The Airman's Gazetteer: Union of Sodkan Republics

After looking at the Iron Collective last week, we now head south to the Union of Sodkan Republics; a loose alliance of small nations paranoid both by their big neighbour to the north and each other. They argue to be the successors to the Holy Sodkan Empire, something the rest of Darmonica is happy to accept. Though, many doubt how well the Union will stand when the Iron Guard march south.

Union of Sodkan Republics

As stated above, the Union is a loose alliance of small nations that have branded together out of fear of their large neighbour to the north; the Iron Collective.

These same nations were once part of the Holy Sodkan Empire and claim to be the successors to it, which the Iron Collective has yet to contest. Though they distrust each other as much as they do their big neighbour, which makes co-operation difficult at best. For the most part the Empire kept them in line, but with that authority now gone they are prone to infighting and border skirmishes aren't uncommon.

They are relatively poor, all have suffered economically since the Empire's collapse and they have a limited chance when it comes to foreign trade since the Artian Confederation sits on or close to their major trade route. The Union had a strong mining industry, though that was directed towards feeding the old Empire's need for resources. It does process a light industrial base with a handful of factories, something the Union is seeking to address in addition to reorganizing its rail network. Both projects suffer from the bickering of the various republics and little progress has been made on either.

Each republic has its government and each send representatives to the Assembly, the joint decision making body of the Union. Each republic also maintains its own military, though thankfully these were originally equipped and organised by the Empire so they generally follow the same standard. The Assembly has little control over the republics and their respective armies, its really a chamber where the republics can agree on a general course of action and hope everyone goes along with it. The Assembly has no power to deal with the disputes that arise between the republics and often result in border skirmishes, the overriding fear of the Iron Collective is probably the only thing that stops these border skirmishes from escalating.

Recently the skyships of the Iron Fleet (the Iron Collective's air force) have been making incursions into the Union, the republics only have gasbag style airships and obsolete aircraft to counter these incursions. Many are fearful that these incursions are the prelude to invasion, especially since units of the Iron Guard have been reported in certain remote areas. Though these Iron Guard units don't stay long and their activity suggests that they're looking for something.