Government of Ascadia

-PLACEHOLDER- This was a far more interesting and well written page many moons ago, but i closed the page accidentally without saving. Information is now much more shorthanded.

"For many in these halls, they are the sons of the sons of the sons whose fathers fathers helped pen the original Tizzonian Reforms. These are young men, indoctrinated men, who assume the system of Guerric Law mingled with the Absolute Theocracy of the House of Tizzone is a system working as intended. I largely agree with them, of course, otherwise I would not be Lord Alessandro's Clerk-Historical, after all. I simply wish the younger men of law regarded the older ways more kindly, rather than as a stepping stone to the golden age. The local lords are growing fat on favorable bulls and reforms, and their Buccellas are swelling with new blood as the agro-communes become subverted by the Lordships. I can almost taste a future where the rule of law is gilded by a merchant's coin, rather than by heaven's splendor." -Clerk-Historical Vito Allafraghe of Alessandro XI, regarding the university students taking the Imperial Estimation in the capital.

For much of Ascadian history, central authority has reigned supreme. An ancient network of increasing complex and inefficient autocracies ruled by some variety of micromanagement obsessed ruler doomed to pass on his neuroticism to his heir. This style of governance was once known as the "Ascadian Style of Governance", a military minded autocracy rife with inefficiencies. Various aspiring rulers, often the kind who usurp, sought to reform the Ascadian system, and most have succeeded. Each era in Ascadia can be defined by rigid, status quo abiding lines of kings who all descend from a revolutionary firebrand who used his will to rewrite law and pen reforms. It makes Ascadian history a cycle of extreme change and stagnation throughout, what we assume, is thousands of years dating back to the First Bronze Age in Lontia, a people who have mostly maintained this style of neurotic autocracy, but divided between confederated Clan Lords.

The most recent pair of Great Reforms, the First and Second Tizzonian Reforms, penned several generations apart from one another, are the primary contributors to the current manner of governance, known as "Mingled Guerric Law", an evolution from what was called "Anemic Guerric Law" from the first reformation. This has been the most intense change ever experienced in Ascadian reforms, mostly due to the way it reduced Ascadia's border size massively, and turned the title of "King" to "Emperor", and turned many of the duchies into "League States", nominally increasing their tax burden, but giving them near full autonomy. Because of this, modern Ascadia mostly regards itself with purely Ascadian disputes, and does so with a far larger reserve of currency to use from the invigorated and independent league tributaries it now draws from, as well as the fairly efficient manner of taxation that the low level government can partake in without imperial oversight.

Informal Tenant-Household Law (Vincolati Code)

Among the esteemed houses, for whom much of the taxed goods come from, exists a system of powerful and untaxed men known as the Vincolati. As a result of many of the bloody conflicts within Ascadian History, the various Agro-Communes ruled by hereditary lords backed by Knight-Governors, had began to hemorrhage workers into the private farmlands of the Interior Realms, known as the Terrafirma. Within these rigid central realms of Ascadia, well predating the modern Tizzonian region, existed the countless "Esteemed Houses", long-lived peasant households who had earned the full right to govern their own manors, and were given the titles of Barons without the noble blood to back them, effectively turning them into Peasant-Lords whose position in the noble hierarchy was entirely subject to the rule of the local Count, this is unlike normal hereditary land, where your titles are guaranteed but your land can become forfeit. These "Esteemed Houses" of false Barons became the backbone of corrupt counties, providing large volumes of untaxed, bonded soldiers by way of the Vincolati Buccella, and utilizing corrupt local Tribunals to have high ranking Vincolati duptized to carry out the enforcement of laws. Much of this has been reigned in through the implementation of Inquisitorial Censors in the Esteemed houses and their private armies, but their influence is still deeply felt within the Terrafirma around the capital. The Informal nature of this law is the primary problem, and the inclusion of integrated Inquisitorial Censors had actually increased the rate of law enforcement undertaken by Buccellas, due to their presence of a Censorial authority within their ranks.

