Palmyrion (Levanora)
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This page refers to Palmyrion in the Levanora region. To visit Palmyrion in Kali Yuga, click here.
Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth Maharlikang Mankomunidad ng Palmyria | |
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 Flag | |
| Motto: Hiraya Manawari (May our wishes be fulfilled) Other traditional mottos:
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| Anthem: Palmyria Kong Minumutya (My Revered Palmyrion) | |
| Capital | Alexandria |
| Largest | Quezon City |
| Official languages | Palmyrian and English |
| Recognised national languages | Palmyrian |
| Recognised regional languages | Various other languages in the Palmyrian language family |
| Ethnic groups (2023) | By ethnolinguistic group:
By phylogenetic species:
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| Religion (2023) |
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| Demonym(s) | Palmyrian |
| Government | Federal semi-constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Lakambini Elizabeth |
• Chancellor | Ricardo Duterte |
• Chief Justice | Raniag Aglipay |
• Senate President | Harold Dimaculangan |
• House Speaker | Angela Foster-Yulo |
| Legislature | Commonwealth Assembly |
| Independence from the Holy Empire of Stevid | |
• Declaration | 1800 |
• Recognized | 1820 |
• Royal Confederacy | 1820-1935 |
• Disunion Era | 1935-2000 |
• Current constitution | 2000 |
| Population | |
• 2023 estimate | est. 1.5 billion |
• 2020 census | 1,440,336,970 |
| GDP (PPP) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $60 trillion |
• Per capita | $40,000 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $48 trillion |
• Per capita | $32,000 |
| Gini (2023) | 0.495 low |
| HDI (2023) | 0.750 high |
| Currency | Palmyrian Sterling Peso (PSP) |
| Time zone | Palmyrian Standard Time |
| Date format | DD MMM YYYY |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +97 |
| ISO 3166 code | RPC |
| Internet TLD | .rpc |
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Palmyrion (Palmyrian: Palmyria), officially the Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth (Palmyrian: Maharlikang Mankomunidad ng Palmyria), is a sovereign archipelagic country in the Levanora region. The Royal Commonwealth is composed of its 40 constituent provinces, divided among federal republics that serve as subjects to the Sovereign. To the east lies the Alfar Isles, an extra-regional state under the jurisdiction of the Alfar Imperium. The Royal Commonwealth controls a vast swath of sea around its archipelago, with an economic exclusion zone reaching out nearly 300 kilometers from its shores. The Royal Commonwealth is a federation ruled by a semi-parliamentary monarchy. The monarch is Lakambini Elizabeth, who has reigned since 2019. Its capital is Alexandria, with Quezon being the largest; both cities are global cities and major financial centers. Other major urban centers in the Royal Commonwealth are the cities of Naga, Bacolod, Patikul, Cebu, Davao, Batangas, and Vigan, and the vassal city-state of Port Elizabeth on Palawan. It has 40 provinces, each with their own unique ethnic and sociocultural identities; these ethnicities and sociocultural identities have undergone a vast extent of cultural and genetic intermingling, and this intermingling has resulted into a high degree of ethnic, social, cultural, and political homogeneity and unity among the native Palmyrian populace.
The Royal Commonwealth is a developed, high-income nation. It also has a high Human Development Index, the result of many ongoing social welfare, sanitation, and healthcare policies of the government, combined with a financially and academically literate populace, a free, robust, well-regulated, and highly-productive market, and a well-paid, highly skilled, and highly productive labor force. In its post-colonial existence as the Royal Confederacy, it has been one of the latecomers to the regional wave of industrialization, but quickly caught up with the use of groundbreaking scientific and technological advances, discoveries, and inventions in its industrial pursuits despite having to begin from a small capital base during its early days as a sovereign state that had just broken free from Stevidian colonial rule. The Royal Commonwealth is touted as an emerging great power with an increasingly-improving military and economic capability to pursue a stronger and more visible place in worldwide geopolitics. It is currently a member of a select number of influential diplomatic coalitions.
Etymology
The name Palmyria is not a native invention, but rather the result of a combination of Stevidian colonial rule and significant Macabeean merchant activity. Macabeean merchants paid homage to the coconut plant's importance as a versatile plant to the various kingdoms, sultanates, and fiefdoms that inhabited present-day Palmyrion, especially during the Makiling Hegemonic Era. The lands encompassed by present-day Palmyrion were referred to in Macabeean correspondence and publication as Tierra de los Palmeras, or land of the palms, with the Stevidians following suit and calling it the Palmerian Domain. With the formation of the Governorate-General of the Palmerian Dominion, under Lord Governor Isaac Palmer, the etymology of Palmyrion was sealed.
Eventually, linguistic corruption would transform "Palmeria" into "Palmyria", leading into the present-day endonym Palmyria. Palmyrion is essentially a portmanteau of "Palmyrian Dominion" and is generally accepted to be an exonym
History
Prehistory
Recent discoveries of stone tools and fossils of butchered animal remains in Kalinga, Iloilo, and Naga has pushed back evidence of early hominins in present-day Palmyrion to as early as 800,000 years. However, the metatarsal of the Macahambus Man, reliably dated by both carbon-14 dating and uranium-series dating to about 70,000 years ago remains the oldest human remnant found in the Royal Commonwealth to date. Aetas and Negritos were among the first inhabitants of modern-day Palmyrion, but reliably dated remnants of permanent settlements date back only to the 21st Century BCE.
