Bequin Empire/Federation Distinction

The nation of Bequin is often referred to as the Bequin Empire because that is the most accurate descriptor of what it was. In its constitution, however, it is officially the Bequin Federation. This official term was primarily for the guise of democracy and liberty. Although it was technically a federation, "empire" is simply more representative of its position on the world stage. In the latter revolutionary years of the Bequin Federation, rebel groups would often refer to it as the Bequin Empire, and its leader as an Emperor, in order to discredit and criticize the government. 

Bequin Empire Leaders

The leaders and administrators of the Bequin Empire are determined by the Constitution. The Supreme Leader (Moifoq) of the Bequin Empire is a pre-established position--a dictator. The position was specifically granted to its early political founder, Stevas Herat, and his heir, Klaviar Herat; however, Klaviar was killed and couped by David Ruiner. From here on, depending on whether you view it realistically, theologically, or as a fictional story, the continued leadership is a complicated situation. In the realistic sense, Ruiner did not live for 800+ years as the dictator of the Bequin Empire, and it's more likely that he died, and they kept up a godly immortal image of the beloved and revered leader, making Bequin a necrocracy. However, in the fictional religious aspect of the story, Ruiner did, in fact, live this long. This was due to the circumstances of his birth, which I will not get into here. He ruled until his assassination. This was the technical collapse of the Bequin Empire, but a successor state would pop up 40 years later claiming to be the continuation of the Bequin Empire. It was a fragile military dictatorship founded by a formerly powerful military general, Tulois Russio. After him, leadership chaotically changed hands 18 times, and the official title of the leader switched several times, and semi-democratic policies were reintroduced and dropped consistently in back-to-back reformations and corruptions.

Bequin Empire Rights

Minority Rights

The Bequin Empire had a great system of equality among its citizens. Bequin had no interest in creating a system that benefited or disgraced any group of people, and although this sounds great in practice, it really wasn’t done with a progressive or moral purpose. This aspect of Bequin reflects its want to control as much as possible. There never was a nationalistic or superior point of government—from founding to collapse. This is a mix of its cultural background and political goals. Bequin came from an already quite diverse region of the world, and they knew that introducing some form of unequal ethnic policy would only prevent them from consolidating their planned expansionist ambitions. They knew that, in order to fulfill domination, a multi-ethnic federation would be necessary, even if illusionary. Also importantly, discriminatory practices as seen on Earth are usually explained via religion or tradition. The Religion of the Bequin Empire never mentioned interracial marriages, homosexuality, or patriarchy; therefore, these things were never an issue. Of course, there were always nationalist or radical groups within the Bequin Empire that gained some political power; however, the Bequin Empire was an autocracy, so they couldn’t really do anything anyway. 

Women’s Rights

Despite the fact that women had theoretically equal rights under the Bequin Constitution, this did not change the fact that locally and in the hierarchy, women were quite suppressed. Much like in the United States, women in the Bequin Empire suffered from inexplicit and continuous discrimination. In its later years, this discrimination had begun to fade quietly, and the Bequin Navy even saw moments in which there were more women in high-ranking positions than men. There were even a few Empresses.

 Human Rights

The Bequin Empire was a fundamentally autocratic and militaristic regime. While its attempts to instill a sense of false liberty and democracy had a great impact on its lifespan and political structure, nothing would change the fact that the people truly had no say in what the government did. The Leader would have the final word in every decision made at a foundational level. This was the leading cause of the Great Revolutionary Movement, the collapse of the empire, the iron-fist rule and brutal suppression against dissidence, and the eventual Middle Conclusion.

Literary Choices

The reason I made the Bequin Empire so oddly free was because I was trying to create a system of nuance and interest. I could’ve made the Bequin Empire a purely authoritarian system with brutal suppression and deconstructive ideals, but I felt that this was both boring and unrepresentative of real life. You’re supposed to feel a little like, “Hey, this place isn’t that bad” because it isn’t. It isn’t the worst place, and it isn’t perfect. You can think about the hypothetical behind living in an autocratic nation of liberty. You can question its morality. With pure-evil authoritarian regimes, you can easily say, “Yeah, that place sucks,” but with Bequin, I tried to give the audience a trade-off. What liberties would you push to the side for other freedoms? I also did this as a reflection of the leader of Bequin. In Saga Risutu, he is represented as this untouchable villain with no redeeming qualities; however, you can see in his backstory, and in his more emotional actions, there is a human behind the character. He is the contrast to the Bequin Empire, and his story begins and ends the same as it—in confusing emotional turmoil.