Difference between revisions of "Beth Gellert"
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These, a Celtic people, are noted for their towering stature and firey temperament. Impressively, in some districts adult Geletian males average around two metres in height. | These, a Celtic people, are noted for their towering stature and firey temperament. Impressively, in some districts adult Geletian males average around two metres in height. | ||
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| + | The Indian population is young, life expectancy having only recently begun to seriously recover after years of inequality and exploitation. The communal nature of the Commonwealth means that elderly people continue to live connected to their community, and most continue limited economic contribution until they reach their deathbeds. | ||
==Industry, agriculture, and trade== | ==Industry, agriculture, and trade== | ||
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The rise of the Second Commonwealth, in which new elections to the Soviets broke the power of the Communist Party and removed the dictatorial Party Secretary and de-facto premier Sopworth Igo, saw the final abolition of capitalism and the removal from the workplace of all managers. Since 1989 all businesses in the Soviet Commonwealth have been run by their workers through membership in Soviets that meet regularly to discuss -and vote upon- workplace policy and business plans. A profit-sharing system -inclusive of democratic accountability- ensures to some degree the maximisation of effort on the part of those who are keen to profit. | The rise of the Second Commonwealth, in which new elections to the Soviets broke the power of the Communist Party and removed the dictatorial Party Secretary and de-facto premier Sopworth Igo, saw the final abolition of capitalism and the removal from the workplace of all managers. Since 1989 all businesses in the Soviet Commonwealth have been run by their workers through membership in Soviets that meet regularly to discuss -and vote upon- workplace policy and business plans. A profit-sharing system -inclusive of democratic accountability- ensures to some degree the maximisation of effort on the part of those who are keen to profit. | ||
| − | Unemployment is virtually unheard of in the Commonwealth, but workloads vary greatly and largely by personnal choice. Within their communes -the Pantisocratic Phalansteries- citizens generally contribute part-time labour to the upkeep of facilities and to the tending of crops sewn in the surrounding fields. Workshops within each Phalanstery turn out some necessities, help to maintain agricultural and defence equipment, and produce local commodities for barter with communes across the vast and eclectic Commonwealth. Cotton from one region is traded for silk from another, and worker-managed state farms between the communes and the cities ensure the common availability of essential staples. | + | Unemployment is virtually unheard of in the Commonwealth, but workloads vary greatly and largely by personnal choice. Within their communes -the Pantisocratic Phalansteries- citizens generally contribute part-time labour to the upkeep of facilities and to the tending of crops sewn in the surrounding fields. Workshops within each Phalanstery turn out some necessities, help to maintain agricultural and defence equipment, and produce local commodities for barter with communes across the vast and eclectic Commonwealth. Cotton from one region is traded for silk from another, and worker-managed state farms between the communes and the cities ensure the common availability of essential staples while also mass-producing export commodities. |
| − | Some comrades survive merely on the product of their Phalanstery and their part-time work within it, but most engage also in job-sharing centred in the University Cities, where -as the name implied- great centres of learning and research pool the resources of comrades and communities across an expansive area for the betterment of all and the continued progress of the revolution. Here, former capitalist enterprises are taken-over by their workers and generally are improved by their self-management techniques, which, according to Soviet propaganda, have significantly improved moral, and as a consequence, also productivity. Since few Soviet citizens hold much respect for the efficiency of full-time managers or the equality of profit-distribution under capitalist systems they find that workers without these bosses can take a greater share of profit from fewer hours of work, and so job-sharing becomes practical and unemployment void. | + | Some comrades survive merely on the product of their Phalanstery and their part-time work within it, but most engage also in job-sharing centred in the University Cities, where -as the name implied- great centres of learning and research pool the resources of comrades and communities across an expansive area for the betterment of all and the continued progress of the revolution. Here, former capitalist enterprises are taken-over by their workers and generally are improved by their self-management techniques, which, according to Soviet propaganda, have significantly improved moral, and as a consequence, also productivity. Since few Soviet citizens hold much respect for the efficiency of full-time managers or the equality of profit-distribution under capitalist systems they find that workers without these bosses can take a greater share of profit from fewer hours of work, and so job-sharing becomes practical and unemployment void. |
==Transport== | ==Transport== | ||
Latest revision as of 00:12, 31 March 2007
| |
| Flag of Beth Gellert | |
| Motto: All Power to the Soviets! | |
| Region | A Modern World |
|---|---|
| Capital | Portmeirion |
| Official Language(s) | Geletian , Welsh , English |
| Leader | The Final Soviet |
| Population | Over 8.2 billion |
| Currency | Shilling |
| NS Sunset XML | |
‘The whole race... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle... and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage’ -Strabo
Contents
Context
The Indian Soviet Commonwealth of Beth Gellert exists through role-play in two unrelated parts of the NS Multiverse. The first, which is the primary focus of this article, and a second more recent manifestation existing within the role-playing community A Modern World.
