#vol protectorate

Speaking of the Nao Clan… something we don't talk about is the emphasis the volus place on clans, you Earth-clan. A "clan", in English, is a large group with a shared ancestry, actual or presumed ; this is in keeping with the fact all non-volus are addressed not by species but by homeworld, or native biosphere : Thessia-clan, Sur'Kesh-clan, Palaven-clan, etc. That suggests your species is less important than where you come from : your common ancestry is your biosphere. Since it's insulting to call quarians "clanless", then it's in some sense dishonorable to lose your homeworld (presumably not damage : humans are never disparaged for the poor state Earth is in). Your homeworld, in a sense… is your common()wealth. This is a thread that could be imagined as a strong environmentalist conscience, though it would need to be reconciled with the capitalism of the volus (SPOILERS : capitalism isn't good for your planet).

So, in the end, what we have are :

the Vol Protectorate : a supreme state-like authority

the tribes : socio-political units you willingly join and from which you can depart, the larger can engulf the smaller ones or split apart. Most of the tribes are fairly small and lack the structure of states, but we could understand "tribe" as reminiscent of the Latin tribus, which doesn't describe a polity but a component of a polity

the clans : individuals with common ancestry ; e.g. the Vol-clan : all volus ; lesser clans are people who've lived together in the same place for a long time. Tied to notions of land, place of origin, environment - hence why other species get [homeworld name]-clan, e.g. Thessia-clan, Sur'Kesh-clan, etc. In some cases (e.g. the Nao Clan), a tribe and a clan overlap ; in other cases (e.g. Binar), it clearly doesn't. You can give your clan - the unit you belong to whether you care to or not - as much or as little importance as you want, though you'll always be Vol-clan.

So how do I reconcile all of that and give you more substantial headcanons ?

I made the Vol Protectorate a panarchy.

Basically, a panarchy is the idea that you can join any nation and political system you want, and even form whichever you want, and a state structure exists only to make sure your right to do that is not suppressed. The idea is to take the liberal idea of competition in a free market is beneficial for the economy and the consumers, and expand it to politics. IRL, it has huge feasibility problems and issues which entail I find it quite unrealistic, but it just might work with non-human capitalists who have abolished violence.

So, in "my" Vol Protectorate, the volus don't have tribes because they are a pre-state society, they are in fact a post-state* society : you have a multiplicity of micro political and economic regimes - the tribes - who correspond to whatever shades of the human political spectrum you care to identify them with. You've got : Megachurches ! Corporate nations ! Anarcho-capitalist gulches ! Anarcho-communist communes ! Social liberal democracies ! Absolute monarchies ! An enclave of volus Hierarchy citizens who live by turian rules and expectations ! and so on. Among other things, the Vol Protectorate exists to make sure anyone can join or leave any of those tribes, and no one tries to impose their way of life on people outside of their tribe. That's why, in my headcanon, Gaffno Yap (from Mass Effect : Annihilation) was exiled twice from the Vol Protectorate : the problem wasn't that he was anarcho-communist, which was fine and dandy, the problem was that the people he inspired blew up "banks and treasuries and any place where there might be a lot of money or influence or money and influence all together in one spot" to abolish currency, personal property, capital and "trade itself". That being said, it's pretty clear that one of the common traits for the overwhelming majority of volus polities - the hegemony, one might say - is the legitimacy and attractiveness of capitalism.

Crucially, each tribe would have as little or as many laws as they'd like, decided through whatever process they want, as long as they didn't contravene the laws of the Protectorate, the Citadel or (as of the 8th century CE) the Turian Hierarchy.

Equally crucially, people from different tribes would share the same territories and infrastructure : you could be roommates with someone subject to an entirely different legal system than yours.

At this point, I didn't have much else, beside the idea of the Vol Protectorate being the Vol Commonwealth before they joined the Hierarchy. I had to… hit the books.

Were there any science-fiction novels out there which I could use as the basis for the structure of the panarchy in the Vol Protectorate ? I could find :

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age

and Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series.

