New Day Alliance
The New Day Alliance, colloquially known as the New Alliance, or most commonly just The Alliance, is a reformation of the original Alliance as created by Eieber. This iteration (technically the fourth iteration) of Eieber's Alliance began early on in the Age of the New Day, following the end of the Long Night.
Culture
The ND Alliance saw a major resurgence in the 'sword culture' that had pervaded the Golden Age and much of the old Alliance era. Once again the mythical sword had brought an end to the darkness and returned the world to peace and light, Considerable confusion between Echbalder and Echbaldam did trouble the early age, but culturally speaking the image of the cruciform sword was deeply ingrained.
By the end of the second century it was primarily associated with family. "Heirloom Swords" as they were called decorated the mantles of every respectable household. Traditions varied by family, but usually the first child to get married would receive the family sword. During this part of the era and again must like in the Golden Age, having a sword at your wedding was very important, though this fell out of fashion roughly in the mid 3rd century.
Swordsmanship and sword play also gained a serious following, both as a spectator sport and an important skill. 'Sword Gyms' sprung up all over New Arindell and were quite popular in and around most of the other New Day Alliance governance centers. Initially focused around the hand-and-a-half sword like Echbalder, many other types of swords did slowly come into vogue as time passed, and eventually two distinct forms arose. There was the more traditional, quasi-ritualistic role of the sword as a symbol of health and fitness; wherein swinging, cutting, and hitting was incorporated into a full-body workout. And there was also swordsmanship as a martial art, wherein competitive skill was highly prized. Certainly some overlap existed between the two camps, but it wasn't uncommon to find people who trained with a sword three times a week yet never considered actually fighting with one. It's not that unusual, since striking stationary targets as strength training and martial combat are quite different. As a martial art, swordsmanship flourished in and around Arindell with a significant presence in Sun's Beacon and other nearby population centers. Of particular importance were the juvenile tournaments held in the city itself, which attracted great spectacle as they had been arranged originally by Conri Jusenkyou himself.
Militarily, the gladius style of short sword was adopted by the Trans-Draconic Federation Navy and carried as a standard part of battle kit(despite being a modern mechanized force from the start). Longswords were part of the formal dress for both officers and enlisted alike, though the actual style varied significantly by region. The dragons enforced the wearing of swords as part of their undying respect for Conri and his role in bringing about the New Day.
The use as a fashion accessory extended into the civilian word, with highly ornate and jeweled swords being a particularly important piece. By about the end of the second century, a long sword hanging from a frog on an ornate leather belt had become a standard part of men's formal attire. Though these were usually faux-swords without an actual blade(just a hilt and piece of wood done up to look like a scabbard), any suitably important occasion would necessitate bringing out the heirloom sword.
For women, starting in about the mid second century the fashion became to wear the sword on the back. Long hair and styles designed to lay alongside the scabbard(which was typically very ornate) were extremely popular. This was not in fact confined to formalwear, and for a brief period in the early 3rd century women wearing swords was as common as carrying purses. However as with many fashions this did eventually fall out of favor. By the end of the fourth century women's fashioned favored plunging necklines and high skirt lines that where wholly incompatible with sword-carrying. While they did remain in high society for another few decades, by the mid 4th century ND it was no longer socially acceptable for women to wear swords outside of sporting traditions. Interestingly, this did not extend to the military, which made no distinction between formal attire.
History
The political landscape at the end of the Long Night was complicated. The first major power to emerge was the Gudersnipe Foundation, who were quick to revive the Crimson Blade and issue claims of ownership to all territories they had previously controlled.
The second major power was the Trans-Draconic Federation, who had been quietly rising in power throughout the Long Night. Backed by the collective power of several hundred dragon flights supported by trillions of human subjects, the Federation was clearly a force to be reckoned with.
