Silver Coalition

The Silver Coalition is one of the three large coalitions of Jhembaz, made up of several scores of sovereign nations. In contrast to the other two alliances, Gaishese and the Sixty, the Silver Coalition particularly values the ideal of equality, and strives to ensure that all men are equal in the Coalition's member nations and, insofar as the Coalition has power to enforce it, outside them. In practice, the Silver Coalition is often accused of paying only lip service to the importance of equality, with the true conditions within its member nations being as injust and unequal as anywhere else, if not more so, but with the imparities more papered over and crudely concealed. The truth may lie somewhere in between; while the Coalition's zeal for equality is not wholly feigned, it's true that few if any of its member nations entirely live up to the ideal, and even its leaders aren't quite willing to sacrifice everything they'd need to give up to achieve true equality.

Governance

While each member nation of the Silver Coalition retains its sovereignty, joint policies and guidelines are decided by a body called the Silver Council. The Silver Council comprises one member from each of nation in the Coalition, and in keeping with the Coalition's focus on equality, all council members have equal say and equal voting power. More than once the suggestion has been raised to change the system to one of proportional representation, for each nation to have a number of council members in proportion to its population—the rationale being that this would lead to greater equality between inhabitants of the Coalitions' various nations, which (proponents say) is more meaningful than equality between the nations themselves. Invariably, however, the suggestion ends up being voted down, and tiny nations like Allone retain the same voting power on the Council as large nations such as Uqar.

While the Council holds overall power over the Coalition as a body, it may, and frequently does, appoint various commissions to focus on specific subjects or events. It also has the power to dissolve those commissions at will. Unlike the Silver Council itself, there is no formal restriction on the number of members of a given commission from a particular nation, though in practice the Council tries to spread the membership around, and it's uncommon for any but the largest commissions to have more than one member from any one nation, and quite rare to have more than two. There is also no restriction on the number of members of a given commission, though it's rare for any commission to have more than twenty members, and commissions for all but the most complex and vital members more usually have between five and ten. Nor is there any restriction on the number of commissions that can exist at any given time, though it seldom strays far from the average of about ten. Currently, there are nine active commissions: in descending order of size, the Trade Commission, the Justice Commission, the Water Commission, the Intelligence Commission, the Education Commission, the Planar Commission, the Monument Commission, and the Border Commission.

Member nations

Due to its (at least nominal) respect for equality, the Silver Coalition accepts the membership only of nations that seem to be making a reasonable effort toward treating their citizens fairly and equally. This does not mean that every nation of the Coalition has a democratic government, but they all at least pay some lip service toward the ideal of equality.

The following is a list of all current member nations of the Silver Coalition.

• Aeeria
• Allone
• Angam
• Ayat
• Baxatek
• Cahuta
• Dubina
• Emhoch
• Fildar
• Fuih
• Gielech
• Haigo
• Hilik
• Ideks
• Illidia
• Isiria
• Jazaria
• Kioga
• Kohilu
• Llalaca
• Lurheph
• Mubekis
• Ndorom
• Ogolo
• Ojecha
• Ökko
• Purjana
• Qadarba
• Qiqleq
• Ruqon
• Seagar
• Tåna
• Tatlam
• Touland
• Tsuji
• Uqar
• Usu
• Vilam
• Waliti
• Wradosile
• Xelema
• Zandora
• Zoron

In addition, the following are former members of the Silver Coalition which no longer belong to the alliance (usually due to a drastic change in government):

• Ceoric
• Elland
• Joria
• Tregen

Finally, the following nations used to belong to the Silver Coalition, but no longer exist:

• Adelach
• High Derrin
• Mbarax
• Molgadia
• Uralia

History

The Silver Coalition had its genesis in an alliance between Molgadia and Zoron, at the time the two largest democracies in the world. Ceoric was the next to join, but for some time those were the only three members. In the early days, the Coalition was even more ideologically focused than now, with a strong emphasis on democratic principles. During the rise of the Hollow Empire, however, many nations sought mutual aid to protect themselves from this dangerous aggressor, and many other states joined the Coalition, which became somewhat more inclusive in its membership, though still not to the extent to welcome members of obvious autocratic bent or highly stratified societal structure.

By the time the Empire fell and building strong alliances was not quite so vital as it had been, the precedent for the Coalition's inclusionarity had been set—not to mention that there were now other nascent alliances that it had to grow to keep on par with. The Coalition therefore kept accepting more nations into its ranks, albeit at a decreasing rate. While in the early days the running of the Coalition was somewhat chaotic, the current system involving the Silver Council crystallized about a century after the Hollow Empire's decline.

Relations

The Silver Coalition is on chilly but not actively hostile terms with the other two major alliances of Jhembaz. The three alliances do have diplomatic ties, but they're characterized as much by espionage and sabotage as by pure diplomacy per se. The Coalition sometimes finds itself temporarily allying with the Sixty against Gaishese when the latter nation seems threatening, or vice versa, but these alliances of convenience rarely last long. At the moment, the Coalition's relations are slightly better with Gaishese than with the Sixty, but it is likely that the pendulum will swing the other way before too much time has passed. Still, however strained its relations may be with the other alliances, it still engages in active trade with them. To Gaishese the Coalition primarily trades grain and other food in exchange for the latest technological gadgets and talismans; to the Sixty it trades largely in manufactured goods, in exchange for other useful talismans and for certain raw materials.

Most of the nations not associated with any of the three alliances are too small to attract much of the Coalition's notice, one way or the other. An exception, however, exists in the Syndicate of Rhoun, an inegalitarian corpocracy which covets some of the Coalition's territory and is just large and powerful enough to be a significant thorn in its side. Toward Dovoch, too, the Coalition is quite frosty, not least because Dovoch conquered its former member nations of Uralia and High Derrin. On the other hand, the Coalition has close diplomatic and mercantile ties with Musenach—somewhat to its leaders' discomfort, since Musenach's citizens are anything but equal and the nation is far from fitting with the coalition's ideals. Accordingly, the Silver Coalition tentatively tries, by diplomacy and by more underhanded means, to nudge Musenach toward a government with a greater parity among its citizens—while, however, not shrinking from dealing with it in the meantime.