The United Kingdom of A'millians was the nation of all the people of planet A'millia for thousands of years: it was formed in AW 0084, and arguably collapsed in AW 3009, with the extermination of over 99% of its native population.
Location
Planet A'millia II: a space port on the equator and their ancestral homeland: an island about twice the size of Great Britain in the northern hemisphere.
A'millia II orbit: a large space station in low orbit
In the AW 2400's, they expanded a bit to the Koreallius system (known to its inhabitants as the Solar System of Earth), with a small number of their own people living in orbit around the third planet in that system. Furthermore, a number of humans, native to that planet, were incorporated into what would be known as the A'millian Star Empire, which is subsidiary to the Kingdom.
Capital city: the Kingdom's capital, also known as the Royal Capital, since it is where the king resides, is at latitude of about 41 degrees north, on the western shore of their home island.
The Koreallian territories also have their own capital: the Territorial Capital (aka the Inner Capital to humans, and confusingly, sometimes, the Outer Capital to A'millians) is in a space habitat in high orbit around the third planet, and is made to mimic the climate and other attributes of planet A'millia.
Administrative divisions
The nation is broken up at to divisions ruled by a the nobility and, in some cases, appointed rulers.
The noble fiefs are generally left over from the days before the unification of the kingdoms, but some new areas have been created, most majorly, the Koreallian Territories in the AW 2400's, which are ruled by a temporarily appointed viceroy at the top (called the Lord Koreallia) who than decides governors for his own subdivisions.
Military
The Ministry of War is tasked with the supervision of all the nation's military assets, which are focused primarily on a combined military service: HM Royal Knight Service. Secondarily, it has oversight and can take command of local lord's own Knights, and in the Koreallian Territories, the Territorial Militia.
See the following chart for a brief organizational breakdown:
Code: Select all
Ministry of War
|-> HM Royal Knight Service
|--> Land division
|---> Air corps
|---> Gendarmerie
|--> Sea division
|--> Starfleet Command
|--> Royal Guard
|-> Royal Elite Knights
|-> Lord's Knights
|--> (separate services in the name of each lord)
|-> Koreallian Territorial Militia
|--> Orbit Guard
|-> Secret Intelligence Service
For HMRKS uniforms, there are three general ones used often: the standard duty uniform, the normal ceremonial dress, the Starfleet uniform (based on the Royal Space Exploration Agency's space work suits for historical and practical reasons). The different subdivisions may have their own variations or insignia to add to the same basic uniform, and may have slightly different duty outfits.
One exception to the above is the Royal Elite Knights, who have a different ceremonial dress uniform than everyone else.
The standard duty uniform consists of (something - to be determined) and usually some kind of armor under a white cape bearing the Royal Seal on the back and a helmet (of some sort, again, to be determined). The cape is what stands out most; it is the signature of the service. There are different types of capes for different weather: insulating, water resistant, or lightweight, but all are made to look the same. Many knights also wear swords, daggers, and shields. After the first interstellar war, swords and shields started to be phased out for pistols and rifles for actual combat use, but around friendly locations, the traditional sword was still commonplace.
On the right side of the collar goes up to the neck is the rank insignia and on the left is his position insignia.
(ooc, the knights from Final Fantasy Tactics actually very much inspired the look I'm going for here. See the image here: http://ui03.gamespot.com/738/knight_2.jpg )
Most of the lord's Knights also wear the signature cape, but with the lord's seal rather than the Royal Seal on the back.
Camoflague wasn't a concern when the cape was designed, and even when camo started to become more relevant, the cape remained its bright white out of tradition, however, it wasn't necessarily worn into battle anymore.
The ceremonial dress uniform is made of a shinier material than the standard duty one and includes more elaborate ornamentation rather than armor. The cape is worn more openly than normal, held on by fancy chains (see the picture of Lando below for an idea of what I have in mind). Also, rather than wearing a real sword, a fancy dress sword is worn instead. While a real sword is generally big, heavy, (usually build with two handed use in mind) and, of course, sharp, the ceremonial sword is not sharpened and made for easy handling with one hand. The handle, rather than being utilitarian, is a one handed elaborate gold design that covers the holder's hand. The full uniform also consists of immaculate white gloves and a hat which signifies where the wearer was trained; a common one is the elaborately big Royal Academy graduate hat. (If you have seen the Sci-Fi channel Dune miniseries, think hats kinda like that - they are quite ridiculous.)
