Government of Scarterra
The region of Scarterra is a completely autonomous region nominally ruled by Adrestia. In reality, the Royal Court has very little presence in the country due to the stipulations behind the region rejoining the Ralgon Empire in 1695 AN.
Instead, the region of Scarterra governs itself and most of its internal affairs entirely independent of its overlords in Adrestia or Ralgon, respectively. The government sees little interference from, or conflict with, the national government thanks to an eternally weak Prince, whose election is a byproduct of the country's careful cultivation and use of greed as a tool of both power and advancement in its subnational society. While the region had a period of independence before 1400 AN, it remained a part of mainland Ralgon until the Ralgon Civil War in 1685. The region relocated to a group of islands in the Sea of Storms for roughly ten years. However, eventually realizing that its very government model left it largely incapable of national independence, chose to join Adrestia specifically, as a vassal state.
The only condition was non-interference with the existing natural order... which was so corrupt that the Royal Court of Adrestia chose not to touch the politically sickened country anyway. The result? Profit on both sides, an exodus of working class individuals elsewhere, increased automation thanks to the region's relentless capitalist industrial complex... and a deepening spiral of corruption that threatened to leave the region sparsely populated outside its core urban areas for years to come.
With a complex government largely incapable of unifying on its own, it depends entirely on Adrestia for defense, and on the Royal Court for all direct interactions with outside entities... which find themselves facing prohibitive protective measures in place within idiosyncratic areas of the island region. While the region has every amenity possible for even the wildest extravagancies imaginable, the working class continues to stagnate and the middle class only owes its existence to endless vote buying by the corporate classes to prop up independent practice (the most vulnerable of which is routinely crushed by the Guilds wherever possible to prevent needless competition and possible price wars with credible parties down the line).
History
Pre-Crisis
The Province of Scarterra, formerly a mixed republic ruled by wealthy merchants and nobles, elected their head of state for centuries before they joined with Stormhold and Nixtorm to form a new unified nation. They continue their ancient traditions by using their National Assembly (consisting of these same people) to elect their Grand Duke to a fixed 12-year term. (Grand Dukes replacing predecessors who died mid-term still serve exactly 12 years.) Their Grand Duke has zero authority over the National Assembly. Instead, they are empowered to act freely when dealing with wider national affairs. Although the Grand Duke of Scarterra is by far the weakest in the Empire within their own borders, this position still coveted for the sheer amount of popular influence and political prestige the office brings within the territory itself. Current and former Grand Dukes frequently went on to become very wealthy families of their own. That practice had long ended by the 1500's, however.
Because of the frequent senility or illness that Nixtorm's Grand Duke almost invariably experiences (see below), and the complicated political divisions within Stormhold, the Grand Duke of Scarterra was, until their repatriation to a chain of islands northwest of Adrestia, usually the most influential provincial head of state within the Ralgon Empire. Consequentially, they had a substantial ability to influence measures being passed by the Imperial Senate, which is also located in the Grand Duke's own city of Drag'nor. This means, however, they tended to be far removed from royal proceedings in the imperial capital, which Nixtorm's regional government held more sway over during its own peak.
After the collapse of Ralgonese authority on the island in 1685, it was thought that Scarterra, Drag'nor, Jento, and all related assets had simply disappeared... along with the entirety of most of northern Drag'os. Rather, some years later it was discovered that those that hadn't resettled in Adrestia with their ubiquitous wealth had, in fact, surreptitiously moved to an island chain north of Adrestia and resettled their assets there instead. Situating their capital of Drag'nor in the center of this island, they established the ports of Jento and New Duro elsewhere on the large island and its attendant neighbors in an effort to attain a level of independence from their former Ralgonese masters. In the wake of Adrestia's rapidly growing wealth and power on the Sea of Storms, however, the government of Drag'nor instead elected to rejoin the Ralgon Empire... on their own terms.
Modern Scarterra
Modern-day Scarterra is a corrupt, hyper-charged, anarcho-capitalist paradise (or hellhole to some) that is generally divided into four primary groups of powerful, often-agglomerated actors that vie for power within the entirely self-governed territory. These consist of the ultra-rich landowning Barons, the various Guild Masters overseeing the country's agglomerated and oft-monopolized service industries, the landed gentry who vote in members of the National Assembly, and the country's capitalist class that consists mostly of merchants and corporate executives. Formerly, the region's military comprised the fifth group, until the region rejoined the Empire following a long period of funds being choked off during a protracted power struggle.
