Chapter 02

About Berant

Recent History

The Amir (pronounced a-mear) Clan has ruled Berant since the sixth century AD / CE. For over a thousand years they’re the premier clan in the Amiri tribe (pronounced a-mear-e) and the largest clan in the country. The crown goes to the eldest male of the senior Amir line, usually the King’s eldest son, unless an Amir Clan Council rules that person ineligible, which is a very rare event. If the King has no sons it then goes to his eldest living nephew. If no living males can be found from the descendants of the last three generations the same process is applied to the King’s daughters, nieces, and cousins with their husband becoming the new King. This process then goes back another generation at a time until one can be found, or all of the descendants for the last ten generations are known to be dead.

Berant becomes a French Colony in the late eighteenth century by an agreement with the King who wants to avoid a losing war. Spears and arrows aren’t much good against firearms and cannon. The King sees this so he negotiates the best result he can get for his people. The country is hardly affected by this as they have no publicly known natural resources of any value. Nothing that’s worth the effort of an organised removal. The country is untouched in the Great War (later known as World War One), and the Japanese occupation in the Second World War is little more than a minor inconvenience for most of the people. The French are asked to not return after the Japanese and Allies go while leaving behind them enough modern weapons to keep the French out of the country. The French don’t see Berant as worth the cost of conquering it in the mid-twentieth century. The same is true for the neighbouring countries of Dareed and Shukra. Dareed and Shukra did have some natural resources worth taking, but most of those resources were removed by the French prior to the Second World War, and what’s left isn’t worth fighting for.

The ruler of Berant from 1922 to January 1st, 1946, was King Marshad, a wastrel. His father thought it a good idea to send him to Europe for his education in the hopes this would let Marshad fit in better with the French Colonial Government and to be able to deal with the French a lot better than he, the current King, does. However, schooling in Paris from ten years of age has Marshad attending school there at the start of the twentieth century. Instead of learning how to work hard he learns how to party hard and to enjoy life to its fullest. He’s only interested in having fun. The country is lucky his younger brothers are trained at home under the tribal laws, so they do the real running and administration of the country.

The only good thing that can be said about King Marshad is he was a lot better than the Rebel Generals who killed him in January, 1946, to introduce a ‘democratic’ government of the type that never has a public vote. The difference between them is marginal, but Marshad didn’t arbitrarily kill people in large groups. No formal laws were ever passed by the Rebels.

When the Generals attacked the Palace the Princes fought a fierce battle with the Rebels to cover the escape of four Princesses: the King’s two daughters and his two nieces, the daughters of the Princes. The Princes, their sons, and all of the Palace Guard gave their lives for their country’s future. Proving the country still had warriors who were prepared to stand up and fight for what they believed in was the right thing to do.

When King Edward comes to power in December, 1948, he changes the way the monarchy works, and he creates a constitutional monarchy. This is difficult because much of the country is under tribal law and the people want the old monarchy as they were unhappy with democracy as introduced by the Rebels. Also, large sections of the country no longer have formal tribal councils because the tribal councils had been totally destroyed by the Rebels’ pogroms. King Edward needs something acceptable to both areas. Using the Australian Constitution as a base, because he’s familiar with it, he creates a hybrid variant to make both groups happy while he introduces a high level of elected democratic government for the domestic management while maintaining the International affairs as a Royal responsibility. When voted on the Constitution receives ninety-nine percent support of the population. After getting the Constitution through he sets about creating a uniform set of laws for the whole country. The process isn’t complete, and it never will be due to the continued existence of some of the Tribal Councils wishing to maintain some aspects of their Tribal Culture. It takes sixty years for most of the laws to be ninety-nine percent uniform across the country.

Later there’s a summary of the government and legal systems after King Edward’s reforms are put into place. This isn’t a detailed list of all of the laws, although some very important ones are mentioned, but it is an analysis of the system itself. Many people see this as a perfect constitutional monarchy while others don’t. This Constitution works for Berant and its people, and that’s the best you can say for any political or governmental system.

