The Tarutaru Union
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The Tarutaru Union is a cooperative group of many Tarutaru nations throughout the world. Like their founding nations, the Principality of Zionaren, and the Xheng Empire, they work cooperatively to promote the ideas of their people and peace throughout the world. By no means do they wish to challenge the authority of the United Nations but the Union does believe that some powerful states have monopolized the power of the UN thus defeating its purpose to exist.
The Tarutaru Union itself is relatively mysterious. It holds considerable influence on the Principality of Zionaren and the Protectorate of Trilan. The two states seem to have shrinking influence over their own internal affairs as the power of the Tarutaru Union seems to be growing. Since no one has ever visited the actual territory of the Union, or the Xheng Empire aside from the Tarutaru themselves, but reports of the Xheng Empire spreading its will over neighboring Tarutaru nations seems to be likely.
The Tarutaru Union recently hosed the Unity Conferences.
Contents
Tarutaru History
Approximately 50,000 years ago, a massive fleet of ships departed the mythical lands of Vana'diel for the known world. The reasons for the massive exodus was completely unknown reasons but the legends speak of a catastrophe in Vana'diel that would destroy their civilizations. Reaching the more known world they landed on two continents. The Tarutaru people, smallest and most intelligent were the most numerous lead the exodus. Nearly a century at sea, they landed in the continents they named, in honor of their old realms, Vanah and Diel. Vanah Continent would eventually become home to a more loose confederation of peoples, the Mithra, the Galka, the Humes and the Elvaans settled here. The Tarutaru with their large numbers settled in Diel Continent. Exchanges of knowledge went between the two continents for countless millenia to come and eventually the races developed modernistically.
The Tarutaru in Diel eventually developed a powerful Imperial Government. With no Star Sybil to guide them, they relied on the establishment of a monarchy, the family clan, the Xhengs. Recieving some foreigners exposed them to common languages, and thus the Tarutaru adapted the names of another ancient civilization: The Chinese, to allow easier writing instead of their complex Tarutaru names. The Xheng family managed to conquer with military and diplomatic force their neighboring Principalities of Li, Han, Ming, Sui, Tang, Qin, Shang, Xia and Wong. With these states under their control they began to setup puppet states.
The Confederation on Vanah grew concerned, many of the Tarutaru who were opposed to the Xhengs sought refuge there. For more than 10,000 years the Xheng Dynasty flourished to a less totalitarian level. The Xheng Emperor allowed for the open opinions of many people and up came the new movement of exiles. The refugees returned to the Empire where a low level bureaucrat, Zionaren Venixer began to gather the political upheaval into a more constructive force. Zionaren wasted no time and began to raise money to build ships. Many more people than he suspected wanted to leave the Xheng Empire, nearly three million people! This was the largest mass exodus in recorded history. Nearly 1/8 of the Empire's entire population wanted to leave for a new homeland. Zionaren Venixer eventually assembled a fleet of nearly 80,000 ships, some of the largest ever constructed and departed. The journey to unknown lands was not easy. The fleet divided into four armadas of 20,000 ships each to find new places to settle, but it was extremely difficult. Many of the lands that they had come to encounter were already settled and could definately not sustain a huge influx of population like three million exiles.
Eventually Zionaren's own fleet reached one of the many "Banished Continents" of Xheng folklore where supposedly the gods lived and no living being was to step foot onto. However Zionaren was a practical minded individual and realized that his people could no longer sail througout the known world without food or a home. He ordered a landfall and soon the first established villages were constructed. It was with extreme fortune that the Zionaren Exiles found lush farmable land and wealth of forests for their construction. Like Xheng architecture they used wood to extremely efficient means never abusing what nature gave them. The Zionarens still kept much of their Xheng heritage as they built their cities according to Xheng city plans and kept many Xheng Legal customs. However Zionaren Venixer eventually loosened many laws that made them leave the Xheng Empire to begin with.