See Lando for how the cape in the dress uniform is worn:
The Starfleet uniform consists of two parts: a jumpsuit and a jacket. (Or, for in-gravity work, a two piece outfit might replace the jumpsuit, but generally looks the same.)
The jumpsuit is made in such a way to help counter the effects of freefall on the wearer. Appearance wise, it is bright green and short sleeved with a zipper running down the front. On the left sleeve is the person's unit patch. On the right is the kingdom's flag and, for Royal Knights, the Royal Seal.
Just like the standard knight uniform, the collar goes up to the neck, and on the right side is the wearer's rank insignia and on the left is his position insignia. (The position insignia is a little pin signifying things like ships commander (a little crown) or chief engineer and whatnot.)
On the chest, on the left is the name and information tag (again, just like the standard knight uniform), and on the right is a kind of divisional seal (ooc: this kinda serves the same role as shirt color in Star Trek.).
Here you can see a bad Paint picture I tried to draw of it a few months ago:
http://arsdnet.net/ase/starfleet-duty-1.png
Note that when I drew this picture, I reversed the contents of sleeves. The flag and unit patch in the image should be swapped. I'll correct this when I eventually draw a better picture.
(Also, if you happen to have a copy of the third edition of Gerald O'Neill's "The High Frontier", take a gander at the picture section in the middle of the book. One of the first pages of pictures is a woman in freefall wearing a purple outfit - that illustration is pretty close to what I have in mind for this.)
The wholly optional jacket, which goes over the jumpsuit, has long sleeves and is made of a darker green. It has a wrap around like style, with buttons on the right side and a crease that takes a bend. These buttons can be left open and one part can fold out over the other. The collar is cut off, so the insignia from the jumpsuit is still visible, but the jacket otherwise repeats the other things, like the unit patch. (Or maybe it has cutouts for them; that just might make more sense; I'll have to ponder it.) The jacket can have an optional belt.
[ Think Star Trek TOS movie era uniforms with some light nBSG influence sprinkled in, or look at my shitty Paint drawing: http://arsdnet.net/ase/starfleet-duty-jacket-1.png (again, I swapped the sleeves in that.) ]
Lastly here, I'll discuss the Elite Knight uniforms. Remember King Adam and Queen Leila's description from the OZW conference? They were wearing them.
It consists of metallic shiny green pants, shiny black boots, a shiny black top with shiny blue shoulder decorations that goes across the back, shiny red collars, a fancy belt, the same ceremonial sword as the normal dress, gold lining, and a shiny purple cape, worn over the dominant arm. And of course, the immaculate white gloves and fancy hat.
See this picture for the basic idea:
http://arsdnet.net/uni2-headless.png
(Note: I started with a drawing of Amuro from Mobile Suit Gundam and Painted on the change of clothes. That's why the basic shape looks remotely realistic )
[ This uniform is in great part influenced by the beautiful, beautiful SeeD uniform from Final Fantasy VIII mixed with a little bit of Federal Forces uniform from MSG (which is why I grabbed the Amuro picture as a starting point), and the cape I think was actually entirely my own creation. ]
Law enforcement
There are three parts of law enforcement in the old kingdom: the Gendarmerie under the Ministry of War, the detectives under the Ministry of Justice, and the nobility who act as judges.
Organizational chart:
Code: Select all
Ministry of War
|->HM Royal Knight Service
|--> Gendarmerie
|-> Lord's knights
|--> (gendarmes (usually called 'marshalls') under each lord)
Ministry of Justice
|-> Royal Investigative Service
|-> Lord Chancellor of the Judicary
|--> Appointed judges
|-> The nobility acting as judges
|-> Department of Corrections
|-> State Attorney's Office
The gendarmes look like regular knights, but usually don't carry swords (opting for non-lethal options where possible) and wear the insignia badge of law enforcement often along with high visibility vests. The Royal Investigators have much looser uniform regulations, just wearing their insignia.