Of those three, I found the last one most interesting and useful. The readers of Terra Ignota will read the following and recognize what I'm talking about. For example, the following based on the Universal Free Alliance :

Prerogatives of the Vol Protectorate

The specific and exclusive prerogatives of the Vol Protectorate include :

representing the volus before non-volus : - representation of the shared and unique interests of the citizens of the Vol Protectorate, all volus and all their properties, assets and commensals for their continued prosperity and well-being before the Citadel Council - representation of the same before the Turian Hierarchy, acting as an intermediary between the Turian Hierarchy and various volus interest groups

maintaining the interconnected systems all volus depend on to live and live well : - measuring and, if necessary, issuing alerts on the state of the various ecosystems supporting volus life, in particular Irune's biosphere ; should the government of the Vol Protectorate have reasonable evidence supporting the conclusion that state intervention is preferable to no intervention whatsoever in a way that benefits an ecosystem as a whole, it is entitled to intervene and manage it, usually by stopping disruptive economic activity - measuring and, if necessary, issuing alerts on the state of the integrated volus and interstellar economies ; should the government of the Vol Protectorate have reasonable evidence supporting the conclusion that state intervention is preferable to no intervention whatsoever in a way that benefits the economy as a whole, it is entitled to intervene and manage parts of or the whole of the volus economy

ensuring the freedom of all volus to live in a tribe of their choice, essential to the panarchy of the Vol Protectorate, is respected : - registering adult volus in a tribe of their choice - handling volus switching from one tribe to another

enforcing the law : - handling litigation between different volus tribes, each with its own legal system - ensuring every tribe respects the Axioms of Vol Law (notably respecting the environment and the rights of minors) through a process known as law-auditing

The legislative branch

The Laws of Vol, that is to say the whole of volus law that applies to all citizens and residents of the Vol Protectorate regardless of political affiliation, is extremely short : beside the Founding Charter of the Vol Protectorate, there are less than ten laws, the Axioms of Vol Law (or Axioms).

To pass a new Axiom, or repeal an extant one, at least 75% of the adult citizens of the Vol Protectorate as well as at least 66.7% of the adult population in each tribe must agree to it.

In practice, the Shareholder Assembly (see below) ratifies or vetoes policies introduced by the Management Board and repeals past policies, while the judiciary makes sure the Axioms and those policies are followed. This results in a de facto complex common law system ; the extensiveness of the volus patent laws, for example, has been frequently noted.

Every group operating on a Vol Protectorate host-world (see below), including the Protectorate itself, must also abide by the directives of the local Planetary Management Directorate.

The Axioms are based on the eight (8) universal Blacklaws in Terra Ignota. The patent laws are canon.

The executive branch

Each adult citizen of the Vol Protectorate is part of the Shareholder Assembly, with a political share determined on the proportionate amount of their wealth freely given to the Protectorate as taxes, and an added bonus for the poorer volus so that they do not have to give a lot to be on relatively equal footing with the wealthiest.

The Shareholder Assembly elects the members of the Boards of Directors, or Supervisory Board, who in turn elect the head of state of the Vol Protectorate, the Chairperson. Chairman Ulra Nron is the current leader of the Vol Protectorate.

The Board of Directors appoints and fires in turn the members of the Executive Committee, or Management Board, headed by a Chief Executive (or Managing Director). As head of government, the Chief Executive is in charge of the day-to-day running of the Vol Protectorate and formulating and implementing policies, while the Board of Directors safeguards the interests of the shareholders. The separation of the two prevents the most obvious forms of conflicts of interests.

Below the Executive Committee is the massive bureaucratic apparatus of the Vol Ministries, each tasked with a specific area of activity, such as the Vol Ministry of the Frontier. Unlike the directors, the members of the ministries are career bureaucrats.

Each director of the Executive Committee heads one of the Vol Ministries ; their immediate subordinates are the Subordinate Directors, whom they appoint, as well as the Advisors of the Advisor Panel, led by a Senior Advisor. The Advisors are ministry bureaucrats who rose to their positions based on merit and experience.

For example, the Chief Finance Director in the Vol Ministry of Finance delegates much of their affairs to several Subordinate Finance Directors and can rely on the advice of the Vol Senior Finance Advisor and the other Vol Finance Advisor.

