Serkonan Protectorate (S.P)

Serkonan Protectorate (S.P)
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Restrictions	Membership in the Entente or HDC
Leaders	Lord Protector Campbell
Motto	"Vengeance or death"
Species	Human
Inclination	Darkness
Population	5 Billion
Government	De Jure: Constitutional Monarchy De Facto: Regency/Aristocratic Republic
Religion	New Orthodox Church
Currency	Serkonan Credit
Primary Languages	English, Serkonan
Home World	Serkonos
Core Planets	Serkonos, Druvestkya, Tyvia
Organizational Alliance	*To Be Determined*
Trade Agreements	*To Be Determined*

History

Serkonos, the capital world of the Protectorate, started off as a colony of the USG, and later kept sporadic contact with the Commonwealth. However with the difficulty of maintaing interstellar communications, and the Commonwealth's self-imposed isolation in it's early years, the Serkonan people eventually lost contact with the surviving humans, and found themselves cut off and alone. With the loss of contact with the government, the Serkonos Colonial Administration took control of the colony, and governed as a provisional government, waiting for contact with the Commonwealth to be re-established. Years began to pass, and with each year the provisional government began to grow less and less hopeful of re-establishing contact. Eventually after twenty years of isolation, the Serkonos Colonial Administration called the situation what it was, and realized that there would be no contact with the Commonwealth in the foreseable future, if ever. The provisional government then reformed themselves into an independent government, made smoother by the 20 years of de facto independence. From then on the Colony of Serkonos was renamed the Serkonan Magistrate, lead by the former administrator Artyom, who became the first Magister of Serkonos.

For the first two decades, the position of Magister was an elected position, along with the positions held by the members of the Serkonan Assembly. However the members of the assembly, as well as the Magisters began to slowly solidify their positions, as they grew in power and wealth from the developing colony. Soon members of the assembly began ensuring that their sons were elected, ensuring that the family would continue to remain in a position of prominence. Even the Magisters made this a common practice, and it wan't long before most Magisters in office were descendents of the first Magister, Artyom. This practice continued for decades, until eventually the elections were reduced to a mere formality, and the office of Magister was hereditary in all but name, including those of the members of the assembly. In just 300 years, the Serkonan Magistrate had a well-established aristocracy of noble families, who could trace their lineage to the original members of the colonial government. For centuries on this continued, until in the year 1200 GC the current Magister, Artyom V did away with the pretense and was crowned as King Artyom I of Serkonos. The Serkonan Magistrate then became the Kingdom of Serkonos, and for the first years of his reign, King Artyom I further solidified the monarchy and aristocracy, establishing a well-defined class sytem, with a clear separation of powers. King Artyom I would jump-start the Serkonan colonization program, personally establishing the first Serkonan colony, Druvestkya, located on one of the habitable moons in the Kronos System, where Serkonos was located.

For 500 years afterward, the Kingdom of Serkonos experienced an economic boom, prospering from the mineral wealth of four colonies as well as the resources of Serkonos itself. In addition to Druvestkya, Serkonos had also colonized the worlds of Tyvia, Redwall and New Serkonos in the Artyom and Silestkya Systems. However one day, a single event shook the Kingdom. During an exploration of a system for colonization prospects, the Serkonan ships came upon a comms probe. The probe was taken aboard, and brought back to Serkonan space for examination. It was clear the probe was shot up, barely functioning, and it was also clear that it was not of Serkonan origin. On it's side, partially obscured with carbon scoring, were the initials S.C.D.F CS-87670. The Serkonan experts could not decipher what the symbols meant, but could only say with certainty that it was a comm probe, and had seen battle. One month later however, a heavily damaged ship appeared in the system where the probe was found. The Serkonans boarded it, but found no survivors, with only the ship's black-box being left intact. It took months to decrypt, but the information found shocked the Serkonans. The ship was from the United Systems Commonwealth, the government the Serkonans had thought by now were gone. The fact that the ship was clearly damaged from weapons fire did not bode well, but whether the ship had been attacked by human or alien forces, the Serkonans could not tell.