Selection of the Monarch

The head of government is the King. Under the new Constitution the King is the husband of one of the King’s daughters or nieces or cousins. If need be the line tracks back one generation at a time until a suitable candidate is found. The Amir Clan Council decides which of the suitable candidates is to be the King. When possible the King selects a suitable heir whilst still alive, and he helps to train them for the role. This way there’s no point in intra-family squabbles as a male born to the Royal Family can never rule, while their brothers-in-law have to worry about being voted in by the eligible clan members because only blood members of the clan have a vote.

After King Edward the King has no control of any money or assets of the clan or his own. King Edward introduced the change but he couldn’t make it retroactive. King Herbert is the first King the new Royal property laws apply to. Any property or assets he has must be handed back to his family or handed over to the clan trust when he’s appointed. This way the clan has a control over the King by simply refusing to finance his actions. Also, the Clan Council can recall him by a unanimous vote.

Important Swords

In Berant there are some very ancient and important swords. They’re so old their creation is more legend than history. One was forged for the King and the others were part of a set where one was forged for each major clan.

The ‘Sound of Battle’ can only be worn by the King or a member of the Royal Family. It makes a ringing sound like a bell when struck against another sword in battle or against something solid. One use is to strike it three times to call all of the clans to war as a group in support of the King.

The other is the ‘Clan Honour Sword’ and it’s inscribed with the clan’s motto with one for each clan at that time.

Geography

Berant is an old kingdom in tropical Asia where the mountains are tropical jungle or dense tropical forest. The majority of forest trees are exotic hardwoods while the jungle is mostly softwoods. The jungles, forests, and plains abound with local wildlife, most of it is small and harmless. Apart from humans the only dangerous animals in Berant are the local mountain lions who live in the tropical jungle very close to the tops of the mountain ridges, most are in the Burran and Amir Mountains. Attacks by lions are very rare, but they do occur; usually when people wander into the lions’ hunting ranges and they don’t take proper precautions to avoid the lions.

The western border is the centre ridge tops of the Burran mountains. This high mountain range is the western border of the Kingdoms of Shukra, Berant, and most of Dareed; with the lower quarter of Dareed being a peninsula. The almost straight ocean shoreline forms the eastern border of these countries. Most of the shoreline is high sheer cliffs with many nice bays and beaches along it. Berant’s southern border is the Darunch Mountains with Dareed south of the mountains. The northern border is the Sharten Mountains with Shukra north of Berant. In land area Dareed is almost the size of Berant and Shukra is about the same size as Berant.

Berant is like an out of shape hour glass because it pinches in on the western side. The narrowest point is at the Amir Mountains where the country is only one hundred and sixty kilometres wide, and twenty kilometres of that are the mountainous tropical jungle of the Burran Mountains. The Amir Mountains run from there to the coast to make an effective barrier that almost splits the country in half.

Northern Berant consists of the Sharten Plain running from the Sharten Mountains to the Berant River. This area is a rough rectangle of three hundred and twenty kilometres across (east - west) and four hundred and eighty kilometres deep (north - south). The Amiri Plain runs four hundred kilometres south from the river to the Amir Mountains. Southern Berant consists of the Kotar Plain running six hundred and forty kilometres from the Amir Mountains to the Darunch Mountains with the Kotar river splitting this almost in half to create the Northern Kotar Plain and the Southern Kotar Plain. This plain widens out from one hundred and sixty kilometres at the Amir Mountains to three hundred kilometres at the Darunch Mountains. Dareed is seven hundred and twenty kilometres long from the Darunch Mountains to the peninsula tip. It’s from two hundred and eighty to three hundred kilometres wide until the peninsula, which is one hundred and twenty kilometres wide for most of its one hundred kilometres of length. Shukra is much more of a rectangle of three hundred kilometres across (east - west) and nine hundred and sixty kilometres deep (north - south) with the Shuk Mountains as its Northern border. The assimilation of Dareed into Berant after the Battle at Marley’s Landing was a very significant increase in the size of Berant’s land area and population.