The description of the Vol Protectorate government is simply that of the government of the Republic of Venice, an explicit inspiration for the volus, with corporate terms swapped in, and with an added management board as is common practice in the corporate world.

The judiciary branch

Sorry, I haven't come up with anything yet ! I'm of the mind of there being an independent Inspectorate which investigates cases where multiple legal systems are in conflict, Arbiters to settle such cases, and Law Auditors to conduct surprise law-audits and check (say) if those children are well taken care of and your tribe isn't actually a cult.

The planetary governments

An added wrinkle is that I imagined Planetary Management Directorates to handle issues which concern everyone on a given world - a "host-world" - mostly where you have integrated systems which go beyond just one tribe. The two major issues would be the planetary ecosystem and the planetary economy. Given that territory stops to matter for tribal, panarchist polities, what we have instead are governments managing a) the environment, e.g. the commons, and b) the integration of various groups by geographical proximity. Here I'm vaguely gesturing toward the Dutch Republic (the other direct historical inspiration for the volus) with a political system for decentralization, management planet by planet — but I haven't decided how those institutions function ! That's definitely where Irune's Senior Commerce Advisor is, though.

Economy

Capitalism. That being said, the government is stable, the volus are happy and the volus planets are beautiful and clean because most of the filthy, horrific exploitative stuff takes place out of sight, in the Terminus Systems (see also : Elkoss Combine in canon). The volus have outsourced the exploitation inherent to capitalism, and (much like everyone else in the galaxy btw) capitalism remains stable because there's virtually endless growth thanks to the virtually endless resources left to exploit in the undiscovered space of the galaxy.

Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A1: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Turian Hierarchy The turians are the greatest threat to Alliance interests. While the batarians are more openly hostile, they are a second-rate power. The Hierarchy is powerful, stable, and proactive in suppressing perceived threats. There is continued friction between jingoistic human and turian organizations, who wish to "settle" the diplomatically-resolved First Contact War.

Political Factors The government is a hierarchical meritocracy, with promotion based on the assessments of superiors and peers. Orders from above are rarely disobeyed. Each member of the Council of Hierarchs commands an entire star cluster. It should be noted that the Treaty of Farixen, which the Alliance signed to gain an embassy on the Citadel, restricts our number of dreadnought-mass warships to 1/5th that of the turian fleet.

Economic Factors The turian economy is vastly larger than ours, but cannot match the size and power of the asari. For many years, development was hampered by cultural disinterest in economics. When the turians accepted the volus as a client race, business development improved.

The military is supported by a well-developed infrastructure. Manufacturers such as Armax Arsenal and the Haliat Armory produce advanced, reliable equipment.

Cultural Factors Turians are noted for their strong sense of public service. It is rare to find one who puts his needs ahead of the group. Every citizen from age 15 to 30 serves the state in some capacity, as anything from a soldier to an administrator, from a construction engineer to a sanitation worker.

Biological Factors Turian genetic code is based on dextro-amino acids. If they attempt to ingest human food, which is based on levo-amino acids, they may enter anaphylactic shock. The army that occupied the Alliance colony of Shanxi in the First Contact War imported all its food, at great logistical expense.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A2: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Asari Republics The asari are a moderate threat to Alliance interests. Their economic power and diplomatic reputation allow them to wield persuasive influence. Fortunately, their military is barely more than a collection of local warrior bands. Soldiers are well-armed and exceptionally skilled, but do not possess sufficient organization for large-scale military campaigns.

Political Factors The asari have no government per se. Policy is decided through the ebb and flow of public opinion in a sprawling but well-organized electronic democracy. The closest analogue to an executive decision-making body is the opinion of the Matriarchs. In a crisis, the public turns to the experience of these millennia-old "wise women" for advice.

Economic Factors The asari possess the largest single economy in the galaxy. They have extensive trade and social contacts. Craft guilds, such as those of the cities Serrice and Armali, hold a virtual monopoly on advanced biotic technology. Given their political influence, an embargo by the asari would prove disastrous to the Alliance.

