The Confederation of Achthal

Achthal (pronounced ak-thal) is a empire that lies in the mountain range in the center of Euphoria.

It shares most of it's land with the Duradin and most of it's inhabitants live away from it's capital, Pleitsdorf.

History[edit | edit source]

When humanity was created by the combined elementals it originally formed into hundreds of thousands of small tribes. In Illia and parts of Leon the tribes settled into city states but Achthal's terrain made it hard to set up any sort of permanent structure. The only tribe that managed to successfully unite was the Asvalo Kingdom in the south east which developed a few primitive but impressive fortifications and possibly an unknown nation in the Roy Valley though most evidence for this has disappeared.

Then came Aruseus. A masterful strategist, he managed to capture the Asvalo Kingdom and ally with the Dwarfs. He then expanded south to Illia and west to Leon but the centre of his rule always remained the mountains that would become Achthal. He pushed east into the goblinoid infested Plain of Beyond and when his rule came to an end, it was the mountains that took up his banner.

List of Kings and Emperors
Reign	King
0-2 PA	Aruseus
235 PA	Wilburg
500 PA	?
1000 PA	Fridrieckium

The Confederation of Achthal has its roots in the very beginning of human history under the name of Aruseus's land. It carried the banner after Aruseus's death and not without good reason as it contained Aruseus's birthplace and the old capital of Leris, now Pleitsdorf. Although its claim to legitimacy was initially disputed and it faced an invasion by Briskos it saw off the attack well and developed a reputation of unassailability with its strong mountainous defenses. Briskos was forced to develop an independent culture for Leon to prevent it from being merged into Aruseus's land. Boarder skirmishes between Aruseus's land and its neighbors became common but rarely developed into full blown wars though it fort numerous wars against Greenskins.

However the focus on foreign politics lead to the government loosing control over the hearts and minds of its citizens and revolutionary activity became common place. When necromancery began to threaten the land the only way of maintaining its security was a program of devolution to areas of land. And so was born The Confederation of Achthal. Over its years it has fort many wars, signed many diplomatic agreements and has developed a internal political system as deep and murky as the north sea.

Politics[edit | edit source]

List of Electors
Location	Government	Elector Count
The Kingdom of Awegon	Federal Kingdom	Emperor Ermingeld Alchemhelm Fridrieckium
The Republic of Scroy-Noroy	Oligarchy	Consul Joël Van Vroome
The Kingdom of Ausfenz	Kingdom	Archbishop József Vorlnic Bartosz
The Freeholds of The North	Democracy	Chief Ivan Krycheskie Dubanowski

The Emperor[edit | edit source]

Although the leader of Achthal is known as an emperor, the post is elected by the four elector counts (those of Scroy-Noroy, Awegon, Ausfenz and The North) with each secretly voting for one of the other candidates and the candidate with the most votes being elected.

The Confederal Diet[edit | edit source]

The confederal diet is a gathering of nobility to form a consensus as to the actions. Although the emporer is not technically required to accept the guidance of the diet each state reserves the ability to succeed before a new law is enacted so the last time an emporer refused to accept was a vote divided nearly straight down the middle on the legalization of Kaisianism (the belief formed by Mariet Kaisa that people could communicate directly with the gods).

The diet is made out of 100 nobles, one from each allodium (estate controlled directly by the emperor) with additional seats distributed to the controllers of the biggest cities according to the latest list of population sizes (which is often out of date).

As part of the great compromise of 968 their are now two subsections of the Diet, one for those aligned with Kaisianism and one for those aligned with The Holy. A majority of both must be established on religious matters.

Law[edit | edit source]

Law in Achthal is informally known as 'lucky-dip law' both because of inconsistent application and because the ammount to which it relies upon 'the gods' (in practice lady luck) to do much of the judging. This is influenced much by the other saying that 'the law is where the empire and the confederation do battle'. The thing is that while the law is officially set by The Emperor it is enforced by the local government who have their own priorities. Add various writs and grants given out by successive emperors over the centuries and stir for a thousand years and you will end up with something that looks like the imperial legal system - or, in other words, a complete mess.

To demonstrate this look at a man accused of theft in Ausfenz. He will be rounded up by his preist's lackies where upon they will ask the god of truth what to do with him. Now this becomes a popularity contest where the god is forced to do the thing which will make the fewest withdraw their support and so the typical knee jerk reaction is to order a public flogging regardless of inocence of guilt. As however the decision is usually delegated to an angel or even an archon so justic is lucky dip even there.

Meanwhile if you live in Pleitsdorf then you are entitled to justice by a jury of your peers and will most likely to be fined.

Written laws rarely apply to the average citizen (they being governed by past precedent and whatever seems moral) and mostly govern traders and various members and employees of the government. These are made up of Imperial Decrees and Confederal Resolutions.

