Imperial Kingdom of Kaywell

 

Kingdom of Kaywell Nairahak gn Kaywell (Golagat)
Flag Coat of Arms
Motto: "For the Everlasting Glory of Uingffh!"
Anthem: Uingffhian Glory Military anthem: The Four Great Orders
Uingffh, the homeworld of Kaywell
The Ingffhaestian System, the home system of Kaywell
Capital	Korroway, Uingffh, Ingffhaestian System
Largest city	Lukeschmidtia, Aeonium Arboreum, Altaria System
Official languages	Golagat
Religion	Izlondo-Keliosity
Demonym(s)	Kaywellian
Government	Unitary Herrenvolk Theocratic Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy (2019-TBA) Unitary Herrenvolk Theocratic Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy under a Grand Admiralty (TBA-2099)
Legislature	Holy Imperial Kesslerim
• Upper house	Holy Cathedral of the Affluent
• Lower house	Holy Cathedral of the Common
Establishment	November 14, 2019
Population
• 2099 estimate	276.3 billion (not including non-Uingffhian slaves) ~1 trillion (estimated total)
GDP (nominal)	2099 estimate
• Total	134.820 quadrillion imperial sters
• Per capita	134,820 imperial sters
Currency	Imperial sters
Today part of	Interstellar Consortium of Polyingffh

The Imperial Kingdom of Kaywell refers to the Kingdom of Kaywell following the 1241 a.r.k. Kaywell prime ministerial election, when the highly reactionary Imperial Traditionalists secured control over all facets of the Kaywellian government and subsequently transformed the nation into a theocratic herrenvolk state over a period of several years. At its greatest territorial extent, Kaywell officially controlled a total of 50 star systems and countless planets and moons; the nation also engaged in top-secret military research in three other star systems not counted as part of Kaywell's territory in public records. The superhabitable moon of Uingffh served as Kaywell's capital and origin, with its three native sentient species - the tabulons, lordions, and mortei - serving as Kaywell's dominant species as well as the only species granted official citizenship rights. Kaywell's capital system was the Ingffhaestian System (known to humans as Gliese 105), where Uingffh exists as the moon of the gas giant Coppelius; however, other major population centers included the Esernium, Altaria, and Thrawn Systems.

Prior to the coup, Kaywell was a prominent member of the Interstellar Consortium of Polyingffh thriving under a societal system adjacent to a Nordic-style social democracy. However, when the brown dwarf Thriteria passed close to the Ingffhaestian System and caused numerous impact events, Kaywellian conservative factions - particularly the Imperial Traditionalist party - harshly criticized Kaywell's prioritization of evacuating vulnerable communities over protecting the nation's cultural and economic assets. The Thriteria crisis continued to be used as the foundation for rising conservatism and nationalism within Kaywell over the next few years.

Imperial Traditionalist discontent culminated in 2019, when the Imperial Traditionalists experienced a sweeping victory in that Uingffhian year’s prime ministerial election, having already secured control over both the Kesslerim (legislature) and the High Imperial Court (judicial). This is considered the formation date of the Imperial Kingdom of Kaywell, as it also coincides with the Imperial Traditionalists’ quick decision to have Kaywell cease membership within the Interstellar Consortium. Using advanced technology plundered from ancient ruins connected to the Izlondian Imbrialty, Imperial Kaywell then proceeded to secure control over the rest of Uingffh. Afterwards, Imperial Kaywell proceeded to codify Uingffhian supremacist beliefs into the nation's laws, using Urlum Eudae Kaywell's discovery of the Uingffhians’ direct descendance from the Izlondians (who seeded all known extra-Uingffhian life in the local stars) as evidence of the three Uingffhian sentient species' inherent genetic superiority.

