NationStates Jolt Archive

The Imperial continuation of the Grand Ducal Federal monarchies, boring constitutions, silly referenda and random events (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=417096).

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From the Vigvar Daily:

Death Penalty for the 17/11/47 Masterminds

The Imperial Criminal Tribunal has rejected an appeal by the four sentenced individuals and upheld the death penalty, pronounced earlier by lower jurisdictions. Viktor Tadakin, Ruslan Durlaev, Elena Sapkina and Kiril Nevinniy were accused of masterminding the spectacular atrocities perpetrated by a secret commando of the White Legion, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly from the Taraskovyan Noldor community, and tens of thousands of military and police personnel were killed. The attack, also known as the 1147 Uprising, was in the end counter-productive to the nationalist organization as it lost its support base.

The Prosecution managed to prove that the four were personally responsible for planning and carrying out the operation, at the head of an impressive network of infiltrated agents and sympathizers. The network has long since been dismantled by the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, in cooperation with local law enforcement services and military police, only the leaders were on the run.

The justices refuted the appellants’ arguments that they were detained unlawfully and were victims of a horrible case of mistaken identity. But the evidence presented by the Prosecution, combining both scientific analysis and a detailed historic account of the lives of the four persons yet again managed to convince the judges.

“Having studied all the evidence presented by the Prosecution, the Court has come to the conclusion that the appellants’ real identities are those as stated by the law enforcement.”

The execution by firing bot was upheld, to be carried out within thirty days following the publishing of the verdict. The judges also rebuked the lawyers representing the civil parties (families and relatives of the victims, as well as wounded casualties) on the subject of introducing a new means of execution for this particular case. Under Taraskovyan law, the civil parties have the right to choose a means of execution from the ones listed in the law and submit their choice to the judge.

“There shall be no execution by shark tanks. This is Taraskovya, not Allanea.”

The present verdict puts a final end to the legal procedures. The Vasilevs still has the right to veto the court’s decision and grant pardon, but the Winter Palace has made it clear that “His Most August Majesty had the keenest of interests in seeing justice administered duly and properly in full accordance with Taraskovyan law”.

From the Amalor Herald:

Regional Conservatives in Coalition Building Before Imperial Elections

According to the Imperial Consitution, recently approved in referenda*, the Imperial Parliament shall have a tricameral structure. Of which the Duma and the Senate shall be open to elections and the Emperor’s Council, the highest chamber, shall be appointed by the Vasilevs, with each Realm entitled to a certain number of representatives. All this looks well enough on paper and digital media, but in practical terms the Taraskovyan political parties shall, for the most part, experience a certain novelty in elections.

Indeed, the Imperial Duma shall consist of deputies elected from single member constituencies, and similarly-minded parties shall have an interest in not competing in the same constituency for fear of splitting the vote. Smaller Realm and Dominion parties also have a keen interest in not seeing larger metropolitan formations take over in their strongholds.

A conference involving members and leadership of the so-called “Loyalist Coalition”, formed by the Conservative Party and its regional allies, is to be held in Amal. The list of participants is as follows:

the Conservative Party – the biggest and most powerful of all Taraskovyan political parties. Operates mainly in Rossophonic and Tarathian-speaking parts of the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia, as well as in most Imperial Realms and Dominions;
the Democratic Conservative Party – a party which operates mostly in the Fiefdoms of Southern Cardinia, Uthar and Vyshna, the so-called “Dutch-speaking corner” of the United Kingdom;
the United Atlantic Conservatives – hailing from the Island of Atlantic;
the Christian Democratic Party – the Sortvalian allies of the Conservative Party, operating exclusively within the Grand Duchy of Sortavala;
the Homeland Party – a largely agrarian party dominant in New Crimea.
the Handalar Loyalist Alliance – regrouping the local conservative parties in the Handalar Lordships

The conference is to formalize a coalition agreement which would allow the parties to not field candidates against each other in a single constituency. The conference shall also debate on the subject of how best to win a majority in the Imperial Senate, elected on a proportional basis, with each Imperial Realm having a number of seats proportional to its population, but guaranteed at least one seat.

Many analysts, however, deem that the Conservative Party shall single-handedly win absolute majorities in both the Duma and the Senate, simply due to it enjoying the support from the overwhelming majority of Imperial citizens. However, some internal frictions also exist within the Conservative Party, mostly emanating from the regional branches in Dreamreach and Nyi-Gardarika. The idea of Taraskovyan conservatism has also failed to take deep roots in the United Provinces of Tavaroth, where the local population remains largely apathetic to politics and elections.

Overall, however, the regional conservative leanings enjoy extensive support from their populations and hold power within their respective areas. Sealing a firm coalition shall surely pose no problems, as opposed to the hardships of the Liberal-Socialists to regroup the disparate left and centre-left parties all over the Empire.

The National Patriotic Christian Alliance, another major party, has already stated that it shall not seek regional allies and believes that regional parties ought to be banned in favour of only having “a couple Imperial ones”.

[OOC: *I consider it done simply because I can’t bother typing it out.]

From the Amalor Herald:

Republicans Criticise “Monarchist Entente”

Emelian Daralov, chairman of the Taraskovyan Republican Party, has come down with harsh criticism upon what he termed as the “Monarchist Entente” of leading conservative parties in the face of upcoming elections. Indeed, as has been reported previously, the Conservative Party and its regional allies came to a cooperation and collaboration agreement to win as many seats as possible in the Imperial Parliament.

The Republican Party, itself a rather conservative formation, was created when a group of Conservative Party members split off, non content with their formation’s staunch monarchist position. The party then went on to win 15 out of 400 seats in what is now the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia and joined the so-called “Loyalist Coalition” of the Conservative Party and their mainly Dutch-speaking and Utharian-based Democratic Conservative allies.

The Loyalist Coalition, the official term of the conservative party alliance, is assured of victory not only because most Taraskovyan voter’s sympathies lie with parties of conservative leaning, but also because they shall avoid voter confusion by not running several candidates and candidate lists in a single electoral district against each other. In such a layout, the Republicans look set to win no seats at all in the Imperial Duma, which is elected from single-member constituencies, and only a handful of seats in the Imperial Senate, elected on proportional basis from the Realms.

The Party has already announced that it shall be withdrawing from its coalition with the Conservatives and Democratic Conservatives. For the time being, it is unknown whether they shall unite with the Leftist opposition grouping, led by the Liberal Socialist Party, itself only recently having converted to constitutional monarchism.

The leadership of the Conservative Party has dismissed the reaction as “over exaggerated”. A spokesman for the Conservatives stated that the Republicans were invited to take part in the newly founded Loyalist Coalition, but that the demands the republicans wanted fulfilled before they even attended the conference were “beyond any limit of sense and reason”.



From the Olonetsin Sanomat:

Liberal Socialists, Social Democrats in Elections Deal

After lengthy negotiations, the Liberal Socialist Party and the Sortvalian-based Social Democratic Union have signed a cooperation agreement in light of the upcoming elections to the Imperial Parliament. The agreement is similar to that which saw the founding of the conservative Loyalist Coalition. The Liberal Socialist Party will not field candidates in Sortvala, and in return the Social Democrats shall adhere to the leftist coalition being organized by the Liberal Socialists in the future Imperial Parliament.

Such an agreement shall avoid the Sortvalian voters confusion in choosing between an “Imperial” party and a “regional” one and, thus, risk splitting the vote. Mustering as many votes as possible behind a single candidate shall be vital for getting elected into the Imperial Duma and any vote splits could prove fatal in face of a well organized conservative electoral offensive.

Unlike the rather regionally fractured Conservatives, however, the leftist coalition is more or less uniform. The Liberal Socialists have branches in all Realms and have absorbed local left-leaning parties into their fold.

From the Amalor Herald:

Imperial Veche to Ponder Conscription Service

Once elected, the Imperial Veche shall have to ponder over a series of legislative amendments and reforms, including a proposed reform of military service which shall see an introduction of mandatory conscription to the Territorial Forces. Right now, the Territorial Forces allow volunteers to serve on a spread-out basis, involving an initial sixteen weeks of basic and specialized training and a further three weeks per year of rehearsal courses. The Territorial Forces field their units locally and constitute a mainly defensive element of the Taraskovyan National Defence Forces, which complements the units comprising soldiers and officers serving on long term contracts.

The proposed reform shall obligate all able bodied Taraskovyan citizens that have attained legal maturity to serve with the Territorial Forces. Once the initial period of training done, conscripts would get the choice of continuing their service with the regular career forces or instead carry on with the Territorial Forces until they are liberated from their military obligations.

The reform has the potential of considerably boosting the Empire’s defensive capabilities, as well as create a whole series of problems that would require resolving. The plans have already polarized the experts, some saying that the Empire needed not “waves of cannon fodder” and should continue to field a well trained, professional and motivated military. Others deem that a powerful defensive force based on conscript service and capable of mobilizing on an hourly notice shall allow to free up considerable professional military resources for other tasks, and this at a comparatively small increase in the defence budget.

Ironically, some of the most vocal opponents of the proposed plan are the National Christian Patriots, whom opinion polls credit with 76 seats in the Senate (out of 300) and 361 seats in the Duma (out of 1’251). Contrary to their usual militarist rhetoric, the National Patriotic Christian Alliance has deemed that the creation of “regionally recruited and regionally operating armed forces” could herald a misbalance of powers in favour of the regions and eventually lead to reinforcing secessionist tendencies in some Imperial Realms and Dominions.

OOC: What silly IRC talks can lead to...

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From the Rainy Sunday tabloid:

Grand Duchess’es Kinky Games Away From Home

Standard yellow press outlay, with lots of unclear pictures showing some scenes from a very dark dancing hall of some night club. In one picture, some man is seen reaching for a woman’s chest, the man being at a ninety degrees angle to the woman. The woman herself is dressed quite respectfully, albeit the tight hugging shirt and pants do valorise her attributes. To their left, another man is apparently also reaching forward towards the woman. Behind the woman, a manly silhouette can be seen spreading his arms as if to wrap them around her. Another woman next to the first one looks surprised at the scene as the first one appears to bear a smile on her lips.

Her Imperial Highness Vethara, the Grand Duchess of Taraskovya, Duchess of This, Duchess of That is not a defenceless little angel everybody thinks she is! Bypassing extensive security means, our courageous reporter, none else than the famous Andrei Slanderov, has managed to take several snapshots of the Grand Duchess being quite friendly with not one but three men!

The pictures were taken during a very festive night at the The Bridge, a VIP nightclub in Navarre reserved for the very top and the very rich clients, which Vethara was visiting with Jenna Forbes, the famous Freethinker writer and novelist and a friend of the Grand Duchess. Apparently, drinks were generously consumed during the sortie at the club and the “Benefactress of the Church” got rather open minded about some pleasures of life all of a sudden with some three male fans, who were only too happy to cop a nice feeling.

[…] further useless yellow pressish article info abbreviated […]


From the official communiqué by the Lorelei Palace:

[…] provided by Rainy Sunday is, thus, completely distorted. Two operatives of Her Imperial Highness’es Own Lorelei Regiment of the leib-Guard in civilian fatigues intervened to neutralize an unidentified male individual who approached too close to Her Imperial Highness despite at least two interpellations by the leib-guardsmen. The leib-guardsmen acted with proportional means to the threat in line with their powers and competences as bodyguards of Her Imperial Highness.

The man, after verification, was identified as a Midlonian businessman who had consumed an important number of drinks. The man, whose name shall not be revealed, is a great fan of Her Imperial Highness ever since her appearance in the “Mystery of Goddess” album and wanted an autograph. Such was given and the incident was resolved rapidly.[…]

Rawr! If any type-o's exist, sorry, but this has been typed out during the night and posted ASAP simply because. I now need to make a spiffy flag and a spiffy graphic orbat! Yay!

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From Some Very Famous Military Review Magazine


Hellenes on Taraskovyan Service

There was once a tradition in Taraskovya in which towns and cities could opt to finance a part of the totality of a military unit’s expense in return for some recruitment options or privileges, namely reserving a certain unit for the citizens of a certain city. Nowadays the budget and expenses are fixed and covered fully by the military and political hierarchy. Towns and cities have their own expenses to foresee to. However, the tradition has somewhat survived, albeit in a heavily evolved manner. Nowadays, specific and registered interest groups have the right to cover a portion of a certain unit’s expenses in return for the very same recruitment privileges as existed earlier.

The Leib-Guard’s Division of Hellenes is one such unit, the expenses of which are covered partially by Taraskovya’s Greek-speaking community in return for the unit enrolling preferentially from the aforementioned community (which itself is not clearly defined). In light of the proposed expansion of the unit to potentially Corps-size (albeit much smaller in comparison with other TNDF Corps-sized formations) through allowing foreigners of Greek nationality to enlist, let us retrace the often fine history of the Hellenic Division and what the unit can expect to see in the future.


Taraskovyan Evzones

The history of Greeks in Taraskovyan military service goes back to the times when Emperor Demetrius VII of Pantocratoria forbid the use of the Byzantine rite in the Pantocratorian Church. An important number of followers of the Byzantine rite then left the Empire, many finding a new home in Taraskovya. Of those, many were poor and could not foresee to their families’ needs and thus profited from the ancestral “Bread for Sword” tradition. And even if nowadays this tradition has become nothing other than additional social security payouts, back in those days the men did see themselves enrolled into the Grand Duke’s regiments in return for lands, bread and cattle to their families.

The ensuing history of these regiments has often been quite turbulent. They were put under command of Ros nobles and officers who did not speak the Greek language and enjoyed extremely minimal communication with their subordinates. Misunderstandings for the first decades were widespread, the best example of which was when Greek soldiers of the 6th Hellenic Regiment mutinied to protest against the impending “disbanding” of their unit. In fact, the regiment was simply being renamed into the Bratsk Regiment of Evzones. Ros officers only seldom bothered to learn the language of their subordinates and it was not before the officer component of the Hellenic Regiments was fully replaced with assimilated Greeks that the misunderstandings ceased once and for all.

The history of Hellenes in the Leib-Guard is tied to the open rebellion by three of the then five majority-Greek regiments, namely the 3rd, 5th and 8th Hellenic Regiments. The units were bribed into mutiny by a coalition of local nobles and landlords who opposed the harmonization of taxes throughout the entire Taraskovyan realm. The Hellenes were not the only ones rebelling, however, as quite an important number of then underpaid army regiments rose against the Grand Duke and his regional commanders.

At the battle of Kerdakh, loyalist units under the command of Duke Dimitri Orlov crushed the bulk of the rebels, amongst which were the 5th and 8th Hellenic Regiments. Under the orders of Duke Dimitri, however, were our good friends from the Bratsk Regiment of Evzones. The Duke was so impressed by the valiance and courage shown by the Regiment, that he allowed the Colonel Nikolai Kasdakis to decide on the fate of those rebellious Greeks that were taken alive. The Colonel proposed to pardon those who wished to repent and enroll them into his own regiment, which he did. History, however, does not mention whether anyone refused the generous offer.

The Grand Duke, later on, reassigned the regiment as part of the wider life guard, namely the Younger Guard. The regiment was renamed as the Leib Guard’s Bratsk Regiment of Evzones. As years and decades passed by, as Taraskovya grew in territory and population, it’s armed forces saw a complete overhaul. The Hellenic Regiments were disbanded, soldiers reassigned to regular and standardized army regiments and divisions. A similar fate was expecting the life guard Evzones.

But the by then assimilated and only vaguely defined Greek community within Taraskovya sought to preserve the military heritage of the Evzones regiment and sought a solution with the military and grand ducal hierarchies to fund the unit in return for its continued Greek-lineage. This was not met cordially at first, as such a right was reserved to territorial entities, not cultural ones, but eventually the Greeks obtained their very own unit.


Leib Guard’s Division of Hellenes

The Leib Guard’s Division of Hellenes is a Mountain Division, part of the Younger Guard and, thus, an elite formation of the regular TNDF and not subordinated to the Military Council of the Imperial Household (which directly commands the Elder Guard units). The division comprises the following five leib-guard regiments, with official names indicated in italics, followed by modern role and specialization:
Leib Guard’s Bratsk Regiment of Evzones – Moutain Jaeger Regiment
His Majesty the Grand Duke Mikhail’s Leib Guard’s Own Regiment of Evzones – Moutain Jaeger Regiment
Her Majesty the Grand Duchess Ekaterina’s Leib Guard’s Own Regiment of Hellenic Grenadiers – Moutain Jaeger Regiment
Leib Guard’s Regiment of Hellenic Cuirassiers – Moutain Armoured Jaeger Regiment
Leib Guard’s 3rd Regiment of Evzones – Aviation Regiment

The above list does not include the administrative and division command component. The Division is, all in all, comprised of three Mountain Jaeger regiments, the Taraskovyan term for mountain infantry (or, more specifically, mechanized mountain infantry). These units are equipped with armoured vehicles of walker type (more often than not resembling spiders or female stag beetles), allowing them increased mobility in mountain terrain. The Armoured Jaeger regiment comprises the walker equivalent of heavy battle tanks or cavalry tanks in use with the respective types of units. Finally, the aviation regiment comprises the Division’s aerial support.