This of course ignited a fierce debate in the Kingdom of Serkonos, in which two camps emerged, one advocating for reattempting to contact the Commonwealth and the other for remaining silent. Another concern was whether the Commonwealth, if contacted, would want their old colony back. Serkonos had been independent for over a thousand years, and had by now established an identity and culture of it's own. Some among the government and populace advocated returning Serkonos to the Commonwealth fold, claiming that Serkonos would benefit from reintegrating into the greater human diaspora. Others, the nationalists, claimed that Serkonos rejoining the Commonwealth would invalidate all the accomplishments that Serkonos alone had made. Still others remained undecided, or advocated a middle-of-the-road approach. The debate raged for years, the government split on what to do, and the populace becoming more agitated over the indecision. Eventually the King and his cabinet made their decision, proclaiming that Serkonos would attempt to recontact the Commonwealth. The results were dramatic. The nationalists were furious, claiming that the King was a traitor, and believed that he was going to sell out Serkonos. The truth of the matter was that the King had planned to negotiate with the Commonwealth, hoping to reach a compromise between independence and re-integration. Unfortunately for whatever reason, the nationalists were not privy to this information, and within days there were riots in the streets. The government attempted to restore order, having to impose martial law in some of the major cities, but the situation was fast spiralling out of control.

The crisis erupted in 2645 GC, when government troops attempted to crack down on what seemed to be another potential riot. As they moved in with their shock batons, the government troops suddenly found themselves under a hail of fire. The nationalists had set up an ambush, and in the ensuing battle, the military had suffered over 200 casualties, and were forced to evacuate the city. The first shots had been fired in what would become the Serkonan Civil War. All across Serkonos, nationalist militias took up arms against the King, and massive street battles were fought in the major cities. A further blow struck the King, when approximately half the government and aristocracy declared their support for the nationalists, taking a large chunk of the military with them. While the capital was secured by the loyalists, a 1/3 of the major cities were either captured by, or defected to the nationalists. The remaining 2/3 were either in loyalist hands, or in a state of anarchy. For ten years the civil war raged on Serkonos, the colonies remaining neutral. Eventually a ceasefire was agreed to, and the two sides met in the capital to negotiate an end to the war. By then, the economy was in tatters, the cities ruined and the entire Kingdom on the brink of total collapse. The nationalists, though unknown to the loyalists, had been split into two camps: the communists and those who wished to retain the monarchy. The aristocratic rebels hoped to keep the current King, King Jonas II on the throne, while the commoners among the rebels sought to abolish the monarchy altogether. What happened next during the negotiations is not known, but what is known is that an incident caused the negotiations to break down, and within hours there was fighting within the city. The civil war continued for another two years, but the nationalists had begun fighting each other, and the loyalists were able to take the opportunity to crush the rebellion and end the civil war.

After the civil war, a long period of reconstruction began in the kingdom, but the scars of the civil war never fully healed. While the Kingdom of Serkonos was able to rebuild the cities, it never again experienced the pre-civil war prosperity it had formerly enjoyed. While the aristocracy had been purged of it's disloyal elements, the communist rebels were not decisively defeated, and had gone underground. However the civil war did accomplish one thing: it had been agreed that Serkonos would attempt to re-establish contact with the Commonwealth, but that Serkonos would negotiate with the Commonwealth for some form of Serkonan autonomy, rather than be fully absorbed. When Serkonos would be able to attempt contact however, the Serkonans did not know. In 2760 GC the communists re-emerged from hiding, and launched a small but viscious war. At one point during the conflict, the capital was taken and most of the royal family massacred. The communists declared the People's Federal Republic of Serkonos, but this rump state did not last long, and two months later the capital was retaken and the communists were finally routed. However the death of the king and his family left the kingdom on crisis. While it was known that not all members of the royal family were killed, and that some members of the aristocracy had legitimate claims to the throne, none of the surviving royal family could be located, and the aristocracy were too afraid of pushing a claim if there was the possibility of one of Artyom's descendents still alive. Eventually a regency was established, and a Lord Protector appointed to protect the vacant throne and nation, until either a surviving member of the royal family came forward, or one of the noble families pushed their claim. This state of affairs has continued until the present day.

