulings. The Foundation agreed to abide by the registration laws and even granted the commission access to its fleet registry (a list of all commissioned Foundation ships), which the commission made public.
The Foundation also agreed to the transponder rule under the stipulation that its ships be allowed to disable their transponders "at the captain's discretion". The Foundation argued that this was vital to operations as the transponder system was available to all spacecraft, and the Foundation could not effectively "police" space when criminals could track them. The Commission acquiesced, but only if the Foundation agreed to report the whereabouts of all ships deployed via the GATE.
Notable Exclusions
Following the establishment of the Space Commission and the registry laws, the Gudersnipe Foundation was granted the right to exclude all "jolly" craft from registration. This applied to any vehicle carried inside a larger spacecraft, such as fighters, drop-ships, and the like. The exclusion was granted even though many such smaller spacecraft were FTL-capable.
An exception to the exclusion was made for the Corvette-class of ship, which used special carriers for service and support, and should the Foundation argued, be exempt. Because corvettes routinely flew through FTL alongside other ships and were rarely carried aboard larger craft, the exclusion was not granted and corvettes were forced to register.
It was well-known that the Foundation possessed at least ten massive "motherships", not listed on the official registry. Despite political pressure, the Foundation refused to formally acknowledge the existence of these ships, and keeps them at secret stages all over the verse. Many have been tracked for a short period, based not on their location, but on where the Foundation was not allowing civilian traffic. Shortly after attempts by the commission to locate and identify all these ships, the Foundation began clearing out random areas in a similar fashion, to mask the number and location of Motherships. Ten is typically considered the more likely number, with twelve thought the upper limit. Based on the Foundation's registry and their refusal to acknowledge the ships despite complying with the letter of the law, it is believed that they must pre-date the Foundation, and actually belong to the old Gudersnipe Army, and may never have been formally registered with the Foundation.
Alliance Armed Forces
The Alliance Armed Forces is the blanket-term for the primary ground forces of the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance. The organization was originally formed during the Mage Wars by Eieber, and over time evolved into the modern military force. Often referred to as "the Alliance Regulars", they typically serve as front-line units in ground-conflicts, backed up by forces from Alliance member-worlds.
The Alliance Space Navy(ASN) is the space-combat branch of the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance Forces. It consists of ships, bases, stations, and Defense Platforms, all built according to the same standards and often of the same designs. There are also some personnel involved. Despite under-funding, the ASN is actually one of the largest fighting forces in the known worlds, however due to the size of the Alliance itself, they are spread very thin. The ships are often viewed as small, out-dated, and under-armed, and for the most part, they are.
Due to countless layers of bureaucracy, the ASN was left in a seemingly impossible position. They were ordered to build and maintain a set number of military assets, but were never given the funding or resources to do so "properly". As such, the ASN built small, fast, and light ships in great quantities in order to meet the quotas. Since the numbers demanded were based on "operational ships" not total assets, they designed vessels with fast turn-around times and infrequent servicing schedules.
The result, predictably, was often times disastrous. Most other powers focused on attempting to copy Gudersnipe Foundation ships, which meant building them large, heavily armored, and armed. Alliance ships, which lacked heavy armor and could not afford the large directed-energy weapons mounted on typical capitol ships, often faced heavy casualties.
However, Hunter points out, in a conversation with Hokori that "The Alliance would actually fair better than most people think" citing that Alliance ships only loose because they go into battle heavily out-numbered, with tactics dictated by the bureaucracy and an extremely restrictive Rules of Engagement. He reasons that because the ships are built in such a polar-opposite manner from that of the Gudersnipe Foundation, given proper tactics and an all-out war, the Alliance could at least give the Foundation a run for it's money(this conversation was held under the auspices of impending war between the two major powers).
Later History
The Alliance fell at the Battle of the Last Stand, and while the member worlds maintained a strong tradition, the region formally known as the Alliance fell under the banner of Samuel Fate during the era known as the Long Night. When the Long Night ended, many member worlds were quick to reform. During the era of the New Day, a new Alliance was created. This Alliance was very quick to repeat the decisions, mistakes and all, of the old one, but in a much more challenging political landscape.