Zionaren sent out ships to explore neighboring lands and discovered many cultures were neraby. The other fleets had arrived back with knowledge of the surrounding states and kingdoms and soon Zionaren wanted to trade. The lush warm weather of the new "Principality of Zionaren" was perfect for rice cultivation, tea plantations and unfortunaetly, disease. The Zionarens had to devote a great deal of their effort to trading for medicines to combat these tropical diseases. They were smart enough to alert all incoming trade ships from foreign lands to conduct their trade by the means of an artificial port built out at sea, so that contact would be limited and that disease spreading would be controlled. These quarantined ports would be safe from any infections or plagues. Eventually the Zionarens themselves developed the means to combat diseases that were rich in the tropical regions and they lived well.
With the progress of the Principality of Zionaren, they later formed the Protectorate of Trilan, the Protectorate of Keodian, Protectorate of Entoran and many other states that would form the Tarutaru Union.
The Tarutaru Union itself was formed over the course of a century after the Protectorate of Trilan was established by Zionaren peoples. To increase security the Tarutaru (who made up 90% of the population compared to the other races_ sent their leaders to Zionaren city where the Xheng Emperor made an appearance with leaders from all over the Empire. Shantotto (named after the legendary intellectual of Tarutaru folklore) formed the basis for the Union as a cooperative military alliance promoting trade.
Eventually the Tarutaru Union would move closer to integration with nation state itself meaning that they almost functioned as a country on itself, expanding military power they were soon one of the most formidable alliances in the region.
The Five Races
Unknown to most of the outside world, there are actually 4 other sentient races that exist within the Tarutaru Union that are not known to the outside world. The Tarutaru themselves are the most noticed and seen of the races due to the fact that they outnumber the other races significantly. After a complex history in the Xheng Empire many refugees from the other races joined with the Principality of Zionaren and Protectorate of Trilan. For more information see The Five Races article.
Member States
The Xheng Empire: The largest of the Tarutaru Union States. The Xheng Empire is also the most powerful of them all and holds a great deal of influence on the runnings of the Tarutaru Union. Despite this the Secretariat of the Tarutaru Union operates entirely independently from the Xheng Family, limiting their influence.
The Federations
The Federations are Nations that remain independent with their own governments and are large in population with economic promise of power. Combined they could challenge the Xheng Empire's influence easily. They are federalist states that have lower levels of regional governments.
The Federation of Zionaren
The Protectorate of Trilan
The Protectorate of Entoran
The Protectorate of Keodian
The Grand Duchy
Only One Grand Duchy exists within the Tarutaru Union, the Grand Duke of Falgan was given his own territory. Comparitable in power to a Nation State the Grand Duke rivaled the Xheng Emperor in some respects aside from the Xheng Empire's massive military. The Grand Duchy of Falgan sometimes acts as a balance to the Xheng Empire.
The Grand Duchy of Falgan
The Principalities
Principalities at one time were like the Grand Duchy of Falgan, large states with large populations, but the Tarutaru union sought to minimize their influence. The result was outrage from the Princes but little they could do since their own armies and navies were absorbed into the Tarutaru Union. The Principalities were reduced to small city-states controling smaller surrounding territories. In truth this method of internal annexation of land was justified as the Principalities were planning to elect their own multi-national government with an anticipated Grand Monarch to lead.
The Principality of Li-Xheng
The Principality of Han-Xheng
The Principality of Sui-Xheng
The Principality of Tang-Xheng
The Principality of Han-Xheng
The Principality of Qin-Xheng
The Principality of Shang-Xheng
The Principality of Xia-Xheng
The Principality of Wong-Xheng
The Principalities of the Xheng Empire further diminished in political influence as the authority of the Grand Principality of Tang-Xheng grew. Soon the Principaities all were absorbed into the Grand Principality of Tang-Xheng. The power of the Grand Principality adminitrated all authority in the former lesser principalities.
The Borderlands
The Borderlands of the 7 Tribes are outer regions of the Tarutaru Union. They are relatively peaceful and are permitted to go about their own lives without much involvement in politics of wars. However they contribute tax and financial additions to the Tarutaru Union's funding and send labour when needed. Often in Tarutaru Union matters, the Borderland trbes tend to obstain from voting.
The Borderlands of Iroquoians
The Borderlands of Nunavut Nisgaa
The Borderlands of The Haida Gwaii
The Borderlands of The Denne
The Borderlands of The Kootenays
The Borderlands of The Ottawas
The Borderlands of The Mikmaq
As of the date of May 16th, 2005, the Borderlands were fully absorbed into the Tarutaru nation of the Xheng Empire. His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the Xheng Dynasty, granted complete citizenship to all members of the Borderland Tribes.
