Archadians

The first known record of the Archadian society goes back to approximately 300 BCE, using Earth’s calendar, with scrolls mentioning both the name of the planet, Archadia, and the name of their sitting queen, Amphion. According to Earth mythology, Amphion was the daughter of Antiope who, in turn, was daughter to Ares and sister to Melanippe and Hippolyte and possibly Orithyia, queens of the Amazons. From the writings of the scrolls Antiope is referred to as the Goddess and mother of all Archadians. She brought her ‘seed’ to Archadia, leaving her prior home many cycles away, to begin anew as she believed that her former home was soon to begin worshipping other gods and that her children must survive on their own to grow and prosper. The scrolls do not say how Antiope got all the way from Earth, in the Alpha Quadrant, to Archadia in the Delta Quadrant, but the listings of the names seem to show that she was, indeed, the same Antiope mentioned in Earth myths.

The scrolls go further to say that upon their arrival to their new home Antiope had announced the creation of a sovereign ruler, her daughter, Amphion. She was well loved by all who had arrived with Antiope and accepted as the holy, ordained ruler of the now established Archadian race. Unfortunately the scrolls do not mention how the name of the planet and race was chosen.

Archadian Society

Very little information exists on how the planet became habitable by the Archadians, but the scrolls say the following (translated): “...the Goddess waved her hand and where once there was nothing our homes now stood.” Nothing more is said about the building of homes or infrastructure, but other historical documents make note of waterways, sewers, public bath houses and other necessary community areas having been constructed. There is never any mention of the creation of labor forces for such large undertakings but the evidence of these structures are still present as those sites seem to have been meticulously cared for and, despite age and weather damage, are still in good shape as a monument to history.

Ancient Archadian Warrior -- Image used with permission from Olaf Winter at www.amazon-warriors.com

Since the first mention of Antiope, and her creation of the royal line starting with Amphion, Archadian society has been of the matriarchal sort and following the known Earth myths of the Amazons, female warriors with a reigning queen. One major difference noted in Archadian history is that male children born to the Archadians were not immediately killed or left for dead in the forests. Archadians simply have a predisposition to spawn more female children than male.

Matriarchal Religion

As noted above, Archadians worship the Goddess. The ancient scrolls refer to her as Antiope who, according to Earth Amazon mythology, was the sister of Penthesilea, a queen of the Amazons. Antiope was also the only Amazon known to have married, which may suggest a reasoning for the allowance of males of the species to be integrated into society instead of killed when born or left for dead, as they were on Earth. The Goddess is written as an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful female deity. This religion has been the only authorized religion on all planets in the Archadian sector for hundreds of thousands of years.

Physiology

Archadian Females

Because of the matriarchal society, women are the domainant sex on the planet. They occupy the highest government and civilian positions and form the bulk of the Archadian military and civilian security forces. Their secondary sexual characteristics mimic that of current day (2012-era) males from Earth as opposed to the females of Earth. The Archadian females have larger hands and feet than the men, broader shoulders and chest, larger skull and bone structure, greater muscle mass and a longer shinbone. They do, however, still retain feminine characteristics of near hairlessness, or hairlessness, development of breasts, menses, female reproductive organs, production of milk to feed their offspring, etc. It has been noted by Starfleet personnel that the vast majority of the female Archadians are what would be considered beautiful. Even females of advanced age retain their beauty and look much younger than they are. Females older than 20 years of age have an average height of 6 ft. 3 in. and an average weight of 200 lbs.

Archadian Males

Men in Archadian society have been relegated to supporting roles in both the civilian and government sector. They do not hold positions of high power, but in the past 100 years or so they have been allowed to become more prevalent in their roles. In the last 75 years they have been allowed to vote, allowed to join the military and security forces and some even serve as diplomats or attaches to the Prime Minister, the highest position males have ever been allowed to reach. Living in a matriarchal society they have been taught since infancy that the females are the dominant sex and have no difficulty with this. They know that the females are more capable than the men and enjoy the safety and security that a female provides, even in a home setting. While many of the males have turned out to be loyal and fierce warriors, they are still seen as lesser warriors than the females. The male sex see the females as revered, much like the Caitians and the females of their planet, and would defer to the females on most all things unless, in the course of their duties, they were ordered to carry out a task in another manner by a more powerful (in rank and or position, not necessarily strength) female. The males retain the honor of being chosen for their characteristics in bringing forth worthy offspring to the females. Despite being smaller in stature, and less muscle mass or athleticism than the females, the men have served the female Archadians well in this area. Males have a predisposition for producing female offspring, which keeps the Archadian matriarchal society in check. Despite their smaller features, the female offspring regularly take on the characteristics of the mother. Female offspring are given priority in education but the male offspring are never treated as second class citizens, other than being brought up knowing that the females are to be revered in most every way. Females also respect the males and do not take advantage of their role in society, but are taught to know that they will one day be in a position of power oover all males. Males older than 20 years of age have an average height of 5 ft. 8 in. and an average weight of 170 lbs.

