Unified Vespian Directorate

The Unified Vespian Directorate, also known as the UVD, the Directorate, or just Vespia, is the dominate political body of the Milky Way Galaxy. Governed by the Vespians, the Directorate governs the entire galaxy and all of its inhabitants. Established in 7984 NE, the Directorate was designed to serve as a unified body of Vespian nations which were organized under the new government in which all Vespians were to be represented equally. The Directorate so far seems to have fulfilled its original purpose, and continues to remain an important factor in the lives of the trillions of Vespians living under its protection. With the exception of the many households which make up its most important members, the Directorate is thus far the only political entity in the entire galaxy.

Origins and formation
The Unified Vespian Directorate was the brainchild of Anton Kane, who served as the patriarch of House Kane in the years leading up to the Directorate's formation. For centuries, the Vespian people warred against one another over the same pieces of land and resources, all seeking prestige, influence, and power over their rivals on the planet of Vespia. Anton recognized that his people could not survive if such a cycle continued. This was exemplified centuries beforehand, when during the Fourth Great War, multiple houses such as House Nazarov, used atomic weapons against their rivals in the conflict, killing millions. Likewise, other households, notably House Archambeau, later utilized biological weapons to offset potential defeats near the end of global conflict. The seventy-five million Vespian fatalities of that conflict, heavily influenced Anton's desire to push ahead with his dream of a single Vespian nation, one which would see the potential prosperity of the species fully realized. To that end, Anton spent decades pursuing a pact with the other households aimed at forming a single Vespian government, that would bring all of the Vespians together under the aegis of a united government benefiting all members of the species.

Government
Vespia is an patriarchal federation divided into three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, which manage affairs of the nation. The head of the government is the Supreme Director, who is elected by the member of the Supreme Federal Congress. All members of Congress represent a household of the Vespians, some either serving as the heads of their house or elected to the position to serve as their house's representative within the Congress. The current Supreme Director is Mikhail Nazarov from House Nazarov. The Supreme Director holds the ultimate authority within the government, which much of the Congress' power limited to taxation and internal affairs related to trade and policing of solar systems and trade routes. Much of the day-to-day affairs of government are left to the numerous houses within the Directorate, and only major affairs involving the Vespian nation as a whole are handled directly by the federal government.

Supreme Director
The Supreme Director is the head of state and government of the Unified Vespian Directorate, and is the highest-ranking political figure in Vespia. Wielding immense political power, the Supreme Director is often regarded as the most powerful individual in the known galaxy, and is often an unchallenged authority figure in the public media. The Supreme Director holds the power to declare war, sign peace treaties, and negotiate trade deals without the approval of Congress, though out of tradition and custom, presents his plans to the Congress before acting. The Supreme Director is elected by the Supreme Federal Congress by a two-thirds supermajority to a term of ten years, of which there are no term limits, with votes of no confidence permitted after the first five years. Because of the manner in which elections must be won, coalitions have since formed between houses to allow for the supermajorities to be attained for the victory. These coalitions operate in much the same manner as ancient political parties, though the divisions are along familial rather than ideological lines.

Advisory Council
The Advisory Council of Vespia is the federal cabinet responsible for handling the day-to-day management of government affairs on the Supreme Director's behalf, as well as advising him on what actions to take during council meetings on the state of the nation. Regarded as the most powerful group of people in the federal government, the Advisory Council has direct access to the Supreme Director at all times, and each head individual government organs known as "directorates" which span billions of government employees and trillions of serebros annually. The body consists of thirty individuals made of thirteen directorate heads, the seven great house patriarchs, as well as the Supreme Director who sits as the head of the council, the Deputy Supreme Director and Chancellor of the Supreme Federal Congress, and seven other individuals handpicked by the Supreme Director to advise him on state affairs. The patriarchs of the seven great households rarely chair the meetings of the Advisory Council, unless expressly ordered to do so by the Supreme Director, and instead sending their most trusted children on their behalf.

