The Phanes Republic

The Phanes Republic The Republiká
Motto: "We Are Many, We Are One"
Capital	Gytheia
Largest city	Corinth
Official languages	Sagittari, Neo-Xhanese
Recognised national languages	Sagittari, Neo-Xhanese
Demonym(s)	Phanite
Government	Polyarchy
Population
• 217AE estimate	26,381,000
GDP (nominal)	215AE estimate
• Per capita	1,613,000,000 (70,048)
Currency	Credit (PHRC)
Date format	(DD-MM-YYYY) AE
Driving side	left

Phanes, officially the Phanes Republic, is a star-nation in the Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. Its position is relatively isolated, and the nation enjoys relative freedom from potential neighbours and any resultant discomfort. The Republic has a population of approximately 26.3 million, and comprises of territories in three star systems. The intra-stellar capital is the city of Gytheia on the world of Sagittar, although each world houses its own sub-capital and the largest city by population is the city of Corinth, also located on Sagittar.

History

The Republic is, in galactic terms, a young nation. Barely two-hundred years have passed since the first inhabitants of Sagittar landed on their new homeworld. Within that time, the fractious populations that split the system between themselves have fought brutal wars against each other and with those of their own worlds. Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, the majority of the two cultures prevalent are at peace with each other in the modern era. Just a few short years after unification, the Sagittarians and Xhanese found themselves newly minted members of the Joint Systems Alliance, a body which ended a few short years later. After spending a decade in cautious hiding from the ferocious Vipran Imperium, the Republic has, after inadvertent contact with the Maekari, revealed themselves again.

The Republic was formed from two different planetary authorities that both found themselves co-existing in the Phanes star system. The first was the Sagittaran Democracy, located on a fertile and large planet that orbited the local star as the fourth planetary body. The second was the Xhanese Planetary Council, who settled the dwarf planet of Cao-Xhan, the second body of the system, and one that, although far more inhospitable in both environment and fauna, is excessively rich in rare minerals and more common ores.

Geography

Sagittar

The homeworld of the Sagittarian people, and the fertile second planet of the Phanes System. Large cities dominate the landscape, each one forming an electoral district for the myriad smaller settlements and farms that abound. Sagittar is a mostly-temperate planet, and large tracts of the land that are not owned by private interests are designated by the planetary government as wilderness, forbidding development on them. The Sagittarian people are fiercely protective of their rights, with every man and woman over the age of twenty permitted to vote in local elections, and hence for the bi-annual planetary election. Society on Sagittar is in theory classless, though in fact the population is segregated by socio-economic status. The largest section are the free men, an old title from pre-colonisation times, which consists of workers, farmers, and professionals. The other sections are the priesthood, the noble families who originally ruled the largest cities, the newly-risen merchant nobles and the hereditary military families. Though technically not a class of their own, the fellows of the Order of Alopece, a group of distinguished intellectuals who are highly respected within public life are given an enormous amount of regard for their work. As a people, the cultural focus of the Sagittarians is on the individual and what they see as the symbiotic relationship between the individual and the state.

Cao-Xhan

Cao-Xhan is the second oldest inhabited world as well as the second-closest to the golden star in the Phanes System, and it is a source of constant wonder to those who visit it that life can sustained on the surface of this bedevilled world. Cao-Xhan is riven with volcanism, the great tectonic plates shifting constantly, throwing up great mountain ranges one year and tearing them apart the next. Over half the planet is estimated to have great underground lakes of magma beneath it. As the plates shift, so too do these magma lakes shift. The native warrenbeasts, vicious pack-hunting reptilians, often migrate through their underground habitats to follow the heat of the magma, posing a threat to the Xhanese settlements desperately trying to gain enough power to keep the heatshields working that protect the inhabitants from the rigours of the ash-laden winds and the continuous output of carbon dioxide which would quickly kill all those exposed to it.

Great tracked leviathans known as 'firefinders' roam the slopes and valleys hunting for the magma lakes to tap as a power source for the fixed settlements. Dozens of these settlements dot the land, each one owned by the oldest clan present, with the other clans being offshoots. New settlements are created often, as over-population in existing locations and the creation of new marriages spurs more development. Founded on principles of pragmatic meritocracy, the clans that control each settlement are constantly in turmoil as new up-and-coming citizens prove themselves better in capability than the old rulers and take over, an approach that seems incomprehensible to the Sagittarians.

