Entente of Ventemir
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Template:!Nation InfoboxThe Grand Duchy Entente of Ventemir is a large political organization located within Martial Space. Ruled jointly by dozens of syndicates, three noble houses, and local republics, it operates more like a private company than an officially independent state. Its territory is officially under the rule of Drusidia, the federal territory of the Greater Martial Consilium.
Ventemir was originally ruled by Nachleben until Humans from Tenshi slowly eroded their power through the use of economic warfare, predatory loans, and a monopolization on trade. Tenshi's strictly enforced its monopoly, eventually starving the Nachleben. After fully integrating the territory by the 30,000s CE, Tenshi would directly control the region for most of history. By the War of the Ancients, Ventemir was primarily controlled by large trading companies, industrial companies, and merchant guilds. Complete with their own private armies, many of these firms fought in the war to secure access to maintaining their ultra-profitable trade deals with the Confederacy of Borealis. After the end of the conflict, tensions with the very same Confederacy caused much of the aristocracy in Ventemir, as well as many of the satellite organizations of the Confederacy, to break away from both it and Tenshi.
As Jezebel's War broke out and the aristocracy of Martial Space shattered into dozens of disparate noble organizations, the aristocracy of Ventemir nationalized the merchant-owned trade companies before banishing them. To end the conflict, the newly formed Entente of Ventemir struck a treaty with local syndicates to integrate them into the governance of the region. In 88,021 CE, the Entente became an officially recognized private company. In other words, it was officially a trading company owned partially by the aristocracy, the official government of Ventemir.
General Information
Entente of Ventemir | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| 88,021 CE | |||
| - | |||
| 400 Billion Square Kilometers | |||
| Eos | |||
| Constitutional Aristocracy | Syndicalism | ||
| 609/1000 | 2.992 Quadrillion Carosi | ||
| Somewhat Equal | Post-Scarcity | ||
| Great Power | Great Power | ||
History
Early History
Ventemir was historically the economic and industrial core of the Triumvirate Civilization as well as its most populated region. Populated almost entirely by the Atlins and Orcubor, nearly all of the region's industrial capacity existed in regions hot enough for seas of lead to be common place. In fact, using lead as a "coolant" was common practice in these facilities. In 15,089 BCE, as the Triumvirate partially democratized, creating the Lowuks Entente and the Orcubor Coalition, the semi-autonomous states that would govern Ventemir. The Lowuks Entente was located entirely on Eos while the Orcubor coalition had only minute holdings on the center of the megastructure.
The collapse of the Triumvirate greatly destabilized both polities, causing them to all but collapse before 1000 BCE. The region became largely depopulated, housing fewer than one billion amongst its great ruins that became overrun with fungi and other growth. Nachleben, powerful machines made up of uploaded minds that escaped the fall of the Triumvirate, set up shop on this depopulated region of the disk. As the Nachleben took advantage of the abandoned factories, they became the primary employers, usually contracting security or labor from what locals remained.
Conquest by Tenshi
Starting in 15,102 CE, Tenshi, a powerful Human kingdom, began its economic invasion of Ventemir. In other words, it offered ludicrously good trade deals to the Nachleben, built bases across much of the region, and slowly built a logistics network to make them indispensable for business in the region. As they became the dominant employer, enforced laws, and invested in the impoverished communities in the region, they became incredibly popular. Humans were seen as a force of liberation and progress against the stagnation that was the Nachleben.
This long term project came to a head in 18,760 CE, as the favorable trade deals given to the Nachleben were suddenly revoked. As they starved for resources, they often violated their treaties with Tenshi, causing them to be considered criminals. Erstes Konsortium, the central government of Martial Space, began using its military to destroy the Nachleben, much to the approval of Ventemir's inhabitants, who now numbered well into the twenty trillions.
Great Empyreal Crusade and Post-Crusade
Main Article: Great Empyreal Crusade
As Tenshi began fighting the Great Empyreal Crusade, it began using civilians from its extensive empire to fight the war effort. Many volunteered to fight against Empyros, resulting in a nationalist surge as the situation became increasingly desperate. Over ten percent of Ventemir's population was shipped to the front never return, a devastating blow for morale even though victory became increasingly likely.