Organization Structure
The Union Council: The Tarutaru Union's headquarters is in Xheng-An, the capital of the Xheng Empire. It also has its bureau of foreign relations in Zionaren City. Of the 22 member states all are equal and sit as equal status in the Union Council. 154 members, 7 representatives from each member state sit on the countil. The Union Council is headed by the Secretary-General of the Tarutaru Union who is the arbitrator of decisions and executive head of the Union Council. Under the Union Council there are also 8 Directorates with their designated Directors who function similarly to a Ministry and a Minister. These are managed by directors who are suggested by the Secretary-General and are approved by the Union Council. Each directorate has an enormous staff that oversees the deployment of the Union's declarations and objectives.
In truth the Union Council has surprising power as nothing can get done without its approval, 50%+1 vote majority cast. Every member state is given 3 seats on the Council and with the current setup of 11 member states, that means 66 seats from member states alone. In addition to the 154 seats, there are 10 seats delegated to the Tarutaru Union Secretary-General, the Deputy-Secretary General and the 9 Directors. 50 votes minimum are required to pass any official legislation in the body.
The Union Council itself drafts all legislation and resolutions, where afterwards it is handed to the Tarutaru union bureaucracies for refinement and suggestive amendments. Those amendments are then presented to the Union Council itself are voted by simple majority vote to be kept or dismissed. Then the bill as a whole goes into private committee of selected members depending on the number of delegates who wish to participate in private debate. After it is submitted again to the Union Council as a whole to be voted on again.
To assure that representatives are with less bias, no Director may be a sitting representative from a nation state while holding one of the directorate leading positions. A director may be appointed by the Secretary-General from only the Representatives of the Union Council itself.
Directorate of Military Affairs (DMA): The most important of all the Directorates, the DMA oversees deployments of all Union military personel and in times of war that involve any Union Member, a central command that coordinates the military actions of multiple member states. The DMA is also responsible for peacetime deployments of peacekeeping troops and coordinating the military infrastructure and transportation of resources from one region to another. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Trade Affairs (DTA): The Trade Affairs commission oversees the trade issues that may involve the member states. Trade disputes are often settled in this organization. Trade disputes that also involve the Union as a whole are also directed to this body. Also, the Directorate of Trade Affairs manages the money of the Tarutaru Union. The money that all member states owe to the Tarutaru union stands at 5% of their GNP. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Health Affairs (DHA): In events of biohazard and epidemic outbreaks the Directorate of Health Affairs is the chief coordinating body and resource manager. By the protocol and obligations of all nations involved, they must suddender health sovereignty in issues if they ask the Tarutaru Union for assistance. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Administrative Affairs (DAA): Bureaucracy is always inovlved in any Tarutaru organization and the Tarutaru Union is no acception. The huge bureaucracy and civil service involved in running the Tarutaru union, its directorates and its missions is vital to its survival. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Economic Sanctions and Fiscal Responsibilities (DESFR): The Tarutaru Union's version of a Ministry of Finance or Department of the Treasury. The most powerful directorate in the Tarutaru Union handles all the money that is contributed by member states. It is also the most heavily scrutinized as it holds the trust and financial powers of the entire Union in its hands. The DESFR is also responsible for enacting economic sanctions on foreign powers and settling internal economic troubles between members which it has done so to relatively good success. The Council of the Directorate of Economic Sanctions and Fiscal Responsibilities is headed by a 21 member board that oversees the financial decisions of the Tarutaru Union but at anytime they can be overturned by the Union Council itself.
Directorate of Diplomatic Affairs (DDA): The core negociating body of the Tarutaru Union handles external and internal disputes that are diplomatic and do not involve military intervention or trade disputes. The DDA is also chosen as the Tarutaru Union's official diplomatic channel for dealing with external diplomatic issues as well for instance foreign nations that have a conflict with a Tarutaru Union member, in which case the member state could appeal to the Tarutaru Union for full diplomatic support or could do joint-diplomatic talks. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Infrastructure and Transportation Affairs (DITA): Providing the infrastructure, supply cache, food and medical stores, transportation equipment and all general equipment and supplies are the duty of the DITA. In principle it is the "garage" for the entire Tarutaru Union's independent supply bases that function seperate from Nation State defense and infrastructures. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Humanitarian Relations and Affairs (DHRA): Deciding on peacekeeping missions and humanitarian assistance is this body's proposals and decisions. All proposals of this body are made and submitted to the Union Council for its final approval.
