Borealium

Borealium

Flag of Borealium
Motto: Each Day, Greater Than The Last
[1]
Region	Q102
Capital	Runnymede
Official Language(s)	English, Boreal, Braedon, Tereshi, Entagn, Dulak, Other
Leader	Paul Gettle
Population
Currency	Ducat
NS Sunset XML

The Commonwealth of Borealium is found in the northeastern portion of the Q102 continent. A diverse and yet unified democratic republic, Borealium prides itself on both its fiercely idiosyncratic traditions and its reputation as a progressive and accepting society.

Geography and Climate

Much of Borealium is mountainous, though the eastern third of the country - where most of the population lives - is marked mostly by gently rolling hills with a coastal plain flanking eastern and southern coasts. The southernmost reaches of Borealium is the northern end of what are known as the Thompson Plains, named for Thompson's line, the southernmost penetration of Second Ice Age glaciation on Q102. Though a small part of Borealish territory, much of the land below Thompson's Line - including the major cities of New Salem, Faireport, and Lofoten - is very densely populated.

Two sets of mountains, the Great Mahaska and the Lesser Mahaska, bisect the country. Both ranges have many branches that stretch for quite a distance beyond the core ranges. Though there are passes over both ranges, they formed an effective barrier to large-scale settlement of the west of Borealium for centuries.

Most of Borealium's largest cities are ports on the south or east coasts, and most of the larger interior cities can be found in river valleys, reflecting the nation's history as seafarers and foreign traders. One major exception is the capital Runnymede, built on high ground for defense purposes.

Most of Borealium experiences a mild, relatively short summer and a bitterly cold winter. The populous south coast is noticeably warmer, with winters less harsh, than the rest of the country. The territory west of the Great Mahaska experiences markedly less rainfall than the comparatively humid east. Most of Borealium is described as having a "humid continental" climate, with areas in the far north described as "subarctic" and the west of the country described as "semiarid contintental."

Government

The Commonwealth is divided into 76 distinct political units - 59 full shires, 7 city-shires, and 10 provinces. Some of these boundaries coincide roughly with the old kingdoms and other states of the Borealic Empire while others follow tribal boundaries; still others are purely 20th Century creations. Each of the shires and provinces in theory is subordinate to the central government in Runnymede but in practice - particularly in the case of tribal areas - retains some measure of sovereignty over its own internal affairs and laws.

Borealium is a democratic republic with a modified parliamentary system of government.

Its legislative branch is bicameral, containing of two houses. The upper house, the Senate, consists of 300 Senators and is headed by a President; Senators are directly elected from one of 300 districts roughly equal in population to each other. The lower house, the Assembly of Nations, consists of 1200 Delegates and headed by a Speaker; Assembly members are elected via a system of proportional representation from each shire or province. The Senate is elected at regular intervals for five-year terms; the Assembly, by contrast, may sit for a term of five years but can be dissolved upon a successful no-confidence vote, which are held quarterly each year, in which case elections are held during the following quarter on a date designated by the sitting People's Tribune.

The executive branch has considerable overlap with the legislative, since the leadership of the latter is drawn from the ranks of the former. The head of state in Borealium is referred to as the Premier, and the Premier's cabinet in Borealium is called the High Council - including the Premier, the Second Minister (generally in charge of matters of finance, revenue, taxation, and banking), the Third Minister (generally in charge of such matters as public health, agriculture, environmental protection, and education), the Justice Minister, the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister, and the People's Tribune. The Premier and the rest of the seven-member High Council, with one exception, are Senators chosen via majority vote from the Assembly; the remaining member of the High Council, the People's Tribune, is appointed from the ranks of the Assembly by the Speaker, subject to approval by the full Assembly.

The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Judicial Court, which sits in Runnymede. The Court has eleven members; each of its judges are nominated by the High Council and confirmed by the full Senate for a ten year term. Each judge can be renominated following the expiration of their term only once. Below the SJC are the Courts of Appeals, of which there are 10, which handle appeals from the District Courts, the usual trial level courts in Borealium. Each shire has at least one such court, and most have more than one.

Borealish politics can often appear an impenetrable fog to outsiders due to the complex governance structure, the large number of political parties involved. In many ways, this situation reflects a large country with a diverse set of interests attempting to agree on a central governing authority. Divided and minority governments - where different sets of parties control different houses - are not uncommon, and large, unwieldy coalition governments are more the rule than the exception.