Sex Development Disorders

In Amazonian mythology on Earth, male offspring were sometimes killed or left in the woods to fend for themselves, almost always resulting in death of the child. Archadian society, possibly due to their deity being what is thought to be Antiope, the only Amazon to have married, the male offspring are not put to death. However, on the rare occasion that a child is born with a sexual development disorder, they are most often killed. Ancient Archadian tribes would offer the child as a sacrifice to the Goddess/Antiope, in hopes that sending the child back to its creator would garner favor to them for willingly killing their own offspring to keep the culture secure. Current-day Archadians are now given the choice but both males and females with developmental disorders of this kind are often shunned and are unable to live happily. Some disorders include:

• intersex (biological characteristics of both male and female, formerly known as hermaphroditism)
• aphallia (where a male is born without a penis or a female born without a clitoris),
• diphallia (male born with two penises)
• micropenis (self explanatory)
• turner syndrome (females born with short stature, infertility, webbed neck)
• uterus didelphys (female born with two uteri).

These offspring are normally put to death and the parents will begin again. Due to the high reliance upon production of strong females and primary sexual characteristics in males to continue the proud line of Archadians, this is seen as a normal thing and not met with remorse.

Archadian Government

Despite having a Queen on the throne, the Archadian Government is run by a Prime Minister (PM) who is the head of the government. The PM is responsible to the Archadian Parliament, headed up by various female members from the different areas of Archadia Prime and outlying Archadian worlds (Archadia II, Archan and Antiopol), with the outlying worlds having the fewest members due to the smaller amount of established communities.

The Queen

The Archadian Monarch, currently Queen Melanippe III, is the Head of State of the Arhcadian Worlds.

The Queen takes little direct part in government, and must remain strictly neutral in political affairs. However, the legal authority known as the Crown remains the source of the executive power used by the Government.

These powers are known as Royal Prerogative and can be used for a vast number of things, such as the issue or withdrawal of passports, to the dismissal of the Prime Minister or even the Declaration of War. The powers are delegated from the Monarch personally, in the name of the Crown, and can be handed to various ministers, or other Officers of the Crown, and can purposely bypass the consent of Parliament.

The head of Her Majesty’s Government, the Prime Minister, also has weekly meetings with the sovereign, where she may express her feelings, warn, or advise the Prime Minister in the Government's work.

In practice, the Royal Prerogative powers are almost all delegated to the Government or to Crown officials. Some of these powers are:

Domestic powers

• The power to dismiss and appoint a Prime Minister, the latter being a rarity as most PMs are elected by Parliament. This power is exercised by the Monarch herself. In theory, she may choose a Prime Minister of her own choice.
• The power to dismiss and appoint other ministers. This power is exercised by the Prime Minister alone.
• The power to summon and prorogue Parliament.
• The power to grant or refuse Royal Assent to bills (making them valid and law). This is exercised by the Monarch, although no Monarch has refused to grant Royal Assent to a bill passed by Parliament since Queen Orithal in the year 1804 (Earth standard).
• The power to commission officers in the Armed Forces.
• The power to command the Armed Forces of Archadia. This power is formally exercised by the Defense Council.
• The power to grant Prerogative of mercy (though Capital Punishment is abolished, except in certain crimes against the Queen, this power is still used to remedy errors in sentence calculation).
• The power to grant honors.
• The power to create corporations via Royal Charter.

Foreign powers

• The power to ratify and make treaties.
• The power to declare war and Peace.
• The power to deploy the Armed Forces outside of Archadian territory.
• The power to recognize states.
• The power to credit and receive diplomats.

Current Archadian Queen

Queen Melanippe III

The current monarch is Queen Melanippe III. Prior to her installment as Queen she was the Archadian Prime Minister and known as Maline. She is currently 47 years old and formerly represented a mid-sized city/state in the Northeast area of Archadia Prime. She has had a superb career throughout her time as a member of Parliament and as the Prime Minister. However, Vice Admiral Ricky Wegener believes that she is not suited to be Queen but at least in this position she can do less harm than she could have as the Prime Minister.

Attempted Coup - 2387

In the latter part of 2387 it was determined by intelligence officers on 900 that Aegina, the current Prime Minister, had hired an assassin to pose as an Archadian, and her Aide, in an attempt to sabotage the relationship between the Archadians and Starbase 900. This included the use of a small contingent of Section 31 operatives working in the Delta Quadrant. The plan, it seemed, was twofold: 1) upset the relationship between the station and the Archadians to the point that the latter would no longer allow the station to be in their area of space and force them to leave that sector. 2) Cast suspicion upon the Queen and several of her staff so that she would be seen as the creator of this plan and/or manage to assassinate her so that Aegina could take her place.