Under the current model, the government has two defined heads of state: the Prince (formerly styled the Grand Duke), and the Viceroy. The Prince of Scarterra serves as the head of state, and presides over the legislature (the General Assembly), which itself is consisted of popularly elected representatives voted into office by eligible voters (namely, landowning citizens whose net income OR net worth falls within the top ten percent of landowning citizens for at least three consecutive years).
Royalty in Scarterra
The Prince of Scarterra
The Prince is selected by the General Assembly, which is the territory's (semi) popularly elected legislature. Candidates for the Prince are voted on out of a pool of merchant-nobles that come from a group of well-established houses. The eldest candidate from each noble House is, almost by default, the selected candidate. The Assembly votes on their preferred candidate (an exercise in which bribery and blackmail are common) from among each of the 12 candidates set forth by their respective Barons. The winner is immediately crowned the Prince, and declared the head of state and head of the legislature.
The only hard constraint outside of being a member of the 12 noble houses is that no two consecutive Princes may hail from the same family. Given the prevalence of intermarriage, though, this area of the law gets very murky... and elections may just as often be won by bribing the courts as they're won by bribing members of the National Assembly. Chiefly, the Barons' objective is to place a very strong representative of their interests on the throne while paying lip service to their overlords in Adrestia and Ralgon, respectively. (The real work in service to empire is done by the bureaucracy and state security forces, neither of which have much at all to do with the Barons.)
Most of the time, though, the National Assembly has other plans in mind. Instead of electing the strongest candidate possible like the Ralgonese government has done for centuries, it does the opposite. The National Assembly prefers a weak Prince to maintain its own relevance and to keep the Barons in check, so it usually selects a candidate who is already very old (and preferably has some sort of terminal illness), to prevent any single Baron (or Baronial family) from unduly amassing power in the central government. Because of the sheer prestige and amount of influence a Prince brings to their family throughout the entire Empire (not just in Scarterra), a long-lived Prince is a literal golden ticket for a Baron to possess.
Because the Prince is so often a weak and sickly person, their power is very much limited to a ceremonial capacity. Although they can exercise veto power, they rarely do so, and instead this power has largely passed to the Viceroy to exercise "on the august Prince's behalf." Chiefly, the Prince acts as an effective bridge as a vassal to the Royal and Imperial governments in Gondolin and in faraway Glacier City, ironically thanks to the same weakness prevalent in Scarterra's own head of state. This state of things is thus unlikely to change, as an eternally ailing Prince of Scarterra enhances trade and commerce with the outside world, much as it did during Scarterra's first golden age, long before the 1685 crisis.
The Viceroy of Scarterra
The Viceroy leads government functions as part of the executive, ostensibly on behalf of the Prince (who, like the Dukes of yore, tends to be of very advanced age). Although this is legally the case, reality is the polar opposite. The Viceroy is the real power behind the government's final decisions. As the Prince is often incapable of acting in any other than a ceremonial capacity as head of state, the Viceroy instead acts as the stopping power behind the territory's major decisions. In short, the buck stops there, as the Viceroy wields veto power over both actions carried out by the General Assembly and appointments to the Board of Directors made by their respective Guild.
As such, the fight to select the Viceroy from among these same Directors for his (or her) 10-year term is of paramount importance. The National Board of Directors itself is a cabinet-style body of executive branch bureaucratic leaders. These people collectively act as advisors and leaders to the Prince and the Viceroy in specialized functions such as education, commerce, regional security, and so on. It is this same body that the National Assembly selects its Viceroy from, the latter serving a term of 10 years. In turn, the Guild Masters select their respective representative to the Board, with the sitting Viceroy being the sole approving authority as a check to the Guilds' otherwise limitless power in the executive.
The voting process is among the most openly corrupt on the entire planet of Micras. Bribes are commonplace, so brazen as to be open and publicly declared without shame, blackmail rife to a near-universal level, and fraught with danger for the Assemblymen themselves, as strongly disfavored and outspoken parties may find themselves indisposed just in time for the final vote. Security is atypically strong during the decennial election, and the new Viceroy protected at all costs until their own power base is secure. The most bribery, ironically, doesn't come from the Guilds (who are happy being represented either way). Instead, it comes from the country's corporate elite, who find that the easiest way to represent themselves is to line the Viceroy's pockets directly... or those of the Assembly during the election to get the most "receptive" candidate possible onto the Viceroy's throne.
