The kingdom of Mercia

Hi all, 

Mercia- a state of two dozen systems and other territory-  founded 2029AD,  i.e. 370 years ago by descendants of the British West Midlands, one of the Heptarchy of British founded colonies , now an independent state .  With the use of  the massive resources available, it is a successful free trading , capitalist ,  manufacturing , financial services and tertiary sector economy known as " the work shop of the galaxy" and the "planets of a thousand trades" . Despite this , agricultural output is such at it can cover 80%  of needs .

The currency is, like all strong economies,  on  a non decimal  gold standard:  the Merican Livre of 7000 Piastres . Thus the M£ is a  gold of   .999 gold purity, literally a pound in weight . Other smaller  denominations such as the groat, florin, sixpence shilling, penny and farthing also   contain various amounts of gold  . There are also various paper and e money, which can, on demand, be exchanged for quantities of  gold.  The Mercia realms have many asteroid belts containing a whole periodic table of metals, including gold.  For comparison one Livre is roughly £13,600 or $20,000 in 21 st century fiat currency.

The kingdom is also bordered by a nebula of the remains of colliding neutron stars. This means that the kingdom has access to 500 earth masses ( the entire "weight"  of  earth x 500) and large silver & platinum deposits.  The nebula was given - in order to avoid massive inflation-  to  the inter dimensional conglomerate of the Royal Imperial Martian Mining Company plc , in exchange for 1000 shares per capita. The  massive dividends from these shares are by law  but into a sovereign wealth fund.

The population is 100 billion:   65%  Human , 20% Martian and 15% "other alien".  Noted for a particular  English-speaking  derived language which in verbal format is a mixture of English   Brummiese , the black country  and Martian, with some RP via Solihull and Irish/ Scottish/ Indian/ Yiddish/ Ladino/ Arabic / Hebrew/ Chinese/ Persian/ Italian/ Greek/ French and Dutch thrown in, alongside other non human, non Martian language phrases.   The script is not written in the European / English/ Latin  script , but  in modern " classical"  Martian i.e. vertical  logographic  hieroglyphs.

There are dozens of religions , which follow a " confessional system"  similar to Israel,  in respect of civil religious matters, both human and non human. There is no establishment religion many are secular or identify in a purely cultural heritage sense,  but the Martian religion is the largest at 20 billion.  There is generally religious tolerance, in the traditional British sense of  providing  people don't go nutty or kick up a fuss, go against the public good ,  try revolution or terrorism . The 'non conformists'  Christians are the largest human origin religious denomination at 16 billion, followed by Roman Catholics at 15 billion, the Church of Mercia , an Anglican denomination,  is the third largest largest of human origin  religions , albeit with many alien converts  , are  13 billion, followed by Hindus at 10 billion and Islam  and Buddhists at 5 billion each , the higher understanding had 1 billion devout and the Lutonian religion half a billion. The Jewish population is 2 %  or 2 billion. 

The cuisine is a mixture of cultures, from Curries to fish n chips, to fried breakfast to black pudding, to meat stews and chicken casseroles,  cholnet, bagels,  pineapple fried fritters to Martian willies. The main non  alcoholic beverages  are tea, coffee and Bra. The alcoholic beverages include whiskey, port, wine. But above all  and remembering the brewing heritage of Burton on Trent,   galactic wide renowned beer ,  stout, porter,  ale and larger.  The strength ranges from 5% for a beer   to 50%  for Martian triple fermented Martian Merica ale.

The system of government is a parliamentary system , based on the Westminster model. There are three houses : the Commons (835,635 members) , the Lords (250)  and the Senate (435).  The  Martian Emperor is the Monarch / Queen. Similar to  Canada or Australia, but with the Martians exerting incredible influence " behind-the-scenes"  in what some call " the veiled protectorate".   The head of government is the chief Vizer.

Mercia is a middle ranking to   regional super power.  Mercia is one of the 33 states that has antimatter weapons of mass destruction and one of the dozen who can deploy  the ultimate weapon of mass destruction,  star destroyers , which can , literally cause  entire stars to go super nova, which in turn can obliterate entire planets.