Once a suspect has been brought in, the State Attorneys and the defendant work to convince the panel of three judges of his guilt or innocence, but all officers of the court have determining the truth as their first objective; if one side knows facts that help the other side, so long as they are true, they are obligated to turn it over. The three judges are the local lord where the offense took place (who also is generally the same person who was in charge of the police search for him), someone chosen at random from the Lord Chancellor's office, and any other member of the nobility requested by the defendant. (Well, it isn't completely random and open like this, since there are practical distance concerns that can come up in some situations, but they try their best to keep it fair within the system. If you request someone from far away who cannot commute or telecommute, you might have to wait in jail for a while before hearing your verdict (the trial proceeds on time however, just recorded for the judge who cannot attend on time))
If two judges are convinced you are guilty and the law applies to you (a valid defense can be arguing that the law should not apply to you in your specific situation or that it is unjust in general, and if you win, you get off and possibly set a precident - this is rare, but the law is pretty flexible in theory), then the one from the Judiciary sentences the convict and sends him off to the Department of Corrections for his punishment. The law does not specify any minimum punishments, so if you can convince the judge that you won't do it again, you can actually get off very lightly, but it takes very special circumstances to generally convince them of this.
Corporeal punishment is permitted and somewhat common; imprisonment is far more rare but is an option.
Education
Education is a big deal in the kingdom. Educated people tend to include their higher level degree title regularly with their name (for example, "Hello, I'm Master of Science John Q. Cardholder"), since it gives a great deal of respect among most people.
Attempting high school level education is a requirement for all persons, but graduation is not: if you fail out, you just have a hard time moving very far up the social ladder (even if you are noble born!), and an effort is made so you only graduate if you actually know your stuff. School up to this point is provided by the National School Service.
After this, if you are academically qualified, you can try to attend a higher academy. In the earlier days, your options were generally to attend one run by a local lord or private organization (who may or may not charge you for it) or to try to get into the prestigious Royal Academy, which is free.
If you then pass their grueling tests, overseen by the Department of Academic Standards to ensure quality, you have not only great knowledge, but the right to use the socially respected title of your degree, so long as you keep your education up to date.
Full doctors, despite appearances to the contrary watching famous people, are actually quite rare - it is quite an accomplishment.
The final goal in education, for most people, however, is to get a professional certification, which is granted after proving you know what you are doing. Presenting a recent degree from an institution under the Academic Standards department in an appropriate field is sometimes sufficient, but you can also just test out (harder than it sounds, but possible, especially if you have real work experience you can show them to help you along).
The academies give you the alphabet soup for teaching and prestige (M. Sc.) and research (Ph. D.), but the Certification Department gives you the useful thing for most job hunting.
Similarly, testing out of classes at the Royal Academy is an option if you can demonstrate competence; there is no seat time requirement for one of their degrees. But this is only useful for graduate level stuff (undergrad degrees don't so much exist - undergrad level classes are more to lead to professional certification than anything else).
After there are people who know the stuff, their knowledge must be applied or used to add to the total knowledge of the kingdom. This is where the Ministry of Science comes in. Its department of research looks into new things while the department of engineering works on applying existing knowledge to make new cool things. Lastly, by decree of Queen Anna, the Royal Space Exploration Agency also exists under the Ministry of Science's banner, and exists to research space (and just to be awesome up there).
Organizational breakdown:
Code: Select all
Ministry of Education
|-> Department of Professional Certification
|->Royal Academy
|-> A'millian National University
|-> Department of Academic Standards
|--> National School Service
|--> (academies run by some local lords and private people/organizations)
Ministry of Science
|-> Department of Research
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Department of Engineering
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Royal Space Exploration Agency
to be typed up
Economy
to be typed up
Culture
to be typed up
See the dedicated culture thread for more information and details:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=98
Symbols
Flag:
The flag symbolizes the merging of the main constituent nations that formed the new united kingdom.
The Koreallian Territories have a slightly different flag which incorporates this one.
The national gemstone is opal. As such, they turn up in seemingly random places, such as some special rank insignia.
The crown shows up in a great many places, symbolizing the monarchy.
Something symbolizes intellect and knowledge. (to be determined)
Something symbolizes power (probably a sword). (to be determined)
Miscellaneous
to be typed up