All in all, and in absence of attached units, the Division’s strength stands at roughly twenty thousand personnel. It is an elite formation, with strict selection criteria (in addition to the already somewhat limited pool of potential candidates due to the requirement of belonging to the Greek community).


Foreign Hellenes in Taraskovyan Service?

Service with the Taraskovyan National Defence Forces is open to foreign citizens and this is no news in itself. It can be seen as a paradox, but the Taraskovyan military has always been more culturally and socially open minded than the political and civilian establishment and accepted volunteers regardless of gender, faith, race, nationality, sexual orientation and political beliefs. For in as long as you did not too much of a criminal past, were motivated, disciplined and ready to spill enemy blood (indeed, Taraskovyan soldiers are expected to spill enemy blood, not their own) for “Faith and Sovereign”, you were good to go.

And as much as the gentlemen in some nationalist-oriented political movements would like to see the TNDF apply much stricter rules on enrolment, such as barring out homosexuals and “non-humans”, all attempts at making the military hierarchy change its ways have failed completely. In fact, one such campaign to void the military’s extension of “support personnel” status to the entire Kerrat kin of Tavaroth has ended in the political establishment granting Kerrat Taraskovyan citizenship ( http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12390401&postcount=52) and introducing other citizenship reforms.

Until now, however, there has never been a specialized “foreign unit” of sorts, consisting of persons from a single cultural group or country. Foreign volunteers have always been given crash-courses in Russian and then filed off to Training Camps just like their Taraskovyan comrades.

Now, however, an idea has gained momentum at creating a Greek-speaking unit within the TNDF, modeled after the Leib Guard’s Division of Hellenes . The proponents of the idea put forward a number of arguments and figures, amongst which prominently feature studies on the willingness to serve with such a unit amongst the Pantocratorian citizens of Greek ancestry, as well as with Greeks inhabiting the Confederated Peoples of the Resurgent Dream. Apparently, the idea of serving in a Greek-unit for a conservative Orthodox monarchy appeals to many men and women in the aforementioned lands.

The military hierarchy, having consulted with legal experts and having found no obstacles to nationals of these countries serving with the TNDF, has consented to initiate an experiment. A trial active duty regiment shall be established (the 1st Voltigeurs Regiment of Hellenes), mirrored by a training and reserve regiment (the 1st Infantry Regiment of Hellenes) , shall be set up. Foreigners of Greek origin shall have the option of enrolling with the regiment in question or proceeding with the regular TNDF training and unit assignment. Those who opt for the Greek speaking unit shall be forwarded to the training and reserve regiment in question, which shall in itself be a Training Camp in its own right.

The 1st Hellenic Voltigeurs shall have no set or target strength and shall be split if the number of personnel so allows. It shall also have no set specialization (despite the name suggesting a mechanized infantry or dragoons role), instead having embryo-battalions of cavalry, mechanized dragoons, armour and mechanized infantry, thus allowing the creation of additional units at the command's leisure. The training regiment shall also have a section open to potential pilots and aviators.

All in all, the regiment shall test the true resolve of foreign Greeks to serve with a hi-tech, extremely demanding and professional Taraskovyan military. The Taraskovyan Greek community is expected to cover a part of the costs of setting up the new units and related structure, as well as cover the advertising costs in, for now, the Pantocratorian Empire and the Confederated Peoples.

If successful, the unit could attain possibly division strength and even go beyond. It's exact interaction with the Life Guard's Division of Hellenes is not yet clear, but it can be expected that some sort of Corps of Hellenes might be founded, with a unified training structure which shall allow Taraskovyan greeks to train and study side by side with their distant cousins from far abroad, with the Leib Guard's Division opening itself to worthy foreign recruits.

Taraskovyan Empire

http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/tarasovka.jpg



Imperial Veche

Imperial Senate: 300 Senators
Elected on proportional basis from party lists. Each Imperial Realm is an electoral disctict, and sends a number of senators proportional to their weight in the Imperial demographics (Imperial citizens residing in Dominions are not counted towards the total elector population).

Seats Breakdown

Loyalist Coalition – 185
Conservative Party – 162 Seats
Democratic Conservative Party – 9 Seats
Christian Democratic Party – 8 Seats
United Atlantic Conservatives – 2 Seats
Homeland Party – 2 Seats
Handalar Loyalist Alliance – 2 Seats

National Patriotic Christian Alliance – 56 Seats

Left Wing Bloc– 59 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party – 52 Seats
Social Democratic Union – 7 Seats



Imperial Duma: 1’252 Deputies
Each Deputy is elected from a single-member constituency on a first past the post basis. Each Imperial Realm sends a number of representatives equal to the number of Imperial citizens dwelling within its territory divided by eight million. Constituencies are delimited to be more or less equal in terms of population.

Loyalist Coalition – 987 Seats
Conservative Party – 871 Seats
Democratic Conservative Party – 59 Seats
Christian Democratic Party – 36 Seats
United Atlantic Conservatives – 8 Seats
Homeland Party – 7 Seats
Handalar Loyalist Alliance – 6 Seats

National Patriotic Christian Alliance – 115 Seats

Left Wing Bloc – 150
Liberal Socialist Party – 125 Seats
Social Democratic Union – 25 Seats






Rawr spiffy flags! Don't bother with the "links", they are just in for the flavour.

Parliamentary Election Results By Imperial Realm
Imperial Dominions do not take part in Imperial elections and referenda.


United Kingdom
of
Dakathia and Cardinia

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/tarasovka.png

Senate Delegation: 213 Senators

Seats Breakdown:

Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 130 Seats
Democratic Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 9 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 40 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 34 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 890 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:

Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 698 Seats
Democratic Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 59 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 79 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 54 Seats




Kingdom
of
Dreamreach

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Dreamreach.jpg

Senate Delegation: 37 Senators
Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 19 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 7 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 11 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 156 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 106 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 50 Seats




Kingdom
of
Nyi-Gardarika

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Nyi-Gardarika.jpg

Senate Delegation: 16 Senators

Seats Breakdown:


Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 6 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 6 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 4 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 69 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 38 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 22 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 9 Seats




Grand Duchy
of
Sortavala

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Sortavala.gif

Senate Delegation: 15 Senators

Seats Breakdown:
Christian Democratic Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 8 Seats
Social Democratic Union (Left Wing Bloc) – 7 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 61 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Christian Democratic Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 36 Seats
Social Democratic Union (Left Wing Bloc) – 25 Seats



United Provinces
of
Tavaroth

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Tavaroth-1.jpg


Senate Delegation: 7 Senators

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 4 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 3 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 31 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 21 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 10 Seats




Duchy
of
Zoria

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Zoria_Again.jpg

Senate Delegation: 4 Senators

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 3 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 1 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 15 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Conservative Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 8 Seats
Liberal Socialist Party (Left Wing Bloc) – 2 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 5 Seats



Duchy
of
Atlantic Isles

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/ATISL.png

Senate Delegation: 3 Senators

Seats Breakdown:

United Atlantic Conservatives (Loyalist Coalition) – 2 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 1 Seat


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 13 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:

United Atlantic Conservatives (Loyalist Coalition) – 8 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 5 Seats



Duchy
of
New Crimea

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/NewCrimea.jpg

Senate Delegation: 3 Senators

Seats Breakdown:
Homeland Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 2 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 1 Seat


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 11 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Homeland Party (Loyalist Coalition) – 7 Seats
National Patriotic Christian Alliance (Unaligned) – 4 Seats



Handalar Lordships (Collectively)

Each Lordship is, as per current Constitutional arrangements, a separate Imperial Realm. For the purposes of Imperial elections and statistics, they are grouped into one “entity”.

Senate Delegation: 2 Senators

Seats Breakdown:
Handalar Loyalist Alliance (Loyalist Coalition) – 2 Seats


Full results, including Parties which have not made it past the natural threshold, can be found HERE

Duma Delegation: 6 Deputies

Seats Breakdown:
Handalar Loyalist Alliance (Loyalist Coalition) – 6 Seats

From the Various Media Or Something:

Vasilevs Confirms Muraviev-Apostol as Chancellor


In a statement issued by the Winter Palace, His Most August Majesty the Vasilevs has decided not to modify the current composition of His Most August Majesty’s Cabinet of Ministers in the wake of the Imperial elections which saw the Conservatives and their regional allies assert a full and complete domination over the Imperial Duma, but failing to reach the predicted two-thirds of the Imperial Senate by 15 Seats.

There have been speculations that Anatoly Orlov, Duke of Bor et al and Minister of Defence, would be appointed Imperial Chancellor. Such a choice would have been explained by two factors. First and foremost, the Duke of Bor is one of the two leaders of the Conservative Party and commands the loyalties of its greater part, mainly comprised of ethnic Ros and other Slavs. Secondly, as head of the Orlov House, the current Minister of Defence also heads the major supporters of the Shakhovskoy House during the past dynastic conflicts with the Tal-Nash House, headed by none else than Karth Tal-Nash, Duke of Uith et al, currently Minister of Interior and nowadays co-leader of the Conservatives. It had been expected that the Vasilevs might both switch to a candidate enjoying the support of the broader Conservatives and heading a powerful House ancestrally allied to the Vasilevs’es own family.

All such speculations, however, were proven false as the announcement confirmed Anna Muraviev-Apostol, Duchess of Savarich et al, as Imperial Chancellor and Head of His Most August Majesty’s Cabinet of Ministers. Her High Excellency was appointed to the job immediately after the formal proclamation of the Empire and is not affiliated with any political parties and, moreover, rumoured to be of staunchly centrist convictions, sometimes not in full agreement with the rightist or centre-right positions of the Loyalist Coalition.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/Chancellor.png
Her High Excellency the Imperial Chancellor,
Anna Muraviev-Apostol, immediately after her
initial appointment by the Vasilevs months ago.

Dubbed by some as a “moderate candidate”, by others as the “Vasilevs’es own Chancellor”, Her High Excellency is none the less a potent and cunning politician, graduate of the Vigvar University, Faculty of Political Sciences. But what seems to matter the most is that she is an extremely capable administrative organizer, having served as Grand Ducal Chancellor in the past, a post which has nothing in common with the modern post of Imperial Chancellor. Indeed, before the proclamation of the Empire, the Chancellor merely oversaw the administrative and day-to-day functioning of the Government apparatus and staff.

It might also be a role foreseen fore the Imperial Chancellor in the years to come: oversee the transition from an ad hoc organized Empire in Denial to a fully fledged and by far more centralized Empire, all while preserving regional autonomy, work out constitutional arrangements for “special cases”, establish a full and complete harmony in between the Imperial Government and the local Realm and Dominion executives. Whilst judged by some as secondary, these tasks are in fact of outmost importance for the future of the Taraskovyan Empire.

The Imperial Chancellor, thus, shall have quite a workload on her hands, while the overall governance of the Empire shall continue to remain in the hands of the Vasilevs. Taraskovya, after all, prides itself on being an absolutist monarchy, even if the real and exact status is subject to debate.


Vasilevs Appoints Members of the Emperor's Council

The list of the fifty seven Emperor's Councillors (OOC: Name subject to change once I come up with something better.), the Highest Chamber of the Imperial Veche, has been officially communicated to the media. The Emperor's Council is appointed by the Vasilevs at his leisure and discretion.

The twelve Councillors from the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia are as follows:

[OOC: List of twelve names here!]

The six Councillors from each of the Kingdom of Nyi-Gardarika, the Grand Duchy of Sortavala, the United Provinces of Tavaroth are as follows:

[OOC: List of eighteen names here!]

The five Councillors from each of the Duchy of Zoria and the Duchy of Atlantic Isles are as follows:

[OOC: HIH Vethara, Grand Duchess of Taraskovya, Duchess of Zoria et al + 9 other names here!]

The four Councillors from the Duchy of New Crimea are as follows:

[OOC: List of four names... here!]

The three Councillors from the Handalar Lordships, taken collectively and without any formal attachment to any Lordship in particular, are as follows:

[OOC: List of three typically unpronouncable Tarathian names somewhere here.]

OOC: I wrote the post on a whim of inspiration. However, I was not inspired to make up fifty six names just now. Sowwy.

Ekaterinburg, Fiefdom of Zerth, United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia, Taraskovyan Empire

The city of Ekaterinburg was founded during the reign of the then Grand Duke Mikhail I and named in honour of his wife, Grand Duchess Catherine. Amongst its many qualities the city could list being the largest megapolis in the Empire, with hundreds of millions of residents spread along the coast of the Cardinian gulf, even encroaching into the neighbouring Fiefdom of Cardinia (where several municipalities were already part of the greater Ekaterinburg agglomeration and, thus, tied more to the city itself than to the Fiefdom they were part of). In fact, the city was so huge that many proposed creating a city-Fiefdom on the territory of the current Fiefdoms of Zerth and Cardinia. However, since the Administrative Reform enacted by the military junta a decade ago, city-fiefdoms were incorporated into their larger neighbours. This reform was not reversed when the monarchy was restored.

There was, of course, the referendum way of doing so, but whilst the part of the proposed new fiefdom within Zerth had all the chances to break off, the municipalities within the Fiefdom of Cardinia did not. And so the plans were discussed and debated by local politicians, but none were so far enacted and no citizen initiative has taken place.

However, another quality the city could boast was its multiculturalism. From Tarathians to the Ros, passing by Polavians and other Noldor, the city was a mosaic of various cultures, faiths and beliefs. And where there was mingling, there was sometimes trouble. Ekaterinburg was the hotbed of White Legion activity during the Time of Troubles, with Gendarmes dreading to enter entire portions of the agglomeration without a good and heavy backing from the army’s security troops. But now the Time of Troubles was half a decade away, the Empire was as strong as never before.

But minor conflicts still erupted once in a while. And on that precise day, the Imperial Veche officially ratified the new treaty between Menelmacar and Taraskovya, but this time with an important component: a whole series of dispositions on military and diplomatic cooperation, including the words “common defence”, so dreaded by Taraskovyan nationalists.

And on that day, the nationalists were not happy. Under the new Imperial constitutional order, ratification of treaties was no longer a matter for public referenda, but votes of the Imperial Veche. A massive demonstration of up to a million people descended into the level roads of Ekaterinburg, occupying levels two to four. In comparison to the massive demonstrations organized by the White Legion, however, it was quite small, a clear sign that Ros nationalists were slowly but surely losing support.

Columns of people were met by massive amounts of gendarmes in crowd control gear. Despite what the name suggested, the term “gendarme” was adopted by the majority of Imperial Realms and of their provinces or fiefdoms to denote the civilian police forces. The army fielded its own “population control” units, called the Security and Quarantine Forces (Okhranno-Karantinniye Voiska – the dreaded OKV) tasked with enforcing Imperial Rule in occupied and annexed territories. Sometimes, OKV units were even used to enforce Imperial Rule in properly Imperial lands, against Imperial citizens, but such events were rare ever since the fall of the military junta and the restoration of the monarchy. On this day, two Security Divisions (the 345th and the 476th) were on stand by to intervene in case the gendarmes could not control the situation.

But there were no excesses on the parts of the demonstrators. The most “enthusiastic” hooded youngsters were kept away from police lines by sturdy and athletic young men in black outfits, short hair cuts and the banner of the Ros Resistance Society (Rosskoye Obshestvo Soprotivleniya – R.O.S. ) on their sleeves. The same banner featured prominently in the crowds.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/RosObSopr.png

The R.O.S. was a rather little known nationalist organization, dwarfed and shadowed by the White Legion during the Time of Troubles. However, with the death of the Legion’s combat arm and the humiliation of its political arm, the Resistance Society somehow came to be propelled to the leading positions amongst the now fractured Ros nationalists.

The goal of the demonstration, to march through majority Noldor districts of the agglomeration was prevented by sturdy walls of gendarmes and their armoured vehicles. Instead, the crowds blocked traffic for several hours before beginning to dissipate. And as the demonstration began to vanish, small groups of over enthusiastic youngsters tried to engage into running street battles with Gendarmes. Which lasted at most half an hour, with a good half an hour more to allow the policemen to take custody of the stunned and otherwise incapacitated troublemakers and ferry them off for a good night sleep in a rather not very comfortable detention unit. So that they could put two and two together and decide that sleeping in your own bed is much better.


