#akaan kast

[furious-blueberry0]

Mandalorian Government (new)

Is someone interested in a revisited and more complete version of the Mandalorian Government I've been workin on for my AU?

Well here it is, beware it's long:

First of all, some extra context: 

This Government was created roughly 2000 years before the era of the prequels.

The difference between the Mandalorian System and the Mandalorian Sector:

Mandalorian System: composed by the nine homeworlds, and the respective moons, of the mando’ade.   Mandalorian Sector: the eleven systems, and respective planets, that the mandalorians conquered during their Crusade, plus the Mandalorian System. Imperialistic colonies, governed by the invasors, and where the people of those worlds had little to no agency or power over their own life. 

To be considered a citizen of age, and have the right to vote, it depends on only one thing: Completing the Verd’goten (whether you are 13 or 35, you have to complete it first)

When you reach the age of 60, you can still vote, but you cannot run for any kind of political office.

Mandalore is not part of the Republic, but the System decided to at least maintain a good relationship between the two, and so every ten years, they invite emissaries of the Republic to the Celebration of the election of the new Governors. 

More often than not the emissaries they send are Jedi, as if the Republic was testing them to see if they cared more about their current peace, or the war of the past, but for now no mandalorian ever attacked verbally or physically any of the Jedi sent there, or at least none of the Jedi ever said anything about it in their reports, so who knows.

There are four main bodies in this government:

The Assembly 

The Committee of the Elders

The Governors

The Council of the People

The Assembly is formed by 30 elements, and with the two Governors they are 32.

To be elected as a member you have to be a citizen of age, so the standard mandalorian citizen can be elected if they're at least 13 years old (since that’s the standard age of the Verd’goten), but not if they’re over 60.

It’s rare to see mandalorians under the age of 18 actually be elected, but some actually managed it.

Obviously the non-human species that have different life spans will have different rules, with their years equating to the human ones. 

Each of the nine planets of the Mandalorian System: Nog, Akaan, Tracyn, Kalevala, Mandalore, Mandallia, Bonagal, Shukut and Werda, who are considered as the homeworlds of the Mandalorians, run elections to choose three mandalorians to represent the planet in the Assembly.

Not only the citizens of the planets can run for elections, but also those who live on their moons, which is a bit tricky for the planets of Bonagal and Shukut, who have 34 and 30 moons, but they seem to manage just fine.

Only one member per Clan can run for election, and more often than not, they are elected based more on the power of their names than their actual worth as a candidate. 

But this doesn’t preclude the way to those who come from less known Clans, who are sometimes even preferred by the citizens, because they are considered more part of the people, and not spoiled kids of powerful families.

This way we have 27 members elected. 

The other 3 are chosen by the Assembly, and are the representatives of the Three Houses: House Vizsla, House Kast and House Kryze.

This was a rule made to avoid internal conflicts, so that the Houses could not complain about losing power or not being represented in the government.

They have the same power as the other members of the Assembly, no more, no less.

For each member their tenure lasts 20 years, but since one can’t keep a political career over the age of 60, for example, if they are elected when they’re 50 then their tenure will only last 10 years, if elected at 45 it will only last 15 years and so on. These cases are actually pretty rare, but they do happen.

They can decide to withdraw from their position, but only after 5 years of service. 

Their position can be taken away with a Vote-of-No-Confidence, who can be called by any individual that brings enough evidence to show their reasoning about the vote.

If any of this happens, their planet is given three months to redo a new election for a new member, if this is not done then the Assembly can choose a new member on their own.

The Committee of the Elders doesn’t have actual political power, their position is more honorary than anything else, they are there to give advice and suggestions to the Assembly and the Governors, but their voice has no power in the actual decision making.

It’s made up of 6 elders, elected by the Assembly, with tenure for life and to be part of it you need to be at least 60 years old.

Most of the time they are former members of the Assembly, who cannot be re-elected there, and so they are given this position.

There have been cases in which some of those elected never held political tenure, but they are rare.

They can decide to withdraw at any moment.

They too can lose their position, but this can be decided only by a Vote-of-No-Confidence made and voted by the Assembly.

The citizens have no say on the Committee, since they have no power and are only used as advice givers.

The Governors are the heads of state of the Mandalorian Sector.

They are chosen with an election done across all the planets of the sector, and are voted by only the citizens of age.