The Four Forces of Government
The Barons
The twelve noble baronial Houses comprise the country's landed nobility. Becoming a member of nobility is simple: own so much land that one family becomes sufficiently rich to drive another into bankruptcy. Given that land is rarely for sale except balanced, exclusive exchanges between these people, that rarely happens. It is estimated that about 90% of the country's real estate is owned by one Baron or another. The sheer volume of land the Barons own goes towards a vast array of purposes often-closed to the public. The Baronial class usually makes use of their property to derive income through maintaining a variety of product-based industrial infrastructure such as huge farms, timberlands, vast hunting resorts, private nature reserves, and the like.
It is through the vast, closed lands and massive estates staffed by hundreds (sometimes thousands) of servants that the Barons derive the income needed to fuel their estates and retain power in the government through regional and collective pressure on the central government in Drag'nor. Additionally, these Barons maintain pressure through their near-total ownership of the country's rural areas by buying and selling land only to other Barons. Sale of non-urban land by a Baron to anyone other than a Baron is illegal. Even if it is the sale of land to a Guild, corporation, or organization owned exclusively by a Baron, the transaction is universally denied in court (as other Barons regularly sue over transactions in which they are outbid). The only way to become a Baron is almost invariably by marrying into, then taking over a given estate through using one's own wealth, paired with years' worth of political machinations. Such events are extreme rarities in Scarterra.
Urban land is the only real estate in the country allowed to be owned by individuals and organizations outside of the twelve Baronial Houses. Given that about 8% of the country is urbanized real estate, this also means that the power of the Barons begins and ends almost exactly at city limits. This holds especially true at the large, heavily populated capital of Drag'nor. Thus, the Barons' influence in government is usually indirect.
The ability for Barons to influence the central government's decisions is usually in their decisions on opening or closing the land to the vast majority of the country that has no access. Leasing property to corporations for business operations, or to real estate firms to build suburbs for Scarterra's woefully small middle class, or setting up national parklands for (paid) access to the masses are some types of concessions the Barons make to retain their power within the government, and keep the vast majority of the country's population in check without giving up land for it.
The chief way for a Baron to exercise any soft control directly over the government is to have a member of his (or her) family elected as Prince by the National Assembly from among their number when the old Prince dies. In electing a prince belonging to their Baronial House, a given Baron's (or baronial alliance's) objective is electing one as "young" as possible, which only happens if their influence is disproportionally strong. Most of the time, the National Assembly selects a candidate who is already very old (and preferably has some sort of terminal illness), to prevent any Baron from amassing power in the central government. Because of the sheer prestige and amount of influence a Prince brings to their family throughout the entire Empire (not just in Scarterra), a long-lived Prince is a literal golden ticket for a Baron to possess.
The only other direct alternative is to form the strongest connections to the Princely house versus other Baronial families. It is for this reason that Barons frequently attempt to form alliances with other Barons to install a preferred figurehead on the throne. To combat the possibility of a near-immediate death on the throne, the Barons have colluded in the past to place only candidates of good health before the National Assembly for approval, even if they were usually still of advanced age (mostly to prevent a popular uprising triggered by the country's very legislature). By thinning the playing field, a Baron had a much higher chance of getting their favorite on the throne. Barons have attempted to bribe the legislature directly, but they are usually far outbid by the corporations, Guilds, and/or urban capitalists that have interests of their own... and far more money to throw around.
The Guilds & Their Masters
Service-based industries such as education, tourism, printing presses, technology, and so forth dominate the economy of Scarterra. The Guilds themselves are as old as dirt, and were formed during weak economic times in a forgotten era, when Scarterra had much wealthier neighbors than itself. The Guilds were there for but one reason: to regulate and manage the businesses allowed to operate and gather power within the territory's economy. Long before annexation by Ralgon and also during their recent (brief) period of independence, the Scarterran elite managed to outflank the bankers of the country and form coalitions to protect their own interests from the very people capable of financially strong-arming whatever they wanted onto the rest of the urban elite.
Much like the later corporations formed by bankers (and future capitalist class) as a countermeasure to this power, the Guilds were organized and represented first and foremost by the wealthiest groups that did business within the territory's borders. Only domestic groups and personnel enjoyed the right to representation within the Guild, and thus the right to select their specific Executive Director within the branch of government with the same name.
Formed as a cabinet-style group to advise the oft-ailing (and oft-senile) Prince and to act as heads of the country's vast bureaucracy, the National Board of Directors formed the most elite portion of the country's executive branch. It was through the Board that the Guilds most often exercised their power in balance against the Barons and the capitalist class to realize their own collective economic interests. Is was through this delicate balance of power between the Barons and Guilds that the rising, populist middle class (the urban landowning gentry) also found its match.