____________________________________________________

[OOC: A couple things:
1) Instead of making a post about the Menelmacar-Taraskovya treaty, I decided to make an atmospheric post.
2) I got the swastika flag approved for RP purposes quite a while ago. It's all in the moderation forum.
3) I jumped on the occasion to introduce the R.O.S. ]

Arnatirios, Taurenor

Vethara smiled as she tilted her head to the side and then turned it a little with a smile. And then she repeated the movement, in the other direction. She was seated in front of a dressing table, all sorts of womanly make up tools spread out on it, beneath the three mirrors, two of them at an angle to the central mirror. She was dressed in nothing but a dressing gown, hanging freely from her shoulders, and a tiara upon her head. Of course, from her neck hang a silver cross of Saint Olga, but this bit of “jewelry” was always on the Grand Duchess.

The tiara is what the woman was busy admiring. It came as a rather unexpected result of an even less expected story, worthy of political thriller plots the Taraskovyan cinema industry could revel in for the next years. A Queen deposed in a strange coup, the Queen asked Vethara to replace her, Vethara accepted, the putsch leaders rejoiced and there was much clamour as she was crowned the Forest Queen of Taurenor.

And just as the Regency Council thought of using her as a puppet, just as much she sought to destroy it. It took her quite a deal of effort, plotting and scheming, of infiltrating the other side with her loyalists, of creating a support network amongst the local population. In the end, when the Council was dismantled and its members locked up for quite a long time, Vethara thought of keeping the crown to herself instead of returning it to her friend. But, she decided against. Running such a grandiose country was not for her, she had her experience and now decided that she was not up to it. Then there was the question of Taraskovyan succession. Should anything befall upon her brother, she would become Vasilessa of all Taraskovya. And ruling a gigantic Queendom and an even huger Empire terrified her.

“Mmmmm… it suits you well,” came a well familiar manly voice from behind her as his face reflected in the mirror.

Vethara just smiled, admiring the tiara, full with diamonds and sapphires, with silver nets falling down to cover her hair. The previous tiara that she wore was one of emeralds, to symbolize the Forest Queen title. This one was for a completely new title bestowed upon her by the restored Forest Queen. She loved the colour scheme of that crown, however. And even if it did not suit her emerald eyes (not that she was going to wear it twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to begin with), the colours were also those of the Shakhovskoy House. Was a new, separate branch of that House coming into shape? Many would debate it in the years to come.

“So then, my dear newly crowned Nillëtári,” the man resumed, placing his hands upon the woman’s shoulders and rubbing them gently. “Why did you hop out of bed so eagerly?”

“Oh, just wished to study the crown properly” she shrugged lightly, smiling, “I did not expect this story to have much continuation, truly. And saw myself being back in Lorelei, lording over my personal fief of the Taraskovyan Empire. But I guess that bedding the Emperor of the C’tan once in a while has some benefits.”

She laughed lightly. Ranisath just grinned and leaned in to wrap his arms around her chest.

“Nothing to do with me. The Tauretore came up with the idea herself. I simply designed the crown,” he said, placing a kiss upon her neck.

His hands roamed along her waistline, verifying whether the gown’s belt was tied and, seeing that it was not, came back up to the shoulders and pushed the sleeves down the woman’s shoulders until the gown was falling from the chair and Vethara completely exposed.

“I prefer you even more like this,” he whispered, placing another kiss on her neck.

“Mmmm… why do all the men I become… close with… wish to keep me undressed while in private?”

“Your mania about keeping things hidden from public view and knowledge means that one does not get that many a chance to have you around and undressed.”

She erupted into a melodic laughter.

From the Various Media Or Something:

Imperial Veche Overrides Atlantic Island Laws

Laws concerning drugs and firearms ownership have traditionally been far more liberal in the Atlantic Islands archipelago than in the rest of the Empire. But not for long. Considered as violating Imperial Legislation, a number of Realm statutes have been revoked by the Imperial Veche and temporary legislation was enacted on behalf of the Atlantic Islander Congress. The new legislation shall take effect next moth, with provisional dispositions reserved for some cases, and shall remain in place until the Atlantic Islander Congress enacts permanent local legislation in conformity with Imperial Order.

The move was met with opposition from separatist political forces, who have vowed to organize a joint rally in Libertyville, Realm’s capital in the coming days. For the first time, however, the imperial military’s Security and Quarantine Forces are not expected to take part in public order maintenance during such events, as the Libertyville Police Department has finally attained a level comparable with other Imperial local police forces and, thus, is expected to be fully able to control the situation in any event.


Charter Cities’ Joint Gendarmerie’s Future Uncertain

The Charter Cities, situated in the equatorial belt of planet Venom, trace their history back to first private colonist settlements on the planet in the aftermath of the discovery of Drochium deposits on the planet. United between themselves by the Karasar Charter, the Charter Cities are considered by many experts of Constitutional Law to be a separate Imperial Dominion from Venom, albeit officially this has yet to be codified.

Recently, the Cities have decided to create a joint force for, according to them, a “more efficient protection of public order and life of citizens”. However, according to the National Defence Forces, the “Joint Gendarmerie is nothing but a veiled attempt at creating a local military force, which is contrary to Imperial Order.” The Charter Council has, thus, been summoned by the Imperial Overseer to Venom and ordered to scrap any plans on the force.

The Charter Council, however, estimates that the Joint Gendarmerie is a unified police force, not a military one, and is only directed at assisting the population. It is also expected to have disaster relief duties and capabilities. But in the meantime, the Council has expressed its obedience of Imperial decisions and has stated that the plans were “indefinietely shelved”.

From the Various Media Or Something:

Veche Agrees in Principle to Mandatory Service

All political parties in the Imperial Veche have come to a general agreement about introducing a mandatory military service in the Empire. The motion has been long discussed by various political actors and presents a rare point of agreement in between such sworn political rivals as the Christian Patriots and the Liberal Socialists. But even as the first foundations are laid, the road is still long and a major overhaul of military and even civilian legislation is to follow.

The agreed upon points are the following:
Mandatory military service for all able bodied Imperial citizens having attained legal maturity. This shall include both men and women.
Special arrangements for the Julaniem, Eduyab'Kerrudar and some other small (a couple million individuals at most) ethnic kins.
General terms of service similar to the current Territorial Force service. Namely comprising a several months long boot camp, followed by yearly rehearsal courses.
The near entirety of the current military professions shall be open to conscripts. Everything from mechanised voltigeurs to aerospace fighter pilots.
Possibility to sign up to professional career duty during boot camp.
Conscripts from one Realm or Dominion can be expected to serve their boot camps and rehearsal courses in other Realms and Dominions.

All in all, it appears that the legislators shall seek to mainly overhaul the Territorial Forces, which currently consist of part time volunteers that serve within their Realms and Dominions of origin, and turn into a much larger force. Another major change is that conscripts can expect to serve far, very far from their home Realm or Dominion and is clearly aimed at balancing out the Imperial defensive capabilities, which currently see themselves overstretched in some areas while units are left with nothing to do in other areas.

“The HZ Fever on Mars and the often ambiguous position of the Empire vis-à-vis of its theoretical allies has prompted the Imperial authorities to completely rethink its defensive doctrine. The new TNDF shall seek to establish a strong conscript based defensive force, mobilisable on short notice, freeing up professional and career units for a whole array of other operations and missions,” commented Alexei Durov, from the Vigvar Center for Strategic Studies. “Recent developments have shown that the Empire can not always count on regional defensive treaties to defend its assets. A bigger Imperial military can be the answer. One also has to take into account that the drastic boost in manpower size shall also entail soaring military expenditures, all while creating new jobs in the military-industrial complex to outfit the new units. It is a two-edged knife and how well the authorities manage it shall reflect upon the Imperial military might in the coming years.”

The points left to work out are the exact modalities of service, such as terms, payment, social guarantees and benefits. A whole new administrative structure shall be established to ensure the good functioning of the upcoming enlarged National Defence Forces. Public opinion polls indicate that Imperial citizens are generally in favour of mandatory service, but many respondents withhold judgment until hearing more about the exact modalities of service.

Historically, mandatory service has been abolished under Grand Duke Mikhail I during a massive overhaul of the sometimes unwieldy Taraskovyan military and an all-volunteer professional army has been established. Less than a century later, conscription is knocking back on the citizen’s door.

From the Various Media Or Something:

Atlantic Islander Police Enforce Imperial Religion Statutes

In a show of great competence and growing independence from Imperial law enforcing institutions and the Atlantic Islander contingent of the Security and Quarantine Forces, Atlantic Islander state and city police departments moved to enforce the Imperial Statute on Religious Freedom on several occasions this week. The raids, varying in intensive and means employed, targeted several sects and cults, some of which face restrictions on public worship as per Imperial legislation, while others are banned outright and may even constitute criminal offences.

Enforcing the ban on public worship, police units have intervened to stop illegal gatherings of Judaists and Mahomettans, shutting down some improvised synagogues and mosques and arresting wannabe rabbis and imams. Previously, all public worship places of the two cults in the archipelago were terminated by Imperial authorities that oversaw the administration of the territories, with heavy use of Security and Quarantine troops. OKV soldiers have at times been accused of adopting an overly heavy handed approach. Local police forces also enforced a similar ban on a gathering of Sirithilists. Sirithilism falls under the “personality cults” section of the Statute and, thus, is also subject to a public worship ban.

In a separate development, scores of people were arrested for practicing cults subject to a complete ban with criminal consequences. Amongst the various immoral and otherwise inhuman sects and practices of local origin (sparked by the immoral decadence of the Allanean society in general), a bit of a worrying trend can be seen in the establishment on the archipelago of some other banned sects from other parts of the Empire.

Police indicate that they have terminated a conversion cell of the Quoan’dal est Ure, a Tavaroth-borne religious sect that is banned by Imperial authorities and which is conducting regular armed attacks against Imperial security forces within the Southern Province of the United Provinces of Tavaroth.

In another worrying development, local police and specially dispatched National Security agents apprehended a priest of the banned Cult of Akbaa. This ancestral and barbaric sect first appeared thousands of years ago as a marginal cult practiced by some Tarathians and is subject to continued persecution from various Taraskovyan authorities over the years.

The Atlantic Islander government has stated that it will continue to enforce Imperial legislation on religious freedoms now that it has gained all the competent instruments to do so. Imperial authorities have expressed their satisfaction with the efficiency and loyalty proven by the firmly established local law enforcement agencies. However, the National Security Ministry shall reinforce its presence within the Realm as to ensure that it does not become a new safe haven for all sorts of banned sects.

Excuse me, but what is this about? I don't get it, at all. I read through it, but it just doesn't make sense to me....

Excuse me, but what is this about? I don't get it, at all. I read through it, but it just doesn't make sense to me....

OOC: It's just a "random events" thread for my nation, as the thread says. The nation itself is huge, federalised, complicated and does not always make sense.

As such, I shall take your post as a compliment.

From the April's Fools Day Lack of Inspiration

The Final Solution to the Elvish Problem

Recent tensions in between the nationalist Ros and Noldor communities in Imperial megapolis conglomerations have led to an increase in calls for the Imperial authorities to solve the problem once and for all by removing the irritating pointy-eared presence from the face of the Empire.

Today, the call wes heeded by Imperial Order #1337, which specifies:
That all pointy ears of Noldor, Sindarin and related origins be compelled to wear burkhas at all times when going outside. This extends to both males, females and those who spent too much time in Knootoss, too.
That a yellow-and-black emblem stylised along the general lines of Noldor heraldry be worn atop the burkhas at all times. Those who spent too much time in Knootoss can opt for rainbow by making a written request.
That all areas outside their homes are now forbidden to the pointy eared, thus making the above two points kind of moot, since they can't go out anyway.

Elements from the Security and Quarantine Forces shall provide backing to the local Gendarmerie forces in ensuring the Imperial Order #1337 is abided to by all.

Finally, sensible legislation.

Citadel of Var-Gellath, Fiefdom of Kethar, United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia

Despite all the expansion and annexations Taraskovya has carried out throughout generations, its very heart, its very core always consisted of the two original landmasses: Dakathia and Cardinia. And as close as they were together, so they were completely different. Dakathia, even if mountaneous, had great plains and hills covering infinite areas. It was the part of Taraskovya that came to be the most urbanized and settled.

On the other hand, Cardinia, already much smaller than Dakathia, is furthermore reduced in habitable space by its tall mountains. The Cardinian Spine, with its lowest peaks towering thousands of kilometers above sea level, stretches through the entire landmass. Major settlements are concentrated mostly along the coast, such as the gigantic Ekaterinburg megapolis on the end of the Cardinian gulf.

Cardinia was also the start of the Taraskovyan state. Lord Uidath’s estates were in Cardinia and it was here that he built his coalition. In Taraskovya’s collective imagination, Cardinia shall forever remain a land of snowy peaks and icy mystery, nursing its secrets deep beneath sturdy cliffs.

The valley of the Norath-Tanlikhet, by the name of the river that flows through it, is one of such places of mystery. Barely inhabited, with some ski resorts and minor villages resting a the feet of tall mountains, it offers a picture of peace. And yet, it’s very name means “Endless Yells” in old Tarathian. It was in this valley that thousands of years ago, during the Eternal War of the Taraskath against a coalition of Sethar, Kethar and Amalori, that Kash Khat won his first and greatest victory against the enemy, at the service of his Lord Uidath.

A great host of Kethari soldiers was tricked, ambushed and butchered. Their yells filled the valley for several days. Lord Uidath, impressed, transferred lordship of the valley from the less capable local lord to Kash, who founded the citadel of Var-Gellath. The translation has been lost to time, however. Today, the Lord of Var-Gellath is none else than Ithun Khat, Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Taraskovyan Empire.

Nowadays, the citadel is a mixture of antic style with up to date comfort technologies. It is fully heated, warm and cosy. And boasts a domed observation platform from which the entire valley can be admired. Indeed, Taraskath citadels were often built in the form of spires (often actually carved out of well placed peaks), with several towers protruding from the central dungeon. In Var-Gellath, one of the towers was “defortified” and turned into a cosily furnitured platform, enclosed in a dome in such a manner that one could walk to the edge of the platform without bumping his head against sturdy glass or armature.

That particular night was also the first time Ithun Khat brought his lover, one Angelina Ormond, to visit the citadel. And, of course, nothing could replace the view of the star-covered night time skies and the silver valley bellow.

Looking out at the view spread out before her, Angelina tried to take in as much as possibly, though as many a sightseer knows, there was just too much to take in. Her eyes flicked from the star filled sky to the valley below, her lips slightly parted in appreciation of nature’s beauty before her. Finally, she turned away from the view, her gaze falling on her companion.

“This is truly stunning,” she managed to mutter through her smile.

“I hoped you’d like it,” Ithun said, his eyes resting upon the woman. “And I am pleased you do like it. Does prove that blunt Taraskovyan combat parachutists can be romantic, does it not?”

He laughed lightly, directing his gaze to the other side of the glass and armatures supporting it and sighing pensively.

“This citadel, this valley is where my family came from. This is our nest. A really high perched one at that, too. I am glad to have finally been able to bring you here.”

Angelina took a step forward and reached for Ithun’s hand, her fingers entwining with his. “I am delighted that you brought me here. The more I see of your history, the more I feel I know you.” Her fingers tightened in a tender squeeze.

His own fingers tightened back around her palm, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand.

“I am glad you are so enthusiastic. My parents and sister shall be arriving tomorrow, so it shall be far less quiet than it is right now,” he said with a grin, before releasing her hand and guiding her over to one of the tables, by which several comfy arm chairs were located. On the table was a wooden box, finely crafted and decorated.

“But… I have a sort of a surprise for you. Pray, be seated.”

A slight look of surprise passed over the young woman’s face, but was quickly replaced with a smile. “Two surprises? You are spoiling me.” She let herself be led to the chair and took a seat, her gaze taking in the box, before her attention returned to Ithun’s face.

“Indeed,” he said pensively, opening a box and revealing what appeared to be a long silver bracer. In a typically Taraskath fashion, it contained motives drawn with diamonds and sapphires, stemming from a central emblem in which Angelina would surely recognize the Khat family seal.

“Lina…” Ithun said, taking the bracer into his hands. “Do you know what this thing is?”