Before the Great Secession of the People, they were only voted by the planets of the system.

To run for the election they need to be at least 20 years old, and anyone from any Clan or House can do so. Their tenure lasts ten years.

When one becomes a Governor, they have to strip their beskar’gam of any kind of paint or symbols on it. 

This is done because the Governors have to represent all Mandalorians, and not just a specific faction or creed, so plain beskar is far preferable to send that message across.

In older times the Governors could not use their surnames for this exact reason, but this is a practice that was then lost to time and never used again.

During official meetings with the Assembly or the Council of the People, they have to wear a purple cloak, to signify their status as head of state and distinguish themselves from the other mandalorians.

The decade of the Mandalorian Calendar in which they governed has the name of the two Governors.

For example the decade of Satine and Arla is called “The Years of Fett and Kryze”, but since in older times the Governors didn’t use their surnames, the older ones used the first names, so another example could be “The Years of Arla and Satine”.

They too can have their power taken by a Vote-of-No-Confidence, that can be called by any individual that brings enough evidence to show their reasoning about the vote, but this happens only if at least 25 members of the Assembly vote against the Governor.

No, challenging one of the Governors to a duel to the death will not give you their position of power, but it will give you the chance to get your ass beaten and obliterated by all the 30 members of the Assembly for even suggesting such a stupid idea.

The Council of the People is formed by the representatives of each of the eleven systems that have been conquered by the mandalorians and transformed into colonies: the Breshig system, the Cheravh system, the Concord Dawn system, the Draboon system, the Gargon system, the Harswee system, the Hrthging system, the Jakelia system, the Ordo system, the Vorpa’ya system and the Zanbar system.

Each system elects 5 representatives, and they follow the same rules of the Assembly, both for the elections and for the tenure. In total the Council has 55 members.

Unlike the Assembly, who can decide anything for anyone, they have no saying on what happens in the other systems, but only on what happens to their respective one. 

So, for example, the representatives of the Concord Dawn system cannot decide new laws for the Ordo system, but the Assembly can for both of them, but not without the representatives of that system present.

This Council has not always existed.

During the times where the Mandalorians still followed the rule of the Mand’alor, these planets had no power of their own. 

The Mandalorian Crusaders were the ones in charge of these worlds, and they exploited the native populations as slaves, to work in their place in taking their own resources and giving them to the planets of the Mandalorian System.

The situation changes throughout the centuries, with the native populations slowly mixing with the mandalorians, leading to the creations of new clans and new subcultures of the Mandalorian one. 

The people are no longer the slaves of the invaders’ clans, now they cannot be sold away from their land, they can own houses and small properties where they can live with their own clans.

They are not allowed to wear the beskar’gam or own weapons, but thanks to a proliferating and well-hidden black market, these things manage to find their way into their homes.

But this does not make them free, the work life they are forced to live is cruel and unfair, the taxes on both their money and their products are terribly high, the vast majority of the people live in poverty, and the overall treatment reserved to them by the settlers is nothing short of horrific.

When the last Mand’alor gets assassinated, the mandalorians ( of the Mandalorian System) created this new government, but with only the Governors, the Assembly and the Committee being part of it.

This goes on for a few decades, but the people of the colonies are tired of not being considered in the political life, of being treated as class B citizens, of the way they were still being treated by those who proclaimed to have killed the Mand’alor to stop his tyrannical rule, but who gave them none of the freedom they were so fond of proclaiming to have protected and saved. And so, they decided to take action.

In what would later be known as The Great Secessions of the People, one day all the populations of the occupied worlds stopped working en masse, they abandoned the cities, all their shops and all the factories. The planets who started the secessions had been those of the Concord Dawn System, and as word spread of these actions across the Sector, the other Systems started to do the same, leading to an unprecedented economical crisis, that led the Mandalorian System to remain without primal resources, since the vast majority of the manpower came from the colonies.

The mandalorians had tried to send armed forces to force the populations to get back to the cities and to their work, but not only were they extremely outnumbered, the people had weapons too, and so they fought and fought, winning all of the battles they had to endure, until the armed forces had to retreat.

Realizing that with brute force nothing would have been achieved, the then Governors decided to find an agreement with all the planets of the Sector.

