Penultimate Compact

The Penultimate Compact was a civil and religious agreement which marked the founding of the Risible Republic. It divided the Republic's terrain into several semi-autonomous administrative regions, with each region optimized for a specific economic activity. It was originally known as the "Ultimate Compact," reflecting the contemporaneous belief that the Compact would result in a perfect society with no further need for change. However, the initial design of the Republic resulted in an outbreak of sectarianism, which culminated in the Quartile Reformation and the utter destruction of all but four of the Republic's administrative regions. The first use of the name "Penultimate Compact" was by Lega the Hamhanded in her inaugural address.

Certain features of the original Compact have persisted to the current day. Most obviously are the Quartiles, the four surviving remnants of the original administrative regions. The post-Reformation Compact also preserved the World Transfer Agency, in order to secure the Republic's ability to transport personnel and materials across the radioactive wastes of former regions. The WTA was originally distributed across the Republic, but post-Reformation, the bulk of its assets were concentrated in the First Quartile.