Some aspects of Beth Gellert's political development and some of its major characters are common to both instances.
In AMW the Commonwealth exists with a realistic population size (almost 500 million citizens) based upon real-world figures for the part of the real-world map (Sri Lanka and part of India) that the Commonwealth inhabits.
It is important to note that the nations of Beth Gellert and Beddgelert are essentially analogous, the one being an Anglophone spelling and the other Celtic (specifically Geletian, the largely undefined fictional tongue of the Commonwealth's Celtic population). Both names are pronounced in the same manner. Due to problems in accessing the Jolt forums Beddgelert speaks there for Beth Gellert.
Overview
[reworking to reflect divergence re. Multiverse]
History
[reworking]
Geography
The Indian Soviet Commonwealth is located as its name suggests: upon the Indian sub-continent.
As Beth Gellert rose -at the behest of the Indian National Army- from the body of colonial India and Ceylon the modern Commonwealth is a political entity uniting all of the territories of colonial India and of Sri Lanka.
The Commonwealth's territorial extent covers some 4,301,140 square kilometres of land and water. It is easy to imagine, then, that the climate and terrain are greatly variable across a nation of such considerable size. Indeed, while the island of Salvador (known also as Sri Lanka, Ceylon, and Serendib, amongst other titles) endures tropical monsoons in its northeast from December to March and its southwest from June to October, and the south of the mainland also experiences monsoon seasons, much of the midnorth is quite temperate, and parts of the northwest -where Iansislian prisoners were once infamously detained- are sometimes described as arctic. Large parts of the west are dominated by hot, dry deserts in which on-going irrigation projects occupy a large part of national economic activity.
The southern mainland is dominated by upland plains, while the mighty Ganga runs through flat to rolling plains and the north of the country collides with the Himalayas and runs into the great Indus plain.
Mountains such as Kanchenjunga (8,598 metres) and the famous K2 (Mt. Godwin-Austen) (8,611 metres) feature impressively upon the Soviet landscape.
These vast and varied lands furnish the Indian Soviet Commonwealth with a bounty in coal and with some of the world's finest iron ore. There is oil and natural gas to be found, and the nation has significant hydropower potential. The Commonwealth counts its rich arable land very important, and also has a wealth of timber and of gemstones including diamonds. Further resources include titanium ore, copper, phosphates, mineral sands, graphite, mica, manganese, bauxite, and chromite. Limestone is widely found, and there are also clays and salt in useful quantities.
For all of its beauty and wonder, the Commonwealth also serves its people with challenges in the form of many natural hazards. Droughts afflict much of the nation, though modern Soviet technology and public works have drastically limited their impact, while other areas are subject to potentially destructive flash flooding. Earthquakes are severe in some regions, and the nation is quite often struck by cyclones.
Society
Demographics and People
At time of writing there were over two thousand Indian Soviet Comrades to each square kilometre of the Commonwealth's territorial extent. This over-crowding, worsening daily, necessitates some societal upheaval, which is on-going.
The bulk of the Soviet popuilation has traditionally dwelled in so-called Pantisocratic Phalansteries -democratic communes- averaging a population of sixteen-hundred a piece. These Phalansteries typically take one of two forms, the first styled after the ancient Celtic hillforts of Europe and the second in the manner of a vast palace such as Versailles. In both cases Indian and Celtic cultures have meshed and modern technology pervades.
Today a major issue facing the Soviets is how to house the expanding population -likely in towerblocks of some manner- in a sustainable fashion and without destroying a communal spirit essential to the survival of a revolutionary communist society. Lately there have begun experiments towards eventual construction of floating cities in pursuit of an idea forwarded to the Commonwealth by the once-great nation of Wazzu.