And so a treaty was written, where the planets would now be allowed to choose their own leaders and govern the planets to their liking, they are given a voice in political life with the formation of the Council and choose their representatives.

They are still under mandalorian domination, and are not free to do whatever they want without the Assembly approval, but it’s far more freedom and power than they ever had since becoming colonies.

Basically each planet can have their own form of govern (monarchy, oligarchy, democracy etc.), but they all have to follow the laws that are imposed by the Assembly.

[overcaffeinated-creative]

Solus Vetra, Modern AU

Title: I have the Best Work Stories Ever

Rating: T

Characters: Unnamed New Guy, Solus Vetra, Pre Vizsla, Akaan Kast

Summary: A new guy gives a first person run down of the wildest day in his blossoming Kyr’tsad career. Solus shows off what makes her a total badass. Assume they’re operating within an American HQ.

Notes: This was inspired by the introduction scene of Natasha in Iron Man 2. You know the one. There’s a lampshade for it.

Being the New Guy always sucked. If there is someone to be blamed for something going wrong it will be you. Food and coffee runs also became your job without your approval. The really sadistic bastards made up things for you to find on wild snipe hunts to supposedly find. No one cared if you have known each other half your damned lives (looking at you, Conner, who has shared my room for ever family thing since birth) because you are Fresh Meat. If leaving out key information could result in something funny they just had to do it. Because all that matters in the end is there’s a new di’kut around HQ to be tormented until the next batch arrives.

Take for example, no one telling me that Vizsla’s personal assistant was one of those vode. Basic warnings were given (because they’re all shebs but they’re not intentionally malicious shebs) about how things ran. Careful with the loud noises if her name is highlighted red on our intra-communication network, don’t mind the black Husky in the service vest (his name is Sen and they openly argue with each other), and the sweet black and silver Cadillac CTS V in the parking lot is hers. It was to be given a wide berth and never, ever startle her when she’s getting in or out. Things can (and do) go sideways with sparks.

Getting to their sheb quality was no one ever braced me for what she looks like. See, Solus Vetra is one of those bathed-in-the-blood-of-the-Ka’ra, born-in-a-fiery-burst-reeking-of-Mandokarla, my-loyalty-is-only-to-the-true-Manda’lor names. Anyone who knows their history knows Aliit Vetra was one of those old school families; as in ancient old school. The kind that is (still) dripping money, are very proud of being Mandalorian, and who have the past to make Renaissance Borgia look tame and never got caught doing any of it. So, this petite, smoking hot, white haired, Asian chick was not who I pegged for Solus Vetra. (In fact, I found out my pick for Solus Vetra out of seeing the Higher Ups was actually Bo-Katan Kryze...a different level of Traditionalist asskicker but not the PA) Every single time I had seen Vetra she was dressed to the nines, wearing labels even I know mean Wealth, and darting around with her face buried in a tablet and wearing this tweaked Google Glass display. Basically, I would have bought her as one of the Duchess’ people before Vizsla’s...well ever. There was too much Silicon Valley Tech Start Up in her look.

Assuming makes an ass out of you and me as the saying went.

Near a month into my tenure with the company was when the Day of Reckoning all went down. In the span of three hours she went from Pepper Potts with her unruly boss and love of art to Natasha Romanoff with everything you would expect of the world’s best spy. (Seriously, I want to know if we have a Black Widow Program and if that’s where we found her. Because she is scary.) First, came The Argument with the Boss that would have made a lesser man piss himself. Few hours later, she popped up in the gym sparking The Beat Down to her vocal heckler. It cemented her as Certified Badass in my mind and shot her to the top of my “Never Ever Fuck With” List.

The Argument was held in an adjacent meeting room to the fourth floor supply closet at 10:23 AM. I was down there looking for this weirdly specific ink cartridge for our satanic printer when this feeling of doom washed over me. I swear the room dropped ten degrees while clicking suddenly picked up. It was like gearing up for a boss fight in the wrong area of a video game. You just knew shit was about to go down and it was not going to go in your favor at all. Instead of some kind of insectoid monster making the noise it was the rapid fire click of $1200 USD, real python pumps (I got curious enough to Google how much her red soled kicks cost and the answer is more than my rent) beating down on the tile floor with a Purpose.