After taking over Uingffhaestia, Imperial Kaywell continued to expand its influence in the form of interplanetary and interstellar conquests, declaring war on the rest of Polyingffh's member civilizations. Despite its numerical disadvantage, the Imperial Kaywellian Star Navy caught the Polyingffhian forces by surprise with its plundered Izlondian weaponry and naval supremacy, which proved unmatched in combat. Over a period of several devastating decades, the Kaywellian Empire conquered dozens upon dozens of other star systems, forcibly incorporating any alien species they came across into their strict social hierarchy under the pretense of Uingffhian species supremacy; planets, moons, and star systems that refused to submit were brutally rendered uninhabitable by destructive Kaywellian orbital bombardments or the use of Izlondian superweapons. In the process of conquering other star systems, Kaywell also acquired numerous other artifacts left behind by the ancient Izlondian civilization, adding on to their already-powerful military.

The original Kaywell's focus on the arts, science, and culture continued to flourish under the reign of Imperial Kaywell initially. The Imperial Kingdom tended to prefer intellectual pursuits and encouraged art, music, creative writing, theater, and other forms of expression amongst its citizens, who enjoyed high-quality and rigorous education under the Kingdom's many private schools, colleges, and universities. Sports and other physical activities, though, were not marginalized, with most Uingffhians viewing them as essential for health, wellbeing, and overall happiness. However, the rise of the Grand Admirals as the de facto rulers of Kaywell as well as the adoption of a laissez-faire capitalism-esque economic system during Kaywell's later years threatened the value of the arts in Imperial Kaywellian society. Tabulons, lordions, and mortei increasingly began viewing them as wastes of time and energy due to the inability of Grand Admirals and corporations to put them to practical use; instead, the Kaywellians began promoting more "practical" careers like those in scientific and engineering fields, with liberal and fine arts being restricted to the richest and wealthiest in imperial society. Though Kaywell held traditionalist cultural values and social norms, the Kingdom also supported scientific advancement and readily funded ventures into outer space, though these ventures largely had imperialist and expansionist motivations behind them.

The most significant aspect of Kaywell's society and politics was its strict caste system, known as the Nerus Korndelia. The Nerus Korndelia segregated each alien race living under the Kingdom into ranks which arbitrarily assigned them specific role. The various castes of the Nerus Korndelia were far from equal; the three Uingffhian intelligent species (tabulons, lordions, mortei) - the highest-ranking species in the Nerus Korndelia - enjoyed much greater degrees of freedom than lower-ranking species and frequently abused their power and exploited members of lower castes. Furthermore, the tabulons, lordions, and mortei were the only species involved in the integration of species into the Nerus Korndelia; species subjugated into the Kingdom of Kaywell had absolutely no say in the role the Nerus Korndelia assigned to them. Kaywell punished deviation from said assigned roles severely, utilizing cruel and unusual methods like torture to "correct" deviant individuals. Oftentimes, they simply executed deviants on the spot - a privilege Uingffhian species were free to exert on "lower" species. Overall, the Nerus Korndelia serves to perpetuate racist notions of Uingffhian supremacy; fittingly, it originated from an earlier system known as the Korndelia, which segregated races within the three Uingffhian species in a similar fashion.

Imperial Kaywell's government is a de jure parliamentary monarchy. Though a royal family exists, political power rests in the democratically elected High Imperial Kesslerim, the Kingdom's legislature, according to Kaywellian law. Notably, however, Kaywell follows the principles of a Herrenvolk Democracy, with only three alien species - the Uingffh-native tabulons, lordions, and mortei - enjoying the power to vote or run for office. All other alien species under the Kingdom's rule do not have voting rights. In addition, compared to royal families in other parliamentary monarchies, Kaywell's royal family exerts significantly more power over its nation; the reigning monarch and their children enjoy various freedoms and privileges including the right to execute or punish their servants as they see fit and the ability to directly propose or even pass legislation.