The largest party in Borealium is the Progress Alliance (PA), generally considered a centre-left, social democratic party. Its major competition (and sometime coalition partner) is the centre-right Conservative Progressive Union, or CPU for short. Both parties have large followings in the heavily populated cities and suburbs in coastal areas and into central Borealium. Other parties of note include: the Catholic-oriented True Path Coalition; the pan-ruralist Farmers' Alliance; the far-right nationalistic National Action Party; the liberal-socialist Green Social Democrats; the labour-socialist Farmer-Labour Party; and the libertarian Liberty League. The minor parties are often important or even pivotal in the Assembly, but the Senate tends to be controlled by large parties more often. Similarly, in many minority-heavy regions, there are sovereigntist and even separatist parties that occassionally send delegates to the Assembly, though their presence is mostly unknown in the Senate.

History

Early History and Warring States Period (to 1598 CE)

The first settlers in the land today known as Borealium were from a variety of tribes who migrated from the south at the close of the First Ice Age. Some of the descendants of those original settlers still survive in Borealium today. A few centuries later, roughly around 1150 AD/CE, the first European settlers, Viking peoples converted to Christianity by Catholic missionaries, arrived. Other migrations from Europe followed, most notably the establishment of banished English settlers on the Borealic south coast and Celts in the northeast. Soon the colonists, particularly in the south where Norse and English colonies fought for prime farmland, wars began between the colonialists and the natives, as well as between the colonialists themselves.

Following one particularly costly struggle between one faction led by the English kingdom of Andoor and another led by the Norse kingdom of Elsnore in which most states particupated, the parties began to negotiate a grand arrangment that would secure peace to the Borealic lands as they were then known. Though the effort proceeded slowly, the Warring States period was ended with one final war following an effort by England and other colonists to annex the whole of the Borealic lands. Though the disunited kingdoms, chiefdoms, and other city-states suffered greatly, the would-be new wave of colonizers was repulsed by a grand coalition of land forces of European settlers and indigenous natives alike. The most prominent role fell to ruler of Andoor, King Alfred III (also known as Alfred Magnus) of the legendary House of Kaldan. No fewer than 44 different kindgoms, duchies, tribal organizations, city-states, and trading leagues joined forces to form what was deemed the "Great Borealic Empire."

The Imperial Age (1598 - 1835 CE)

More a customs union pledged to common defence than a state in the modern sense, the Borealic Empire attempted to unite a diverse array of peoples and forms of government in mutual protection from outside invaders and a framework for the peaceful resolution of disputes amongst member entities. Two large indigenous tribes, Teresh and Entange, participated as members; most indigenous peoples, however, remained outside the formal purview of the Empire.

A grand hall at the newly constructed city of Runnymede, within the borders of Andoor, the most powerful kingdom in the new Empire, was established as the meeting places for representatives of the nations.

Though it lasted two and a half centuries, and was effective both in repelling would-be foreign invasions and the subjugation of all in Borealic lands who refused to join,the Borealic Empire proved fractious and unwieldy. Controversies raged over efforts of some kingdoms (New Salem in particular) to expand into overseas territory, over the existence of legal slavery in a few of the constituent states (though it was far from a widespread practice and was completely unknown in much of Borealic territory), over sectarian tensions (the Catholic Church was established in most of the states, though the Celtic Kingdom of Braedonia, one of the Empire's largest, fully embraced the Protestant Reformation.) In addition, there were obvious difficulties with monarchical states attempting to cooperate with republican states founded on democratic ideals, and large kingdoms and small city-states attempting to find common ground.

And everything came apart during a 50-year period in the 18th Century known as the Age of Blood. The consensus and compromises that held the various and sundry states together Empire was beset a series of internecine wars and lost some of its territory.

First Commonwealth and Troubles (1835 - 1933 CE)

That Age was ended by the creation of the First Commonwealth, a confederation of the Nations of Borealium assembled by Baron Charles Aldan of Meriden. Under Aldan - the first Premier of the Commonwealth - and his successors, Borealium charted a path of interlocking Kingdoms, each of whom particpated in the National Assembly and High Council. In this fasion, Borealium began to resemble more closely a cohesive modern state. The early Commonwealth was financially prosperous, thanks in large part to the work of traders, merhcants, and the rapid industrialization of key cities and the emergence of some ports of centres of world commerce; some other Kingdoms failed to keep up, they were rendered virtual protectorates and in times of bad harvests depended heavily upon help from Runnymede.

Landed aristocrats whose fortunes declined found themselves selling or being forced to sell their rights to the Greater Commonwealth, whose government increasingly fell under the influence of a new class of moneyed aristocrats. One by one local micro-monarchies were absorbed into either one of the larger kingdoms or into a set of new territories, known as "shires" of the Commonwealth.

