The Confederation of Achthal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newspapers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Witch Hunters
The Witch Hunters exist ostensibly to route out followers of evil gods but operate more as a sort of self-accountable secret police force.