Charnea

Charnean Confederation Charnea
Flag
Motto: Under the Sun and our Banner
Anthem: Song of Eight Nations
Capital	Agnannet
Largest city	Koros
Recognised national languages	Tamashek
Recognised regional languages	Beri Yerwa Tawilant Djerma Siwi
Ethnic groups (2019)	See Ethnicity
Demonym(s)	Charnean
Government	Elective Tribal Federation
• Amenukal	Martuf ag Lamine
• Executor	Kubra ult Lamine
Legislature	Confederate Convocation
• Upper house	Council of Eight
• Lower house	General Assembly
Establishment
• Charnean Empire	14 August 903 CE
• Second Foundation	25 February 1816
Population
• 2020 estimate	33,023,983
• 2019 census	33,010,572
GDP (PPP)	estimate
• Total	$101 billion
• Per capita	$5779.45
Gini	25.9 low
HDI	0.701 high
Currency	Charnean Dinar (CDR)
Date format	mm.dd.yyyy
Driving side	right

Charnea, formally the Charnean Confederation (Tamashek: ⴾⴻⵍ ⴾⴰⵂⴰⵕⵏⴰ, Kel Kaharna), is a tribal confederation governed by elective monarchy located in central Scipia, bordering the Messidor Union to the north and Fahran to the east. The eight national and ethnic affiliations recognized as constituent parties of the confederation, known as the Eight Nations do not directly correspond to individual constituent states but instead denote the eight ethnic affiliations which are shared between many component governments of each National ethnicity within Charnea. The Confederation is ruled by the Amenukal, an elected monarch selected by the Eight Nations Council, who is endowed with the delegated authority of the various devolved tribes and national organizations party to the confederation, and is the direct commander in chief of the Inter-Charnean Army, the confederated military forces of all Charnean nations. Day to day government of the large nation is split between the devolved authorities of the Eight Nations and the Executor, a first minister position serving for life at the pleasure of the sitting Amenukal.

The Charnean people are multi-cultural and have many ethnic origins, endowing the Confederation with its multi-lingual, multi-ethnic nature which lends itself to a generally devolved political authority on the Confederate level. Historically, Charnea was ruled by peoples of Tamashek origin and in the modern day three of the eight constituent nations primarily speak the Tamashek langauge, an additional two speak related Amazigh languages, and all eight observe Kaharnism, a religious practice of Tamashek origin. An overwhelming number of Charneans not speaking Tamashek as a first language nevertheless speak Tamashek as a second language, and the tongue is taught in schools across the Confederation alongside the local language. Tamashek is thus the general lingua franca for all of Charnea and is used across all government institutions and functions, although it is not formally adopted as the official language of the Confederation for reasons of equal treatment towards recognized local languages.

Economic activity across the Charnean confederation falls almost entirely within the primary sector. By far the most prolific economic activity across the confederation is mining, particularly of gold, copper and nickel. Cobalt is also present in deposits across western Charnea, alongside a particular site with an unusually high prevalence of the rare element iridium. Charnean oil reserves, found in central and eastern Charnea are significant and the petroleum industry nationalized under COPEC is highly valuable to the Charnean budget, however it is of much lesser value to the overall economy compared to mining activities. Notable secondary industries of the Charnean confederation are a rice-based agricultural sector alongside resource reclamation through a strong recycling industry fed by imported waste products. The current Lamine regime has expressed a desire to industrialize the Charnean confederation for the benefit of all peoples of the Eight Nations by developing industrial capabilities to refine Charnea's exported resources into products of higher value, although such programs are yet in their infancy.

Etymology

Charnea derives its name from the central figure of Kaharnism and the patron goddess of many Tamashek tribes, Mother Kaharna. Charnea's Tamashek name Kel Kaharna translates roughly to "People of Kaharna". This nomenclature follows the ancient Tamashek traditions of a confederation across tribal lines, belying Charnea's origin as a universal confederation of numerous pre-existing nomadic confederations of the Zahra desert. It is uncertain when or how Kel Kaharna came to be latinized into the word Charnea, but its believed to have occurred at some point in the 10th century following northward incursions of the Charnean Empire towards the Periclean.

