I do enjoy the part where the citizens of Arkadia have no rights! :P
A society without a constitutional law to rely upon is no society at all. Therefore, Arkadia has made a constitutional law that explains the most fundamental parts of the society as a whole. This way, people can easily read up on what their rights are and what there position is within the Kingdom of Arkadia. This thread will go into detail about every aspect of the Constitutional law of Arkadia.
The current Arkadia Constitutional Law contains 76 articles on how we see the Kingdom of Arkadia should be governed. For those that do not want to read this rather large document full of articles, we decided to make this forum thread that will contain a short version and more readable version of the Arkadia Constitutional Law. If something is not mentioned in here, we highly suggest you to look up the article in the Constitutional Law itself.
The Constitution of Arkadia is a Roman inspired system where we want to emphasize as much as possible on democracy. However we understand that this game has the mechanics of a feudal system, resulting in a mixed system.
The Kingdom as a whole is the entire rightful territory of Arkadia and that is where this constitution will always apply. Within the Kingdom there are matters of the Kingdom, you can find the summary of these matters in article 3 of the Constitution.
The King, Raziel, is the Head of the Kingdom and shall in many cases have the final say in things. He shall be succeeded by characters of him or by a person that he appoints. Whenever the King is absent, both IRL as well as in the game, his Kingly authority will be temporary taken over by the Cabinet. The Cabinet consists out of all the ministers of Arkadia, which are appointed by the King.
Just below the King are the Dukes. They are able to manage their land and govern it in the way the want it to be governed. However, we have built in an article stating that they should aline their ways of governing with the rules of Arkadia as much as possible. We know that by working in a uniform way, we will increase our overall efficiency and coordination.
The King, Dukes and Barons will make up the Council. This Council will give advice to the King regarding military matters. This Council shall also be solely responsible for declaring wars, signing peace treaties and for the overall functioning of the army and navy.
From here we have the counts and then the mayors and/or Barons as it is with any feudal system. The same applies regarding how to govern a county or settlement like should be done by the Dukes. However, where the Dukes are mainly responsible for the safekeeping of his/her subjects and the army, Counts will be more responsible for the infrastructure, economy and education of the his/her subjects. Mayors are mainly responsible for their own town and its well being and Barons shall have a mutual contract with the Duke in question in order to protect a region from any harm.
To get a better overview of the King and his Ministers, have a look at the image below:
Credits: Idea by Terham. Image by Cydon.
The classes within the Kingdom of Arkadia will follow this hierarchy:
Credits: Idea by Terham. Image by Cydon.
As a way of having a form of democracy within the Kingdom, we made a Senate. This Senate will consist out of two groups, namely the Senators and the Tribunes. The Senate shall be composed of Nobles, aristocrats and Commons alike. They are all able to make or propose laws themselves and chose a new King when there is a vacancy in the position.
Senators are made up out of all the Dukes and some Counts and Mayors. We felt like the Dukes should always have a permanent spot in the Senate to ensure their strong position. The Senate itself would become very crowded when every Count and Mayor was a Senator, therefore we made a specific article explaining how some Counts and Mayors are chosen to become Senators.
The Second group is the Tribunes. In contradiction to the appointment of Dukes, Counts and Mayors as Senators, they will be elected by the people of every Duchy. Not any person can be elected however, in order to be elected you will need to have the Emeritus rank. This rank is achieved by serving twenty in-game years in the army as an expression to how devoted you are to the Kingdom of Arkadia.
Both groups will have the same rights within the Senate with a few exception, namely the voting on laws and veto rights. Most laws will pass with a majority vote, though when counting the votes, the Chancellor, who is the chairman, shall count the Senators votes first and end with the votes of the Tribunes. Other than the Senators, the Tribunes and the King will have a veto-right to prevent any obscure laws for the common people.
The Senate will look like this:
Credits: Idea by Terham. Image by Cydon.
Within the Kingdom of Arkadia we have different sorts of laws. The highest being a Royal Decree. This Decree can be seen as a law for very specific situations, such as appoints of ministers, but also delicate matters within the Kingdom that need to be dealt with swiftly.
Below the Royal Decree is the Formal Law. This law can only be made by ministers or by the Senate of Arkadia. Once a Formal Law is made by either of these institutions, it will still need to be approved by the King before ever going into effect.
The Council shall be able to make Military Laws and will mostly contain, as the name suggest, laws regarding the Military such as acts of war and how the military should be governed.
At the bottom we have Local Laws. This law is any law made by a Duke, Count or Mayor/Baron regarding any matter of the Kingdom. Seeing that Local Laws are the lowest level of laws, they should not contradict any Royal Decree or Formal Law, unless it is proven reasonable by the local authority.
For an overview of the hierarchy of laws, have a look at the image below:
Credits: Idea and image by Cydon.
With laws comes a judicial system to uphold said laws. In according with the game mechanics, we have a King’s Court and Common Courts. Every Duchy will have a King’s Court, which will address the capital crimes. Next to this, there will be Common Courts which will address lower crimes and civil and administrative cases in first instance.
In order to enforce laws, there will be a Praetorian Guard (The Sheriffs) who will be soldiers with an Emeritus rank and a High reputation within the Kingdom. Not only will they enforce or uphold the laws, they will also function as a police force within the army.
The constitution also covers the Military and how it is structured. As with any military, it has a vast amount of ranks. Beginning with the King, he is the head of the army and shall discuss plans regarding military matters within the already earlier mentioned Council. Below the King is the Legate, who is most of the time a Duke. Every Legate shall have his own standing Ducal army. Going lower on the ranking is the Praefect, who is essentially the Baron. This Praefect shall be under direct command of the Legate. Every Praefect is able to appoint a Centurion, who is a second in command. An Optio is even lower on the ranking and can be seen as a sub officer who leads a maximum of ten soldiers.
An image on what the Council is made up from:
Credits: Idea by Terham. Image by Cydon.
Soldiers are divided in three different categories, with the highest being the Princeps, followed by the Legio and finally the Hastati. Princeps are seen as veteran soldiers and have served an amount of more than 40 in-game years in the army. Legios are soldiers who have finished the volunteering program. This volunteering program exists out of a 20-years in-game period of serving in the army. Hastatis are soldiers who are currently following the volunteering program.
To have a full overview on the Arkadian Army, have a look at the image below or go to the specific thread for the Arkadian Army.
Credits: Idea by and image by King Raziel.
Hopefully you have gotten a better insight in the Constitution of Arkadia. Many technical aspects have been left out and we encourage everyone to read the Constitution itself to get the full view of it. We are unsure to how far this Constitution will be able to work with the game mechanics, though we strife to have these same ideas as much as possible incorporated once the game launches.
Written by the Minister of Justice of Arkadia,
Alex Courtney
I do enjoy the part where the citizens of Arkadia have no rights! :P
Posted By Thor at 8:46 PM - Mon May 13 2019
I do enjoy the part where the citizens of Arkadia have no rights! :P
Care to show me where it is stated? I can't find this part
Fantastic post Alex ! I think he is referring to the Basic rights part of the constitution which is empty for now.
The basic rights are next to be developed! They can be found below the constitution.
