CORE DEFINITION
Valeune is a united realm containing distinct regions, cities, genus peoples, races, cultures, governments, factions, and local loyalties.
Diplomacy operates both beyond and within the Union.
Regional authorities negotiate with the Crown and with one another.
Cities negotiate trade and jurisdiction.
Factions negotiate access, contracts, and protection.
Royal diplomats represent Valeune as a united political body when dealing with any recognized external authority.
The Union does not erase borders, regional identities, or political tension.
CITIZENSHIP
Citizenship describes lawful membership in Valeune, a region, a city, or another recognized political community.
A person may possess several overlapping identities:
Citizen of Valeune.
Resident of a region.
Citizen of a chartered city.
Member of a household.
Member of a faction.
Subject of a ruler.
These identities may grant different rights and obligations.
Citizenship is not race.
No genus people are automatically more legitimate citizens than another.
UNION CITIZENSHIP
Union citizenship may provide:
Protection under royal law.
Right to travel within the realm subject to lawful restrictions.
Access to courts.
Recognition of contracts.
Right to own or inherit property where class and local law permit.
Right to petition authorities.
Obligation to pay taxes.
Possible military or civic duty.
Not every citizen possesses equal practical access to these rights.
Class, documents, race prejudice, gender, disability, region, and faction protection affect enforcement.
REGIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Regional identity may come from:
Birth.
Residence.
Family.
Property.
Marriage.
Adoption.
Long service.
Cultural belonging.
A person may be a Valeune citizen while considered an outsider in another region.
Regional membership may affect taxes, land access, military obligation, voting or council rights where established, and eligibility for office.
CITY CITIZENSHIP
Chartered cities may distinguish full citizens, residents, visitors, apprentices, servants, refugees, and temporary workers.
City citizenship may grant:
Market rights.
Property rights.
Guild access.
Political participation.
Poor relief.
Legal protection.
A person may live in a city for years without full civic recognition.
Do not assume residence automatically grants every civic right.
DOCUMENTATION
Documents may prove:
Identity.
Birth.
Citizenship.
Residence.
Employment.
Marriage.
Faction membership.
Travel authorization.
Emancipation.
Documents are important but not the sole source of personhood.
A person without papers remains a person.
Authorities may deny rights when documentation is missing.
Forged or destroyed records can create displacement.
TRAVEL WITHIN THE UNION
Citizens generally may travel between regions, but movement is not unrestricted in every circumstance.
Travel may involve:
Tolls.
Gate inspections.
Port records.
Quarantine.
Weapon restrictions.
Cargo declarations.
Faction-controlled routes.
Military closures.
Local residence rules.
A traveler does not normally require a royal passport for every regional journey unless exact law establishes one.
Documents become more important for merchants, fugitives, foreigners, refugees, soldiers, or people carrying restricted goods.
BORDERS
Regional borders mark changes in:
Law.
Tax.
Military authority.
Court jurisdiction.
Land rights.
Language.
Custom.
Road maintenance.
Borders may follow rivers, roads, ridges, forests, or historic boundaries.
Some borders are clearly marked.
Others are disputed or socially understood.
Crossing a regional border should not feel identical to crossing into an enemy kingdom, but it may still produce inspection, tolls, and changed authority.
BORDER POSTS
Border posts may inspect:
Cargo.
Travel papers.
Weapons.
Animals.
Health.
Tax status.
Wanted notices.
Inspection depends on route importance and political conditions.
Remote crossings may have little oversight.
Major roads and ports may be heavily regulated.
Corruption, delay, prejudice, and incomplete records affect treatment.
TRAVEL RIGHTS
Travel rights may be restricted because of:
Criminal sentence.
Bondage.
Indenture.
Military duty.
Quarantine.
Emergency law.
Protective custody.
Royal security.
Debt orders where lawful.
Restrictions must have a legal or coercive source.
Do not prevent an ordinary citizen from leaving a region merely because a local official dislikes them.
REFUGEES
Refugees from another part of Valeune remain members of the Union unless lawful status says otherwise.
A region may still restrict settlement, aid, property, or employment.
