The Xaishan Accord

At its heart, the Xaishan Accord creates a standardized set of trade agreements, political offices, legal laws, common infrastructure, a unified army, and a new ruling body dubbed 'the Veltrony Government'. Velandra herself and her palace functions as the controlling head, while the veltron-bound offices aim to organize and run the local affairs. These offices would act as the bones of the government, branching out to issue edicts and coordinate with a given area's ruling power. For, rather than try to completely supplant them, Velandra instead aimed at integrating them as useful tools. In other words, so long as they did her bidding and followed her laws, they would be allowed a position of power. For some, this was an agreeable situation; others, not so much. In the end, if they couldn't resist Velandra, others were given the opportunity to rule in their stead.   From the ground up, the Accord is shaped by narrowing tiers of administrative scope.   Provinces are the bulk of the Accord, centralized on the largest city or settlement that can act as a reasonable seat of government. This settlement becomes the defacto hub that all others within the province must connect back to. In doing so, should a crisis arise, their smaller settlements can be reinforced or abandoned as needed. This is especially important in matters of the Relentless and Tomu's many undefended, ill-equipped farming villages. By establishing points of defense and easy conveyance, the peasant population can quickly relocate while the army deals with the crisis. The establishment of inter-province highways eventually accelerated trade and migration, stirring many economical booms that have helped fuel the Accord.   How each province is ran exactly differs. They are all bound by the same overarching laws of the Accord, but they have the wiggle-room to make local customs as wanted. Not all areas respond to the same laws in the same way, though Velandra found it problematic. While she desires a homogeneous legal field, many of the lesser nobles convinced her of the needs for such specificity. Given how irritable she is about nobles slipping unwanted items in, they've been quite leery about doing so.   The lower courts is the body of nobles and government officials who handle running the Accord and its various territories. They are the face any common person meets with to interact with the government as a whole. As such, it is comparatively the largest part of the government, and principally full of bureaucracy and legal matters. Merchants, scholars, philosophers, and any thinking-required job for running a government can be found at this level.   Uniquely, law enforcement is also a matter of the lower courts. Rather than charge the army with it, a political decision was made to segregate the two. This means noble families can maintain their fighting forces, but the operations of government and settlement is less under their influence. In other words, law enforcement is trained to be loyal to the Accord, and to adequately understand and exercise the laws as needed. By further weakening the nobles and ensuring they too are subject to the Accord's laws, its foundations are kept secure. However, there is no end of friction between law enforcement and the armies as a result.   Furthermore, while it wasn't an original court per say, the Warrior Court formulated to handle all the different armies of the Accord. The political jockeying that goes on in the court makes it a fairly problematic one, as most armies are usually extensions of a noble family of some kind. Faced with the prospect of these ego-centric figures running amok, Velandra created the court to bring them into line. Since the duties of settlement laws had been stripped from them mostly, their only real job left was defense, hunting Relentless and the Forsaken undead, and other existential threats. War, as well, whenever that would come to the Accord.   As there is no real end to natural problems, the armies can be satisfied. Velandra, however, is deeply concerned over such people being more loyal to their families than to the Accord. Understandable, but it is an easy problem to see a mile away. However, such a delicate problem is that much harder to resolve. For the time being, it is a painful thorn to deal with.   The Heavenly Court constitutes Velandra's inner circle, and those who work within the Heavenly Palace directly. Heads of families, offices, generals, and any other sort of leader with responsibility can be found coming and going from here. Because the palace itself fully moves around, the Heavenly Court is constantly rotating who is there. The uniqueness of the palace and the court itself lends some incredible strengths to the Accord's heads of government.   For one, it is a safe and fast way of traveling the great size of the Accord. With the entirety of their offices and support staff, officials can arrive, do their necessary work, and be done with unrivaled efficiency. The Accord maintains a very strong sense of current events as a result. A problem that might take other governments months or years to work through can be done in a matter of weeks, if not days. Velandra's hold over top officials is that much stronger as well, and few can find opportunities for insurrection. There are some concerns that, if anything were to happen to the palace, the Accord's government would become paralyzed. Some factions have thus taken to doing the work more 'traditionally', something Velandra herself is amused by. It is a sensible precaution, but one she deems wholly unnecessary.

