Jovian Government (IF)

The Jovian Concord — Government in Practice (Summary Digest)

This is the working summary that merges the full sketch of Jovian governance with the lean institutional outline. It is descriptive, not aspirational. The Jovians didn’t build a state; they built a compact that works.

Constitutional Character

Not a state: a compact. There is no sovereign “Jovian Republic.” What exists is the Concord—a network of house charters, guild compacts, and habitat bylaws stitched together by shared standards, bond-backed contracts, and port control.
Sovereignty is local. Each colony, house, or chartered guild controls its own people and dirt (or ice). The Concord coordinates what must be coordinated: navigation safety, storm response, port rules, registry, and inter-colony dispute resolution.
Power is economic, not coercive. The Concord has no standing police or navy. It enforces by escrow, port denial, accelerator embargoes, blacklists, and the credible threat that every port will close to you at once if you break the peace.

The Curia (Bicameral)

The Concord’s policy is made in the Curia, a rotating assembly that usually sits at high-traffic stations (often Ganymede or Callisto).

Chamber of Houses

Seats for founder lineages and charter-holding houses. These are the people who paid, built, and still own the critical hull.
Representation is by charter weight (tonnage, population served, infrastructure maintained). Succession rules vary by house—primogeniture is common, but not universal.
Core interests: inter-house status, title recognition, safe-conduct, inheritance, and minimizing external obligations.

Chamber of Commons

Seats for the productive classes: guilds, cooperatives, syndic captains, station-worker councils, and recognized community associations.
Representation is earned—headcount, tonnage moved, safety record, and service rendered to the commons all matter.
Core interests: fair port fees, safety regs that don’t kill work, adjudication speed, and the right to sanction bad actors who poison the commons.

Passing anything

A Concord ordinance (standard, tariff schedule, storm protocol, etc.) needs a concurrency vote—either both chambers by simple majority, or one chamber by supermajority plus the other by simple.
The default bias is toward standards and safety, not policy. The Curia isn’t there to tell a colony how to live; it’s there to keep the lanes open and the beacons honest.

Joint Organs (Where the Work Gets Done)

The Curia charters a set of standing bodies. They are small, technical, and answerable to both chambers.

Concord Court

Arbitration and appeals across house/guild lines. It doesn’t jail you; it attaches your escrow, docks your port privileges, and publishes writs every port honors.

Standards Board

Maintains the technical bible: navigation beacons, chart formats, transponder protocols, Aegis-separation minimums, storm posture levels. If it blinks, chirps, or sets a “no-go” flag in Jovian space, these people define it.

Port & Accelerator Authority

Coordinates berths, mass-driver schedules, exclusion zones, and safety closures. When it says “lanes dark,” ports dim the lights and the rails go cold.

Registry & Transponder Office

Issues IDs, verifies tonnage and ownership, publishes blacklists, and holds the escrow bonds that make contracts real. Lose your transponder, and you’re a ghost—no port will touch you.

Treasury / Bond Office

Runs the escrow that underwrites behavior: performance bonds, safe-conduct deposits, and cross-default clauses. It clears fees and sanctions between houses and guilds so grudges don’t turn into shootings.

Stormwatch

Space-weather net. Consolidates Jovian magnetospheric data and solar forecasts. When Stormwatch upgrades the posture, Aegis rules tighten, lanes close, and everyone knows why.

Aegis Safety Commission

Codifies electromagnetic shield (Aegis) practices: standoff distances, approach protocols, engine-plume interactions, and shut-down rules near big hull. It also investigates Aegis-related incidents and can recommend sanctions.

Executive Core

The Concord has administration, not rulers.

Secretariat (Concord Administration)

A small civil service that runs the joint organs above, keeps the ledgers, drafts standards, and shepherds Curia business. It cannot invent authority; it implements what the Curia passes, or what existing standards already empower.

Wardenate (Emergency Only)

In a crisis the Curia names a time-boxed Warden of the Moons. The Warden can requisition tugs, fit guns, coordinate house guards, and direct knights for the specific emergency only. The commission expires automatically; no one wants a standing general.

Law in Three Layers

Jovian law is layered to avoid stepping on local toes.

House Law

Inside a house’s hull and charter sites, house law rules—personnel, titles, inheritance, internal discipline. Outsiders enter by safe-conduct or as sworn retainers and accept the house’s jurisdiction while aboard.

Guild Code

The technical-commercial law of miners, tug pilots, glaciospeleologists, shield techs, and yard unions. The Code governs contracts, safety, workmanship, and fair dealing. Guild courts are fast, boring, and effective.

Concord Law

The thin layer that binds houses and guilds together: standards, registry, bonds, safe-conduct, dispute arbitration, storm posture, Aegis rules, port/accelerator closures. Penalties are economic and immediate.

Enforcement Without Police

The Concord does not do patrol cars. It does levers.

Escrow and bonds. Every serious actor has performance bonds on file. Default, and the bond office pays the injured party and blacklists you until made whole.
Port denial. Ports turn you away. No fuel, no berth, no parts, no market.
Accelerator embargo. Rails refuse to launch your cargo or receive it. The effect is instant and devastating.
Transponder revocation. Lose your registry; all automatic services shut you out. Your ship becomes a pariah target for inspection.
Sanction writs. Concord Court writs authorize port masters and house guards to seize collateral, impound cargo, or eject you.
Knightly interdiction (last resort). If you keep violating safety and threaten others, the Curia can license house knights to stop you in open space. That is rare and very public.