After the war, large numbers of Humans began settling Ventemir, occupying its temperate regions that were far too cold for the Atlins and Orcubor. While this large influx of immigrants was economically disruptive, Humans were unable to live in the same settlements as the native population, causing little cultural exchange to take place. What this did cause was competition between the groups, each side growing to take not only more resources, but more of the industrial capacity once exclusively ran by the native inhabitants.
Dominion Era
As Tenshi and the Ursa Syndicate united in 60,134 CE, forming the Dominion of Astraeus, all of Eos became fully united for the first time in millennia. As ideas, trade, and people began moving around the megastructure, Ventemir returned to its status as industrial heartland. While its ancient factories have fallen into disrepair or ruin, newer ones were continuously built to replace them.
With a population approaching 60 trillion, Ventemir became widely known for fostering a healthy system of trade. Much of the trade destined for Florathel from the rest of Aylathiya originally did little to interact with Eos. As it re-industrialized, massive ports occupying a planet's worth of space sprung up; many vessels took the time to stop at Ventemir to take part in its new massive markets. The Dominion's devotion to rule of law and its low corruption made Ventemir a great place to set up business. Foreign investment poured into the region, creating a thriving merchant class.
Ossification of Capital
As the various dukes from across the Dominion wrestled power away from Tenshi's holy bureaucracy, they began behaving like absolute monarchs instead of civil servants. The War of Saiheran Succession annihilated the amount of trade passing through Ventemir, weakening the merchant class. Ventemir became ruled by a mafia-state ran by the weapons conglomerate, Jeonja Robotics, what started as a guild but quickly ballooned into a vast criminal organization. Trafficking weapons to various groups across not just Eos but Martial Space, the group would earn the ire of the Dominion but the loyalty of local officials which had largely become associates of the organization.
A horrible environment for the fostering of economic growth, an unofficial noble class emerged as resources were squandered and money siphoned. As the Confederacy of Borealis began gaining power in the Dominion, it stole Ventemir's spotlight as the center of production. In fact, it overshadowed nearly all of Eos using its worker-controlled model of production. This would lead to numerous rebellions as workers across Ventemir attempted to join the Confederacy or create their own cooperatives. With limited success, Jeonja Robotics was joined by a handful of competing organizations or oligarchs, but the people of Ventemir had little power and lived in a low-trust society rife with corruption, tax avoidance, and civil disobedience.
Rebirth
As the War of the Ancients began, the various oligarchs of the region shipped off billions to die at the hands of the Quintet Payontari Association. Great civil unrest occurred as many refused to feed the war machine. Halfway through the war, with the help of Tenshi, Ventemir became ruled by a group of mostly Human nobles whose comparative lack of corruption greatly improved standards in Ventemir. This revitalization was crucial to its second reemergence as an industrial superpower. As the nobles shut down corrupt operations and forced factories to compete for the lucrative contracts from the Confederacy, the struggling region emerged as an industrial superpower.
The institutionalization of the Commenda, government-backed treaties that guaranteed business ventures would take place as agreed, created an energetic merchant class not seen since the early days of the Dominion. At the same time, with fewer corruption, came the rapid increase in worker cooperatives. Since the Confederacy gave better deals to cooperatives, and even incorporated many of them, this movement of workers began directly competing with the new merchant class.
Following armistice in the War of the Ancients, the Confederacy attempted to nationalize Ventemir's industry, causing the both the local nobility and the merchant class to revolt. Funded by Jezebel II's government, the nation of Drusidia, the nobility fought against their foreign masters in both Tenshi and the Confederacy. As Jezebel's War began, the Entente began producing much of the arms that both the Confederacy and Drusidia would use to wage war.