Precolonial Epoch
Pre-Hegemonic Era (2000 BC - 1105)
The start of recorded history in Palmyrion is dated by consensus to be around the 20th Century BC. Among the first recorded writings from this era were the first scriptures of what is now the Bathalan faith, a panentheistic faith whose roots lie in Palmyrian animism undergoing evolution into an organized panentheistic religion. These scriptures, still standing in theological practice to this day, detail the theological underpinnings and rituals of the Bathalan faith. Non-religious writings include the first written laws and contracts, as well as philosophical writings from Pre-Hegemonic thinkers.
Pre-Hegemonic Palmyrion was a collection of barangay-states ruled by chieftains, now commonly referred to as datus. Many of these datus brought their loyalty groups, referred to as barangays or dulohan, into compact settlements that allowed for greater diplomatic cooperation, economic specialization, cultural exchange, and military coordination, resulting into the formation of large coastal polities that became Palmyrion's first towns and, eventually, cities. These barangays were, in a way, run as elective monarchies, wherein the datus of these collected barangays selected the most respected among them to be the paramount datu. This paramount datu held titles such as Lakan, Rajah, or simply Datu. It is from this titling of such a paramount datu that Lakan, the modern-day title for the Royal Commonwealth's Sovereign-of-State, originates, with Lakambini as its female counterpart.
During the pre-Hegemonic era (particularly during the 8th to 10th Centuries CE), many hereditary families of military aristocracy, belonging to the maharlika caste of martial nobility, rose to the status of ruling royalty through military victory, political maneuvering, social legitimacy, and religious support. Among them stands the current Palmyrian royal family, House Roseguard in its current form, as the most prominent example. It was this maharlika clans' rise to royal ascendancy that the modern-day Palmyrian term for royalty, maharlika, came to be.
Makiling Hegemonic Era (1105 - 1575)
The Hegemony of Makiling was signed in 1105, forming the Makiling League (Kahugpongan ng Makiling). The League of Makiling was a confederation of datus ruled by an elective monarchy, with lord-electors from across the League coming together regularly to discuss League-wide issues and elect the Makiling League's paramount datu. Male paramount datus were given the title of Lakan, while women were given the title Lakambini and ruled as queens regnant.
Colonial era (1575-1800)
Palmyrion was colonised by the Stevidians.
The Royal Confederate Era (1800-1935)
Refounding Era (1800-1821)
With the capture of modern-day Alexandria in early June 1800, King Maximillian would discharge his first duty as King by signing into effect the Constitution of Royal Confederacy on the 1st of July, 10 years to the day that Sovereignty was declared. He would be crowned in a humble and solemn ceremony on August 12, 1800.
Thus, the Royal Palmyrian Confederacy was born, and a resurgent Roseguard dynasty installed as the ruling royal house. King Maximillian would lead the resurgent country for the next 21 years as its first king, as other vassal-provinces rose up in arms and, upon successful takeover of their provincial administrative centers, swore fealty to Royal House Roseguard. The Tagalog, Batangan, Pampangan, and Bicolano vassal-provinces become the founding provinces of Palmyrion resurgent. His reign saw the formation of a monarcho-democratic government with the tripartite division of state power now familiar today: the Executive, with the Monarchy its basis, the Monarch being the Sovereign-of-State and the Chancellor being the Sovereign's Aide-de-Camp of Government; the Legislature, with the Chamber of Lords, selected from among the lords of the Confederacy, as its upper house, and the Chamber of Burghers, with its constituents selected from among the more common folk as their representatives, as its lower house; and the Judiciary, with His Majesty’s Supreme Court as the highest court of the Royal Confederacy, and lower courts attending to the subject provinces of the Royal Confederacy.
From 1811 to 1819, he would lead the Royal Confederacy through the Second War of Sovereignty, launched by the Stevidian Empire in an effort to reconquer Palmyrion. His reign would see the Royal Confederacy defend its hard-fought sovereignty, and making the Stevidian Empire recognize Palmyrian sovereignty in 1820, before abdicating due to illness in 1821.
King Maximillian the Refounder died in 1824 at the age of 80, having secured Palmyrion’s sovereignty from foreign colonial rule.
Oliverian Era (1821-1840)
King Oliver, a military officer who fought under his father’s banner in both the First and Second Wars of Sovereignty, rose to the throne in 1821, at the age of 50.
His 19-year reign would see Palmyrion welcome the transformative forces of the Industrial Revolution, as he actively welcomed industrial magnates and entrepreneurs, and encouraging them to establish factories, mines, and other key infrastructure; his Monarchy also invested in research into industrial research and development, helping the fledgling resurgent nation catch up with the rapidly industrializing world. Factories and mines opened across the Royal Confederacy as the Industrial Revolution steadily absorbed its way into Palmyrion’s way of life and transformed the fledgling agrarian nation into an promising industrial powerhouse that embraced the power of machinery and mass production.