However, as Imperial Kaywell progressed, the Grand Admirals of the Imperial Kaywellian military's four chivalric orders - the Orders of Novus, Kerbos, Uris, and Scentrilla - gradually gained power and eventually rose as the de facto rulers of Kaywell. The Grand Admirals would lobby and manipulate both the monarchy and the High Imperial Kesslerim into carrying out their endeavors, which typically favored further expansionism and punishing species whose individuals had personally wronged certain Grand Admirals. They would also decentralize Kaywellian authority somewhat by converting conquered star systems into more autonomous dominions ruled by individual Grand Admirals, who loosely answered to the four orders' Grandmasters back in Ingffhaestia. Notably, two particular Grand Admirals - Norland rei Luneburg of the Order of Sorellius and Third Princess Urlum Eudae Kaywell of the Order of Novus - would attempt to centralize political control onto themselves as dictators with cults of personality during Kaywell's waning years.

The Kingdom of Kaywell's dominant religion is Keliosity, which revolves around the worship of the gas giant Coppelius, Uingffh's parent planet, as the deity Kelios. Imperial Kaywell in particularly primarily adhered to a new form of Keliosity: Izlondo-Keliosity, which arose in response to the discovery of the ruins of the Izlondian civilization, an ancient alien society responsible for artificially seeding all known life except for the tabulons, who had naturally evolved from the Izlondians. Izlondo-Keliosity professed that the Izlondians were divine disciples of Kelios and that the Uingffhians, as direct descendants of the Izlondians, were also blessed and held a Kelios-given duty to purify the rest of the cosmos through conquest. As Kaywell's new state-sponsored religion, Izlondo-Keliosity guided Kaywell's many interstellar conquests throughout the 21st and 22nd centuries.

History

Main article: History of the Imperial Kingdom of Kaywell

As part of its efforts to replicate parts of the Izlondian Imbrialty's culture, Imperial Kaywell divides its history into ages. Like Izlondia's ages, Imperial Kaywell's ages are named after stages in the life cycle of a plant, but Imperial Kaywell distinguishes its ages with the addition of "holy" as an adjective for each age.

Holy Seed Age (pre-2019)

The revelation that the Izlondian civilization, as the Uingffhians' ancestors, seeded all other known life in the stars is often cited as the reason behind the transformation of Kaywell into an imperial kingdom. But in reality, Imperial Kaywell's origins are much more complex, with traditionalist disillusionment with Kaywell's progressive policies stemming back to events over a decade prior.

Thriteria Orbital Crisis (2005)

Photograph of the brown dwarf Thriteria from orbit. The stars Ingffhaestia and Avimotalis can be seen in the background.

In 2005, Thriteria, a brown dwarf of spectral type T2V, passed within 522 astronomical units of Ingffhaestia - in close enough proximity to destabilize the comet belt surrounding the Ingffhaestian star system. Thriteria's gravity deflected numerous comets and other minor bodies into the planetary orbits of the Ingffhaestian System, leading to an increase in the frequency of impact events on the system's planets and moons. Inhabited worlds like Digrazia, Ibiridius, Cornelia, Euphemia, and even Uingffh itself were among the worlds impacted by comets redirected by Thriteria; the comets wrought devastation not only by directly impacting cities and other inhabited regions, but also by impacting nearby ocean basins and generating powerful tsunamis that damaged coastal regions. Comets and asteroids also occasionally damaged free-floating space colonies orbiting other planets. Thriteria eventually exited the close vicinity of Ingffhaestia in 2006.

A small meteor destabilized by Thriteria's passage impacts and devastates the Fernozzle Gallery, the headquarters of the Order of Kerbos.

The Kaywellian government effectively mitigated fatalities in populated areas by prioritizing saving as many citizens as possible. For one, the nation used its technology and predictions from scientists to pinpoint populated areas at risk of impact and subsequently evacuated them, averting numerous fatalities. Additionally, Uingffhian engineers erected and/or strengthened physical protections against natural disasters, such as retractable barriers against any tsunamis generated by oceanic impact events. Kaywell also attempted to prevent or mitigate impact events in the first place by having spacecraft deflect or fragment incoming asteroids and comets. Notably, the Kingdom and other Uingffhian nations paid special attention to disadvantaged communities such as lower-income communities and communities primarily populated by members of minority groups.