I have to say a Smart Man would have waited for the danger to pass and ran away. This is where I say I am not a smart man. Di’kut is the right title for me because I stayed to eavesdrop...and maybe a little (a lot) of stunned silence freezing me into place. See, she cornered ‘Alor in the recently emptied meeting room with this chilled civility. I heard the door close with this crisp professionalism (how is that even possible?) before she started reaming him. 

It turned out Vetra was a Smart Person because she had a lot of languages to yell in. I lost track of the clearly individual ones after the five mark. Whatever he did (I speak English and Mando’a with some passable Spanish to her rapid fire Everything) it had to have been bad if she was suicidal enough for this. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows Vizsla can be a giant kad when he feels like and he always feels like it. When he started yelling back I had the kneejerk reaction to go help her. Again, Vetra is Small and I am a Dumbass. Before I could move, her voice shot up a couple more decibels in the angriest (and I had Dred Priest overseeing part of my training) Mando’a to have ever been uttered. Then it was drop a pin and hear it echo for eternity silent.

Conner sent three texts while I was holding my post (and my breath) behind several stacks of xerox paper. Just to keep him from blowing my cover I shot back it was taking a while to dig around and he left me alone. It was a good thing because without their yelling-and with my luck-I would have gotten busted. Until this, I would have picked getting busted by Vetra...every time really. I knew what she looked like smiling in a good mood without someone dying. A’lor only smiled when things were going to shit for someone else. Now...now it was way harder. Since she had the gett’se to get in the Manda’lor’s face and live. But, he was not only a giant kad but one who could survive her wrath. I had no winning options except to hope for a mercy kill from a heart attack or something.

My internal strife stopped when I heard them pass by the closet door and they were...laughing? What in the hell had I missed falling down that rabbit hole? Twenty minutes ago she threatened to cut his gett’se off and parade them around with the stick he kept up his ass. Now, they were friends? What kind of fucking magic did he just pull? Could I learn it? Holy Shit. Pre Vizsla knew how to laugh? Without murder and chaos raining down around him? What kind of magic did she have?

Keeping it on the safe side I waited another ten minutes to return to my desk.

Witnessing The Beat Down was one of the best things to happen in my twenty years of living. Seriously, it came straight out of a movie it was so unbelievably awe-inspiring to see. Angels sang, the lights of the heavens shined down, and I watched the best ass kicking to have ever went down this year and possibly ever. A little digging around and the offer of enough uj cake even got me a full on video of the event. It makes the bad days better in twenty-five seconds.

Everything kicked off when I stopped by our gym when my shift ended at one. The shellshock from overhearing The Argument kept my head shoved pretty firmly up my ass. (I mean, that had to go down in some kind of history right? PA owns Manda’lor with words alone. It was going down in my history.) Conner picked up on something being off enough to leave my ink cartridgeless ass alone. I think he assumed I walked in something I shouldn’t see. Namely that nympho from Recruitment climbing some of the ground team guys...again. Why in the hell he was into men who could pass for hockey goalies, missing teeth and all, I would never know...fucking Canadian.

Somewhere between changing into workout gear and returning to the main room Vetra had shown up. Okay. I mean, I guess anyone could work out here and she was a Vetra? I had to assume she had at least basic self defense training. That had always been a huge part of the Mando Culture, especially with the Traditionalists. On second glance, I saw she was still in her outfit of the day. She even had her tablet with the intention of getting Kast to sign something. That made way more sense. Yeah, she would square off verbally with her boss but this would not be a verbal battle. Knowing how to defend herself was important; throwing the ground forces around moved away from that. It went more into the, “This is going to horribly wrong. Why are you brushing up the Basics with them?” because they could break her.

Remember, how I said I’m a dumbass and not to make assumptions? This is a good time to remember that I am one because I made the same mistake twice.

But, so was Akaan Kast.

See, Akaan Kast was a cycle ahead of me in training with a reputation for being both a bully and a show off. He thought because he was directly assigned to a company in HQ he was a Big Deal. “Kasts are always around the most powerful," he liked to brag, “Because we are the most powerful and recognize our own.” However, that did not get him an invitation into the Nite Owls or the A’lor’s personal company. Both ate him alive even if he refused to acknowledge it. (If I toasted the gods for that good fortune a few different nights no one had to know.) He also had this Thing for trying to impress Traditionalist girls. (Don’t ask me what it was because I tuned it out every time he tried to pontificate on the subject.) Plus, Priest liked the guy and that is all anyone needs to know.

