The Cretan Constitution

The Cretan Constitution is an ancient document, existing before the First Republic and occasionally amended by the Eternal Archon on high.

ARCHON POWERS - Article I
In a Republic, the Archon (me) has a limit on what he may do without Senate instruction. He MAY do the following on his own if no law or motion prohibits it: - Raise stability - Invoke omens - Set up trade deals - Respond to diplomatic proposals - Call in allies - Appoint characters to offices - Give out minor titles - Control armies/navies

Anything else needs a Senate mandate, including: - Declaring war - Initiating diplomacy (except for trades and calling in allies) - Doing intrigue - Building buildings - Recruiting troops - Building ships

LEGISLATION - Article II
Introducing Legislation To introduce legislation, any active senator must create a bill containing a single law or motion (more on this below). This must then be co-sponsored by FOUR Senate members, who must be of the same party. ''Example: Poster Bob from the Populists says "As a member of the Populists, I introduce legislation with the following contents: A law forbidding diplomatic relations" Poster Joe from the Populists says, "I co-sponsor Bob's legislation" Poster Bill from the Populists says "I co-sponsor Bob's legislation" Poster Donald from the Populists says "I co-sponsor Bob's legislation" Poster Goofy from the Populists says "I co-sponsor Bob's legislation" Bob's legislation from the Populists is now successfully introduced to the bill as a Populist legislation.''

Withdrawing Legislation You can freely withdraw your own legislation, even if it has already received the necessary number of co-sponsors, if you for instance feel that another bill from your own party is better and don't want your own bill getting picked over it. You may NOTwithdraw or amend legislation if less than four hours remain on the legislative session.

Amending Legislation Motions can be amended after being introduced (see 'Amending Motions' for specifics). Laws can not be amended after being introduced, only withdrawn. You may NOT withdraw or amend legislation if less than four hours remain on the legislative session.

Multiple Legislation At the end of the legislative session, if there is more than one piece of legislation from a single party, whichever legislation has the most co-sponsors is entered into the bill. If several pieces of legislation have the same amount of co-sponsors, the Archonrandomly chooses between them. The exception to this are the party currently in power, who may have up to two pieces of legislation enter the bill along with one proclamation (see below). Note that each Senator can only introduce one motion/law, its the party that gets two (from two different Senators).

Party Identification

When introducing legislation or co-sponsoring, you are required to show your party colors by attaching the correct one of the following small images to your post. If your party symbol is not in your post I will not acknowledge your legislation or co-sponsor. Please do not use the party icons unless you are either joining a party, legislating, sponsoring or voting, as this will help quickly pick out important posts.

LAWS - Article III
Laws cannot be introduced or repealed unless they are a valid law listed below. Laws, once introduced, are immediately applied and stay until they are repealed. You cannot put restrictions on when a law is implemented. Which laws are possible depends on the available laws and decisions (largely decided by the ruling party), but there will always be a stock set of laws that can be introduced/repealed.

Motions to Change Laws You may not include as part of a motion to change a law. Note that form of government, national ideas and army specializations do not count as laws, and thus you may introduce motions to change them.

Omens The Archon may either be permitted or forbidden by law to invoke omens. If he is forbidden, he may only invoke Omens on the explicit command of the Senate, and otherwise must wait to see what Omen presents itself naturally. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law banning the Archon from invoking Omens"

Diplomacy and Intrigue Legal restrictions may be placed on specific diplomatic/intrigue actions imposing specific conditions. For example, a restriction can be placed on Assassination against same-culture countries, Establishing Trade Routes with Monarchies or Declaring War without a Casus Belli. You can also place an outright ban on an action, such as forbidding Assassinations. You may only attempt to restrict a single type of action per law. Note that the restriction must have some relevance to the country targeted OR the status of Crete itself in the case of diplomacy or the character/country targeted in case of intrigue. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law banning alliances with dictatorships"

Army/Navy Restrictions may be placed on the minimum and maximum size of the Army and Navy. The maximum cannot be lower than 50%, and the minimum cannot be higher than the maximum. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a restriction on the maximum navy size to 75%"

Command Limits Restrictions can be placed on how much of the army a single general may command, from 25% to 100% of the army. A higher limit will allow for better utilization of good generals, but carries more danger of creating powerful generals that may incite civil wars. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a restriction on the troops a general can command to 25% of the army"

Office-Holding Restrictions may be placed on eligibility to a certain office. This law may only target one office but may make any number of conditions, If no candidate meeting these conditions exists, the Archon may appoint any suitable character to the office until such a candidate appears. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law restricting the Religious Tech Office to Religious Faction members over the age of 50"

Criminal Laws A standard punishment can be decided for Prisoners of War, Murderers (characters imprisoned during an attempted assassination) and Traitors (characters imprisoned by ruler). The harsher the punishment, the more tyranny and disloyalty it creates, but it will also weaken the friends and faction of the punished character. With Banishment or Execution, the state will seize the assets of the character.

The possible punishments in ascending order of severity are: Pardon, Imprisonment, Banishment, Execution. If a punishment is set to Imprisonment, you may additionally add a term (1 year, 5 years, etc), but if both crimes are punishable by imprisonment they MUST have the same prison term. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law changing the punishment for treason to Execution"

Motion Hierarchy If a motion calls to do something prohibited by another motion (ie, a motion calls to declare war on Macedonia when another motion forbids all war for 20 years), the conflict is resolved by the current type of motion hierarchy on the books. The possible motion hierarchies are Democratic, Status Quo, Reformative and Exclusive. '''If two motions conflict but cannot be resolved by motion hierarchy (ie, passed by equally large parties under Democratic), then the newer of the two motions takes precedence. If both are equally new, the Archon decides.'''

