EVERGENCE: THE PRODIGAL SUN

APPENDIX

The Commonwealth of Empires: a Brief Report on Its Origins,

Progress and Current Affairs (from The Guidebook to the Outer Arms, 456th Edition)

Thirty-one thousand light-years from galactic centre, barely 100 light-years from the galactic plane, and encompassing almost 5,000 solar systems, the Commonwealth of Empires (COE) is an institution in a region where longevity is hardly a prerequisite for government. Its calendar dates back 40,000 years -- not without interruption, but at least with some accuracy -- and the progression of authority -- peaceable, for the most part -- can be traced down its leaders for ninety percent of that time. Given the limitations of the Pristine Caste, that its name and authority is still recognised at all is, quite simply, remarkable.[1]

The beginnings of the COE lie some distance from its current location. This region of the Outer Arms has seen many outsweep migrations from the Middle Reaches, and has thus endured its fair share of invasions. The Commonwealth began modestly enough as a federation of fifteen independent systems formed to deter an encroaching totalitarian state, the name of which is no longer recorded. The capital of the fledgling COE was on Shem, now a part of the Undira Province, and its first Eupatrid was Jo-en Nkuyan, a charismatic leader whose rule was characterised by fair-dealing between all biological and socioeconomic castes -- a characteristic the present COE still endeavours to maintain, at least in public.

The principles upon which the COE was founded will be familiar to anyone who has studied the rise and fall of mundane civilisations across the galaxy. Democracy is a powerful sociopolitical philosophy that has enjoyed many revivals, both spontaneous and deliberate, often, as in this case, coupled with a desire to keep religion and state separate[2]. In the case of the COE, it was coupled with strong desire to decentralise government, to allow provinces to maintain their own affairs with only guidance from the Eupatrids and their most senior advisers. Unified military and policing forces were two of only a handful of departments that remained under direct control of the Eupatrid. Everything else was negotiable.[3]

As a result of this laissez-faire flexibility, the COE rapidly became a middle ground for many trading nations as well as a market place for such organisations as the Commerce Artel, recently expelled from the region, and later the Eckandar Trade Axis, whose strict economic rationalism had deterred many more conservative regimes from entering negotiations. Its population increased dramatically -- along with the viability of its economy -- as businesses sought to attain citizenship with the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth in turn welcomed them with open arms. Diplomatic delegates forged ties between all of its major neighbours, thereby establishing itself as an independent entity in its own right, if not yet a major player in regional politics.

Nkuyan and the Eupatrids that followed her were far from fools. It has been shown time and time again that the surest way to inure oneself against attack from a neighbour is to ensure that the economic stability of the region would suffer as a result of political upheaval. Economic embargoes have felled as many governments as open warfare.

The COE's relatively minor role in regional politics changed in its 4th Millennium[4] when hostilities between its original aggressor and the recently-formed Kesh Supreme Union sparked a major conflict between two of its close allies, forcing it to take sides in the dispute. The fact that it chose no sides at all and remained fiercely aloof from the conflict through its entire forty years earned the COE a reputation for both arrogance and integrity. That was exacerbated by its claim of a handful of systems abandoned after the war -- systems no other nation had sought title to. Accusations of opportunism were fiercely rejected: rather, the COE stated, it was obtaining resources by peaceful means and aiding the inhabitants of the fallow systems in the process. Indeed, all but one of the disputed systems elected to remain with the COE when the choice was offered to them. The sole dissenter, Knagg's System, was allowed to secede without fuss, although much later the COE would regret its lenience.[5]

Between the remainder of the 4th and the 11th Millennia, the Commonwealth of Empires flourished. Trade blossomed between the COE Pristines and the Castes with which they came into contact. The Eckandar embraced their openness; the Surin found comfort in the relaxed ritual of their diplomats; the Hurn enjoyed the discourse of their intricate parliament; the Mbata mingled at ease with all their classes, from Eupatrid to commoner; the incommunicative Olmahoi established an ongoing dialogue with the philosophers among them. Only the Kesh took offence at the existence of the Commonwealth, as they often do with emergent Pristine nations, but even they were forced to recant in time. After smashing the power-base of the COE in the Interdiction Wars, and forcing its leadership underground for almost two thousand years, during which time the Commonwealth did not officially exist, the inherently temporal nature of the Kesh Supreme Union allowed a re-emergence in the 15th Millennium of a newly energised Commonwealth of Empires -- one that swore never to repeat the mistakes that had led to its near-downfall.

