Vekllei Islands

Overview #

Welcome to Vekllei. This article introduces the essential setting of this website – the Commonwealth of Vekllei. Welcome to the epilogue of the “epoch of rest.”

Vekllei is best conceptualised as a commonwealth of islands across the Atlantic Ocean. This commonwealth, the fourth in a series, consists of many island republics that are connected by politics and prosperity, not geography or race. These islands range in size from the Selvas Islands of 160 people to the island of Vekllei, of 16 million. Together, they amount to a single superstate that spans the entirety of the Atlantic as a great power.

The 4th Commonwealth which unites them is highly centralised and built on common systems of governance and economic management. Members of this commonwealth cede aspects of national governance to the Commonwealth, like security, health and education.

Oslola, raging and now blinded, drew deep wounds into the Earth. Out of these wounds came fire, and out of fire came Vekllei.

– Retelling of Algic legends, Verse 40, Saga of Origins[^2]

Territories #

History #

Colonial Era #

Occupation #

4th Commonwealth #

Former British Territories #

The decolonisation of the British Empire occurred around ten years prior to the First Atomic War, which saw Vekllei defeated and occupied by the United Kingdom and United States between 1995 and 2017. Continued administration of the country as an overseas territory became untenable as high inflation and an overvalued pound sterling strained British interest in maintaining a military and administrative presence in the Atlantic. In 2008, the US reduced its military presence in Vekllei by half, and indicated the UK should meet its commitments to Vekllei by 2015. There was concern between the UK and the US that the Vekllei communist insurgency may be revived in independence, and that hasty decolonisation would assure a red bulwark between continents. In response, the Interim Government was established in 2015 to prepare a stable government for independence.

Vekllei regained independence in 2017, along with its expensive (and economically dependent) self-governing territories in Kala and Demon[^1]. These were followed by the Aismious islands in 2020. By the time of independence, most of the British Caribbean had decolonised, including former Vekllei colonial possessions in the West Antilles liberated by the British after the war.

Following the establishment of the 4th Commonwealth in 2017, the new republics of Angua, Antam, Barbuda, Liamuiga, Martin, Montesur and Oualie were federated into the Antilles Commonwealth. Composed of former Vekllei and British colonial possessions, the Antilles Commonwealth joined the 4th Commonwealth as an associate state in 2019 and received full membership in 2021.

The UK further reduced its military and naval presence in the Atlantic in the 2020s. With the exception of the Falklands, most remaining small and uninhabited islands in British possession were purchased by Vekllei with funds from the US aid package in 2021, including the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands, St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan de Cunha. These were leased under a military agreement with the UK government, and British forces remained on the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands until 2046.

Former Portuguese Territories #

Former Spanish Territories #

Society #

State #

The Vekllei Commonwealth is a federated superstate including six individual commonwealths which share political features modelled after the Vekllei Islands. Sovereignty is afforded to the territory of Vekllei through an indigenous land-metaphysic called the Crown Sovereign. The physical representative of the Crown Sovereign, an intangible metaphysical constant, is called the Palace of the Vekllei Commonwealth, which enshrines the floral constitution and retains control over the armed forces.

Government #

✿ Main article: 🌸 Government of Vekllei

The Vekllei Government plays an active part in the lives of ordinary people. They are represented by a bicameral house system, including a parliament of nonpartisan representatives and a cabinet appointed by the Prime Minister’s office.

Vekllei has two prime ministers

People in Vekllei are governed by several organisations, including local municipalities, their national governments, the Commonwealth, and the Palace of the Atlantic Crown.

Beneath the Palace is the Commonwealth Parliament, which manages affairs that concern all commonwealth member-states, including standardisation of education, protection of culture, and intelligence gathering. The Commonwealth Parliament unites the resources of individual Island Commonwealths (called Islands here for simplicity), and standardises their political features. Island Commonwealths may have their own sovereign member-states, as in the case of Kalina and Antilles. These small nation-states are called Cherishes and retain their own parliamentary governments.

In total, there are four national governments sharing overlapping sovereignty over individual Vekllei countries. Together, they form a tremendous superstate with control over most of the Atlantic.

1. The Crown – the physical nature of territory belonging to the Vekllei Commonwealth, represented in human affairs by the Palace
2. The Commonwealth Parliament – the highest human multinational parliament and elected cabinet
3. The Island Parliaments – self-managing regional governments, functionally similar to traditional nation-states

And, in the case of Cherishes, which are individual republics within island commonwealths:

4. The National Parliaments – local, traditionally republican governments that have further concessions to boroughs, councils, municipalities and villages

Constituent member-states of the Commonwealth (the ‘Island Parliaments’) have two prime ministers that represent their national governments in the Commonwealth parliament. In most Islands, prime ministers include one man and one woman, with the exception of Kala. Elections are conducted with a Hare-Clark single transferable vote system to elect the prime ministers and bicameral legislatures, usually consisting of an upper house (a Crown Secretariat) and a lower house (Assembly). All voting in Vekllei is participatory and the superstate does not enforce a poll tax at any level of government. However, Island Parliaments require electoral enrolment from age 16 onwards.

Since Vekllei governments are nonpartisan, they do not allow formal participation of parties within elections. Despite this, informal associations of elected representatives exist, in the form of sociopartit, or Party Associations. The largest of these include the Vekllei Industrial Working Concern, the Atlantic Party, and the Crown, and although membership is permitted among elected members they are otherwise disallowed within the electoral process.

Governance in almost all levels of Vekllei government can be arranged along three branches, which scale from small village municipalities to the very Crown itself.

• A Parliament, including bicameral houses, petty legislatures, municipalities and the Palace.
• A Government, including prime ministers and an elected ministerial cabinet.
• A Judiciary, including both the High Court and Constitutional Court of Vekllei as well as tiny petty magistratures and council courts

Economy #

The principle of the Vekllei is liberty in the context of a moneyless system.

✿ See also: On Moneylessness

Vekllei has a hybrid moneyless system called commons, in which money is not used in daily life. In the place of money, the commons system exists as a series of social economies and usufructs[^1]. Rather than purchasing products as consumers, staples like food and clothing are subsidised by groups of companies known as bureaus. Everything else is produced in the colloquial moneyless market, often unreliably.

Money is used in a seperate industrial and financial market called the financialised commons. In this market, Vekllei uses two currencies known as Vekllei and Government Crowns, used by the government, industry and foreigners to interact with the Vekllei economy and purchase securities and financial indstruments. Money is also used as a means of exchange between Commonwealth republics as a privilege of the state.

The commons system relies on a system of participatory work, encouraged by the simple and universal rule to be employed, called Consosva. The standard of living in Vekllei is quite good and is unique among modern societies today.

Finance #

✿ Main article: 💵 Finance in Vekllei

Industry #

✿ Main article: ⚙️ Industry

Vekllei is highly industrialised, but under

Property #

✿ Read more: 🏡 Housing in Vekllei

Vekllei culture and ideology values property ownership. Ownership in Vekllei is primarily a social function legalised by the delicture system.

Education #

✿ Main article: 📚 Education in Vekllei

Education in Vekllei is universal and compulsory for children. All schools are coeducational, with the exception of a handful of faith schools.