Assington

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Assington
assington.jpg
Flag of Assington
Motto: When all else fails, violence prevails
[1]
Region Fatal Terrain
Capital Amethyst City
Official Language(s) English
Leader President Boris Lepedius
Population <8.741 billion
Currency Amethyst 
NS Sunset XML

History

Assington developed much like many nations of Europe. Ever since man became civilised and began organising themselves into settlements and governments, there has been a rather strong unity. The first major settlement was in the central region known as Amethyst. This region contains the first and still remaining capital city of the nation. From that city, man spread throughout the nation, creating more settlements and growing in numbers. No matter the problems they had, the centre of the nation had always been Amethyst City.

After almost a thousand years, Assington had progressed immensely. The people had dropped an oligarchy system for a monarchy and so began a long line of Kings. It was around this time that the humans noticed they were not the only sentient beings inhabiting the surrounding land. Elves existed within many forests of Assington and had been hiding their presence all this time, only revealing themselves when they chose to.

Many of the humans were wary of the elves, yet the magic using community were quick to embrace the wise beings and eager to learn from them. And so for many more decades, peace continued throughout the land. Unfortunately this was not to last.

The First War

In 1385, a terrible war broke out between humans and elves. No one knew how or why it had started, but the war was bloody and the lives of many lost upon either side. It was soon discovered by the mages that those responsible for causing the war were not of this world, but a demonic species known as the Barklor.

Acting upon counsel of the mages, the human armies ceased fighting and allowed the elves to sort out what was going on. This heralded the second stage of the war. Demons began entering their world in an attempt to wipe the elves from existence. Despite the wise words of the mages, the human King decided to stay out of such business and left the elves to fend for themselves. It took almost five years but finally the demons were banished from Assington. Unfortunately this came at a terrible price. Thousands of elves were lost and almost all the mages died in the war, taking many of their secrets with them. Assington would never be the same.

Vampires

Once the war was over, an uneasy peace settled upon Assington again for a few hundred years, until the unfortunate year of 1585. It was one of the mages that kick started things. Daveon, a High Mage and one of the most respected in the arcane community was lurking about in the dark arts in a search for more power. Daveon summoned a powerful demon which happened to be a Barklor.

The mage proposed that the demon share his body in exchange for dark powers. Unfortunately Daveon underestimated the power of such a demon and was eventually overwhelmed and swallowed up by the might of the demonic creature. And so Daveon and the demon became one, a hybrid of human arcane power and higher demon. This being was known as Marduk.

During a rampage throughout a human village, Marduk suffered several wounds from the village defenders, spilling his hybrid blood everywhere. Through mere chance, this blood managed to enter the bodies of five human villagers. Over the next few days these humans experience odd changes as a sickness struck them down, essentially killing their bodies yet keeping the brain alive. Thus creating the Assington Vampires

Skadi, Idun, Uller, Svartel and Lysar (Zardon) emerged as changed people. These were the first vampires of Assington.

The Second War

Being mostly demon, Marduk began a rampaged of death directed towards the elves of Assington. Svartel and Zardon became minions of their dark master whilst Uller, Idun and Skadi fled north at the sense of such a dark being. Marduk and Svartel began slaughtering all the elves they came across whilst Zardon was sent to assassinate the other three.

Whilst Svartel and Marduk slaughtered in the south, Zardon had followed Skadi, Idun and Uller to the north and was successful in killing Uller. Unfortunately for him, Skadi didn't take kindly to such and promptly removed Zardon's head with the help of the katana like blade Uller had forged for her. At that point Skadi and Idun met a mage by the name of Sithaer and learned of the situation.

Elven deaths were growing every night, yet it seemed a painfully slow process with only two people to perform the task. Yet being the intelligent man that he was, Svartel figured that if he had been created by ingesting Marduk's blood, perhaps he could create more. And so Svartel was the first vampire to sire another. With this new ability, they created an army.

During the passing weeks the mages continued to search for a way to defeat Marduk whilst Idun had abandoned Skadi to be with the elves of Emerald Forest. Eventually Skadi met up with Sithaer once again and managed to take command of the King's army. This army was transported to Emerald Forest bearing the news of Marduk's forces marching upon it to destroy the last remaining elves of Assington.

Upon arrival, the humans discovered that the elves had left Assington and so were left to fight off the vampires alone. Unfortunately the army was completely overwhelmed and it was only thanks to the tricks of Sithaer that the majority of vampires were also destroyed. The mages and Skadi then dealt with the final problem. Marduk and Svartel. Whilst Skadi and Svartel battled, the mages of Assington invoked an ancient spell to seal Marduk away for all time. The spell worked in sealing the demon-mage away, but in the process all the mages had died. And so magic ended within Assington.