This industrial revolution was also coupled with an agricultural one, as the King, recognizing the importance of food security for a growing and increasingly urbanized populace, also supported the innovation and proliferation of agricultural techniques and technologies during his reign. These advances helped improve crop yields and improve agricultural efficiency, ensuring that the Royal Confederacy could sustain its growing population while supporting industrial growth.
Unfortunately, illness, now believed with consensus among medical historians to be metastasized lung cancer, attributed to his exposure to industrial pollutants as a patron of the Industrial Revolution, forced him to abdicate to make way for his only daughter, Theodora, on 1840.
King-Emeritus Oliver would live for 12 more years to see his daughter carry on his work of industrializing the Royal Confederacy and carry out what is now known as the Theodoran Consolidation. He died in 1852, at the age of 81.
Theodoran Era (1840-1894)
Theodora was born in 1811 to then Prince Oliver and his wife Catherine, Princess of Cavite, as his only daughter. Her juvenile life was shaped by the fire of the Second War of Sovereignty; it was common to see the child close to her mother, who contributed to the war effort as a nurse and herbalist tending to the sick and wounded of the Royal Confederate Forces at Arms, with little Theodora helping her mother tend to the wounded in their family estate.
She married Prince Bernard of Naga (1810-1870) in 1834, a marriage that would last until her husband's death in 1870 at the age of 59. The couple had 9 children: four boys and five girls, of whom the eldest was Albert.
One would think that such a grisly exposure to the bloody side of statecraft at a young age would steer the girl away from war, or statecraft altogether – but she proved otherwise, as she rose to the throne in 1840 at the age of 29, after her father Oliver's abdication, and initiate the Theodoran Consolidation.
The Theodoran Consolidation was instrumental in helping shape modern-day Palmyrion, with its present borders secured during the Consolidation, be through military conquest or political maneuvering. The first years of her reign would see her not just continue the industrial and agricultural innovations her father helped foster, but also use it to fuel the Royal Confederacy’s expansion. The Visayan, Cagayan Valley, Ifugao, and Ilocano dukedoms, corresponding respectively to the modern-day Federal Republics of Visayas, the Cagayan Valley, the Cordilleras, and Ilocos, would be absorbed into the Royal Confederacy through both political maneuvering and a series of military conquests.
Many modern historians call her method “gold or gore” to highlight the dual methods of diplomacy and force that she employed. Peaceful ascension to the Royal Confederacy was facilitated with promises of economic development, industrial innovation, agricultural advancement, representation in the Confederate Assembly, and a degree of autonomy as subject dukedoms enjoying devolution of state power under a confederacy, with the prospect – and realization – of military conquest being an alternative.
Naturally, all three chose the first alternative; the dukedoms, now swearing loyal subjection to the Royal Confederacy, then saw resistance eradicated in the military conquests that would follow as nations and tribes, refusing to swear subjection and fealty to the Royal Confederacy, seceded from the dukedoms which they perceived to have betrayed them. After military conquest brought to heel the seceding nations and tribes, the Royal Confederacy then consolidated their rule through economic power by fostering industrial and agricultural innovation and development in the newly conquered lands, coupled with the political legitimization of rule by giving the nations representation in the Assembly.
The first consolidations resulted in the Visayan, Cagayan Valley, Ilocano, and Ifugao dukedoms joining the Confederacy in 1849, 1856, 1863, and 1871, respectively.
First Moro-Palmyrian War (1869-1877)
The Sultanates of Mindanao and Sulu, having secured their continued independence from Stevidian colonization through a series of bloody defensive conflicts over the past three centuries, saw the rapidly expanding Royal Confederacy as a fast-growing threat, and sought to act proactively. When Visayas became a subject dukedom of the Royal Confederacy, the Sultanates started a series of limited naval and amphibious campaigns defined by skirmishes and raids along its southern coast as early as the early 1850s, all the while the Royal Confederacy was in the last leg of reclaiming the Cagayan Valley dukedom and was starting to reclaim the Ilocano and Ifugao dukedoms.
The Dukedom of Visayas, with the express support of Her Majesty, fortified the southern coasts to better defend against the Sultanates’ raids and skirmishes, and built agile flotillas to help counter the Sultanates’ raider-skirmisher parties. The 1862 completion of the Canal of Bacolod, under construction since 1851, and crossing the width of the Talisay Isthmus, provided a boon for the Navy, allowing ships to cross from the Bay of Alexandria to the Moro-Visayan Sea, the biggest flashpoint of the Moro-Visayan skirmishes, the sea marking a maritime intersection where the islands of Visayas, Mindanao, and Sulu converged.
The Moro-Palmyrian War started with the Battles of Hamtic and Cebu in 1869, as the Sultanates launched a full-scale invasion of the Dukedom of Visayas on two fronts, establishing beachheads from where the Sultanates could further invade the island of Visayas. A declaration of war easily passed through the halls of the Assembly, and the Queen sent her forces to help defend the Visayan Dukedom. The Moro-Visayan Sea and the Visayas-Mindanao and Visayas-Sulu Straits were tinted red with blood and festooned by the charred wrecks of defeated ships as the Her Majesty’s Naval Service fought tooth-and-nail with the Sultans’ navies for naval supremacy. On land, the Army and the Corps of Marines fought with their Sultanate adversaries, the lands watered red with the blood of soldiers and marines.