Houses, Guilds, and Titles

Houses are real—founder groups with assets, oaths, and long memories. Many use noble titles. Some pass a single main title, others spawn a thicket of counts and barons. Titles matter because ports and guilds care whom they’re dealing with.
Knights of the void are neural-linked pilots recognized as a quasi-gentry. They are oath-bound to houses or guilds. Duels under Aegis in open space are legal if filed; violence inside habitats is a felony.
Guilds move the rocks and keep the hulls alive. Their leverage is competence and the ability to shut down unsafe operators by refusing contracts and reporting to the Commons chamber.

The Curia’s Day Job

What actually occupies Curia bandwidth:

Keep the lights synchronized. Beacon updates, chart corrections, transponder revisions, and backward compatibility so the 50-year-old tug still knows which way is “out.”
Storm posture. Harmonize how ports go to yellow/orange/red. If one port is open and its neighbor is closed, someone dies trying to make the gap.
Aegis rules. Minimum standoff, approach corridors, engine-plume restrictions near shields, and shut-down thresholds around big hulls. Write them, refresh them, enforce them by ports and bonds.
Ports and rails. Slotting, queue priority, noise/exhaust windows, and closure authority. Arbitration when two houses both want the same orbital.
Disputes. Who pays, who repairs, who gets blacklisted. Fast, predictable, and public.

Foreign Concessions

Extraterritorial enclaves (Earthforce depots, Belt corporates) exist under sealed charters. They pay fees and obey safety law, but culturally and legally they’re not “Jovian.” If they break safety, ports still close and accelerators still embargo them. No one is above Stormwatch.

Civic Duty & Standing

The famed Jovian vocation/avocation norm (≈4+4 hours) is more than culture; it affects standing. Sustained public avocation—parks, clinics, beacon maintenance—earns faster docket times in the Concord Court and petition priority in the Commons. You pull your weight; the system moves faster for you.

Defense and Mobilization

No standing navy. There are house guards and outfittable tugs. In trouble, the Curia names a Warden, issues limited warrants, and the ports become logistics nodes. When it’s over, the Warden’s seal dies, and everything devolves back.
Doctrine in a sentence. Keep the lanes safe; do not unify force longer than necessary; return to commerce immediately.

How a Dispute Actually Flows

Contract phase. Two parties post performance bonds with the Treasury/Bond Office, specify forum (Guild Court or Concord Court), and register the job with Registry.
Incident. Something breaks: a near-collision, unpaid fees, Aegis violation, or a dead miner.
Triage. Port & Accelerator Authority may suspend a lane. Stormwatch may adjust posture if a storm played a role. Aegis Safety Commission logs a case.
Forum. If it’s technical/commercial, a Guild Court hears it; if it spans house lines, Concord Court takes it. The Registry validates IDs and bonds.
Decision. Penalties are bond forfeits, repair orders, fee adjustments, and—if egregious—transponder warnings or blacklists.
Enforcement. Ports and rails execute the writ. If someone refuses, the Curia publishes a sanction writ; that actor stops trading.

Compliance Machinery (Why It Works)

Escrow by default. You don’t trade without bonds on file. Everyone expects to get paid if wronged; everyone expects pain if they cheat.
Ledger transparency. The Registry’s public ledger lets ports and counterparties see flags immediately. There’s no “we didn’t get the memo.”
Port solidarity. Port masters are former captains and engineers. If the Curia says a ship is unsafe, they will not berth it. No one wants a hull breach on their watch.
Minimal law, maximal standards. Politics is narrow; standards are detailed. That keeps debates technical and outcomes predictable.

Limits and Failure Modes

No centralized force. If a major house defies the Curia and a few ports side with it, sanctions bite slowly. The remedy is economic isolation, which takes time.
Title games. Houses play succession tricks and jurisdiction shell games. The Commons chamber exists to keep them honest, but it’s politics all the way down.
Guild capture. A dominant guild can weaponize safety codes to crush rivals. The Curia reviews codes through both chambers to blunt that, but it happens.
Storm chaos. In severe radiation weather the best standards still leave gaps. Blackouts and comm delays push more decisions back to local captains—exactly when luck is worst.

Culture and Symbols (Because Optics Matter)

Aegis as halo. In Jovian eyes a working shield isn’t just physics—it’s legitimacy. Knights duel outside shields; nobles parade under them; ports honor them. The Aegis Commission’s rules are, therefore, sacrosanct.
The Curia’s seal. Two rings (Houses and Commons), crossed mass-driver rails, a beacon flare. It appears on the Registry ledger, Stormwatch bulletins, and writs. If you fake it, every port will ruin you.

Quick Reference: Org Chart

Curia

Chamber of Houses
Chamber of Commons

Joint Organs

Concord Court
Standards Board
Port & Accelerator Authority
Registry & Transponder Office
Treasury/Bond Office
Stormwatch
Aegis Safety Commission

Executive

Secretariat (Concord Admin)
Wardenate (emergency, time-limited)

Sanction Tools

Escrow forfeits
Port denial
Accelerator embargo
Transponder revocation
Sanction writs (house guards execute)
Knightly interdiction (last resort)

Bottom Line

The Jovians solved governance with contracts, standards, and ports, not uniforms. Houses keep their pride. Guilds keep the air breathable and the rails honest. The Curia keeps the lanes open and the storms survivable. Break the rules and you don’t get arrested—you get denied: no berth, no launch slot, no counterparties. In a region where everyone depends on everyone else’s competence, that’s more lethal than a badge.