Archanea (Nation)

Archanea, considered to be a military despotic empire, is still widely believed to be the most powerful nation on the continent. Owing the vast majority of its power to massive military strength, Archanea follows a militaristic tradition in its upholding of its position as the superpower on the continent; aside from the largest and most well-funded armed forces, Archanea benefits from a strong, well-developed military intelligence system that has become the model and envy to other, lesser military intelligence organizations in neighboring countries. Although Archanea has successfully amassed a large cache of wealth through its previous dynasties, the investments from earlier generations are essentially what is keeping the nation afloat from economic fallout, and in its strategic considerations, Archanea has forfeited much of its domestic economic concerns, leaving the nation with a relatively weak economy despite extensive trade that passes through the country.

Government
The government of the Archanean Empire largely revolves around the Emperor, the Imperial Household, and the Imperial Pavilion, around which practically all aspects of the government revolve around. The Emperor holds the greatest authority in the empire, and legally has no boundaries to his power; the only checks-and-balance that works against him are largely unofficial in that he has to constantly maintain the support of lords and generals who work under him, as well as members of the Imperial Household, composed of nobles with blood relations to the Emperor, who may get a bit over-ambitious in their political careers. For the sake of better administration, however, Archanean Emperors have generally taken a more hands-off approach, delegating tasks to his subordinates instead while having himself take focus on one specific portion of the empire; this serves not only to neatly organize partitioning the objectives of the empire, but also to keep nobles and lords in check by giving them enough room to compete with each other and not contend with the Emperor instead.

While supreme power is delegated to the Emperor, designating power to members of the Imperial Household is far more difficult. In the past, tradition dictated that power was relatively to a mixture of seniority in the family and blood relations to the Emperor, but recent dynasties have instead allowed Emperors to individually give ranks to members of the Imperial Household; furthermore, tradition has still left an aftertaste in the system, and regardless of rank, certain members of the family still wield an unspoken amount of unofficial influence, which makes discerning ranks within the Imperial Family far more difficult that what it once was. Generally speaking, immediate family holds greater influence and power, males hold more power and influence than females, although this gender-based margin of power has shrunk to nearly insignificance, and senior members have more say than those of the newer generation.

The Imperial Pavilion, meanwhile, distinguishes itself from other lords, generals, and civil servants who work in service of the Empire. Composed of the Emperor's most trusted officials and nobles, the Imperial Pavilion's official duty is to serve as highly-ranked confidantes of the Emperor who wield a large amount of power and influence in representing the Emperor himself. Instead of individuals tasked specifically with a fiefdom or an army, the Imperial Pavilion specifically services the Emperor at all times, acting as his inner Cabinet and brain trust when trusted advice or services are required in which normal advisors or lords are incapable of providing. While capable of taking on tasks that other nobles, lords, or generals perform on a regular basis, the Imperial Pavilion distinguishes itself with their wide range of capabilities, their requirement of moving from one place to the next as the Emperor wills, and the trust they receive from the Emperor.

Infastructure
Infrastructure is, undoubtedly, one of the weaker points of the Archanean Empire. Civil infrastructure remains at one of its lower ebbs due to high military and intelligence spending, and the high tax rates have not improved this situation. Although all citizens benefit from strong national security due to a highly trained and disciplined military force, living conditions are decidedly only average, if not below. Slums in metropolises are not at all uncommon, and the rich-poor gap is horrendous. Archanea has managed to at least keep hygiene in check through the extensive usage of a sewer system, and transportation remains high due to well-maintained roads, but Archanea has otherwise average, or even poor, infrastructure. Its economic system has had little improvement over the last few years, and despite its extensive trade market and the incentives provided to it, Archanea's main economy is being sustained largely in part by the accumulated, invested caches of wealth that have been built up by various dynasties over the generations.

Military
Archanea has the highest military spending and highest military spending percentage compared to the other nations on the continent, maintaining a massive army that remains to be a colossal force to feared. The Archanean armed forces are utilized for a large variety of conventional tasks, including law enforcement, patrols, national defense, and offensive campaigns. Although Archanea does not legally have a draft policy, the Emperor has the authority to implement an universal draft of every able-bodied person regardless of gender. This, combined with basic military training being implemented in every government learning institute to equip even their children with combat knowledge, allows for the formation of a well-equipped militia that can coordinate with the regular army when the need arises. Therefore, despite Archanean armed forces having only a slightly above-average performance record in terms of individual training, they also account for all able-bodied civilians in such a census, which other nations do not include. The civilian-led militia, therefore, is more than capable of putting up stiff, effective resistance against even conventional military forces of other nations, and are far from helpless against invaders.

Archanea benefits greatly from an extremely strong officer corps. Requirements for a commissioned-rank are extremely high, and even nobles who aspire for such a rank are require to graduate from a nationally-sponsored officer candidate school; although graduation from OCS are technically entitled to at least a rank of second lieutenant, to maintain quality, all officer candidate schools deliberately allow only the top fifty percent of graduates to actually graduate with a commission to the regular army. Aside from attending an OCS, soldiers may be promoted to officer rank by promotion through merit, in which a military board reviews the combat service vitae of the soldier in question. Despite strong inter-rivalry amongst officers, Archanean officers are considered to be the elite in the nation, if not the entire continent, due to unsurpassed level of training and experience. As such, much of the military spending budget is reserved for the upkeep of standards as well as the high officer pay to prevent defection.

Command of the military lies within the hands of the Emperor, who acts as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Although entire armies may be tasked to a general or lord, who may utilize the army as he wishes without orders from the Emperor, all military forces and equipment are considered Imperial property, and, thus, all delegation of military forces to semi-autonomous command outside immediate authority of the Emperor is considered a blessing. All Archanean military assets are required to obey the commands of the Emperor first and foremost, without question and without delay, regardless of any other direct or standing orders that they may have received. Historically, however, for the sake of more efficient organization, the Emperor has instead delegated portions of the military to various lords and generals, who are responsible for the security of their fiefdoms or territories, and are also expected to produce results in terms of the annexation of nearby lands to procure more resources.

Intelligence
The intelligence community in Archanea is divided amongst two sections, Imperial Intelligence and Military Intelligence. Imperial Intelligence is Archanea's main intelligence organization, reporting directly to civil officials designated by the Emperor, and responsible for counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, international espionage, internal affairs, black operations, and defection prevention. Military Intelligence, meanwhile, is managed largely by the Emperor's war pavilion, and is largely responsible for the surveillance of all foreign armies whether in peacetime or wartime. The rivalry between Imperial Intelligence, known as the "Double-Eye", and Military Intelligence is ferocious, but Imperial Intelligence is, without question, the more effective and clandestine organization, with highly-trained operatives capable of handling any type of intelligence affair, whether they be a simple grunt or a high-ranked officer. It is widely rumored, and also widely believed, that Military Intelligence has never succeeded in intercepting or decoding any code from Imperial Intelligence.

Imperial Intelligence is another aspect of the nation that receives a sizable percentage of the national spending budget, and they put the money to good use; they have implemented a very effective spy program that have infiltrated a massive amount of spies into practically every nation on the continent on all levels of citizenry and government. To the dismay of other nations, their own counter-intelligence efforts have historically only managed to expose an approximate of five percent of all spies, one out of twenty, per year. As such, Imperial Intelligence is often found working alongside Military Intelligence during wartime, much to the chagrin to both sides, to increase effectiveness of enemy surveillance.