Directorate of Security and Intelligence Services (DSIS): The newest agency formed by the Tarutaru Union was responsible for internal and external security services. DSIS is also responsible for the protection of Tarutaru Union Chief Officials, bureaucrats and other important personel, including the heads of states of member nations. DSIS is also the ingelligence wing which offers a great deal of insight into the workings of foreign nations and military intelligence.
The Secretariat
The leadership of the Tarutaru Union is headed by the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Memnochus who is a moderate and a humanitarian. Over the course of his diplomatic career for the Principality of Li-Xheng in the Xheng Empire he has displayed a balanced mind for dealing with situations of intense controversy. Under him, the Secretariat has reached new levels of prestige and respect.
The Secretary-General is the head of the Tarutaru Union and thus is its highest representative to the world, region and foreign nations. The Secretary-General, if he feels that legislative bills are too unready to become law can call up to 3 additional committees to decide on the bill, however once those three committees deliver their announcements the Union Council can pass or dismiss them. This limits the Secretary-General's ability to stop a bill to mearly delaying it. The Union Council can overturn his decisions after the 3 committees are called.
The Secretary-General also is elected by the Union Council for 10 year terms. He can run consecutively as many times as he wishes, but protocol declares it highly improper to campaign for the position.
The Deputy Secretary General is simply a "Backup" Secretary-General in the event the Secretary-General is not present to vote on legislation, bills or otherwise. He must always be present in the event the Secretary-General is not there to make instant decisions.
Military power and finances
Racial Differences in the Tarutaru and Human usage of equipment is clear and evident. A Tarutaru physically is 3x smaller than a human being so military hardware is something difficult to use. To compensate for this the Tarutaru hire their own soldiers from mercenary forces or humans who wish to live in their territory. Humans who live in Tarutaru Territory who serve in the military recieve enormous benefits and compensation due to the fact that they are very well paid and respected by their shorter political leaders.
With the use of Humans, Mithrans, Galkans and Elvaans in their military little military equipment has to be modified for use. The loyalties that the races hold to each other is beyond comprehension for some other nation states who have racial differences running rampang within their own borders. The Tarutaru Union, though with the name of the Tarutaru, is far more than a simple union of the Tarutaru race, but it is a union of five races.
Airships: Unlike most nations in the world the Tarutaru Union Military Technology is unusual in comparison to other nations. They utilize slower moving airships, huge helium filled zepplins with reinforced rubber and titanium-aluminium skins that prevent them from being shot down. Massive propellers pull these ships forward with a fantastically large bombload that could devastate cities. Though they are considerably slower, they can fly at higher altitudes than bombers can and have remarkable accuracy. Airships are also used frequently for security checks and spying if needed
Cardian Guards: Automated soldiers designed for combat in biohazard areas or heavily mined battlefields. They are entirely automated robotic soldiers who can travel on any type of terrain even rocky terrain and obey remote controlled orders, or are left to their programming. Cardian Guards can be produced on mass and do not require food or pay. They are considerably cheaper to handle in comparison to heavy machinery. Cardian Guards can be effective with ranged weapons or even operation of tanks and armed transport vehicles. Cardians are also programmed for piloting making a single Cardian Guard a pilot, an assault trooper, a driver for a vehicle and an engineer. They do have the ability to repair each other but realistcally would need an actual Tarutaru engineer there to supervise them. Despite their appearance they can in fact go up and down staircases. They are called "Cardian" guards because they used to be named after Tarot cards. In their military ranks the "Ace" Cardians are the highest ranking. In reality the Cardian Guards are drone foot soldiers used to simply swarm enemies since they don't obstacles fall in their way. They may even be subject to friendly fire, distracting enemy positions as more and more of them arrive on the scene. Remarkably cheap to produce, only the Tarutaru truly know how they function. Foreign attempts to replicate the technology have failed. Cardians over the course of the years have been standard sights throughout the cities of the Tarutaru from the Xheng Empire to its principalities and tribal borderlands.