A new capital[6], the third of seventeen to date, a new role-call of systems and new neighbours encouraged the Commonwealth to find still more strength in change. The line of Eupatrids leading from the Interdiction Wars to the present reflects this uncommon direction. The COE allowed systems and nations to join or leave at will; only rarely, as in the recent Dato Bloc incident, has a secession been disputed or disallowed outright. The willing participation of all its territories is the underlying strength of the Commonwealth, for when such support is whole-hearted the larger group can only thrive. This larger group has come in recent centuries to include several High Human representatives -- most notably the Crescend, an outspoken Interventionist whose opinions have found a fertile breeding ground in the egalitarian environment of the Commonwealth.[7]

But to catalogue the history and assets of the COE is to risk painting an entirely -- and unduly -- rosy portrait. The Dato Bloc incident itself reflects a trend that has surfaced on occasion in the past, only to be quashed before threatening to overwhelm the local political landscape. The COE's inherent flexibility is not reflected by all its departments; in the arena of security it has been notoriously rigid at times, a characteristic possibly inherited from the Interdiction Wars. Its Armada, among the best-trained Pristine forces of the Outer Arms, is perilously open to corruption from within, the loose rule of the Eupatrid allowing personal empires to rise and fall relatively unchecked. When these empires threaten the Commonwealth itself -- by allowing secessional policy, as in the case of the Dato Bloc, to defer to strategic policy -- conflicts can occur.[8] Only time will tell if the balance will once again be restored, and the Commonwealth's usual easy-going tolerance of its neighbours, new and old, will return.

While the politics of its security departments remain a concern, however, its systems of information gathering (if not the dissemination of the same) are excellent.[9] Only the Eckandar Trade Axis currently has better data-networks than those of the COE delegates. As far as mundane nations go in this regard, the Commonwealth rates very highly indeed; although still far behind the High Castes, they have achieved a comprehension of the wider galaxy far in excess of their relevance to it. One analyst recently reported that its Leditschke indicators might be as high as 2.5, indicating a genuine understanding of one percent of the wider galaxy's current affairs (even though its total volume is less than one one-millionth of a percent). If, as has been frequently stated down the millennia, information is power, then the COE must be ranked among the major players of this sector of the Outer Arms.

In conclusion, the Commonwealth of Empires is, as a nominal entity, still as vital as it was in its hey-day. One could argue that it is in fact a quite different entity to the original federation of systems formed forty thousand years ago, and only time will tell how much longer it will survive, but its pedigree is impressive, and present indicators are positive. One could confidently expect it to maintain its headline position in this section of the Guide by the time the next edition is published, one hundred years from now.

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[1] The authors assume as always that the reader is familiar with the distinctions made between the High, mundane, Exotic and Pristine Castes. The critical point here is that few nations comprised predominantly of the Pristine Caste exceed the Batelin Limit -- the ceiling above which complexity exceeds biological capabilities; a nation becomes too complex, in other words, for its citizens to comprehend the nation in its entirety. In the case of the Pristine Caste, that ceiling is usually quoted at three and half thousand systems. High Castes frequently achieve figures in excess of several thousand million.

[2] The COE is, in fact, an atheist state. It is interesting to note the strong correlation between aggressive expansionism and state religion. Of the seventy percent of mundane nations that profess to having no official belief system, fewer than fifty percent have embarked on explosive outsweeps, whereas more than seventy percent of those that do follow a theistic regime have done so at some point during their existence. Also notable in this case is the observation that atheist states tend to exhibit increased longevity.

[3] The COE was aiming for economic and political stability, in other words, rather than Transcendence. Unlike some of its neighbours, such as the Olmahoi and the short-lived (but explosive) Sol Apotheosis Movement, its long-term targets are set very close to home. Its rate of growth has never been rapid by most standards, and can be viewed more as extrapolated consolidation than as true expansion.

[4] To put this calendar in perspective, the date of the founding of the COE can be given as 410,623 according to the Objective Reference of the A-14 Higher Collaboration Network. The relevance of the ORA14 has been called into question in recent years, however, given that the emergence of Pristine (some would say 'Primordial' here) Humanity into the wider galaxy, the point at which the Objective Reference is supposed to begin, is currently estimated to be minus 40,000 years. All dates within the COE are measured from zero Ex Nihilo, and will be for the remainder of this report.

[5] Knagg's System evolved and expanded by degrees to become the Ataman Theocracy, which, after the conflicts known as the Ataman Wars, was absorbed into the COE itself. Not long after, it seceded again to become the Dato Bloc.

[6] Bodh Gaya, former capital system of the Dominion, four hundred light years from Shem, which currently lies fallow.

[7] The present Eupatrid, Felix Gastel, like his predecessors, is no fool. Rarely indeed in the history of the galaxy has a High Human of any stature allied itself with a mundane government -- especially one which has no apparent desire to Transcend. Regardless how much trade occurs between the two, or for what actual reason the Crescend entered the partnership, the end result will be studied with interest.

[8] The present tendency of the COE to rely on military force in its dealings with the Dato Bloc is the end result of centuries of dispute. One could question which came first -- whether the militarisation of the Armada is in retaliation to actions performed by its old foe or vice versa -- but such an analysis is beyond the scope of this Report. In its dealings with other independent neighbours, particularly the non-aligned realms, it has shown much more restraint.

[9] Quaintly referred to in the COE as 'IDnet'. It has become a standard reference point for some of its neighbours -- notably the Surin and the Mbata -- but has yet to achieve either the depth or breadth of that of the Eckandar Trade Axis, which has direct (if incomplete) links with that of the Commerce Artel. The major information dissemination service in that region of the Outer Arms belongs to the High Human Crescend.