Revision as of 14:03, 12 May 2007

A Danaan Principality is any one of the twenty-five Confederal Members (of which Shieldcrest and Tarana are referred to as Grand Duchies and not properly as Principalities) which are traditionally considered part of the Danaan High Kingdom. Each principality is a distinct constitutional monarchy with its own prince, princess, grand duke, or grand duchess; its own judiciary; and its own separate representative legislature. The principalities also recognize the High King of Dana as their High King, although each principality extends this recognition independently. Every principality is subject to duly constituted Confederal authority, contains branches of the Confederal judiciary, elects members to the Confederal Assembly and otherwise behaves as a constituent part of the Confederated Peoples. The principalities are a group of Confederal Members within a larger dual-sovereignty federal system.

Confederal law allocates power between the Members and the Confederal government and the principalities have no special status in this regard. There is no intermediate governmental body between the principalities and the Confederated Peoples nor do the principalities have any special rights of obligations different from those possessed by other Members. Generally speaking, the government of the principality governs roads and other matters of internal infrastructure, education and law enforcement, although the Confederal government does have some say in all these affairs, including control over the national highways (those passing between different Members) and national law enforcement agencies. Each Danaan principality has traditionally established an established church within its territory, without prejudice to the freedom of worship of other faiths, although there is a growing movement to completely separate church and state in many of them. All principalities except Wintermore and Amory have a local language which they use as an official language alongside English.

List of Danaan Principalities

Legal relationship

The Danaan High Kingdom of the Resurgent Dream is a single sovereign member state of the Commonwealth of Peoples. While it has willingly yielded many of its sovereignm perogative in foreing policy to the Commonwealth, it remains one of the masters of the Commonwealth treaties. No new power can be granted to the Commonwealth without the assent of the Resurgent Dream and all the other members and the Resurgent Dream or any member is free to withdraw from the Commonwealth at any time. No Danaan principality has comparable authority with regard to the union of the principalities in the High Kingom. The Resurgent Dream is legally inviolable and can alter its laws and constitution without the consent of all individual principalities. The principalities do have the right to accept consulates from foreign states with the understanding that these consulates are to be used solely to provide counsel for foreign nationals standing trial in a Danaan court, issue visas, provide aid for foreign nationals visiting or residing in the Resurgent Dream and advise local authorities regarding the interests of foreign nationals in their principality. The head of any foreign mission to a Danaan principality must be accredited to the Head of the Commonwealth or the Commonwealth Secretary for External Affairs depending upon the level of the mission. Under no circumstances may a foreign government enter into a binding agreement with the government of any principality.

The principalities are bound to recognize as legitimate all legal contracts and obligations contracted legally in other principalities, to extradite suspects wanted for crimes in other principalities and to recognize degrees and diplommas issued by accredited educational institutions in other principalities. They are more generally bound to deal with one another "in good faith." The central government has the obligation to protect the principalities from any threat to the exercise of their legitimate rights or to their territorial integrity. It also has the obligation to guarantee that each principality has a "representative, balanced government." While this term is frequently used to mean constitutional monarchy in Danaan political discourse, most legal scholars agree that this is not the only system of government included in the phrase as it is used in the Danaan Constitution. The exact meaning is the subject of much debate. Jurists are certain that it forbids the establishment of absolutism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism or direct democracy in any Danaan principality. Most jurists, however, do believe that it would be perfectly lawful for a principality to possess a republican form of government internally.

Danaan law has traditionally been understood to explicitly forbid the secession of any principality. The High King of the Resurgent Dream is sovereign over all of his lands. However, the creation of the Commonwealth member states of Gandara, Sahor and Jagiella from Danaan territory in Ambara had led some scholars to speculate on the possibility of a principality or group of principalities pressing for independent within the Commonwealth.

Various facts about the principalities

• Two principalities bear the formal title of Grand Duchy: Shieldcrest and Tarana. This does not effect their legal relationship with the rest of the high kingdom, although it does effect the status of their rulers at His Majesty's court.
• Tarana is both an independent Grand Duchy and a city, the national capital.
• The Grand Duke of Tarana is also the High King of the Resurgent Dream.
• The Grand Duchess of Shieldcrest is the High King's younger sister.
• Selinia is both the name of a principality and the name of the Danaan Lunar colony, considered to be a part of that principality.
• Principalities are free to organize their judicial systems differently from the national system and from the systems of the other principalities so long as they maintain due process of law and protect certain rights of the accused.
• Principality names vary in origin:
  • Alekthos, Amalad, Amory, Bilbtoria, Carasia, Farinor, Holista, Kagerlund, Kar, Kadoki, Legon, Nerise, Sanero, Saraben, Thorlund, Wyrnsk, Zeng, and Zutern are all geographic names existing prior to settlement and of unknown origin.
  • Corral was named for the corral cities in which the Merfolk among its people lived prior to the Shattering.
  • Fireforge was named in honor of the smithing for which it was justly famous.
  • Pele was named for the volcano goddess worshipped on that island in pagan times.
  • Selinia was named for Seline, the Moon, to denote the principality's origins as a Lunar colony, although Selinia has since largely shifted to land holdings in Ambara.
  • Shieldcrest was named to reflect the honor of its people, their role as defenders of the weak, and the honor of their heritage.
  • Tarana's name is commonly believed to be connected to the ancient Irish capital of Tara.
  • Wintermore was named to show allegiance to the Unseelie Court, during the fairy dynasties.
• Shieldcrest and Zutern, the largest two principalities, have a combined population slightly greater than that of all twenty-three other principalities combined.
• Twenty-four of the twenty-five principalities have an established Church of some sort with Tarana being the only exception.
  • Fifteen of the twenty-four consider themselves Christian.
    • Seven of these consider themselves Protestant.
    • Five of these consider themselves Catholic.
    • In Bilbtoria, Eastern Orthodoxy is established.
    • In Carasia, Oriental Orthodoxy is established.
    • In Wintermore, Mormonism is established.
  • Three consider themselves Muslim.
  • In Farinor, Hinduism is established.
  • In Kadoki, Shinto is established.
  • In Legon, Buddhism is established.
  • In Saraben, The Faith is established.
  • In Selinia, Judaism is established.
  • In Zeng, Confucianism is established.