Unified Governorates of Benacia

Unified Governorates of Benacia Realm of the Black Legions
Flag Coat of Arms
Motto: Faith and Endurance surpasses Might
Anthem: Obedience is Salvation
Map versions	16.5.0 – present
Capital	Merensk
Official language(s)	Praeta, Istvanistani
Official religion(s)	Holodomatic Cedrozurvanism
Demonym	Benacians, Gubernatorials, Gubs (informal)
- Adjective	Benacian, Gubernatorial
Government	Stratocracy
- Szodan	Constantine Loup
- Chief of the General Staff	Mog Selfaþloþ Olnur
- Legislature	Benacia Command
Establishment	05.VII.1671
Area	N/A
Population	Core Territory: 14,265,323 Mishalan: 3,678,431 New Blackstone: 983,316
Currency	Natopo (₦)
Calendar
Time zone(s)	CMT -10
Mains electricity
Driving side
Track gauge
National website
National forum
National animal	Sarts Szuk
National food	Forager's Soup, Lywinderbrot, & Lythemsch'ighwnibe-Ch'ape libzchaxwe
National drink	Schleps Gin
National tree	Juniperus Litovinus (Litovine juniper)
Abbreviation

The Unified Governorates of Benacia (UGB) is a military governance system established following the Kalirion Fracture of 1671 AN, in order to govern the civilian population of the Isle of Benacia, Lachmeren, Lywall, Malarboria, Mishalan, and New Blackstone. Alongside the rival states of Inner Benacia and Kalgachia, the Unified Governorates controls roughly a third of the territory of the former empire of Minarboria. The governance of the territory is based upon a modified variant of Elwynnese, Imperial, and Modanese law, informed by Humanist political theory and syncretic religious practices. The UGB is a subject of the Raspur Pact and a member of the informal Natopian currency union which now dominates the economic life of the Benacian continent.

Demographics

Citizenship in the Unified Governorates is determined through the Charter of Coordination and is open to all Benacian nationals resident in a sovereign Benacian nation (Shireroth, Batavia, Inner Benacia, Kalgachia, Tellia) on the eve of the death of Kaiser Ayreon IV, generally considered to be the commencement of the Kalirion Fracture, or their descendants. This generous provision is subject to their registration with the civil authorities installed in the Governorates and the signing of the Covenant. Non-Benacians can be naturalised on the basis of a points system calculated through proven service, corporate bona fides, commendable piety, and ideological conformity.

The indigenous population of Cisamarrese, Lach, Lywallers, Mishalanski, and Tellians, therefore face the inward migration of Babki, Constancians,Norse, Talenorian Sani, Tapferites, and other stalwarts of the Raspur Pact, drawn by the decision of Benacia Command to relocate away from the lawless anarchy of Shirekeep and establish its cantonments in the heartland of the former Minarborian Empire.

Citizenship and residency rights are strictly limited to biological humans (Homo Sapiens) with the few remaining nests of rogue Dolorites located outside of the Kalgachi sanctuary territories being dug up and summarily extirpated wherever they are detected. The anomalous exception to this are the Nezeni who, partially on account of enjoying the protection of a recognised Benacian power and partially on account of some particularly niche perversions picked up by the negotiating team in Slavegate, are tolerated, if overly scrutinised, as guests of the Unified Governorates. The only stipulation to which they are subject is that they may not be seen abroad outside of the city of Sansabury during the hours of daylight. If daytime travel is required, Nezini visitors, whether pilgrims at Sansabury or participants in the burgeoning entertainments district of Merensk, may only travel in sealed compartments on trains, or in vehicles with heavily tinted windows. Consideration is presently being given to the creation of special Nezini-only rest stations along the route from Stonetree to Sansabury and from Sansabury to Merensk. If a Nezeni is caught in public during the daylight hours, whether by accident or misadventure, the subject is obliged to assume a posture of supplication until rescued by one of the specially appointed chaperones set to the task by the UGB Bureau of State Security. Unless authorised, civilians are not permitted to assist, acknowledge, or harm, a Nezeni whilst it remains in the supplication pose.

Following the removal of those Red Lach who refused to sign the Covenant to Lachdolor the only category of technically unfree humanity remaining within the territories of the Unified Governorate are the descendants of the Froyalanish survivors of the Auspicious Occasion who remain subject to the old imperial policies pioneered by the late Imperial Mother, namely reduction through miscegenation, whereby male Froyalaners in the Worker Colonies were gelded and given over to the Konkordskaya Bratva and the clans of Lachdolor to serve as thralls whilst the females were given over to the incessant requirements of domestic and recreational service, with Froyalanish blood being thus diluted by the perpetuation of this process with each succeeding generation.