Cultural Factors Because of their long lifespan, asari are more comfortable with observation and study than immediate action. In diplomacy, this manifests in a tendency to centrism. The asari seek to maintain stable balances of economic, political, and military power. They prefer to work their will through cultural influence. They believe that their ideals and beliefs will inevitably shape the general galactic culture.

Biological Factors The unique asari reproductive system naturally inclines them to biotic abilities. In fact, lack of biotic ability will exempt a young asari from military service. Asari biotic commandoes are more powerful than the best human adepts, and possess skills we cannot emulate.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A3: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Salarian Union The salarians are considered a moderate threat to Alliance, but share certain similarities in mindset. They are politically liberal, often at odds with the conservative turians and centrist asari.

It is universally acknowledged that the salarians possess the finest intelligence services in the galaxy. Our own counterintelligence agencies are constantly uncovering salarian agents and cyberwarfare incursions.

Political Factors The political structure of the salarians is almost medieval, and largely incomprehensible to outsiders. Political power is wielded by millions of cloistered female dynasts, who shape policy among themselves with little input from males. These clan leaders spread their influence through a tangled web of intermarriages and personal negotiation. Annoying one clan leader has a high risk of irritating ten more -- or a hundred more.

Economic Factors The salarian economy is the smallest of the three Council races, but still far larger than the Alliance. It is based on "bleeding-edge" technologies; salarian industries are leaders in most fields. They make up for a lack of military quantity by holding a decisive superiority in quality.

Cultural Factors Salarian culture wholly embraces the concept of the preemptive strike. They find the idea of a declaration of war foolish, and the idea of waiting for a known enemy to attack preposterous. In every war they have ever fought, they have struck first and without warning.

Biological Factors The salarian metabolism works nearly twice as fast as that of humans, giving them faster reflexes and superior mental agility. They adapt to unexpected and rapidly developing situations with preternatural swiftness. By human standards, salarians seem hyperactive and restless. By salarian standards, we seem sluggish and dull-witted.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A4: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Illuminated Primacy (Hanar) The hanar are an inoffensive third-rate power, and considered a minor threat to the Alliance. They have little interest in interacting with other cultures, due to a cultural obsession with manners and politeness that verges on monomania.

Political Factors The hanar government is a benign theocracy. While tolerant of other creeds, the official state religion is the worship of the "Enkindlers" -- the Protheans. There are many Prothean ruins on their homeworld, and hanar believe the elder race civilized their ancestors. It is difficult for a hanar to view the Protheans as an actual race rather than idealized mythological figures.

Economic Factors Few hanar are willing to deal with other species. Economic contacts are limited to a handful of trade stations on their borders. Due to this self-imposed isolation and the unique physiology of the race, their economy is small and isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Few standard technologies (designed for bipedal and fingered species) are available in their space, and they produce very few goods that are useable by others.

Cultural Factors The hanar are reserved and polite, with ancient customs dictating all aspects of conversation. They find the speech of other races to be rude. Most consider other species to be uncouth barbarians and lack the patience to "unlearn" their tendency to take offense. It is strongly recommended that Alliance personnel avoid direct contact with hanar, and defer to specially-trained diplomats.

Biological Factors The invertebrate, water-native hanar cannot support their own weight in normal gravity. When interacting with mainstream galactic society, they rely on mass effect contra-gravitic levitation packs. Their limbs can grip tightly, but are not strong enough to lift more than a few hundred grams each.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A5: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Vol Protectorate On their own, the volus are a minor threat to Alliance interests. However, several hundred years ago they became a turian client race, exchanging their mercantile prowess for turian military protection.

Political Factors The turians left the volus government independent. The Hierarchy is content to let them rule themselves as they wish, so long as they pay their taxes and contribute auxiliary units to the turian military. The volus will support the turians in any war they might pursue, and vice-versa.

Economic Factors Like the ancient Venetians or Dutch, the volus possess an economy out of proportion to their modest resource base. They are aggressive traders and industrialists with a keen grasp of exchange and finance. Many of the galaxy's largest banks, holding corporations, and manufacturing cartels, such as the Elkoss Combine, are owned or managed by volus. They also regulate the Citadel's complex galactic economy.