Guangdo

The sole moon in orbit of Cao-Xhan, Guangdo is a desolate wasteland. Like Cao-Xhan, the air can only be breathed with the assistance of respiratory equipment, limiting settlements to the same enclosed village pattern as Cao-Xhan with the exception of a burgeoning tunnel network. An extensive mining operation dominates the surface of the planet, with a heavy industry in uranium mining, as well as numerous other vital metals. The moon is the site of the famous Guangdo Stand, where Sagittarian forces attempted to force the surrender of the Xhanese in the opening moments of the Trade War.

Taurus

After the boost given to public confidence when Endicott was 'acquired' in 201 AE, a meeting of the Archontes was held to address the matter of public opinion. The years after the Trade War had not seen much in the way of Sagittarian and Xhanese national feeling coalescing. This, along with concerns over the relatively limited spread of the Republic compared to its fellow JSA members led to the decision to instigate an extensive resettlement programme that would take volunteers from both Cao-Xhan and Sagittar to form an ethnically integrated population.

The project was finally begun in 202 AE, with an initial commitment of half a million colonists, with the population growing to nearly six and a quarter hundred thousand people. Aside from being the nearest system to the encounter of the A-41 with the alien species known as the Maekari, Taurus is most well known for the Taurus Incident of 203 AE. The Incident is the collective term for a series of bombings and attacks conducted across multiple settlements of Taurus. Hospitals, Gendarmerie stations and firewatch buildings were all attacked, and at least one space station was crippled for several months, with the death toll eventually reckoned at around seven-hundred dead or wounded.

Endicott Station

Endicott Station was the first real step made into the galactic world. The system was the site of a trade route running close to the Sagittar System, operated by the Phenians, but one that stayed resolutely away from Republic territory. With an eye to the potential profits that could be made from it, the decision was made to order a decisive 'pirate raid' on the system while a Phenian convoy stopped through. Following an official JSA inquiry, and decision of innocence, the Republic was deemed non-responsible, and a wait of mere months saw the system taken under its control. Now the Endicott System hosts a nascent asteroid mining operation, as well as free-floating trade posts and AG-stops where travellers can rest for a few nights in the comfort of artificial gravity.

In addition to all this, the system hosts Endicott Station, a staging post for the Nautikon's Fourth Lochos, as well as providing a deep-space engagement training zone. In addition to this are repair and resupply yards, open to the public for a fee, as well as government research installations for programmes where discretion is of the utmost importance. It is speculated that from late 214AE, the Station will also see the opening of the first extra-Phanes shipyards.

Culture

Religion

Religion in the Republic is held to be a matter of personal responsibility, with people being free to worship as they choose. For the most part, the two component cultures of the Republic follow different beliefs, though over time it is expected by theorists that a new syncretic belief system may emerge. Sagittarians generally follow a religion worshipping a group of deities known as the Twelve, patterned after the ancient gods their ancestors worshipped pre-colonisation. Their Xhanese counterparts on the other hand follow a loose belief in the worship of ancestors, who like their Sagittarian counterparts have the colloquial name of 'The Venerated Dead'.

While legally religion does not have any standing, in practice it is highly influential as two of the Archons of the Republic are chosen from the two most senior priests and priestess of Sagittar, with at least one of these traditionally being the head of the temple of Zeus. The Twelve are often invoked by Sagittarians in their daily lives, for example, a craftsman attempting to work a fine piece of jewellery may chant a prayer to Athena or Hephaestus as he works. Such is the influence of this pantheist system that even common expressions used by all members of the Republic are derived from it, e.g. rather than referring to deceased relatives, one may refer to them as 'walking the Fields', derived from the term from the paradisical afterlife known as Elysia.

Prosthetics

Even in the current society, medical technology can only do so much in healing heavily damaged limbs, and growing new replacements is still the stuff of fiction. To that end, the people of Cao-Xhan took the lead in developing body-replacement prosthetics. The first one ever created in the Republic was attached to a survivor of a warrenbeast attack, a young woman who had lost her left leg. Following this successful operation, prosthetic limbs became more and more common across Cao-Xhan, being used as replacements for damaged limbs or even used by practitioners of extreme body-modification who preferred the feel of a limb of metal and cables over flesh and bone. Original prosthetics were crude, often having exposed wiring which could snag on obstructions. In the past seventeen years however, with the influx of Sagittarian design aesthetic, most modern prosthetics are modelled to look like the owner's original limb.