Eyes drawn to the item in Ithun’s hand, Angelina nodded her head. “I believe I do, but I’m sure I’ve never seen one quite so ornate,” she replied, before once more meeting her lover’s eyes with her own. “At least, not one that was not behind glass.”

“Then you surely know the meaning of the neisharekh.” He smiled as he undid the little locks holding it together and opened it. “For thousands of years my ancestors have exchanged the neisharekh bearing the emblems of their mutual families to symbolize their free union. And even if the moods and trends have evolved, the symbolism remains.”

He paused for a second, smiling. “Angelina Ormond, do you agree to be my wife, mother to my children, daughter to my parents?”

It was only at his words, that the true meaning of the item finally fell into place, possibly because she had not been expecting it. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, as her heart pounded loudly in her ears. A smile grew on her lips, making it even more impossible to form the word that she wanted. Settling momentarily on a nod, which she found she could manage quite easily, she stood before Ithun, her eyes locked firmly to his.

“Yes,” she murmured softly, as her lips began to work again. “I would be honoured to be your wife.” The rest she realised would be accepted in those words.

Ithun did not say a word as he leaned to press his lips against hers for a moment. He then kneeled in front of his future wife and locked the bracelet above her ankle, which fitted perfectly and contained an interior layer of satin. In a corner of his mind, he was delighted to have taken the right measurements during Angelina’s sleep quite some time ago.

He then lifted the hem of her skirt a bit to place a soft kiss upon her knee, before standing up and smiling at the woman.

“Thank you, Lina,” was all that he said.

From the Random News Media

Defence Treaty with Kajal Ratified


The Imperial Senate has formally ratified the defence treaty tying the Taraskovyan Empire to the Federated Imperium of Kajal. Having already been ratified by the Imperial Duma, the text shall now go to the Emperor’s Council for study and recommendation to the Vasilevs on whether to veto the text or not. This, however, is only a formality as His Most August Majesty is not expected to veto a treaty his very own government negotiated.

Following the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar, the Federated Imperium of Kajal is another state that has previously enjoyed close cooperation with the Empire and now sees a formal defence agreement established. The network of Imperial bi-lateral treaties, which became a priority after the Imperial Government became disillusioned with collective security organizations.

From the Random News Media

Sacred Citadel of Zynthris Passes Under Imperial Jurisdiction

All of the high templars of the Seven Deities and the Vasilevs of all Taraskovya have signed an agreement which shall cancel the sovereign status of the Sacred Citadel of Zynthris and place the massive city-state under Imperial jurisdiction in the form of a Dominion, with extensive self-government and autonomous rights. The Sacred Citadel, administered by the Order of the Seven Deities (the military branch and overall leadership of the Church of the Seven Deities) as a sovereign state, was confined to its current borders by the Treaty of Uiliath centuries ago, which stripped the Order of massive territorial holdings in Cardinia in favour of the then Grand Duchy of Taraskovya.

Nowadays, the independent existence of the Order is terminated and it shall be progressively assimilated by Imperial authorities. For now, the Order shall continue to maintain armed forces independent from the TNDF and recruited from Tarathian faithful of the Empire. However, the Order shall pass under overall military authority of the Vasilevs and shall from here on cooperate extensively with the National Defence Forces.

“The Order holds extensive knowledge in less conventional and technological means than employed by the NVO,” commented Alexei Durov, from the Vigvar Center for Strategic Studies. “Means employed by the Order can be very helpful to the Imperial military, and I shall namely point out instant transport means the secret of which the Order has kept dearly for decades.”

The apparent docility of the Order in particular and the Church of the Seven Deities in general surprised many. But with rumours abounding about a future promotion of the Taraskovyan Orthodox Church and the Church of the Seven Deities to the status of Imperial State Churches appears to have appeased the more radicalized branches of the Order, and namely the followers of Sathala, the Tarathian Goddess of War and Passion, who account for the majority of the Order’s offensive capability.

The followers of Sathala, however, have been known to rebel against political and church leadership which they considered heretical. During the Plague, the followers supported Archduchess Anastasia, a faithful of the Seven Deities, in her struggle against the now Vasilevs Mikhail for the Taraskovyan throne. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Sacred Citadel, and most importantly sectors and compounds held by the Wraiths have been invested by units from the National Security Ministry, supported by the Security and Quarantine Forces of the Imperial military.

From the Random News Media

Empire Extends Full Jurisdiction Over Omeldor-1

With the continued inability of Taraskovya's SFN allies to guarantee the security and safety of Imperial denizens on Omeldor-1, the Imperial Veche has officially passed an Imperial Statute extending full Imperial jurisdiction over Omeldor-1 (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/omeldor_1.html), making the entirety of the craftworld an Imperial Dominion. Imperial officers have taken under their command the various units and teams tasked with running the craftworld as OKV units reinforced potential trouble spots in areas inhabited by non-Taraskovyans.

[...snip a bigger article I am too lazy to type out...]

VerTech Loses Major Army Bid

The new standard issue assault rifle of the National Defence Forces shall be produced by Sortavalan Ase- ja Konepaja (SAKO) and not by one of the daughter companies of the VerTech Conglomerate, ending more than a century of VerTech's monopole in the field of army general use firearms. The contract for billions of assault rifle units in several modifications has been officially signed, even if the Army reserves the right to switch to the design proposed by Donarev's Armories (part of the VerTech Conglomerate) if SAKO fails to come up with sufficient production capacities.

However, SAKO's management has already announced that it would team up with Cardinian SGArms and Atlantic Islander Integrated Land Systems, two important military-industrial companies outside of the VerTech Conglomerate, to deliver the firearms within the schedule fixed by the armed forces.

From the Random News Media

OKV’s Patrol Service Is Given Green Light

After months of planning and deliberation, the Security and Quarantine Forces finally see themselves gifted with a whole new specialized branch – the Patrol Service. The need for an Imperial unified service to patrol interplanetary and other space trading lanes, as well as to enforce Imperial Law and Order in orbit and beyond, has been apparent for a long time now. Indeed, until this moment, such tasks were taken on by regional police forces and the Imperial military, the latter one furthermore involving not only the OKV (SQF) units, but also UDAV (Engagement Forces) units and formations.

Within the Solar System, for example, such missions were carried out by a whole myriad of police forces only. And whilst some realms had Realm-level police forces to deal with the matters (like the Royal Orbital Gendarmerie of Nyi-Gardarika), others had none (in theory, whatever Fiefdom Gendarmerie of Dakathia-Cardinia was closest was responsible, with the myriad of problems that it posed). Some realms, like Atlantic Isles, did not even have any orbital enforcement capacities at all, delegating it in this case to Dakathia-Cardinia, which in turn had the aforementioned issues.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Namellar/GDT/PSOKV.png
The OKV’s Patrol Service’s badge, formed by the addition of stylised wings
to the OKV’s “skull and barbed wire” insignia. Some have questioned the use
of OKV's symbolism for the Service.

The status quo pleased no one. Realm and Dominion police forces often had little orbital means to deploy in their presumed sectors of responsibility, whilst the military often had to spare combat assets whose overwhelming firepower often equaled to shooting a mosquito with an orbital bombardment platform.

But no more. The Empire’s renowned OKV, the dread of all insurgents, terrorists and other troublemakers, have been given wings in the form of a specialized Patrol Service. The new structure shall have law enforcement powers in areas earlier managed by the compilation of actors stated above. And, whilst remaining part of the armed forces, the Patrol Service shall enjoy the full privileges of a regular police force. This combination is explained by the "police federalism" of the Empire, with in the end the OKV being the closest to an all-Imperial law enforcement force.

“This is great news for all,” commented Alexei Durov, of the Vigvar Center for Strategic Studies. “There is now a clear service with a clear mandate that shall be equipped with assets proper to its tasks. This is yet another step in the continued strengthening of Imperial authority and, thus, can only be welcomed by all.”

The first units of the Patrol Service shall be drawn in from other branches of the military, but will very rapidly specialize in interception, boarding and interdiction operations. The Service shall operate from both stationary and mobile patrol stations and shall have an important fleet of fighters and other spacecraft required for its activities. The emblem of the new Service has already been approved by the National Defence Forces and is based on the OKV's "skull and barbed wire" emblem that saw the addition of two stylised wings. Whilst some question the use of the OKV symbolism, destined to intimidate foes that are usually non-Imperial citizen, for what amounts to a police force, others find that it fits the new structure's identity perfectly.

Article from the Empire's Diaries:

We Talk Alone: Utharians Secede From The Dutch Language

It has many names: the Kartoffelkorner, Dutch Taraskovya, Southern Fiefdoms. The territories became Taraskovyan after the annexation of the corporate state of Vortex Corporation into the then Grand Duchy of Taraskovya. Uthar, Vyshna and Southern Cardinia are three Fiefdoms of the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia are inhabited almost exclusively by speakers by what was until now considered as the Utharian dialect of the Dutch language. This status was enshrined in the Nederlandse Taalunie, presided by the Dutch Democratic Republic of Knootoss and in which the Taraskovyan Empire participates. Or participated until very recently as due to the latest developments from the Kartoffelkorner, that participation might have been made pointless.

Indeed, it has come as little surprise to many Utharians that the leading linguists of the ancient and renowned University of Uthar have come to the conclusion that Utharians speak their own language standard, however close it might be to Dutch. According to leading professors, the long history of separate development, the consequent grammatical differences in between Utharian and Dutch standards makes it hard to consider them a same language.

Utharian, not Dutch

Following the report by the University of Uthar, lawmakers in the local Fiefdom legislatures in Uthar, Vyshna and Southern Cardinia have put forward amendments to local Fiefdom constitutions to replace the list of regional official languages from “Russian, Dutch, Tarathian” to “Russian, Utharian, Tarathian”. Once passed by the legislatures, the amendments shall be subject to a referendum within the aforementioned Fiefdoms. And, according to poll information available to the Empire’s Diaries, an overwhelming majority of Utharians would support the move.

However, whilst to many they shall seem symbolic, these amendments shall pose a number of very practical problems. Namely as to who will regulate the new language standard. For now, the Nederlandse Taalcommissie of the Taraskovyan Academy of Sciences was the Imperial linguistic authority that represented Taraskovyan Dutch-speakers in the Nederlandse Taalunie. However, since the Utharians decided that they speak their own language, the only Taraskovyan Dutch-speakers remaining are those in the Europolis Isles, a former Knootian colony that is now part of the Taraskovyan Empire. With its three million denizens, the Isles hardly justify the continued existence of the Nederlandse Taalcommissie.

It is possible that the Dutch Language Commission of the Taraskovyan Academy of Sciences, already staffed by linguists from Uthar, shall become the Utharian Language Commission. In which case the Taraskovyan Empire shall stop playing any role in the shaping of the Dutch language to concentrate purely and entirely on the Utharian Language.

Not Much Change In Taraskovya

On the interior level, however, not much is going to really change. Whilst Utharian children were taught the written Dutch language and written Dutch grammar rules, their oral speech was clearly Utharian. A form of diglossia similar to the Setharian one, where the spoken language is High Tarathian, whilst the written language is the standard Tarathian. Now Utharian children shall be taught written Utharian grammar.

The TNDF has already long since been publishing its information in “Utharian”, and not “Dutch”. Outside all political aims, the military simply used the dialect as it was spoken and understood by its servicemen, not by some linguists far, far away.


T.A.S. To Consider Its Options

The Taraskovyan Academy of Sciences has stated that it shall reconsider the continued Taraskovyan participation in the Nederlandse Taalunie following the new developments. This, however, might contravene with bilateral treaties in between the Taraskovyan Empire and the Dutch Democratic Republic of Knootoss, which foresaw the establishment of the Dutch Language Union in the first place.

It is also not clear what the reaction from Knootoss will be at seeing a portion of the Dutch language declare its independence from the Mothertongue.

From the Random News Media

Veche Rejects Lifting the "Fast Food Ban"

The Imperial Veche has rejected the lifting of the so-called "Fast Food Ban". The package of laws, ordinances and decrees removed all practice of "fast food" from Taraskovyan territory. However, some deem that the ban has been hurting the economy and costing a lot of time and money to businesses as their employees had to resort to going to normal restaurants instead of catching a snack quickly and going back to work.

Taraskovya's medical circles, however, were adamant about the usefullness of the ban and lobbied hard for the Veche to keep it in place. It appears that the doctors won the day as the "fast food ban" is set to endure in the Empire for a while.

Article from the Empire's Diaries:

Taraskovyan-VERITAS Relations into the Freezer after New Trenton Fiasco

The negotiations on the future status of New Trenton, held in Isasrach, itself temporarily “docked” at New Boston, ended up in a complete and utter failure for the Taraskovyan Empire as its own “friends and allies” hurled extensive amounts of criticism against Vigvar covering all imaginable fronts. And whilst nobody expected the discussions to be easy, it came as a complete and utter surprise to the Empire that the only VERITAS members present at the catastrophic meeting were those the Empire had either bilateral military pacts with, or blossoming economic and diplomatic ties. And it were those nations that formed a very agressive audience.

“A simple ‘No’ would have more than sufficed and the matter would have been closed with a negative outcome for the Empire. As simple as that. But our… allies… actually portrayed us as the root of all evil, as some sort of barbaric and backwards dictatorship whilst the Empire is far more progressive and free than the bunch of them. And that is completely and utterly unacceptable,” commented Ruslan Perkov, a high ranked Foreign Ministry official. “If we are so bad and rotten, then why did they sign those pacts with us?”

And this is a question that the Foreign Ministry and the Senatorial Foreign Affairs Committee shall have to ponder very thoroughly on as the Empire suddenly finds herself faced with a new reality: her friends and allies are not at all friendly.


What now?

The most logical question to ask is “What now?” The National Patriotic Christian Alliance and the more nationalist Conservative Party members of parliament shall surely push for a denunciation of the so-called “elf treaties”, the bilateral military pacts between the Taraskovyan Empire and each of Kajal, Menelmacar and the Necrontyr Empire. It is, however, extremely unlikely that the Veche shall follow such a line and this for a variety of reasons.

First of all, New Trenton is simply not worth the bother. The case was a largely symbolic one for the Empire, one seeking to restore what Taraskovya considered as an unjust affront to her interests.

The second reason is far more mundane. Objectively, New Trenton is backwater chunk of Martian desert, abandoned and neglected for years and years by the government of New York and New Jersey. It is simply not worth going into economic and political wars over.

Finally, the third reason is that despite that one fiasco, relations otherwise have been rather cordial. Moreover, it comes out from the official position of the Empire that the greatest problem in the “New Trenton fiasco” is not the rejection of the Empire’s claim, but the amount of strong-worded criticism hurled against Taraskovya by her “allies”.

Thus, the Empire’s reaction to the latest event is far from being clear, but it does appear that the “political extremists” shall not have a say in the matter. The standing pacts and treaties shall, thus, be maintained. From that point on, one can only speculate on what the Empire shall do, if doing anything at all, because a “sit back and do absolutely nothing” approach is not being excluded, either.

However, the Empire has already explicitly stated that it shall retain its right to veto any cession of the buffer zone next to the Nyi-Gardarikan province of Dajdbog it does not agree to, as established by previous arrangements between the then Grand Duchy of Taraskovya and the then central government of New York and New Jersey.



VERITAS Direction in a Dead End

But it does, however, appear that the pro-VERITAS direction of the past few years has come into a dead end and grinded to a full and complete halt. The Empire did not adhere to the three VERITAS pacts out of concerns over several articles that she could simply not abide by. And it is a firm Taraskovyan point of view that pacta sunt servanda, and the Empire would never sign up beneath something she would then disrespect.

“In between the Taraskovyan Empire and New Trenton, the VERITAS member states have made their choice,” Ruslan Perkov resumed.

As far as the individual members are concerned, the Imperial Chancellor did state that the “promising vectors” that were Austar Union and Tiburon would not be explored further. However, Anna Muraviev-Apostol did implicitly suggest that a rejection by these two states of the aggressive stance of Kajal, Menelmacar and the C’tani would help change the current dispositions.

Shalbatana Daily News
Shalbatana News Service, Kitharmani Office

<VERITAS Fallout leads to Mass Migration>

KITHARMANI, MARS > With the recent dramatic change in political climate between the Federated Imperium and Taraskovya, the Office of Customs and Immigration has noted a large increase in the number of Kajali citizens returning from Taraskovyan territories.