The decisive Battle of the Moro-Visayan Sea in 1874 cemented Royal Confederate naval supremacy for the remainder of the war, as the Royal Confederacy resoundingly defeated a colossal, amassed armada launched by the Sultanates against the Talisay Isthmus in a bid to invade and secure the Canal of Bacolod. A series of retaliatory raids along the northern shores of Mindanao and Sulu destroyed the Sultanates’ military-industrial capability as the Navy laid waste upon the Sultanate’s naval bases and shipyards, with the Royal Confederacy forcing a surrender by 1877.
Late Theodoran Era (1877-1894)
The Late Theodoran Era, encompassing the last 17 years of Queen Theodora's reign as queen, saw the Theodoran Monarchy consolidate its territorial and economic achievements and usher in a more modern age for the Royal Palmyrian Confederacy. The last 17 years of the Theodoran Monarchy saw the integration and development of newly acquired territories, and the ushering of technological advancements that would shape the Palmyrian nation's future.
Queen Theodora prioritized the reconstruction of the devastation left by the Moro-Palmyrian War, particularly in the Dukedom of Visayas, which bore the brunt of the conflict. The island became the focal point of reconstruction efforts to restore its industrial prowess and agricultural productivity in a push to restore the Visayan Dukedom's economic prosperity and mend the wounds of war.
The Queen also chartered naval settlement expeditions to the Mindoro-Palawan island group starting in 1880, three years after the end of the Moro-Palmyrian War. These naval settlement expeditions established settlements, industries, fortifications, and infrastructure along the islands to welcome them into the Royal Confederacy's fold and integrate them into its realms. The Mindoro-Palawan Dukedom was created in 1889 as a subject of the Royal Confederacy, almost 9 years after their initial settlement, marking the last major territorial expansion under Theodora's reign and solidifying her legacy as the consolidator of the Palmyrian nation's realms.
The late Theodoran Era also saw the Royal Confederacy expand the adoption of electricity across its realms, and the creation of a nationwide archipelagic telegraphy network. The expansion of the adoption of electricity transformed the way that Palmyrians lived and worked across the nation as it brought modern conveniences to wide swathes of society, enabling increased agricultural and industrial productivity and improving overall quality of life. The creation of a nationwide archipelagic telegraphy network, connecting even the most distant of islands to central hubs of society, revolutionized communications across the archipelago. This archipelagic telegraphy network of submarine telegraphy cables and terrestrial telegraphy stations vastly improved inter-island coordination and communications, enhancing administrative efficiency, military coordination, and the transmission of knowledge across the islands. Both of these technological advancements laid the foundation for the Palmyrian nation's modern electrical grid and telecommunications network.
Queen Theodora lived to the grand old age of 83, having helped cement the destiny of the Palmyrian nation during the era now named the Theodoran Era after her; due to her reign's achievements, she would be dubbed by historians as Theodora the Consolidator. Her eldest son Albert succeeded her upon her death, inheriting a prosperous realm consolidated by his mother's illustrious reign.
Second Moro-Palmyrian War (1915-1919)
The Resounding Twenties (1920s)
The Partition of 1935
The Royal Confederacy splits into three: the communists form the Palmyrian People's Republic in the Cagayan Valley State, the Christofalangists are driven off to the island-state of Visayas, and the Royal Confederacy retains hold on the Tagalog, Pampangan, Bicolano, and Batangan States. The Federation of Ilocos and the Cordilleras swear fealty to the Royal Confederacy. Mindanao and Sulu declare independence and form the Islamic Alliance.
Disunion Era (1935-2000)
First Pan-Archipelagic War (1940-1947)
Four-way between the PPR, the CFR, the Royal Confederacy, and the Islamic Alliance. Status quo ante bellum, but with the designation of Alexandria as a neutral freeport hosting the administrative centers of the Communists, Christofalangists, and the Royal Confederacy, while being situated deep in Royal Confederate territory. Islamic Republics of Sulu and Mindanao declare independence. The Mindoro and Palawan become protectorates of the Royal Confederacy. The Federation of Ilocos and the Cordilleras becomes an exclave of the Royal Confederacy.
First Cordilleran War (1950-1955)
Politico-military vanguards of the Palmyrian People's Republic engage in a campaign of insurgency and uprisings in the Cordilleran highlands; these campaigns threaten to plunge the Cordilleras into communism, and eventually into the fold of the Palmyrian People's Republic. The Palmyrian People's Republic, judging that the highlands have been sufficiently weakened, then launch a literally uphill invasion up the slopes of the Cordilleras to exploit the weakness caused by the highland insurgency and uprisings, prompting a Royal Confederate response.
Reinforcements are landed along the shores of Ilocos, and are quickly transported uphill to the slopes of the Cordilleran highlands where a brutal cat-and-mouse between Confederate forces and Communist forces burned in the mountainous jungles of the region. On the southeastern front, the Confederacy launches a diversionary invasion from the slopes of the Zambal mountain range and a naval blockade of the PPR port-city of Tuguegarao, aiming to directly threaten the PPR's treasured port city to distract the PPR from its uphill campaign in the Cordilleran slopes. Many historians debate to this day how effective this diversionary invasion was, but one thing is indisputably clear: by the end of 1954, the Communist invasion of the highlands was repulsed, with PPR forces ordering a full-scale retreat from the highlands.