The rise in prosthetic enhancement has led to a distinct subculture of prosthetic users or "Pro's" as they are known, arising throughout Republican space, and which is readily identifiable, where people gather to show off the more outrageous prosthetics they can afford (or steal), causing most of the unenhanced population to regard Pro's as being somewhat suspicious. This trait is not helped by the uncouthness of the lower class labourers who use their prosthetics for manual labour, or the few gang members who run in the backstreets of Sagittar and Cao-Xhan.

Interactive reality

From their early days of colonisation, both Sagittar and Cao-Xhan's inhabitants worked to develop faster and more reliable forms of communications. With their starting point boosted by access to the technology available in their ships, such technologies came on in leaps and bounds, culminating in an interactive reality known as the Abyss. It is a cybernetic world of data accessible to machines and those modified with the ability to access it through broadband receptors. Many of those accessing the Abyss for the first time call it such as it appears as a vast emptiness surrounding them, representing the vastness of all the knowledge in the universe and the fact that facts, like an abyss, are truly endless. More experienced users however have the ability to form their own private view of the Abyss, and can manipulate it to appear in a more user-friendly fashion, referred to as 'shaping'. Professional shapers are often used to access the Abyss for private and public concerns.

Information in the Abyss that is private is often formed into groups with other information held by the owners. Depending on the shaper accessing it, this data can look like digital data blocks, a box of files in a dusty storage room, and even a forest of trees that are always just out of reach. These groups, or clusters, are guarded by demi-sentient defence viruses, automated mindfences and shaped automatons, imprints left by a defending shaper to fight intrusions. The rest of the Abyss is used as a virtual meeting ground for those who desire exclusivity in their social groups, or to conduct shady backroom deals out of the view of the law. In fact, the Abyss is so easily shaped and so utilitarian that nearly any role users require can be formed from it. Equally as much, this means that it is difficult, if nigh impossible, to regulate the goings-on inside of it.

History

See also: Historical Timeline of the Republic of Phanes

The Trade War

Born of the struggle for economic superiority between Sagittar and Cao-Xhan, the Trade War was a brutal conflict that outdid any others before it in terms of sheer cruelty. Lasting over four decades, nearly a million people died in the conflict which saw ships, orbital stations and planetary settlements alike crushed into dust as both sides evolved from crude militias and private military vessels to great state-owned behemoths of war and professionalised, lavishly equipped ground forces. While many of the eldest generations look back on their counterparts with dislike caused by the war, nearly all would agree that despite any lingering problems, the Republic is greater than the sum of its parts.

Politics

Polyarchy

The government of the Republic itself is comprised of a single body. This is the Archontes, composed of nine Archons. Four of these are selected from the great ruling families of Sagittar, but pressure is increasing to have at least one of these selected from the world of Cao-Xhan. Two members are recruited from the merchant class of Sagittar, with holders typically being the most influential members, with the ability to effectively control parts of the Sagittarian economy. Two more Archons are chosen from the collected ranks of Sagittar’s presbyteros, one being the highest ranking male while the other is the highest ranking female.

The last, and most influential place in times of uncertainty, is the role of Strategos Autokrator. This individual is elected by the collected body of the Strategos, and is for all intents and purposes the head of the collected forces of the Republic. Whether or not this process is the most useful is highly debated, as some argue that the elected Strategos is often the one with the most politicking in their background rather than military expertise. It was tradition in the early years of Sagittar that the most influential of the noble Archons is named Eponymos archon, with the period they serve for known after their family name. For this reason, there are at least two periods in Sagittarian history listed as First Sicyon, and Second Sicyon. As of late, this particular tradition has been steadily falling out of popularity, although proprosals for a nation-wide change are not fully agreed.

Individual cities and settlements however are largely left to their own devices. Both Sagittarians and Xhanese alike see the government's role as to deal with affairs on a planetary scale, and otherwise remain out of their own business.

Military

Main article: Armed Forces of the Republic of Phanes

Since its foundation, the military of the Phanes Republic has always been a volunteer force, something influenced by the preceding military forces of the separate planetary members. Upon the eighteenth birth year of a citizen, without regard to gender they may enlist in the Army or Navy. Unlike most other nations, the Republic's military is not the foundation of the state's power, and in its short time has seen no serious conflict apart from the bloody conflict of the Trade War. Because of this, the Republic places great emphasis on modularity, efficient battlefield support, and logistics. Ever since the conclusion of the Trade War, the massive casualties incurred have echoed throughout the mind of the population, whose political pressure has since forced the ruling bodies to throw millions of credits at medical care and aid, meaning that any soldier of the Republic can expect the very best post-injury assistance known. Forces are organised in low-level units, which as the situation demands are combined with other equally-ranked forces in order to form an appropriate response.

