Would YOUR concountry join the European Union?

[evmdbm]

Maybe

Since I'm positing a world with technology 2-300 years in advance of our own and on the verge of making the Alcubierre drive work (yes I know... but screw Einstein) the EU would get more out of the arrangement, but I suspect a global confederation is just round the corner. The main powers are the Empire of Cheyaden (ruled by humans, but with a 40% Azdrai (non-human but humanoid) minority - the Vedreki), the Kingdom of Hertad, Republic of Xalnakh, Verekeen Confederacy and Tarkentian Empire all of which are basically Azdrai nations, but with the Tarkentian Empire having a substantial (30-40m) human population. Cheyaden and the Verekeen Confederacy are already close allies both historically being naval powers based around extensive island chains and jointly administering the Joint Occupied Territories on the continent of Naxaq. The main rivalry is between the Tarkentian Empire and the rest to the extent that when a colony was set up on the terra(or Azdra-) compatible planet orbiting the other star in the binary system the Tarkentians flounced off in a huff to establish their own colony on a separate island from where the other four set up theirs.

The Empire of Cheyaden has traditionally operated on a "your species your rules" basis so the Emperor (a human) has charge of all security and military and defence issues, the human Parliament governs human domestic social policy and the Council of Cities represents the oligarchical rule of the noble and warrior caste over the lower caste Vedreki. As an aside historically prior to the establishment of the empire the archipelago was split between six Vedreki city states and the Kingdom of Cheyaden. A confederate structure along those lines with conflict of laws issues being dealt with by imperial courts (aka the ECJ) is not alien to the Cheyadeneen, so they might think the EU a perfectly sensible way to run things. Admittedly the EU would definitely dislike the degree of caste-based repression that occurs on the Vedreki end and the hereditary emperor is rather too powerful for the country to meet the democracy and human rights criteria for EU membership, but hey....

The reason I say a global confederation is round the corner is that once the Cheyadeneen military have got the ftl drive to work they will have a decisive military advantage over everyone, but everyone else is unlikely just to knuckle under so a greater version of "your species/your nation your rules" might be the way forward.

[Ares Land]

There are similar schemes in the countries that border the Middle Sea on Sumne, but they're sort of utopian at this stage.

The Sharanin religion also teaches that all national government are illegitimate, and hold that only a unified continental state would have the sanction of the Fountain, Aqeran. But no one really cares besides them, they're a hated religious minority.

It would make a lot of sense for the Western states to be united in some kind of confederacy, but it takes a lot of time to learn to cooperate with the traditional enemies...
Erdani, across the Middle Sea, is ruled by the reincarnation of a vengeful Bronze Age deity. So that would be a 'no'.

--

I like to dabble in SF as well. I'd love to have an interesting take on what becomes of the EU and I'll get back to you when I have one
I think a realistic answer would be boring; the question would probably be just as meaningless as 'Would the United States join the North German Confederation?'

[alynnidalar]

I don't think any of the dalar nations would have much interest. By and large they would not want to join themselves to human nations in a permanent way; they would assume (and would probably be correct) that they couldn't trust humans. Would they be interested in entering into an economic union only with other dalar nations? Still probably not. There's only three dalar nations worth talking about (Sanmra, Tuanmali, and Lorhan), and none of them particularly trust one another, although they work together from time to time.

Now something like the UN? Sure. They'd go for something broad like that. But not something as interconnected as the EU. They fiercely value their independence.

(in reality, the only dalar nation actually in Europe is Lorhan, which is the most isolationist and "rah rah humans are gross" of the major dalar nations, so they would definitely never join the EU! I mean, they're a straight monarchy, in the 21st century. Letting someone else tell them what to do, even in a roundabout treaty-based sort of way, would not be acceptable to them.)

[Pedant]

You have too many colliding metaphors for me to make sense of what the Salvians are like

To summarize: they were, at one point, a single cultural entity in the highlands of their peninsula with an interconnected civilization (think the Harappans). After a climate event there was a dark age and they re-established themselves as competing city-states in the jungle, rather like the Maya. Another climatic event sent them scurrying back to the few kingdoms left in the highlands, where old and new coalesced into a new religion rather like Buddhism with magic, while others stayed in the jungles as cities decayed and still others moved out onto the archipelago to the south and established religious colonies which then became settler colonies. It took a few centuries but eventually all of these coalesced into a single culture (the whole thing’s only about as large as the Arabian Peninsula), which then, wound up by centuries of conflict and magic, went a little crazy and took it out on the nearby civilizations. This included a culture built on zombies, which combined with the modernization of magic created the first overseas (read: across the channel) colony, Visauru, with a double helping of both cultures and a smidgen of others (zealously monotheistic alchemists, plutocratic Incredible Hulks, homosexual hallucination-generators, very fragile telepaths, matriarchal spirit-projecting tundra-dwellers, oceanic warriors who remember everything and ride dragons, and so on).
In a nutshell.

[elemtilas]

mimics England... lots of ritual and pomp and circumcisions).

Actually circumsion is not routine in the UK like it is in America, here it's only done if you're Jewish, Muslim, or occasionally for genuine medical reasons (in my case phimosis).

Heh. At least someone read that carefully!

Is Frisland a wandering country, then, to disappear and reappear at odd times?

[Frislander]

mimics England... lots of ritual and pomp and circumcisions).

Actually circumsion is not routine in the UK like it is in America, here it's only done if you're Jewish, Muslim, or occasionally for genuine medical reasons (in my case phimosis).

Heh. At least someone read that carefully!

Is Frisland a wandering country, then, to disappear and reappear at odd times?

Eh, effectively, though currently I'm only planning one long disappearance, that being sometime in the 7th century shortly after the Frislandian's conversion to Christianity by an Irish monk.