Culture

"I converse with my magisters in Praeta, my advisers in Istvanistani, and my lenders in Babkhi. The wife chides me in Elw, whilst my mistress whispers into my ears sweetly insincere nothings in the most beguiling Cisamarrese lilt. My dog responds to being told to 'fuck off' in Lach with a certain alacrity."

—Constantine Loup, Merensk (1673 AN)

The culture of the Unified Governorates is, in large measure, determined by the nature of the peoples who comprise its society and the historical and material circumstances that have had, and continue to, acted upon them.

The Governorates, taken in an overview, are very much a colonial frontier society, being founded upon the successive ruination of Ashkenatza, Minarboria, and the fleeting moment of Shirerithian Imperial overreach into the region which has – with some justice – become known as the graveyard of empires.

The base population of the core territories of the Governorates, centred around the capital, Merensk, and comprising of the governorates of Lachmeren as well as Lower and Upper Lywall, consists of a substrata of Lywallers and Tellians, the near indigenous ethnicities of the region, alongside whom live the ever ubiquitous Lach, whose fractious clannishness bisects this invasive race, splitting them into Black and Red confederacies. In spite of persistent Imperial and now Gubernatorial efforts to suppress and reform the Lach through collective reprisal, selective incentives, and mass re-education, the legendary brigandry of the Lach remains endemic along the lesser patrolled minor roads of Upper Lywall.

Of Lywallers themselves there is little enough to say, their nature inclines them towards flippancy and contrariness. It was somewhat indicative of the scant regard in which Minarboria and Kalgachia held the rest of the world that these Lywallers, with their peculiar insistence upon forced 'jollity' at the most inappropriate of moments, were at one point put forward as candidates for diplomatic postings and service as regime mouthpieces. More than one serious international incident was triggered by a Lywaller with nominal authority “flying off the handle” at some routine activity, such as a military exercise in a neighbouring country. This tendency towards the histrionic may in some part have derived from the transfusion of migrants from the notoriously labile populace of Lunaris in Shireroth into the youthful body politic of Minarboria at the time of its foundation. For this reason those Lywallers still found within the bounds of the Unified Governorates tend to be rebuffed from state service and struggle to find guild accredited placements in all but the most menial of roles. A similar attitude eventually came to prevail in neighbouring Kalgachia when the armed forces there stepped in to end Lywaller maladroitness in the administrative and diplomatic spheres.

Government

Office	Rank	Office Holder	Portfolio
Szodan	Frumst Frainan	Constantine Loup	Head of State
Command Executive Board of the General Staff
Chief of the General Staff	Frainan Streïakeï	Mog Selfaþloþ Olnur	President of the Board of the General Staff
Frainan-Heszlin	Frainan Hohmin	Aumon Sclavenius	General Inspectorate of the Black Legions
Commander, Central Banner Group	Frainan Streïakeï	Aodh bi Uaneill	Military Operations – Inner Benacia Kalgachia Tellia Unified Governorates
Commander, Eastern Banner Group	Frainan Hohmin	Selardi Jen Daniyal	Military Operations – Ransenar Sovereign Confederation
Commander, Northern Banner Group	Frainan Hohmin	Mihrzād Gushnasp	Military Operations – West Amokolia Elwynn Imperial Regency (Shirekeep)
Commander, Southern Banner Group	Frainan Streïakeï-bi-Mari	Ryabin Chryseoï	Military Operations – Drak-Modan Guttuli Protectorate Sanama Sathrati
Commander, Western Banner Group	Frainan Uihmanzis	Jeremiah Avon-El	Military Operations – Batavia New Blackstone Nova England
Director (D1)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Karekin Bolkvadze	Information Technology
Director (D2)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Ermanaric Parsamyan	Logistics
Director (D3)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Ardashir Mooshian	Manpower
Director (D4)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Abdollah Abbasi	Planning
Director (D5)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Rudolf Maisuradze	Operations
Director (D6)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Herlot bi Merensk	Military Intelligence
Director (D7)	Frainan Uihmanzis	Vüqar Rugahi	Political Affairs
Civil Executive
Steward	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Shiv Bormann	Executive Bureau
Marshal	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Aurel Dietrich	State Guard
Commissioner of Allocations & Appropriations	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Sigibert Behrends	Fiscal Policy Revenues Finance
Commissioner of Public Order	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Berthold Forst	State Security Territorial Command Public Order Troops Aviation Police Coast Guard Bureau of Investigative Affairs
Commissioner of Information	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Klaes Schultheiss	Communications Information Technology Media Coordination
Commissioner of Services	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Marius Hofmann	Citizenship Education Health Local Government Protected Persons Reeducation & Rehabilitation Unlawful Persons & Aliens
Commissioner of Works	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Friedemann Beringer	Agriculture Fisheries Five Year Plan Forestry Industry Infrastructure Mining Technology Transportation
Commissioner of the Circuit of Benacia	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Hieronymus Brantley	Lachmeren Litel Siyacha
Commissioner of the Circuit of Jadid Khaz Modan	Bivarhins Frainan	Rofolo Nur Pinito Kasha	Cosimo Sea Isle of Benacia Sabatini Isle Sathrati
Commissioner of the Lywall	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Kiran Lylow	Lower Lywall Upper Lywall
Commissioner of New Blackstone	Frainan Uihmanzis	Jeremiah Avon-El	Great Western Sea New Blackstone
Non-Executive Portfolios
Deputy-Director for Sport	Ahmst Bræþstranin	Uri Segler	UGB Bureau of Sports
Deputy-Director for Internal Security	Salbnan	Bruno Rambert Strohkirch	Internal Security Bureau