Idun had gone with the elves, Svartel had escaped the nation as well and the mages were dead. Skadi was now left to roam Assington for as long as she could survive. She decided to spend this time hunting down remaining vampires, causing a large age gap between her and the modern day vampires.

All The Rest

Once the events of the second war faded into history, Assington once again fell into peace. The nation developed as many did, moving into the industrial revolution and making the switch from a King to an Emperor. Whilst the government attempted to maintain a complete rule, there was a public outcry for democracy that could not be ignored. And so a compromise was made.

The people were allowed to elect someone, but he would become dictator and could only be removed under special circumstances against his will. And so President Calis Inferno came into power.

Calis has taken the nation through many hard times such as terrorist attacks from feminists and Christians, an invading force and the addition of Assington to the METUS alliance.

Geography

Assington is mostly a flat land with a few mountains scattered around the nation. It's a southern hemisphere nation, not too far from the equator so snow is almost never seen save for near the peaks of the few mountains. Otherwise temperatures are quite warm and even reasonably comfortable during winter.

Despite the poor attitude of the government towards the environment, there is still a comfortable amount of untouched forests scattered around the land, mostly the ancient homes of the elves that once existed within the nation. Whilst there are many that would like to see these forests destroyed, there is something about them that prevents such from ever happening. Some say the forests a haunted, yet no one truly knows.

Assington is also known for it's large rivers, many of which act as the borders between regions of the nation and provide the necessary water for people to survive. Assington is land locked on the west, south and east sides yet the entire north coast is open to the ocean. Besides that, there is nothing else of note regarding the geography of Assington.

Emerald Forest

Emerald Forest is forbidden land to everyone of Assington. There was once an attempt to demolish the forest and all construction workers were mysteriously killed. There have been several reports of odd creatures and ghosts within the forest and whilst the government is sceptical of such things, they realised there is obviously some sort of danger and therefore banned access to the forest. Little do they know it was once the home of the last remaining elves of Assington.

Caged Desert

The Caged Desert is another one of those forbidden places, yet fortunately there is nothing of any particular importance there. It is the most barren place in Assington and is caged in by high mountains that are quite difficult to pass by on foot. At one stage there was a large effort into exploring the desert yet it seemed that whoever went inside the cage never came out. And so the government declared the Caged Desert to be one of the forbidden places in Assington.

People

There are essentially three kinds of people native to Assington. The humans, the vampires and the elves. Obviously the humans are the dominant species and the vampires are part of that human society, they merely represent the darker part. It is the elves that are not commonly accepted within Assington.

The people of Assington can't be said to live the happiest of lives. Many are quite cynical and bear weapons out of fear from the vampires that lurk streets during the night. There is a massive income difference and this had created some social tensions in come cases.

Humans

Humans have been the dominant species within Assington for as long as the histories go back. They founded cities and towns, spreading over the entire nation to form the massive population that Assington now sports. For centuries there has been nothing special about the citizens of Assington until the last few hundred years or so.

Evolution took the next step and allowed these humans more use of their brain, specifically reflected in mental powers. Presently there is a 45% chance of an Assingtonian being born with psychic abilities ranging from telepathy, telekinesis and even pyrokinesis. Those with such abilities can train to become more efficient in the use of such powers and strengthen their mind. Vast amounts of funds have been spent on researching the phenomenon and developing the necessary infrastructure to deal with it.

Besides the mental powers, the people of Assington live a fairly comfortable life. Whilst taxes are high, public services such as health and education are free whilst other public necessities are of high quality and efficiency. The happiness has never been a major goal of the people, yet their well being has always been catered for.

Vampires

Vampires have been considered legal citizens of Assington since 2184. Before hand the government had attempted to ignore the problem but it eventually became too big of an issue to hide. Once vampires were officially recognised, human rights activists lobbied an act to make vampires equal citizens. Obviously the matter wasn't so easily settled but after heated political debates, vampires were given citizenship based on strict regulations and registrations.

Of course many didn't appreciate such and so a police force especially fore vampires was also created.

Most vampires exist as criminals and feed however they wish, live however they wish. Of course this means running the risk of falling victim to a silver bullet from the VP and so they tend to stay in groups known as gangs or covens for protection. Hondur is the leader of the largest coven in Assington, his name being the second most influential of all vampires behind Skadi.

Elves

The elves of Assington have only recently returned to their homeland after thousands of years of a self inflicted exile. Due to certain prophecy, the elves returned once again and took up residence in Emerald Forest.

Many still hold past grudges against humans and are highly prejudice against vampires. They are of a darker nature than many other elves and tend to stay away from the human cities unless they have certain agendas.

So far the elves haven't been discovered by the public and so the government has no opinion upon them.

Government

Over history Assington has been a Kingdom, Dominion and finally a Democratic Dictatorship. There is nothing of particular note in the Kingdom as that is ancient history, and so we shall focus upon the late Dominion and the reign of Calis that led into the Democratic Dictatorship.