History

Classical period

Both the ancestors of the Amazigh Tamashek peoples as well as their Kanuri and Zaghawa counterparts are known to have inhabited what is now Charnea since prehistory, leading up to the advent of the written word and settled agrarian society in the south of Charnea in what is referred to as the Obulite Civilization in the third millennium BCE. The Obulite culture is strongly believed to be the antecedent of modern Djerma ethnic groups in Charnea, although the early Obulite kingdoms were not alone in this era. Around 500 BCE, the legendary Queen Kaharna is said to have unified the disparate ancient Amazighs of the Zahra, at this time significantly less arid than the desert of the modern day. Although Kaharna is deified as the goddess Mother Kaharna by the Charnean Tamasheks, the ancient Queen is also recognized and remembered by other Amazigh groups outside of Charnea, such as the Aghmatians of the Messidor Union. The ancient Amazigh confederation began to fragment into smaller confederations some time after Kaharna's reign, eventually becoming distinct groups. The southernmost splinters of Kaharna's confederation would evolve into proto-Tamashek tribes, which would enter into periodic clashes with the Obulite civilization. Tamashek confederations would develop a caste system featuring noble Imajaghan descended from Kaharna's kin group and vassal herders called Imghad (singular Amghid) as well as semi-settled artisan Inadan alongside bonded slave Ikelan which primarily formed agrarian communities under the control and protection of the warrior nobility. The Charnean caste system would see many alterations over the centuries but would have long lasting repercussions for Charnean society even in the modern day. Although most elements of Tamashek at this period were nomadic, the establishment of settled and semi-settled communities primarily inhabited by lower caste members of society led to clashes with Obulite dominions over land and resources. Northward excursions by Obulite armies and southward raids and forays by Tamashek confederations are well documented throughout the classical period.

Medieval period

Depiction of 10th century Charnean warriors, showing allagh spears and a takoba sword as well as tellak daggers worn on the forearms

Beginning around 600 and progressing onwards, Tamashek confederations around the southern Zahra region would begin to expand significantly in scope and power as they extended further north into the desert and along an east-west axis parallel to the edges of the semi-arid savannah and scrubland regions. The rising power of these semi-nomadic polities coincided with the expansion of the Trans-Scipian Trade which saw vast wealth of salt, gold and other goods traveling in caravans through traversable corridors across the Zahra desert, which in turn led to tribute and payment for mercenary protection flowing into the coffers of local Tamashek confederations. Many confederations existed at this time, though the three most powerful were the Kel Ataram (lit: People of the West) and the Kel Dinnik (lit: People of the East), which together form the basis for the modern day Iwellemmedan people of central Charnea, and the Kel Awakar which had the widest degree of control over the Zahra trade routes. By this time, the Obulite civilization had declined significantly since its days as a great power during the bronze age. Nevertheless, many significant Obulite successor kingdoms of Djerma ethnic makeup existed both north and south of the Obul. As the power and reach of the growing Tamashek confederations increased, conflict with these kingdoms and the desert peoples to the north rose as well, seeing many wars between Tamashek and Djerma peoples north of the Obul in the 8th and 9th centuries. These conflicts would serve as the historical backdrop for the rise of the powerful Amenukal Agnan of the Tree at the beginning of the 10th century and result in the radical metamorphosis of the Charnean political landscape.

Agnan, the adopted son of the Amenukal of the Kel Awakar confederation, succeeded to the throne in 898 following a protracted conflict between Agnan and his followers battling many nobles of the Kel Awakar which resisted the low born reformer Agnan. Following his tumultuous rise to power among the Awakar, he instituted a number of meritocratic social and military reforms and made plain ambitions to unify all Tamashek peoples under his banner. Conflict soon broke out between the Kel Awakar and the Kel Ataram and Kel Dinnik confederations, former rivals which united against the common threat of Agnan's forces, concluding quickly in August of 903 in the aftermath of the Battle of Red Hills when Amenukal Agnan defeated and forced the submission of the Ataram-Dinnik coalition to his rule, declaring the unification of all descendants of Kaharna through his victory. The Kel Awakar, Kel Ataram, Kel Dinnik, Kel Korod and the Kel Tessawa were subsequently merged into the Kel Kaharna (lit: People of Kaharna) , marking the official birth of what would become known as Empire of Charnea. Some confederations such as the Kel Azakane remained independent at the time of this unification but would later be subsumed into the united tribes of the Kel Kaharna as they began to expand further in all directions. Conflict between the Djerma and this new Tamashek power would reach a boiling point at the breakout of the Kuru War in which Amenukal Agnan sought to show the superiority of his Tamashek forces over the Djerma principalities north of the Obul, which united against him. Sources document Agnan's intent in invading the southern domains was to extract tribute from the Djerma and to make a show of force to resolve many minor land disputes in favor of Tamashek settlements now under his protection. Agnan of the Tree would perish, however, at the Battle of the Four Corners near the site of modern day Agnannet and be succeeded by his protégé and second in command, the emancipated Ikelan Ihemod the Inheritor, who would prosecute the latter half of the Kuru war.