There are many known passes across the Sharten, Amir, Darunch, and Shuk Mountains, and these are all marked on good maps. There are no known passes across the Burran Mountains, or if they’re known they’re well kept secrets of the family or clan or tribe. Rumours of hidden passes have been around for over a thousand years, but none have been found by the authorities or reported to them.

The capital city, Berana, is sited on the southern side of the Berant River and is virtually the centre of the original old kingdom that consisted of the Sharten and Amiri plains. The Kotar Plains became part of Berant a thousand years ago. King Edward set the Parliamentary Government up in Berana since it was almost the centre of the country at that time, and he made the old Royal Palace a national museum and culture centre. He established his own palace, Highcliff, between the coastal towns of View Port and Carmel about sixteen kilometres north of the Amir Mountains, almost at the opposite end of the Amiri Plain to the Parliament.

Carmel is a holiday and tourist resort established by King Edward. He also built a major marina between Carmel and View Port to attract International visitors and money. The administrative domestic government is at Berana while the main government with International affairs is at Highcliff. With the King now living in the middle of his tribal lands and safely surrounded by loyal members of his tribe and clan it’ll be a lot harder for another group of Rebels to kill the King. This arrangement also makes it harder for any national disaster to take out the whole governmental structure. Also, being near the main tourist resorts allows them to use the Palace and monarchy as a tourist attraction. This works well because it brings in many tourist dollars from people wanting to see a monarchy in action.

Financial System

Over the centuries Berant has used three financial systems. Prior to the French colonisation all transactions were by a form of barter where goods or services were exchanged on an immediate basis or over a time period. People gave their word and they honoured it. Promises were kept. If a person was unable to meet a promise their family, clan, or tribe did it for them and collected off them later; in blood if need be. This was because an individuals actions also reflected on the honour of the person’s kin and tribe.

The French administration brought French Francs, the concepts of accounts, credit, bookkeeping, record keeping, bureaucracy, and corruption. The crime rate soared. The Berant people weren’t angels, but theft, rape, and murder were next to non-existent as tribal laws had ways to handle them. Raiding between tribes was a common thing, but once you got out of a tribe’s lands with anything you stole it was a successful raid and the goods were yours. This meant the people were raiding (i.e. stealing) from other tribes and not within their tribe. Rape and murder had some very severe punishments that made death the easy option. The French colonists taught the tribes how to steal from their families, clans, and tribes through overcharging, not meeting debts, and asking for bribes. The honest people of the tribes learned all about corruption from the French Colonial bureaucrats. Most of the tribal members remained honest, but not all of the tribal members were honest in all of their dealings after that.

After the French were refused permission to return following the Second World War King Marshad introduced a new monetary system by calling them dollars and cents to differentiate them from the French Francs. They had to make new notes and coins, so they did a whole new system with new designs. There was very little organised International trade until the mid 1960s, so external monetary matters were of no interest and had very little effect on Berant. By the time they did the trade was very evenly balanced. All this time individuals were involved in local and International trade using the traditional barter processes. People near the borders traded goods with people from over the border and cash wasn’t used much at all, until the last third of the twentieth century AD / CE. For the little International trade conducted overseas foreign currencies were used.

Revenue Sources

There are four main sources of revenue collected for the running of the government at all levels.

Customs Excise collected by Customs Officers are used only by the King for funding his areas of authority.

Sales Tax is collected by the Parliament and Tribal Councils of the area where the sale takes place, the relevant authorities collect it and spend it on the areas of their responsibility. This is the only form of revenue the Tribal Councils can count on receiving. Sales Tax rates are Constitutional Laws and are the same across the country.

Income Taxes are levied on all corporate businesses and are collected by Parliament for funding their areas of responsibility. The Parliament is the only government body to collect Income Tax, despite it also applying to businesses in Tribal Lands. This is used to fund the police services, the Berant Army, and a few other nationwide services they also provide in the Tribal Lands by agreement with the Tribal Councils. Individuals, owner operated businesses, and partnerships are not subject to income tax. Incorporating a business allows the owners to limit their liability to the business, but it also subjects them to income tax.