The Fall of the Dominion

Whilst the Dominion was a reasonably successful form of government, the people had been calling for democracy for ages and it could not be avoided. Eventually public outcry became so strong that anyone advocating democracy was sure to gain power. This is where Calis Inferno, at the age of 25, stepped into the political scene.

The Democratic Dictatorship

With a new young face on the scene preaching democracy, it didn't take long for the Dominion to be dumped. The only question is what would they replace it with. Whilst the people wanted democracy, there were those that felt democracy didn't necessarily work so well.

After almost a year of bickering and reforms, a decision was made. The single national leader would not be lost in this new form of government, yet he would be elected by the people. Whilst there was a dictator, ministries and other such government branches were also set-up to deal with all sides of running the nation, not merely leaving it all up to one man.

And so the Democratic Dictatorship was born with President Calis Inferno being the first man to employ it within Assington.

Loss of the Infernos

During a meeting with Archbishop Jason Kulstov, the Inferno brothers, President Calis and Foreign Minister Calin were brutally murdered in a plot to take control of the nation. Whilst there was a great deal of civil unrest following the death of Calis and his brother, eventually elections were under way and three candidates rose to the final stage of the election process. Boris Lepedius (at the time, Minister of Security/Defense), Mark Kulstov (son of Jason Kulstov and successful businessman) and Julia Thatcher (leader of the feminist movement within Assington).

Despite fierce competition, it soon became evident Boris was the favoured candidate and even Julia was gaining ground on the poll runner up, Mark. Employing the resources of his father, Mark had Julia killed and the vote rigged in his favour. Learning of this plot, Boris realised he was in no position to combat his political enemies and so he took his family and ran, using a military controlled spacecraft to flee to the edge of the Sol System.

Ten years later, Boris had gained the necessary allies within the government to effectively coup the current government with little to no objection. Mark had been an erratic and detrimental ruler, wasting funds on ventures of little use to the nation and making official decisions on a whim. The only real benefit for Assington was his no tolerance vampire policy which helped to severely cull the vampiric population in Assington.

Upon his return, Boris put a bullet through the skulls of Mark and Jason Kulstov and took charge of the office with full support of all necessary officials. The military went to work quickly dismantling the church and all associated underground operations. Order was finally dominant once again.

The Government Today

Political System

The general form of politics in Assington is quite unique to itself. Besides being a democratic dictatorship, Assingtonian politics does not employ the party system that is seen in most other democratic nations. Those that wish to become considered for the position of President must meet certain criteria before nominating themselves and backing their own campaigns (which don't necessarily cost much as most publicity events are government funded). Once the nominations have been taken, they are sorted through by government officials and those viewed to be more a more competent leader are chosen.

Once this stage is finished, the 'competent' candidates are presented to the Council of Ministers where the Ministers themselves vote upon a final three. Once this is decided, the candidates are presented to the people and they are given a week to vote upon who they wish to see in office.

Foreign Policy

In a world full of such a vast range of nations, foreign relations can play a very vital role in the well being of a nation. Assington is not known to have any enemies within Earth or outlying systems yet it's hardly a major international presence.

Known allies of Assington include Tarlachia, The Golden Simitar and on a lesser note, Roania is considered at least neutral. Assington also happens to be part of the GDODAD and consequently METUS, placing it within the allies of nations such as Melkor Unchained, The Silver Turtle and other members of said organisations.

Assington is not a hostile nation and is not looking for wars of any description yet it acts in its own best interests. It is loyal to those that merit loyalty and vengeful to those that betray it.

Military

Assington has always maintained a strong military force for the purpose of protection and maintaining domestic order. Whilst there have been few international wars involving Assington, there is some military activity in the history books.

Funds are continually being dedicated to advanced research for technology practical in all branches of the military, most noticeably the space fleet branch of the military has received much attention over the last century or so.

Assington does possess a small space fleet, a space station orbiting Earth and another in the orbit of Neptune. These facilities are mainly for research purposes but are also equipped for military purposes.

Perhaps most infamous about the Assingtonian military is their reputation for dealing with terrorist situations. Assington has a no tolerance policy and when it comes to such situations, Bio-Mechanical Soldiers are employed due to their superior physical and mental capacities in order to quickly diffuse the situation. These augmented soldiers are efficient and ruthless when it comes to such missions. They have yet to fail in such tasks.

Economy

The number one priority of the Assingtonian government has always been the economy. The nation has felt the benefits of a strong economy for most of its existence and has become extremely adept in Automobile Manufacturing, Uranium Mining and Arms Manufacturing.

Specific data regarding the economy can be found here.

It is due to this strong economy that Assington is a nation with good living standards, ever changing technological advancements and a strong future ahead of it.