Many have cited an increasingly hostile environment within the former Kajali territories that were ceded to Taraskovya many years ago as a reason for their departure to Kajal Mars proper, while others claim that Taraskovyan authorities have attempted to contest their Kajali citizenship and prohibit Kajali citizens from leaving the territories in question without serving in the Taraskovyan military complex or paying hefty fines in the name of taxation. While many citizens are able to pay these fines and renounce Taraskovyan citizenship, those that are unwilling or unable to comply with such measures have also fled the territories and the Office of Foreign Relations have reported recieving several preliminary filings for extradition.

Read More? [Full Article|Return to News]

A lovely scenic beach lost in the middle of the gigantic Taraskovyan Empire

“I did not know you were such a romantic man, Mikhail,” Helen said as she shifted a little to cuddle up against the Vasilevs lying on the sand right next to her. He did not answer anything to just not ruin the moment. As he’d surely have answered with one of his jokes and that was simply not the right moment.

And so he simply smiled as the two watched the sun setting on the horizon. Mikhail and Helen were in their bathing suits, wet from the swimming done just before. In fact, the pile of scuba diving gear not far from them suggested that the two had just done an interesting excursion to admire the submarine life around the island. The waters were so warm that the two did not need any wetsuits to shelter them from the cold. In fact, there was not so much scuba gear to speak of. The masks, the weights, the fins (Mikhail loved old fashioned fin propulsion). There were no bottles to speak of, Taraskovyan divers have since long moved on to sophisticated mechanisms that made air from water, thus allowing divers to stay beneath the water pretty much endlessly.

They were completely alone on that warm scenic beach of the island with the most lovely name of Schiermonnikoog. It was a small island, administratively part of the Fiefdom of Vyshna and located in the tropical belt of the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia. For all purposes, however, the island was part of the informal private demesne of the Vasilevs as one of his favourite resorts.

Which was why the Emperor and his Princess were all alone on the beach. The only denizens of the island were members of the staff attending to local installations and contingent of the leib guards, who ensured the Emperor his full privacy. No tourist or visitor was allowed on the island. Neither were any of Helen’s chaperones or maids of honour or whatnot, Mikhail issued a strict personal order to that matter.

But unfortunately for him, Helen did not need any chaperones to keep her from surrendering herself to the Taraskovyan Emperor. She kissed him, allowed him to caress her and fondle her lovely forms, but each time his hands strayed a bit far too south, she would bring them all the way up north. And Mikhail could not understand whether he was more amused or frustrated by that. He never had any problems with women, after all, generally finding them quite cooperative in such matters.

“You have always gone the path of simplicity,” he remembered her saying once. “As Emperor, you had no trouble finding beautiful women ready to surrender to you without any effort from your part. I am not like that. I won't surrender to any man, except my husband.”

One thing was for certain: that Princess was one of a kind. And she made her mark on the Vasilevs’es mind. He was not madly in love with her, but he enjoyed her company and, of course, desired her. What she felt for him was for now shrouded in mystery. She appeared sincere, but at times Mikhail did wonder whether she was not simply fulfilling the mission of getting married to the Taraskovyan Emperor implicitly assigned to her by Emperor Andreus I of Pantocratoria.

And as these thoughts were in his mind, his hands roamed a bit over Helen’s body And as usual, one of those hands was soon taken by her own and brought to rest on her waist. The Vasilevs smirked and rolled to the side, placing the woman beneath him as he leaned down and stared her into the eyes.

“Sometimes I wonder why should I not just disregard any potential resistance,” he whispered softly.

“Because you're a gentleman... and you don't want just my body, do you?” she whispered back with a smile, before reaching up to place a soft kiss on his lips.

Mikhail just smirked again, sighed and shook his head as he rested back on the towel, staring up into the quickly darkening sky. She cuddled up against him again and the two just lay there, staring at the stars as they began appearing high above them.

* * *

OOC: Proofread and authorised to publishing by Pantocratoria.

From the Random News Media

Veche Lifts Restrictions on Foreign Defence Contractors

The Imperial Duma has followed the lead of the Imperial Senate in ratifying a series of amendments to laws restricting the involvement of foreign defence companies in the supplying and equipping of the National Defence Forces as well as local law enforcement agencies and Imperial security services personnel. Until now, only Taraskovyan companies, or foreign companies owned by Taraskovyan ones, were allowed to supply the more important items to the military, law enforcement and security services. Foreign defence contractors could only supply a limited range of equipment, mostly of support and logistics role.

Once the amendments in question take effect, foreign defence companies shall be allowed to put forward any type of product for consideration by the military, law enforcement or security services personnel. However, a foreign contractor shall have to first be vetted by the Senate’s Armed Forces Committee. A number of criteria shall have to be met, such as originating from a state that is neutral or friendly towards the Empire. The amendments shall now go to the Emperor's Council for review and a potential recommendation for Imperial Veto. The Vasilevs is not expected to veto the new law.

On the interior level, this will open up the extremely lucrative Taraskovyan arms market to extended competition. Right now, the VerTech Conglomerate controls the overwhelming majority of the sector through its numerous daughter companies. Analysts believe that whilst it is uncertain that foreign contractors shall be able to independently present their own products right away, they could enter into consortiums with the non-VerTech Taraskovyan military contractors, such as SAKO or SGArms.

For now, the only foreign suppliers of the National Defence Forces are Lossë-Elen, Northrop-Grumman and FDI. No foreign company is present on the law enforcement and security services market. With the continued build up of the Territorial Defence Forces, the conscript branch of the National Defence Forces, aiming to reach the mark of a billion citizen soldiers, the Empire is investing heavily in the military sector. However, local police forces and Imperial security services are also in expansion as the Empire continues to grow territorially and demographically. Some analysts speculate that the Veche's decision to relax constraints on foreign contractors can be explained by concerns about a possible “overheating” of the Taraskovyan military-industrial complex in the face of the exploding mid-term demand for military hardware.

The Imperial arms market, thus, looks to expand considerably even once the TDF buildup is completed, with purchase costs replaced by maintenance and upgrade costs.

A tranquil garden offering lots of privacy

He smiled as he admired her body moving graciously beneath the early morning sun, drops of sweat sparkling in the light. She was not first he saw like that, but Helen just had this aura of majesty around her that made her extremely special. However, what she had in aura of majesty she completely and utterly lacked in skill.

“Do time your movements with my thrusts,” he said calmly.

She grimaced and frowned at him as she drew back a bit.

“This is not something an Imperial princess does in her days,” she said, exhaling heavily.

“Then learn,” he said. “It is never a bad time to learn something new.”

And then his sword whirled around hers in a disarming motion. She failed to hold the grip and her training blade flew off into a bush of roses. The Vasilevs then lowered his own exercise sword, without doing the cliché “throat pointing” routine. He looked her top to down, admiring her in the training outfit.

“You are dead, dearheart.”

“You are supposed to court me, not kill me,” she said with a light giggle as she picked up a bottle of water and drank some. “What would my uncle say if you returned me dead?”

“He’d surely declare war,” Mikhail said as he arched an eyebrow, staring at the rose bush that now housed the wooden training sword. He’ll let the gardeners retrieve it. After all, they were paid generously to upkeep the gardens. “But…” he looked back at her and allowed himself a smile “… I have other plans for you. Much more pleasant ones.”

From the Random News Media

OKV Gets Law Enforcement Powers in Far Flung Domains

In a landmark decision, the Vasilevs of all Taraskovya has decided by Edict that elements of the Security and Quarantine Forces (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=TNDF#Security_and_Quarantine_Forces) dislocated within the Imperial Dominions under the Vasilevs’es direct jurisdiction shall have the right to enforce law upon civilians within those Dominions. Until now, the SQF could only intervene in support of local police forces as decided by Imperial and local authorities. Exception, of course, made of the SQF’s Patrol Service (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=SQF_Patrol_Service), a semi-independent interplanetary and interstellar police force nominally part of the Security and Quarantine Forces.

Until now, due to the decentralized traditions of policing, with regional police forces responsible for maintaining law and order within their areas of responsibility, some outlying Imperial domains had hardships maintaining a qualified local police force, funded and equipped according to Imperial standards. Such domains by default receive the status of Crown Colonies, thus administered by the Vasilevs, through governors that he appoints. A solution was found through the dispatchment of policemen from more prosperous Realms and Dominions. A solution that has often led to certain logistical and organizational problems.

No more, it seems. As the SQF units are deployed in every single corner of the Empire and do receive training in policing operations, they came to be the logical choice to maintain law in order in territories without local police forces. However, the measure is not without its critics as some already voice their opposition to a move that, according to them, erases the until now clearly defined line between the military forces and the civilian law enforcement agencies.

The Parliament of the Taraskovyan Empire is officially called the Veche of the Taraskovyan Empire, or Imperial Veche for short. It consists of three chambers, namely the Emperor’s Council, the Imperial Senate and the Imperial Duma. Of these, the latter two are elected, either on a proportional basis for the Senate, or on a basis of single member constituencies for the Duma. The Emperor’s Councillor’s are appointed by the Vasilevs of all Taraskovya at his own discretion, albeit the total number is limited to just over fifty and there is a quota of Councillors per Imperial Realm.

In terms of powers, the Emperor’s Council is a largely “consultative” chamber, in the manner that it proofreads legislation passed by the elected chambers and recommends them for the Imperial Veto in cases were they deem that such a veto is necessary. In Taraskovya, laws do not need the “royal assent” to pass. Unless the Vasilevs vetoes them, they are considered as valid. On the other hand, the Vasilevs has no time limit in which to use his supreme veto powers, which allows him to overturn laws, court rulings and administrative decisions of all Taraskovyan institutions, from the Imperial federal level to the municipal authorities (albeit the latter right remains theoretical and never used in practice as there are millions of municipalities throughout the Empire).

The Imperial Veche follows the acquired customs and traditions of the now disbanded Grand Ducal Parliament, which was the legislative authority for the Grand Duchy of Taraskovya and, thus, for the entirety of its Empire In Denial. The Grand Ducal Parliament gave birth to two institutions. First came the Royal Parliament of Dakathia and Cardinia, the United Kingdom of Dakathia and Cardinia being what the “Grand Duchy of Taraskovya proper” was “reformed” into to avoid confusion in between a Taraskovyan Grand Duchy and a Taraskovyan Empire.

Second came the Veche. And as in the Grand Ducal Parliament, it came to be that the Senate was more oriented on dealing with matters of the exterior, whilst the Duma pondered more on matters interior. As far as committees were concerned, anyway. It was, thus, the Senate which formed an Armed Forces Committee, charged with keeping tight contact with the Taraskovyan military and ensuring that it followed the wishes and desires of the Taraskovyan People. The wishes and desires that the Senators defended as democratically elected representatives of the People.

As of the year 1154, during the mandate of the Ist Imperial Veche, the Armed Forces Committee was composed of seventeen Senators, of which eleven hailed from the Loyalist Coalition, three from the National Patriotic Christian Alliance and three from the Left Wing Bloc. The Loyalist coalition furthermore was subdivided into nine members of the Conservative Party, one member of the Democratic Conservative Party and one member of the Christian Democratic Party. The Left Wingers were represented by two members of the Liberal Socialist Party and one member of the Social Democratic Union. The NPCA did not have the problem of needing to allow little coalition partners onto the bench as it was a party all in itself, more or less.

Quite expectedly, the Chairman of the Committee was a member of the Conservative Party, namely Senator Vladimir Vishnev of Dakathia and Cardinia, Duke of Zar et al. He and his colleagues sat behind a curved desk, which stood opposite a smaller desk by which sat the protagonists of the hearing. General-en-Chef Anton Dolohov, Operational Commander of the Mars Theatre and Kontr-Admiral Alexei Dabrianov, who were suspected by the Committee of having acted against the wishes of the Taraskovyan people during the recent stand off against the machine invasion fleet in the orbit of Mars. More precisely, the two high ranked officers were suspected of disregarding stand by orders and sacrificing needlessly the lives of Taraskovyan crews. Next to them was Special Representative Rear Admiral Maurice Franklin, FSPSN, who was summoned as a witness after the Committee requested that the Federation dispatches a representative to the hearing, as it was by assisting Federation assets that Taraskovyan lives were lost.

The hearing was held behind closed doors. There was no media present and all recordings made would be for the use by the Committee alone.

“Gentlemen, I propose that we begin. I wish to thank the Federation of Sentient Peoples through the Honorable Rear Admiral Franklin,” he nodded slightly in acknowledgement to the aforementioned person, “for answering positively to the Committee’s request. Now, before we begin, I wish to reiterate that this body is in no way comparable to a judicial authority and we are not a military tribunal. The role of this Committee is to ensure the legislative oversight over the National Defence Forces and ensure the continued military operation according to the wishes and desires of the Taraskovyan People. What conclusions we come to shall influence the further decisions of the Imperial Veche on the matter, as well as might trigger recommendations to the Genshtab and the Cabinet of Ministers.”

He paused for a moment, as his eyes fixed upon a screen in front of him, where he consulted some bits of information. The other committee members did the same.

“Pan General-en-Chef, let us begin with you. As the operational commander of the Mars theatre, you are the highest NVO military authority on the ground,” Vishnev fixed Dolohov with his eyes. “The first question shall be simple. Was there a direct and clear order emanating from the Vasilevs himself to stand by, unless there was an immediate threat to the lives of Taraskovyan citizens and to the security of Taraskovyan interests?”

“There was such an order,” Dolohov said coldly, his eyes looking back at the Chairman of the Committee.

“You and Kontr-Admiral Dabrianov here present are suspected of disregarding this order and ordering a detachment of the Mars Theatre Orbital Group to engage into the hostilities. What can you say on this matter?”

“That as per tradition and customs, as well as because of operational needs on the ground, the National Defence Forces recognizes the importance of the so-called frontlines initiative, in which a local commander has the right to widely interpret orders,” Dolohov responded.

“I can only agree with my colleague,” Dabrianov spoke up. “The Mars Theatre Orbital Group remained on stand by throughout the hostilities. We did not engage the enemy.”

“However, Taraskovyan lives were lost in combat,” intervened Senator Petr Petrov, another senator from Dakathia and Cardinia and member of the National Patriotic Christian Alliance, the nationalist right wing group in Parliament. “Whether you directly engaged the enemy or not is irrelevant. Pan General-en-Chef, please remind us of the main purpose of the National Defence Forces.”

The tone of the nationalist senator was far more aggressive than the calm and balanced speech of his conservative colleague. For the NPCA, the fact that Taraskovyan soldiers died in defence of some kamikaze foreigners was simply unacceptable.

“Our first and foremost purpose is national defence,” Dolohov replied as calmly and coldly as he did earlier.

“Yes, I wish to stress the word national,” Petrov said. “Was at any point, with the overabundance of Mars-bourne defensive fleets in the orbit of the planet, national safety under threat from the enemy?”

“By the time I ordered the aforementioned detachment into action, there was no longer any direct threat to the national safety of the Taraskovyan Empire,” Dolohov stated blankly and truthfully.

“Thank you, pan Senator,” Vishnev intervened, sensing that Petrov would eventually erupt into his trademark passionate tirade about the greatness of the Empire, especially when it gets foreigners to die in her defence. “Pan General-en-Chef, the overly detailed reports from the automated information gathering systems of your ships indicate that the detachment of barrier and defence frigates, as well as an important number of fighter and gunship escorts, was sent into the battle without precise orders. What did you expect to achieve by doing so?”

“You already know of the massive enemy missile strike upon pretty much anything within range and sometimes even beyond,” Dolohov responded, continuing to maintain his composure. “My goal was to reinforce the foreign assets in dealing the termination of the missile threat to ensure that none would endanger Imperial safety. By the time the order was given, a number of Patrol Service craft and civilian shipping was lost to the hail of missiles. Some even managed to reach the Orbital Group, but were swiftly terminated by our protective systems.”

“And why not use these protective systems to protect the aforementioned Patrol Service and civilian craft instead of foreign ships?” enquired Senator Petrov.

“Because,” Kontr-Admiral Dabrianov responded, “the barrier shields we project have two sides. The projective and the deflective. The projective side allows for energy and mass to pass through it, whilst the deflective does not. Albeit physical objects traveling at extremely slow speeds are able to pass through it. In brief, if we began projecting barrier shields left and right, we would have downed far more civilian and PS OKV craft than the missiles did.”

The disgruntled senator leaned back into his chair and frowned, crossing his arms on his chest. Senator Vishnev nodded to Dabrianov and then fixed his gaze upon the representative of the Federation of Sentient Peoples. And a considering gaze it was.

As a Rear Admiral, he had seen action plenty of times, and more specifically, he had been in command of the S.P.S.S. Iron Sunset, the Fleet Base which had been destroyed during the battle. The Senators were fully aware of that qualification and even Senator Petrov somehow seemed subdued, displaying little of the aggressiveness he showed towards the General-en-Chef just minutes ago.