The Republic prides itself on using the appropriate response to combat situations, something ingrained in the general culture thanks to the mercantile legacy of both founding worlds. Under this, an enemy is always met with an equal amount of force, something which also helps ensure that conflicts do not grow out of proportion. For example, should a single pirate vessel attack a trade route, a single ship would be despatched in turn. Should a group of such vessels be seen, then the next step would be for the Nautikon to despatch an enomotiai or a pentekostyes as required to combat the foe. Of course, at all times the Republic military strives to factor in the qualitative and/or quantitative edge of the enemy into their calculations.

Branches

• Stratia. At the moment, there are precisely 400,000 personnel serving in the Stratia.
• Nautikon. The Nautikon currently has a designated list strength of 400,000 personnel.

Economy

Notable Corporations

• Katsoros Shipping Incorporated - One of the largest corporations in the entire Republic, KSI is also one of the oldest. Originally founded in 45 AE by an ex-member of the victorious Constanzakis army's supply train, the company specialised in logistics, investing in the petroleum engine developed during the conflict to move shipping and road-bound transport. By the time of the Trade War, KSI was a respected company with solid annual profits, but it was the accession of the then-teenaged Demetrios Katsoros in 162 AE which boosted the company's profile, and bottom-line, to heights it since has not fallen from. The young man's idea of converting the standard 'Demeter'-series agricultural vehicles to military use was a resounding success, with the company opening three more factories as a result to cope with demand. However, by 182 AE, it was clear that the momentum of the war was squarely with the Sagittarian forces. Demetrios' decision to sell the design and rights to the Demeter-series caused a wave of discontent within the company, with board members attempting to remove him as head of the corporation, while share-prices fell as confidence took a hit. However, Demetrios proved to have his eye on the long-term, calculating that the time until the end of the Trade War proper was enough for the Xhanese people to forget who had originally built the Demeter variants that had been used by Sagittarian forces, with the result that KSI was one of the first companies to be welcomed by Xhanese investors.
• Stavridis-Hwang Cartel - While not on the level of their competitors in the Wei-Xia Global Defence corporation, Stavridis-Hwang stand out in their field of defence systems. It was one of their people who made the deal with the Valinor Corleigh group of the Raumreich for the importation of the LRSDASM weapon, and the corporation's own R&D section is said to be engaged in work on a laser-based anti-ship weapon to replace the KPAWS bought by Wei-Xia in 205 AE.
• Tiějiang Foundries - Among all the industries of the Republic, Tiějiang stands as a beacon of ingenuity. It was the founder of the company who first pioneered the Prosthetics in 142 AE, a move designed to help improve the livelihood of those Xhanese who were crippled thanks to accidents and attacks. The man, now known only as 'Grandfather', was motivated to design the original prototype when his own daughter lost her left leg in a warrenbeast attack. A clunky thing, with none of the sleekness associated with modern Prosthetics, the artificial limb proved one thing; the limitations of the human body could be overcome. For years afterward, the company manufactured their products, until the war came. No-one knows why it happened, but one night an air-raid took place on the isolated facility of Tiějiang. The factory was ruined, its flaming corpse still burning for days afterwards, with search teams still digging out the bodies for weeks. Among them was 'Grandfather' and the entire research department. By the end of the war, the company still hadn't recovered, and only in the last decade has it made its way back into the Two-Hundred. While it still markets prosthetics, they tend to lack the stylised sleekness of the latest or the versatile range made by CybCom Consolidated. Only the highest-ranking members of the Tiějiang Foundries know the secret of the group's success beyond the modest profit in building crude prosthetics; a subtle link with Suidochi Synthetics of the Huerdaen Star Empire. While SS does not market the valuable Huerdaen augmentations, they instead provide a source of black-market modifications for those with the need for less than legal body-parts. In addition, the company operates a number of Heavy Augment clinics around the borders of the HSE, paying lucrative finders fees to Tiějiang for sending customers their way. In recent years the company has become of some note to the Republic's military forces, thanks to its innovative work in creating the Lei Gong armoured suit. Unbeknownst to the government of the Republic, the main neural net for the Lei Gong was only devised successfully thanks to Huerdaen intervention in the form of Suidochi Synthetics aiding Tiějiang once more.