To further constrain the various government authorities rates of customs duty and taxes are hard to change because these are all Constitutional Laws which the bodies can’t arbitrarily change, see Classes of Laws. Tight purse strings should keep all of the levels of government under reasonable control. This is all in the Berant Constitution. People think very hard about voting for tax increases before voting them in.

Donations are fifty percent tax deductible and can be accepted by the King, the Parliament, or the Tribal Council, but they can be used only for the task or tasks nominated by the donor. Individuals and businesses can make donations and designate what they’re to be used for. However, most donations are made by corporate businesses because they get the best tax benefits out of making donations. It doesn’t matter who the donations are made to, they’re still a deduction for the business income tax purposes. While donations are a way of giving the King or Tribal Councils additional funds while cutting down on what the business pays to the Parliament, it also means the business does pay out a lot more money with a donation than if they had simply paid the income tax because they only get a fifty percent deduction of the donation from their total taxable income value.

Fines for breaking the laws is a fifth revenue source, but because it isn’t regular it’s not seen as a true revenue source. The money from the fines goes to the relevant authority whose laws were broken. In most cases the money from the fines is added to the budget for the service responsible for administering the law broken. Also, part of the punishment for certain major crimes can include the confiscation of money and other assets of the criminals, and all confiscations go to the King for disposal and use for his areas of responsibility.

Authority Structure

The King has overall authority in all things. However, the basic day to day running of the country is done by the Parliament and the Tribal Councils. The King has varying levels of authority on the final approval of what they do and how they do it, see Classes of Laws. The Berant Constitution acknowledges the King’s Royal authority and he voluntarily subjugates himself to the Constitution by passing many of those authorities and powers to the Constitution. The Constitution also recognises the responsibilities and restraints placed on all of the people and the other authorities by the Constitution.

King

The King is the head of state who has the final responsibility where he has to give final approval to all laws before they can come into effect. He may reject any proposed law. Any rejected domestic administration law may be put to the people at the next election, the King and the Parliament must abide by the outcome of the people’s vote on the law. Such a law requires another vote before it can be changed in any way as this process raises the new law to the same status as a Constitutional Law.

The King is also the very last avenue of judicial appeal for all legal matters across the country.

The King has four main bureaucracies working for him. He is responsible for providing all of the staff, facilities, equipment, regulations, laws, security, policies, and procedures for them, including salaries and pensions. The bureaucracies are:

1. The Office of International Affairs. It covers embassies and all International agreements, immigration, tourist visas, etc. It includes the Royal Customs Service which administers customs operations and the collection of excise.

2. The Royal Guards. Military services loyal to the crown, and it can’t exceed five percent of the population.

3. The Protector’s Office. This is responsible for the protection of the citizens, and it has special sub-offices. Its head is the Royal Protector when there is one, and the King when there isn’t a Royal Protector appointed by the King.

- Royal Protector - the King’s special representative who has the full authority to act in the King’s name.

- Royal Intelligence Service (RIS) - collects and analyses all domestic and foreign information: i.e. spies. This group also conducts investigations into many matters. It has some special agents appointed by the King to act with the King’s authority as needed, and they report directly to the King. The special RIS agents appointed in this manner have the special designation of Falcon and their code number.

- Child Services Office - child welfare services, they investigate claims of abuse etc., oversee orphans and similar matters; including the welfare of the mentally disadvantaged. In depth investigations are often done by the police or RIS upon a request from the CSO to conduct an investigation on their behalf.

- Slave Welfare Office - checks slaves aren’t abused or mistreated by their masters, and it administers the regulations on slaves. The police and RIS assist in investigations when requested to by the SWO.

- Citizen’s Welfare Office - investigates any reported abuses of people, the CWO usually asks RIS to conduct any investigations for them. The CWO also administers welfare payments and support services.