Justice, Freedom, Balance
—Motto of the Grand Duchy of Cinnericium
The Grand Duchy of Cinnericium, also known as the Grey State, the Judicial State, or occasionally as the Saerlys Duchy, was the interplanetary national government of Cinnericium and its colonies and territories. In spite of its relatively slow expansion and smaller military position, the Grand Duchy, led by the House of Saerlys, remained indefinitely one of the twenty core Demesnes of the Ethereal Demesnes, and one of the core worlds of the Ethereal Empire both during its initial lifespan and later when it was restored.
Along with the Protectorate of Arcuvium of House Keldrick, the Grand Duchy of Cinnericium was long one of the only Demesnes which could compete with the Kingdom of Luctanem and the Noctoren Imperium while being a neighbor to both. However, this status faded in time, as destructive wars and blood feuds lasting for centuries slowly ground down on both Cinnericium and Arcuvium until the two were finally incapable of achieving the same status as regional powers as compared to Luctanem and Noctorem.
For centuries after, Cinnericium sided with Noctorem while Arcuvium sided with Luctanem, and the two fought to press for the dominance of their respective sides. Eventually, when Luctanem and Noctorem finally called a truce for the sake of waging war against the Sith during the New Sith Wars, Cinnericium finally began to more extensively demilitarize, though it never abandoned its cultural roots; that of a society built upon the preservation of justice and honor. It was through this reputation that the Grand Duchy earned one of its most common nicknames; the "Judicial State", referring to the fact that the state's supreme court, the Grey Court, was considered the most respected, fair, and just in the entire Ethereal Demesnes, leaving them in the position of hearing cases from all their neighbors regularly.
It was for this reason that the remaining Cinnerician military forces acted as something of a combination of a military force and a police force. Not totally unlike the Galactic Republic's Judicial Forces, the Cinnerician State Fleet and State Army were more militarized than the Judicial Forces, and were used more aggressively and with less hesitation than the Republic sometimes took in deploying its own forces. The Cinnerician Ducal Guard then long remained the only non-police military unit that the Cinnerician state operated, though in order to get around this without restoring the proper Cinnerician military, the Ducal Guard would at times grow to the scale of thousands of active-duty soldiers.
By the time of the Clone Wars, the House of Saerlys had declined significantly, and in fact its main line had seemingly ended centuries prior. As a result, much like both Arcuvium and Noctorem, the throne of Cinnericium was by now held legally by the King of Luctanem, Atlus Valdayn, whose local deputies worked with the Cinnerician state to manage the government when the King was too busy to involve himself directly; a common occurence, due to the sheer vastness of the Valdayn realm by this time combined with the chaos of the war. Later, following the restoration of the Ethereal Empire, King Atlus' son, King Arius Valdayn, legally gave over the throne to Grand Duchess Althea Saerlys, the last surviving member of the primary Saerlys bloodline who had been placed in extreme long-term stasis millennia prior and only recently awoken.