Motion hierarchy only comes into play if two motions are impossible to carry out within the specified time limit. If two motions can both be done within the time limit, they do not conflict, even if their overall goals may conflict (ie, a motion to lower relations with Seleucids to -200 and one to raise them to +200 can both be done by first doing one and then the other)

For the purposes of Motion Hierarchy, there are two types of actions within motions: Prohibitive: This means any action that aims to maintain the status quo or prohibit change. To maintain force limits over 50%, to keep a gold reserve or forbid war with Macedonia are Prohibitive actions. Reformative: This means any action that does not fall into prohibitive categories above. To increase the army to 100% of force limits, build a building or lower relations with Seleucids are Reformative actions.

Democratic: The motion by the largest (in-game) party is enacted while the other is ignored. Prohibitive: A prohibitive motion trumps a reformative motion. This means that it is very easy to block the bills of other parties. Reformative: A reformative motion trumps a prohibitive motion. This means that it is very difficult to block the bills of other parties. Exclusive: Neither gets enacted. Under Exclusive, if two or more conflicting motions are introduced (ie a motion forbidding war with one declaring war on Seleucids) they are all stricken from the books. If two motions later conflict due to factors that could not be predicted (such as building motions being blocked because all Crete's money were stolen) they are stricken from the books at the beginning of next legislative session. EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law changing the motion hierarchy to Exclusive"

Law Hierarchy If a motion conflicts with a law, precedence is determined by the current law hierarchy. The possible law hierarchies are Laws and Motions. This simply determines which of the two overrides the other. Laws First: Laws trump motions Motions First: Motions trump laws EXAMPLE: "I introduce a law changing the law hierarchy to Laws first"

Special Laws Special laws are laws that require opportune conditions to be passed and which affect the population at large in various ways, such as encouraging the emancipation of slaves or affecting our chances of invoking a successful omen. Special laws tend to upset the stability of the government and many have an opposite that cannot exist alongside it and must be revoked if the opposite is to be possible (such as the Anti-Piracy Law and the Privateer Sponsorship Law). See the information post for a full listing of special laws.

Conflicting Laws If two parties attempt to change the same law in a session, the Archon decides which change makes it on the books.

Repealing Laws Any law introduced by the Senate can be repealed. Any law listed under ”Current Laws” in the Legislative Post can be repealed. It is then treated same as introducing a new law, with the old law being taken off the books if the repeal passes. Special Laws cannot always be repealed, and any that can will be listed in the Legislative Post EXAMPLE: "I repeal the law forbidding the Archon from invoking Omens"

MOTIONS - Article IV
Motions constitute a single goal set up for the Archon consisting of up to three actions. A duration must be specified (up to 30 years) or it will last only one term. The actions must be related to the goal they are intended to accomplish.

Example of a Good motion Destabilize the Seleucid Empire by supporting rebels, assassinating their ruler and sowing discontent among governors (1 goal, 3 actions)

Examples of a Bad motion ''Build up our infrastructure by constructing a temple in Gortyn, stockades in Thracia and Knossus and irrigation in Maedi (too many actions) Build up our infrastructure by constructing a temple in Gortyn and declaring war on Tylis (one action is not related to goal)''

National Ideas A motion may include a change of a national idea. You can only change a national idea if the change is stability-free (ie ruling party matches the idea) OR stability is at 3. You may only change national ideas once per session (five years). See information post for a list of national ideas and their requirements.

Army Specializations A motion may include a change of Crete's army specialization. See information post for a list of army specializations and their requirements.

Form of Government A motion may include a change of Crete's government. See information post for a list of governments and their requirements.

Amending Motions You may amend a motion after it has been introduced, as long as you only change the actions in the motion and not the goal(and the actions remain relevant to the goal as specified above). You may NOT amend a motion if less than four hours remain on the legislative session.

Motions Increasing Tyranny Any motion in a bill that successfully passes the vote which gives the Archon free will as to how to carry it out (for instance, a motion telling the Archon to build any buildings he want, or use any intrigue he wants against a nation) will increase Tyranny by an amount equal to its duration in years to represent the Archon being given more power by the Senate.

Example of tyranny-increasing motion “The Archon should improve our infrastructure by building any buildings he sees fit to" Example of non tyranny-increasing motion "The Archon should improve our infrastructure by building a temple in Gortyn and a forum in Knossus"

Proclamations The Archon's party gets a single proclamation. A proclamation does not count as legislation for the purposes of limting a Senator to a single piece of legislation (so you can introduce any number of proclamations and/or a motion/law). A proclamation works like a motion, but can only be used for one of the following things:
 * Invoke an omen
 * Rename a capital city
 * Change the country's flag (must provide a design)
 * Perform a single action on any character (appoint to office, imprison, triumph, etc)
 * Do something useless (proclaim a national spears day etc, anything that has no effect on the game)

VOTING - Article V
After 24 hours, if there is any successfully introduced legislation, the Senate has 12 hours to invoke their opposition to the bill. If at least 1/6th of active senators state their opposition to the final bill, the bill goes up for a vote, else it is automatically passed. If the legislation is passed, it is appended to the currently existing laws and motions, if it fails, gridlock occurs (see below). Voting lasts 24 hours or until either yes or no gets more than 50% of registered senators. If voting ends in a tie, next vote is tiebreaker. If voting ends in a tie with all senators having voted, a coinflip determines the outcome.

Gridlock If the bill is voted down, gridlock occurs. This means that the next update is played with the exact same motions and laws as the previous (minus ones that have expired). Most of the time, this means the Archon will not have a mandate to do much of anything, as per 'Archon Powers'. Gridlock does not mean the Archon is suddenly free to do whatever he wants, no matter what persistent rumors on this topic say! (Also, gridlock does not cause tyranny)