Erewhon (Honorverse)

Infobox HonorverseOrganizations
name = Republic of Erewhon
formofgovernment = oligarchic republic
officiallanguage = Standard English
homeplanet = Erewhon
capital = City of Maytag
headofstate = President
headofgovernment = an unofficial quadrumvirate of families' heads
seniormilitarycommander = in rank of Admiral
executivebranch = cabinet
legislativebranch =
military = Erewhonese Navy
establishment =
currency =

Erewhon is a fictional star nation that appears in David Weber's Honor Harrington series of novels. The name "Erewhon" is an anagram for "nowhere" and matches the title of a utopian novel written by Samuel Butler in 1872.

Located near Solarian League space, Erewhon was founded by a group of criminal organizations and mafia families which became the social elite of the new world. While formally a republic, Erewhon is controlled by a group of powerful families which takes all the decisions, using the official Erewhonese government as a facade. The formal head of state of the Republic of Erewhon is the President, who is usually the head of one of the families currently at the top of the Erewhonese power structure. Real executive power in Erewhon lies in the hands of a triumvirate or quadrumvirate of family heads.

The Republic's capital is the city of Maytag. Erewhonese placenames tend to reflect the pop culture and commercial products of the planet's founding families.

Erewhon has a reputation of being a seedy and dangerous place to be, with an especially active criminal underworld. However, the Erewhonese are honorable people, operating on a developed version of the thieves' code of honor. Unusually enough for a planet founded by criminals, Erewhon has some of the harshest laws in known space; while it does not have a death penalty, the worst conviction a criminal may receive is life imprisonment in solitary confinement without parole, which sometimes may include sensory deprivation. Erewhon also boasts the galaxy's strictest traffic laws.

Erewhon's prosperity has been boosted by the existence of the Erewhon Wormhole Junction, which attracts trade from and to the Solarian League. Even though the Erewhon Junction is small compared with the Manticore Junction, the Erewhonese have become commercial rivals of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

Notable tourist attractions of Erewhon are the city of Maytag itself, the Suds Emporium (considered to be the place where the "real" decision-makers agree on policy) and the orbiting space station known as "The Wages of Sin".

The Solarian League has long courted Erewhon in an attempt to bring it (and its Junction) into the League. However, the Erewhon Republic has constantly declined such offers, preferring to rely upon the Manticoran Alliance to protect itself from the People's Republic of Haven rather than place its security in the hands of the League's non-existent foreign and military policies.

Erewhon fought alongside Manticore and Grayson against the People's Republic during the First Haven-Manticore War. However, the actions of the Baron High Ridge administration after the war alienated Erewhon's ruling families, leading to Erewhon's breakaway from the Manticoran Alliance and its siding with the restored Republic of Haven shortly before the resumption of hostilities. Erewhon's defection to the Havenites was nothing short of a disaster for the Star Kingdom, since the Erewhon Navy was the third largest of the Alliance, and had received substantial technology transfers from Manticore.

The events prior to Erewhon's breakaway from Manticore are detailed in "Crown of Slaves" while the actual siding with Haven is mentioned in "War of Honor".

Though it seems that Erewhon is capable of producing its own warships, it does not seem capable of producing capital ships domestically, relying on large shipyard companies such as Technodyne Industries of Yildun, in the Solarian League, to produce its Dreadnaughts and Superdreadnaughts.