Currency[edit | edit source]

The Confederation of Achthal uses the Gold Crown, Silver Shilling and Brass Penny (almost universally referred to within Achthal as the Pitney). In the days of Aruseus's Land all coinage was directly controlled by the king and the mint was based in Pleitsdorf much to the annoyance of the growing merchant class of the Roy valley. When the Land transformed into The Confederation they persuaded the king to delegate the powers of coinage. It went first to Pleitsdorf and then to The Republic of Scroy and then to all of the nations and finally to various smaller alodiums and petty kingdoms.

Until being delegated the power to mint coinage, coins were a rarity in the North and most people just used undenominated gold, silver, and bronze. But when The North was delegated the power another problem cropped up, who would they give it to? They had no great foundries to place their trust with in and so they gave it to the people with "any reputable individual upon application of licence" being able to mint silvers and brasses. Surprisingly The Northern coinage has remained remarkably free of forgeries though whether this was because the theory held true of whether it was because of the extra security measures Scroy Noroy insisted they take is unknown.

Pleitsdorf notably issues several denominations of penny coins - an 8 pence with a bear on, a 6 pence with a wolf, a 4 pence with a jackal, and a 2 pence with a fox. This has given rise to the use of these animals to denote fractions - 8/20ths is a bear's share and so on. This is associated with a specific folktale but nobody knows if the folk tale is from the coins or vice versa. Even more confusingly, specific combinations have their own meanings - for example a wolf and a fox's share doesn't mean 8/20ths but in fact some value that is a little less than a half.

Newspapers[edit | edit source]

The Falling Standard of Public Morality, an easy to read newspaper that contains little in the way actual journalism.

Postal Service[edit | edit source]

In most of Achthal (including Awegon and Ausfenz) the state owned Confederation's Mountain Post has, by law, a monopoly on the handling of mail and even where it doesn't (including Scroy-Noroy and The North) it is normally preferred (at least for long range mail). It operates two main routes, one between Reisdorf and Ausfenz which less reliably goes to Noroy and east Ausfenz and another crossing the north from The Petty Kingdoms to The Freeholds of The North (this last route is very unreliable and slow but this is a natural product of operating in The North).

It delivers between its regional offices (each covering a city and the surrounding area) very well but until recently it would only allow people to leave letters at the office so as to be collected (equally you would have to give a letter in at the local office). Recently it has started offering delivery to the door but this mainly relies upon local companies which have variable reliability. If the recipient doesn't have a local delivery company then The Confederation's Mountain Post will attempt to deliver it themselves which they very rarely do quickly and most of the time don't do at all.

As mentioned, heavily populated areas (i.e. cities) tend to operate their own local postal service. Unlike The Confederation's Mountain Post these ask for payment from the recipient allowing them to operate a network of boxes into which letters can be placed. They deliver reliably in the local area but most will not deliver beyond their catchment (the others will give the letter The Confederated Mountain Post but only after payment has been made for their handling and that of The Confederation's Mountain Post through delivery to an office or one of many complex mechanisms).

As mentioned The Confederation's Mountain Post does not have a monopoly in Scroy-Noroy where many different postal services compete (at times violently) to service the Roy valley. It is a perpetual struggle to keep the route in operation at all and it would have been abandoned if it was not for the fact that it connects to the postal route into Leon. Other companies compete for the titles of fastest (the upstart Schnell Mell); most reliable (Severous's Post operated by the oligarch Reinoud Andries Severous who has repeatedly been accused with attempting to frustrate the operations of other mail services); widest area of service (Post Universel which operates as far afield as Leon); and cheapest (Send Sten operated by a merchant who has recently graduated into oligopoly).

The Freeholds of The North have also refused The Confederation's Mountain Post a monopoly but relatively few alternatives exist with Check being the only viable alternative for most letters. It is a half company half community scheme where by a nominal fee is paid to leave a letter at a Check office where people travelling to the destination can pick it up and take it to the Check office at their destination. A letter will often be bounced around many Check offices and take months to actually reach its intended destination. All in all Check makes The Confederation's Mountain Post look veritably efficient.

Nobility[edit | edit source]

Note that the information provided is only general and probably does not apply in Scroy-Noroy or The North and only partially in Ausfenz (with copious insertions of priestly titles). They will typically work in Awegon and in The Petty Kingdoms.