In the beginning, the plan went well for Aegina. Queen Melanippe III was unaware of the goings on of her Prime Minister until suspicion of the act brought several Starfleet personnel to her palace once part of the plot had been uncovered. At first the Queen was skeptical but was finally convinced and authorized 900's staff to continue their investigation.

Further evidence was brought to light about the PM's Aide, Zoudin Veist, by intelligence operatives Lt. (j.g.) Nenita Quidley and Master Chief Petty Officer Nick Marcinko. Veist, however, had found out Quidley's association with Starfleet Intelligence but she was able to escape with the help of Marcinko. After a surgery to change her face drastically, a plan was hatched to have her infiltrate Archadian society in hopes of getting close to Veist for further information. The infiltration was a much bigger success than initially planned as Veist fell in love with the operative, now named Leto, and presented her with an arrow, the Archadian ceremonial equivalent of proposing marriage. Leto, who had gone on the mission hypnotized into thinking she was an Archadian named Imara, and with no former knowledge of herself as Leto, became Veist's mate. This angered the PM who sent one of her cohorts to neutralize both Veist and Leto/Imara. The guard failed and was killed by Veist who absconded with Leto/Imara in a personal shuttle.

Marcinko was notified by Leto/Imara, who had been programmed to send messages back to 900 after meetings with Veist, and gave chase from the station. He located Veist's shuttle and was able to beam aboard wherein a fight ensued. Leto, still thinking she was Imara, also put up a fight against Marcinko until he was able to remember the code word that would wake her from her hypnosis. Both were finally able to kill Veist but not before he had given Leto/Imara information about Aegina and what she had been doing.

Once they arrived back on Archadia Prime, the two searched Veist's residence and found a hidden room where he had kept extensive notes on, not only his past activities, but also very detailed notes on what Aegina had assigned him to do, what all she had planned and more. This information was enough to ensure Aegina's removal from her post. Once presented to the Queen, she collaborated with 900's Marine Corps to round up all of the involved parties and bring them to justice.

While Archadia had not sentenced anyone to death in over one hundred years, threats and attempts against the Queen were, and still are, punishable by death. Aegina was beheaded in a public execution and Melanippe III chose a successor for her position.

The Prime Minister

The Archadian Prime Minister has almost always hailed from Archadia III and is an elected member of Parliament by the Parliament members. She acts as the voice of Parliament to the worlds and is the speaker of the house when Parliament is open. Archadians do not have political parties and the PM is often a former member of Parliament who has been voted into the position by a popular vote.

While the PM is bound by the laws set forth by Parliament, she can make decisions on her own as long as they are in accordance with the standing laws at the time. She serves until she retires from service, dies, is impeached by Parliament, dismissed by the Queen or assumes the position of Queen once the sitting Queen retires or dies.

Current Prime Minister

...coming soon.

Former Prime Minister

Former Prime Minister Aegina

The current Archadian Prime Minister is Aegina. She and Queen Melanippe III, when she was known as Maline and served as the PM, have always butted heads. From an outsider's point of view it would be very awkward to see the Queen and the PM having been such heated enemies when they were both in Parliament and now working even closer together, but Aegina's promotion to PM was based on popular vote from the current Parliament members meaning that her leadership is what the members of Parliament wanted. She is currently 45 years of age and represented a very wealthy metropolis on Archadia Prime. She has been known to splurge on luxurious items and, with her increase of income, is doing even more now. She is known to be direct and to the point, not holding back on anything except for her own plans, which she hold close to the vest.

In late 2387, Prime Minister Aegina was involved with an attempted coup and assassination plot against Queen Melanippe III. Because of her involvement in this crime, Aegina was sentenced to death by beheading and another PM was appointed directly by the Queen.

Parliament

Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the Archadian Government and is located on Archadia III in the Parliamentary Palace, located very close to the Queen's palace. It is made up of representatives of each state who have been elected by the population of each. They serve eight year terms before re-election and can serve up to three terms.

Regular Parliament meetings are held six times a year (bi-monthly) and special meetings can be called by the PM, by no less than ten members of Parliament in a request forwarded to the PM's office or by summons of the Queen.

Cabinets

The Cabinet Office is a department of the Archadian Government responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Archadia. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. Members of the Cabinet are referred to as Ministers. The current Cabinet Office Ministers are:

• Prime Minister Aegina - Head of Government, Treasury Cabinet
• Deputy Prime Minister Vesper - Deputy Head of Government, President of the Council
• Minister Marsala - Paymaster General
• Minister Drax - Minister of State
• Minister Plomer - Minister of State
• Minister Saabin - Minister of State

Judiciary

The Judiciary of Archadia is not a single body. Each of the separate legal systems in Archadia III, Archadia II, Archan and Antiopol have their own judiciary. The judges of the Supreme Court of Archadia have jurisdiction throughout all planets in the Archadian system.