During the Shadow War in 2864 GC, a single Shadow vessel found it's way into Serkonan space. It immediately proved hostile, and attacked the Serkonan Navy. The battle lasted an hour, and the Serkonan Navy proved victorious, but it had cost the Serkonans one dreadnought, ten heavy cruisers and thirty-five escort ships. This was the Serkonans first contact with an alien species, and the Serkonans were alarmed at the damage one ship caused. This caused them to redouble their efforts in re-contacting the Commonwealth, or any human government out there.

Society

Serkonan society is a cross between a Victorian class-based society, and the grim pragmatism of the slavic cultures on Old Earth and Kurgan. The people know their place, and there is little desire for change. They are a fiercely proud people, loyal to their friends but harshly unforgiving of their enemies. Their is a legend that one day they will once again be regrafted into the once glorious empire from Earth, and many still hold on to this hope. Others no longer believe that anyone from Earth survived, while others hope that they will remain isolated.

Military

The Armed Forces of the Serkonan Protectorate is a mainly conscript army, with a core of full-time professionals known as the Protectorate Guard. The Armed Forces of the Serkonan Protectorate are divided into the Serkonan Navy, Serkonan Army, Serkonan Air Force, Serkonan Strategic Missile Forces, the Protectorate Guard and the Nightwatch. The Serkonan Army are made up of conscripted soldiers, who have to serve a minimum five-year term, or for life in the case of the Penal Regiments.

The Serkonan Army's main strength lies it's multitude of mass produced tanks, with the idea to overwhelm the enemy with armour. The Serkonan Navy is the only other branch other than the Protectorate Guard, that gets a significant budget and access to high-quality gear, due to their overwhelming importance in the concepts of space warfare. The Serkonan Navy are a decisive-battle oriented force, with the philosophy of maximum firepower and armour, though little else leaving the Serkonan Navy as a strong but inflexible force. Most Serkonan ships are outfitted with as many heavy weapons as can be put on the various classes of ships. A Serkonan ship can therefore outgun even a ship of the Royal Commonwealth Navy. Serkonan Naval Aviators are generally better trained and equipped then their Air Force counter-parts as well, and this special attention has led to some animosity between the two branches.

The Serkonan Air Force is home to the Serkoan Strategic Bomber Fleet, and while the Serkonan Air Force does operate fighters, they are cheaper mass-produced versions of what the Serkonan Naval Aviators fly. As such, the Serkonan Air Force focus's it's attention on it's strategic bombers, and the Serkonan Airborne Troops. The Serkonan Strategic Missile Forces control and guard the Serkonan nuclear/chemical/biological stockpile of WMD's. The Protectorate Guard are the elite, full-time professionals of the Serkonan military, and are outfitted with the latest and most advanced gear, and are given the highest standards of training in the Protectorate. They are a equipped like an entirely seperate military force, having their own armour, infantry, aircraft and even a small fleet. The Protectorate Guard answer straight to the Serkonan Defence Council, and the Lord Protector himself. The Protectorate Guard therefore are only deployed in vital engagements, and are also charged with the Lord Protector's safety. The Nightwatch is the militarized law enforcement of the Protectorate, being officially a branch of the military, and are used for internal security, law enforcement, and as a secret police force. The average Nightwatchman is little more than a hired thug, though the higher echelons of the Nightwatch are a more disciplined and trained force.

Technology

The Serkonan Protectorate is by all means an advanced space-faring civilization, but the distribution of those technologies is another matter entirely. Most of the advanced medical care, entertainment and protective technologies are hoarded by the aristocracy, the government and certain branches of the military. The common Serkonan citizen has to get by with the bare necessities, and whatever the government allows to trickle through to them.