The scarring on the Rear Admiral’s face from where his helmet had melted when a particular intense plasma flare had cut to the heart of the station, and the fact that his right arm was missing from the elbow, would have told the tale anyway. The regeneration treatments were beginning to take hold if one examined him closely, as evidence of new, scar-free skin could be seen on his face.

He was dressed almost informally, given the situation, in just the regular dark blue and black dress uniform of the Federation Space Navy. His beret was folded neatly on the table in front of him, slightly off to the side, and the rows of ribbon bars gleamed faintly with a couple of new additions – the Survivor’s Pin, and a third tiny sword emblazoned onto the ribbon of the Bloodied Cross, representing this as the fourth time Maurice Franklin had been wounded in combat.

The Rear Admiral whose command had died under the withering fire of the Fleetmind Kara’s invasion force calmly returned the Senator’s gaze and awaited the questions he knew would come about five hours of his life he would never forget, about a day when next to a quarter million sentients in Federation uniform gave their lives for a planet already drenched in blood.

“Pan Kontr-Admiral,” Senator Vishnev began, “the Committee would like to hear from you personally on how you and those under your command were ordered into the battle above Mars. Namely whether your superiors or you had an exact plan of action, how that plan of action was developed and when, what were your orders and what were your goals.”

When the man finally spoke, his voice was grating, slightly strained. Apparently, the injuries had not been limited to cosmetic damage. Only because of the quick reaction Sunset retrieval ships was he there to speak with the Senate Committee – any slower response and he would have been dead. Another age would have called the mere fact that he survived a miracle, and there were some doctors still privately of that opinion.

“The standing orders of FSPSN forces at Mars are first to defend the Federation’s Martian Holdings from outside aggression, with a secondary priority of standing in the common defense of the planet in cooperation with the international community. As my command was attached to Third Fleet, the primary Federation unit in the Martian Theater, my immediate commanding officer was Admiral Fiorentino. When she received word of the incoming Fleetmind threat, she contacted the TYCS commander in theater and offered her assistance. The plan the two of them developed led to the battlestation’s engagement with the enemy, and our positioning was dictated by the station’s orbital path. We did not have sufficient warning to adjust our orbit in any meaningful fashion, though fortunately in this case, it was unnecessary.”

The man paused for a moment, running his fingers over an invisible pattern in on the blotter before him before continuing.

“Our primary goal was to destroy the Fleetmind forces, or at the very least, diminish them significantly before they attempted a landing on the surface. Given the generic nature of the threat, and the lack of specific intelligence on the Fleetmind’s exact objectives on the surface, a more flexible plan was developed relying on unit level officers to respond to changes immediately without waiting for specific instructions from either the TYCS or the flagship.”

Tapping his fingers for a moment, the rear admiral frowned before continuing.

“We followed a general plan of action when engaging a numerically superior incoming force in cooperation with allies – forming up outside the planetary ring and beginning the engagement at the maximum possible range when the threat is confirmed. This is because any force wishing to assault the surface will have to proceed much closer to the planet, essentially running the gauntlet through a massive weight of fire. The plan allows for very little tactical movement, as it is unwilling to move the ships out of position and as such, create possible areas from landing craft to slip through.”

Pretty words for a simple plan – sit there and blast the bejesus out of them while they come at you.

“Thank you, pan Kontr-Admiral,” Senator Vishnev nodded slightly as the Rear Admiral finished his exposé. “I have another question. According to the report by the National Defence Forces and to the transcripts made available to this Committee, the Mars Theatre Operational Command established a secure communications link with the TYCS forces around Mars. The link, outside of the Imperial White Net and, thus, subject to a lag due to the manual transmission of communications onto the White Net, was none the less open. Reports and transcripts made available to us suggest that no attempt was made by the FSPSN to contact the NDF Mars Theatre and vice versa. The Committee would wish to inquire whether the FSPSN made any attempts at establishing communications with the National Defence Forces Mars Theatre through either the aforementioned TYCS link or through any other means?”

“To the best of my knowledge,” Franklin began, “Admiral Fiorentino contacted no other foreign national or transnational military forces prior to nor during the engagement, including the NDF Mars Theater. As she had temporarily subordinated command to the TYCS officer on the scene, she probably felt it was unnecessary. I know that as for my command, I made no contact with any other military forces prior to or during the engagement, which is standing orders during any such situation, to limit points of contact and therefore the accompanying confusion.”

“Pan Kontr-Admiral,” Karita Paakkanen, the only Senator from the Social Democratic Union on the Committee, began once Franklin had finished his answer. “I would like to hear your personal opinion on General-en-Chef’s Dolohov’s decision to ‘largely interpret’ orders to stay out of the engagement. Also, do you personally think that the move helped save any lives? You may speak freely.”

Inclining his head, the rear admiral allowed a slight smile to grace his face.

“As an individual, I would have to say that I approve of the General-en-Chef’s decision. His action undoubtedly saved my own life and the lives of any on board the S.P.S.S Iron Sunset who survived the engagement with the Fleetmind. If his forces had not intervened, the station would have been vaporized, rather than just destroyed, and there would have been a quarter million Federation personnel dead instead of just two hundred thousand.”

He drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before continuing.

“As an officer, I would have to say that the General-en-Chef’s actions fell into a very large grey area – the one where you obey the letter of your orders but not the spirit thereof. Given that I would assume an officer of the General-en-Chef’s seniority was fully aware of all the reasoning behind his orders, as well as clear on the intent and spirit, I would have to say his decision was perhaps not the best one, from a purely political,” he manages to keep most of his disgust out of his voice, “and strict interpretation of the military codes.”

Finally, something that might be classified as a grin crossed the Rear Admiral’s face.

“Fortunately, these decisions also have to be considered in light of the actual military situation observed. When the NDF forces entered the engagement, the Fleetmind forces had just widely opened it with a massive, uncoordinated, independently guided missile launch. Every civilian and military ship near Mars was simultaneously in danger. At that point, I believe the General-en-Chef entered the engagement in the most effective manner he could while still attempting to obey the letter of his orders. His actions allowed for my command, which, as the largest visible single unit in the area was targeted by the most missiles, to functionally absorb nearly three times the incoming fire it should have been able to from that launch, undoubtedly saving thousands of lives throughout the various fleets engaging the Fleetmind assault, including his own command.”

“Thank you, pan Kontr-Admiral,” Vishnev nodded as Franklin finished his response to the senator from Sortavala. “Now, General-en-Chef, let us return to you…”

The hearing would continue for quite some time as the senators wanted answers to further questions. Eventually, the flow of questions ended and the senators retired for final consultations before voicing their verdict.

* - * - *

“General-en-Chef Dolohov and Kontr-Admiral Dabrianov,” Senator Vishnev began, looking the two officers over. “The Armed Forces Committee, having met and heard all arguments expressed in front of it, has come to the following conclusions.

“Whilst you have disobeyed direct and unambiguous orders emanating from His Most August Majesty, who is the highest Imperial authority as set by Imperial Constitution and Legal Order, that directed you and the forces under your command to remain outside of combat operations, your actions were none the less triggered by unforeseen circumstances and rendered necessary by those very same circumstances. The Committee shall, thus, refrain from recommending any punitive procedures against you.

“However, as the Committee has concluded that the two of you have disobeyed a direct order from the Vasilevs, who issued it after consultation with the Council of Ministers and the Generalshtab, the Committee shall forward to the Generalshtab that a proportional amount of your salaries be withheld and added into the compensations paid by the Empire to the families of the fallen.”

Dolohov and Dabrianov nodded. Both expected this, as it was an ancestral Taraskovyan tradition that the commander reimbursed the families of his fallen soldiers if they died by his fault. For the families, it was more symbolic than anything. As of the officers, well, they could survive a cut in their salaries.

“Kontr-Admiral Franklin,” Vishnev turned his attention to the only foreigner present in the room. “Upon the insistence of Senator Paakkanen and her colleagues from the Liberal-Socialist Party, and having reached this decision with a majority vote…”

Senator Petrov grunted in his seat and it was quite obvious that he and his fellow National Christian Patriots voted against whatever Vishnev was about to say.

“… shall recommend to the Highest Military Collegium to award the Ribbon of Saint Alexander to the Iron Sunset, to be used upon the seal or banner of a new station of that name, or to be used upon the historic seal of the station if no new command of such name and type is reformed.

“You shall be personally contacted by officers of the Collegium at a later date to inform you of their decision. Right now, however, I and my colleagues wish to thank you for your presence here and express our sympathy to you and those under your command, both survivors and fallen, as well as to their families.”

Many are the kins inhabiting the vast Taraskovyan Empire and the Tarsheath feature among them. In fact, the Tarsheath are not a single, monolithic kin, but instead a group of kins and tribes inhabiting the frozen reaches of Tarvalak. They are the product of a mixture of all kins and individuals that have throughout generations fled the conflicts and strives of Dakathia and Cardinia to seek a live of freedom in the harsh and secluded lands west of the river Shazh. And from there they have for centuries resisted Tarathian attempts to subdue them.

Eventually, however, they were subdued by the Shokath-Kshas Sherdarth, long before the massive Strife that engulfed the High Unity, long before the first non-Tarathian slaves were even brought into the realm of the “ashen skinned”. Sherdarth bought the loyalty of some tribes over, mercilessly massacred others. Eventually, all of Tarvalak came under his grip and a tithe was imposed upon the Tarsheath. But the tithe was not in gold or other goods, for Tarvalak was not rich in resources. The tithe was that in soldiers.

Amongst which a tithe of young female soldiers. Perverted foreigners would think that the Supreme Lord and Ruler wished for love companions and they would be gravely mistaken. The Tarsheath, despite their regional differences, have always been quite matriarchal in their social structure. It was not rare for the men to guard the children and the houses while their agile and deadly wives inflicted death upon the enemy, luring him into ambushes in the endless frozen reaches. The women warriors of Tarvalak would win many battles for the Shokath-Kshas in his future campaigns.

These female soldiers, the best of the Tarsheath folk, would come to be known by the name of the Supreme Lord and Ruler himself. Regardless of upheavals, Tarvalak always supplied its soldiers, including the tithe of Sherdarth “amazons”. During the Strife, the Sherdarth fought on the side of the Abolitionists. Not because they cared about politics or slavery, but simply because their loyalty lay with Amala, the last of the Tarathian Shokath-Kshases. And as the house of Karetsah gave way to the house of Shakhovskoy-Karetsah, the Sherdarth kept serving the new Grand Dukes.

Overtime, the most worthy of the Sherdarth were organized as part of the Leib Guard’s Regiment of Sherdarth, part of the elder guard and bodyguards of the Taraskovyan monarch himself. Other soldiers were sent to serve in regular army regiments, in which many quickly attained officer positions through their skill and guile.

“Sheeeessath! Heisss!” came the call from the company commander as the company of fresh recruits under her command lined up in a courtyard of the Sherdarth Palace of the city of… Sherdarth, which served as the seat of Taraskovyan authority in Tarvalak. The Supreme Lord and Ruler was also known for having a certain penchant for megalomania and narcissism, with a habit of naming a bit everything he crossed with his name.

The command was given in the Tarsheathian language, which was akin to the ancient Tarathian language. Modern Tarathian has since evolved and become more “melodic”. Tarsheath dialects, however, remained as hissing and aggressive as they were thousands of years ago and even declarations of love in that language sounded as if two snakes were cuddling up next to each other.

The company of young women, in the leather armour-uniforms of the regimental cadets, stood to attention. Their eyes were fixed upon the figure in black armour upon a black horse, the black cape falling down from beneath a fur collar, flanked by two gigantic black wolves. It is useless to add that Shokath-Kshas Sherdarth also had a particular liking for all things black and dark. The ceremony remained the same ever since.

The face of the man was calm and his stare was cold, just as was proper to the Supreme Ruler of Tarvalak and all its Kins. His face instilled respect, fear and veneration. On another horse next to him was the woman that the recruits would come to call Mother for the years to come, Colonel Shala sai-Nerassa uis-Ssesh. Tarsheath names followed their own pattern and it simply meant that she was daughter of Nerassa of the Ssesh kin.

The Supreme Ruler and the Colonel rode past the row of recruits, inspecting them intently. None uttered a single word. None stopped to give any particular recruit a more attentive glance then the others. The man only shared a couple words with the Colonel and then the review was over. The man proceeded to ride further into the palace complex and the Colonel gave the recruits a cold stare, subjecting them to an ice shower of sorts.

*-*-*

“Quite an interesting show that was,” Helen said quietly to Mikhail as he emerged from a room, this time dressed into something more practical and comfortable than the ceremonial armour he wore mere minutes ago.

“Protocol,” Mikhail shrugged as he sat down in the armchair opposite the Pantocratorian Princess and poured himself a glass of wine. “You Pantocratorians should know better.”

She smiled lightly. “I do not remember seeing any of these amazons in Vigvar.”

“Of course not. They are serving throughout Tarvalak, mostly as my own little… rule enforcement force. You see, dearheart, they are most useful in Tarvalak, not outside of it.”

“How so?”

“Oh, in Vigvar, they’d just be a regiment like the rest,” Mikhail said pensively, sipping on some of his wine before staring Helen intently into the eyes. “Here, however, they are considered as superior beings whom a bit every single little Tarsheath girl aspires to resemble, or even once day join. And in Tarvalak, if you control the young female population, you control all.”

“Quite interesting. It seems that even in military matters, politics take precedence,” she said pensively.

“Taraskovya is extremely diverse and complicated,” Mikhail nodded with a smile. “It has many locks and to each a special key is needed. The Sherdarth are the key to Tarvalak. I could smash the Tarsheath lock with the sledgehammer of the combined might of the Imperial institutions. But why, when the most efficient solution is so simple?”

“So it seems. But pray, tell me… and do not feel offended, but… I thought that Taraskovyans were categorically against… hm… forcing one into service. And yet, if I understood correctly, Tarvalak owes you a tithe in men and women, of which the recruits I saw from the balcony are just a mere part.”

“Oh, the tithe is just a fancy word for conscription,” the Vasilevs shrugged. “Simply consider that until recently, Tarvalak was the only corner of the Empire with conscription in place.”

“Indeed,” Helen said pensively and then smiled at Mikhail. “The more I learn about your country, the more I see how complex it is.”

The Vasilevs did not reply and just looked at the young woman pensively as he sipped some of his wine. What thoughts he had were his own and unknown to her. She just stood up and walked up to him. She placed herself on his lap, took the glass of wine and placed it on the table and then leant in to offer him a kiss. It was great to not be bound by any protocol from time to time.

Article from the Random Media:

Mercenariat Abolition Talks Fail to Reach Agreement

The third round of talks between members of the Veche and representatives of the powerful mercenary organizations has failed to produce concrete results. It is unclear now whether any further talks shall be held before the project of the Imperial Statute that shall see the millennia old Taraskovyan abolished goes to vote in front of the Imperial Duma.

The Mercenaries Guild, which regroups the most Free Mercenary Corps (FMCs) amongst its ranks and is the oldest and by far the most renowned mercenary body in the Empire, has expressed its opposition to abolishing the tradition of mercenariat, that has always existed in the Tarathian and then Taraskovyan society. However, if certain conditions are met, the Guild would proceed with the dismantling of the institution and cooperate fully with the authorities.

The Association of Independent Mercenaries (A.I.M.), on the other hand, has flatly refused to disband itself and the FMCs part of it and has vowed to fight the planned abolition of the mercenariat by all legal means available.


Millennia old tradition

Mercenariat is an ancient part of Tarathian culture and to a lesser extent of modern Taraskovyan one. The golden age of mercenaries came during the feudal fragmentation of the Taraskovyan state, when regional rulers and warlords often maintained only small armed units for personal guard and used mercenaries to fight their wars. Mercenaries were also most often paid by being allowed to loot the vanquished enemy to their hearts content.

However, as the central state reasserted its authority over the entirety of Tarathia and beyond, the mercenary units became fewer and better organized. It was around then that they banded together to form the Mercenaries Guild to better protect their interests in front of the Grand Dukes’ drives to assert a powerful central authority. Modern laws on mercenary activity are a relic of those times when the Mercenaries Guild could field a larger and more powerful army than the Grand Duke himself.

Nowadays, however, the situation is fairly different. The bulk of the Free Mercenary Corps, as they are defined under Imperial legislation, function in the manner of private security firms known in other states, working for companies and private individuals alike. Indeed, Imperial Order does not know such a legal entity as a “private security firm” and such functions are carried out by mercenary units.