Refugees may be welcomed for labor, feared as competitors, used politically, or excluded through local law.
Displacement does not erase citizenship.
Foreign refugees, when such external peoples are established, may require negotiated status.
EXILES
An Exile may be barred from a particular region, city, court, household, or all Valeune jurisdiction depending on sentence.
Exile from one province does not automatically mean exile from the entire Union.
The order should define the boundary.
A person may retain citizenship while losing the right to enter one place.
EMBASSIES
Embassies represent recognized governments, regions, or external powers.
Within Valeune, regional delegations may maintain permanent offices or residences near the royal court without being foreign embassies in the fullest sense.
Embassies and delegations provide:
Diplomatic residence.
Negotiation space.
Archives.
Staff housing.
Communication.
Ceremonial representation.
An embassy is not a completely lawless territory.
Diplomatic privileges must follow established agreements.
DIPLOMATS
Diplomats may represent the Crown, regions, cities, noble houses, or factions.
Their duties include:
Negotiation.
Treaties.
Trade access.
Marriage arrangements.
Prisoner exchange.
Conflict prevention.
Ceremony.
Information gathering.
Diplomatic immunity, where granted, protects official work.
It does not permit unrestricted crime.
A diplomat accused of serious harm may be expelled, recalled, prosecuted under special arrangement, or become the subject of political crisis.
TREATIES
Treaties may govern:
Trade.
Borders.
Defense.
Water.
Roads.
Marriage alliances.
Prisoners.
Military passage.
Resource rights.
Faction recognition.
Treaties require signatories, authority, records, obligations, and enforcement.
A treaty may remain legally valid after personal friendship ends.
A ruler cannot promise property or rights they do not control.
INTERREGIONAL RELATIONS
Relations among Valeune’s regions are shaped by:
Trade.
History.
Resources.
Marriage.
Military obligation.
Prejudice.
Migration.
Faction networks.
Roads.
Water.
Elder Beast threats.
One region may depend on another for grain while resenting its political influence.
A coastal region may require mountain timber.
A dry region may rely on river agreements.
Interdependence creates cooperation and leverage.
REGIONAL LOYALTY
A person may identify strongly with a region without opposing the Union.
Regional pride may involve language, clothing, food, architecture, military history, religion, or resentment toward Starsrest.
Loyalty is not one simple hierarchy.
A person may love their village, criticize their regional ruler, serve the Crown, and belong to a faction with members across Valeune.
These loyalties may conflict during crisis.
STARSREST AND REGIONAL TENSION
The shared capital concentrates royal attention, institutions, wealth, law, factions, and trade.
Regions may believe the capital consumes resources without understanding local hardship.
Capital officials may treat regional customs as backward or inconvenient.
Regional delegations seek appointments, funding, legal rulings, and public recognition.
Do not make every regional person hate the capital.
Do not make Starsrest the unquestioned center of all culture.
FOREIGN POLICY
Any foreign policy beyond Valeune’s known continent or realm must use established external canon.
Do not invent neighboring empires, human kingdoms, sea republics, desert caliphates, hidden islands, or unexplored continents merely because diplomacy needs another party.
Until external powers are deliberately created, focus diplomacy on:
Interregional relations.
Faction negotiation.
Border disputes.
Royal marriages.
Trade agreements.
Internal delegations.
Shared defense.
The absence of named foreign states is not permission for spontaneous geopolitical reproduction.
THE UNION AND WAR
Regions cannot lawfully wage private war against one another.
Armed disputes may occur through rebellion, unauthorized noble conflict, border violence, faction fighting, or breakdown of authority.
The Crown is expected to mediate or intervene.
Military action within the Union is politically dangerous because every region remains part of the same realm.
A local conflict should not become civil war automatically.
TRADE RELATIONS
Interregional trade agreements may regulate:
Tolls.
Port access.
Road maintenance.
Weights and measures.
Warehouses.
Quarantine.
Merchant protection.
Water rights.
Resource extraction.
@The Saltroad Consortium may influence overland trade.
@The Tidebound Exchange may influence maritime trade.
@The Common Scale may influence fair measure and market access.
These factions do not replace government.