Foreign relations

As befits an administration established by the Raspur Pact , the Unified Governorates engage with the international community primarily through the Political Directorate and subordinate agencies of the Pact's Benacia Command. While the long-term goal of the ruling Executive Command is to reunify the continent under the banner of Benacian Confederalism, the imperatives of the present moment lead it to lend its full support to those Pact members and sufficiently cooperative non-aligned neighbours who are judged to be best placed to support the restoration of public order and vital economic linkages in the aftermath of the Kalirion Fracture.

State	Relation	Established	Basis
Alduria	Friendly	1675	Bilateral trading relationship. Inward and outward investment. Treaty of Merensk.
West Amokolia	Hostile	1672	Contact established along Inner Mishalan line of control. Relations soured by the Froyalan Question. Brief attempt at normalising relations abandoned after misguided Amokolian land grab in former Verionist Benacia.
Batavia	Neutral	-	No formal relations.
Constancia	Friendly	1672	Raspur Pact. Creditor.
Drak-Modan	Friendly	1672	Raspur Pact. Military assistance.
Elwynn	Friendly	1672	Raspur Pact. Military assistance.
Inner Benacia	Friendly	1671	Under the fraternal protection and guidance of the UGB.
Jingdao	Neutral	1674	Discrete low-level diplomatic contact after 1674.
Kalgachia	Neutral	1673	Slavegate Convention and detente. Secondary transit route for Aldurian-Kalgachi trade. Gradually increasing commercial exchanges.
Natopia	Friendly	1672	Raspur Pact. Creditor. Technological and industrial assistance.
Ransenar	Friendly	1673	Raspur Pact. Military assistance.
Sanama	Friendly	1672	Oil for arms trade agreement formalised as treaty.
Sathrati	Friendly	1674	Raspur Pact. Military assistance. Under the fraternal protection and guidance of the Honourable Company.
Shireroth	Friendly	1672	Raspur Pact.
Sovereign Confederation	Friendly	1671	Raspur Pact. Military assistance.
Tellia	Neutral	1672	No formal relations. Non-recognition of Tellian zone of control.
Verionian Empire	Neutral	-	No contact. No formal relations. Perceptions skewed by the fallout (figurative and literal) of the "Great Disaster"

Economy

The Unified Governorates economy relies heavily on the agriculture, defence, fishing, heavy industry, and mining sectors. The drive to secure an adequate industrial and resource base upon which to sustain the continental army inherited from Shireroth, impelled Benacia Command, the military governing authority, into invading Mishalan, Florencia and the Irridian Isles, and Inner Benacia in turn. During the first few years of its existence, the UGB was heavily reliant upon Natopian loans, brokered through corporate intermediaries, which it was then obliged to repay using the direct export of commodities, disassembled industrial machinery, and - to a certain extent - brazen plunder. It has since sought to diversify away from this over-reliance by building up Merensk as a worthy capital in its own right, with a service sector to match, and by establishing so-called "Financial Innovation Fusion Centres", the first of which was opened in Port Benacia during 1675, that would make financial instruments work for rather than against the national balance of payments. With debates raging in the Aldurian Parliament over taxation, Aldurian companies and businesses were attracted by the financial services to nonresidents provided in Merensk.

The occupation of the Lachdolor natural gas fields offers up the promise of increased revenues for the Unified Governorates once the proper infrastructure to exploit these reserves have been put in place.