Prior to the systems of reforms, Vincolati law enforcement was awkward and inconsistent, with some Buccellas enforcing laws that weren't even mentioned or brought up by their supervising Vincolato, the most notorious of which is immortalized in the annals of the Interregnum, where Buccella forces conflicted with the roaming Knight-Enforcers of the Tizzonian occupational government, attempting to enforce a nonexistent "Sword Law" which prevented "foreign buccella" from wandering armed within Vincolato tenancy lands. The Knights, consumed by a large volume of militant bondsmen, sought refuge in a nearby tenancy land, sparking the ignition of a generations deep cold war between the two tenancy claims, as both parties had nonsensical Sword Laws originally intended to oppose the other. When the Buccella entered the bonded lands to chase the knights, they were met by a smaller, but better armed force of Buccella reinforced by the Knight-Enforcers who sought refuge with them. The surviving knights who returned from the conflict spoke poorly of, and lambasted the systems of Vincolati as archaic and prone to abuse. Some scholars have blamed this enforcement of Sword Law for the heavy-handed focus the first Tizzonian Reform had on reigning in bondsmen and their privileges, and empower the Inquisition, and why the second reform was when much of the Guerric Law was actually formalized to enshrine the anti-privacy purpose of the Guerric Law

Guerric Law (Martial Knight-Governance)

Off the heels of the cataclysmic Tizzonian Revolution came a large volume of skilled and celebrated military generals, nearly all of whom were deathly loyal to the newly crowned King Alessandro I. In order to pay off their loyalty, and utilize their skills, he began integrating the local militia garrisons into the feudal knighthood, and put the onus of recruitment of readiness on the Knight-Lords of the newly empowered local governments. While functionally hereditary, you had to pass the "Guerric Estimations" to ensure your competency and willingness so you can be inducted into the "Floating Pool" of Knights, and partake in a number of imperially justified military operations before you can be considered for inclusion into a Fraternal Knightly House, and given influence beyond your military skills.

Floating Pool

Known as the "Educated and Unskilled", the Floating Pool makes up anywhere from 30-90% of the Ascadian Knightly populace, depending on the volume of conflict occurring which can rush them into Fraternal Orders, otherwise its based entirely on the nepotistic desires of a local Fraternal Order to begin inducting unskilled knights into their fraternities for governing purposes, something which rarely occurs, but is considered important.

Inducted Men

Those who, without proving themselves in war, become members of a Fraternal Order of Knights. They aren't given the honors of Imperial Knights, and aren't regarded as Merited Men, but still take up a volume of non-legislative and non-deputized duties within the Knight-Governance, and often form the bulk of a Knightly Warband when demanded. Unlike a Buccella, a Knightly Warband is led by an Imperial Knight, rather than a Vincolati, and the soldiers, while often untaxed, can still belong to taxpaying families and will receive a tax exclusion during their period of military service, as well as the potential to be merited into the Fraternal Order by the attending Imperial Knight, regardless of their hereditary status. Most often, Inducted Men will handle the most basic tasks of the Fraternal Order, mostly the matters of scribes and clerks, as well as personal guards, and most importantly untaxed retainers whose sole purpose is to be useful for the overseeing Knight-Governor. Most common men are familiar with the Inducted Men of the Knights Agricultural, who often act as seasonal laborers to help reduce the burden on peasants during the harvest season, as well as provide enforcement for rural farmers against bandits.

Inducted Men of Merit

Exclusive to those of ignoble blood, the Inducted Men of Merit are the highest rank an uneducated, non-bureaucratic person can achieve in the state, a position far higher than that most men the world over can attain without gentle blood. The Inducted Men of Merit often receive the salary of a "Headless Knight", that is, the salary one would pay a Knight's son should he die in battle before his son could inherit his armor. This is paired with their untaxed status, making them a functional equivalent to the Vincolati of the Esteemed Houses, but loyal to the state rather than an agrarian lord. They are often called by various names, Knight-Retainers and Imperial Bondsmen being the most common.