The First Cordilleran War was ended with the Valentine's Day Armistice on February 14, 1955, though with no definite peace treaty signed the conflict became a frozen war.
Salvation War (1951-1957)
The CFR invades and annexes the Muslim Republics of Sulu and Mindanao.
Ber War (September-December 1968)
The People's Freeport of Tuguegarao, situated at the mouth of the Cagayan River, was using its People's Freeport status too freely for the commies to be comfortable with, forming good relations with the Christofalangists and the Royal Confederacy. The city becomes a bloody proxy battleground as militias sponsored by the three major factions vie for control of the city in a three-way proxy war amidst typhoon and monsoon season, compounded by a dengue outbreak. An armistice is reached by December 1968. Two years later in 1970, Tuguegarao's freeport status is revoked.
Second Cordilleran War (1971-1977)
The Bangsamoro (1977-1988)
In 1975, Islamic People's Party win elections in CFR-held Mindanao and Sulu. In 1977, the IPP-led Mindanao and Sulu declare independence as one state, forming the Bangsamoro, and ban other political parties and religions on their turf. The CFR invades them in 1978, leading to the 1977-1988 Bangsamoro-Christofalangist War.
Second Pan-Archipelagic War (1979-1984)
The Second Pan-Archipelagic War becomes yet another four-way meatgrinder affair between the CFR, the PPR, and the RPC. The Second Pan-Archipelagic War was sparked primarily by the Mindoro-Palawan Crisis, with the Battle of Port Elizabeth seeing the first shots fired during the war.
Reunion Crisis (1990s)
The 90s were defined by the Reunion Crisis, a bloody lead-up to the Reunion. Ethnoreligious strife ravaged the country, as the Communist and Christofalangist breakaways buckled under the weight of domestic repression and global isolation, and cracks in the Royal Confederacy caused by societal inequalities and the earliest entry of identity politics into mainstream Confederate political life. Amidst the repression by the authoritarian regimes of the Palmyrian People's Republic and the Christofalangist Republic, and societal tension in the Confederacy arising due to the mainstreaming of identity politics, the liberal factions of the ruling parties of the PPR and CFR win in elections held during the middle of the decade, promising an end to decades of unfreedom and global alienation. They held reunification forums with the endorsement and invitation of the Confederacy's Monarch, seeing that the Monarchy could be an institution they could negotiate with. A reunification referendum was held in 1998, with approval of reunification ranging from 80-90% across the Royal Confederacy and the breakaway Communist and Christofalangist states.
In 2000, reunification was achieved with the ratification of the Charter of Royal Commonwealth as the reunited nation-state's constitution, ending nearly 65 years of unfreedom.
The Royal Commonwealth (2000-present)
The present-day Royal Commonwealth is formed through the reunification of Palmyrion as a "democratic federation governed by a parliamentary monarchy" with the adoption of the 2000 Royal Commonwealth Charter.
The 2000s immediately following the Reunion was a bittersweet honeymoon stage marked by post-reunification hope and optimism, though uncertainty swung heavy in the air. The Palmyrian nation, now under the helm of the Royal Commonwealth, rebuilt its domestic industries and pacified areas riven by ethnoreligious strife as it sought to move on from the shadow and horror of the Disunion Era. The cities shimmered with life anew, as industry rebuilt and expanded. Foreign direct investment skyrocketed as foreign investment poured into the country after decades of disunion. Agriculture and mining boomed as industries that were key to feeding the post-reunification industrial revitalization of the Royal Commonwealth, providing an economic lifeline to a nation tending to its socio-cultural wounds.
Everyone benefited - some more than others.
Post-Reunion teething woes
With industry booming in and around the cities, the Royal Palmyrian Commonwealth experienced a massive wave of rural flight as the youth, attracted by the glitz and glamor of industrial urban life, flocked to the cities in search of better livelihoods and for a shot at the Reunion Hope. The urban poor were displaced by gentrification as construction firms and industrial giants built towering apartments, swanky condominiums, expansive shopping malls, and colossal factory complexes, raising the cost of living beyond their means. Subsistence farmers and artisanal miners were displaced by development aggression from large agribusiness and agro-industrial firms and mining corporations.
The rapid industrialization led to a marked increase in inequality, with economic and political power becoming concentrated among a small elite. Regions previously neglected during the Disunion Era, particularly rural and remote areas, suffered from bureaucratic delays and insufficiency of infrastructure, leading to a faulty implementation of development initiatives that fueled a sense of betrayal among the urban poor, who felt that their loyalty and faith in the reunited Commonwealth had gone unrewarded. As rural youth migrated to the cities, traditional rural lifestyles were threatened with extinction, causing cultural friction between the urbanizing youth and the elders. Initiatives to support rural cultures and economies often took a backseat to the booming urban industrial sector, further deepening and widening the urban-rural divide.