In contrast to his predecessor Amenukal Ihemod had no intentions of leaving Djerma lands after defeating their princes in battle, a fact made clear when in 917 construction began on a new permanent settlement at Agnannet which would become the Charnean imperial capital. By 925, Ihemod's regime had displaced or enslaved many thousands of Djerma living north of the Obul, radically expanding the reach of settled Tamashek communities and creating a massive influx of Ikelan slave caste populations in this new occupied territory which Ihemod used extensively for the expansion of his empire's domain and infrastructure despite being of Ikelan origin himself. The Charnean military would also be reformed, implimenting Djerma auxiliaries, adopting new technology and siege tactics and undergoing structural refroms. Amoung these reforms was the foundation of the Yezzaren Imedrayen or "First Brothers" which served as the Amenukal's personal bodyguard and as a proto-general staff, which would later become a lasting insitution of Charnea even surviving the fragmentation and refoundation of the Kel Kaharna in later centuries. In 927 Amenukal Ihemod and an army of an estimated 40,000 Tamashek and Djerma warriors crossed the Obul. This marked the start of the Nefecane Wars, a series of invasions across southern and eastern Charnea which were initiated by the expansionistic Kel Kaharna under Ihemod's rule. The Tamashek, although now unified and boasting large numbers of assimilated Zahra tribesmen among their numbers, were still numerically inferior in terms of population to many of the Djerma, Template:Kanuri people, and Beri groups they conquered. This led to the implementation of what has been called practical brutality, the escalation of atrocities and massacres particularly the razing of entire cities which had resisted conquest, which was also used as a propaganda tool to convince cities to surrender without fighting, thus being spared such treatment. Consequences of the violent subjugation of these ethnic groups into the Empire of Charnea would be felt for centuries to come, particularly during the later decline and fragmentation of the Empire. Additionally, this wide reaching depopulation of central and southern Scipia would profoundly affect the demographics of the area and be felt even into the modern day.

Ihemod's attempts to conquer eastern and northern Scipia would eventually be thwarted both by military action of the local states and by rising logistical and organizational problems within the Empire. Which his vast armies stretched thin over even greater territory, Ihemod reluctantly heeded his advisors and halted Charnean expansion by the latter half of the 10th century, instead focusing his recourses on consolidating the Empire, putting down rebellions and expanding the city of Agnannet. The Empire of Charnea would never again launch such massive campaigns as had been seen during the Nefecane Wars, although some conquests of lesser scale would be made in the following centuries. Instead, Charnea would remain relatively stable through the 14th century and oversee the partial assimilation of many of the cultures it had conquered, influencing some groups with Tamashek culture in some places while adopting local customs into Tamashek practice in others. Tamashek animist beliefs would merge the the local faiths of conquered peoples and the remnant beliefs of the ancient Obulites to form the first iterations of recognizable Kaharnism in these centuries, establishing many religious and social orders across Scipia.

Charnea entered a period of precipitous decline and fragmentation in the 14th century, usually described as beginning around 1388 during a particularly violent succession crisis which for the first time since unification had redrawn sub-ethnic lines within the Kel Kaharna Tamashek tribes. In 1501, the Kel Awakar had reformed and seceeded from the Kel Kaharna, followed by many upstart states made up of Beri and Template:Kanuri people ethnic groups. The Empire of Charnea would survive as a rump state of mixed Tamashek-Djerma ethnic composition until the Sack of Agnannet in 1690, which finally disolved the Kel Kaharna remnant.

Warring nations period

The start of the warring nations period is debated, traditionally marked at the fall of Agnannet in the late 17th century but in the modern day more often described as beginning with the seccesion of the Kel Awakar at the turn of the 16th century. In either case, the root cause is generally believed to have been the 1388 succession crisis in the Charnean empire and a general decline and failure of imperial authority in Agnannent which followed, leading to disunity not only among the multicultural subjects of Charnea but also among the Tamashek tribes which formed the core population of the empire. The secession of the Kel Awakar, which inspired some other tribes to subsequently break away in turn, weakened the principal powerbase of the Empire and as a result saw many subjugated peoples rebel or in some cases simply declare their independence and undergo virtually uncontested secessions. While some Yerwa rebellions were quelled by the Charnean army in this time, others were deemed too strong or too far afield for the military to handle and were simply granted independence rather than risk their forces joining the rebellions of their kinsmen along the southern bank of the Obul, close to Agnannet. The more powers broke away from Agnannet's rule, the further the Empire declined, until eventually the Charnean rump state in Agnannet was eclipsed by Tamashek and Yerwa states which had broken away. A general power vacuum left by the once powerful Empire saw an escalation of conflicts and ethnic tensions which had not been seen in hundreds of years due to overpowering Charnean overlordship. A near constant state of civil war and and upheaval followed, as although most tribes had now broken away from Agnannet many still viewed themselves as Charnean or as Charnean successor states and aimed to reunite the Empire under their own rule.

In the latter stages of the protracted warring nations conflict, Tamashek society would see a fundamental upheaval of its caste structure with the Ikelan Rebellion (1769) which was only the largest and most recent of a long series of escalating slave uprisings across the semi-nomadic society of the Tamashek. The Ikelan had by this point developed the combat art known as Broken Chain and were highly organized among their communities. Concurrently to this escalating uprisings by the Ikelan, Tamashek noble society had become decimated by the civil wars and battles against rival nations and tribes. The noble Imajaghan caste had historically held dominance and served as the main military body of their confederations, and so their decline resulted in a loss of cohesion across the caste system and facilitated the emancipation war of the Ikelan. The successful Ikelan Rebellion of 1769 established several independent Ikelan settled communities and states in central and eastern Charnea, while the ongoing upheaval in Tamashek confederations across the Zahra saw a general split into nomadic groups formed from the merging of Imajaghan (noble) and Imaghad (herder vassal) castes as well as a sedentary Tamashek group formed from Inadan (artisan) and peasant castes of society. Nomadic Tamashek now occupied the Zahra desert while the settled Tamashek and now independent Ikelan groups shared the north bank of the Obul and more broadly the non-desert lands of central and eastern Charnea.