Fraternal Knights

Also known as both Merited Men and Imperial Knights, this class of Knight is both educated and proven in combat, and can at any moment be picked by a Count to rule an agro-commune. They are the most esteemed Imperial Soldiers, holding similar regard to most highborn veterans the world over. They make up the minority of the Fraternal Houses, due to the large volume of tasks that Inducted Men are given, and the large volume of Floating Pool knights they rely on to lead them.

Lords-Fraternal

Merited men, but far higher in regard than those of lesser merit. the Lords-Fraternal fall somewhere between retainers and knights, mostly serving in ministerial positions and administration positions in the terrafirma, where the Guerric Law is strongest, or serving directly as retainers under Counts.Lords-Fraternal are often among the leading council in their given fraternal house, which justifies their higher levels of employment to avoid a conflict of interest within the local fraternal branches. They are often responsible for ensuring the fair treatment of peasants and knights, a class often regarding adjacent to the peasantry, by being in the ears of most important hereditary lords within the Terrafirma. Fraternal Lords helped establish the Ever-Level Granary initiative during the interregnum before the Tizzonian Reforms reignited the central government, and helped with fighting off rebellious Buccellas during that same period as well, who felt the "murmuring" of the new reforms would weaken their Vincolati too much. Due to this history, the informal "greatest knight" is the acting High Lord of the Knights Mercantile, for fulfilling the anti-merchant, pro-peasant goals of the original pre-reformation Knight Lords.

Local Bureaucratic Governance (Court Tribunal)

Chosen from the Imperial Inquisition by a group of 3 men, the local Count, the local Inquisitorial Astrologer of the county, and the local Knight-Governor of the region wherein the tribunal will be placed. Once the local Lord-of-the-Tribune is chosen by this council, he will be granted two Inquisitorial Censors, known as Vice-Tribunals, and among the three they will choose 15 bailiffs from the lowest level Inquisitorial chapter that exists nearby. Tribunal Bailiffs handle a large volume of tasks, including limited jurisdiction, calling a tribunal to order, enforcing order within any tribunal properties, and rallying militias to enforce martial law when informed by the Tribunal, the Inquisition, and the County itself to do so.

Baliff Law

The "Limited Jurisdiction" of the Bailiff has over time shifted from a vague, all-encompassing capacity to enforce laws with permission, to a reduced and far more narrow focus on investigation of crimes, protecting victims, and suppression of anti-tribunal forces involved in these tasks. Bailiffs are often the one thing protected the falsely accused from penalization, and the justly accused from fleeing into the frontiers.

County Tribunals

Nary often discussed are the higher courts within County Capitals, which exist often directly next to the capitals own local Tribunal. The Country Tribunal is a far more military focused tribunal, overseen by a sitting jury of 25 local "Experts of Law", 5 "Experts of History", 5 :"Experts of Culture" and 5 of the 15 bailiffs from an individuals home region who can be proven to have personal relations to them, and participated directly into the investigation that led to their forwarding to the County Tribunal. Tribunal Bailiffs are a politically mixed position formed of hand-picked enforcers by the County Inquisition Tribune, who ideally have no purpose beyond enforcing order within the County Tribunal. Due to the derivative nature of the County Tribunal from Court Tribunals, bailiffs still have all the powers and capabilities of them, leading to many counties operating their County Tribunal's bailiffs like a secret police force due to the expanded region of jurisdiction they have.

Hereditary Colonial Estates (Prinicpal Foreign Colonies) -DEFUNCT-

As of the Reign of Vestus Tizzone II, all foreign colonies have been abolished and their estates returned to the League, many of whom were absorbed into the Principal Realms through the "Colonial Reintegration System" Of Vestus II, and maintained during the long, relatively peaceful reign of Leopo I.