Organized crime flourished amidst socio-economic upheavals and inequality. Many of the displaced rural poor turned to poaching and drug trafficking, hunting endangered animals and farming narcotic crops for profit at the expense of running afoul with the law. In the cities, the disenfranchised urban poor rallied around gangs, engaging in racketeering to eke out a living, at the cost of the lives and livelihoods they brought to ruin, and running afoul of the law that, in their eyes, failed them miserably. Over time, the line between organized crime and insurgency blurred as mere narcos and poachers evolved into formidable narco-insurgents, and petty gangs evolved into powerful mafias. Urban gangs started forming alliances and brokering mergers with rural narco-insurgents, leading to the fusion of organized crime with insurgency and the advent of a mixed rural-urban approach to rebellion. Many of these insurgent and criminal groups co-opted religion and secular ideology to maintain and bolster in-group loyalty and outgroup appeal, attracting the idealistic and disillusioned among the nation into their ranks.
Counter-Insurgency War (2010-2018/2024)
The first embers of the Counter-Insurgency War flickered as early as the late third of the 2000s, when narco-insurgent activity experienced an upsurge and widespread reports of narco-insurgents taking over rural villages reached mainstream public knowledge. Pre-existing counter-insurgency operations, already busy with quelling ethnoreligious strife, were amplified and intensified as narco-insurgents added a narcotic and economic dimension to the low-intensity conflict. In the urban areas, the line between mafia, rioter, and urban guerilla blurred as riots broke out, with rioter-guerillas taking over entire city blocks in the affected cities and engaging in armed hostilities against government forces in a bid to assert their takeover.
The state launched multiple counter-insurgency operations across the insurgency-affected areas, all happening under the umbrella of Operation Consolidator.
Succession Crisis (2019-2024)
On June 29, 2019, the Royal Commonwealth fell victim to one of the deadliest terror attacks of the 21st Century, as the National Redemption Front carried out the 6/29 attacks. The attacks involved coordinated mass shootings and chemical attacks against the Metro Alexandria Pride March taking place in Commonwealth Park, and the nearby Grand Alexandria Station, capped off by an assassination of the young Lakan Alexander II as he delivered a speech condemning the attacks and promising that the perpetrators shall be met with the full force of the law.
The next morning, his successor was declared, according to the last will and testament of the Lakan: his wife, Elizabeth. The news was received with much furor: the shock and awe of the public and the objection of most politicians about the unconventional succession of Elizabeth to the throne, when traditionally the crown should have fallen upon Princess Jilliane, Alexander II's younger sister, upon his death. The nation, already reeling from the events of 6/29, was now plunged into a succession crisis that threatened to fracture the Commonwealth during an already fragile period of recovery from the attacks.
The extraordinary and unconventional succession of Alexander II's royal consort, Elizabeth, to the throne caused furor and condemnation as a breach of royal succession tradition and protocols, and as a major threat to the stability of the monarchy. The Agency for the Royal House refused to give her the honor of a coronation, but due to the expediency of the circumstances revolving around her succession nonetheless formally proclaimed her as Lakambini. The furor of the succession crisis would be overshadowed by larger and more pressing national issues, such as Operation Housekeeper, the sharp rise in insurgency and crime, an economic recession widely attributed to investor and entrepreneur anxiety over national stability, and in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic. Extremist groups and insurgents would exploit the chaos following the death of Lakan Emeritus Alexander II and the ensuing Succession Crisis, in addition to the socioeconomic damage done by the COVID-19 pandemic, to revitalize rebellion and secession, eventually leading to the Mindanao-Sulu Crisis (2021-2024).
In spite of the furor and condemnation around her succession, Lakambini Elizabeth took to her work to re-stabilize the nation with assistance from allies such as the Holy Marsh, Romandeos, Allanea, and the Ilethlean Isles. Palmyrian police and military worked overtime alongside their foreign allies to quell the insurgent surge and the crime waves that swept the Commonwealth, engaged in what many deemed to be a sequel to the Counter-Insurgency War which raged from 2010 to 2018. Military and law enforcement efforts to quell the chaos were coupled with socio-economic revitalization in war-torn areas, with new socioeconomic development initiatives formulated and already-existing ones redoubled. The government also held investor and economics summits in a bid to restore investor and entrepreneur confidence in the Palmyrian economy, alongside national security conferences to update the public on the state's progress in fighting insurgency and crime.
Succession quarrel in the Royal Family
Since 2019, the two have been quarreling over succession to the throne, though the rest of the Roseguards have been leaving the two to settle it themselves; anything short of a violent transfer of power or, worse, plunging the Royal Commonwealth into a civil war when they just secured a decisive military victory over two insurgencies was acceptable in the eyes of the Roseguards. Internally, they had some reason to worry about the prospect of a coup d'etat, and eventually a succession civil war, for themilitary touted Princess Jilliane, a Navy officer and one of their own, as the rightful successor, and a worthy one at that, nevermind her sister-in-law Elizabeth being the sitting Sovereign and Commander-in-Chief of the military. Seven, going eight, years of steadfast service in the Navy as an officer, powering through the scars of a near-death experience; seven, going eight, years of steadfast experience, having served in the naval line of fire during the Mindanao-Sulu Crisis, leading with excellence. She was ready to step up to the throne when her brother Alexander II was killed, and would eagerly have done so if it weren't for Elizabeth being designated as his successor.
