Magdoran Conclave

The Magdoran Conclave was the primary government of Magdora, in the years between its formation in Asc. +3, and its reformation into the Magdoran Conglomerate in Asc. +64, shortly after the formation of the first Magdoran interplanetary colonies.

As a whole, the Conclave was built on the principles of strength through the collective will, equality, and rapid scientific and cultural progress. These goals were largely fulfilled in it's time in power, however a large deal of criticism can be levied at it for failing to truly equalize the many peoples on Magdora- and it's failure to convince the Merracudan city-states to join it, even in title alone. Further, it's lack of any real form of military, and otherwise lackluster defenses, were one of the major concerns presented in the reformation, with the impact of the Ascension Conflicts still holding a great weight on the Magdoran population.

Structure
Given the goal for equality, and strength through the collective will, the leadership of the Conclave was a council of elected representitives, chosen to represent the people and will of individual city-states, population demographics, and even groups like corporations and public services. These representatives would usually only work with their "neighbours"- groups that are related to them by region, population, or interests,- dealing with whatever matters are of importance to them, before, if any policies or edicts have been made, passing their conclusions on the matter to the rest of the Conclave, for further review and decision-making.

Officially, the Conclave had no one base of operations, however their largest gathering place- and one of few that was built to actually fit the entirety of the Conclave's membership,- was a large domed building on the western border of The Capital's city centre.

Economics
Despite the centuries-long presence and usage of sanctioned currencies across the city-states, the Conclave has neither outright required their usage, or adopted any form of universal currency, up until the digitalization of the majority of Magdora's commerce. Following this digitalization, however, the Conclave did adopt the uninspiringly-named "Credits" as their universal currency, that would be valid across all Conclave territories.

Even after this adoption, however, traditional bartering has still been treated as acceptable and valid in any form of commerce, provided that there is evidence of the trade being agreed to by all impacted parties, taking into account the wishes of parent organizations and existing contracts.

One place where bartering was not often accepted, however, was in the tax system employed by the Conclave, and the city-states under it's control. This is not a new feature brought by the Conclave, mind you, as most city-states required direct monetary taxation, with only a limited number of them accepting labour or produce in it's stead.

Infrastructure
Given their goal for equality and progress, it only made sense for the Conclave to seize control over most civilian transportation, resource distribution, and necessary amenities, and provide these services to the public for free.

This has provided some frustrations with the services, given the drastic increased demand for what they provide, and hence longer wait times, or otherwise less pleasant experiences, when the supply is lowered, however this is a matter that has been improved over time, as better systems and networks came progressively into play.

Sciences and the Arts
The goal of scientific and cultural progress placed a significant emphasis on the sciences and the arts, with both of these garnering their own sections in the Conclave council, which practically always found themselves sitting in on decisions and discussions being made by every other section, due to their importance, and ultimately widespread nature.

Outside of the obvious tax expendatures, and very liberal government contracting, this emphasis led to mass-scale education and literacy campaigns, as well as rebates and sanctions for those who were actively participating in the sciences and arts, to further encourage these things, though often the sights of what was being made was enough encouragement on it's own, especially within The Capital's city center, and further so with projects like the Skytether.

Crimes and Justice
While this was already present in most Venkalans city-states, the belief held by the Conclave about crimes and the justice system is that one's reasoning must always be taken into account when dealing with a crime, yet one must avoid bias as much as possible. This rather contradictory policy has been a pain for the Conclave, in terms of the time it can take to correctly punish even a single criminal, and the much more heated environment surrounding the courtroom, however it also allows for much more time to be spent actually looking at and considering the facts at hand, and ultimately coming to the best solution possible, regardless of what that may be.

To that end, few forms of punishment are outright banned by the Conclave, with those that are banned generally being outright torturous, or too unorthodox to be of any value, such as permanent entombment and death by being crushed between moving walls or floors, respectively.

In approximately Asc. +21, an experimental juridicial AI was brought online for the first time, and would begin observing ongoing court cases, to attempt to "predict" the best outcome of the case. While this would only be a prediction engine for the time being, in Asc. +37 it would reach a state where it was adopted by the Conclave as a backup, for any time or situation where a judge and jury might not be present to officiate the case. From then, the AI would continue in its original purpose, but would see a moderate amount of use over the years.

Slavery and Servitude
A largely controversial territory, even following the reformation, matters of slavery and "owning" other sapients are generally allowed within Conclave territory, provided neither party is being outrigh abused, and they have a legally-binding contract to be held to.

The Conclave holds many restrictions when it comes to this, however, most broadly requiring that the contractor- or "slave"- regardless of the specifics of their contract, is required to have all of their basic needs met, such as food, water, medical needs, shelter, and social need, required to receive some form of payment outside of having their needs met, be it to a private bank account, or to a trusted person of the contractor's choosing, and the contractor must be provided some way to end the contract prematurely, and still be compensated for the time they did spend under the contract.

Ultimately, this decision was largely made due to the lack of mass social issues surrounding the subject, historical or otherwise, and while it is not something actively supported by the general population, the negative impact of it is considered minimal enough for it to be generally ignored.

Military
Despite the threats that would arise in the Ascension Conflicts, and the potential threat that a number of Merracudan city-states would be towards the Conclave, it had no policy regarding any real military programs, instead opting for a larger emphasis being placed on the existing police forces, though this would not have the same use as an outright military force, as the future decades would so demonstrate.