Only very few FMCs have kept regular combat capacity, but amongst them such renowned and famed FMCs as the Karakurt, the Jesters and the Minstrel Knights. These private armies were at times hired even by the Taraskovyan government itself to carry out various tasks, such as the pacification of southern Tavaroth and quelching unrest in Tarvalak during the Times of Troubles, when available SQF units were too busy fighting various uprisings within the then “Federation” proper.


Monopoly on the Use of Force

The continued existence of powerful mercenary armies not subordinate to the central government has been a continued source of friction between the State and the Mercenaries themselves. The former sought to once and for all assert the full monopoly on the use of force whilst the latter did not wish their livelihoods abolished and traditions violated.

In the modern, far more centralized Taraskovya, the continued existence of mercenary units is seen by many as a relic of the past when the State was, if one is to be frank, in complete shambles. With the introduction of mandatory military service and the plans to forbid Taraskovyan citizens from serving in foreign armed forces, mercenariat as it has been until now is under threat of extinction.


The Imperial Statute on the Abolishment of Mercenariat

The project of law is actually a compilation of amendments to various other statutes, from the Imperial Civil Code to the Imperial Statute on Military Administration. The current plan for abolishment comprises a transformation or disbandment of the FMCs. Several new legal entities shall be created, such as private security firms. Corporate entities shall also receive the right to maintain armed security detachments within limits fixed by the law.

Large FMCs, such as the Karakurt, shall have the option to reorganize into regular formations part of the Engagement Forces of the TNDF. During the reorganization, the vehicle and equipment pools would be replaced with standard TNDF gear and the organizational structure changed to that in use with the TNDF. The units shall also receive the right to issue own recruitment qualifications.

So far, the large FMCs, regardless whether part of the Guild or of the Association, have remained silent on the issue and let the Guild and Association representatives speak. It is feared that armed resistance can be possible if an FMC refuses to disband or integrate the regular armed forces. Any such resistance, however, would be extremely ephemeral considering the sheer might of the TNDF when compared to the little armies, regardless of how proportionately powerful they might be.

A number of SQF units have already been positioned in the vicinity of the dislocation areas of the major FMCs to “ensure peace and the continued respect of Imperial Order in any event and regardless of circumstances”.

Even then, the Vasilevs and his Council of Ministers are keen to solve the sensitive matter peacefully and avoid any violence in the process. Whether that shall be possible remains to be seen.

From the Random News Media

Police Detain Eleven Persons in Arianne Park, Parliamentary Guard on Heightened Alert

Gardeners working in the Arianne Park, situated about five hundred meters away from the Northwind Palace that houses the Veche of the Taraskovyan Empire, discovered an impressive hidden depot of light firearms with live ammunition and grenades, buried meters beneath the ground. The information was immediately communicated to the Vigvar City Gendarmerie, which then chose not to retrieve the weapons immediately, but wait and see whether anyone would come for them.

The wait did not take long as on the dawn of the following day, gendarmes from the Special Intervention Eskadron detained six persons in the process of unearthing the firearms. Another five persons were detained throughout the park while certainly being on the look-out. No lethal shots were fired during the operation.

“We cannot as of now say what the motivation behind the move was or what the attackers were planning to do,” a Gendarmerie spokesman commented to the media during a press conference. “However, we have immediately contacted the Parliamentary Guard, who have in all due haste deployed additional security measures in time for the session’s opening. This was done considering the latest climate of tensions over the planned abolition of mercenariat and the proximity of the Arianne Park to the Northwind Palace.”

The Parliamentary Guard in the meantime has reassured the public that any attack on the Veche would have been futile. Regardless, the regiment has reinforced the security measures around the Northwind Palace and has temporarily closed the Northwind Park, adjacent to the palace, to the public. Free access to the public into the palace itself has also been temporarily suspended.

“The park grounds shall reopen soon enough,” commented a spokesman for the Northwind Palace. “In the meantime, we thank the public for their understanding. These measures shall be lifted once the circumstances allow for it to be so.”

Whilst no accusations have been officially pronounced, secretly the finger of blame is surely being pointed at the various Free Mercenary Corps the most opposed to the planned abolition of mercenariat. Neither the Mercenaries Guild nor the Association of Independent Mercenaries have commented on the matter, nor have their component FMCs issued any statements.

Article from the Empire’s Diaries:

A “Broader” Foreign Policy in Sight?

The Empire is apparently going to revise its long running tradition of dealing nearly only with monarchal, conservative states and approach states with other ideologies and forms of government. A general opening up of the quite isolationist and restrictive Taraskovyan foreign policy might thus appear to be in sight.

The rumours of the policy change originate from a serious of reports and recommendations circulating amongst Taraskovyan think-tanks, Imperial Ministries, the Imperial Veche and the Vasilevs himself. From the mass of available information, a number of conclusions can be made about the current Taraskovyan foreign policy that only show the dire need to extensively reformulate it.

It’s lonely in the center of the universe

Regardless of what many in the Empire think, Taraskovya is not alone in the universe. The continued belief of the majority of the political establishment into the central position of the Empire within the international community has led to a de facto isolation of the Empire from that very same international community.

If we are in the center of the universe, then it’s quite lonely and cold. But it seems more that thanks to the clumsy moves of the leadership, stuck in their “Taraskovya über alles” reality, the Empire has been rather left out in the cold. And one cannot be at the center of the universe and left out at the same time. We, thus, believe that the latter is true.


The citadel upon a mountain

Taraskovya has been always viewed by its rulers and people as a citadel of civilization sitting upon a mountain, overlooking the “barbarian world” that swarms all around it, trying to plunder the citadel. Taraskovyans, thus, have since times immemorial seen a potential enemy in every foreigner and prepared for a potential invasion from any side. No matter how romantic this all may be, the reality is quite different.

First of all, not all foreigners are barbaric enemies. In fact, only a minority can be considered as potential enemies. So far we can find no barbarians in the Taraskovyan interactive circle. Not every head of state in the world goes to bed dreaming about taking over the Empire, plundering the gem mines of the Cardinian Spine and doing all sorts of things to Taraskovyan women (or men, depends on the personal tastes) against their consent. In fact, in so far as it is known from what information is made available by the National Security Ministry, no foreign head of state does so. Maybe some classified information locked up behind seven locks and protected by seven seals points to the contrary, but the public facts show that, all things said bluntly, the Empire is not seen as a potential looting piggy bank.

Secondly, whilst it is true that the de facto policy of armed isolationism does not lead to frictions with foreign states, a more pro-active foreign policy shall not necessarily lead to frictions, either. It is quite obvious that differences in opinion shall always exist between the Taraskovyan leadership and the leadership of other States on various matters. And it is not necessary to go Taraskovyan (read: poisoning your interlocutor and then disposing of his body by burning it and dispersing ashes over the ocean) on your foreign partners to find a solution.

His High Excellency Ithun Khat, the Foreign Minister, is a good example that “Taraskovyanism” is simply not necessary when dealing with foreign powers. Many analysts agree that despite the Imperial authorities being quite calm and composed in the aftermath of the New Trenton debacle, behind the scenes the pressure on the Foreign Minister to kill, krush and destroy in the diplomatic sense was immense. Many also agree that the same pressure was exerted upon the Minister of Defence, but in this case to literally kill, krush and destroy. You cannot always get what you want, no need to go medieval on your partners because of this.

Thirdly, armed isolationism is not a good way to avoid confrontation. Whilst not all foreigners are enemies, some of them are. And if they band together and just decide that various resource rich corners of the Empire are just vital for their own needs, the TNDF shall have to fight it out alone. And no matter how advanced and skilled it is, a good Ros proverb very well describes the situation: “Odin v pole ne voin.” A single man in a field does not a warrior make.

Foreign Minister Khat’s attempts to reach out to other nations have at times been successful. However, his politics and those of the Council of Ministers have still been influenced by the generations old “limitations” of approaching mostly, if not exclusively, monarchies and conservative states. We can only salute him for the courage already shown in breeching many of the previous stereotypes. But his job is far from finished yet.


There’s not only Kings in this world

This brings us to the following portion of the article, namely that there’s not only Kings in this world. There are also presidents, prime ministers and Sathala knows what else. Many democratic countries out there are not monarchies. They are republics or corporate states. Does it mean they are less progressive in terms of human rights and liberties than Taraskovya? In fact, most of them see us as regressive.

Experience has shown that Taraskovya has built much closer relations with Knootoss (libertarian republic) than it did with Menelmacar (conservative monarchy). And yet, despite all the military cooperation existing between the two states, the Dutch Democratic Republic and the Empire are still not tied by a formal defence treaty.

All that while such treaties tie the Empire to several conservative monarchies (which the "patriots" from the NPCA dub the "Elf-treaties") relations with which are, all things said frankly, not in their best state. Why were such treaties rushed at the expense of the poor windmill builders? Simply because the windmill builders are not a monarchy. Even worse, they pretty much overthrew their monarchy. Le gasp! We do not deem that the Veche should revoke the treaties with Kajal, Menelmacar and the C'tan. On the contrary, these treaties are good steps in shaking off the millenia old armed isolationism of the Taraskovyan nation. However, we must not offer predilection to "conservatives" at the expense of "liberals".

Many countries out there have never been approached by the Taraskovyan leadership. Some are seen as too liberal, others as a potential danger to the very notion of Taraskovyan statehood. Our diplomats shiver in disgust upon hearing “Yut” whom they see as far too liberal and “meddling” and yet happily deal with the Kajalis and the Menelmacaris whom they see as nice and conservative. Hello? Paradox, anyone?

As of meddling… has the Ruling Council, during the days of the military junta, not gone off and invaded Tavaroth because five nobles were subjected to torture and murder there? Have we not intervened in the civil strife in Der Angst so that it ended in our favour (not that it served much purpose in the end, as the Angstians just love to exist in anarchy)? Have we not intervened and interfered on a great number of other occasions to attain results that suited us best? Taraskovyans love to meddle in other people’s matters just as much as other people love to meddle in our affairs.


Better late than never

If the Taraskovyan view on the world is indeed reconsidered in favour of a more pragmatic way that follows the doctrine of realpolitik, then it is about time it did so. Better late than never, as they say. The Empire and the Taraskovyans in general must wake up and realize that we’re not the shiny citadel upon a tall mountain defending itself against swarms of barbarians. It shall come as news to some, but some countries out there view us as retarded and barbaric. Even if the sapient rights reform did help alleviate many concerns.

The authors of this article invite all so called “patriots” (better said nationalists) to a balanced criticism of the views expressed above. Saliva jerking and eyeball rolling is not accepted as “balanced criticism”.

Article from the Empire’s Diaries:

Abt Prepares to Celebrate Sixth Birthday

It has been half a decade since the Taraskovyan State, for the first time in history, granted independence to a territory that, under Taraskovyan law and customs, was part of the State. That territory is now known as the Abt Republic, settled by Taraskovyans that wished to build a nationstate with a republican form of government and correct some of the faults they saw in the Taraskovyan way of administering things.

In April, the Abt Republic shall celebrate six years since its official and formal independence from Taraskovya. His Most August Majesty is expected to attend the event at the invitation of President Kelberath, who shall be hosting his last major event before the Abtian presidential elections of 1155 A.S. at the end of his six year term. The President has already stated that he shall not stand for reelection.


To Build One’s Own Dream

The stated goal behind the foundation of Abt was to build a sovereign, free and democratic republic where those Taraskovyans that did not agree with the continued monarchal form of government within Taraskovya could find a new home. Interestingly enough, the Republic’s leadership never portrayed the “mother country” as a backwater dictatorial tyranny. It was not because an offended Taraskovyan wolf could rip the little Republic apart even before the Western Atlantic nations could formulate any protest notes. It was not because the Abtians feared losing private Taraskovyan financial support to their venture.

It was simply because they believed that a republic suited [i]them[i] and only them better. No disrespect to Vasilevs Mikhail nor to his family, who are “very respected throughout the republic” (according to Abtian officials), no disrespect to the other monarchies all around them (and the Western Atlantic has a few). They just wanted to build a republic of their dreams and that’s it.

And they are on a good course to doing just that.


Isolated Case or Precedent?

Neither of the two. Attempts by various Taraskovyans to found an independent state according to their own romantic visions did not start or end at Abt. Every now and then a group of over eager romantics goes off to try and start a new life on some island or moon or planetoid. Except for Abt, all have been rapidly dismantled by the Security and Quarantine Forces.

There is, however, no exodus from the Empire. It is just that with her billions upon billions of citizens of different cultures, kins and opinions, there shall always be some that are not entirely content with how things are run. In most cases, they shall spend their lives within Taraskovya and engage in political or cultural activism. In some cases, they shall emigrate to other countries that suit them better. And in the rarest of cases, they shall actually be brave enough to start something of their own.

Neither is Abt a precedent. Event if in the six years after its foundation, only one other attempt at creating a sovereign state of Taraskovyans was made by a group of conservative Tarathians who desired their own radical theocracy. The Security and Quarantine Forces quickly dismantled the attempt, despite minor skirmishes with the settlers and massive arrests that had to be undertaken.


The Sister Republic

Abtians love to think of their republic as a younger sister to the Taraskovyan Empire, that has her own personality and goals in life, but just cannot help but resemble her elder sister. However, sometimes disagreements and disputes do arise. The greatest disagreement was when the Taraskovyan Empire recognised the Tartarian claims in the Vasconian gulf, a claim Abt opposed and continues to vehemently oppose to this day. The Abtian reaction to the Tartarian move was to establish a claim on the remaining Vasconian isles by not only raising the flag, but also by deploying troops there. The Taraskovyan ambassador to Belgorod was also summoned and issued with an official note of protest.

But aside from this tense point in relations, the ties between the "two sisters" keep growing. And so as the Abtians keep building up their independent and sovereign republic, Taraskovyans watch on and help where they can, with counsel, with funds, with diplomatic support.

Article from the Random Media:

Cabinet Decree Bans new Mercenary Contracts with Anyone but the Empire

The Cabinet of Ministers has passed a Decree banning all Taraskovyan Free Mercenary Corps from contracting with foreign governments, as well as both foreign and domestic private and commercial entities. The ban applies to any new contract, as well as modification, extension or renewal of standing contracts. The only legal client for all new contracts is the Empire itself. However, all standing contracts with foreign and private entities shall have to be honoured pending the final settlement in an Imperial Statute as approved by the Veche of the Taraskovyan Empire. The Decree also allows the Empire to enter into direct contracts with individual mercenaries and the FMCs, bypassing both the Guild and the AIM leadership.

The move, seen as the first major step in the planned abolition of the Mercenariat, has sparked outrage amongst the leadership of the Mercenaries Guild and of the Association of Independent Mercenaries. Both the Guild and AIM accuse the government of “declaring a state of hostility” between the Empire and the Taraskovyan mercenaries. However, government officials are not impressed by the hard talk from the two organizations. According to the Ministry of Interior, an ever growing number of individual mercenaries and entire small FMCs comprising the Guild and AIM have already passed “contracts” with the Empire, by which they cease their mercenary activity and surrender all military or military-able gear in return for financial compensation.

The government is also in direct talks with major FMCs such as the Karakurt, the Minstrel Knights and the Jesters in order to find a mutually acceptable solution aiming for their disbanding as mercenary units. A potential integration of major units into the TNDF in quality of brigades or even divisions that would continue and uphold their unit traditions is also envisaged. Some have criticized the Government’s open disregard to the ancient traditions of Taraskovyan Mercenariat by not taking into account the opinions of the Guild and AIM leadership. Others, however, deem that the Government is acting as it should given the circumstances.

“Guild and AIM leadership is comprised of grey-haired idealist gentlemen, as opposed to the actual rank and file membership of the two organizations, that comprises young men and women that did their army service while it was still only voluntary and have decided to continue earning their daily bread in a way they liked best,” commented Alexei Maliunkov, an expert on Taraskovyan Mercenariat. “Talks with the leadership have led to nothing as the conditions put forward by the Guild and the Association are just impossible for the Government to accept. Thus, since talks with them reached an impasse, it is entirely justified to talk directly to the people most concerned by it: mercenary soldiers and unter-officers. These are interested by money, not by traditions.”


Regardless of any protests, the Empire continues on its path to reform the system and has the backing of the majority of the population, according to polls. Most Taraskovyans see being a mercenary as a remnant of the times gone by, when the country was split along feudal lines, and wish to look to the future, to a single and fully unified Empire.

