I always found it quite boring when my father brought me there, growing up. Me and Atheria would always beg him to let us go off into the city to explore and play.
—Arius Valdayn
The Diet of the Ethereal Demesnes, often shortened by degrees to the Diet of the Demesnes or simply the Diet, was the primary legislative assembly and forum through which the Ethereal Demesnes were governed as a region and, later, a political polity. The Demesnes' rise following the disappearance of the Ethereal Empire left the region in a state of chaos and warfare, and so, the original core Demesnes came together to create an assembly through which they could jointly meet to discuss and debate matters of importance, in spite of their common violent disagreements and feuds.
In time, more joined, until the official list of member Demesnes, the imperial number, was capped at one-hundred twenty, with twenty being the core Demesnes. These would be divided up as follows; four categories, Autocratic, Democratic, Theocratic, and Oligarchic, each with five core Demesnes and twenty-five regular Demesnes. Any Demesnes outside of this number would rely upon a Demesne more powerful than them to represent their interests at the Diet, and any which did not fit into one of the four categories would have to either pick from a more powerful Demesne whose sphere of influence they could nonetheless join, or be under the direct influence of the Diet itself.
The Diet's approval was required for a number of things in and regarding the Ethereal Demesnes. The creation of new titles had to be at least basically approved by the Diet, albeit this was such a common practice that it was considered an "unwritten rule" that the Diet would never refuse or even debate these unless there was large support against a particular case. The deployment of the Demesne Defense Forces as a whole had to be approved by the Diet, and in fact was legally required to hold a full roll-call vote in which each individual member of the one-hundred twenty-member assembly had to verbally vote when called upon. The construction of new Project Cities, such as the Diet's own capital of Avalantaea, required the Diet's approval. As the Ethereal Demesnes never fully joined the Galactic Republic nor the Galactic Empire, the Diet's approval was even required for implementation of each individual law passed by the Galactic Senate and subsequent Imperial Senate within the Demesnes' borders.
In terms of organization, the Diet was always considered much more logically organized and simple to follow by the Demesnes' general population relative to the overlapping, dispersed, inconsistent array of states dotting the starscape of the region. The leadership of the Diet was set as follows; The Regent of the Ethereal Demesnes acted as the equivalent of the chief of state, typically serving for life unless recalled and typically the leader of House Valdayn, commanding the Demesne Defense Forces and having certain unilateral powers, such as the ability to declare a defensive blockade of the entire Demesnes which would effectively shut them off from the rest of the galaxy, positioning ships to physically block their hyperlanes and cutting off outside communications. The Chairman of the Diet acted as the leader of the legislature, determining what bills would be called to vote and in what order and calling upon individual Demesnes' representatives to speak or ordering them to order if unruly, with the authority to call in and out of session the legislature. The Speaker of the Diet, lastly, held the least direct power of the three, acting as the figure charged with ensuring proper language of bills and orders going through the Diet, organizing each session's seating and representatives, speaking to them privately to organize legislation, and typically performing the formal act of reading bills to the assembly for consideration.
The Regent, along with any Demesne's lead representative, could propose legislation at any time during a legislative session, except while a bill was actively being considered. Each Demesne was allowed a delegation of three representatives, with those that were elected as Regent, Chairman and Speaker typically being their respective Demesnes' lead representatives and another member of the delegations of the latter two stepping up if their Demesne desired legislation to be proposed. In general, each Demesne's lead representative was its primary political leader; for example, the Regent during the Clone Wars was King Atlus Valdayn of Luctanem, the Chairman for the first two years of the war was Grand Archbishop Sean U'Chlaire of Ban Tair, and the Speaker at the beginning of the war was Lord Irtis Zorgin, Sir Irtis, the First Lord Zorgin, of Yvaine. For Demesnes which had minority populations of significance, it was typical for one or both of the two non-voting members of their delegation to be a part of these minorities; for example, the Grand Duchy of Cinnericium's delegation throughout the Clone Wars included the Kaz-Ouc Zabrak politician Lodan Tyresis.