Point was Kast was being up to his usual antics and Vetra was taking None of It. Everything in her body language screamed “Predator ready to maul a man’s face off” masked behind this stone cold smile. Picturing her with pinned back ears and bared fangs looked too right. All she wanted was him to sign something on her tablet but he was being Difficult. The last man who made her life Difficult was chewed up and spit out with words alone. This was going to be funny as hell to witness.

“Kast, sign,” she huffed while jabbing the tablet into his chest. “Then we both can get back to our jobs.”

“You can call me Akaan and I’ll call you Solus,” he started off in complete ignorance. Except not. He clearly knew he was riling her up. “What if we trade instead? You get a true combat lesson then I’ll sign.”

“Kast, do you damn job. Sign now. That’s an order.”

“Can you really give orders as a personal assistant? Thought you job was to fetch coffee and answer phones.”

All eyes were sneaking glances at them by this point but no one was stepping in. I was a little confused. Some of these people had to have been around when Vetra first come through. Some of them even looked amused at her being hassled. I knew Kyr’tsad had a Reputation but I thought taking care of their own was part of it. Letting Kast be a kad to their own wasn’t taking care of her.

“If I’m echoing an order of the Manda’lor I can.”

“Just a fifteen minute lesson? It's been a while since you've been out in the field. Wanna make sure you can keep that pretty little head on.” I gagged at this point. How disgusting could someone be? How could he thing this was even going to work in his favor? Was she supposed to be impressed with his only okay muscles and terrible (Ba’buir would call it Americanized) attitude? Did he really think insults would work?

“Fine.”

Anyone who has ever met another human being knows fine is past “Fuck You” on the Scale of Responses. But, Kast looked pleased with himself while Vetra pointedly left most of her belongings on a bench. Which was a lot of belonging to just be moving around the office. Tablet, Goggle Glass, ear piece, earrings, watch, bracelet, shoes, cell phone, suit jacket, and top shirt? I guess if I paid that much (I had no idea the real price but I could only imagine) for a button up I would avoid getting it dirty too. Course I’d never pay who knows how much for a shirt no matter how soft it was.

I edged closer to their makeshift ring to see what was going down. Fantastic choice on my part. See, Kast made some off-handed comment about the cutesy tattoo he could see through her undershirt. He asked what it was prompting her to offer a clear view; a colorful Barn Owl nestled on her hip. Here, Barn Owls had a special meaning because they were only for the Nite Owls. The Nite Owls, being Kryze’s personal team of unmatched Spec Ops ghosts who could probably destabilize an entire first world country over night or something ridiculous. So, Huge Deal.

I put several fragments of thoughts together all at once; Kast did not. He asked why she had that Mark of Honor. Made some vague comment about why it was important “just a personal assistant” could not just wear it around. As the cherry on top he even tried to lecture her on the rules and demanded it be removed. I could detect the jealousy in his voice. He wanted one of those tattoos and would never get one.

Have you ever seen a six foot, three inch wall of could have been Alabama linebacker get his ass handed to him by about five feet and some change of definitely could be a model? I just did. It. Was. Awesome.

Before he could finish his spiel she had him on the ground. Not with dirty shots, simple but effective basics, or even an unexpectedly lucky flail. Hell no. It was like watching absolute poetry in motion. A twist of the hand in front of her face, launching her body up and over his arm to flip him forward, with his neck trapped between her thighs and his arm pinned. That held down hand looked like it was really hurting with the way she had it twisted. Everything Solus Vetra did in that moment was built to show the fuck off. When I said Natasha Romanoff I meant it.

He tapped out and she waited a few seconds longer before releasing him to gracefully rise. “Your lesson got my suit dirty. I’ll have payroll deduct the dry cleaning costs from your next check. Providing there is one of course.” In a flash she popped back up while he remained sprawled in an undignified heap. Hands on her hips, red lips pulled into a feral smile she looked down at him, “I’m the Alii'alor of Vetra and a Nite Owl within Kyr’tsad. I earned my colors and you have earned nothing. You challenged both my honor and my authority. Good luck explaining that one to A’lor.”

I have no idea if I am in love or if I am going to be scared for my life from here on out...maybe both...definitely both. At least, Kyr’tsad is fun to work for if it is a hot mess.