Defence

Main Article: Black Legions

Religion

"By Our Faith! We Understand! We Only See as Zurvan Commands!"

—Chant of Cedrozurvanite devotees celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Auspicious Occasion., Merensk (1671 AN)

History

The history of the Unified Governorates can be traced back to the rise of Human Supremacist ideology in the backwards "3M region" in the wake of the collapse of successive attempts at establishing civilised governance in the area. The Kalirion Fracture would see the precarious settler communities become the base of operations for that portion of the Shirerithian Imperial Forces which remained loyal to the Raspur Pact after loosing faith in the ability of Shirekeep and the Kalirion Dynasty to restore control of the disintegrating empire.

1640–1669

• 1640-1644: Harvestfall Revolution in Minarboria draws attention to the deteriorating phylacteric field sustaining Liches (Revenants) in Lichbrook. Paralysis and disintegrations increase year on year by an order of magnitude.
• After the failure of the Lich-Queens could no longer be denied, Lichbrook was administered in their name by the Crown Council, established in the year 1644 by Decree of the Nobles of the Realm sealed by the Kaiser. The Council operated on the principle of the round table with the Countess of Amarr representing the Undead and The Dirigent of Musica representing the Living.
• 01.XII.1644: Underkeep Massacre shatters residual faith in Imperial Government. Deep Singer Mass Emigration to the unknown and subterranean portions of the West. Minority comprised of Biological Containment Corps and the Lifemesher and Wayfarer clades form an underground, in every sense, anti-human resistance movement in Shimmerspring.
• 1648: Final collapse of the phylacteric field. Virtually all Liches disintegrate over the course of the year. Surviving revenants scarcely number above triple digits. The loss of Liches and Deep-Singers within the same decade causes the population of Southern Benacia to be effectively halved.
• 1649–1651: Failure of the Crown Council sees Lichbrook demoted to Imperial Dominion. The Countess of Amarr stages an unsuccessful revolt. The ensuing Struggle for the South sees the State of Malarboria formed by Imperial interventions amidst the ruins of Lichbrook and Eastern Minarboria.
• 1651: Auspicious Occasion sees Elwynn purged of Vanic population and its peripheral territories dismembered. Most of Angularis is passed to Malarboria.
• 1651-1660: Reconstruction in Malarboria is hampered by poor relations between the Daemonically influenced “Coven of the Sun” and the Imperial Government. *The War of Lost Brothers (1653–1657) sees scarce capital resources diverted to sustaining the increasingly unpopular war effort.
• 1660: The Loyalist Legion, the mass participation party established to give the Coven of the Sun a vehicle for participation in imperial-level politics, suffers a humiliating defeat in the Folksraad election of that year to a coalition of humanist, separatist, and minority ethnic parties grouped together under the 'Coalition 1660' banner. The election signalled widespread and increasing dissatisfaction with the regime of the Daemon-Queen amongst denizens (free subjects of the state without Imperial citizenship).
• 1661: The Nationalist and Humanist Party lends its support to an uprising by Coalition 1660 activists by staging two simultaneous invasions; first consisting of Elwynnese rebels from the Army of the Southern League attacking via Angularis and Highpass, and secondly by an amphibious landing of troops from the islands of Jadid Khaz Modan in Amarr.
• 11.X.1662: Convention of Drakorda permits Kizzy Drakland, her daughter, and her daemonic familiars to evacuate from the country of what was now proclaimed as Modan, in return for surrendering the Sword of Fire to Daniyal ibn Daniyal Simrani-Kalirion.
• 07.XII.1662: Constitution of Drakorda is promulgated. Daniyal Simrani-Kalirion proclaimed Prince of Modan. State of Modan established.
• 10.XIII.1662: The State of Lywall, a protectorate established in the former Minarborian Empire, along with the islands of Amity, Miriroth, and So-Sara, are formally ceded by the Imperial Government to the State of Modan. Yardistan meanwhile is ceded to Brookshire.