Following the Ikelan Rebellion and independence movement, powerful blocs of various ethnicities had largely consolidated their local areas and reached a tentative peace through the stabilization of this new balance of power among Charnean successor and seceded states. The largest polities roughly aligned to what are now known as the Eight Nations of Charnea, these being the Amazigh Tamashek which are subdivided into the nomadic Imajaghan/Imaghad nation and the settled Inadan nation, northwestern Tawilant speaking tribes, eastern Siwi speaking tribes (both of which are considered distinct from "true" Tamashek tribes), the newly established Tamashek speaking Ikelan nation, in addition to the largely settled sub-Zahran Beri, Yerwa, and Djerma ethnic groups. All eight of these nations largely practiced Kaharnism and could use Tamashek as a common language both in their attempts at diplomacy and in day to day life as neighboring communities. Eventually, as the standstill of the the warring nations period cooled down and mounting foreign pressure created unifying forces among the former Charnean states, armed conflict eventually gave way to common front anti-colonial struggles against Belisarian and Oxidental powers and a mood of general toleration between the rival states, although deep rooted enmities from this period and prior wars yet remain to this day. Nevertheless, the turn of the 19th century brought about a wave of unification movements in many Charnean successor states, which sought to set aside their differences and combine their forces to re-establish the Empire of Charnea, although this would later be altered simply to a multicultural pan-Charnean Confederation concept to include non-Tamashek peoples who did not wish to be once again subjugated by a Tamashek dominated Agnannet. Regardless, the advent of the unification movement which reached its peak in the 1810s is seen as the end of the warring nations period, as it would directly lead into the reunification of Charnea.

New Confederation period

The modern form of Charnea was established under the second confederation by a general congress of tribes in Agnannet, known as the Congress of Eight Nations, on the 25th of February, 1816. Many talks between the disparate tribal states in the north and petty Kingdoms in the south had occurred in the lead up to the Congress. This wave of unity had been spurred on by the rapidly increasing foreign interest in the region, and the threat of subjugation to foreign colonial powers, which the warring governments of Charnea hoped to stave of by working together, especially by combining their military commands with the intention of throwing out any colonial incursions into historically Charnean lands with overwhelming numbers. Although many of the nations attending the Congress spoke different language, held differing religious beliefs, and were generally distinct culturally as well as politically from one another, all of them held shared history as long occupied territories of the former Empire of Charnea, and had been deeply influenced by northern Tamashek culture as the longest held regions of the Empire. Particularly, most of the remaining states in the lands of Charnea were local successor states to the old Empire and had viewed reunification positively, despite repeated disagreements and conflicts with their fellow successor states. Although it required the settling of by now long held grudges and disputes as a prerequisite, reunification of the old imperial confederation of the Charnean Empire was generally viewed favorably. Eventually, a new system was drafted by which many of the Empire of Charnea era political systems would be restored while also placing new emphasis on a devolved confederal nature, declassifying this new Charnea from being termed an Empire, defaulting instead to the Confederal nomenclature.

The Edict of Agnannet was later issued as an announcement of the resolutions agreed to within the 1816 Congress of Eight Nations, outlining the nature of the new Charnean confederation and affirming the will of each of the attending parties to assent to the terms laid out and join their forces with the new Charnean Confederation. In the absence of a formal constitution, the Edict of Agnannet has served as an ad hoc constitution by later governments of the Confederation, particularly as a means to refer back to the original intentions and terms of the Founders, those leaders and delegates that through their participation and consent brought about the second confederation.

For many years following this new unification, the Charnean Confederation perused a degree of rapid modernization and adoption of new technology, particularly of a military nature, in an effort to further protect itself and its constituent members from foreign aggression and influence which had been the primary motivation of the reunification. The railroad and foreign drill and military organization were adopted during this early period, from 1816 to approximately 1860, a period known as the Rule of the Founders, although generally many of the Founders died or stepped down, their ruling style and objectives continued by their heirs and allies in their stead.

After 1860, Charnea had been armed with up to date foreign weapons and tactics, and its unification had successfully insulated it from most foreign incursion. Indeed, in 1866 the Charnean Confederation annexed the Urush region and the ex-colonial city of Koros in what modern historians have termed an ironic reversal of Charnea's anti-colonial founding sentiments, as many of the Urushar local peoples were not granted the same representative rights and self determination as had been enshrined in the Edict of Agnannet for other groups residing in Charnea, even those outside the Eight Nations. Following this begins an era known as the Rule of the Land Masters, generally described as beginning in the 1860s and terminating around 1910, characterized as a period of expanding power of landlords and decline of the original founding states and parties of the Confederation, which found themselves increasingly at the mercy of landowners and private business forces. Many internal conflicts began to arise among the Charnean people, as the forces of the modern world exemplified by the new landlord class and the advancing mining industry clashed with local peoples and tribal groups. Many Charneans, finding themselves pushed out of ancestral lands, denied water or otherwise put down by these new powers over the land began to resort to insurgent resistance, banditry, and early forms of terrorism, as is the case with such well known figures as Lamine ag Sahra and Red Hands Rali.