The third major entity to emerge (and the first real multi-world government of the ND era) was the Earth-Sphere Confederation. While claiming to be a "spiritual successor" to the original Alliance, this group was largely devoted to protecting the interests of autocratic member-worlds who had seized power after the end of the Long Night. Confederate member worlds were bound together more by their desire to maintain the status quo than any real unity, and were easily disrupted. The Confederacy ended about a decade before the reformation of the Alliance.
In the early decades of the era, the Trans-Draconic Federation was quick to form close ties with the Gudersnipe Foundation. Throughout the Long Night, the Foundation had not been permitted to issue currency as they had during the old Alliance era. As such, they emerged from under the thumb of Samuel Fate signficiantly lacking in financial resources. The dragons, meanwhile, had continued to run a successful banking system under the empire, and were on hand to produce a universal currency system; but the TDF lacked economical and technical skills needed to quickly re-industrialize. The partnership was very obvious, and mutually advantageous to both sides.
In general, the goals of the TDF were mostly compatible with those of the Gudersnipe Foundation. Both sides were intent on creating long-term stability in the regions they controlled, and both maintained generally similar values. The Foundation, in principle, objected to the dragons' use of human "slaves"; but this was largely an issue of semantics. Life under draconic rule was, at at least the start of the era, better than it was for the struggling Foundation. Further, the dragons had a very loose definition of the term, and generally accepted that anyone not willing to live under their rule was allowed to leave. Often times, former slaves would even be gifted with goods and silver to help them start a new life. This practice ended at the start of the New Day, but as the dragon's human subjects moved into an industrialized society and the standard of living continued to improve, there were few who objected to their status.
The TDF helped the Foundation to stabilize while the Foundation provided technology and helped to train skilled laborers to the TDF. Meanwhile, the Confederacy worked out means of partially restoring ships and weapons left behind by Samuel Fate. While they lagged far behind the other major powers in technology and manufacturing capacity, this gave them an enormous advantage militarily.
Despite differing interests, the Confederacy still required economic ties to the Foundation and Trans-Draconic Federation. The downfall of the Confederacy came when an error in their electronic money system suddenly made their currency worthless. Massive amounts of assets were purchased by the Foundation and TDF, and this effectively collapsed the Confederacy without firing a shot.
The New Day Alliance solidified under Conri Jason Jusenkyou and a new Order of Slayer Dragons. While many former confederate worlds attempted to maintain a strong identity, by and large they were absorbed into the Alliance, and required to follow Alliance laws.
At the end of Conri's life, the remaining Slayer Dragons decided that, barring the return of the Pendragon's sword, the Order would not name a new Pendragon. The office of Light Bearer was created to hold the Pendragon's Slayer Dragon power, the order continued. Little of note happened for the next four centuries, except that towards the end of the fourth century ND, the surviving descendants of the Long Night's wealthy landowners began a plot to rebuild the confederacy.
Currency
According to the initial New Day Alliance Charter, the government has the right to issue currency. In practice, the money issued by the TDF is much stronger, and the only thing anyone bothers to use. Initially, the Alliance attempted to simply issue more currency, but continued to see little to no adoption. The money had no backing to speak of(the alliance being little more than a human figurehead for the TDF), and saw little to no usage even within the Alliance capitol of Arindell. The Alliance did, however, have a very difficult time keeping bills and coins in circulation. It was soon discovered that the primary 'use' for Alliance-issued money was as tourist souvenirs. Rather than fight it, the Alliance embraced it, releasing commemorative coins and bills in large quantities, often with ridiculous denominations to make them seem more interesting. These were nominally legal tender, but had very little buying power and were intended as tongue-in-cheek novelties. In fact, a bill that might have a buying power of just one or two talons would often cost several wingbeats to purchase. This became a significant revenue stream for the new Alliance, even if their money was worthless.
New Alliance currency is issued as dollars and cents. Fifty-cent coins are still are minted as bus tokens, but every other denomination created past about N.D. 150 is usually in the tens of thousands to millions of dollars.