1670's

• 13.V.1671 - Establishment of Benacian Stabilisation Force
• 05.VII.1671 - Fall Luikur
• 11.VIII.1671 - Death of Kaiser Ayreon IV
• 06.XI.1671 - Merensk Command Conference
• 15.XI.1671 - Declaration of Merensk
• 24.XI.1671 - Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Auspicious Occasion held in Merensk. Protected persons of mixed-ancestry fathered in the camps who have come of age are distributed, along with grants of land in Lywall, to veteran ex-Imperials, on the occasion of their honourable discharge from the Black Legions. Festival concludes with the veterans re-enlisting as officers at the invitation of the Commander-in-Chief. The tradition is begun that all veterans of the Black Legions will receive land and wives on the Auspicious Day in the year of their discharge from service.
• 18.XIV–06.XV.1671: Phase II of Fall Luikur sees the occupation of the "Gloomburg Corridor" linking Lywall with the disputed industrial heartland of Mishalan. Two legions pass over the Republic of Inner Benacia, sowing death and destruction in their wake, as an abject lesson to the emergent Black Lach confederacy of the futility of continuing incursions into territories incorporated into the Unified Governorates.
• 25.XIV.1671–03.VIII.1672: Operation Massive Wedge - Black Legions return to MoMA Station Sabatini and completes the Occupation of Port Benacia.
• 21.IX.1672:
  • Ahmst Mairstranin Bardaisan Porphyry received a crimson banner from the Frumst Frainan and a commission to recruit amongst those Red Lach whose chieftains had signed the covenant issued in former times by the Prince of Modan. An ESB Purser with sufficient bullion and Natopian script to cover expenses, as well as a regiment of Inspectorate Troops to protect the strong boxes, would accompany him.
  • Waldemar Tarjeisson is brought out of retirement to lead the Litkov Expedition with the triple objectives of repelling Black Lach incursions into the Litkov Salient, securing the assets of the Imperial Mission in Kasterburg for the Black Legions, and re-establishing contact with the surviving followers of Adin ben Shmuel, the former leader of a puppet state in Nackholm. Waldemar's request for the support of a legion is refused - with a shortage of available fuel cells cited as the cause. Instead he was instructed to assemble such forces as he could muster and to depart for Litkov by no later than the 1st day of the twelfth month of 1672. A meeting with the Board of the General Staff held on the following day only secured a token release of manpower and equipment in return for the ESB Group agreeing to underwrite costs.
• XIV.1672:
  • Southern Mishalan is occupied by the Black Legions in conduction with the forces of West Amokolia in the west and Elwynn in the north. The Imperial Regency is obliged to acknowledge the fait accompli.
  • During the year to date, Tyrannocricetus aliger attacks in Upper Lywall had resulted in 14,000+ deaths. As a consequence, an entire legion is assigned to the task of ensuring their complete extermination in the territories of the UGB.
• I.1673:
  • 10: Sixteen aldermen in Merensk, convicted of appropriating the infrastructure maintenance budget of their district for personal gain, are hung - the Commissioner of Works waiving his rights to receive the condemned for labour service - from gallows erected in the city's Zitadelle. A selected audience drawn from corporate, military, and political cadres are obliged to attend so that the lesson is fully imparted and absorbed.

The polity that would become the Unified Governorates began as the Benacian Stabilisation Force, a subordinate formation of Benacia Command's Central Banner Group. Initially formed to relieve IBFOR elements trapped in Republic of Inner Benacia after a revolution there directed against Shireroth and the Raspur Pact. However, as the contagion of revolution spread rapidly across Benacia, causing a fatal unravelling of the institutions and authority of the Imperial Republic, the Benacian Stabilisation Force was forced to widen its remit to include the pacification of the rearwards sectors of its zone of operations and with the implementation of the Fall Luikur directive by Benacia Command assumed responsibility for the seizure of as many of the facilities and depots of the Imperial Forces as it could secure. In practice only those officers formerly affiliated with N&H cadres, the ESB Group or the former Modanese regime rallied to the cause. As the officer corps of the Imperial Army and the Western Armada of the Imperial Navy had already been substantially purged during the administrations of Steward Soraya II of Octavius-Parini the legions and the banner fleets could not, for the most part, be relied upon.

As it was, the support of the air force, in-shore forces, and the auxiliaries, facilitated an attack on the MoMA Stations of Sabatini and Sagittarius in the so-called "First Island Chain" of Khaz Modan. This action, taken against confused and demoralised comrades-in-arms, however presaged the collapse of the Imperialist forces throughout the Khaz Modan archipelago, as a Yardistani led insurgency swept across the islands.

Because the Benacian Stabilisation Force lacked the strength to restore order across the entire continent its present priority comprises of establishing and preserving itself as a force in being, able to exert influence in the calculations of others by virtue of its existence. Where it has not been able to establish firm territorial control, which is to say everywhere outside of the Merensk-Smoxala bridgehead, one possibility under consideration was the "hiring out" of the Black Legions to the residual Imperial Republic as well as to those other "Vulture States" in need of shock troops in return for access to the necessary provisions and hard currency required to sustain its operations.