Anguist (Region)
| Symbols | ||||
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| Basic Information | ||||
| Administrative division | Autonomous region | |||
| State | Isselmere-Nieland | |||
| Capital - English - Anguistian |
Mithesburgh Cérmidhe | |||
| Viceroy | The Rt. Hon. Brude mab Dérile, Lord High Commissioner | |||
| Head of Government | The Hon. Nechtan mab Druist, First Minister | |||
| Unification - Incorporation |
814 19 May 985 | |||
| Holidays - Coronation Day - Union Day - Constitution Day |
19 May (985) 25 June (1562) 24 March (1986) | |||
| Legislature - English - Anguistian |
Unicameral parliament Anguistian National Assembly Ónadh Genédládh na hÚrdagha | |||
| Legal Tradition | Mix of common and civil law | |||
| Languages - Official - Unofficial |
English, Anguistian Isselmerian, several | |||
| TLD | .ang | |||
The Principality of Anguist is the remnant of the first of the four founding nations of the United Kingdom of Isselmere-Nieland. After a millennium of direct rule from Daurmont, the Constitution Act of 1986 granted Anguist regional autonomy, a legislature of its own, and the Anguistian language official status not only within the newly established principality, but within the United Kingdom as a whole.
Contents
Etymology
The earliest recorded name for what is now known as Anguist is Sebanaros (Σεβαναρος) from the Ancient Greek, or as Sebanara in Latin, likely derived from Sénbhán ne mhára[2] (Old Woman of the Sea), the Anguistian goddess of the northern sea, revealing early cohabitation with an Inuit people, whose sea goddess Arnakuagsak (known as Sedna in the Canadian Arctic) became conflated with an earlier regional or tribal deity.
About when the Anglic-speaking peoples arrived in Lethe, the region possessed a different name, Óenghuagha (mod. Anguistian, Ónghúdha) — the (Land of) Great Fir — derived from what the leadership emerging from what became the Omechta Province (present-day Onmagha (Land of Ashwood). Until recently, scholars assumed that Anguist was a derivation of the newer Anguistian place-name. It has since been revealed that region’s English and Isselmerian name derives from a misinterpretation or mistranslation of a phrase in an epistle in Latin by Saint Silvester written entirely in miniscule letters at the Anguistian fortress of Cér Midhe:[3] gentes indigenae terra angusta inhabitare (the indigenous population resides within a constricted territory).
Anguistians occasionally call their homeland Úrdagha (formerly Úrdadhagha), the land of Úrdath mab Mhaedoc, after the first great king of the Anguistians, although the term relates more specifically to the province of Upper Wingeria. The Nielandic name for the Principality also derives from Úrdath mab Mhaedoc, translating as "Strong Limbs" (Öngum+hraustur).
History
Prehistoric Anguist
Anguist is the home to the earliest settlers of the Lethean Islands (Ang. Enais Lethnógha)[4], who arrived shortly after the end of the last great ice age, circa 6500 BC. Culturally, this group was distantly related to those inhabiting northern Scotland, in particular those of the Orkneys and Hebrides, using similar excavated dwellings supported by a framework of sandstone from about 2900 BC. These first habitations were built within existing hills rather than upon middens as at Skara Brae, although later dwellings did follow the latter model.
Unlike the settlers at Skara Brae, the early Lethians did not abandon such dwellings until much later, around 2100 BCE, despite the worsening climate. Gradually, however, the settlers were forced inland where they were confronted by the island's sturdy firs, from which the region eventually gained its name, Ónghúdha.
The Bronze Age did not arrive in the Lethe until about 1900 BC, at which point the population were finally able to threaten the main island's many forests. At about the same time, intensive agriculture — and deforestation — began.
Early travellers to the islands, often those blown off course on their way to Britain or Ireland for tin or copper, found the inhabitants to be culturally akin to the Caledonii of ancient northwestern Scotland. Like their Caledonian cousins, the Picts, the ancient Lethians tattooed their skin, using a substance made of copper oxide to produce a blue tint. They also used the reddish clay soil in their hair, presumably to fend off the voracious midges that inhabit parts of the island during the short summer months.