Membership to the Advisory Council is highly sought after by members of the Congress, as such a position garuntees the ear of the Supreme Director on most matters of national importance. Because of the council's role in handling the daily governance of the Directorate, only the most suitable people are ever selected to serve on the council, though this has not always been the case. During times of gross corruption in the government, it was common for the Supreme Director to surround himself with individuals close to him, rather than individual competant enough to run the government on his behalf. Since those times, things have changed somewhat, with knowledgable characters assigned seats in the council. The Advisory Council may meet so long as half of its members are present, and the Deputy Supreme Director or Chancellor of the Congress can chair the meeting, regardless of whether or not the Supreme Director himself can make it.

Supreme Federal Congress
The Supreme Federal Congress is the sole legislative body of Vespia, made of representatives representing each household and sector within the Directorate. The Congress is made up of 5,618 members known as senators, each representing a single household or sector. All members of Congress have a single vote, though this isn't always the case. Members of the Congress have long been accused of corruption due to the fact that senators hailing from the great houses are given more voting power compared to those hailing from major or minor houses, while sectorial senators who represent a collection of minor houses too small to be represented individually, only get one or two votes in the Congress. After the Congressional Campaigns ended, the government was forced to institute the policy of sectors to allow minor houses a chance to vote in the Supreme Federal Congress. Since, minor houses have been joined into sectors to grant them greater representation within the government through their respective senators.

Every five years, the Supreme Federal Congress convenes to discuss the affairs of state in the Federal Capitol the capital city of Blackstone on Xyon. Sessions last for about six months, allowing for most of the concerns of the Vespian people be heard during the period of time allowed for debates and resolutions. It should be plainly noted that Vespia is not a true democracy as ancient humanity would have known it, but a quasi-dictatorship in which the Supreme Federal Congress simply voices the concerns of the people, i.e., their patriarchs, and the government votes on resolutions that the Supreme Director is free to accept or dismiss at any time he wishes, making the Congress more or less a rubber-stamp committee. Despite this, the Supreme Directors of the past have been keen to allow the Congress some power, though never enough to displace their overall authority in the Directorate. Though the Congress' power grows and fades depending on how enlightened the Supreme Director is when it comes to sharing power.

All households are represented either by their house patriarch, if a great or major household, or by their sectorial representatives if a minor house with little independent capability to justifiably have its own direct congressional member. All houses with direct representation may send their patriarch as their default representative in the Congress, though most send appointed or elected representatives. All house leaders hold their seat for as long as they wish or until their death or being incapacitated. As aforementioned, the Supreme Federal Congress has little to no power over the Supreme Director, thanks largely in part to the infighting of the many houses that are represented within the legislative body. Fear of federal retribution via the use of the Vespian Defense Forces to punish aggressive or insubordinate households, is enough to keep most house leaders in line. However, it is not unheard of for seating house members to rebel against the authority of the Congress and the Supreme Director, such as with House Grayson during Grayson's War.

Crime and punishment
Crime is rampant throughout the Vespian nation, with violent crime. While much of it can be attributed to the hostile and aggressive nature of the female Vespian population, which accounts for more than 99% of the species, the crime rate can also be blamed on the internal strife and slave wage culture of Vespian society. There are very few opportunities to rise in society outside of the military and politics, and far fewer options if one isn't a man. The simple truth is that Vespian society is stratified to the point of social immobility, meaning that a Vespian will mostly likely live and die in the same social class as her peers, with no economic growth to speak of. This hopelessness on the part of the average Vespian has fostered an almost nihilist approach to life. Outside of religion, there is no true comfort in society, leading to crime and violence as Vespians seek to advance their lot in life by any means possible. Typically, this is the case on the more industrialized worlds, though it isn't uncommon on poorer worlds, where law enforcement is sparse.

Naturally, given the astronomic crime levels across the Directorate, law enforcement has become equal astronomic in terms of scale. Tens of billions of heavily-armed enforcement personnel have been trained to deal with the problem, and the laws, through are harsh and heavy-handed by ancient human standards, are considered fair and prudent in the eyes of the Vespians. Police brutality is welcomed by the population as a way of getting back at criminals, though the levels of brutality often exceeded even what the military deems to be acceptable. Public floggings are commonplace throughout the Directorate, many public squares designed to host them. Expulsion from one's household the most feared sentence, as it puts a Vespian outside of the security of their family, and into the harsh and brutal world of the houseless outcasts and exiles. Many criminals flee to the relatively safety of the Outback worlds, where the government would have difficulty keeping an eye on them, and some return once it is safe to do so.