Conventional Weaponry: The Tarutaru union does in fact purchase large assortments of weaponry from other nations. Due to the physical capabilities of the Tarutaru, they themselves modify and adopt the weaponry such as ground and naval vehicles for their use. Most of them are crewed by Cardian guards who have physical stature to humans. Weapons of all nature can be used by the Tarutaru even if they are physically smaller they are quite strong for their size and do have the ability to handle weapons of their type.
Military costs
In comparison to other militaries where they mostly employ actual living people, the Tarutaru military infrastructure is significantly cheaper since they use Cardians. Though they need to be upkept by modular equipment and engineers they are still comparitavely cheaper with the $2.5 trillion Tarut budget.
There are Cardian Factories in all the cities of the Tarutaru union to assure that there is a steady ability to produce them. Only in times of security are there more produced than required, but even keeping them when not active is relatively unpractical which means that most Cardians that function in the military and civilian building programs very often. The Tarutaru are reluctant ever to go to war as this would mean unnecessary loss of live which is one of the reasons why they prefer to send in the Cardian Guards.
The Division Within
The Tarutaru Union's expulsion from Zionaren's region forced many of the principalities to act more hostile to the nations there. Even to some extent, Chancellor-General Kito Venixer was not spared this harassment. However the Zionaren reputation for peaceful diplomatic terms to deter violence and war was well known. The Tarutaru Union, upon hearing the vote to allow more nations into the region insisted that Zionaren choose Han-Xheng. In reprisal the Viceroys Kitan and Jorin were dispatched to rule their new territory, the Grand Duke of Falgan also was sent. The influence of Zionaren depended on the charisma of its leader, not the size of his armies. The presence of military force in Zionaren somewhat underminded.
The Viceroy's at first attempted to undermind the Chancellor-General with use of the military to secure the trade ports. The Chancellor-General was quite displeased at this and forced the Viceroys to remove their fleets. The Fleet instead patroled Zionaren seas to prevent interuption of its commercial fleets. The lingering power of the Northern Continental Alliance was little protection for Zionaren. The Viceroys communicated this status back to the Tarutaru Union where the Secretary-General and the Xheng Emperor grew concerned with the diminishing protection around their states there. There were now three states in the region that were still able to relay the will of the Tarutaru Union.
The Chancellor-General may not have had an army but he had his elite guard at his disposal and they managed to keep the Viceroys in control even though they pushed their military to the extent of nearly provoking wars.
The Economic Collapse
Due to harsh economic policies of various states within the Tarutaru Union, the collapse of the stock market and economies proceeded with incredible speed, bringing down governments and aristocratic nations. The Federations under the leadership of Zionaren all survived saved the Federation of Nituran, that fell when its financial status and inflation surged beyond control. The Federations survived but the Xheng Empire faced more significant problems.
The Xheng Dynasty, in a massive campaign to keep order had to initialize martial law and the use of their military to keep control. The Principalities, without much financial support easily collapsed, their leaders removed from power. Only three principalities survived:
Tang-Xheng survived with the financial support and cooperation of the Federation of Zionaren. The Tang-Xheng monarchies maintained control of the assets of other Principalities to assure its own existance. The Principality of Han-Xheng was a main supplier of military arms to the Xheng Dynasty thus its own economy was not much affected by the collapse, and when the Xheng Empire had to declare martial law, Han-Xheng's own military industries flourished into an economic explosion. It benefited significantly from the collapse. The Principality of Wong-Xheng was an isolationistic state. It had little economic links to the outside world thus it managed to keep to itself. Through this time many refugees flooded into Wong-Xheng's borders for safety.
The Tribes of the Tarutaru Nations also were absorbed into the Xheng Empire to assure that their territories would be safeguarded. The result was a huge accumulation of territory for the Xheng Empire, which nearly doubled in size. The continent of Vana also was taken over by the Xheng Empire. After this the Emperor of the Xheng Dynasty ordered a complete economic remake, and his ministers were forced to rebuild the economy from scratch.
The Tarutaru Union was nearly crippled by this massive economic meltdown, but the Federations succeeded in counterbalancing the Xheng Empire's authority despite its massive growth of power and territory.