Many of the trends of the Rule of Land Masters continued into the later eras of the early and middle 20th century, known both as the Gold Time and as the Rule of City Kings, which saw not only the boom of gold and nickel mining in Charnea, but also the beginning of the lucrative petroleum industry. The Charnean economy, previously dominated by agriculture, pastoralism and hand-crafts was in this era totally transformed into an industrial primary sector economy of mineral exploitation, triggering a wave of urbanization and modernization in the country. This brought widespread expansion of railroads and roadways across the country, advent of the telegraph and telephone, and electrification, sanitation, and other practices which accompanied the sudden growth of many Charnean cities. In addition to these technological and infrastructural improvements however, the Rule of City Kings also saw the birth of an entirely new form of social conflict between the new caste of industrial workers and the owners of businesses and the well connected upper class of this new Charnean society, seeing the birth of the Charnean labor movement, unionization of miners and numerous resulting labor conflicts between syndical groups, worker militias, private security and mercenary forces hired by private companies, and local and national police which were punctuated by political instability and the ongoing previous conflicts between the modernizing forces and the old traditional groups of Charnea which viewed both big business interests and the industrial workforce as threats to their own way of life.

The majority academic opinion contends that the Rule of City Kings ends in the 1960s with the death of Amenukal Mzagar and the rise of power of Amenukal Zaragan and his infamous Executor Baseel Madoun. Modernization and self reliance plans made at the tail end of Mzagar's reign, such as the New Dawn Plan, many of which where later adapted by Madoun's administration are generally taken to signify the final point of transition in Charnean history, delineating the point when Charnea could be considered to have fully entered the industrial world, although this is contested by scholars which point to the continued survival of traditional ways of life in Charnea despite the undeniable industrial expansion across much of the Confederation. The period following this end of traditional Charnean history is divided generally into the Madoun Era and the Lamine era, describing the period of Madoun's administration which survived two Amenukals, characterized by some nationalization and centralization measures largely in corrupt self service for the ruling faction and powerful political figures as well as the general turmoil brought about by the East Scipian Wars, followed by the aftermath of these conflicts, the Triple Coup, and the following Lamine regime which as ruled Charnea from the end of 2000 onwards.

Government and Politics

The structure of the Charnean government, although featuring many alterations and adaptations, remains rooted in the government model of the old Charnean empire, the current confederation's predecessor state. In this model, executive power is split between the separate heads of state and government, these being the royal Amenukal and the bureaucratically appointed Executor. Legislative power is similarly devolved between the Council of Eight representing the leadership interests of each particular party to the Charnean confederation alongside the General Assembly which more directly represents popular will, both of which belong to the overall Confederate Convocation serving as the total legislative body at the upper level of Charnean government. The Confederate Convocation is housed in a complex known as the Water Palace, a former leisure palace located adjacent to the Red Palace which in turn houses the Amenukal's apartments and the Executorial complex. Both of these buildings originally date to the medieval period and are found in the similarly aged walled Old City district of the Charnean capital of Agnannet. Power held in Agnannet is typically weaker than the devolved power vested in the national governments which make up the confederation, although there are certain exceptions.

Legislative Assemblies

The Confederate Convocation itself is unusual in its structure and daily function in a number of ways. Most striking is the general lack of permanent standing political parties which extends not only to confederal level politics but also to its sub-nations to a degree. While political blocs do exist, they are typically transient alliances between representatives or sections of the electorate based on common cause over a particular dispute, and broad partisan alliances running elections for numerous offices generally do not enter into existence long term. Representatives are grouped together much more as a function of the regions and ethnic groups they represent as opposed to particular alliances and ties within Agnannet. Additionally, the Convocation itself is bicameral as it contains two distinct representative bodies, however both bodies do not work together or interact to produce legislation and instead each body of the Convocation has a specific purpose that it fulfills exclusively and with little interaction with its counterpart.

The smaller of the two Convocation bodies is the Council of Eight, which is composed of eight parties made up of nine delegates each collectively representing one of the eight national subdivisions across Charnea. Consequently, extra-national territories such as East Charnea Territory have no representation in the Council. The role of the Council is to check executive power, particularly to ensure the rule of Confederation executives is generally aligned with the desires of subordinated national groups and their leadership. Many Executorial actions can be vetoed or upheld by a vote of the Council, and certain executive actions and indeed be initiated by Council vote. Each of the eight delegations is split into three trios of delegates, which individually vote on an issue. If at least two of the delegates vote a certain way, the trio will assume that vote. In turn, a minimum of two of the three trios in the delegation must agree in order to proceed and have the delegation declare its position according to the consensus. A full five of the eight delegations in the Council must reach consensus for the Council to conclude its voting, with debate and discussion between delegates permitted at every stage for the purposes of reaching consensus. If at any point a consensus among the delegates cannot be reached, be it by abstaining delegates or a simple tie at the final phase, the motion is tabled and the process must start over from the beginning.