There are thousands of penal colonies throughout the Directorate, considered the "cheaper" option for dealing with repeat offenders without having to house them on populous worlds where a prison break could have potential. Life on these colonies is incredibly difficult, and given that penal colonies get only what the prisoners absolutely need to survive, such as bare necessities like food and clothing, and house some of the worst individuals in the known galaxy, life on a penal colony is considered all one needs to be shocked out of their criminal behavior. Prisoners have no rights, and their comfort considered a tertiary concern by the state. Prisoners are overwhelming female, though in the rare case of a man being sent to prison, his internal reproductive organs are removed to prevent him from forming a military to avenge himself. As such, penal colonies are almost exclusively female in population, with the noted exception of penal colony administrators and staff.

Military
The Directorate as a whole is defended by the Vespian Defense Forces, which serve the federal government directly rather than one of the great houses. As a people, the Vespians have never had a peaceful history, with wars over land and resources for the ever-growing and ever-hungry households on their homeworld saw many wars wages against one another. The egos of the ruling patriarchs and the glory-seeking generals and warriors of Vespia's largest armies fueled countless wars that never truly ceased, even as the Vespians entered into space and the many millions of worlds free to colonize. Wars over worlds and the resources they harbored saw many new wars fought in a new arena. The level of bloodshed that resulted from these wars were enough to see the formation of an entire political body to settle disputes, and a military force to enforce them. However, no one could agree on personnel size requirements and contributions to the needs of a permanent military force, and therefore a weak and generally powerless peacekeeping force was drawn up in place of a standing army.

To that end, the Vespia Emergency Task Force was established by the Directorate to serve as peacekeepers and enforcers for the federal government. It was hoped that by maintaining a large, standing military under the direction of a single governing authority would bring peace to Vespia, but that has not been the case. Coming into form during the devestating Vespian Civil War, the VDF replaced the weak and powerless Vespia Emergency Task Force, which had been overwhelmed by the numerous combatant forces in the conflict. The need for a stronger and larger force to prevent another civil war saw the remnants of the largely destroyed VETF, combined into the first members of the new Vespian Defense Force, a long needed military force for the Directorate. Though established also to settle the issue as to who would protect the Directorate following the civil war and how, the VDF is today responsible for not only keeping the nation safe from harm, but also preventing the many households of Vespia from causing too much damage to the Vespian state and people as a whole as well.

In this role the VDF serves as the Directorate's foremost peacekeepers, reforged and rebranded as the most effective fighting force ever seen. The VDF had since played an important role in the survival of the Directorate, doing so for the sake of the Vespian people and the nation placed under the VDF's protective care. As a direct result, the Vespian Defense Forces in the largest and most technologically sophisticated military force ever formed by the Vespian people, and the territory it must cover surpasses that of all the great houses combined. The military superiority of the VDF is undisputed, and the arrival of the VDF to a hot zone in the Directorate is enough to settle issues. Often, the mere threat of federal government retaliation in the form of the VDF, is all that is required to get the houses fighting against one another to come to the table and work out a settlement no matter how undesirable it may be to both parties. No one wants to wage an unwinnable war against the federal government, especially when the VDF outnumbers the security forces of even the largest houses in the Directorate.

Economy
The Vespian economy is a massive beast that is largely beyond the ability of any one Vespian to put a number on or know entirely save for the fact that it is large and powerful. What is a fact is that the economy is not spread out uniformly nor is it fair and equal in terms of the wealth gap. At the planetary level, most worlds found in the highly-developed, highly-advanced Cardinal Worlds, are mostly self-sufficient and economic juggernauts which run the economy like a well-oiled machine. On the opposite end of that spectrum are the worlds of the Outback, which are poor and underdeveloped, though they boast vast mineral supplies that the industrialized worlds of the Ark Worlds rely on to power their industries. In the middle are the core worlds that exist across the Ark and Edge worlds, supplying a considerable amount of resources to the outback worlds which importing more technologically sophisticated goods from the Cardinal worlds. Such is the galactic economy in a sense. High-tech goods from the Cardinal worlds flow to the Ark worlds, which supply the Edge and Outback worlds with industrial equipment needed for production, farming, and mining. Likewise, raw minerals and agricultural goods flow back into the Cardinal and Ark worlds in return.