The Great Depression of the 1930s - known locally as the Troubles - hit the Commonwealth hard, and the unequal distribution of wealth in the Commonwealth between and among the Kingdoms and shires helped foment a deep crisis, and the Commonwealth was under threat of severing, and in some places, violent revolution was afoot. From the crisis of the Troubles emerged a new Premier - John Starke. Starke, the son of a middle-class shopkeeper, gained a following in the populace with his blend of socialistic nationalism heavily informed by devout Catholic faith. Starke was a believer in markets but shared the dominant belief that too few people held too much power in Borealium.

Second Commonwealth (1933 CE - present)

Under Starke's 23-year Premiership, the beginning of an era known as the Second Commonwealth, many elements of the infrastructure and the health system were nationalized, and managed by a series of Commonwealth-owned concerns that sought to hire the best and brightest Borealish peoples from the ranks of the lower classes. The last remaining monarchical states were converted to Commonwealth shires, and hereditary nobility became purely ceremonial.

The Commonwealth has gradually liberalized some of the industrial concerns, opening many of them to private and even foreign investment. Starke himself remains a cherished hero to people on the left half of the political spectrum in Borealium and enduring memories of him represent a challenge on the part of the other half to overcome, even following his departure from Runnymede in 1960 and his death in 1975. The Progress Alliance, the political party founded by Starke himself, regularly garners the most votes of any party in Borealium.

Modern Borealish history has seen the Commonwealth chart a centre-left, social democratic course.

Culture

It is difficult to speak of "Borealish culture" as such, due to the Commonwealth's sheer size and diversity of peoples. It encompasses cities as quinessentially modern as can be found anywhere in the known world, bucolic towns that at first glance have changed little in decades, and some remote areas largely untouched by humanity.

Perhaps the central tension within Borealium is how a string of massive, almost futuristic urban areas characterized by diverse backgrounds and interests can coexist with a nation otherwise mostly filled with small villages of tight-knitted residents more comfortable with the old ways. Though the latter is what one would normally think of as "Borealium," it is, more and more, the former that better defines life for a majority of the Commonwealth's citizenry.

The commerical dominance of Anglophones both within and outside Borealium led to English being the lingua franca of Borealish business and much of its culture. However, the Boreal language, derived from Old Norse, has millions of native speakers, and many Boreal of Norse descent (paritcularly in the East Midlands) cling furiously to it as a cultural signifier. In many locales, the two tongues have undergone some convergence as young in much of Borealium learn both languages and more words dervied from each language enter the lexicon of the other; the two languages have much in common, each being Germanic tongues that borrow much vocabulary from Latin. The Braedon minority in the northeast are also fiercely protective of their own language, a Celtic derivative, but most educated citizens there also know at least one other language. The Tereshi and Entagn peoples continue to use their own languages amongst themselves; English at least is taught to most school children in those areas. The central government largely adopts "hands off" policies with regards to language, but recognizes all of English, Boreal, Braedon, Tereshi, Entagn, and Dulak as "official" languages of the Commonwealth.

Religious life in Borealium traditionally revolved around the Roman Catholic Church, whose adherents still constitute a majority among the Commonwealth's citizens, dominant across much of the country. (Lutheran Protestantism is the leading faith among those in Braedonia.) But some other faiths are common, as are the number of those who refuse to profess any faith, Christian or otherwise. Borealium boasts some of the world's largest communities of practitioners of neo-pagan religions particularly the Wiccan and Modern Druidic varieties. Additionally, some coastal cities, particularly Faireport, long a centre of relgious toleration, boast a longstanding and sizable Jewish community. It should be noted that the nation's Catholicism is more nominal than anything else at this point, as the Church's cultural traditionalism is not popular even with self-identified Borealish Catholics. The nation has adopted "live and let live" as something of a national credo as a matter of necessity, but strong cultural

The rich history of Borealish folklore stems in part from the polytheistic past of the Norsemen and Celts who settled its shores, and in part from the spiritual traditions of the indigenous tribes. Dense forests are feared for their mystery (and the mythic creatures some think reside in such places) but respected for their perceived spiritual power. Powerful spirits are thought by many to dwell in the thousands of mountain lakes of the North Country. The practical relevance of these enduring legends and tales is a reverence for the natural world amongst the Borealish that long predates the modern environmental movement.

Much of Borealish culture stems from being a cold-weather nation. Winters are long in most of the Commonwealth, and many embrace winter sports - especially skiing and ice hockey - as a way to pass the time.