Much larger than the Council of Eight, the General Assembly is the central body of the legislature and carries out the heavy lifting of writing, revising and passing bills into law through a vote of representatives. There are in the present day 441 seats in the General Assembly of the Convocation, and the number of seats is linked to the population of regions, and so can increase or fluctuate according to the recorded population in the most recent census. Voting in the General Assembly is carried out in a much more straightforward simple majority or supermajority wins, depending on the matter being legislated. Unlike Council delegates, which are selected by the leadership bodies of their respective national groups, Assembly representatives are elected by popular vote within their respective legislative districts, and so are intended to represent the popular will. The majority of laws put in place at the confederal level by this General Assembly are optionally enforced across Charnea, with individual states within the confederation being able to locally uphold or overrule laws. However, with a motion to ratify, the General Assembly can call the Council of Eight to vote on a law that has already been passed in one of the rare interactions between the bodies. If the Council upholds the law, no lower national government may further overrule that piece of legislation and all parties will be bound to enforce the law.

Executive Power

In formal terms, the Amenukal of Charnea as elected and enthroned by the tribes of the confederation holds an absolute degree of power over Charnea and her government, empowered with the full authority of the tribes that raised them to the throne. In practical terms, however, the Edict of Agnannet which serves as the informal Charnean constitution defines the role of the monarch as the head of state and the commander in chief of the combined forces of the confederated tribes, while the majority of the civic executive responsibilities and powers are vested in a separate Executor office which in turn serves as the head of government. An Amenukal is theoretically the superior of the Executor, as they personally select their preferred candidate to fill the position, and may indeed throw out and replace their Executor at any time with full authorization to use their position as commander in chief to force them out if need be. However, despite this clear senior-junior relationship between the two Charnean chief executives, the Amenukal is not empowered to assume the role of their Executor and may not infringe on Executorial powers. The only way the Amenukal may control Executorial actions is simply by choosing or replacing the Executor of the confederation.

While the Amenukal commands the military and paramilitary elements of the confederation and serves as the conduit for symbolic authority from the confederation's member parties to the confederal government, it is the Executor's role to function as a general executive and administrator for the confederation. Nations within Charnea may enjoy varying degrees of autonomy, particularly the nomadic Tamashek nations which are almost entirely self-governing, yet a majority of the Charnean population resides in settled areas with far less autonomous governments, and so a wide array of government programs and departments come in to play, not only enforcing criminal and civil laws put in place by the Convocation, but also providing services to the people in the name of the Amenukal and the combined nations of Charnea. Provision of public education, healthcare, and transportation, as well as housing, infrastructure, and the administration of civil justice all fall under the Executorial purview. To fulfill these various duties, the Executor has a cabinet of ministers and advisors at their disposal known as the Circle of Ministers, or simply the Circle, which not only individually manage particular duties and regions of executive management but may also collectively carry out more complex executive tasks at the direction of their Executor. Executors do not have terms or term limits, and serve for as long as their Amenukal allows, which may vary from a few years to a lifetime appointment. Likewise, the scope of their authority can be fairly broad, restricted only by the enshrined autonomy of particular subordinate bodies. To check this power, not only can the Executor be replaced by the Amenukal, an elected monarch representing the combined nations of Charnea, but may also have particular executive actions taken by them or by their Circle overturned by the legislative Council of Eight, which likewise represents the combined nations of Charnea. Therefore, Executorial power may be extensive but it may not supersede the collective authority of the Charnean national governments, a restriction enforced by two entirely distinct entities.

Law

The Charnea legal code is build on the basis of the medieval Imperial Charnean code of laws, which itself was based on the traditional legal systems of the Tamashek desert nomads, although entire sections of the modern code have been entirely rewritten or rationalized either by the Founders of the new confederation in the early 19th century or by subsequent leaders and assemblies of the legislature. The legal code is based on civil law practices with a central cohesive code of law established by legislative authorities and applied by executive power, which are universal except where they contradict the legal codes of constituent nations, which are similarly based on a civil law code with the exception of certain nomadic groups which internally apply Template:Wp:common law practices. The confederal level courts along with the majority of subordinate courts additionally adhere to an Inquisitorial system, wherein agents of the Court as opposed to separate police elements are responsible for investigating and gathering evidence to prosecute the case. This is intended to reduce instances of police bias and increase the legal accountability of policing elements, as the Court agents investigating alleged wrongdoing are entirely distinct from rank and file law enforcement personnel in most jurisdictions. Those exceptional constituent groups that practice common law lack this Inquisitorial system and instead follow an adversarial system wherein defendants and plaintiffs both present their arguments and independently collected evidence before an impartial tribal Arbiter who then adjudicates the case.