The wet, windy climate made such visits by historic cultures infrequent. Recent archaelogical excavations have added to this limited, frequently biased knowledge. Dwellings throughout Lethe had shifted from excavated or midden dwellings into a mix of shale-supported subterranean rooms with earth-reinforced wooden construction above-ground. Such dwellings frequently contained an entire family unit and their tenants (around thirty people).
Early historic society
With the arrival of Christian monks from Ireland and what became Scotland came the first extensive survey of Anguistian life. The family units (téochlad) still lived in their mixed-level dwellings, mostly within small villages of about five to eight households. Lethe possessed few oppida worthy of the name, such as the two that became modern-day Daurmont.
The heads of the great families, known as the bénthéogládhu, within each sept nominated their chieftain or tósíag from their ranks. Their selection of the tósíag depended on (invariably) his physical wholeness and fitness, his quick-wittedness, and bravery, although the tósiag's marriage to a suitable wife — i.e., one from a noble family with similar physical and psychological attributes — was of great import as well.
Early Anguistian social ranks
| Before Unification | After Unification | Anglo-Frisian | Latin |
| Bénthéogladhu[5] | Bénthéogladhu | Frumgār | Subregulus |
| Tósíag[6] | Tícherna[7] | Þegn | Regulus |
| Rígh túadh[8] | Redhár[9] | Aldor[10] or gérefa[11] | Comes |
| Róirígh or Rígh genédh[12] | Redhár mór[13] or bénbhúdain | Hertoga[14] | Dux |
| Tániste[15] | Tániste | Aeþling | Princeps |
| Rígh úladh or róirígh an húladh[16] or rígh róirech[17] | Rígh úladh | Cynyng | Rex |
| Réthe[18] | Réthe or Ríghmór[19] | Cyncynyng | Magnus rex |
Unification
Principality
Geography
Anguist abuts the North Atlantic, facing Iceland and the Arctic Ocean, sharing borders with Nieland to the south, Isselmere and Detmere to the east, and Lower Whingeing to the north. The main natural features are the Ungforth Marshes along the Wingerian border, the kelp forests off the Solquist Sea (i.e., Atlantic) coast, geothermal springs in the south near the Nielander border, and the many, many moors.
The capital of Anguist is Mithesburgh (Anguistian Cérmidhe), situated on the Cernithlin River in the province of Fialtacht. Mithesburgh is a beautiful city that retains the charm of a medieval city without either becoming a theme park or the people's attachment to the present.
There are six provinces within Anguist: Angforth (Angíbhanigh, the desolate/forgotten land), Fialtacht (Úialdagha, veiled land), Lughensia (Lúdhagha, the land of Lud), Moreddin, Omechta (Ónghúdha, land of ashwood), and Upper Wingeria. Upper Wingeria holds the Crown corporation the Royal Shipyards of Isselmere-Nieland, based in the northern coastal town of Grimsby Downs.
Demographics
Before the initial successes of the Royal Shipyards, the population consisted mainly of "native" Anguistians, some Isselmerians and Nielanders, and very few recent immigrants from the 1960s boom. With the steady economic development of the region, the population has diversified markedly, sparking the rise of a radical Anguistian independence faction, the Anguistian National Party (Anguistian Pártí Cenédladh na hÓnghúdha or PCÓ). However, since native Anguistians were the first to benefit and are still the chief beneficiaries of the region's economic successes, the PCÓ is commonly viewed as an Anguistian joke, particularly amongst native Anguistians.
Though Isselmere-Nielanders are a conservative collection of peoples, most Anguistians will be forthright in declaring immigration to be an absolute boon to the region, especially in terms of cuisine. Indeed, Anguist is commonly noted in many guidebooks as the most welcoming region within the UKIN, albeit frequently mixed with warnings with regard to the extreme potency of the local whiskeys.
About four per cent of Anguistians have Anguistian as their first language and fifteen per cent are conversant in the tongue, and two per cent of citizens speak Nielander. Punjabi and other languages from the Indian sub-continent are growing in importance, as are Cantonese and Mandarin, but most of the people speak English.
Culture
Transport
Symbols
Flag: A white cross on a green field
Animal: Barley-tailed deer
Symbol: Hart
References
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Topics on Isselmere-Nieland |
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| Category | Factbook Categories: Administrative divisions | Constitution | Defence Forces | Festivities | Government | Languages | Laws | ||