History of Space Flight

Archadians have been a space-faring race since the year 1899 (Earth standard time) but did not have warp capability until 2375. The rationale behind their lack of productivity from booster rocket-type ships to warp-capable ships over such a long period of time is that they felt that they had expanded enough with a total of four planets and only needed to be able to get around in their own territory. They never felt the need to explore past their area of space. It was only in 2324 that they felt the need to increase their technological awareness of space travel when they were visited by a race known as the Travellers. Despite this being the first race they'd met from another world, the Travellers were well met and spent over a year on Archadia III. The Archadians were impressed with their technology and were granted limited information on faster means of propulsion so that they could develop their own spacecraft for long-range flight.

Once the Travellers departed, the Archadians continued making strides in their research and held their first warp drive test in mid-2372. The test ended in disaster as the craft exploded from an unknown mechanical error, killing seven Archadian pilots. It was later determined that a faulty plasma injector caused the malfunction. Once this was remedied, another test was scheduled and in early 2375 the Antiope-class ship, D'Souza, successfully launched from the surface of Archadia III and reached warp 2.

Once the test was deemed a success the Archadians constructed five more Antiope-class vessels. All of their original vessels had the ability to launch from a planet and land again without having to remain in orbit or go to drydock for repairs. Originally, the ships were all armed with nuclear-type armament but they soon found that this was unsuitable against the races that they found close to them in the Delta Quadrant. In 2377, three ships met with their doom when they encountered pirates who promptly boarded them and took what they wanted. The personnel on board put up a good defense but they were not well armed and were quickly taken over. Once the pirates had looted the ships, and taken many of the Archadian women captive as slaves, the ships were fired upon. Two were completely destroyed and the third was partially destroyed leaving less than half of it in space. All hands, except those taken as slaves, were killed.

Word got out among the Delta Quadrant races that the Archadians were trying their hand at space travel and an unknown race made contact with one of their vessels offering assistance. They provided technical data on shielding, phaser-type technology as well as the use of torpedoes. In return the race requested aslyum on an unnamed moon orbiting Antiopol and to be left alone, with no further contact from the Archadians. Their trade was granted and the Archadians soon began outfitting their vessels with the obtained technology.

Federation Protectorate Status

The Archadians have been a protectorate of the Federation since late 2379 after Federation Envoys secured permission to place an outpost station in orbit of Archadia Prime. Once the Archadians became accustomed to meetings with the Federation, and learned more about their technological advances, what they stood for and that the Archadians could become aligned with them, they formally petitioned for protectorate status. The status would remain in effect for ten years at which time, in 2389, the Archadians would petition to become full members of the Federation or, if they had not met certain guidelines for UFP involvement, they could reapply for protectorate status again.

During this time as a protectorate the Archadians have been very open with the base commanders assigned to Starbase 900 with open lines of communication between both parties. Some Archadian personnel, men and women, have been temporarily assigned to Starbase 900 and certain ships in the quadrant as observers and even serving, in some capacity, as members in the chain of command. Some Archadians have opted for the opportunity to open businesses on Starbase 900, take civilian jobs on the base or ships, or even travel to the Alpha or Beta Quadrants to learn more about the Federation and all of its member worlds. As of yet, no Archadians have applied to Starfleet Academy. This may possibly be attributed to the fact that Starfleet does not place one race or sex as being more important to any other within the service, whereas Archadians are a matriarchal society with the females being the dominant sex.

Federation and Starfleet personnel have worked with the Archadian government to make advancements within their science, security and diplomatic areas. Technology is not simply given to them but, as with all other races, they are helped along with their own discoveries and have the use of some Starfleet equipment.

One of the strongest issues keeping the Archadians from becoming a Federation aligned planet is their treatment of males of their race. While they are not quite seen as lower beings their treatment at the hands of the females is less than fair. The Federation has exacting requirements for prospective member worlds that wish to join. Caste-based discrimination is forbidden and the treatment of male Archadians can be seen as just that. To become a member of the Federation the Archadian government would have to pass laws giving males the same rights as females of the species. Diplomatic officers have met with the Archadian government on several occasions attempting to rectify this but the history of males and females has been this way for so long that the talks are slow going and there are are many who oppose such a change.

Images of Archadians

Ancient Archadian Warrior

Ancient Queen's Personal Guard

Ancient Archadian in the snow -- Image used with permission from Olaf Winter at www.amazon-warriors.com

Ancient Archadian