Treaty of Tharamann

The Treaty of Tharamann, known in Vaestdom as the Tharamann Edicts and promulgated as the Happy Peace, was a treaty signed by Terophan, Azophin and Lacre (the 'Imperial Tripod') that officially ended the Great Peninsular War of 1839-1845. It was promulgated by Universal Prophet Zohyr I on 9 Nollonger 1845 (Vaestic date 2:70:5:27) after several months of negotiation between the three powers and their various ostensible clients and allies, the first treaty to be so promulgated (in fact in Vaestic terms it is considered the first 'treaty' to be signed between the states of Vaestdom, in part because it resolved the multiple competing claims to the legacy of post-Neritsovid universal empire). Running to hundreds of pages, its extensive provisions introduced or standardised many of the basic principles that underpin the modern Vaestopolitical conception of interordinate relations. More immediately, it established the basic 19th-century structure of relations between the powers of southern Vaestdom, known as the Tharamannic System.

In some respects, the Treaty of Tharamann was a fairly conventional peace treaty concluded between the three great powers of post-Neritsovid Vaestdom. On the continent itself it implicitly recognised the removal of Lefdim and Zemay from their subordination to Lacre, transforming them into 'Marshalates' with only the most limited formal subordination to Kozrat. It also transferred the cities of Starigrad and Kethpor to Azophin and Terophan respectively while compensating Lacre with significant Lefdic territory and significant cash payments; most of these territorial changes were effectively faits accomplis and reflected Lacre's derisory military performance. The Neritsovid colonies, whose 'demediatised' status had been a bone of contention throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, were partitioned fairly equally between the three powers and their rights to act unilaterally and impose customs charges and other laws as they saw fit recognised (in Vaestopolitical language, the colonies were 'mediatised'). Such territorial agreements had been concluded before, the objections of anti-pluralists notwithstanding. Even the novel introduction of interordinate financial standards in the form of the Tharamann monetary regime had precedents in older bilateral attempts to solve the fineness issue.

In other respects, however, the Treaty was far more significant than previous agreements. Zohyr I seized the opportunity afforded him by the former combatants' need for Prophetic sanction to entrench his own authority, remaking the interordinate system in the process. On Zohyr's insistence, the final document contained several lengthy theoretical and legal essays on the nature of the interordinate system, essays which introduced and enshrined in law the basic conceptual underpinnings of the new 'constitution' of Vaestdom. This definitive resolution of the interminable theoretical wrangling of the post-Neritsovid period, promulgated by the Universal Prophet himself, allowed the three Emperors to officially recognise one another as equals, a development which had already taken place in practice many years before but continued to be denied in theory and in diplomatic language. But more importantly, it restored the principle of Cathedralism to its place at the heart of the Vaestic order, positioning the Prophet explicitly as the promulgator of 'all true pacts and treaties' and implicitly as the focal point of universalist feeling. The Treaty's disingenuous provision for the 'return' of the 'several remaining offices and censures' of Great Neritsia to the Prysostaia was in essence a direct claim to the Neritsovid universal patrimony relinquished by the Emperors in the same document. And this theoretical point was reinforced by the broad range of practical functions assigned to Prysostaic bodies, including the creation of a joint metrological board in the form of the Consortium of Measures. These functions would be steadily extended under subsequent universalising Prophets.

Its universal ambitions notwithstanding, the failure to include Lutoborsk or Agamar in deliberations – and the insistence that Lefdim and Zemay remain part of the Chotarian Empire despite their de facto independence – gave rise to many irregularities, and the Tharamannic System was not perfected until the Purity Council almost ten years later, itself a response to Lacre's military attempts to revise its provisions (the Circuit War). Many of its specific provisions were likewise abrogated by later interordinate restructuring, perhaps most importantly by the Kethpor Conference. But although the borders set out in the Treaty, and even the specific state entities that it recognises, are long outdated, the conceptual framework that it established remains broadly the same even today. Enduring ideas first given practical form by the Treaty include the ultimate supremacy of the Universal Prophet as a figure standing above and separate from any Emperor of the Vesnites; an otherwise pluricentric Vaestdom divided into multiple Empires of equal rank and standing; and a Prysostaia that while conceptually the heir of the government of Great Neritsia nonetheless is entirely 'non-imperial' and neutral with respect to those Empires.