However, in focusing on solely preventing death, Kaywell did not fully succeed in protecting cultural/historical sites and major economic centers from damage wrought by impact events associated with Thriteria, leading to discontentment amongst Kaywell's conservative factions such as the Imperial Traditionalist party. Such factions cited Kaywell's philosophy behind its recovery programs as catalysts for cultural and economic decline that followed the Thriteria Crisis, accusing the Kaywellian government of not prioritizing Uingffhian historical heritage and economic prosperity. Numerous Grand Admirals of the Kingdom's four holy orders also sided with the Imperial Traditionalists due to the impact events damaging military assets as well as due to the government rejecting some asteroid deflection proposals petitioned by the military.

Imperial Traditionalist response

The Imperial Traditionalists and Grand Admirals would continue to use the Thriteria Crisis as a justification for various traditionalist and patriotic causes throughout the succeeding decade such as the promotion of arts and culture (particularly patriotic works) and increasing military spending. During these years, Kaywell (and the rest of Uingffh as well) indeed experienced trouble reconstructing and maintaining cultural landmarks such as the four orders' imperial galleries, which saw some damage during the crisis. Additionally, the nation faced various economic struggles including higher rates of inflation and increased costs of living. Imperial Traditionalists attributed both of these events to overspending on the part of the Kaywellian federal government, though rapid resource changes caused by the Thriteria Crisis and excessive spending on the part of the Imperial Traditionalists and Grand Admirals themselves also contributed to Kaywell's hardships.

Bigotry against non-Uingffhian species constituted a major aspect of the Imperial Traditionalists' platform. During the years leading up to 2018, they attributed various societal ills to Kaywell's non-Uingffhian immigrant population, particularly the kingdom's significant Tristanian population. They also criticized the broader societal values of non-Uingffhian cultures and encouraged Uingffhians to embrace their culture (particularly their Keliostic faith) more fervently in order to maintain a stronger society. During this time period, Imperial Traditionalists controversially attempted to pass numerous laws restricting the rights and freedoms of non-Uingffhians, to mixed effectiveness.

Drafting of the Second Apocalix Initiative

In 2012, the Imperial Traditionalists consolidated their planned pro-Uingffhian policies into a single political initiative: the Second Apocalix Intiative. Its name is derived from the First Apocalix that brought about the end of the ancient Izlondian civilization; likewise, the Second Apocalix Initiative serves to reject all of the progressive policies advocated by the Polyingffhian Federation and the Kesslerim that existed under it.

The Second Apocalix Initiative had two components. The publicly-released initiative, to be enacted in the event that an Imperial Traditionalist wins the position of the Kesslerim's prime minister in 2019 (1241 a.r.k. in the Uingffhian Ascension Throne Kaywellia calendar), aims to reshape the Kaywellian government to promote traditional Uingffhian values. First and foremost, the public component of the Second Apocalix Initiative advocated for reparations for the kingdom's four chivalric orders, the restoration of their galleries, and the consolidation of military power under the four orders' Grand Admirals. The initiative also advocated for a variety of other "traditionalist" policies including the elimination of numerous economic regulations, the removal of legal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the promotion of capital punishment, the mass deportation of non-Uingffhians living in Kaywell, the promotion of traditional Kaywellian arts and culture, and significant increases in the funding and prominence of the Kaywellian Star Navy and its four chivalric orders. The Second Apocalix Initiative also proposed having Kaywell (and Uingffh as a whole) not only leave the Polyingffhian Federation, but also begin colonizing other neighboring planets and star systems on its own accord.

A Code-Ars Vesalum impact cathedral. The central cross-shaped body measures 2 kilometers in height.