English	Achthalian	Land	Number	Notes
Emporer	Imperitor	Confederation	1
King	König	Kingdom	0 (3 at equivalent level)	This title is out of use as it is only used by the rulers of Awegon and the current ruler of Awegon is also emperor and as he uses the greater title he is not a 'king'. Their are several people that call themselves 'King' (mainly in the petty Kingdoms) but these are legally Dietical Princes.
Dietical Prince	Kurfürst	Dietical Seat	~50	A prince accountable directly to the emporer and allowed to sit in (or send a representative to) the imperial diet.
Grand Prince	Großfürst	Grand Principality	0	For a variety of reasons this title is, like that of king, out of use.
Prince	Fürst	Principality	~100	Most of the rulers of The Petty Kingdoms use this title and it is in widespread use in Awegon.
Arch Duke	Erzherzog	Archduchy	~75	Commonly used in Ausfenz and also sees popularity in the petty kingdoms. Though a Arch Duke can be the subordinate of a Prince this is rarely the case. More often a Arch Duke rules a piece of land slightly smaller than that of a Prince and often if their land grows by more than half they are made a Prince.
Grand Duke	Großherzog	Grand Duchy	~25	This title is an unpopular gift sandwiched halfway between the respectability of a duke and the power and righteousness of a Arch Duke. They are typically regarded as over bearing and it is given to disliked opponents, typically along with a hated piece of land.
Duke	Herzog	Duchy	~250	Back in the time of Aruseus's land and the feudal system, a duke was expected be able to raise and bring to battle a full contingent of men (around 350). Even though they were untrained this required a population of 30,000 which meant an area of anywhere between 250 and 1,000 square miles.
Count Palatine	Palatinium	Palatinate	~100	A count palatine is given special privileges of autonomy and is typically subjected only to the direct rulings of the emperor. However they are not typically represented in the imperial diet and so tend to partner closely with a larger power which can protect their interests.
Count	Contora	County	~1000	The last level of true nobles that ordinarily have imperial immediacy. However, these are typically subordinates.
Margrave		Mark		Margrave rules over a area perceived as particularly vulnerable to foreign attack. The mark therefore enjoys special legal indipendence. Even though it is smaller than the avrage county it tends to be more powerful both because of preexisting castles and
Landgrave
Burgrave
Altgrave
Baron
Lord
Knight

Army[edit | edit source]

The Imperial Army[edit | edit source]

The Emperor is an interesting position in that - in some respects - it actually operates like a person. The Emperor does not merely command The Imperial Army, he, personally, owns it. It is not part of the government of Achthal, but passed in turn to each emperor. One might mistake this for being ex-officio but this would be incorrect: it is an inherent part of the role of emperor. The army is funded from the imperial estates, so it is contingent upon the health of those.

The Imperial Army is at present commanded by Marshal Franz Von Ortenberg, a grizzled military officer with plenty of experience, a no-nonsense non-political attitude verging on the brusk, and a brilliant moustache.

History[edit | edit source]

The Imperial Army is a product of some truly beautiful legal shenanigans. First in 508, a goblinoid incursion required extra troops to put it down. The Diet raised forces under the guise of The Confederal Army but couldn't raise forces from the Imperial Estates which there were a lot of in the area as the law stated "the emperor shall be exclusively responsible for the levying and other raising of forces for armies from the Imperial Estates". So The Emperor stepped in to raise forces, which the Diet promptly claimed as theirs as "the command of armies operating as part of the confederation as a whole shall be directed by the military council".

The trouble was that the military council had never commanded an army before and it hadn't even been formed at that point as the electorates were still arguing about its composition. This led to a series of military defeats to the extent that there were popular calls to dissolve The Confederation and reinstate the king.

As a result, when in 515 there was an undead rising in The North, almost everyone in The Diet wanted a speedy resolution and therefore to keep things out of the hands of the military council. The Emperor pointed out that there was nothing saying which army the troops had to be raised for and therefore he was perfectly entitled to raise troops and place them under the command of the marshal The North had selected to lead their army.

In 535 Scroy asked for troops assigned to its merchants to help their caravans pass through Noroy. This was also accepted, though more narrowly and had it not already been decided that The Emperor could raise for whichever army he chose then it would probably have gone the other way.

But the Scroy troops were proving unpopular with Noroy and its allies and there were a number of cases in which Imperial troops had been used after the threat was gone to menace neighbours.

The Confederal Army[edit | edit source]

The Confederal Army is a much larger but less professional and more nebulous force. It is explicitly under the control of The Diet, not The Emperor, The Diet decrees when it is raised, when it is disbanded, who it is to fight, and who is to command it. It is made from 3 main parts - volunteer and levied forces raised by the confederations constituent allodiums, mercenaries hired with money payed in lieu of forces by the allodiums, and (a recent addition) a professional core that remains standing in times of peace.

It ultimately reports to The Diet, but The Diet understands that generally politicians are not experts in the military, which is why they generally leave even high level command up to another group. The military oversight council appointed from members of The Diet by members of The Diet. The theory is that only people with large amounts of previous military experience would be appointed, however it generally ends up being dictated by politics. They then control The Chief of Confederal General Staff.

Below The Chief is a monstrosity that sits in Plietsdorf known to troops as 'top brass', to The Diet as Confederal General Staff but generally just 'command'. Command is a mindboggling maze of trailing chains of command which barely anybody understands responsible for ensuring that the army remains in control of the council with endless departments and boards for things ranging from strategy and troop gathering through officer appointments all the way to ruminent procurement.

Even most members of The Committee and the army don't understand how command works.

Command was created by a long series of decisions by members of The Council and other members of The Diet who wished to ensure that the army did what they wanted it too, and - far more importantly - it didn't do what other people wanted it to. Command has been kept functional just about because

Command is made up of officers who sit directly in the chain of command and assistants who just compile reports and the like for their superiors. The most important is known as 'the administrator', who reports to The Chief and helps them actually get their orders distributed to the people who command the armies.