All jurisdictions of Charnea employ capital punishment for criminal cases, and many additionally make use of imprisonment and penal servitude, which is functionally a form of prison labor. Although redemption and correction of a convicted person's character are typically pursued, the general aim of incarceration in Charnea is repayment of moral and material wrongs through service, typically taking the form of menial labor. Nomadic jurisdictions do not practice imprisonment and generally sentence convicted persons with banishment or the death penalty, with certain cases being voluntarily handed over to Confederate authorities by the local Arbiters to be tried and sentenced through the confederal system. In some jurisdictions, a practice known as Retaliatory Justice exists wherein certain offenses are excused and annulled by the court if they are found to be justified or proportional to wrongs inflicted on the perpetrator of the retaliatory action by the victim, although recent legislation has restricted the extent of this practice with the intent of curbing vigilantism.

Military

Main article: Inter-Charnean Army

The Charnean military follows the devolved political structure of Charnea as a confederated military force made up of the specific armed forces of the constituent nations operating under a unified confederate command structure known as the Inter-Charnean Army or ICA. The ICA includes paramilitary and irregular forces operating under constituent armed forces. However, the Charnean military had previously deviated from this structure under the 1899 Armed Forces Reform which disarmed the constituent nations and centralized the Confederate military, a status quo that was effectively undone in the turmoil of the East Scipian Wars and formally repealed under the Lamine regime in 2002, which saw the restoration of a confederal mode of national defense. Component forces are typically trained and specialized by their respective nations to operate in their varied local environments, leading to a high degree of variation in equipment and tactics across the ICA, ranging from combined arms urban warfare doctrines utilized in the developed and densely populated southern regions to the highly irregular, mobility based insurgent warfare endemic to the Zahra desert commonly employed by militias of nomadic populations. The ICA is primarily a ground based organization, although it does feature a subordinate army air-force known as the ICAA (Inter-Charnean Army Airforce). Maritime operations conducted off of Charnea's small coastline are relatively insignificant and have few resources allocated to them which makes them strategically insignificant enough to lack a dedicated subordinate force, instead placing these light maritime duties in the charge of local constituent army units.

Economy

The Economy of Charnea is a strong primary sector economy, primarily exporting mineral resources and petroleum and importing most manufactured goods and a measured amount of agricultural products. Industrialization is a high priority for the current Lamine regime, and is planned to be carried out through Template:Wp:Import substitution industrialization specifically of manufactured or processed products based on resources exported by Charnea, for example the refining and manufacture of petroleum products such as kerosene, gasoline, and petroleum derived manufactured products such as plastics. Laminid economic plans of this nature are typically focused on industrial products wholly or mostly derived from materials already exploited by the Charnean mining and petroleum industries, and generally do not apply to goods that are either several levels of complexity removed from current Charnean manufacturing ambitions, or are manufactured using a majority of materials not readily available to the Charnean domestic market without importation of materials. The primary sector also features a rice-based agricultural sector, which has enabled Charnea to be largely self-sufficient on foodstuffs, with importations for the most part being limited to products that cannot grow in Charnea and are not basic staples. The Charnean economy currently depends on its exported mineral wealth, which is directed primarily to Oxidentale and trading partners such as Sante Reze, Yisrael, and Mutul, in addition to developed Belisarian and Ochrani markets. The Charnean currency, the Dinar, has suffered fluctuations historically but is relatively stable in the present day with inflation under control.

Energy

The energy sector is of particular concern to the Charnean confederation, as profits generated by the state owned petroleum and energy infrastructure firm COPEC nearly supersede taxation as the confederate government's source of income. Oil rich regions are located in the northwest and far east of Charnea, around the frontiers of the Zahra desert, and are exclusively exploited by COPEC since the 1979 Petroleum Nationalization Law. Refining and petrochemical manufacture were previously contracted out to foreign companies by COPEC or else simply done overseas after the exportation of crude oil from Charnean ports, although this has largely transitioned to domestic operations wholly owned and operated by COPEC under the Laminid industrialization plan. Additionally, electrical generation is run by the state corporation and is largely specialized in solar generation, replacing older coal and oil fired fossil fuel generation plants. Wind energy is secondarily perused, to a more limited extent. Unlike the petroleum industry, COPEC does not have a national monopoly on power generation although it does control a large portion of the market as the primary investor and developer of new energy infrastructure.

Recycling

Charnea is well known for its recycling industry, which is locally referred to as the reclamation industry. This sector of the Charnean economy, widely practiced in southern regions of the country, is based on the importation of foreign industrial and consumer waste products typically by rail or by sea to be processed by comparatively cheap Charnean labor. Reclamation firms in Charnea draw their profits from selling salvaged materials back onto the market as cheaper alternatives to what are called first generation materials, such as plastic pellets made from recycled plastic waste as opposed to being produced directly from petroleum products. Ship breaking is also a hallmark activity of the Charnean reclamation industry, making the Charnean coast and particularly the port of Koros international hotspots for the disposal of commercial ships, where the vessels are cheaply demolished and taken apart for the purposes of extracting raw materials and metal scrap.