On the individual basis, the average Vespian is very well off by ancient human standards, most making enough to eat, live, and play. However, most is not all, and a fair number of Vespians, especially those living in the outer rings of the Directorate, rely on government handouts to make end's meet. Outback worlds are often so destitute, that many of their colonists rely on subsistence farming and animal hunting just to survive. Those living on the Cardinal worlds are often so well off by Outback standards, that those considered "poor" on a Cardinal world live a considerably harder lifestyle requiring them to work at one of the many unglamous factories that require intensive physical labor. As for the wealthy, there are several thousand trillionaires in Vespian society, most of whom are patriarchs of some of the largest households of Vespia. As for billionaires, many are those who have no power in their own house politically speaking, but are giants on their homeworlds. The richest 1% of Vespia only controls about half of the national economy however.

Goods and services
Vespia as a massive consumerist ideology, which colors nearly everything corporations and financial leaders do within the Vespian economy. Corporatism is a driving force within the economy as well, with major corporations spread across hundreds and even thousands of planets, fighting for the attention of the average Vespian individual. Hundreds of trillions of serebro are spent on advertising alone, and with much success in promoting the purchase of goods many Vespians otherwise wouldn't have purchased on their own initiative. Many centers of rest and relaxation are open to the public throughout the Directorate, with entire worlds often turned over to the pursuit of leisure. Some households are known to rely entirely upon such worlds as their source of revenue, though such houses tend to be of the minor category. Regardless, capitalism is well and alive through Vespia, and the consumer spirit drives much of the Vespian economy and industry.

Megacorporations are a fact of life throughout Vespian society, and giants such as Galactic Armaments, Pravus Interstellar, and Kiernan-Marsden Industries, tower over Vespian economics often out of reach from even governmental forces. Vespian men unwilling to go the route of the common patriarch typically pursue the route of business mogul, seeking to try their luck, if the Vespians ever believed in such a thing, in the world of trade and finance. Some fathers send their sons off to establish their own businesses to keep them occupied rather than giving them power within their household, while bringing in money for their family to use in the end. Almost any good or service can be found throughout the Directorate if one were willing to look hard enough for them, leading to some often strange and dangerous outcomes. Companies often turn a blind eye to illegal requests or products, and megacorporations aren't above winking at certain "disappearances" of their more sensitive wares granted the payment or outcome favor their desired interests.

Trading and finance
The Vespians maintain a capitalist free market system of commerce, with trade based on supply and demand driving the heart of the Vespian economy. All trade is conducted through the exchange of physical goods or on credit, that credit represented in the form of the serebro, which is the official currency of the Unified Vespian Directorate and all major organizations within the nation. The serebro was the primary form of currency in Vespian society for thousands of years, and has since grown to become the universal currency of the Vespian people. Every major household of the Vespian race possess its own financial apparatus, which also includes an independently operated merchant fleet of trade ships used to transport goods and equipment between the worlds of the households. The government itself maintains its own logistical system so as not to be dependent upon anyone household for its services, but has been known to reach out to independent corporations which specialize in trade, commerce, and courier services.

Any Vespian with the funds to do so, male or female, can become a merchant captain and ply the trade routes themselves as freelance merchants and couriers, of which there is high demand. Smuggling is is a common issue in the Directorate, and customs patrols are equally common in the Cardinal and Ark worlds as a result. One can become very wealthy as a smuggling, and numerous outfits geared to the illegal transportation of goods, typically those of controlled substances and weapons, are often moved between worlds and sectors by smugglers. Bribery is common in the outer regions of the Directorate, and thus a smuggler can easily get around the authorities so long as they can afford to pay them off. It is believed that the black market accounts for more than twelve percent of the Vespian economy, something that has alerted many politicians to act against, and try to close off all areas of the black market economy.