2020 was an annus horribilis not only for Palmyrion (and the wider world, due to the COVID-19 pandemic), but for Elizabeth herself. Constant quarrelling with Jilliane and post-partum depression, after she gave birth to Nathan and Julia on February 28, 2020, made 2020 a grueling year for Elizabeth, with her personal struggles simmering amidst the strife that struck the nation as a result of the pandemic. Nonetheless, she powered through the trials of motherhood and statecraft. The Roseguards helped her every step of the way with motherhood, an effort into which even Jilliane pitched, though due mostly to detached filial piety than affection towards a sister-in-law that she otherwise respected beyond the sensitive issue that was the succession quarrel. The Mindanao-Sulu Crisis (2021-2024) and was a trial by fire, a fire that she as a sovereign powered through, but she as a person barely survived.
The 2024 Succession Accords
The Succession Accords, after finally passing judicial review by the Supreme Court on the 4th of October, stipulated that Elizabeth step down and take the role and title of Lakambini Emeritus, and Jilliane become the Sovereign and Lakambini; this succession would take effect upon January 1, 2025, with a coronation scheduled on the 25th. Nathan and Julia, as Elizabeth's twins and the late Alexander II's posthumous issue with her, shall respectively become first and second in line to the throne; from then on, succession through absolute primogeniture, as has been royal succession tradition since Maximillian the Refounder, shall proceed as normal.
Nobody knows why Elizabeth decided to give up the throne to Jilliane; whether out of sheer exhaustion, or out of moral conviction about the nature of her succession to power, one can only speculate, though these were the two most speculated reasons. Nonetheless, the Succession Accords has been received in positive light, as an act of righting wrongs.
With recognition by the Royal House, endorsement by the Agency for the Royal Household, and approvals from the Cabinet, the Assembly, and the Supreme Court secured, and public support garnered, the Succession Accords are effectively ratified and validated as the resolution to the Succession Crisis that has plagued the Palmyrian monarchy over the last five years.
Mindanao-Sulu Crisis (2021-2024)
Cordillera Valley Crisis (2021-2024)
The Heartbreak Crisis (September-October 2024)
Politics
Governance
According to Art. II, Sec. 1 of the 2000 Charter of Royal Commonwealth, Palmyrion is a "monarco-democratic state", a "democratic federation governed by a parliamentary monarchy". The present-day constitution of the Royal Commonwealth is the 2000 Charter of Royal Commonwealth, commonly referred to as the 2000 Constitution. According to the Constitution, Palmyrion's head of state is the Sovereign, who, according to the Article of Monarchy, has the title of Lakan if they are male, or Lakambini if they are female. According to political analysts, the Palmyrian Sovereign holds executive powers on par with that of a president in a semi-presidential republic.
The following are the branches of the Royal Commonwealth's government.
- Executive - Palmyrion is a monarchy, and its head of state is the Monarch, with succession based upon absolute primogeniture. The head of government is the Chancellor, and must maintain the confidence of the Assembly to remain in power, lest they be voted out of power by a no-confidence consensus from the Assembly. The Chancellor supervises the Commonwealth Council, a cabinet of Vice-Chancellors each leading a department or a cabinet-level agency.
- Legislative - The Commonwealth Assembly is the main legislative branch of Palmyrion, and consists of a lower house, the Chamber of Councillors, and an upper house, the Chamber of Senators. The Chamber of Councillors has 400 seats, with each province given 10 representatives. The Chamber of Senators has 100 seats, with each Federal Republic allotted 10 senators.
- Judiciary - Palmyrion's highest court is the Supreme Court. Each Federal Republic also maintains its state court, to which the provincial trial courts of its constituent provinces are subordinate. It also has other adjoining courts, like the Court of Appeals, which cater to appeals, and the Sandiganbayan, a court specially for cases related to graft and corruption.
Foreign Relations
Palmyrion maintains its foreign relations with the rest of the world mostly via multilateral trade and sociocultural exchange. While its relations with prominently capitalist nations are warm, it views socialist countries with suspicion, taking care not to enter into military commitments or close, if not intimate, economic relations with such nations. As a signatory to the Amistad Declaration, it has also adopted a policy of bellum aeternum, or "eternal war", against states whose governments espouse slavery of any form, and provides military and law enforcement aid to countries who de jure have abolished and banned slavery but are otherwise facing problems in stamping out slavery.
Palmyrion is a member of, notably, the International Freedom Coalition, and the Capitalist Internationale; additionally, it is also a member of the Greater Prussian Alliance by virtue of its membership in the Capitalist Internationale. Ilethlean and the Holy Marsh stand as strategic partners, while Allanea and Romandeos are considered a major ally of the Royal Commonwealth.
Military
The Armed Forces of Palmyrion (Pal. Sandatahang Lakas ng Palmyria) serves as the armed military force of the Royal Commonwealth, responsible for the armed defense of Palmyrian interests both domestic and foreign. It is composed of the following branches:
- Palmyrian Army - The Palmyrian Army (Pal. Hukbong Katihan ng Palmyria) is the land-based branch of the Armed Forces of Palmyrion, focusing on land-based missions alongside the other branches of the military. Its missions include conventional and asymmetric mechanized, airborne, and air assault warfare, and ground-based air and maritime defence roles.