Independence
As the Confederacy crumbled, Ventemir's aristocracy turned its attention to the merchant class that were largely loyal to the trade-friendly Tenshi, an enemy of the central government. Already fighting against the Cooperatives who, while partial to the Confederacy, had no interest in joining it, the merchant became quickly overwhelmed as their mercenaries betrayed them. Fleeing to the Commonwealth of Aggregate Aylathiya, the merchants took with them most of Ventemir's wealth, but they also took with them the influence of Tenshi, nullifying the nation's claim over the region.
At this point, the remaining aristocrats had a choice, allying themselves to the central government and fighting the worker cooperatives or to finally declare peace. As Jezebel II died and Jezebel's War ended, Ventemir's aristocrats chose peace and partitioned Ventemir with the blessing of the workers. They formed a parliament with one house for the aristocracy and one house for the people. They began calling this system the "Entente System," meaning alliance so as to not declare themselves an independent state from the new central government of Drusidia. Officially, they remain a part of Drusidia's sphere of influence, now called the Greater Martial Consilium in which they have a great deal of voting power.
Government and Politics
An organization of nobles, syndicates, republics, and smaller more private ventures, the Entente of Ventemir treads the very fine line between independent state and trade syndicate. It technically does not have representation within the Greater Martial Consilium. Instead, its various sub-organizations form a caucus within it, voting in lock-step based on internal decisions made by its owners in Ayomi, its de facto capital.
The legislature of the Entente, called the Ventemir Economic Summit, operates like a parliament. With two sub-summits, representatives from both the aristocracy and the workers appoint leadership for the Entente. Officially called the "Chairperson," so as to not suggest treason, the leader of the nation officially owns the title to all "crowns," bonds issued by the Entente backed by its large economy.
While the summit is not in session, the Chairperson manages the various assets of the Entente. The organization registered with the central government that manages these assets is called the Unified Trade Syndicate Ventemir, while the totality of this organization and its satellites is called the Grand Duchy Entente of Ventemir. The syndicate has numerous divisions including a central bank and a vast military apparatus designed to protect Ventemir from any over-zealous emperor of the Consilium or president of the Confederacy.
Bank of Ventemir
The Bank of Ventemir is a multinational investment bank owned and operated by the Entente of Ventemir. While internal Entente organizations interface with a portion of the bank which operates as a credit union, its outwards-facing business is conducted in the usual fashion. With investments well in excess of 12 trillion C-Units, it is the largest bank in Martial Space by market capitalization and the second largest by the size of its assets.
Mostly funding ventures related to trade, it has satellite offices in the systems Thalvett, Aylathiya's Sphere, Nocturne, and Saleas, most of which originated as the Entente bought banks in these areas. The Bank of Ventemir holds the vast majority of the Entente's wealth and supplies most of organization with the capital it needs to operate.
The Grand Duchy of Ventemir
The Grand Duchy of Ventemir is the dukeship owned by the Entente. In other words, the noble title of "Duke of Ventemir" is owned by a private organization. While not unheard of for lesser noble titles (anyone wealthy enough could buy one as though it were any other investment), for the title of duke it is absurd. What it means to be a duke in the Greater Martial Consilium is to have a vast amount of voting power within its ruling body, the Consilium. As such, this dukeship is a tremendous asset and by far its most valuable one. The chairperson is not the duke, rather, the dukeship is split amongst all of the members of the Entente (strictly all of the holders of crowns, its premier "currency").
Crowns
Crowns are the main currency of the Entente more akin to a bond in the organization itself than any fiat currency. Since its not backed by a physical material such as antimatter, its value fluctuates much more widely. Crowns are technically divisions of the dukeship, splitting it into trillions of parts to operate as an internal means of exchange. Working for the Entente yields pay in Crowns, usually divided into millicrowns due to the high value of this asset. Workers can also request more mainstream currency if they do not wish to have voting power in the summit.
About one percent of crowns are traded externally like stocks. Consequently, Ventemir's former rulers have bought most of these and currently have one percent of the voting power at the summit. Their representatives are largely ignored but have occasionally been decisive on certain policies or appointments. The Entente is unable to recall these crowns because the act of dividing noble titles is considered nearly sacred in Martial Space. To dishonor the crown by nullifying a portion of it is tantamount to sacrilege. As such, no new crowns are ever minted.