Cultural Factors Since the dawn of their recorded history, the volus tribes have bartered resources, land, and even people to gain status. This culture of exchange inclines them to economic pursuits. Though some interpret the bartering of tribe members as slavery, it is, in practice, no more odious than arranged marriages.

Biological Factors The volus homeworld has an ammonia-based ecology with a high-pressure atmosphere. To interact with the carbon-based species of the galaxy, the volus must wear full-enclosing pressure suits. Without them, they could not breathe, and might actually burst open.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A6: Xenological Threat Assessments

The Courts of Dekuun (Elcor) While the elcor are territorial about any area they consider theirs, they have no interest in aggressive expansion. They have a small military and are no threat to Alliance interests.

Political Factors The elcor follow the recommendations of their Elders, who spend years poring over ancient records of jurisprudence to determine the precedent that should be followed in any given situation. The Elders record closely argued and minutely detailed instructions on what course to follow in any theoretical crisis. These are filed away in huge libraries of data discs and consulted at need. This makes elcor policies very predictable, provided one has done a great deal of research.

Economic Factors The elcor economy is small, only slightly larger than the Alliance's, but extremely well-developed. They see no point to rushing things, and are fond of making thorough, century-long development plans. They don't need to trade for any resource - they have all they require to supply their own needs, and trade only in finished goods. Any attempt to embargo their space would be fruitless.

Cultural Factors Elcor psychology is deliberate and conservative. They are incapable of making spur-of-the-moment decisions, and rely on sophisticated virtually intelligent combat systems. These autonomous war machines can choose between thousands of gambits developed and polished over centuries by elcor strategists.

Biological Factors The massive bodies of the elcor cannot move quickly. Fortunately, they are extremely tough-skinned, and can carry incredibly heavy equipment. Elcor warriors don't dodge incoming fire; they shrug it off or endure it. They don't carry small arms; their broad shoulders serve as a stable platform for the same size of weapons typically mounted on Alliance fighting vehicles.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-A7: Xenological Threat Assessments

Quarian Migrant Fleet The quarian Migrant Fleet includes several hundred warships, but due to their precarious existence, cannot be considered a creditable threat. The quarian military does not attack others; it defends the Fleet. Thus far, the Alliance has not been required to block quarian access to human-claimed systems.

Political Factors The quarian government is an amalgam of ship-based representative councils and military dictatorship. Fleet operations are directed by the military. The Admiralty Board allows the civilian government to run society, but has the authority to overrule them in an emergency.

Economic Factors The quarian economy exists at a subsistence level. The government is obliged to provide air, food, and water to every citizen to ensure survival of the species. The greatest quarian asset is technical ability. Quarians are skilled space miners, technicians, and mechanics, and are often hired by space industries seeking cheap, skilled labor. This frequently causes protests and riots among native workers.

Cultural Factors The greatest influences on quarian culture are the creation and revolt of the geth and the loss of the quarian homeworld. In contrast to other races, quarians are reluctant to trust virtually- or artificially-intelligent machines, but they are far more likely to treat them as if they were living beings.

Biological Factors Little is known of quarian biology. Like the turians, they possess a dextro-amino acid biology, and cannot consume human food. Outside of their own vessels, they always wear a protective, fully-sealed environment suit. No one has ever been allowed to board a quarian ship; they claim they cannot risk outside contamination.

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Systems Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence ONI-6078-AA: Xenological Threat Assessments

Appendix: Keepers The "keepers" of the Citadel are not considered a threat by Alliance Intelligence. They appear to be genetic constructs, simple-minded biological androids created by the Protheans to maintain the structure of the Citadel station. When the asari discovered the Citadel, the keepers were already doing their duties. They continue to do so to this day, following apparently-instinctive routines and blithely ignoring the millions of aliens that have settled in their home.

There is no known way to communicate with the keepers. Attempts to take them into custody for study cause the creatures to undergo a sudden "self-destruct," with a form of acid being released internally. The affected keeper literally melts into a puddle of proteins and minerals in less than a minute.