- Palmyrian Navy - The Palmyrian Navy (Pal. Hukbong Pandagat ng Palmyria) is the maritime component of the Armed Forces of Palmyrion, focusing on maritime-based missions alongside the other branches of the military. Its missions include naval-based maritime warfare and air defence roles, and amphibious warfare through its sub-branch the Marine Corps (Pal. Hukbong Katihang Pandagat ng Palmyria).
- Palmyrian Aerospace Forces - The Palmyrian Aerospace Forces (Pal. Hukbong Himpapawid ng Palmyria) is the air and space component of the Armed Forces of Palmyrion, focusing on aerospace-based missions alongside other branches of the military. Its primary mission is to help obtain and secure aerospatial supremacy and security for Palmyrian forces and allies thereof.
- Palmyrian Gendarmerie - The Palmyrian Gendarmerie (Pal. Hukbong Pamayapa ng Palmyria) is one of the two national police forces, along with the Palmyrian National Police, and is a gendarmerie-type branch of the Armed Forces of Palmyrion. Formed on 2018 from the split of the Constabulary, it specializes on military internal security and coast guard duties, while filling a niche role in Palmyrian law enforcement. It can also be deployed overseas to support military units in internal security roles.
Palmyrian military doctrine is primarily rooted in hybrid warfare. Kinetically, its strategic, operational, and tactical outlook is based on combined arms warfare, with the aim of achieving comprehensive dominance over any military adversary. As an expansive nation of rough tropical jungle terrain, a premium is placed on highly-mobile formations such as light infantry, strategically supported by air power. This outlook is paired with the need for a blue-water navy tasked with guarding its waters as an archipelagic nation. At the non-kinetic level, the military coordinates with other bodies of government to execute a spectrum of operations including psychological warfare, political warfare, and economic warfare; chief among this is its adoption of a Human Terrain framework for community engagement, a skill it has honed during the Counter-Insurgency War.
The AFP maintains a two-year conscription policy. Upon exit from the Palmyrian basic education curriculum as high school graduates, conscripts are enlisted into basic training (which takes four months), followed by advanced individual training in their chosen military occupational specialty (which takes another four months); upon completion of both basic and advanced training, conscripts are to serve for two years in the branch of their own choosing. Once they complete their term of service, they are given a choice between joining the professional active force as NCOs, relegation into the reserve force, or leaving the military altogether.
| Armed Forces of Palmyrion (2018) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Branch | Active | Reserve | Total |
| Palmyrian Army | 1,200,000 | 400,000 | 1,200,000 |
| Palmyrian Navy | 1,600,000 | 800,000 | 2,100,000 |
| Palmyrian Marine Corps | 200,000 | 100,000 | 300,000 |
| Palmyrian Air Force | 1,200,000 | 400,000 | 1,200,000 |
| Palmyrian Civil Defence Force | 1,600,000 | 400,000 | 1,600,000 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 5,800,000 | 2,200,000 | 8,000,000 |
Administrative Divisions
Palmyrion is subdivided into 40 provinces among 10 federal subjects. Each province is further subdivided into counties, themselves containing cities, towns, and village
| Federal Subject | Federal Capital | Provinces | Provincial Capital |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tagalog Federal Republic | Imus, Cavite | Cavite | Imus |
| Quezon | Lucena | ||
| Makiling | Calamba | ||
| Bulacan | St. Joseph | ||
| Bicolano Federal Republic | St. Dominic, Albay | Albay | St. Dominic |
| Camarines | Naga | ||
| Sorsogon | St. Magdalene | ||
| Catanduanes | Pandan | ||
| Western Tagalog Federal Republic | St. Ferdinand, Pampanga | Pampanga | St. Ferdinand |
| Zambales | Olongapo | ||
| Mindoro | Calapan | ||
| Palawan | Port Elizabeth | ||
| Batangan Federal Republic | Batangas City, Batangas | Batangas | Batangas City |
| Lipa | Talltree | ||
| Nasugbu | St. Therese | ||
| Talisay | St. Nicholas | ||
| Cagayan Valley Federal Republic | Tuguegarao, Cagayan | Cagayan | Tuguegarao |
| St. Elizabeth | Ilagan | ||
| Quirinus | Saguday | ||
| New Monadh | St. Margaret | ||
| Cordilleran Federal Republic | Baguio City, Benguet | Benguet | Baguio City |
| Kalinga | Tabuk | ||
| Abra | St. Quentin | ||
| Apayao | St. Marcella | ||
| Ilocano Federal Republic | Vigan City, Ilocos | Ilocos | Vigan City |
| Laoag | Pagudpud | ||
| St. Gabriel | Santol | ||
| Pangasinan | St. Charles | ||
| Visayan Federal Republic | Bacolod City, Talisay | Talisay | Bacolod City |
| Panay | Panay City | ||
| Cebu | Cebu City | ||
| Samar | Tacloban | ||
| Islamic Republic of Sulu | Jolo City, Jolo | Jolo | Jolo City |
| Patikul | Patikul City | ||
| Maimbung | Kandang | ||
| Indanan | Malimbaya | ||
| Islamic Republic of Mindanao | Marawi City, Maguindanao | Maguindanao | Marawi City |
| Davao | Davao City | ||
| Zamboanga | Pagadian | ||
| Caraga | Butuan |