This balance of power between the country's elite condensed into the offices of the Prince (to represent the barons and the state), the Directors (to represent the guilds), and the Viceroy (to ostensibly represent the people as head of the Assembly). With a lack of anywhere else to leverage their power, the middle class-elected National Assembly was where the bankers and capitalists began to work their own way into power.
The Corporate Elite
The banking class were the newest type of urban elite that rose within the country of Scarterra, and its gradual hold on the country's populist arms of government only grew stronger as the Barons boxed the bankers and capitalist allies into the cities, the middle class entrenched themselves into a strongly popular legislature, and the Guilds restricted the entirety of the service economy to their own ranks and the independently wealthy. The only alternative was to take over the only thing that money could buy: those without.
Thus, the capitalists set out to build independent urban industry while exploiting the 60% of the population not employed by the Barons or the Guilds as skilled workers, laborers, farmers, or servants. With these masses, the bankers built their own financial empires off their backs. With the profits generated this way, the rising capitalist class bought and sold votes in the rising stars collectively known as the General Assembly almost at will. Without the presence of the Barons outside the office of the Prince, the only real enemies the capitalists faced outside of each other were the Guilds, who were collectively busy struggling to maintain their deathgrip on the region's executive.
Eventually, it was a matter of time before the country became a corporatocracy, with most members of the General Assembly being offered very high-paying jobs for industrial support. This was frequently given happily, as the Guilds and Baronial estates usually hired internally only... and whose higher-paying jobs slowly became family professions as the years went by. Instead, the urban workforce had but three options: be born into the right family in a Guild or Baronial estate, join a corporation and attempt to climb the ladder... or work one's self to death. Further options such as leaving were almost nonexistent as either one was paid a lot of money or hardly any at all.
For the commoners, joining the military was out of the question. The Adrestian Royal Navy did not actively recruit out of Scarterra, and per agreement with the Barons, their only recruiting stations were in Drag'nor and in Jento... far from the reach of any of the Barons' servants. Topping this off was a hard cap in personnel, as peasants from Scarterra were stereotypically poor, uneducated, and simply desperate to get out and live off the assistance of their betters. This was an image propped up by the entire government, as it kept the working class in line.
The Landed Gentry
As mentioned before, the vast majority of land in the country (some 90%) was owned exclusively and personally by the Barons. The various service-based Guilds owned about 6% of the remainder mostly for university campuses, along with infrastructure meant to provide services to their own members or paying customers. (The remainder, in imitation of the Barons, was used to open undeveloped, less-valued land for public parks as a compromise with the populist General Assembly in 1690). About 3% belonged to the country's corporations and related urban-based infrastructure. This almost entirely consists of urbanized areas used for apartment complexes, hotels, corporate office buildings, and the like.
The remaining 4% of the country's land belonged to the landed gentry. This meant that, of the country's entire population, only about 5% owned their any land, with the rest being rented out in various forms. Of this small amount of urban land, ownership still followed a logarithmic curve, with most owning only enough to set a house and a tiny yard in, if they were lucky. Country estates were exceedingly rare, as almost all non-urban land belonged to the Barons. Only the wealthiest private citizens could hope to own a small countryside estate, and even then most counted themselves lucky to own a timeshare or in concert with others. Of that number, they almost exclusively belonged to the capitalist class.
Secondly, much power is concentrated into the hands of the various Guild Masters of specific Merchant Guilds, which represent an industry (or group of them) within the country that regulate and moderate its many monopolies and oligopolies... as there are no public lands or institutions outside of those purchased for public use by the Imperial government, except those leased to the General Assembly for public use by the Guilds themselves... under a borderline state of duress (after it threatened to strip the process for choosing the Viceroy from their hands altogether).
Eligibility for membership in the General Assembly is simple: Be a part of the middle class. And by middle class... the top 10% of persons by net worth, or the top 5% of those by income. And only the top 25% by net worth or top 10% by income are eligible to vote for these same people. Naturally, this number is few enough to keep the Barons satisfied that there will be as few diehard populist leaders as possible, but large enough to give the commoners some form of enfranchisement... in areas where the Barons have exactly zero reason to care. Regardless of the process, buying votes is common, and buying votes in the Assembly far more so.
As with the working class, all it took was the odd "economic measure" here and there to keep the small middle class and their legislature in line. Even if their zone of control ended exactly at city limits, there were no serious objections due to the sheer economic incentive of playing along with the system. Thus, the country was able to continue its current pace for years to come, while economically bringing more profit to their overlords in Adrestia through trade, and providing strategic bases without so much as lifting a finger.