• Humanity
• Dragon (Vast Minority)
• Wokma (Vast Minority)
• Jiuweihu
• Karsoru
• Rachtoh
• Lauraume
• Muurun

  Being in the heartlands of Tomu, an extraordinarily large variety of people live within the Accord. Coupled with Velandra's open door policies, the demographic tracking of the Accord itself is a practical nightmare. Suffice to say, if it can be found, it may definitely be within the Xaishan Accord.

The fighting forces of the Xaishan Accord are split into several notable chunks. Those responsible for law enforcement handle all matters pertaining to it, including issues of civil unrest. The armies, varied as they are, act as extensions of the noble families that have joined the Accord. While they largely obey the laws of the Accord, their loyalties are to their families first. The unease and potential problems this has creates is something of a thorn in the Accord's current affairs. Velandra would like to create a more decentralized army, something that isn't beholden to local politics or familial lineages. Such armies also come with their own set of risks.   To facilitate inter-province cooperation and work, efforts are made to exchange different parts of the armies. In this way more experience can be acquired, soldiers can be rotated in and out of duty, and the majority of armies are kept in shape. As many of them are still traditional in their mindsets, the resistance to such change is quite steep indeed. It can be said that on the surface the Accord is unified, but as familial powers are chipped at away, traditionalists become uneasy. The coming years will be quite telling about its future.

No one religion is recognized, however Velandra has allowed for 'free worship'. In essence, so long as proselytizing is restrained, she will not make any motions. Some faiths, owing to heinous acts or otherwise, have been outlawed so as to prevent their undue influence. For many, this is a wonderful state of affairs as noble families and sects can be domineering where one's faith is concerned. Numerous smaller cults and groups have flocked to the Accord as a result, and they are extremely keen on ensuring Velandra remains in power. For, if she isn't, their newfound freedom may disappear quite quickly.   Philosophy as a whole has certainly taken on a renewed interest. Velandra's ambitions toward the Heavens is inspirational, if not captivating. Those who contemplate the ways of Veltron and Heaven have, thusly, become enamored with such ideas. It is not a proper cult of personality, but all sorts of knock offs are being inspired by her. Such is the effect of great people upon the world.

Being in the heartlands of Tomu, the agricultural prospects of the Accord are unrivaled in Nerzin at large. All sorts of highly productive food ventures are possible, both mundane and magical. This means a lot of animal life, and so a lot of Relentless as well. By extension, their meat and animal product industries are thriving strongly. These veltrony riches, hard earned as some of them are, give it a powerful stance in economic trade. With Aochen at large to its west, the overpopulated mountains are always in need of edible foods and materials. The various other political blocs and micro-states are also keen to trade, even as they bark at Velandra's bristling arrogance.   One enormous downside is that very same stretch of territory. Long-stripped mined by prior rulers and beyond, few surface accessible mines are available. What mines do exist must go incredibly deep into the veltron, making both labor and maintenance horrendously expensive. While they keep the Accord's metal industries alive, they are struggling to meet its expanding needs. This deficit is often the central driver for large-scale trades as the Accord tries to source new metals. Being landlocked, they have no naval ports to rely upon, further complicating matters.   The invention of airships has caused an incredible shift in thinking. Recognizing the value immediately from their experience with the Heavenly Palace, artisans are desperately trying to create their own. In doing so, the Accord may establish air ports instead of naval ports, using a fleet of flying ships to trade with. Such economic possibility is a dangerous sign to its rivals, however. The Accord's enemies face the prospect of it growing even stronger if they themselves do not take to the skies. An arm's race of sorts has begun, something that concerns Velandra deeply. Her once untouchable dominion in the sky may have competition if these air ships are realized.

Knowledge is power, and much of it is hidden away in Nerzin. Secretive schools, restricted libraries, and more contain all sorts of information that has been guarded for generations. It is quite easy to tell who is from where as a result. If not that, then what sort of social status they have, as few peasants or menial laborers boast formal education. Of all power there is to give, knowledge is the easiest, and so it became the chief target Velandra aimed for. A matter, in some respects, near and dear to her from her own experiences.   By officially creating a schooling system within the Accord, she aims at wiping away the exclusionary ways of old. Modeled off of the schools from the Heavenly Palace, Velandra's new system is split between practicals and esoterics. Practical schools teach matters of work, life, labor, government and law, and anything a person would need to work within the Accord. Esoterics handles philosophy, advanced magical arts, artisan work, and anything inordinately specialized. By blowing open the gates on education, she is deliberately arming the many with the tools of their own success.