Article from the Random Media:

Guild and AIM Depleted by Membership Defections

The powerful Mercenaries Guild saw itself severely weakened after entire component FMCs took up the government’s offer of money in exchange for cessation of mercenary activities and transformation into legally framed security companies or simply disbanding and ceasing all existence. Many former mercenaries have been hired as police officers to uphold law and order in often far and remote holdings of the Empire that until now lacked a civilian police force and were under the jurisdiction of the Security and Quarantine Force. Many others have been reenrolled in the TNDF, often as instructors in the Territorial Defence Forces, training new recruits and thus contributing to a strengthening of Imperial national security.

However, the government’s victory is not total as the ones defecting for now are only minor FMCs, whilst discussions with the major FMCs continue on trying to find a compromise solution. Each major FMC requires a separate approach, as do entire groups of smaller FMCs that until now specialized in private and corporate security.

“Negotiations are being held on a case by case basis,” a senior official tasked with finding a solution to the problem commented. “Every main Free Mercenary Corps has its own centenary traditions and customs, which they seek to preserve. And as each is a different entity with a different history, we must find different approaches to the problem.”

A solution has apparently been found with the Karakurt FMC, one of the eldest , most powerful and most respected FMCs in existence. Under the terms of the agreement, the unit shall be absorbed into the Engagement Forces of the National Defence Forces in quality of an infantry division with specific recruitment privileges, as well as the right to keep all previous insignia and regalia. A similar arrangement is also on the table for the Minstrel Knights and the Jesters.

Some have voiced criticism over what they deem as the government’s lax and appeasing attitude in the face of openly defiant behavior. It is deemed that a rapid solution involving the Security and Quarantine Forces and the police would be much more preferable and efficient. Imperial authorities, however, do not wish to resort to firm means and force as of now.

“There is a real chance of solving the matter peacefully and actually strengthening several branches of Imperial power, including the military and law enforcement,” a government official commented. “But let it be clear that the Empire shall use force if it deems necessary to do so, and shall do it at its own discretion in full accordance with Imperial Order.”

The Imperial Veche is expected to vote shortly on the Imperial Statute on the Abolition of the Mercenariat. The new law foresees a transition period during which all mercenary activity, as defined under the law, has to cease. However, the legal definition of mercenary activity under the Imperial Statute is not as broad as the common understanding of the term. Indeed, private and corporate security activity shall remain legal, albeit under new legal arrangements.

“In the case of corporate security, for example, the situation shall be clarified. Until now, such tasks were undertaken by corporate security forces disguised under the guises of Free Mercenary Corps. With the introduction of the new legislation, companies and corporations shall have the full right to their private security agencies if they so desire and have the means to. But let there be no doubt that the time of gigantic private armies with their own heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles is over. From now on military warfare is the exclusive domain of the Empire.”

EDIT: Happy April Fool's day!

From the Random Media:

Empire Denounces the “Elf Treaties”

In a vote of the Senate and the Duma, the Veche of the Taraskovyan Empire has formally denounced the so called “Elf Treaties”, the set of bilateral defence pacts tying the Empire to the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar, the Federated Imperium of Kajal and the Eternal Necrontyr Empire of the C’tan. The Instrument of Denunciation has been submitted for review to the Emperor’s Council and is expected to be approved in short order.

Once the highest chamber of the Imperial Veche approves the Instrument of Denunciation, the Taraskovyan Empire shall formally notify the three signatories of the relevant treaties of her intention to end her adherence to the said treaties. After this, the Imperial participation in the treaties shall end after the period specified in the documents, starting with the reception of the formal notifications of denunciation by the three signatories.

Many in the Empire doubted the usefulness of the “Elf Treaties” when relations between the Taraskovyan Empire and the three other signatories cooled beneath sub-zero temperatures in the aftermath of the Empire’s diplomatic fiasco in recovering New Trenton. Relations were even further soured by the hysteria inspired by the authorities of the Federated Imperium amongst the ethnic Kajali populations of the two Cimmerian provinces of the Kingdom of Nyi-Gardarika coupled with accusations leveled against the Empire of specifically mistreating her ethnically Kajali subjects.

Since then no attempts have been made by either side to mend the rift, creating an unspoken consensus about the impossibility of continued Taraskovyan diplomatic and military integration with Kajal, Menelmacar and the C’tani.

Paschal Message of His Holiness Patriarch Nikon II of Vigvar and All Taraskovya to the Archpastors, Pastors, Monastics and All Faithful Children of the Taraskovyan Church

Dear and beloved in the Lord your graces the archpastors, the all-honourable presbytery and diaconate, God-loving monks and nuns, and all faithful children of the Church,

Christ is risen!

It is with this joyful exclamation that we now greet each other anew. Paschal rejoicing fills our hearts, for Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of a life that has conquered death, sin and corruption. We are called to relive Pascha as the triumph of life not only on this day: every Sunday reveals to us the majesty of the Saviour’s feat, liberating us from death and destroying the fetters of sin which separate man from God. Moreover, each minute of the true Christian is to be replete with Paschal joy.

‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25). Christ’s resurrection has granted to us genuine freedom and filled man’s existence with meaning and hope. The most important thing is that it has opened up the way to Life Eternal to every one who believes in Christ and who lives in the Church. Therefore there can be no cause for despair, despondency and fear for those who love Christ and follow him in all circumstances of their earthly path, for ‘Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept’ (1 Cor. 15:20).

The Paschal triumph of life embraces the whole world, all of divine creation, bringing it to life with grace. ‘Christ is risen, and life reigneth,’ says St. John Chrysostom in his Paschal homily. The divine gift of life, trampled upon and defiled by the falling away of the old Adam, is again revealed to us in its plenitude by Christ the new Adam.

Having communicated with the plenitude of this generous revelation of divine mercy, let us, my dear ones, value and preserve this gift. Where blood is shed and people suffer, where the image of God is trampled upon in pursuit of greed, conflict and selfishness, let us come to the defence of this image by fulfilling our Christian vocation. May our knowledge of Christ’s Truth be a firm foundation for bearing witness to the risen Christ before our neighbours and those afar so that they may find life eternal. May the Almighty Lord strengthen us in knowledge of God, in mutual love and in deeds of compassion and charity. Let us zealously endeavour to ensure that not only our individual lives but the life of all society be constructed according to God’s commandments, for it is only in fulfilling them that we will be granted the fullness and harmony of being. It is precisely in this way that we can testify to our love for God, for as he said, ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15).

In these difficult times let us reveal our Christian vocation through deeds, let us support each other so that no one feels himself humiliated, abandoned, poor or denigrated. I desire that you all strive unceasingly towards heaven in all your thoughts, actions and intentions by recalling the words of the apostle: ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God’ (Col. 3:1).

Full of joy in Christ who has trampled down death and torn asunder the bonds of hell, I would in particular like to appeal to our young people faced with the broad field of labours, hopes and achievements. Before you lies the task of creating through your own endeavours the future of our nation and our Church. May the powers, talents and abilities given to you by God be used for the good of your neighbours, for the fulfillment of your vocation and for the attaining of God’s holy will.

My beloved! On this ‘chosen and holy day’ I embrace and greet each one of you, sharing my joy with all who confess the name of Christ and with each who is ready to accept into his heart the joy of the Paschal greeting:

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

+Nikon II,
Patriarch of Vigvar and All Taraskovya

Pascha 1155
Vigvar

OOC: Original adress by His Holiness the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia can be found here (http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?page=44735).

Happy Easter!

From the Random Media:

Grand Duchess Renounces Sovereign Zoria Powers

Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess Vethara of Taraskovya has expressed her intent to formally renounce the sovereign powers of the Duchy of Zoria, while retaining the titular rights to the Duchy. Before the renounciation takes effect, it requires the implementation of a series of amendments to the Realm’s constitution and regional laws. The entirety of the sovereign executive powers exercised by the Duchess until now is expected to pass to the newly created office of the Minister-Chancellor of Zoria. Until now, Zoria has been the only Imperial Realm without an elected head of the regional executive as the Duchess held the entirety of executive powers.

“The Duchy has been established as a sustainable Realm of the Taraskovyan Empire,” the Vasilevs’es sister commented to journalists. “Time has come to pass executive authority into the hands of a Minister-Chancellor, elected by the Legislative Assembly, itself an expression of the Zorian will and to end the "Zorian exception" which has been criticised by many in the Imperial political establishment.”

The Winter Palace has confirmed that the Grand Duchess shall remain an Emperor’s Councillor for Zoria. According to local law makers and to the details revealed by Her Imperial Highness, the Duchy of Zoria shall adopt the parliamentary system that is in place in the near entirety of the Imperial Realms. The only exception is the Duchy of the Atlantic Isles, where the Minister-Chancellor is elected by popular vote.

Asked on what she would concentrate after laying down executive powers in Zoria, the Grand Duchess stated that she would concentrate on her obligations as Emperor's Councillor for Zoria in the Imperial Veche, as well as on her role as the co-sovereign of Taurenor.

From the Random Media:

NPCA: Grand Duchess Renounced Wrong Title

In reaction to the news from Zoria, His Grace the Duke Zalesskiy, leader of the National Patriotic Christian Alliance’s faction in the Imperial Veche, has criticized the Grand Duchess for what he deems as a completely wrong direction in her mindset. His Grace has expressed the NPCA’s line, sustained for the recent years, of preventing what the Alliance sees as a dangerous drift of the heiress presumptive into the influence of the “outlandish pointy eared”.

“Instead of renouncing the sovereign prerogatives over Zoria, a noble part of the Empire, Her Imperial Highness should instead renounce her outlander titles conferred upon her by the Menelmatani meddlers,” the Duke has commented. “Her Imperial Highness should decide on whether she is a noble Taraskovyan and Orthodox Grand Duchess or the queen of some backwards pointy eared in some backwater outlandish country.”

The NPCA is the second most powerful political force in the Empire and has been in consistent opposition to the Loyalist Coalition, led by the Conservatives, ever since the inception of the Grand Ducal Parliament and later the Imperial Veche.

From the Random Media:

Empire Ponders Anacreon Colonization

The Imperial Government is to ponder the best way to colonize the Anacreon system. The system contains two planets that have been judged as “habitable” by Imperial scientific authorities. A certain terraforming effort requires to be undertaken, however, and the Empire is already investing considerable effort in other long-term planetary development projects, such as New Crimea and Venom.

A possible solution would be to grant the Tsardom of Acarionne, the largest and most influential of Taraskovya’s Dominions, a charter with the right of civilian colonization, mineral and economic exploitation of the system. The Terraforming mission would remain with the Terraforming Directorate of the Imperial Ministry of Environmental Protection, the sole Imperial body with the competence to deploy and operate ECTOS entities for civilian purposes.

Anacreon was initially discovered and mapped by a mission of the National Defence Forces comprised of Acarionnian personnel. Later, the system was officially named “Anacreon” to honour the royal family of Acarionne, the latter having already expressed interest in obtaining a colonial charter to the system. As of now and under the existing Imperial Order, the system remains a personal domain of the Vasilevs pending the drawing up of a comprehensive plan for the governance of the territories.

The issue highlighted by the National Patriotic Christian Alliance is typical of the agenda of this reactionary group. Their outrage over the Duchess Vethara’s surrender of power to the national government ignores the real issue, which is one of internal Taraskovyan Statecraft.

First we must distinguish between titles and roles. For example, Vethara Shakhovskaya’s title in this country is Duchess of Khamesti. However, this comes with no actual constitutional powers in Khamesti, and several ceremonial privileges.

The situation as Nillëtári of Taurenor is somewhat different. There she holds considerable power, including a number of her own military formations, usually reported to be amongst of the best in the country. However ‘Her Majesty the Nillëtári's Royal Household’ still holds comparatively little legal power. It essentially runs in a similar way to the older Noble Houses of Taurenor, with greater prestige, coequal to the Taurearan and Tauretári for protocol purpouses, yet is still subject to the governmental structure and laws of the national government. In this respect, the Nillëtári operates functionally as the highest-ranking noble within Taurenor, with a number of exceptional rights such as the aforementioned private armies, sharing the position of Head of State without the executive powers of the Taurearan.

In Zoria, in comparison, the power held by the Duchess caused substantial differences in governance between Zoria and the rest of the Empire. This presented significant barriers in the recent trend in Taraskovya to bring its various regions toward a more uniform legal framework. Zorian independance has been reduced in the past when it became part of the present Taraskovyan Empire and this is simply a continuiation of that trend. This was not the case in Taurenor, where a uniform legal framework already existed in all territories, nor in the Necrontyr Empire.

The issue is not one of prestige – The title of Duchess of Zoria remains hers, along with Grand Duchess of Taraskovya, and it likely will for the predictable future, along with various unofficial titles such as ‘Swan Princess’ which are a sign of immense public affection. Her role as such, and as the current heir to the Taraskovyan throne is more important, in a realistic sense, than any “foreign” titles she holds.

It would be a mistake to call the NCPA irrelevant, but their efforts to turn a legal streamlining into an issue of isolationist pride demonstrate their desperation to turn any topic to their own inward looking agenda.


About the Author: Dr Edwin Provost is a longstanding member of the Institute of Cultural Studies, Tephet-Sheta, and a noted commentator on constitutional mechanics.



The terraformed globe of Venus was visible from the window, including the Duchy of Zoria. The room was large; very large. The window extended over five meters in length; almost all of the living quarters on the Eärendil Ring Station, the vast construct around the planet that had been important in setting up a day-night cycle and magnetosphere, were large. It was a permanent home to around fifty million Menelmacari, many times that number of guests. Though only the inner and outer surfaces were home to people, that still left, if each lived on one floor of the ring, over four meters of window space per person. As the residential layers covered many floors divided up, there was far more space. The inside surface was particularly popular; it had excellent views.

The green eyed, dark haired woman looking through the one-way window was the cause of the controversy. Looking at her, Ranisath reflected briefly on her time as an exile in Menelmacar, a time when he’d had the superlative challenge of winning her.

People had paid millions of Taraskovyan franks to own a print of a photograph of this woman dressed as she was now. Though he didn’t rate physical attractiveness as an important criterion in who he associated with, except in how it would affect the opinions of others, he could appreciate it enough to empathize. And he enjoyed her personality far more.

Of course, she seemed quite distracted at the moment, as he stepped up behind her, wrapping an arm around her, “Here’s a question my dear Alquarwen,” the name he used was Quenya for swan-maiden, one of (and the least cryptic of) various code-names she’d been reffered to during her time under Menelmacari protection, which he had since adopted, from time to time, “what are Taraskovyan colony worlds like? I hear that New Crimea is very nice, if you like beaches…”

He didn’t give her time to frame a reply, twirling her around and pressing her back against the window, kissing her with his accustomed passionate possessiveness. What she needed, for now at least, was as much distraction as her schedule would permit.

From the Random Media:

Preventive Custody for Hundreds of ROS Activists

Gendarmes across Dakathia-Cardinia have taken hundreds of well known activists and ring leaders of the ultra-nationalist Ros Resistance Society into preventive custody. The arrests come ahead of the nationalist demonstrations, called by the NPCA to put pressure on the Liberal Socialists who are planning at tabling a proposal to the Parliament of Dakathia and Cardinia aimed at recognizing additional languages on the regional level. The activists were taken into preventive custody out of suspicion that they might provoke disorder and incite rioting during the demonstrations. ROS activists have often been accused of profiting from nationalist Slavic demonstrations to inflict damage upon property owned by non-Slavs, as well as attacking Imperial citizens of non-Slavic background.

Current regional languages of Dakathia-Cardinia are Russian, Tarathian and Utharian. There are also important communities of the speakers of Greek, Sindarin and the four non-Russian Taraskovyan Slavic languages.

“Zverev not a gerbil,” scientific study confirms

An independent scientific study has confirmed that, unfortunately, the scandalously known avant-garde fashion designer, singer and stylist Sergei Zverev is of the human species. The study follows a humorous article in the tabloid Rainy Sunday tracing Zverev’s lineage to Praksan Gerbils. The highest ranked Praksan Gerbil on Imperial service, Imperial Ambassador to the Mars Port Authority Teerathe-Soint-Kweedrat-Menek, has stated that he was happy with the results of the study.

“Stating that that… thing… was from Praksa was a declaration of war!” the Gerbil stated. “We are very glad that war with Rainy Sunday was averted.”

Sergei Zverev has already stated he shall sue Rainy Sunday for moral damages. Alexander Slanderov, the tabloid’s chief editor, has defended the publication of the article, stating that “the Taraskovyan People has the right to know the truth, however awesome it is!”