The Noelist Empire
| The Noelist Empire | ← ←Pre-imperial Noelism | ???→ |
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 Flag of the Noelist Empire |
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| General information | Capital | Prevalor |
| Languages | Official : Noelist Vernacular : Vendartorian | Religion | Pernalty | Political structure | Empire | Legislature | Elite Council Great Assembly |
Historical era | Innissa, Noelist Empire | Area | Northern half of the known space |
Currency | Preva | Today (2005) part of | Old known space of Innissa |
The Noelist Empire (French: L'Empire Noeliste) was an order that ruled over half the known space of Innissa from 33 050 to 33 490.
History
Origins
The origins of the Noelist Empire and the reasons as to why it was established in the first place go back to the Rail Crisis of the very early years of the 33 000s.
At the time, the Noelist people was very upset about the way the first Interstellar Federation wanted to unify the known space. The Noelists were especially reluctant about joining the Federal system, and thought they could do as well as the Federation when it came to public services. However their initial attempt at creating their own system of public services was not met with the success they had expected, and namely the nearby planets and people didn't join their new rail system, considered revolutionary by the Noelists. As the only real political and military power in the area of Prevalor, the Noelist then decided to impose their rail system to the nearby planets, even though no one wanted to use it. This lead to a major crisis known as the Rail Crisis, which in turn led to a full-scale war between the Interstellar Federation and the Noelists in 33 050.
Unlike what most believe, the Empire was only created after the war had ended with an overwhelming victory for the Noelists. The President of the High-Council, Arsevir, saw the right oppurtinity to build a new, durable political system, solid enough to rule the entire known space and spread the Noelist ideals and philosophy, and so he established the Noelist Empire -- and autoproclamed himself emperor in the process.
Post-war era
After Arsevir became Emperor in 33 054, he proceeded to examine the question of weither or not he should begin a new military campaign to further expend his Empire. The fall of the Federation had left the new Noelist Empire as by far the most powerful military power. But Arsevir wisely decided to only consolidate his grip on the upper half of the known space, that is to say almost every places already under Noelist control.
This led to dire consequences for the lower half of the world : firstly, there was no official authority left in the South to manage the area, effectively meaning that it was thrown back into a second chaotic Space Era. The second important consequence was actually a problem for the Empire itself : the remnant of the old Federal army were still existing, because when the Federation surrendered about a fifth of its forces were still operational. Although the army was officially disbanded, the lack of a proper authority and the post-war chaos made the old military nothing more than a group of independant mercenaries. Those who followed the disbanding order abandonned their weapons, that were picked up by other unknown, shady groups. All of this added to a chaos that the Empire naturally wanted to hold back outside of its own borders. Arsevir thus created what he would call a "space wall" mostly consisting of military and security ships patrolling the Empire's borders in order to repel those willing to enter, whose numbers were endlessly growing because of the populations fleeing the chaos of the South.
Arsevir's decision not to expend the Empire anymore, however, had very beneficial effects for the populations of the upper half of the known space in terms of material resources. There were plenty to eat and the redistribution of money by the Elite Council was actually going well. However, most local governments previously united under the clever and harmonious reign of the Federation were sweeped off by the Empire and replaced by new Imperial local governments. As a consequence of this, several minor insurrections occured by nothing so serious as to threaten the grip of the Empire.
After that, nothing important happened until Arsevir died. As planned in the constitution, the head of the Elite Council took his place as Emperor.
The rise of the ODEC
In the years 33 450, it appeared that the Southern half of the known space was finally leaving the era of chaos in which it had been thrown by Arsevir's decision to NOT conquer it. Civil society was getting together and in 33 461, a new political entity known as the ODEC (Known Space Defense Organization, French : Organisation de Défense de l'Espace Connu) rose. The Noelist Empire was reluctant to see this new order rising just as its doorstep but it couldn't do much about it, as its fleets and armies were already tasked with patrolling and occupying its territories. Escavir was too late to censor the press: when he did, the populations of the Empire was already aware of the existence of the ODEC and its ostensible goal : the liberation of the known space, although, as it was to be proved later, its real goal was the replacement of the Empire by the ODEC.
In 30 years, Averner, ODEC main leader, raised a powerful army and built a large fleet to fight the Noelists. The ODEC itself gathered increasing popularity and nearly everyone but the Noelists rooted for it when the war started in 33 485.
The fall of the Empire
See the main article : The fall of the Noelist Empire
The war that ensued lasted five years, from 33 485 to 33 490. In the end, after five years, ODEC forces managed to reach Prevalor and almost completely destroyed the city, killing Escavir in the process, as well as a large number of the city's inhabitants. The successful attack on Prevalor marked the end of the war.
Government
Arsevir wrote a new constitution for his new empire, and completely left behind some of the most important features of the pre-war Noelist government, namely the Noelist Assembly and the High-Council, which were major democratic institutions of the old system. He thought that a political entity that encompassed the whole known space could not work with traditional democratic institutions because there were simply too many people (several later orders proved him wrong, though). According to his new constitution, there was now an emperor (himself) whose task was to supervise the doings of the Elite Council (renamed the Great Assembly in 33 150 to quell criticism against the Council), a new assembly consisting of 'elite' people chosen by the emperor himself. This council was to take all the important decisions about the redispatching of the resources and money that people payed every month to the state, and the Emperor always had the final word about every matter.
The constitution also said that there had to be a prime minister in charge of the affairs which the Emperor didn't want to take part in; Arsevir planned that as a mean of calming the people in case of growing discontentment, by simply firing and replacing the prime minister with someone else. In reality, Arsevir did almost everything himself but attributed most of his failures to his successive prime ministers, this culminating with the execution of Jagevir after the loss of an important food facility to the remnants of the deceased Federal army in 33 065 (said facility was to bring food to a few populations in the Western part of the known space; its loss brought famine to the area for a whole decade).
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