The Jaknian Conglomerate is not a kingdom, not a republic, and certainly not a democracy. It is a nation-as-corporation - an immense, self-regulating conglomerate-state run like a sprawling business empire. It exists to generate wealth, protect its investments, and promote innovation; every law, every citizen, and every city is part of the machine. In Jaknia, economic power is political power, and influence is measured in assets, patents, and shareholder clout. Despite this, Jaknia is surprisingly functional and fair in many respects - so long as you follow the rules and know how to profit.
History
Present Day
By 1540 Jaknia is still living down its role as the war’s origin - it was Jaknian hands that loosed the Girl of the Volcano and began the War of Horrors. The great university at the foot of the now-silent volcano (GUNAM) is slowly being rebuilt. By the world’s measure the Conglomerate’s economy remains excellent, yet the nation has fallen into stagnation: the power of the barbarian tribes has risen, the roads between the great cities have emptied of life, and no clear hand holds the helm. The promise of the New World has stirred Jaknia to attempt a second great port of its own - so far without success.
Geography and Climate
Demography
Population
The deserts around the volcano are home chiefly to gnomes, humans, and the giant-blooded Goliath (called orcs in older speech), including isolated desert Goliath tribes that hold themselves apart from the cities. Unusually for Thelemar, the peoples of the volcano are known for tolerating the Twisted Races: rather than hunting them, they let the Goblin, Hobgoblin, and the rarer Dalken and Mongrelfolk trade freely with the great cities.
That tolerance has a darker underside away from the cities. Because in Jaknia everything - even a life - can be reckoned an asset, the owners of privately-held settlements may treat the goblins on their land as property to be reallocated for profit. In coastal holdings such as the port city of Burg, whole goblin communities have been forced from their livelihoods into outright slavery on an owner’s whim.
Religion
Languague
Regime
Jaknia is governed as a corporate state, where governance itself is treated as a business transaction.
The Executive Board
The Conglomerate is governed by a Board of Executives, composed of the 13 largest corporate bodies - called Divisions - within the Conglomerate. Each Division is headed by a Chief Principal Executive (the CPE), an individual chosen through internal corporate mechanisms (election, inheritance, hostile takeover, and so on).
- Voting power on the Board is proportional to market share and economic contribution, recalculated every five years through a sanctioned audit process that is magically enforced and nearly incorruptible.
- Position on the Board is decided by the same process: companies rise into and fall out of Division status based solely on their business acumen.
- The Divisions encompass the most influential sectors of Jaknian industry, arcana, trade, and logistics.
Major Divisions change over the years, but some notable mainstays include:
| Division | Sector |
|---|---|
| The Golden Ledger | Banking, loans, currency minting, and investment arbitration |
| The Great University of Nature And Magic (GUNAM) | The most prestigious university in the world, known for breakthroughs in all manner of fields; it drew heavy criticism after the failed horror-creation attempt that led to the War of Horrors |
| The Adamantium Accord | Weapons & armor production, mercenary work, private security |
| The Azure Fleet | Naval logistics, shipping lanes, piracy suppression |
| The Verdant Exchange | Agricultural development and importing, magical food production |
| The Alchemical Consortium | Alchemy, pharmacology, potion trade |
| The Crystal Union | Communication networks, magical surveillance, information management |
| The Steel Crown | Artifice, mechanization, automation, construct labor |
| The Arcanum Apparatus | Arcane R&D, enchantment, magical patents and licensing; its research arm works closely with GUNAM |
The Crystal Union includes specialist subsidiaries such as the Zog’agi Corporation, which controls the production of Zog’agi Glass.
The Articles of Trade
The Articles of Trade are Jaknia’s living constitution - an evolving legal document signed and updated by all Executive Divisions. It governs every aspect of life in Jaknia, with heavy emphasis on contract law, taxation (progressive but loophole-rich), citizen rights, property law, and intellectual and commercial protections. Every amendment requires a supermajority of weighted votes, which often turns Board meetings into vicious business battles fought with magical duels, legal sabotage, and charm-enhanced lobbying.
Citizens
Citizens of Jaknia are employees, investors, or independent contractors. Corporate life is hierarchical, but upward mobility is real - entrepreneurs, inventors, and professionals can rise to prominence through successful ventures, and the nature of the Board is such that any company can climb.
- Public Investment Funds are cooperative enterprises owned by the working class, collectively holding voting shares in smaller Divisions. While this grants no power on the Executive Board, it does give ordinary citizens a stake in governance.
- Labor Syndicates are Jaknia’s unions: highly organized, and often negotiating binding agreements enforced with a mix of lawkeeping and magic.
Law
Laws Regarding Magic
Foreign Affairs
Jaknia projects power through capital rather than arms, binding its neighbours with long-term contracts. Chief among them is the Golden Charter - a series of binding corporate agreements with the Lexalian Republic and Clairnia. The Golden Ledger funds the modernization of Lexalian mines with low-interest loans and survey data in exchange for the Adamantium Accord’s right of first refusal on 40% of their dark metal and orichalcum, while a parallel deal supplies House Smilo with magically-assisted logging equipment and reforestation funding in return for an exclusive twenty-year claim on its rare woods.
Economy
Jaknia practices arcane-industrial corporatism - laissez-faire, high-tech capitalism taken to its logical extreme, where the state is the market. Everything (citizenship, law, governance) is treated as a business transaction, and political power is directly proportional to economic power, creating a dynamic, ruthless, and highly efficient environment driven by profit and innovation.
The Conglomerate’s strategy is total market domination through innovation and diversification: to be involved in every sector in every nation, to create needs and then sell the solutions, and to make the rest of the world dependent on its technology, financial systems, and manufactured goods. Its loophole-rich tax code ensures capital is constantly reinvested to fuel further growth. In Jaknia, the Divisions are the economic sectors - finance (the Golden Ledger), research & development (GUNAM and the Arcanum Apparatus), manufacturing (the Adamantium Accord and the Steel Crown), logistics (the Azure Fleet), agri-tech (the Verdant Exchange), and information (the Crystal Union).
Main exports:
- Intellectual property - patents for new spells, licenses for arcane-tech manufacturing, and corporate consulting.
- Arcane technology & constructs - mass-produced magical items, communication devices, and automaton laborers for those who can afford them.
- Financial & legal services - investment opportunities, loans, insurance, and contract arbitration.
- Pharmaceuticals & potions (the Alchemical Consortium) - from healing potions to performance-enhancing elixirs.
- Educated professionals - GUNAM graduates carry Jaknian influence and methods abroad.
Main imports:
- Raw materials - Jaknia is the world’s number-one importer of Lexalian ores, Clairnian lumber, and Theocratic marble.
- Magical flora & fauna - a constant supply of exotic ingredients for its R&D Divisions.
- Food staples - bulk, non-magical grain and produce as a cheaper alternative for the lower classes.
- Artifacts - sought not for their history but to reverse-engineer their magic for mass production, making Jaknia House Gerberant’s biggest customer.
Armed Forces
Important People
Cities and Such
Points of Interest
Culture
Relationship With Magic
Jaknia
Link to originalThe Jaknian Conglomerate
Politics
Government The Conglomerate Organizations The Scarlet Embrace College of Lore