The Soviet peoples currently living in the sub-continental Commonwealth are racially varied, and though recent generations show an increased willingness to inter-marry, distinct ethnic groups remain for now. The single largest such group claims descent from the Galatians and now self-identifies as Geletian.
These, a Celtic people, are noted for their towering stature and firey temperament. Impressively, in some districts adult Geletian males average around two metres in height.
The Indian population is young, life expectancy having only recently begun to seriously recover after years of inequality and exploitation. The communal nature of the Commonwealth means that elderly people continue to live connected to their community, and most continue limited economic contribution until they reach their deathbeds.
Industry, agriculture, and trade
The Indian Soviet Commonwealth claims one of the largest and fastest-growing anti-capitalist economies in the world, and clings dearly to principles of equality, sustainability, and democracy. In fact, democracy in the work-place is considered central to the liberty of the Soviet revolution and essential to mass-empowerment.
The rise of the Second Commonwealth, in which new elections to the Soviets broke the power of the Communist Party and removed the dictatorial Party Secretary and de-facto premier Sopworth Igo, saw the final abolition of capitalism and the removal from the workplace of all managers. Since 1989 all businesses in the Soviet Commonwealth have been run by their workers through membership in Soviets that meet regularly to discuss -and vote upon- workplace policy and business plans. A profit-sharing system -inclusive of democratic accountability- ensures to some degree the maximisation of effort on the part of those who are keen to profit.
Unemployment is virtually unheard of in the Commonwealth, but workloads vary greatly and largely by personnal choice. Within their communes -the Pantisocratic Phalansteries- citizens generally contribute part-time labour to the upkeep of facilities and to the tending of crops sewn in the surrounding fields. Workshops within each Phalanstery turn out some necessities, help to maintain agricultural and defence equipment, and produce local commodities for barter with communes across the vast and eclectic Commonwealth. Cotton from one region is traded for silk from another, and worker-managed state farms between the communes and the cities ensure the common availability of essential staples while also mass-producing export commodities.
Some comrades survive merely on the product of their Phalanstery and their part-time work within it, but most engage also in job-sharing centred in the University Cities, where -as the name implied- great centres of learning and research pool the resources of comrades and communities across an expansive area for the betterment of all and the continued progress of the revolution. Here, former capitalist enterprises are taken-over by their workers and generally are improved by their self-management techniques, which, according to Soviet propaganda, have significantly improved moral, and as a consequence, also productivity. Since few Soviet citizens hold much respect for the efficiency of full-time managers or the equality of profit-distribution under capitalist systems they find that workers without these bosses can take a greater share of profit from fewer hours of work, and so job-sharing becomes practical and unemployment void.
Transport
Private transport no longer exists in the Indian Soviet Commonwealth, though comrades have no trouble in getting from place to place. A wide range of transport vehicles does exist, including cars and cycles, though in smaller numbers than was the case in the capitalist era. These are generally fitted with electronic beacons that allow communities to check on the number of vehicles available to them and their proximity or condition of use at any time.
Comrades are free to make use of communally-held vehicles in short trips, and abuse of agreed terms of use can be monitored via the mentioned electronic system. Powered vehicles are built to strict specifications on safety and fuel efficiency, and are regulated to confirm with national speed limits. Most cars in Beth Gellert can not pass eighty kilometres per hour. There do exist high performance cars, but these are designated for recreational use within specially demarcated areas, and still must meet fuel efficiency and emissions regulations but face no speed restrictions. Use of such vehicles beyond designated recreational zones is considered criminally dangerous.
That said, such personal forms of transport are not the most popular means of transit within Beth Gellert. That honour goes to the nation’s railways, considered some of the world’s finest. Using a wide gauge generations ago proven to be superior to more widely used narrow gauges, Beddgelen trains are fast and reliable, and provide exceptionally comfortable and safe rides. The rail network is extremely expansive, and its latest generation of engines increasingly fuel efficient and popular. If there is a problem, it lies in communication with the wider world. Portmeirion would like to encourage wider use of its wide-gauge, but the notion of over-hauling entire national rail grids is hard to stomach in most surrounding states.
Bus services, taxis, and trams are also widespread and run to some level around the clock. Recently becoming popular are electric, "share-cars" that are stored in so-called stacks at participating Phalansteries and in connected University Cities. The front car in any stack is always fully charged and may be driven along barricaded courseways between communes and cities and stacked at its destination.