In addition to the public political initiative released by the Imperial Traditionalists, a second, secretive component of the Second Apocalix Initiative - dubbed the Homelander Operation - was drafted by the Grand Admirals who aligned themselves with the Imperial Traditionalists. This operation entailed the secretive construction of 12 impact cathedrals (multi kilometer-long spacecraft designed to impact planetary surfaces and cause mass destruction) known as Ars Vesalums - a violation of Polyingffhian treaties outlawing the construction of impact cathedrals after the War of the Cathedrals in 1858-1859. The Ars Vesalums would be constructed using a combination of resources managed by the four Kaywellian orders and ancient Izlondian technology extracted from the Great Pit. Each Ars Vesalum would also each contain complements of numerous kaelums (Uingffhian mecha suits) including 12 elite custom units retrofitted/enhanced by Izlondian technological artifacts. The 12 Ars Vesalums and their corresponding custom kaelums were intended to be commanded by a new elite force of guardian pilots - the Twelve Azaleas - slated to replace the kingdom's existing force of knights known as the Glass Angels, whom the Imperial Traditionalists and Grand Admirals viewed as "soft." The Twelve Azaleas were to attack other regions of Uingffh or Polyingffh should the 1241 a.r.k. election not proceed according to the Imperial Traditionalists' plans.

The Imperial Traditionalists carried out various measures between 2005 and 2016 to advance the progression of the Second Apocalix Initiative. Militarily, aside from already carrying out the construction of the Ars Vesalums and the Twelve Azaleas' personal kaelums, the party and its allies also promoted greater funding towards the Kaywellian Star Navy and improved its image by helping rebuild and refurbish the four orders' galleries. Culturally, the Imperial Traditionalists sponsored various major orchestral concerts, art viewings, and other creative events, which allowed their supporters to grow in number. Economically, the Imperial Traditionalists helped improve Kaywell's economic self-sufficiency, reducing the kingdom's economic reliance on other stellar powers. Collaboration with renowned companies like Sriteria Industries also improved the Imperial Traditionalists' leverage amidst allegations of speciesism and xenophobia against non-Uingffhians.

The Imperial Traditionalists used their newfound societal leverage to secure control of both houses of the Kesslerim as well as the High Imperial Court by 2012. In doing so, the party was able to restrict the progressive factions of the Kesslerim from addressing issues like species discrimination and cultural/economic restoration; by doing so, the Imperial Traditionalists succeeded in dampening the reputation of the progressive parties, which the Kaywellian populace increasingly began viewing as inept and stagnant. Aside from this measure, the Imperial Traditionalists also proposed various bills limiting the immigration and rights of non-Uingffhians; however, these acts had mixed success, with regulatory agencies reversing many of them.

Star Crusher Protests (2016)

In 2016, protests began erupting in Kaywell over its continued construction of weapons of mass destruction (i.e. star crushers) following repeated skirmishes involving star crushers in the Oirator, Sazatos, and Sarallel Systems. The progressively-minded protestors called for Polyingffh to either scale down Kaywell's militarization or nationalize the Kaywellian Star Navy altogether, and also clamp down on the four orders’ influence. These protests ultimately had mixed to low effectiveness; though the Kesslerim passed some reform policies and community awareness of Kaywell’s political flaws increased, Kaywell overall remained the dominant military power of the Consortium, and its military continued growing unimpeded.

Despite their ineffectiveness, the Star Crusher Protests still had the important effect of exacerbating the divides in Kaywell’s progressive and futurist factions and parties. Dissatisfaction over Kesslerim’s largest progressive party, the Stellar Caretakers’ tolerance of Kaywell’s militarism created fractures in the futurists/progressives that hampered their ability to shape Kaywelian society. This thus allowed the Imperial Traditionalists to further consolidate their power, as their rivals were too busy infighting to combat their rise.

Izlondian Revelation (2018)

Drafting of Operation 1241 a.r.k.

MAJOR WIP