Culture

Cuisine

A Charnean man cooking Taguella in hot ashes

Reflecting the multicultural nature of the confederation, Charnean cuisine is a mixture of many different influences both internal and external. While in general many different local cuisines are found across Charnea, Tamashek cuisine is endemic to most regions of the confederation. Additionally, foreign influences primarily originating with other Amazigh peoples scuh as Aghmatia can be felt as well, having been introduced through the connecting trans-scipian trade routes which have historically served as the mediums of cultural exchange for central Scipia and Charnea. Taguella bread, an unleavened flatbread normally cooked over charcoal, is a ubiquitous staple food across most of Charnea, while Eba is more popular in the south as a local staple. Tajine, Couscous and Besṭila are examples of foreign Amazigh dishes introduced to Charnea through cultural exchange that have since become popular with many local peoples, while Jollof rice can be taken as an example of a popular dish having an origin within the local cultures of southern and central Charnea.

Many of the dishes common to differing regions of Charnea are highly specific to the local environment and agricultural or pastoral traditions, and are general the products of the most available sources of nutrition and the best fitted crops that can be cultivated in any particular region, such as goat and sheep products along with wheat flatbreads in the Zahra desert region contrasted with rice and cassava based foods in the far less arid southerly regions. The steady introduction of modern agricultural techniques and industrialized food production and especially the advent of refrigeration have resulted in a rising degree of homogeneity, as foods from one region of Charnea can much more easily be transported and consumed in other regions where the climate would never allow those products to be prepared locally, leading to a general spread in popular south Charnea rice dishes, although a few northern foods such as taguella and cink or liwa millet porridge still retain their wide reaching popularity as cultural staples.

Ashahi tea ceremony

Tea is highly popular across all differing Charnean cultures. Ashahi tea, green tea steeped with sugar and mint, is not only popular but culturally significant as the focal point of many social gatherings. Preparation is often semi-ritual and ceremonial in nature, being prepared for household guests as a key element of traditional Charnean hospitality, as well as part of daily social meetings within and without the family group. Generally, each person takin part will consume more than one (typically 2-4) glasses of tea in any particular occasion or tea ceremony. Ashahi tea is not limited to any particular activity, meal or time of day, and is generally consumed at all times of day, often multiple times a day, with food or on its own. The common variety of Ashahi tea consumed today is a type of gunpowder green tea introduced to Charnea in the 18th century, although the tradition of the tea ceremony is though to predate this introduction and may have originated with unknown varieties of tea that came into Charnea in medieval times, at some point prior to the 11th century.

Coffee, beer and other alcoholic beverages which are generally common across most of the world are comparatively far less popular in Charnea. In some instances, varieties of coffee which are typically imported are consumed in a similar manner to Ashahi tea especially in recent years, however the popularity of this practice is not wide reaching. Imported alcoholic beverages, such as Balche and Tequila introduced to Charnea through contact with the Mutul, have a niche market, with some contributions from locally produced distillations which generally consist of Moonshine. Other Mutulese imports such as chocolate have a similar middling level of popularity, and are mainly imbibed as part of White Path ritualistic consumption.

Clothing and Fashion

A wide variety of textile and clothing styles can be found in Charnea, having origins both in many diverse native cultures within the Confederation as well as foreign origins which may have been introduced through cross-cultural contact over ancient trade routes historically or be relatively recent additions to Charnean fashion brought about in the industrial age through modern means of international trade. Although common foreign styles, often those mass produced and in ubiquitous use globally, are indeed found all over Charnea, it is also common to find local styles being worn both in ceremonial capacities and in day to day life. The most iconic piece of native fashion is the tagelmust, a head wrap originating with the Tamashek people of the Zahra desert which is typically dyed with indigo but may also be dyed in other colors, especially as it has been introduced as a common piece of headwear outside of the nomadic cultures of northern Charnea. A tagelmust is specifically intended to be worn by men, as the Tamashek traditionally veil themselves at all times except in the presence of close friends or within a family. Women do not traditionally cover their faces except at specific times during ceremonies and events using the tusuwart, a woman's head covering. Men generally wear cloth pants known as akarbey while women will traditionally wear dresses as well as afer coverings. The Tamashek, as well as many other ethnic groups within Charnea, commonly wear various types of Template:Wb or kaftan, such as the mbaub found in the south. Charneans who do not wear the tagelmust will sometimes use Kufi style hats instead. In Charnean culture, the tagelmust is considered a symbol of adulthood and wearing one for the first time marks a rite of passage into manhood. Many similar practices exist across Charnea, where traditional headgear and hats are intended to be worn only by adult men or women. Footwear may vary greatly depending on the climate, however leather sandals (iragazan) and shoes (ibuzagan) are relatively common and widespread across Charnea's arid regions.