Each household is permitted to regulate to a certain extent their own trade and commerce within the Directorate. The government only interferes within inter-house trading if illegal activities are suspected or discovered, and if piracy has become an issue in the region necessitating the need for government patrols in the area of trade. Military patrols and intelligence operatives tend to ply the major trade routes to keep them clear of illicit commodities and pirates, as well as enforcing federal trade standards expected of all houses involved in interstellar commerce. However, the federal government is happy to leave the houses to themselves with regards to the economy, allowing them and the corporations of the Directorate to act as they may so long as the interests of the state are not effected. Government loans are often vital to the trading market, as the federal merchant marine is parceled out to houses or companies in need of extra transporters for their goods, especially if they benefit the galactic economy as a whole.

The central bank of Vespia, known as the Federal Vespian Exchequer, provides loans and hard currency directly to households and major industries within the Directorate, as well as maintaining and overseeing the flow of cash into and out of the treasury of the Directorate. This reserve consists of cash, valuable minerals, and goods of high value such as high-end vehicles, national treasures ranging from religious artifacts, ancient armor, and artwork, and even major warships preserved and officially insured by the federal government. Since the Directorate is the only major government in the known galaxy, the government itself has no major debts as it owes nothing to no foreign powers. However, the federal government may find itself owing small debts to industries from whom it may buy certain things such as land on planets for new government buildings and military bases on credit instead of in hard cash.

Society and culture
Vespian society is dominated and divided by the households, the massive familial blocs that govern life for the bulk of Vespia's citizens from the Cardinal Worlds to the Outback. Though not normally a fractious people, the Vespians have waged numerous wars against one another over power, prestige, resources, and territory. However, since the formation of the Directorate, peace over a large region has led to the formation of a national identity fueled by the "Vespian-first" ideology of the people. However, with the lack of other sentient lifeforms, factionalism has slowly crept back into society, and loyalty to ones household before the state itself has been the source of numerous conflicts in the past. These conflicts have almost always been motivated by the greed of the ruling patriarchs and age-old grudges, than by things such as conflicting ideals, cultural differences, and social doctrines. Thus, it can be said that Vespian society, though tumultuous at times, has been relatively peaceful as of the recent past.

Religion and philosophy
Mikaeanism is the state religion of the Directorate, and has been so since the day of its birth as a political entity more than seven thousand years ago. Religion continues to play a major role in the life of the Vespians, who have always been the religious kind, obsessed with the divine and the scriptures of the Izrecheniya. Vespians throughout the Directorate are adherents to the religion, giving Mikaeanism great weight in the daily lives of the Vespian population. Religious centers exist on every single planet and colony of the nation, and government officials swear on the holy books of Mikaeanism as they enter positions of power.

Astrography
The official tally of colonized worlds controlled by the Unified Vespian Directorate was 12,043,648 as of 11,952 NE. The majority of these worlds are located within each of the galactic regions are: 713,936 worlds in the Cardinal Worlds, 2,204,714 in the Ark Worlds, 4,071,288 settled in the Edge Worlds, and 3,053,672 located in the Outback Worlds. Currently, there are more worlds that have yet to be counted by the Federal Bureau of Colonization, given that the data has yet to be collected. However, it is believed that there are at least another quarter of a million worlds that have yet to be added into the system by the federal government. Such information is collected every ten years, and the next tally of colonized worlds will have been collected and processed by the government by 11,960 NE.

The worlds colonized by the Vespians are divided by class, with each classified by their development and status. These are vital as the funding each world gets from the government as well as the level of federal military protection and development are dependent upon the classification of the world requesting aid. Large, populous Alpha-type city worlds (α) such as Aurora and Jural are the most likely to receive generous federal assistance, while small colonial Epsilon-type worlds (ε) such as Antony and Northridge are the least likely to receive help from the government. However, class doesn't always play a role, as great houses can push for tiny agricultural Eta-type worlds (η) to get funding, while some Alpha-type worlds such as Sator are destitute and ignored by the federal government.